Writing has had to stop whilst I enjoy learning the Thai art of Khon - Theatre/dance/mime. arranged by Arts on Location, this course is a cultural journey both challenging and amazing. If ever I have to write a book set in Thailand, I will remember the heat, the smell of jasmine, the smiles of the Thai teachers, and - the inevitable mosquitos. Copious amounts of Deet have failed to deter them from feasting on me.
If you want to see what we have been doing and have access to Facebook, you can find pictures of our acrobatic adventures by typing in "artsonlocation".
Tomorrow we give a performance, and have to be sewn into our costumes - sounds painful, and we are still learning to stand on one leg wearing a mask - but I hope it will go well and make the audience laugh. Wish us luck!
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Interview on Writewords
http://www.writewords.org.uk/
You can find an interview with me on the Writewords writers website. For those that don't know, Writewords is one of the biggest resource sites for writers, with a chance to post your work to other writers for critique, and to chat to other writers in user-friendly forums.
You can find an interview with me on the Writewords writers website. For those that don't know, Writewords is one of the biggest resource sites for writers, with a chance to post your work to other writers for critique, and to chat to other writers in user-friendly forums.
Friday, 27 November 2009
Amazon's Kindle for Christmas - Fuel for thought
From Oct 7th newspaper, "We’ve heard whispers for months, but this morning Amazon snapped its fingers and made the Kindle available in the UK, as well as 99 other countries around the world."
At the moment you have to place your order through Amazon.com and have the device shipped to Britain (complete with a US power adapter).
Amazon says “in the future, we plan to introduce a UK-centric Kindle experience, enabling you to purchase Kindle and Kindle books in sterling from our UK site.”
The cost at the moment is £217, as an import, but I have spoken to two people who have asked for it for Christmas. Admittedly, they are both academics, who will use its vast library of classics for reference whilst teaching. But both said they would be downloading novels too, and regretted that there was a limited choice.
Recently delighted by my cover for my debut novel, I wonder what this will mean for the cover artists and layout designers who work so hard to make our books attractive and tactile on the shelves with full colour, gold-foiling, embossing, cut-outs and so forth.
An even more important question then, will be how will our books be judged if not by the cover? Does it mean that there will be less of a concentration on big names, and more opportunity for the discerning reader to choose a book from a carefully worded blurb, i.e words, rather than from an image?
It could mean that those books that cross genres will be freed from the necessity of being pigeonholed to a single readership, by a cover that attracts only one sort of reader.
I'd be interested to know how important the cover and packaging are to writers, and whether there are any writers out there who own or ar planning on getting a kindle.
Kindle - ignite, light; set fire to, touch off; fuel, stoke, feed the flames; make the fire, rub two sticks together (Roget's Thesaurus)
At the moment you have to place your order through Amazon.com and have the device shipped to Britain (complete with a US power adapter).
Amazon says “in the future, we plan to introduce a UK-centric Kindle experience, enabling you to purchase Kindle and Kindle books in sterling from our UK site.”
The cost at the moment is £217, as an import, but I have spoken to two people who have asked for it for Christmas. Admittedly, they are both academics, who will use its vast library of classics for reference whilst teaching. But both said they would be downloading novels too, and regretted that there was a limited choice.
Recently delighted by my cover for my debut novel, I wonder what this will mean for the cover artists and layout designers who work so hard to make our books attractive and tactile on the shelves with full colour, gold-foiling, embossing, cut-outs and so forth.
An even more important question then, will be how will our books be judged if not by the cover? Does it mean that there will be less of a concentration on big names, and more opportunity for the discerning reader to choose a book from a carefully worded blurb, i.e words, rather than from an image?
It could mean that those books that cross genres will be freed from the necessity of being pigeonholed to a single readership, by a cover that attracts only one sort of reader.
I'd be interested to know how important the cover and packaging are to writers, and whether there are any writers out there who own or ar planning on getting a kindle.
Kindle - ignite, light; set fire to, touch off; fuel, stoke, feed the flames; make the fire, rub two sticks together (Roget's Thesaurus)
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