'The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore' in Ulverscroft Large Print

Ulverscroft released the large print, hard cover edition of The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore this month. To see the cover design for this, or for more details, click here. (Don't have the facilities here to copy and paste the cover into this blog.)

Would write more, but am on the hop. Leaving UK on Tuesday for USA. Very exciting. Never been there before.

Just finished reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Thought it was about time I read this, as I only knew it through various adaptations. Great story, although I inevitably found the C19 storytelling style a little laboured.

Foyles recommends The Snowing and Greening

One of many highlights while in London was seeing The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore prominently displayed at the main entrance to Foyles (Charing Cross Road) as one of their Recommended Reads. Good on 'em.

Also did stock-signings at Waterstones (Trafalgar Square) and Books Etc (Broadgate Circle), and met up with Tom and Lucy at PaperBooks.

Travel Reads

It's not my intention to turn this into a travelogue (or a travelblog), and am keeping a notebook of observations, impressions, etc, which I might return to and use in some form or another at a later date. But thought I should pop my head up on my travels to say 'Hi' and talk about some of the books that have accompanied me so far.

One of the many, tremendous things about travelling is that I always read much more than I can usually find the time for. I'm not much good for anything on long haul flights, but train journeys and waiting for planes is a great time for reading, particularlarly once I've had my fill of looking out the window or observing people. Reading is also a great defence against jet-lag - to stave off sleep at 8 o'clock of an evening... for an extra 20 minutes or so!

The two PaperBooks titles I packed to accompany me were Michael Marr's Three Jumpers and Jon Haylett's Black Mongoose. I figured these would last me until we reached the UK at least, but I enjoyed both so much that I finished Three Jumpers in Hong Kong (Kowloon) and Black Mongoose in Italy (Rome, La Spezia and Cinque Terre, Siena).

Seeing the way things were going, and itching at the relative cheapness of books anywhere outside of Australia, we couldn't resist buying Tim Winton's Breath in HK airport (a book I've been after for a while, but couldn't afford the hard cover edition) and Haruki Murakami's After Dark - another author we both enjoy.

The slim After Dark saw me out for our return to Rome from Siena and flying across to the UK, and Breath has accompanied me from London to Wotton-under-Edge to Cardigan. All this tremendous literature is, of course, generating ideas and strings of words of my own, and so my notebook is rapidly filling with phrases, descriptions, story outlines, notes.

And now, with my internet time about up, I want to wander about the town, find a bookshop and pick up another couple of titles for the next leg of our journey.

Number Two

Well, Number Two is finished (for the moment). Got to that point at which I knew it was done - was the way I wanted it (for the time-being). Enjoyed a day of feeling pleased with the way it had worked out, before beginning to wonder about Number Three. Celebrated this by going for a wander around the town and to have a look at the effects of a recent king tide: it ate several metres of dune and closed a road by throwing rocks across it (and the walking track). Pretty awesome. Glad I wasn't in the car at time. Glad I wasn't walking there at the time.


Am going to be travelling around a bit for a short while now, so may seem a little distant from blogdom at times, but will try and post (and visit blogs) when I can.

Amsterdam

I listen to a range of music when I'm writing, but a lot of Daft Punk has played while I've been going through the later drafts of Number Two. Interesting that these guys are French because, apart from them, I particularly enjoy listening to French-speaking artistes when I'm writing (other times too, but they have preference over other musos when I'm writing). The reason for this is because I love the music, of course, but also, because the lyrics don't muddy the words in my head (my translation skills being way too slow - well, almost non-existent - to register more than the tone if I'm doing something else). Some of my favourites are Paris Combo, Les Croquants, Les Petites Bourettes, Emilie Simon, Georges Moustaki, Carla Bruni, Camille, Souad Massi, Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel.

Jacques Brel has been a favourite for many years and Amsterdam is one of those songs that's always had a big impact. Thought I'd track him down via YouTube the other day, when I was in need of inspiration. The gutsiness of his voice and the grittiness of his words were just what the moment needed. (The clip finishes abruptly, but still...)

Diversion

Having chosen to chain myself to the written word these last few weeks, I've enjoyed those crazy little diversions which crop up every now and then. Things which I wouldn't often pay much attention to. We've had a small flock of 7 or 8 juvenile rosellas move into the trees at the bottom of the garden for the last month. One of my favourite birds. Beautiful plumage! The adults are a stunning blend of blue, crimson, flashes of green. (This superb image below uploaded from Flickr with thanks.)


However, their presence has disconcerted the wattle birds who usually live there. The wattle birds are not only territorial, but have to be one of the grouchiest. Even their call sounds like a repetive 'Grouch! Grouch!'

While they'll usually chase other birds out of their territory, like most bullies, they're easily scared and the presence of the rosellas has sent them scuttling to the lawn outside my window... where they've discovered the pear trees and the blackbirds and sparrows and starlings and honeyeaters. Having been displaced, they now spend all their time chasing the other birds out of this end of the garden, protecting whatever bits of fruit are lying on the ground, perching in the tamarillo to keep a fighting eye on their fiefdom.


Or were, until a couple of rosellas came up to graze. Didn't hear a peep from them then. Managed to get a couple of shots, until I figured it was time to stop staring out the window and get back to the words... or even a little bit of Monty Python.

Dirt Music

Every once in a while I come across a book that I know I'm going to enjoy reading a second time. I don't let it happen very often because there are so many good books out there waiting to be met and there just isn't enough time to meet them all as it is.

E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News was one of these. When I read it, quite a few years ago, I knew I was going to indulge myself in a second reading and I did. Enjoyed it as much, if not more, and just wanted to soak it all up all over again.

Tim Winton's Dirt Music was another. It's prose to swim in. Beautiful stuff. The sort of writing you just don't want to come to an end. Recently, I found myself craving a third read and... yep, it remains a wonderful novel.

Still haven't picked up a copy of his latest, Breath, but must do this soon.

May Day

Hey, it's May Day. Thought I should celebrate with a twirl of the Maypole, a little Morris Dancing and a slice of a Mummers Play. Very Snowing and Greening.

A paradox

I'm enjoying having a significant amount of extra writing time at the moment. However, it's a beautiful paradox that the more time I have to write, the more time I need - the more time I want.

Have not been quite so present at this blog recently because I'm ploughing a lot more hours into redrafting Number Two and mapping out other writing projects. And enjoying almost every single minute of it.

Only almost, because every once in a while I get hit with that crisis of confidence, when I convince myself I can't write for shite, and need to give myself a serious talking-to. But then a sentence works out better than I expected and... the show's back on the road... until the next puncture.

Anyway, if there are lengthy absences here every once in a while, then that's the reason: I'm totally absorbed in writing something else, and will endeavour to bring the blog up to date as soon as I can. Okay?

Recent reads

A couple of light, but enjoyable reads recently.


Shaun Tan's collection of quirky and very short pieces, accompanied by his surreal illustrations (always puts me in mind of the surrealist Yves Tanguy) - Tales From Outer Suburbia.


And Paul Torday's humorous Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (put me in mind of the TV show Yes, Minister).