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It’s All a Blur

Published May 4th, 2008 in Books, Fiction, Photography, Reading Challenges and Poppets. 6 Comments

I’m aware that I say this sort of thing all the time, but really where did the first four months of the year go? All of a sudden it is May, and I am all too conscious of the fact that for various reasons I have done very little reading. Not impressed.

On a brighter note, I have been playing with a light tent that Stormfilled sent me, and although the lighting I have available isn’t that great, it works pretty well. Little Pink was my assistant in testing, as you can see. While I had the camera out, I took some photos of new acquisitions, I know how much you all enjoy those!

Our visitors are still with us, hence the lack of reading and productivity of any sort. I should probably learn to concentrate with people around, but I just don’t have the energy. I’ve hit a bit of a low point energywise, and am probably a great deal crankier than I have reason to be, which doesn’t help. Need to get back into good habits again (healthwise and workwise), and that isn’t going to happen with visitors around.

I am currently reading The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint for the Once Upon a Time challenge. I’m not that far in, but I have already fallen for it in a big way. There is something about Charles de Lint’s writing that sends me into a dreamworld. Fantastic. I don’t want to finish it, but then again I do, because I want to talk about it here. Tricksy.

Since I don’t have much to report, or any books to discuss, I will leave you with the photos of my latest arrivals. I’m in love with the Spook Poppets, and the cover of Strange Roads is one of my favourite pieces of Lisa’s art.

More about Strange Roads and The Dangerous Alphabet very soon.

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Drawing a Line

Published April 16th, 2008 in Uncategorized, Books, Art, Gaming, Photography, Reading Challenges, Poppets and Dogs. 13 Comments

Since my last post, I have been trying to get around to posting the reviews that I wanted to do for books read before and since our last move. I’ve now come to the conclusion that the best thing is just to forget it and draw a line under the last month or so and move on with current reading and Once Upon a Time reviews. Blogging should not be a chore, however much my brain wants to make it so.

So, I would just like to say that both Lost Boy, Lost Girl by Peter Straub and From a Buick 8 by Stephen King are awesome. Highly recommended, particularly the former.

I promised photos of my new desk area a while ago, and finally, here they are. The pics aren’t that great as the lighting was a bit off, but you can see the desk, and more importantly you can see the Little Red Poppet Puppet.

The desk came flat packed, so we spent an afternoon struggling with it. Fun!

Above the desk I have some shelves, which are in the next picture. I mostly have my Subterranean Press editions on them. Since I took these pictures there has been an addition to the wall above the desk, a picture which I will show you below.

Then, on the other side of the room are the shelves that provide a home for more books, and a small Poppet army, led by Little Red Poppet Puppet. It really feels like home now all my Poppets are here (and there are more on the way…)

We still have The Boy’s brother and sister-in-law staying with us. In some ways it is really nice, as we haven’t seen much of them over the last couple of years while they were abroad. Having people in the house doesn’t help my productivity though, and I have so much I want/need to get on with. This is one of the reasons I can’t quite seem to get on with blogging. My desk is at the back of the living room, and I can’t concentrate when the TV is constantly on (property shows have presenters with the *most* irritating voices - FACT). I do have the room to myself for the moment though, and am blogging to the soothing tones of Feist.

Last weekend The Boy’s parents and sister visited, and we all went for lunch in the New Forest in one of our favourite little places - Burley. So pretty, with wild ponies and an awesome shop - A Coven of Witches. We last visited there just before Christmas, and spied some gorgeous clocks. This time we came away with one! The clock is by artist Julien Hatswell, and you can see more designs and other works on his website - Baroque Designs. As you can see, the Poppets have already been investigating it.

At the back of the shop I found a couple of other things I couldn’t walk away from. A Paul Kidby print, which now hangs on the wall above my desk, and some cards from Paul Kidby’s new range. I may have squeaked with delight when I saw them. Ahem.

Paul Kidby is without doubt one of my favourite artists, his work never fails to make me smile. I have to grin every time I look up at this print.

They didn’t have one in the shop, but I would love a framed print of “Cabbage Hunter”, the card on the top right in this photo.

Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera with me on this trip, but when we return I will definitely take it and get some decent photos of the area and the ponies.

Today, while I have some time to myself, I will finally be catching up with everyone’s blogs. I’m very keen to see what everyone has been reading for the Once Upon a Time challenge! I haven’t started my OUaT reading yet, but The Onion Girl is waiting on my bedside table!

For those of you that don’t keep up with her blog, Stormfilled is now (almost) out of the clutches of teaching and is embarking on her return to creative life. She has redesigned the Blackthorn Workshops website, and in a recent post revealed the awesome news that anyone buying one of her journals will be in excellent company - Neil Gaiman uses them, not to mention myself and Chris of course!

Before I go to refill my mug of tea and start the trek round everyone’s blogs, some photos of the Taika pup, now affectionately known as “Piggles”. She loves the new house, particularly the back garden which is a bit of a sun trap. You will notice that these photos are marked with a copyright symbol, this is because for some reason people keep stealing my photos…I’m in the process of talking to solicitors and writing a letter regarding the latest one. More on that at a later date.

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Once Upon a Time II

Published April 3rd, 2008 in Books, Fiction, Children's & Young Adult, Photography, Reading Challenges and Poppets. 10 Comments

I’m a little late here, and I’m sad that I missed the start of the second Once Upon a Time challenge, the first of which was by far my favourite reading challenge so far. Still, it isn’t too late to join in, and join in I shall!

The details for the challenge are here. I will be going for Quest the First, and I will mostly be trying to read books from my stacks, rather than choosing books to buy, although I am sure that a couple of new books will sneak in somewhere along the line.

The Once Upon a Time II Review Site is already off to a fine start, and I will be checking in on all the reviews very soon, in the knowledge that like last year, I will leave most of them with a slightly longer wishlist. Last year’s review site is here, and contains links to many wonderful reviews and excellent ideas if you are struggling to compile your challenge list this year.

My list, which I am bound to add to at some point:

M is For Magic by Neil Gaiman - I didn’t get around to reading this last year, although I very much wanted to. Have since been saving it for this challenge.
The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint - am dying to read this one, and again have been saving it for this challenge.
Widdershins by Charles de Lint - it is quite possible that this may be the year I overdose on de Lint.
Wizards: Magical Tales From The Masters of Modern Fantasy - another book I meant to get to much sooner.
The Glass Books of the Dream-Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist - I’m in love with the covers of both editions I own, will I love the story as much? I’ve waited over a year to find out…
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb - this was on my list last year, although I didn’t quite get round to it.

This year’s review posts will definitely come with Poppets, as last year’s did. It wouldn’t work otherwise, would it?

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Catch Up Post

Published March 27th, 2008 in News. 5 Comments

March has been rather a busy month. We moved into our new house at the start of the month (see last post for tale of eviction woe), and so far have settled in well. This house is so much nicer, and in a much better location. In their typical style, BT took a week to get the broadband connection sorted, leaving me without internet access for that week. Stephen King’s From a Buick 8 got me through the internet void, and I will be posting about that later.

We now have The Boy’s brother and sister-in-law staying with us, which is actually quite nice. Taika adores them, and is snuggling up with The Brother as I type.

My new desk arrived yesterday, and I spent most of the day assembling it and then organising my things. Hooray! Will post photos soon. Tomorrow we are going to get some more of our stuff from Mum, not quite in Wales as the four hour trip there is just too much at the moment, we’re meeting her halfway to grab boxes of books and assorted stuff, including my Little Red Poppet puppet which I have missed immensely.

Now that we are settled in a nice house, and I have a decent desk to work on, I’m going to be settling into some serious activity. First things first, I have a few book posts to catch up on. Watch this space!

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What a week…

Published March 1st, 2008 in News. 10 Comments

I’m not quite sure how best to sum up the last week. It started off much like all the other weeks this year. The Boy went to work on Monday morning, and I checked my emails over a cup of tea while the dog continued to snore on the sofa. All was right with our little part of the world, and continued to be until I made the mistake of having a nice relaxing bath (with Dr Hauschka Lavender Bath Oil, just so you know exactly how relaxing it was). When I emerged from the bath, our troubles began…

Having emerged from my lovely lavender scented bubble of wonderfulness, I wandered downstairs to find a hand delivered envelope on the door mat. Imagine the raised eyebrows when I opened it and saw the words “Notice of Eviction - March 10th 2008″. Imagine the swearing, then multiply it by ten.

As it turns out, our landlord has not been paying the mortgage. We have been paying the rent each and every month, but he has not been paying the mortgage. So, the bank are repossessing the house. As tenants, we have very few rights in this situation (particularly as the landlord did not have permission from the mortgage lender to rent), as I have been advised repeatedly over the past week. So, I have spent the week stressing out, on the phone to the bailiffs, letting agents (both our current one to say “WTF?!” and others to enquire about properties), advice lines and family. At one point we thought we might have to go and stay with The Boy’s parents, and The Boy commute for an hour and a half to work… Not good. Thankfully we picked up a local paper on Wednesday and found a private advert for a house in an area we had hoped to move to.

So, as it turns out, being evicted has been a very good thing for us. Funny that. I really didn’t like the house we are in at the moment, and the location isn’t ideal. The house we are moving to next week is a little more expensive, but is ten times nicer, and in a lovely location. Hooray! No more laminate floors, the place is fully carpeted. Hooray! The downside of course, is that we have to move all our stuff again. The Boy is phoning removal firms on Monday morning, I simply cannot face doing it all by ourselves again…

To top the week off, I came down with some sort of sickness bug yesterday. Spending an hour curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor does not make for a good start to the weekend. Am feeling a little better today, but am pretty much exhausted. Will be spending the rest of the day watching films. Last night was spent lying on the sofa watching The X-Files.

As far as reading goes, with all the stress and hassle, I decided to pop my planned reading on hold and grabbed a couple of Mary Higgins-Clark books off the shelf. Decent thrillers, but nothing worth writing about, just comforting junk-food reading. When we’ve moved, I should have some decent reading to post about!

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Overdosing on true crime and The X-Files is probably not very healthy

Published February 25th, 2008 in Books, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Films, TV, Photography and Dogs. 5 Comments

First, some photos I meant to share earlier. These are from last week’s trip to the New Forest with Taika. She loved it, and had lots of fun sniffling for wild ponies, of which she found plenty hiding behind the trees.

Last week was a fairly busy one. Taika and I had a lot of fun with clicker training, she’s eager to learn, and the clicker makes it so easy to give her instant feedback when she gets it right. I have also been busy parceling things up as I sold a batch of “junk” on ebay. More parceling this week as I have listed another batch. I’m being “healthy” and decluttering. Being a complete hoarder, that is so much easier to say than to do.

Apart from Anne of Green Gables, I read two other books last week. The first was Deranged by Harold Schechter, another true crime story (sometimes I have a bit of a binge on true crime as I find it utterly fascinating). There isn’t a great deal to say about it other than the fact that it is the story of Albert Fish, an American serial killer who had some fairly mind boggling issues. I hadn’t really heard of him prior to reading the book, so the story was quite interesting, if presented in a slightly sensational manner. By no means as good as The Lost Boy by Duncan Staff, which the more I think about it, really is one of the best true crime books I have read to date.

The second book was Hoping for Hope by Lucy Clare. I have no idea how this book came to be on my shelf. I have no recollection of buying it, nor any idea why I might have acquired it. After reading Deranged, I was looking for a complete contrast, and Hoping for Hope fit the bill. Not a book I’d normally choose, or one I’d revisit, but it wasn’t bad.

Stardust is out on DVD today here in the UK. Hooray! I’m rather looking forward to watching it again.

In other news, The Boy and I have finished watching Season 5 of The X-Files. Apart from a few decidedly dull episodes, it was rather enjoyable. I remembered less of these from TV than the previous seasons. Last night we watched The X-Files movie, which fits neatly between Season 5 and Season 6. I enjoyed the movie a great deal, no particularly dull moments, and plenty of great Mulder moments. I’m looking forward to Season 6, although I think we will be taking a break to watch something else first. I have ordered The Lost Room and the first season of The 4400 on DVD. I have high expectations of the former, as so many people have recommended it to me. Fingers crossed it won’t disappoint!

This morning I woke up feeling awful, with a nasty sore throat and a general achey feeling. A bit of a rest is in order, so today Taika and I will mostly be snuggling up with a book (or two).

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Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Published February 22nd, 2008 in Books, Fiction and Children's & Young Adult. 5 Comments

It has been a number of years since I last read Anne of Green Gables, or any of the other books in L.M. Montgomery’s series. To be honest, it wasn’t until last year that I thought of them again, despite them being firm, often read favourites during my childhood years. Ever since Carl mentioned Anne of Green Gables last year, I have been almost craving the books, anxious to recapture some of the joy I had when first reading them. So, last week I finally revisited Anne Shirley and her friends in Avonlea. I’m so glad I did.

There is an incredible sense of warmth in the story of Anne, the precocious young redheaded orphan who by a happy mistake comes to live in Avonlea with the Cuthberts, and completely changes their lives. Anne finds the joy in everything (except her red hair and freckles), and with her sense of wonder and her fiery temper, she breathes life into Avonlea, and gets into all sorts of scrapes.

Having returned to Avonlea, I’m now keen to revisit the other books in the series, and I expect I will over the course of this year (although it is quite tempting to just gobble them all up immediately). Thank you Carl, for reminding me how much I loved the story of Anne of Green Gables.

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Lisey’s Story by Stephen King

Published February 18th, 2008 in Books, Fiction and Reading Challenges. 5 Comments

At one point I feared this would be the first Stephen King book I would leave unfinished. I’ve mentioned before that I seemed to keep picking it up at the wrong times, continually trying to read it when I really wasn’t in the right frame of mind. I’m glad that I tried again, the fault wasn’t with the book, it was purely a question of timing.

The story begins when Lisey Landon is sorting through her husband’s papers. It is two years after Scott Landon’s death, and Lisey has yet to properly deal with his papers or her memories and grief. In beginning to deal with his affairs, Lisey finds herself on a powerful journey, following clues left to her by her late husband, clues that will lead her through very dark places.

Lisey’s Story is a love story, a powerful and layered account of love and all that it entails. The characters are well drawn and richly detailed, the places they take us are both vivid in their beauty and painfully nightmarish.

While Lisey’s Story won’t be replacing The Stand as my favourite King novel, it is certainly up there with the best of them. I’ve loved King’s writing ever since I first found a copy of It in the school library, and his ability to thrill, to excite and to tell a bloody good story has never let me down (well, except for Gerald’s Game, but we’ll just sweep that one under the carpet).

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White Horses by Alice Hoffman

Published February 12th, 2008 in Books and Fiction. 9 Comments

White Horses by Alice Hoffman Having recently mooched a copy of White Horses, I decided it would be the ideal choice to follow The Innocent Man - fictional, and lightweight at less than three hundred pages. Having found The Innocent Man quite slow to start, I was feeling a little bogged down, in need of an absorbing and quick read. White Horses fit the bill nicely.

When I mooched White Horses I was actually looking for a copy of Practical Magic. The film adaptation of Practical Magic is one of my favourite feel-good movies, and I’m keen to see if I enjoy the book as much. As there were no copies listed in the UK, I ended up mooching White Horses so I could at least see if I enjoyed Hoffman’s writing, and I’m pleased to say that I did.

In a town in Northern California, a mother tells her frail and dreamy daughter stories that her own father once told her, about magical men called Arias - tall, thin, ebony-eyed loners who ride wild horses westward across high mesas under purple skies filled with shooting stars - and the daughter, named Teresa, comes to believe that one of her brothers, named Silver, is one of these creatures. The story of Teresa and Silver’s passion for eachother is at the heart of this haunting story.

Alice Hoffman is a daring and able writer; she plots the conjunctions of mundane and magical events with such ease that the reader never dares to doubt her word.

~ The New Yorker

Hoffman imbues the commonplace with an air of magic and mystery, her writing lyrical, almost hypnotic as she crafts a powerful tale of obsession. Teresa’s obsession with her brother Silver is built on fairytales, on the fantasies handed down by her mother. As with her mother before her, the fantasy of the Arias prevents Teresa from truly leading her own life. Convinced that her brother is an Aria, and obsessed with this idealised vision of him, Teresa is consumed by the fairytale.

I’ve read a number of negative (and some rather angry) comments about Hoffman’s choice to write about the subject of incest. I find it interesting that some people have said that this should have been made clear from the beginning of the book, that they wouldn’t have wasted their time reading it if they had known. Certainly it is a somewhat uncomfortable subject, but it doesn’t feel forced, or laboured in this story, it is’t gratuitous. It just is. Sometimes stories need to challenge our concepts of the world, both as readers and writers. What do we learn if we only explore the light, open areas, and never wander into the shadows or explore the unfamiliar?

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The Innocent Man by John Grisham

Published February 10th, 2008 in Books, Non-Fiction, Photography and Dogs. 3 Comments

In his first non-fiction book, John Grisham explores the shocking story of Ron Williamson, a man who fell prey to the failings of a small town justice system and found himself on Death Row. Ron Williamson’s story is a tragic and deeply upsetting catalogue of incompetency, deceit and manipulation.

Initially I found The Innocent Man fairly slow going. Grisham has written a detailed account, and there are a number of other people’s stories related Ron Williamson’s case, so being unfamiliar with the story, there was a lot to take in. After the first five chapters or so, I found the book picked up, and I was invested in following Ron’s journey to justice.

In an interview on the Amazon website, Grisham said that he hopes his readers will take from this book “a better understanding of how innocent people can be convicted, and a greater concern for the need to reimburse and rehabilitate innocent men after they have been released”. Ron Williamson’s story certainly demonstrates this need; Grisham shows us a man completely broken by his ordeal, chewed up and spat out by the system.

Prior to The Innocent Man, it had been quite a while since I read anything by John Grisham. In my teenage years I was quite fond of his work, and the well loved and worn copies of his early books still grace my shelves. When I happened to see The Innocent Man, I was intrigued to find out how successful Grisham’s foray into the world of non-fiction had been. The answer is that this could be one of Grisham’s legal thrillers, except that none of them are as incredible, or as maddening. The truth really is stranger than fiction.

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