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 |   Maybe meandering, possibly peripatetic and indisputably irregular. |
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So here it is.. a blog. Repository of some of my present musings and interests. Sometimes things pop into my head that should probably stay there - it is possible I shall share at least some of them here. (Naturally I shall filter out the ones about my sordid obsession with the culinary dark arts, one has to protect the innocent!) Please feel free not to take this too seriously, much of it could wind up being snippets of things that amuse me. Yesterday I came up with this: Few politicians can be considered first class, but not a few are number twos. What can I do with it? Nothing springs to mind, except perhaps blog it. Perhaps in some other life I'm a failed stand-up comedian. I have the beginnings of an idea to introduce another player into the Mr Moonlight story, a nice visual has occurred to me, and a summoning gone wrong seems appropriate. When I finish up here I shall literally put pen to paper. I find writing at least initially longhand helps my ideas flow. When I type up what I've written, I give it a first revision at the same time, and as a bare minimum check my spellings and grammar . I do want to keep tabs on my current reading here. I usually have several books on the go at the same time. Currently I am working through 'Pyramids' by Terry Pratchett. I reread Pratchett's books over and over - usually at work where they provide much needed amusement whilst I eat breakfast. 'The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle', by Stuart Turton was loaned to me by a friend who shares a love of murder mysteries, (especially Agatha Christie's works). It is a new take on the genre and very very clever. The protagonist occupies different bodies - a selection of the guests at the house where Evelyn is murdered. Each day he spends in a different guest, and he has been tasked with discovering the murderer - or maybe saving Evelyn from actually being murdered, it is hard to tell. The book twists and turns and is quite intriguing. 'New Science - Principles of the new science concerning the common nature of nations' is an English translation by David Marsh of 'La Scienza Nuova' by Giambattista Vico, published in 1725. Not far into this yet, I had to find a copy of the frontispiece online, as it wasn't included in the Kindle edition. The first part of the book explains the idea - and uses a detailed description of the frontispiece to convey this. So being without it would have made things somewhat harder. 'The Complete Works of Michael De Montaigne' is again a translation, this time by Donald M. Frame. Montaigne's Essays are famous, I kept reading about them, so treated myself to a nice hardbound copy to dip into - usually just before bedtime. So there we have it - a blog entry - enjoy! (whispers almost inaudibly 'Bon Appétit). |
Ah! progress, well sort of. Today I decided to bite the bullet and book a few days holiday in October. That done, I then signed up for NaNoWriMo, and then for October NaNo Prep Challenge.
Trying to write a whole novel of 50,000 words in a month is a daunting challenge. I am looking forwards to it. I decided to use and develop a story idea that I've had for several years. The setting is England in the late 1500's, but this is an alternative history in two key points. Firstly Queen Boudica defeated the Romans in 60 AD, and what we think of as England, Scotland Eire and Wales were subsequently united into one Celtic entity, (working title Albion, but I'm still thinking about this). Secondly, the main religion of Europe is Mithraism, as spread by the Roman armies. However just as with Christianity, there has been a major schism, and Europe is divided. Both factions seek to destroy the other and assume absolute power. Both factions hate the Celtic people, who follow their own pagan gods. The story is also a fantasy. The Celtic people have nurtured their psychic powers. Some are clairvoyant, other more actively effect the world around them. Both European factions independently decide to use these magical Celtic people to break their own power deadlock. The psychic abilities tends to run in families, and it is from these families that the rulers of Albion are drawn. Each King of Queen remains so whilst they are the most powerful psychic of all. Their power is balanced by a council drawn from all of the families with above average abilities. When a new monarch assumes power, they have a three year period of grace, during which no one can challenge them. During this time one of their most important personal tasks is to construct a Mindwalk Pavilion. This is a mentally constructed protection that any challenger must defeat in order to become a replacement King or Queen. The Pavilion can be added to throughout the life of the monarch. The heroine of the story is Boudica III. She is a descendant of Queen Boudica, and is considerably gifted physically. The story opens with her taking a psychic challenge to entitle her to become Queen. Unusually the Mindwalk Pavilion she is attempting to defeat is that of her half sister, who has died. This adds to the danger of the task, and it is imperative for the Celtic people that someone succeeds in defeating the dead Queen's construction. Boudica naturally does become Queen. The European leaders see this time as an opportunity, and send emissaries to try and win over the new Queen, and a third force also appears, that of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman sends his son Bayezid to challenge the Queen. Boudica struggles to find her feet, to deal with the political and romantic manipulations, and to lead her people to new strengths. |
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). I mostly reject that. I'm eating rice with an egg this morning but Pannya just brought me chocolate milk from 7/11 (bless him; I really don't need it).
