How can you save the world?

This is a picture of a wood.

It is a very special wood.

In this wood, vampire hunters and space marines have battled.  In this wood, pirates and mystical warriors have hunted for treasure.  There have been walks where the sun shines through the canopy making it glow like a green and gold palace, and walks in the rain, hopping over squelched up leaves and puddles, where the smell of the earth and of autumn are rich in the air.

In this wood live snuffly hedgehogs, darting dragonflies, hooting owls, flitting bats, slithery snakes, and more!  It is a remnant of the great Forest of Arden, which you may have heard of as being the setting for Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, a magical place full of history and discovery.

It is earmarked to be bulldozed to make way for houses.

Never again would people be able to walk through the carpet of bluebells in the spring, or see the sparkling frost clinging to bare branches.  The birds would cease to sing, and the air would be full of the noise of traffic and construction.

This wood and the adjacent farmland had such an impact on me growing up; I would say that they are part of the reason I became a writer.  How can you help not to have your imagination fired when you are running through fields watching Sparrowhawks drift on the clear blue sky, looking for mice in the golden stubble?  Or trying to sneak up on lizards sunbathing in the grass, but only catching a glimpse before they scuttle away?  Not surprisingly the novel that I am writing now does have the characters spending a fair amount of time in wood and farmland; and this is the place that inspired it.

I hope to save it.

How?  I don’t know.  I’ve done all the normal things; try to raise awareness locally, collected information about the proposal and the history of the place, found the form to fill in, and the consultation meeting time.

Even so, I’ve been feeling a bit hopeless.  I just can’t imagine it gone.  Never to be again.  I’ve even had nightmares where the trees are already being torn up and concreted over.

Will the council listen?  Will they see the beauty of the land and understand how important it is to protect it?  Will they realise that it isn’t just a bunch of trees, but a part of me, and a part of so many others who have walked its paths?  It is part of what makes it home.

This is a local fight, so I know that not everyone can help with this.  However I do ask you to help where you can.  Look around where you live.  See the beauty.  See how you can share your space with the local wildlife. 

For those of you in the UK, please take a look at the Campaign to Protect Rural England; you don’t have to give any money, simply use their form to send a letter to your MP, or find out about how you can take action to save our countryside.   

I hope that in the coming weeks I can make a post about how people coming together can make a difference… I suppose all I can do now is wait and hope.

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

An Easter Story

Once upon a time there was a bunny.  He laid an egg.

Within the egg was a white of dark matter and dark energy.

Within the yolk, atomic matter swirled.

The atomic matter formed clusters.

Within those clusters, fusion reactions sparked to life.

Around those reactions, debris and dust coagulated into balls of rock and gas.

Upon one of those balls of rock water thrashed and churned.

Within the water a small creature struggled and swam.

As the water receded it clambered onto land.

Among the plants and trees it crawled.

Then it ran.

Then it hopped.

Then, it laid an egg.

Happy Easter! 

Image credit: Wikipedia

Procrastination and that.

Isn’t it a weird spring?  The snow is blowing past the window, the sky is grey, and the burst of fresh green we are supposed to be witnessing is being held in check by the frozen ground.  Apparently the cause of this is easterly winds.  It’s not actually the coldest March on record; but it’s not far off.

One side effect of this is I am still in winter mode, a time I spend in semi-hibernation.  I hate dark grey days (I don’t actually mind the cold if it’s sunny with it), and it’s amazing how much more I’ll get done on a day when it’s sunny than I do on a rainy day.

This week has been a struggle.  I hit a wall with my novel, and no matter what way I came at it, I was stuck.  I sat at my computer and stared at it.  Nothing happened.  I tried scribbling in my notepad.  I got a very nice doodle of a dragon, but no further on the plot.  I tried just bashing out words in a stream of consciousness, but that just gave me a garbled winding story that didn’t really have a lot to do with the characters or moving the story forward.

Then the answer came in two parts.

Part 1: Asking for help.

This is something I am terrible at.  It was written into one of my school reports once that I would struggle through something on my own rather than ask for help, and unfortunately it’s something I’ve not improved on.  So I can’t exactly say I asked for help; rather it was offered and it turned out that I did need it.  Talking through what I was stuck on made me realise what had been bothering me about the story, and what I needed to change to move forward.

Part 2:  Procrastination. 

Yes, really!  Yesterday I read a very interesting article about how procrastination is not necessarily a bad thing for a creative type person.  (Funnily enough, I read this in a random magazine supplement out of a week old newspaper that I don’t normally read, and was only reading because I was procrastinating.) 

It has always been assumed that if you are procrastinating, you aren’t getting anything done.  However now people are beginning to recognise that if you are procrastinating, you are getting something done; not necessarily the thing you are supposed to be doing, but you are completing something none the less. 

So I looked back at my week and I noticed all of the things that I have done when I should have been getting thousands of words written.  I’ve cleaned the house.  I’ve done my banking.  I finished reading “The Two Towers” and started on “The Return of the King.”  And suddenly I don’t feel bad about it.

This is why: because firstly, I realise that I haven’t “not got anything done” this week.  Secondly as soon as I let go of the “I should be doing this” and just started to enjoy what I was doing, the words came back.  I’ve had to go back and rewrite several pages, but I’m progressing again.

 

I may have been going in circles all week, but the circles were getting bigger and I’ve found myself on the other side of the wall.  Instead of punching through it, I just went around it.  I’m about to start another circle now, since I’ve gone back about twenty pages to slightly change the direction my characters are going in, but I’m ok with that, because this circle is going to be even bigger than the last and at the end of this one the final stages of the tale will be in sight.

But first, I’m off to have some lunch. J  

Spring is in the air.

The first of March.  Today is the day people in the northern hemisphere celebrate the first day of spring.

It’s a balmy 6˚C outside, and as grey as it was in yesterday’s wintery February, but there is that promise of something new arriving.  To me it has always felt more like the start of a new year now than back in January.

It’s only four weeks to Easter, one of my favourite times of the year; not only because of the chocolate eggs, or the prospect of playing my Easter game, but I always liked the celebration of everything bursting into life and the coming of (hopefully) better weather.

But before all that we have Mother’s Day!  It’s on the 10^th of March, so you have ten days to remember to get your Mum a bunch of flowers and a card. J  Mums do so much for us, and no matter how old we get they never stop worrying about us, so although I’m sure everyone knows that they are appreciated all year round it’s a good day to say it out loud, or to jump out of a plane.

No, I didn’t mistype that last part.  In support of NCT a charity that supports parents, my brave friend Lyndsey is doing a skydive.  She still has a way to go to meet her target, so any support you could give would be welcome!

Check out her page here:

http://www.justgiving.com/lyndsey-Edmonds

The Book vs The Movie

If you haven’t read/seen The Lord of the Rings, go read/watch it now.  Honestly, how have you not at least seen the movies, even if you haven’t read the books?  Go on.  I’ll wait.

Here is a song,

About reading a book,

I’ve given you a warning,

Not to look,

If you haven’t read it,

And italics you skip,

Just be aware,

Plot spoilers may be slipped.

Ok.

Many years ago, I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Then they made some movies based on the books.  I saw the movies.  I liked them.  Since then, I’ve watched them a few times.

This year when I was looking for my next book to read, I came across The Fellowship of the Ring again, and thought “I wonder if I remember it, or only remember the movie version of the story?”

(I already remembered some things, such as the unnecessary change to Faramir’s character which annoyed me and anyone else that I spoke to that had read the books, but exactly how different are the movies?)

I’m half way through The Two Towers now, and I’ve been surprised at some of the things that I didn’t realise or remember had been changed.

One example is Gandalf.  When travelling south in the movie, Gimli insists that they should go through Moria to avoid the gap of Rohan.  Gandalf doesn’t want to, instead attempting to take them over the mountain Caradhras, but they have to turn back because of a storm that Saruman is shown to be whipping up.

In the book, Gandalf is the one that wants to go through Moria; it is Aragorn that doesn’t and insists that they try the mountain road.  They are defeated by the malice of the storm of the mountain itself, Saruman doesn’t conjure it.  When they return down the path Gandalf is glad to go into Moria.

There are a few changes like that dotted around, but it doesn’t annoy me.  For the most part, any changes that the films made I understand why they made.  In a film you have to get the character across quickly, and move the action forward due to being on limited time. 

Another example is if they had included Rohan’s ride towards Isengard.  In the book King Théoden intends to meet Sarurman in open battle, but after the second day of riding Gandalf tells the King to go to Helm’s Deep instead because they are outnumbered.

If that had been done on screen everyone would have been “huh?  Why bother riding that way at all?  It didn’t move the plot forward, and we could have spent screentime on X instead.”

Whereas in the book the time (and word count) is there to explain the reasoning and the thoughts that go along with the actions; it makes sense.

In the end I noticed that it doesn’t matter if a character does something differently, as long as it is consistent within their character.  In the book Gandalf gives his advice based on what he knows to be safer paths; he knows Caradhras is treacherous and his wisdom tells them that to sneak through Moria is a better way.  He gathers information on the way to Isengard and makes the call that to rendezvous at Helm’s Deep is the better option.  In the films the same is true; he knows of the danger of Moria, and so chooses the (safer?) path of Caradhras.  He knows that the horse lords would get trapped in Helm’s Deep, and so advises them to ride out.

Different actions, but the same character; the wise advisor.

That’s why Faramir’s decisions in the movie were disliked, whereas Gandalf’s changes went unnoticed.  Faramir wouldn’t have made those choices based on what we knew the character to be like.

It’s interesting to see that in some circumstances we can believe a character will make an opposite choice and accept it.  So when writing a story if you get stuck and think “what should they do next?” try out the opposite choice.  It might not work (like if you have a nun character who is debating whether to use the medicine or the power of prayer to heal someone, and then try out having them stab the person.  That’s just daft.) but you might find a route that you didn’t think of which works just as well.

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!