Month: September 2007

Categories
writing

Laying Down Some Intertextual Licks

Oh, but I’m a big old sucker for intertextuality. Which probably shows that deep down I’m a bit of a postmodern poseur.

I’ve mentioned this to my agent a few times – he seems to think it’s quite charming that I’ve buried references to the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino, Borges and Haruki Murakami in my children’s adventure stories. Some of it happened quite unconsciously – I wrote the first draft so quickly that apart from the plot, which I constructed carefully, much of the writing came straight out of my subconscious without much modification. Some of it, however, is there quite intentionally, even structurally. I won’t say what.

Months later I looked back and thought – crumbs, what have I done? I’ve given away A LOT of personal information here – that anyone who knows me well will be able to deconstruct. (N.B. I removed quite a bit of this in the editing process). And what the heck is the point of all this intertextuality?

Why do we do this? My agent thinks it’s like a secret message to readers in the know.

Which begs the question – who do we write for?

A friend of mine knows the children’s author Philip Pullman, whose ‘His Dark Materials’ books are (in my opinion) the best children’s books ever written, along with The Chronicles of Narnia and the William books. Pullman allegedly told my friend once that in ‘His Dark Materials’ he’d written a book for adults that people as young as eleven also could read.

I guess I’ve written a book for teenagers that I hope they’ll re-read as adults and go ah…now I see where you got that. My books aren’t remotely similar to those written by my literary heroes, so it’s possibly too much to hope the people who read my books will go on to read Gabo, Calvino, Murakami and Borges.

But if they did, it would be so, so, so cool.

Oh, I’ve started keeping score of people I’ve persuaded (mainly by badgering) to start reading Murakami and now they really like him too:

In chronological order: David (my husband), Nathan (close friend), Steve (a writer friend), Martin (close friend), Rich (writer friend), Peter (agent). Hmm, all blokes. I have tried to persuade a few women friends but they haven’t gone for him in quite the same way.

I have one Murakami book left to read – After Dark. I am saving it up as a treat when I finish the current manuscript. And then it’s back to re-reading him, scouring the Web for rare short stories of his and generally being a sad fangirl.

Categories
jaguar's realm other books writing

Project Jaguar – Winding Up A First Draft

A few items I keep on my desk to inspire me: a little statue of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, some Cuban moneda nacional (local money; I’m not supposed to have it) and on the right, thirty crisp Cuban Convertible Pesos (tourist money; I’m not supposed to take it out of the country) – my cab fare from Jose Marti airport to Old Havana, for next time I go, to save queuing at the money exchange.

I’m about 8,000 words away from finishing the first draft of Project Jaguar. And I don’t revise much until The Editor has a say, so for me a first draft – with a polish – is what I submit.
Which means that I am close to handing over to my agent a project that I’ve been working on, on-and-off, for a little over a year. It’s the longest I’ve taken so far to complete a first draft. And all those feelings I get at this stage are kicking in.
Firstly there’s the desire to finish and have done. That can get overshadowed with a premonition of loss. It’s fun to inhabit an imaginary world. The author gets to experience that more intensely than any reader and for longer. When the first draft is finished, the world ceases to be your own. Other people get a say. That’s exciting too, sharing it. It’s different though.
But then again, the desire to finish, already!
Oh and then there’s the post-ms finishing elation (“It’s the best thing I’ve ever written”), shortly followed by the depression; “Hang on…actually it’s not, is it? Or is it? I can’t tell. Help!”
From here until the end I resent every interruption. I’d happily shut myself up now in my bedroom until it’s done. That can’t happen, of course. Life continues to make its demands. I have to take my daughter swimming in about a hour. And I should probably have something for lunch other than M&S Extremely Chocolatey Caramels.
This manuscript is unsold, btw. Very exciting. Will there be any takers? It’s like last year all over again.
Categories
getting published writing

Introspective, moi?

I don’t usually turn to introspection on this blog because well, basically, it’s not very fun is it? It gets awfully close to that writer’s angst I try to avoid.

But today, just now in fact I had a moment of clarity in which I realised that being a published author is going to make me not more interesting as my teenage daughter imagines, but less.

(My teenage daughter observed recently, “I’m looking forward to your book being published. Then maybe your life will finally become interesting. And you’ll have things to tell me. Instead of it being the other way round.”)

I read an article about something, can’t remember what, and was just starting to form a theory, synthesize a thought, who knows it might even have been interesting…when a very strict part of my brain cut in and said NO.

NO. You can’t think about that. It might be interesting but NO. It’s not relevant to the books you write. It’s potentially too interesting to think about as a leisure activity. It’s not comforting enough to justify as a daydream. So: simply NO.

That strict part of my brain has a propensity to let me think all I like about the stuff that it deems relevant to my job and hardly at all about anything else. There were times when I was a scientist that I literally turned up at parties unable to speak. I forgot how to make small talk. I didn’t want to talk about anything but molecular biology, and no-one at the party wanted to hear about that so…I said nothing.

So I can imagine that what will happen in the next few years is that I will think more and more about my books. At the moment I can count on the fingers of a hand the number of people who have ever wanted to have any discussion with me about my books that goes beyond “You’re writing a book, really, what’s it about?”…my reply and then, end of discussion.

What if it were lots of people, though? What if that becomes all people ever want to talk to me about?

Then I’ll be back where I was in the old days, when I was mad keen to talk about subcloning DNA or whatever part of my research I was up to…and good for little else. Except now the only thing I’ll be capable of talking about is a bunch of stuff I made up once.

I’ll be back to being a nerd.

Actually I’m being daft. I could right now make a list of 10 friends who will NEVER want to hear about my books. They should help to save me from becoming a total bore.

Categories
mexico

Forever Mexican – Chiiidoooo

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon recently said “Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”

Well hurray for that! Because apparently the cost of being naturalized as a British citizen has roughly tripled since last year, when I last filled in the forms and didn’t get round to sending them, and at around £655 I’m not quite sure it’s in my range anymore. Priced out of the market! It’s probably a quite sensible ploy to avoid undesirables like me becoming British. Quite right too. What Groucho Marx said.

So I’m to be forever Mexican and only Mexican. Which means that there’s a little bit of Mexico right here in Oxford.

PUES ME PARECE BIEN CHIDO.

Categories
raves

Difford rules! More mixology…

cocktails1.jpg

Noam and Patrick, two young student lads came round for cocktails last night. I’ve known them both since they were little boys aged 9. It was great to have some guests who could go through lots of cocktails without passing out, like our usual crowd of friends (and me), who stop at two. Gave me a chance to try out some more recipes.

Last night’s discoveries of yumminess included:

Pineapple Daiquiri (cold and refreshing)

2 shots light rum, 1/2 shot gomme, 3/4 shot fresh lime juice, 1 shot pressed pineapple juice.

Shake with ice and then pour over ice-filled old-fashioned glass.

Havanatheone (Rose variant improvised by me)

10 mint leaves, 2 shots light rum, 2 spoonfuls rose-infused syrup, 1 shot pressed apple juice

Muddle mint leaves just enough to bruise, add other ingredients and stir until syrup dissolves, then shake with ice and fine strain into chilled martini glass.

(NB the original recipe calls for runny clear honey)

We also tried old classics like Mint Julep, Caipiroska, Mojito, Cosmopolitan, Gimlet and some of Difford’s own recipes. All fantastically good.

I felt fine until they left. I’d had two-and-a-half, including a Grand Margarita which has 3 shots of alcohol. But I’d also had a sip of every other cocktail I’d made. The room began to swim. I just managed to force a large glass of water down before I collapsed onto my bed.

I wasn’t drunk! Just sleepy.