Listening to: My Man Friday tiling the kitchen
Reading: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kater Summerscale
It's Not Just About Words
This writing business is not just about words and characters and settings. If you make money from your writing it's also about business. Yuk, I hate that work and I do not earn a lot of money from my writing. I don't write primarily for the money, but as a a spin off it's very welcome and if I'm honest it really helps our housekeeping pot (which is extremely small). So as I'm still in my monthly planning mode - and yes I do know its the 5th of the month today - I've been trying to set up a simple accounting spreadsheet. I won't earn enough money to pay tax and it's a bit like wagging the dog, but I prefer to keep things above board. You'd think that I'd be able to find ready made spreadsheet through Google. Well after an hour of looking at all kinds of crazy spreadsheets, I haven't found anything near easy enough. So I'll have to develop my own. I'm told this will use the other part of my brain, the one I don't use very often and the one that failed to produce the right results for my maths o'level, three times.(Yes, that's right, I failed it three times.)
The Riddler
This week, I'm puzzling over the use of cliches. Now I noticed during the writing of my novel, that I actually used them quite a lot. I wanted to write one now to show you what I mean but my mind has drawn a blank! Now when I discussed this with my Man Friday, he very sensibly suggested that sometimes a cliche is exactly what you need, especially in dialogue as we often use them ourselves. I suppose once again its a case of balance and need.
The Book Worm
Title:A Change of Heart - it's about a girl who needs a heart transplant so very apt. The key question is who's heart?
Author: Judi Piccoult - I've read most of her titles and loved them all
Characters: A murderer, the victims wife and mother who is also the mother of the girl needing the heart transplant, the girl (obviously), a lawyer and priest and a doctor. Other minor characters include other high risk prisoners, the lawyers mother and father and the sister of the murderer.
Plot: Its very character driven and so the plot follows each of the main players and their lives so you get to know them quite well. This is why I love JP's books so much, because I relate to the characters. The potential heart donor is the man who allegedly murdered the ill girls father and sister and he has been sentenced to death. The plot also covers quite eloquently religous beliefs and challenges some of the 'rules' of faith including Catholicism, Christianity and Judaism. I was amazed to discover an alternative religion which existed many years ago.
Setting: Various but particularly memorable are the prison scenes.
Perspective: The main characters of the mother, the death row inmate, the lawyer and the priest. Also one other prisoner, which gives the tale a different viewpoint.
In A Word: Thrilling, Thought-provoking (OK, I know its two but rules are there to be broken), Edgy
Recommendation: Well, as a fan how could I not?
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