Month: September 2007

Categories
Joshua Files writing

Google Books – How cool is this…?

Putting together a presentation for the Scholastic sales reps I am meeting tomorrow, I stumbled across the most fabulously useful thing – Google Book Search.

Google, as you may know if you’re an online information nerd like me (hey I did work in the area for five years so I’m allowed…), are planning to digitize all the books in the world. Well, as many as they can get their mitts on. There was a hoo-hah about this for a while. Quelle horreur, authors and publishers all going to lose out; that sort of thing.

Well today I had planned to do the following – for just one of my presentation slides:

1. Go downstairs and find my copy of ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan’ by the original Mayanist, John Lloyd Stephens.
2. Find the page where he mentions the rumours of a ‘living city’ of the Maya
3. Go down to our garden office and scan the page.
4. Manipulate the image file on my computer at my desk, back in the house.
5. Pop it into the Powerpoint slide.

Not so difficult, aye, but remember I actually own this book.

But with Google Books, here’s how that scenario played out:

1. Search on Google, find the book.
2. Search for the string ‘living city’ – find the right page.
3. Use the inbuilt screenshot clipping tool to clip an image of the page, the bit where he mentions the mysterious city
4. Pop it into the Powerpoint slide.

5 mins in total.

to exercise any control over them But the thing that roused us was the assertion by the padre that four days on the road to Mexico on the other side of the great sierra was a living city large and populous occupied by Indians precisely in the same state as before the discovery of America He had heard of it many years before at the village of Chajul and was told by the villagers that from the topmost ridge of the sierra this city was distinctly visible He was then young and with
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan By John Lloyd Stephens
Now is that not awesome?

(If you read ‘Invisible City’ you’ll find that this section of the ‘Incidents of Travel’ book is referenced. I’m not saying why…that’s all a bit of a mystery, to be unraveled in later books…)

SPOILER ALERT IN THE COMMENTS!

I have one lovely comment from a guy who read the book for the waterstones competition, but you should be warned that there are spoilers for INVISIBLE CITY therein…

SPOILER AHOY!

Categories
cuba ice shock mexico nostalgia salsa videos

Nostalgia for…Beny More

I wasn’t alive in the days of Beny More (pronounced More-ray), the Cuban singer and band leader who went to live in Mexico and became a massive influence on all the Cuban salsa bands.

So why do I get these gorgeous pangs of nostalgia when I listen to Beny More? Why does it make me think of a Cuba and a Mexico I never even knew?

My theory is that as a tiny child I was exposed to this music. I do know that after my mother left my father, I spend a great deal of time with my two grandmothers. One, Abuelita Josefina (known to her old friends as ‘Pepa’) had a wonderful memory for lyrics and knew many of the songs of Beny More. Beny More often appeared in popular Mexican films, which went through a golden age in the 40s and 50s.

So maybe that’s it; maybe I was sat for hours in front of the TV while my grandmother knitted (she was mad for knitting). Maybe that’s where I acquired this overwhelming craving for gorgeous night clubs where Cuban bands play for beautiful people, sipping daiquiris between dancing the son, mambo and cha-cha-cha.

This Cuba does not exist anymore – I’ve been to look for it. It’s all timba and reggaeton now. That’s great, but, ah nostalgia. I once spent a whole afternoon lying next to a pool in Santiago de Cuba, listening to the piped music of Beny More. That’s as close as I got.

Categories
getting published Joshua Files writing

Ah, the things I wish I could tell you…

Well blog readers, I’ve had a fun few days. I wish I could tell you everything but because we want to keep some things as a cool surprise I can’t.

I popped by the Scholastic offices on Friday to meet up before going to a fancy dinner-n-awards evening with the publishers and some of their guests. Spying some mock-ups of “Invisible City” sitting on a pile of new books, I snapped some photos with my BlackBerry. It’s not the final version yet but it was soooooo cool to see it. This book package truly is totally innovative! And splashproof too – perfect for taking the book down to the beach or pool.

But I don’t think I’m allowed to post these photos on my blog, sorry…

I was an hour late to another meeting today, because of what the bus driver from Oxford referred to as an ‘RTA’. What’s wrong with the word ‘accident’? Why must we always be decoding TLAs? (three letter acronyms) But my agent coped without me and successfully pitched our proposal to the publishers, leaving me to walk in on the good atmosphere.

The way “The Joshua Files” will be promoted online should now be pretty innovative too. Something new for the world of books, borrowing from something they use to promote some…

But soft! Ere I say too much…

Categories
raves

Okay now. How many times have you seen High School Musical 2?

Not High School Musical; High School Musical 2. It premiered yesterday on Disney Channel.

On it’s third viewing in our household now. There can be no escape.

Sharpay and Ryan and sooo cool and FUNNY. They are the Team Rocket of High School Musical.

Troy and Gabriela, however, are just so saccharine sweet.
By tomorrow I’ll be expected to harmonise on the best numbers so that my daughter can feel suitably fabulous when she sings along.

If you don’t watch HSM then clearly, you have a deficit in the tween/teen girls in your household. Them as don’t, like me, don’t get much choice in this. High School Musical rules!

Categories
jaguar's realm other books writing

Day in the Life of a Writer Close To Finishing A First Draft

1. Woken up wayyyy too early by BlackBerry flashing with the message “Write 1000 words of Jaguar – NOW!” Lie awake for ages, unable to stir from bed.

2. Oldest daughter invades to fleece me of what little shrapnel I have. “I haven’t got my PIN yet!” is the usual excuse for the ongoing cash drain. Youngest daughter is sleepy and wants cuddles. How can I resist? Husband prepares packed lunch and breakfast for little ‘un, then takes her to school, all to leave me free to write. But I just stare in fascination at FaceBook. There’s a MyFlickr app! Cool; install it. Apparently apps could be the death of Facebook – people are getting cross with all the zombies and jedi vs sith silliness. I say: if you don’t want the app, Dile que no.

3. Check out all my friends blogs and post comments. Email a dear friend who’s back in touch via LinkedIn. Check my favourite writer’s websites. Read short stories on fiction website. Finally shower, dress and look at the chunk of writing I have to do today. It’s a foot chase through Old Havana. Rooftops will feature, because hey, it’s Havana! So will the Malecon, because, well, IT’S HAVANA.

4. Read some of Alejo Carpentier’s ‘The Chase’ to get in the mood. Browse my photos from Cuba, to get in the mood. (There aren’t enough of rooftops. I looked down over rootops every day in Havana – what was wrong with me – why didn’t I take more of rooftops?) Watch the rooftop party scene from Habana Blues, to get in the mood.

5. Finally in the mood, write the Old Havana chase scene; 800 words. That’ll do – half a chapter and I left at a good place – the rooftop chase begins.

6. Pick up littlest daughter from school, acquire 3-year old neighbour boy on the way. Pick apples from our tree. Bake a pie together. Make pesto for tea. Experiment with a new daiquiri that uses fresh pink grapefruit juice and just a hint of coriander. (gently, gently bruise about five coriander leaves in the glass part of a shaker, add 1/2 shot freshly squeezed lime juice, 1/2 shot of gomme, 1 shot freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice, 2 shots light rum, shake in Boston shaker with plenty ice, fine strain into a chilled martini glass.)

7. Discuss my teenager’s complex love life with her and reluctantly help her to plan a strategy with latest love interest. (It was that or talk all night long.)

8. Laundry. Who doesn’t love laundry? NOT! I read in some newspaper article that Mrs Thatcher admitted that getting the fluff out of the dryer was one of the small pleasures of her life. I try it. It’s surprisingly satisfying – comes off in three nice clean layers.

7. Eat pie whilst reading today’s 800 words. Polish. Write this blog entry.

5000 words to go, by my estimate, until I finish the first draft of ‘Jaguar’s Realm’. I planned this ending ONE YEAR ago, but last week I thought of a major tweak that has allowed me to keep the pace and drama going strong all the way through Act 3. At least that’s the plan, and that’s why I plan. Things can only get better from a strong plan.

Writing the first draft, truly, is so much fun. I even enjoyed first drafts when I had no agent and no publisher. The story is all yours then and you’re the first one to read it.

And look…only 8pm. Still time to go salsa dancing at Freuds…

But I’m too tired.