Celebrate the small things

I've only had one work deadline this week, which was to write an article for the Christmas issue of  Smallholder magazine. Once that was done, I was able to catch up on a few bits and pieces that I had set aside 'for when I get a minute'. I am celebrating efficiency.

My online FutureLearn blues piano course is up and running. Despite the blurb saying we need a couple of hours a week for this, it's clear I need to work much harder than that if I'm to keep up. I've recorded and uploaded my first attempt at improvising for the comments of my fellow learners. They have been kind. This week's challenge has been to play 7th 10ths, which means putting my little finger on a C and stretching my thumb all the way up to the E that is ten notes away, while also putting a finger on the flattened 7th note, B-flat. Still with me? Let's just say it's a bit much for my small hands. I am celebrating determination.

Mr Thorley and I were invited out for a meal last Sunday with some Bahai friends to mark the bicentenary of the birth of their faith's founder, Baha'u'llah. I'm not a follower, but amongst its key teachings is 'The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens' and 'So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.' Isn't that sensible? I am celebrating tolerance.

Image: morguefile.com

Have a good weekend, folks.

If you would like to join this bloghop, send your details to laura.6eg@gmail.com  and she will do the necessary.

Prizes and awards

Husband came home from work on Friday clutching a bottle of champagne and a certificate that he had been given to commemorate 10 years in his current job. Then yesterday he brought home a case of beer and a gift voucher by way of Christmas bonus from his immediate boss. What will it be today, I wonder?

I've had a little prize, too. Earlier in the year, I did an online course on forensic anthropology via FutureLearn. The focus was a police investigation based on a story created by Val McDermid. (Read more here.) Anyhoo, as well as labelling bones and using facial reconstruction software, one of the options was a competition to design a cover for the short story. I nearly didn't enter because art isn't really my thing, but I was tempted by the prize of a signed copy of Val's latest book. So, with a bit of judicious cutting and pasting (literally scissors and glue), I created something. To my astonishment I was runner-up! My book has arrived and has gone straight to the top of my reading pile. I've just got to finish Monstrous Regiment before the weekend, so I can read the complete Narnia over Christmas and then Splinter the Silence here I come.

'They've found a body.'

Just a quick post for you.

www.valmcdermid.com

Some of you will know that I'm a big fan of FutureLearn's free online courses. Well, I've just had an email about a course starting on 7 September: 'Identifying the Dead: Forensic Science and Human Identification', which promises the chance to uncover a grave, examine remains (virtually, of course!) and reveal the victim’s identity and, better still, it's linked to a new Val McDermid story. Details are here.

You're welcome.

Book 'em, Danno.

Today is the first day of a free online course on 'Forensic Psychology: Witness Investigation' that I'm doing via FutureLearn. This fabulous website offers loads of courses from respected providers on all sorts of subjects. I'm doing the course primarily for fun, because I'm a bit of an armchair detective, but also because I thought it might provide useful background for short stories.

As writers, we are told that we must get our facts right or readers will be quick off the mark to correct us, and nowhere is this idea stronger than in crime writing. Writing Magazine has a regular column called 'Excuse me officer [sic]' through which people can ask a real-life copper questions relating to police procedure. But how much do average readers know? How many inaccuracies would they spot?

My police training (ahem) has been done entirely through TV. I'm pretty sure that if it came to it I could wield an ALS to find fluid-based evidence and decipher a splatter pattern; but after only few hours on my FutureLearn course, I can already see that much of what I thought I knew is wrong. I thought that if the forensic evidence was there, then we had 'im bang to rights, gov'nor, but no: the course material quotes an analysis of cases, such that where wrongful convictions were subsequently proven 23% of them had relied on forensic science. 'It is common for crime dramas to portray forensic science as being completely accurate and reliable, but often the techniques they show owe more to science fiction than they do science fact.' Amazing!

Which leads me to wonder whether writers need to be quite so pernickety in their research. If we're already being led up the garden path, does it really matter if we get the caution wording slightly wrong, or detain someone for questioning in a manner not compliant with PACE? In fiction, isn't the story the most important element?

Wednesday Whimsy

Three completely unrelated items for you today.

• This is what happens if you forget to pick your radishes. Aren't they pretty?

• From the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport comes this gem. People under 20 years old automatically push a doorbell with their thumb, while those over 20 who use their index finger. Why? Because continued use of their mobile’s keypad for texting and online shopping has taught young people to use their thumb far more. So smartphones have already started to affect us physically as well as socially! 

•  I really enjoyed my FutureLearn online course 'Start Writing Fiction'. If you fancy having a go, it is being run again on 27th October. More details here. The eight-week course is free - but prepared to be offered a printed 'Statement of Participation' for £24!

What day is it?

I've been all over the place this week, and I'm blaming the Bank Holiday weekend. I was in on my own on Monday, and it felt like Sunday because I knew my husband was playing golf. I've been out of sync ever since. I didn't go to FitSteps on Tuesday, because I forgot it was Tuesday - even though I'd been out to teach my regular yoga class (luckily). Yesterday it was Friday in my head, and today: well, I don't know what day it is.

I've been really busy all week, but haven't earned much money somehow. It's because I've been putting out feelers and catching up on admin and so forth. I've had three enquiries about new yoga ventures, one of which has already fallen by the wayside (I'm too expensive, apparently) and the other two I'm interviewing for over the next couple of weeks.

On the writing front, I've made good progress with my FutureLearn course, followed up some leads from the creative workshop last Saturday and entered three competitions. Paid work wise, I've done some subbing and a little gentle proofing.

So I'm celebrating having made it to the end of the week without missing anything important - unless, of course, you know different.

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Have you got something to celebrate? 'Celebrate the small things' is a bloghop instigated by VikLit on her blog Scribblings of an Aspiring Author and co-hosted by Diana Wilder, LG Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge, Cyborg Mom (Katie) and CaffeMaggieato @ mscoffeehouse. Details are here.

Lots of studying

'Sometimes I sits and thinks; sometimes I just sits,' demonstrated here by Jeremy Fisher at Tatton Park

I'm now on to week three of my FutureLearn course, and it's proving very interesting. It is aimed at complete beginners, so some of what we've covered is stuff I already knew, but it never hurts to be reminded.

We have looked at some useful ways to get started on a story - for instance, writing 'Emily said that', and then putting down two or three sentences. Take out 'Emily said that', and you have the beginnings of something. Another suggestion is to begin with 'I remember...' and simply see what comes to mind. Final exercise of last week was to put the radio on and take whatever I heard first as the starting point for a 500-word story. I got a snippet from The Archers: look out for a novel about pig-farming from me soon!

The other bit of studying I've done is a day at our local Buddhist centre, where I sat in on a couple of teachings on 'mindfulness for modern life' and took part in some guided meditations. Mindfulness is, of course, very trendy at the moment, but there's so much more to it than simply learning to live in the moment. Fascinating stuff - and lovely food!

Eavesdropping

I have signed up to a free creative writing course through FutureLearn. These courses were pointed out by someone whose blog I follow, but I'm afraid I can't remember which one. Thank you, if it was you. Step forward and take a bow.

I've only just started, but already I've realised that most of inspiration comes from things I've heard - perhaps a cheeky phrase or an odd snippet of conversation. My long-suffering husband is used to sitting with me in pubs and restaurants thinking that I am hanging on his every word and then realising that I have a glazed look in my eyes and that I'm actually listening to the people behind me.

When I was walking through the town centre this lunchtime I saw two missionaries (is that the word?) from the Mormon church being given a talking-to by an elderly gentleman whom I heard say, 'That's all very well, but let me ask you this: do you think that God can do anything?' I wonder what their reply was. They will undoubtedly have had an answer.

Anyway, one of the first tasks on this course was to watch a short video presenting a series of images of people at bus stops, in cafes, talking together, sitting alone, etc, etc, and we then had to jot down our impressions of what we'd seen. I was astounded at the amount of detail that some people picked up on. This is clearly something I need to work on.

I wonder if my dependence on eavesdropping stems from my shortsightedness? Without my glasses, even my fingers are out of focus!