Liquid Water on Mars

Interesting discoveries, which will lead to interesting new inventions.  It's amazing how inspiring a dark streak on Mars could be:  The possibility of alien life, new robots which have greater precision and accuracy... humans visiting our red neighbour... and from there?
Maybe some dark streaks have kickstarted the possibility of our interstellar civilisation! :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34395569

Amazing Fairy Sculptures

These are just beautiful.

http://www.fantasywire.co.uk/index.html

The solar system

"Space is big.  Really big.  You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.  I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's  just peanuts to space." - Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This is a beautiful video showing just how big our solar system is.  Well worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg&feature=youtu.be

A bit of spring inspiration!

The weather finally started to warm up!  Time to venture out and get a bit of inspiration, and where better to do that than the home of one of the greatest stories known to the world?  Nottingham!

All photos copyright © Sarah Cosgrove 2013

Pancake Day!

Pancake day falls on the 12th February this year.  It is an interesting day.

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent starts.  Tradition was that the high fat foods such as eggs and dairy were used up before the fasting/abstinence period of 40 days.  In the British Isles, pancakes were traditionally cooked to use up these ingredients before you weren’t allowed to eat them.

These days it’s morphed into a bit of a festival, where communities get together to do things like pancake races, or in the case of Atherstone, have a nice friendly ball game…

I think it’s a great example of a festival to think about for if you are building a fantasy world.  It just goes to show that not all the traditions have to be solemn or current rituals or celebrations.  There could be a day where people race each other while throwing food up and down!

To join in with this tasty festival, here is a recipe to make some traditional yummy yummy pancakes!

Ingredients

240g/8oz plain white flour

Two eggs

½ litre / 1pt milk

Small pinch of salt

Butter for frying

To serve:

Lemon wedges/Juice

Sugar

Method:

1.      Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets an airing.

2.     Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it.

3.     Whisk the eggs into the flour

4.     Add the milk a little at a time, whisking it in, until you get a smooth batter

5.     Melt a little butter in the frying pan, try to get an even coat across the surface.

6.     Pour some of the batter into the middle of the pan, and then swirl it around until you coat it evenly.  Remember, the pancake shouldn’t be too thick, else it will go stodgy!

7.     Cook over a medium high heat.  It won’t take very long!  Once the bottom has turned golden, and the liquid has dried on the top, turn it over using a spatula, or if you are very skilled, flip it!

8.     Cook the other side until golden.

9.     Sprinkle a little sugar over a plate, and slide the pancake out onto it.

10.  Sprinkle a little sugar on top, and squeeze lemon juice on, then roll it up and eat! J

Notes:

The first pancake tends to go wrong.  Don’t worry; the second one will be great!

If you are going to flip it over, try not to stick it to your ceiling.

If you don’t like the traditional filling of lemon and sugar, try out orange and sugar, or cooked apples and cream!  

Snow!

A bit of wintery inspiration!

All photos copyright © Sarah Cosgrove 2013

A bit of autumnal inspiration.

First drafts are horrible.  This is something to be accepted.  It doesn't matter if you are the best writer in the world.  You'll read it back and go: "Arg, what was I thinking?"  

But this is okay.  It's the rough sketch before you add colour; you can't expect it to be a masterpiece on the first attempt.  Details don't matter too much, you just give the impression at this stage, and add them in later.

I read somewhere that many authors will do five to fifteen drafts before they are happy with their work.  I'm hoping I don't have to do fifteen, but if that's what it needs, that's what it needs.  For now, I'll just write whatever comes into my head.

I know what I’m doing… honest.

I don’t think I have done as much handwriting as I have this week since I was at school!  I’m nicely filling up my notebooks with ideas, plot points, character bios and maps.  (You all knew I wouldn’t resist drawing maps for very long.)  It almost feels like I’m getting organised.  Almost.

If any of you lovely people are on Goodreads, please do leave a review for Eye of the Beholder, or why not recommend it to your friends?

In return, I’ll leave these inspirational pictures of some aircraft, which were taken at the NI International Airshow here:

 All photographs copyright © Sarah Cosgrove and Stephen Cosgrove 2012

My face hurts.

Another slight delay this week.  I’ve been a bit ill, and managed to burst the blood vessels in my face from being sick.  Gross I know.  The result is I have a lovely mottled effect that feels like a (very sore) bruise extending from my eyes to my chin.  I’m back to typing today, so things should get back on track.  I know you’ve probably all been holding your breath for the story collection, but I’m afraid I’ll have to keep you waiting a little longer! 

In other news, if you are in the London area, be sure to go along to get your copy of Queen of the World signed by Ben Hennessy!  I’m unfortunately not going to make it due to being on another land mass, however I’m eagerly awaiting my copy of the paperback, which should be arriving this week.      

And finally, a little inspiration!  Last weekend I went over to Scotland, here are some of the shots from that trip!

All photographs copyright © Sarah Cosgrove 2012

Inspiration

Some days it’s good to just get out and see stuff.  If you sit indoors at a computer all day, eventually your imagination will get a bit worn out.  Even going for a walk will help, to refresh you memory on the texture of stone, the feel of the wind and the colour of the sky.

I got out to visit a local wildlife park this week; here are some of the words I brought back in the form of pictures!

All images copyright Sarah Cosgrove © 2012