First Lines

Richard Wiseman ran a contest over on Twitter a little while ago, looking for an opening line to a novel. As I’m sure you all know, many authors look to create a ‘hook’ in that opener – something to entice the bookshop browser to want to buy the book to be able to read on. Not always as easy as it sounds, mind you, but great fun!

Anyway, here was my attempt:

It was only after losing my legs I realised how much I loved shoes.

Random, I know, but those fourteen words create a whole host of questions about the novel. And would hopefully get someone interested. But is an opening sentence really that important? I guess for the established author, no. I can’t remember the last time I bought a book on the strength of the opening line, paragraph or even page (the flap copy, maybe). But to get the attention of an agent or publisher, then yes, it is important.

J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger, American author of 60-million-selling cult teen novel, The Catcher in the Rye, died today, aged 91.

Salinger was a famous recluse whose last published work was released in 1965. Speculation in subsequent years of over a dozen unpublished manuscripts hidden away in his safe may now be proven once and for all.

Chilly

Boy, it’s cold here in the UK.

Frozen Britain

Seasonal apostrophe errors

Bill Stong of Phoenix Hall Writers, has sent me a couple of apostrophe violation photos from across the pond:

Did you spot both in the second photo?

Thanks, Bill, and a Happy New Year.

Happy New Year!

Just wishing everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

And my aim is for it to be a productive one, too! I’ve spent many an hour over the last week clearing my study (a.k.a. The Writing Room) and desk, so here goes!

Down Under – (late) final installment

We finished our trip ‘down under’ with two days in Sydney, Australia. Although I’m not a city person, I do love Sydney – it’s one of the most beautiful citys in the world, and the view of the harbour you get from the air when coming into land is spectacular:

Sydney Harbour

We stayed in the city and did all the touristy bits like Darling Harbour, Mrs Macquarie’s chair, catching a ferry from Circular Quay and the Sydney Aquarium. A great end to a fantastic six-week trip.

Down under – part 8

We are spending our last three nights in NZ on Waiheke Island, across the bay from Auckland, staying with friends – Bill and Julia Vickery, and their three kids, Keira, India and Lola – although unfortunately we won’t see Bill as he is stuck at work in Australia this week and next.

The Lonely Planet describes Waiheke as “93 sq km of island bliss only a 35-minute ferry ride from the CBD. Once they could hardly give land away here; nowadays multimillionaires rub shoulders with the old-time hippies and bohemian artists who gave the island its green repute. Auckland office workers fantasise about swapping the daily motorway crawl for a watery commute and a warm, dry microclimate.“

Waiheke

The Vickerys live on the top of a mountain and have the best view from their house and decking that I have ever seen (and likely will ever see). When I’m back home and have downloaded the camera, I’ll image-stitch the amazing panoramic view and post it here.

As previously posted, I spent my birthday kayaking at Matiatia (where Matthew and Daniel paddled fantastically in their own kayaks, and we saw a little blue penguin swimming in the sea) and swimming on Onetangi Beach.

Onetangi Beach

Kayaking was such fun, we did the same on the Thursday (our last full day in NZ), this time out in doubles so that we could venture further around the coast – although the sea was a little choppier, so we didn’t venture too far. Again no dolphins or killer whales, only blue penguins.

We finished our last evening in NZ with a great BBQ on the beach, with one of the free BBQs that are available to use in public places all over NZ (and Oz), followed by a swim in the sea (at 7.30pm) for the kids.

Friday morning we’ll be saying goodbye to the Vickerys and catching the ferry back to Auckland and a flight to Sydney, where we’ll be spending two days before flying home on Sunday. I may not get a chance to update the blog before then, but will do so when I get home.

Update: here’s that panoramic picture of the view of Waiheke Island from the Vickery’s house I promised:

Waiheke

Down under – part 7

After having done the two main things we had wanted to do on the Coromandel, we decided to stay in one place for the next four nights and use that as our base to explore the rest. That place was Whitianga, pronounced by the locals as ‘Fiddyanga’.

Whitianaga Harbour

Whitianga is the main settlement of Mercury Bay, on the eastern side of the Coromandel. It has a nice beach (Buffalo Beach), and a busy little harbour and marina. It also has a canal development, with houses being located along canals allowing marine access from the estuary.

Whitianga waterways

The night of Friday 4th December was horrendous.  A severe weather warning had been issued – and it rained big time! We were woken regularly by not only the winds and rain, but also a siren going off regularly. Luckly I had read in Waihi that a tsunami alarm is a constant pitch, so we were (fairly) certain it wasn’t that! By Saturday, most of it had blown over, although there was a lot of localised flooding – including Hot Water Beach, where we had been on Thursday, being completely cut-off for the day.

As the weather was still a little damp (but brightening), we decided to drive the ‘famous’ 309 road (not so famous that I’d heard of it). The 309 road is a narrow winding gravel road between Whitianga and Coromandel Town. It is very scenic; it follows the Mahakirau stream up from State Highway 25, going through farmland, scrub, and native bush. Once over the summit (306 metres) it meanders down the Waiau Valley, through more bush and pine forest.

Along the way we stopped at Waiau Falls. It is a beautiful bush glade where the Waiau crashes over a rock face, and into a pool below. Following the storm, we decided the water was a little too murky for a swim, though!

Waiau Falls

Towards the end of the 309, we visited Waiau Waterworks. This was fantastic fun (for both the kids and adults). The Waterworks describes itself as “A totally unique experience where you can delight in playing with our interactive contraptions, mostly made from commonplace bits and pieces. Try pumping water by bike power, listen to a water powered music box, and figure out how things like the giant water-powered clock works!” There was also a big adventure playground (with huge flying-fox – that’s zip-wire to you and me), flying bicycles, adult sized hamster wheel, and loads more (mainly water based).

The following day we headed back to Coromandel Town, with a trip planned on the Driving Creek Railway. The railway was initially set up in 1975 by owner and potter, Barry Brickell, on his 22 hectare property to transport clay and wood fuel to his kiln. Built as a narrow gauge (15-inch) bush/mountain railway, it was slowly expanded over the next 25 years to become one of the very few railway lines in New Zealand to completely designed from the ground up in recent years. The line required serious civil engineering works due to the natural terrain that the train operates in. Some of the more significant engineering works include a double-deck rail bridge, five major viaducts and inclines as steep as 1 in 14. At the top of the line is a building, known as the Eye Full Tower and around the building itself, native Kauri are being planted to replace trees removed by land clearing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The view from the tower was fab, and included Waiheke Island, across the bay, where we would be visiting in a few days.

Driving Creek Railway

On Monday, we took a boat trip down the coast on the Cave Cruzer. This included visiting Shakespeare’s Cliff, Lonely Bay, Cook’s Blowhole, Cathedral Cove & Islands, Orua Cave, the Marine Reserve and Gemstone Bay, where we did a little snorkelling (and I say little, as the sea was bloomin’ cold!). Unfortunately we didn’t see any dolphins or killer whales (orcas), but we did see blue penguins in the wild – the previous week there had been a pod of killer whales swimming up the Estuary at Whitianga, chasing stingrays!

On Tuesday, we left Whitianga and the Coromandel, and headed for Waiheke Island, just off the coast of Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf.

We interrupt this transmission…

…to bring you an out-of-synch update.

Spent today (my birthday) with the family kayaking and swimming on Onetangi beach on the fabulous Waiheke Island, just across the bay from Auckland.

Waiheke Island

Down under – part 6

Mt. Maunganui (or “the Mount”, as it’s known locally) is a very picturesque beach front destination, located on a peninsula to the north of the neighbouring city Tauranga. The Mount itself is an extinct volcano cone which rises above the town. We didn’t climb it, as its top was shrouded in cloud on the day we may have done it.

From the Mount we headed for Waihi Beach, which seems unsure of whether it is at the top of the Bay of Plenty, or the bottom of the Coromandel (guides show it as one or the other). Basically it’s both. We stayed for a few days in Bowentown, enjoying the beach.

Bowentown

Waihi Beach itself is 12km from Waihi, the site of a huge open-cast gold mine, after gold-bearing quartz was discovered in 1878. Waihi still produces more gold than anywhere else in New Zealand, but most of the workings are underground now. Nevertheless, the pit of the town’s Martha Mine itself is huge – when you stand as close as the safety fences allow you to get to the edge, you still cannot see the bottom.

Martha Mine

From Waihi, we started to head up into the Coromandel – the peninsula just east of Auckland and a beautiful region of NZ. Our first destination was Hot Water Beach. Now the name doesn’t refer to the sea, which is cold (in fact welcomingly cold, at times), but the volcanic underground springs that run under the sand. We (along with about 60 others) dug holes in the sand which filled with hot water. Our first hole was too hot in fact, and after scalding our feet and cooling them off in the (welcoming!) sea, we dug another further along. Once dug, we had our own naturally heated hot tub!

After a couple of hours of burning our behinds, we headed for Cathedral Cove. It’s a 40 minute hike across cliff and bush paths to reach one of NZ’s most famous coves, used for the opening Narnia scenes in Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Cathedral Cove

The walk was well worth it, as the cove is beautiful. It was well timed too, as our walk back saw the start of a severe three-day storm that was about to hit Auckland and the Coromandel.

Down under – part 5

After the fun of the Huka Falls Jetboat, we headed for Rotorua, where we were staying for a couple of nights. The whole Taupo / Rotorua region of New Zealnd’s north island is a raised platform of volcanic activity. Lake Taupo (NZ’s largest lake) is actually a volcanic crater formed some 26,500 years ago. But it is Rotorua that is best known for its volcanic activity – in the form of geysers, bubbling mud pools and steaming lakes and rivers. The downside of this is the smell of sulphur. Luckily our accomodation was relatively free of that – except when it rained. I’n not sure if its the cloud keeping everything down, or the rain stirring everything up (or perhaps even a combination), but one evening when it did rain, the smell was pretty bad (so said Sue – I took her word for it and didn’t go out to check).

We saw plenty of steaming pools (both water and mud), but the highlight was a swim in Kerosene Creek (great name, I know), where the water was approaching 40 degrees C and there was a small waterfall to swim under. I think I’ll now restrict my river swimming to those rivers that are hotter than my shower! The only downside was that all our swimming kit (along with all 0f us) had a distinct smell of sulphur about us – nice!

Unfortunately we had left the really good weather in Hawkes Bay (although Taupo was nice) - the damp weather that started in Rotorua followed us up to the Bay of Plenty, where we were staying at Mt. Maunganui.

Mt. Maunganui

Down under – part 4

We only stayed a day (and night – or actually a night and day) in Wellington, and spent most of that time at the national museum, Te Papa. The kids enjoyed the earthquake room (similar to that in the Natural History Museum, London), along with looking at the world’s only Colossal Squid exhibit.

We left Wellington, and undertook our last (relatively) long drive of our trip, up to Hawkes Bay, where we were staying in Napier. The kids loved it here. Fantastic motel with outdoor pool and a pool and table tennis tabole was what sold it to them, I think. Hawkes Bay is beautiful, and seems to have its own (hot) micro-climate. Certainly as we approached, the sun came out and it stayed that way until we left (nights excepted, of course). Oh, and the bonus was that in the unit next to us was a group of trainee bakers on a fornight’s course at the local bakery (one fo the best in NZ, apparently), and therefore we were treated on arrival with a plate of fresh cream cakes, with ciabbatta and other breads during the following days. Heaven!

The only downside of Napier (which is a beautiful Art Deco city) was the lack of sandy beaches – the ones we saw were all gravel. I’m sure there are plenty in Hawkes Bay, but we didn’t stumble across them – no that we were looking too hard.

After three nights in Napier we said goodbye to the pool and headed for Taupo. Our original plan was to stay in Taupo overnight, but everywhere was booked solid, and after further enquiry, we found that our visit coincided with an annual 11,000 cycle race around Lake Taupo. The was due to take place the day after our visit, so we didn’t see any of it, but it did mean a slight change to our plans. What we did do at Taupo was the Huka Falls jet boat!

Not wet yet...

...although that's changing!

Huka Falls Jet Boat

This was absolutely awesome (we’re in the back row, by the way). So much so that we just had to go on it again! The boat is incredibly fast, and does (amongst other things) 360 degree turns on the spot. The driver also does his best to make it look as if you’re going to crash into every rock and tree that juts out of the river. He cuts it so fine that I’m sure there it’s only a matter of time before there is an accident!

More to follow…

Down under – part 3

We left Queenstown and stayed overnight in Cardrona, between Queenstown and Wanaka. The following morning saw a short drive to Lake Wanaka followed by a trip to Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World. Not a huge place, but pretty interesting – particularly the Ames Forced Perspective Room – apparrently the technique of this illusion was used in The Lord of the Rings film to create tall people and little people. And a lesson learned from the maze – make sure everyone has been to the loo before you enter!

From here we drove up the west coast of the south island to Fox Glacier – the name of the glacier and nearby town. From this visit, I get the impression that the west coast of NZ’s south island is the wettest – it certainly was whilst we were there. Too wet for hiking up to the glacier anyway. Well, that’s the excuse we used to book a short, but exciting helicopter ride over Fox Glacier - fantastic!

Fox Glacier

From Fox Glacier we drove to Greymouth, but due to the bad weather, instead of doing the Tranz-Alpine railway (one of the world’s most picturesque rail journeys) or staying in Greymouth, we decided to carry on all the way to Nelson – 300miles that day in total. Not a huge amount on UK roads, but on NZ’s winding coastal and mountain roads, that was a bit of a challenge!

Our arrival in Nelson saw an improvement in the weather, and we visited somewhere where we had holidayed a number of years ago – Kaiteriteri. Beautiful beaches and missed opportunity – we had briefly toyed with buying an investment property their 10 years ago, but decided the other side of the workl was a little impractical. Now it’s dubbed as millionaires’ paradise, as that’s what has happened to property prices there! Oh well.

Whilst at Kaiteriteri we took a boat trip around the Abel Tasman – a beautiful stretch of the top of NZ’s south island – the highlight of which was all the seals lounging in the sun on a small island.

Split Apple Rock - Abel Tasman

After a few days in Nelson, we headed for Picton and the Interislander Ferry. After 2,000km of driving, we were ready to move our journey from the south to the north island.

Down under – part 2

After leaving Australia, we arrived in Christchurch, on New Zealand’s south island, on Saturday, 14th November. It was a late night arrival, so we checked straight into our airport hotel, which was right next door to NZ’s Antarctic Centre, where we spent Sunday morning. The kids loved the Hagglund ride, but twice was enough for me!

Sunday afternoon saw us drive to Timaru, on the east coast, for an overnight stop. On Monday we headed for Gore, stopping on the way at the Moeraki Boulders, and the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, where we got up close to some pretty big seals, lazing on the beach (and one in the middle of some sand dunes that we weren’t expecting!).

Moeraki Boulders

One interesting road sign and farmer’s fence later, we arrived in Gore, to stay with the Turners (Jean, Matthew, Joshua and Charlotte) for a few days. The weather was distinctly chillier in Gore (16 degrees – brrr!), one of the reasons that the Turners are moving to New Plymouth on the north island in the new year. It was great to see them all, even though it was for only a short time. Jean has some photos on her Facebook page of me and Sue showing our athletic prowess at the local park (not!), that I’ll copy over some time.  Even though they’ve only been living in NZ for a year, Joshua and Charlotte have picked up a real NZ twang! I think it’ll be a bit of shock for their grandmothers when they arrive in a few weeks.

After leaving the Turners we headed up to Queenstown, where the highlight of the day was the gondola ride up the mountain, followed by the Luge:

Who's winning?

C'mon Mum - catch up!

Eat my dust!

For those who don’t know, Queenstown is the ‘adrenalin capital’ of NZ, although the cable car/gondola and luge was about as daring as we got. We watched a couple of people bungy jump, but weren’t particularly tempted! Lots of people were parascending off the mountain, and the weather was great for all that stuff – beautifully sunny. It wasn’t to last though!

More to follow…

Down Under – Part 1

Arrived in Perth (the most remote city in the world) on Thursday 5th November to 30 degree + heat and a ten-year-old suffering from sever jet-lag. The kids were too excited to sleep on the Tuesday evening before we flew, so a late night and early morning, coupled with a 17-hour flight was a bit much for Matthew. Instead of meeting our friends straight away, we headed for the nearest motel and crashed for the rest of the day.

Friday saw us head to Northam, about an hour and a half out of Perth, and meet up with Lee and Sheryl and their two boys, Jack and Alex, who moved from Rothwell to Oz a couple of years ago. They have just finished building their new house, and it’s fantastic. Shame on them for not having the pool dug out in time for our arrival, though!

We only had  a short (but very enjoyable) time with the Matthies, in which we saw our first kangaroos and emu, just around the corner from their house. On Saturday afternoon we had a great afternoon in King’s Park,  Perth, where we got our first taste of communal barbies (BBQ, not dolls!). Gas BBQs are just set up around the park for everyone to use – fantastic (just discovered this is common throughout Australia and NZ).

On Sunday we said goodbye to the Matthies and flew to Brisbane – 3,500km on the other side of Australia – where we stayed the night on the 11th floor of an appartment block overlooking the city and river – fantastic views! On Monday we headed for the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and met up with an old Aussie pal of Sue’s, Jeff Roots. Jeff’s a great guy and we had a really enjoyable day at the Sanctuary, where Matthew and Daniel both got to hold a koala, as well as touch a huge python and stroke a baby crocodile (a salty, too!). We headed back to Jeff’s for a bight to eat and he took us to a neighbour who looks after rescued animals, so the boys got to hold baby possums, and hand-feed a baby owl.

We left Jeff and headed down the coast to Darryl and Sarah Cobb’s house. Sue met Darryl on Operation Raleigh when she was 18, and we first stayed with them in about 1990. They live just on the Queensland / New South Wales border, at the top of a mountain with bout 12-acres of rain forest for a back garden. ‘I’m a Celebrity…’ is filmed just across the alley from them, so you’ll have some idea of what their garden looks like. The Cobbs (as always) were very welcoming, and we had a great time with them. Their house is about half-an-hour from Currumbin beach, just south of Surfers’ Paradise, and in the five days we spent with them we hit the beach a number of times, ate at the great Currumbin Surf Club (built out with the sea on three sides), ate at Surfers’ revolving restaurant (Daniel just had to sit on the window-cill and see how long it took to revolve around to us!), helped Darryl build a fire pit, on which we subsequently toasted marshmallows and cooked damper (seems to be a food theme going on here).

On Friday we all went to Seaworld, where the boys both got involved in dolphin training – Daniel in a 1-on-1 situation, and Matthew in a group of 3. They both got to stroke the dolphin’s tummy, hold its fins and get it to do tricks, such a jumps and flips, and chattering.

Wildlife spotting in the Cobb’s back garden was great – beautifile King Parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets were regular visitors, and they have some resident possums who like to scrap every night! The boys loved the Christmas beetles (shiny gold coloured), but were grossed out when the the two dalmatians kept eating them!

Saturday 12th November saw us say goodbye to Darryl and Sarah and head back to Brisbane to catch a flight to Christchurch, New Zealand (although we did have a last minute reunion with Sarah, who chased us with the bag we had left at their house! Thanks Sarah!).

More to follow…

*** Update ***

How could I forget to mention the 6-foot python we saw on the road on the way back to Darryl & Sarah’s one night! And when I say on the road, I mean on the road – it was stretched from the white line in the middle to the far side. Wow!

The other side of the world…

…is where I’m at.

Flew last Wednesday from London to Perth, Australia, via Singapore. Then Sunday from Perth to Brisbane. And on Saturday we’ll fly from Brisbane to New Zealand, where we’ll have four weeks of touring (by car – no more flights, thank the Lord).

The plan is to have a plotted novel when I finish, but with the joys of jet lag, that’s on the back burner for now (much easier to listen to Mark Billingham on audio at 3.00am than scribble – and with headphones I don’t disturb anyone either).

Punctuation

It’s America’s National Punctuation Day!

And to celebrate, my first sentence used two apostrophes, one to indicate omission and one to indicate possession, along with an exclamation mark, purely to highlight my surpise of anyone recognising the importance of punctuation. Perhaps the nadir of civilisation has already been reached and we’re on the way up!

Books for Writers

Books I’d recommend for writers:

The Elements of Style - Strunk & White

The smallest (and best) book covering the elementary rules of vocabulary usage and principles of composition you’ll ever need.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (or how to edit yourself into print) - Rennie Browne & Dave King

A really useful book by two very resepected American Editors.

On Writing – Stephen King

Half memoir, half writer’s manual, all entertainment.

Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook

The industry bible to the published and unpublished alike.

Now I have a number of other books on my shelves that I don’t have the same enthusiasm for, so I’m not going to promote them here. One book I have been recommended to read time and again is aimed for screenplay writers, but I am told is of equal use to the novelist. That’s Story, by Robert McKee.

Any other suggestions?

Update 20th September: Darksculptures has added two to the list:

Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott

Zen in the Art of Writing - Ray Bradbury

A Telling Story

There are many people who are fond of tall stories, who cannot resist embellishing tales to just beyond credibility. You can usually spot them a mile off – their enthusiasm often gives them away. This is fine when it comes to writing, I guess, but can be a little wearing in real life.

Then there is a very small number of people who are the opposite. They tell tales of exciting exploits in modest tones, underplaying the action in such a way that you know the truth is even more fantastical than the stories being unfolded before you.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with someone from the latter group last night, and what an interesting night it turned out to be!

Apostrophe Fail