January 23, 2012

Remembering Wellington

Half a year ago Tony and I went to New Zealand. It’s hard to image that it actually happened really. It seems like so long ago.

I was having an issue with blogging back then and I really didn’t share anything about our trip, including the masses of photos that we took. But I thought I would begin to rectify that with a look at a little cemetery that was behind the first hotel we stayed in – The Bolton (as an aside I am never staying in a hotel that doesn’t have five stars – seriously. We stayed in two during our trip and wow, just wow).

The cemetery was the burial place for a lot of Wellington’s earliest settlers and I spent a good chunk of time going from headstone to headstone reading about their lives and their deaths. It was sad but fascinating.

So here we go. Here’s a look at the Bolton Street Memorial Park.

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

Bolton Street Memorial Park - Cemetary

January 19, 2012

So, what’s with the beard thing?

Peter Russell Clarke

Beards, beards everywhere!

You can’t flail around on a busy street without hitting a hipster with a beard. Am I right? I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve never really gotten the whole beard thing. I’ve just spent the last hour analysing why this might be and I keep arriving at the same conclusion. Here, let me share it with you.

You see, I was born in the 70’s and my formative years were in the 80’s. Child psychologists will tell you that you gather a lot of your ‘baggage’ during from this period because it’s when you are the most moldable. You experience things, they scare the shit out of you, and you ‘live’ (if you can call it that) for 37 years with a fear of ducks. And I should know.

Now the 70’s and 80’s were decades of serious facial hair worship championed, in my world, by men such as Peter (G’Day) Russell (G’Day) Clarke (see above photo), Bill Oddie and my math teacher, Mr Baker. All three were amply bearded and super scary so consequently beards, to this day, conjure memories of swearing and cheese, giant kittens prowling the streets of London and never, ever knowing what x is equal to.

Beards are not whimsical to me. They are not an accessory. They are not twee. They are serious business feller and you should be prepared for some cold hard facts before you start manicuring your follicles.

Here are five solid reasons not to have a beard

1. Beards are itchy. And they don’t just itch you; they itch your special friend too.
2. Beards look really hot. As in your face looks like it’s 25 degrees hotter than the rest of your body. Unless you’re in the Arctic. The Arctic is one of two regions were beards are acceptable. The Antarctic is the other.
3. Beards make you look older. Want to age a decade? Grow a beard. Is that your intention? OK then.
4. Beards attract all kinds of food remnants, which in turn attract vermin. When I leave food on my kitchen counter it attracts cockroaches. You don’t want cockroaches squatting in your beard do you? I didn’t think so.
5. Beards make you look dodgy. What are you trying to hide guy?

The end is nigh

The problem with beards is they have gone the way of visible thongs, faux hawks and Rickrolling – they’ve been embraced by the great unwashed. Once any social phenomenon has that kind of uptake you know it’s coolness currency is devalued.

I’m lucky. I know a trend is over when I hear the woman at the deli talking to a random customer about it. She’s my ugg boot wearing, frosted tip coiffing cultural thermometer. And she’s never, ever wrong.

January 4, 2012

My (recent) life in Instagram photos – November/December

  


#1 – My winner badge after completing NaNoWriMo
#2 – A stormy day 6th December 2011
#3 – Izzy at Myer in the city after deciding she wasn’t going to sit on Santa’s knee
#4 – White Square storm brooch
#5 – Lightning at 10pm on 12th December 2011
#6 – My first print byline
#7 – My obsession with fairy lights continues
#8 – Our 2011 Christmas tree

December 16, 2011

Happy 10th Birthday Too Askew

Happy 10th Birthday Too Askew
10 years ago I decided to start a blog. Back then blogs were still fairly new. There were a few around but they hadn’t become mainstream yet. It was a glorious time to be blogging. New and innocent. I could write whatever I wanted without worrying about who would see it.

I started on LiveJournal then went to Blogger then to Moveable Type and finally to WordPress and people like Si helped me out enormously on what was quite a steep learning curve.

Most of the time my posts are inane, boring stuff about what is going on and that’s fine. It’s a digital hodgepodge. It was never meant to be anything other than a journal of sorts anyway. After several scattered periods of introspection (over the last decade) I’ve come to accept that this is what Too Askew is. An amalgamation of everything that makes me, me. Furniture coveting, bear obsessions, paper nerdishness, random thoughts, writerly pursuits, dealing with loss and thunderstorm lovin’. All me baby.

I trawled back through my archives and found my first proper post. I’ve written 1670 posts since then. That’s an average of 3 per week for the last ten years. Not bad really. While I don’t get as many comments as I used to, I know you’re still coming by, reading my stuff. As much as I say I keep this blog for me, I also do it because I know that you’re out there and you enjoy dropping by for thirty seconds a couple of times a week. Thank you dear readers for keeping the blogging fire alive.

Here’s to 10 more years.

(Image credit: Will Clayton)

December 6, 2011

Dodging raindrops



Today was a good day. A day that was soaked in never-ending rain and bathed in the flashes of a hundred lightning strikes. I live for days like this. I love watching moody, bruised clouds ambling across the sky while smelling steaming hot pavement being drenched by fat raindrops.

Yes. Today was a good day.

November 30, 2011

Winner! How I wrote 50000 words in a month


I finished NaNoWriMo a couple of hours ago and I just wanted to take some time to reflect on the craziness of the past month.

Writing every day
It’s difficult to write every day, especially when you work. It’s especially hard to crank out 1667 words a day on a fiction project when you’ve written that much, if not more, on client projects. Words are hard to come by sometimes and God help you if you plunge into writer’s block. I am really lucky that I had already established a habit of writing 750 words a day. If I hadn’t have been doing that for 100+ days there is no way that I would have been able to complete NaNoWriMo.

Having no outline
My biggest mistake during this whole exercise was the fact that I had no plot outline. I had a well developed cast because I’d already written the first draft of Book 2 in the trilogy. I’ve got great characters, flawed, conflicted etc but I had no idea what they would be doing for a whole book. Day 1 of NaNoWriMo was confronting because here I was, basically free writing, with zero direction. No plot. Nothing. Everything I wrote, all 50000+ words, I dreamed up as I was writing. Which is pure insanity and a lot of hard work.

As a result the story took twists and turns that I really couldn’t have planned for and I think I prefer it that way. While it’s a lot more work, it does feel more organic to write off the cuff. In the past I’ve developed meticulous outlines but have found that characters tend to deviate regardless of my intentions for them. I’ve learned that characters have their own motivations that unfold as the story progresses. I really like that. It feels natural. But regardless, I should have had a basic idea of what the plot would entail.

What now?
To be honest, I am mentally exhausted, but there are some finishing touches I need to put on this first draft. I also have to take the time to actually read through it. Currently it is filling up 71 A4 pages in Word. I’m going to need to take a few days off from it before I head back in, editors cap on, and start slashing and re-working scenes. When I’m happy, I’ll send it through to my editor who I am hoping will help me to tighten it. From there, it’s either pitch it to a publisher or make it into an e-book and launch it on Amazon or the iBook store. I haven’t made my mind up yet. I’ll be doing lots of research into the pros and cons of each over the coming weeks.

Final thoughts
I have written more this year than I have done in previous years. Personal projects in particular. I have no doubt in my mind that the catalyst for this has been developing a daily routine of writing. Every day, since August 1st, I’ve sat down and written at least 750 words. Every day. Without fail. I’m at day 122 now and I don’t see myself stopping. I would be devastated if I missed a day (blame it on my OCD). It’s hard to write every day. There have been days when I really didn’t feel like writing but I sucked it up and got it done. I knew that the disappointment I would feel would be way worse than any discomfort I could possibly feel during the 15 minutes that it usually takes me to write my words. Suck it up and get it done. That’s my motto.

I’ve written two books since August. I am a little overwhelmed by that fact. If I die tomorrow (furious knocks on wood) I can die calling myself a writer. Because I am. And that feels good.

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