Monkeys, Butterflies and Larks

We had a monkey’s wedding the other day. For those of you who don’t know the phrase (probably most of you not on the African continent) it means a shower of rain while the sun is shining.  It comes from a Zulu phrase Umshado we Zinkawu.

We grew up using the phrase in South Africa without knowing where it came from. I used it in a children’s story which was one of the first things I wrote that actually earned me money. It won a writing competition and was broadcast on radio. I managed to get an agent and she suggested sending the story overseas. She tried a British publisher and their rejection letter was a polite version of “huh?” I did some research and found out where the phrase came from, but never got so far as to send it off again.

Language can be sneaky that way – words or phrases so familiar they are invisible.  And then you get the other extreme. You look up something to find out the correct term, and find out that it is so odd that people are going to fall over laughing if you use it.  Collective nouns are a prime example. Many of them seem to make no sense at all, and one has to wonder who thought them up.

 Some can be beautiful, like an exultation of larks or a kaleidoscope of butterflies, but does anyone ever really say ‘I saw a shrewdness of apes today’ or ‘There is a business of ferrets in the field”?

 This is part of the fun for writers. Trying to decide if a word or phrase is well known enough to be obvious, or if an unobtrusive hint is necessary. Or just rephrase those exultant larks…

Mark My Place

I don’t know if I will ever come to terms with e-books. They seem so clinical, and how do you read in the bath? For real books I have a tendency to use whatever comes to hand as a bookmark – coasters, rulers, magazines – and have never been allowed to live down the time I used a pair of pliers (they were only a small pair!).

 Something else you can’t have with e-books is a second-hand book sale. The majority of my books have been acquired second-hand, and half the fun is in the finding.

 I have a copy of The Song Celestial, translated from the Sanskrit by Sir Edwin Arnold. There is a long handwritten note in the front, encouraging someone – Gys, I think – to ‘search this patiently and diligently’. The little book does not look well used, so one wonders if the recipient ever did. The date is 1945, along with a place-name which is infuriatingly difficult to read.

 A ‘teach yourself’ book on Air Navigation contained a letter from the Air Directorate. Dated 1949, it was addressed to a Mr. Hatton, confirming his acceptance for pupil pilot training.

 A copy of Handel’s Messiah (gilt-edged! – show me the e-book that can compete) had a programme for a performance in 1963, and one of the two names written on the flyleaf was listed as the principal soprano.

 Old books can be sad, when they were obviously once important to someone, but have been ‘got rid of’. It is demoralising to think that my own books will no doubt be in this position one day. I have a large collection of music books, but it seems fewer and fewer people are bothering to learn to play an instrument. My husband comes from a large family, and I have around 15 nieces and nephews, and not a musician among them.

A Lolcat a day…

Not quite one a day, but here are a couple more homegrown Lolcats.

You can't see me!

Caesar awaiting his prey. He’s not the most successful hunter, but he is trying…

Titch keeping the cumfy right where she wants it.

 A well trained human is a credit to any cat.

Keep Write On…

Still uploading ‘Balancebreaker’ to Figment, section by section. I am trying to give it a thorough rewrite as I go. It’s quite a while since I looked at this book. I would be greateful for any constructive criticism. You know what they say about the wood and the trees.

The great thing about the internet is that there is so much out there. The difficulty with the internet is that there is so much out there… It’s kind of difficult to get noticed. However, I am writing a lot more than I was, which can only be a good thing. Even if you are on the right road, if you just sit there, you are going to get run over.

I am also reading and commenting on other manuscripts. There is some interesting work out there.

We had a local writers’ group for about 14 years. It made a big difference to have feedback, or even just a chance to blow off steam about the peversity of publishing (and life in general).  It died eventually from a terminal attack of inertia. A pity – we had a great deal of fun in the early years.

 

Write On

I have mentioned before that I am trying to get back into the writing game.  This was also one of my New Year’s Resolutions (I refuse to admit to how many years it has been on said list…) I actually stood on the edge of the pool, held my nose and jumped in the deep end. We will see what happens (apart from a large splash).

I joined a writing site ‘Figment’ and have started posting a book that I am busy with. I actually started it a number of years ago, but wasn’t happy with the ending. I am hoping to give it a complete rewrite, hopfully with some insight gained from feedback. 

I did have a book published locally some years ago. It went out of print, and I have regained the copyright. Now all I have to do is write a synopsis and submit. Not getting very far with that either, but I’m hoping that actually putting some writing out there will break up the log-jam I am contending with at the moment.

Homegrown Lolcats

I have a soft spot for LOLcats. Not all of them, mind you. I don’t like cats being dressed up, or photoshopped. And having a couple of homegrown LOLcats lolling around, so to speak, I thought it might be fun to share a couple of photos of them.

Mai Human

Caesar Opportunus is the tabby cat – Caesar for short. Con artist, manipulator and puddle of purr. Gets stuck in trees and cries for help. Would be a Cat Olympic Gold Medal contender in the Marathon Sleep event, if he could be bothered to enter. Is supposed to eat very expensive special food from the vet, but will rather eat dog food, human food and fish food. Hobbies: training his human, chasing Titch around (see below) and alternately grooming and clouting the dog.

Leave Book!

Titch is the black-and-white patchy cat. Was going to be Phantom of the Opera (she looks as if she is wearing a mask) until her true nature (raving lunatic hooligan) started showing itself. Has a generous and giving nature, especially when it comes to leaving nasty things under beds and in the bath. Hobbies: ignoring humans until cuddle reflex kicks in, lying on any piece of paper around (usually the book or pattern I am busy with) and hi-jacking my tatting.

Happy New Term

Been back at school for a week or so. There are a lot of new pupils, so I have to go in for an extra day a week. While this does mean some extra money, it also means extra driving. This is not my happy place. I live about half an hour’s drive from the school, and I hate drivers trying to menace me into moving over behind the yellow line.

 For those whose countries may have different road arrangements, a brief explanation follows. Some of our roads have an ‘emergency lane’ behind a yellow line. It is narrower than a full lane, and can be a little hair-raising to drive on. Most people (myself included) will move over into this lane if someone wants to pass – the problems arise when someone thinks you should move over, and you don’t agree. That’s where the menacing comes in. I won’t move over if I can’t see the road ahead, such as around a blind corner.

 I drive an old skedonk (banger, rattle-trap, call it what you will). She’s a big, elderly three-litre Ford automatic that drinks petrol as if we have our own private oil well. Her acceleration is 0 to 60 in… give me a couple of hours and I’ll get back to you. So she’s not so good at the dodging through traffic bit. I know what she can and can’t do, but some twit in a 1.1 litre plastic box will ride on my back bumper trying to push me out of the way. And this when I’m doing the speed limit plus 10 km. Never a dull moment.

 I enjoy meeting the new pupils. I always try to reserve judgement until I’ve got to know them a little. Some shy kids can take a while to start opening up, while others start out full of enthusiasm, but are bored by the second lesson.

 Someone asked me once if I don’t get driven mad by hearing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ for the hundredth time. The funny thing is that I don’t. Not so much because of the intrinsic beauty of ‘Row, Row,’ but because every new student presents a different set of problems. They are probably doing five or six things wrong, and the trick is to pick one or two to concentrate on. Pick out every problem and they are quickly overwhelmed. But if you forget about some of the mistakes for too long, they become entrenched habits, and a royal pain to get rid of. So it’s a balancing act. But I love it, particularly when you can see (and hear) them improving.