The Girdle of Melian

unny thing about social media -- posting announcements across various platforms when a major event takes place. (Which makes me wonder, why do we say "change my status update" instead of "update my status"?) Harking back to my Belated Announcement ...A joyful development from last week!: Not quite the usual A Round of Words in 80 Days update I suppose... Hope everyone else has had an exciting week!

logfests! There are two really good ones coming up, one in September and one in October. September's is hosted by Ninja Captain Alex ! "Everyone has a favorite movie or band that no one else has ever heard about. For whatever reason, they remain undiscovered and underrated. Now is your chance to tell the world about this obscure treasure! On Monday, September 22, post about your favorite unknown –- MOVIE –- BAND/ARTIST –- TV SHOW –- BOOK Post about one or all four – dealer's choice!" I'm thinking I might not have time to do this blogfest on the day, so I'll quickly note four items today! Movie : Waking Ned Devine Band : Marion TV Show : If you haven't started watching Outlander -- based on Diana Gabaldon's wonderful series of books -- what are you waiting for? Book : I could pick so many! Anything by Somerset Maugham makes a fascinating read. Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose is absolutely lovely. And for 50s/60s...

ave you ever lost some of your writing? Asking because I missed posting for the Insecure Writer's Support Group last week, and I happened to see this tumblr post by Neil Gaiman just now: I haven't lost writing in a while, thankfully, except for last week's Wallace fiasco. I've heard horrible stories of authors changing the names of their Scrivener files and then being unable to locate them. Mine was two different things: text in PlainText on the iPad that didn't sync to Dropbox because the wifi was not on, but that also for some reason did not save in the PlainText app itself; and the next day myself highlighting all the text and trying to click on "copy" and then realising I'd pressed the letter n by accident, and then pressing two more buttons before I discovered where the "undo" button was (and undo on the iPad only goes back one step), thereby losing everything I'd typed in that session. That was nothing, however, a mere lo...

or the first time in a long time I've... got nothing. I've mentioned all the intriguing books on my wishlist and TBR piles... I've celebrated other bloggers (and I still owe so many visits!)... I've gotten a little further on my main ROW80 goal of typing up the Wallace letters (following another wrangle with losing text on the iPad, this time through my own fault)... I've mostly caught up with or at least minimised my daily life task lists (I still carry too much paper and too many to do lists and general stuff in my purse)... I'm starting to get the hang of things more and more at my new job (can't believe it's been four months already!)... and the weather has gone back to lovely dry warmth and sunshine after a weird two weeks of cloudiness and rain. This is usually about the time I make the mistake of signing up for a blogfest, to give me a theme to focus on. But then I fall further behind in commenting! There is one main event this week, of cour...

ook chat! It's the 50th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the 60th anniversary of The Lord of the Rings ! Penguin's hosting a contest that involves a year's supply of chocolate, a trip to New York City, and tickets to see Matilda the Musical. Matilda was always my favourite Dahl story. Enter the contest or take part in the other celebrations on the official Roald Dahl site . There's a 60th anniversary edition of The Lord of the Rings that's just been released -- I want it mostly for the updated reader's companion. One way you can celebrate this anniversary is by quoting some of your favourite lines on Twitter with the #FR60th hashtag. Here are a few of mine: In other book news, the paperback of Barbara Rogan 's A Dangerous Fiction is out now! I reviewed A Dangerous Fiction back when I read the hardcover and was full of praise - for the tenseness of the mystery, the vivid characters, and for being set ...

uess what? I learned something new and relearned something old this past weekend. The something old is a fact that I'd forgotten: Freddie Mercury lived in Montreux, Switzerland in the last years of his life and even owned a recording studio there. Apparently he used to say "If you want peace of mind, come to Montreux." There's been a statue of him by the lakefront since 1996 and there's a Freddie Mercury Memorial Day held there every September. We'll have to visit! The new-to-me fact is that the Deep Purple classic Smoke on the Water is all about Lake Geneva! Usually I'm really good with hearing and memorising lyrics, but you know how sometimes you think you know a song so well that you actually don't pay much attention to it? Yea, that. I mean, the opening lines to the song are "We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline, to make records with a mobile, we didn't have much time." I'd never paid attention befo...

ood thing I added reading to my ROW80 goals! I finished The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling the other day, and would highly recommend it, especially for fans of detective stories. I love the authors characterisation. Then I read My Dancing Bear by Helene de Klerk, a brief biography of Andy Capp's creator Reg Smythe written by his niece. The book is interspersed with quotes from conversations with Smythe, and has a really 'close' feel, as if you're reading about one of your own distant family members. The best part for me were the two aspects that could also relate to writing. The first was the glimpse of Smythe's complete dedication to his work. Even with a full time job, he would come home every evening and spend hours on his strips, sometimes working with a timer - one strip every half an hour. If he finished earlier, he carried over that time to the next strip. Day after day, without fail, even after he'd achieved a certain level of success. ...