It rains so much in England...

Found on a packet of McVitie's Digestives sold in France...

'It rains so much in England that the English rush towards McVitie's for comfort.'

 

Now who uses Digestives to make trifle?

... and who dips Digestives in tea at breakfast?

 

I don't know those people, but then I'm Irish, so maybe I just haven't grasped the true purpose of Digestives at all, at all.

 

Also, I note the French don't call them 'Digestives'. Then again, a 'digestif' is more like this:

 

 

Any English experts on McVitie's? We need to get to the bottom of this.

11.22.63 Goodreads Review

Hilary Mcgrath's Reviews > 11.22.63

11.22.63
by Stephen King

Hilary Mcgrath's review

May 11, 13  ·          

4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2013

Stephen King toys with the idea of rewriting history.

What would happen if you went back and changed some things in the past? If you stopped a man from murdering his family? Or stopped a girl from getting shot and being paralysed for life? Or stopped a man from shooting the president?

Jake Epping goes back to stop Lee Oswald but he doesn't know the consequences of his actions. Every time he buys a beer in the past has the potential to change the present.

When I was about 9/10th through this book I had no idea how King was going to end it. The idea of George bringing Sadie into 2011 seemed just as impossible as when he first went back to 1958.

A negative point for me was the executive summary of politics/world history he got when he did return. I felt like King was trying to wrap up the book too quickly.

But I did love the way he finally ended it and I loved the Lindy hopping all the way through!

           

Please accept this cheese

As poor backpackers travelling around Australia in the mid-nineties, my friend, Melanie, and I attended quite a few book launches and readings in Sydney.

I would don my cleanest t-shirt and slip on the Birkenstocks. Mel wore her iconic red dress. And we'd head into Gleebooks in Sydney. We usually got there early--the first to politely accept some wine and nibbles. Then with a couple of spare glasses of red tucked under our chairs, we settled down to listen to the author read from his or her latest novel. Too poor to buy the books, we were an enthusiastic audience, and I'm sure the authors were pleased to see a packed room.

One of those readings was an author from Melanie's neck o' the woods, and she decided he should be presented with English cheese. How she came up with this wacky plan I'll never know but she purchased, kept refrigerated and politely presented the cheese when the author sat at his book-signing table. He managed to retain his composure. He thanked her. I'm sure nobody had every presented him with a cheese before. I'm also pretty sure he binned it when we're turned our attention to the glug glug of a freshly-opened bottle. I wish I could remember who he was.

A couple of weeks ago Mel presented me with a cheese. The honour!  She came to see me receive my prize in the Writing West Midlands Short Fiction Competition in Birmingham. I was delighted to win a competition, to have people come to meet me and to hear me read. Delighted that Mel could take time out to come up from London. And I was chuffed to be presented with a cheese. The Oscars are next I suppose.

If only--IF ONLY--she had worn her red dress that night, because later in the restaurant, Chris de Burgh serenaded us with a snippet from his most famous Lady in Red. The memories, ah the memories...

 

Writing is like tennis

My husband is mad about tennis so I often have to resort to similes to explain my position.

Cooking the dinner is like tennis, you have to peel a few carrots to... Bringing in the clothes off the line is like tennis...

Strangely enough he always listens when I mention the word.

Tonight I realised that writing is like tennis. You work on your forehand, your backhand, your service. You warm up. You learn how to keep the score. Then you put it all together to play a match and it can be surprising how it all comes together.

Tonight I played my first real tennis match and won! (I filled in for the A-team a couple of weeks ago and lost badly, but I don't count that.)

The hardest part was actually deciding to put my name down for the competition but now I'm glad I did.

It's easy to work on the craft of writing and let the years roll by. It's easy to read the how-to books, analyse, edit. But it's a big step to actually send off that first query. I was planning to send it out in January, then February, then March. I can't believe April has come and gone and I still haven't managed to submit. But I will. In May. Am excited and petrified at the same time.

Writers & Artists (Bloomsbury) Shortlisted

Great news this week:

 

Delighted to see that my flash fiction piece 'Trumpet Dreams'  has been shortlisted in the Writers & Artists Flash Fiction Competition. Told in just 200 words, the theme was 'the quest for belonging' and I eagerly await the results on Monday.

 

Serendipity

 

I'd been dithering about social networking, but I've finally made a tentative step into Twitterland (find me @hilary_mcgrath). It's very hard to decide just how much time and energy to put into blogs, twitter and writers’ forums. I'd resisted until now because I already have my writers’ group—and let’s not forget the actual writing—and somewhere in the background I seem to remember a family and a life.

 

Alas! I succumbed because I feel I need to glean all the information available. I need to know the names of all the important agents and editors and their most recent books. I used to question whether I'd read enough of the Greats, now I worry about the latest trends in book publishing. Is reading for pleasure even allowed anymore?*

 

Every writer must struggle with this problem to some extent. Yet, having been on Twitter for just a day, I dig the serendipity--I decided to follow @Writers_Artists and discovered in doing so that the flash fiction piece I entered in their competition has been shortlisted. Sweet!



*Must ask my two friends on Twitter...

 


Edited to add:

My story didn't make the top 3 in the Writers&Artists (Bloomsbury) competition but am still very pleased to have made the shortlist. Congatulations to the winners.

http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/2013/04/flash-fiction-competition-winner.   

 

 

 

 

 

Finding a Literary Agent

 

As if the writing (and editing, ripping to shreds and starting again, rereading, rewriting etc) wasn't hard enough, the next huge hurdle is to find a literary agent.

Not only do you need to have a perfect query letter, synopsis and sample pages (backed up by a perfect manuscript), you also need to query the right agent at the right time.

Which is why I'd like to offer my congratulations to my sister Paula* (find her here at ViewReview) on finding an agent and hope it leads to the publication of her first novel very soon.

*Last seen running out the door shouting ‘I’m just doing coffee with my agent.’

Writer Nathan Bransford had these Wise words to say about finding an agent:
There are many ways of going about this, and, believe it or not, none of them involve telling an agent they're a cutiepatootie.

 

Spanish Progress Report

Time for an update on my Spanish learning    

Language CDs:  

As is often the case with new years' resolutions, the novelty has begun to wear off  by now and I wonder if I'm going to succeed. I managed to listen to my language CDs for two months but really lost interest in March. I do notice progress though when I listen to conversations that seemed impossible on first hearing, but now I can understand them fairly well. 

Music: 

 

Having learned the words of one song off by heart, I'm confident that if I’m ever in Spain and need to say ‘I would come back to find you in my time machine’, I’m sorted! Music is helpful for practising pronunciation and intonation, and some of the vocabulary is useful. I'm not that sure I'll find a use for 'time machine' but who knows? Some day I’ll drop it into conversation while nibbling tapas before a bullfight, and I’ll think of this. Overall, learning through music is a positive experience and I'm going to buy the Amaral album and listen to that in the car instead. 

Forums: 

I've made several attempts to chat on forums in Spanish, with my Spanish-English dictionary to hand and using very simple constructions. I've been able to make myself understood. The advantage over actual conversations is that you have the time to respond. From the SpanishDict site I've also been receiving the 'Word of the Day' by email.

Books: 

To begin with, I'm concentrating on reading books in English about Spain rather than actually reading a novel in Spanish. I've started 'Guernica' by Dave Boling, which is proving to be an interesting read. I love the cover picture too. Next up will be 'Ghosts of Spain' by Giles Tremlett.
 

                    

Summary:

January: Language CDs

February: Language CDs, Music

March: Forums, Books

My plan for April: 

I'm hoping to watch a couple of Spanish films, over and over, to really absorb the language and intonation. I do need some good recommendations first though.