Still Here and Top Tips

"That time of year, thou may'st in me behold..."

Yes, here I am. Sorry. I have no good excuses... Well, a few: work, age, the usual.  As I say, not good excuses but there you have it.

In writing news, I got the edits back on that work in progress I've been mentioning for a year and let me tell you, going through edits is a painful process.

As I said over on Twitter:

Something there is that doesn't like a writer to sit down and write. #amwriting Oh wait. #amtweeting

— Kim Velk (@woolfoot) October 13, 2018

Fall has been beautiful and inspiring here in Vermont and making me feel like I should write more. When I get home from work these days, however, I pretty much settle into re-watching episodes of Vera (which you should all watch, BTW, Brenda Blethyn is a marvel) and listening to BBC Radio on my iPlayer app (which you should all get right now if you don't already have it).

So that's two top tips, just for stopping by.  Here's one more that I will serve up to you with a link and everything.

BBC Radio 4 provides many audio books each week. They are abridged usually, but FREE to all the world and first-class productions too. This week  the Book of the Week is Colm Toibin reading his lovely, thoughtful, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know.  Colm is Irish, so of course it's wonderful to listen to him. The book explores the lives of the fathers of three of Ireland's greatest writers: Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce. Toibin is a wonderful writer and these biographies offer great insights on the famous men and on history.

Here's a link to the the Book of the Week. 

There's also "Book at Bedtime" and that's a winner right now too. Sarah Perry's Melmoth.

Thanks for stopping by. Best wishes for a happy stick season to you all.

He's Worse than a Smoky House

I'm doing research on corvids (like magpies and crows) for my work in progress and found myself today looking at Shakespeare's references to ravens.  I came across this speech in Henry IV, Part I - Hotspur is speaking about a problem companion - one who is longwinded and who doesn't know when to leave the party. 

You might want to read this over a couple of times. I did and thought, whoa,  Shakespeare is as good as they say.  Thanks for stopping by.  Stay tuned...

I cannot choose: sometime he angers me With telling me of the mouldwarp and the ant, Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, And of a dragon and a finless fish, A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven, A couching lion and a ramping cat, And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff As puts me from my faith. I tell you what; He held me last night at least nine hours In reckoning up the several devils' names That were his lackeys: I cried 'hum,' and 'well, go to,' But mark'd him not a word. O, he is as tedious As a tired horse, a railing wife; Worse than a smoky house: I had rather live With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, Than feed on cates and have him talk to me In any summer-house in Christendom.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Hi All -

I've had a lot of nice correspondence and interest from those of you in the UK who downloaded the e-book during AmazonUK's recent half term promotion.  I hope, if you're stopping by here, you've finished the book and liked it.

You'll know there's a key scene near the end where Miles plays some music on his iPod for a certain someone. The music has a tremendous effect on the listener. You might like to hear it yourself, so there's a link below to a particularly beautiful rendition. You might like to get your earbuds or headphones out for this.

I've become more and more grateful in the passing years for musicians and those who make it possible for them to share their gifts with us all. I say this as one with no musical talent whatsoever.

I hope you are having a restorative Sunday and that you will have few minutes to let Mr. Tchaikovsky and these players work their magic on you.

Today's Top Tip - Matt Haig's "How to Stop Time"

I got to know about Matt Haig first on Twitter.  I gathered he was famous (mostly) for a book  called Reasons to Stay Alive. It gets praised all over the place and seems to have helped a lot of people.  He talks a lot on Twitter about his own fragile mental health and I've found him to be witty, humane, and tough.  I'll admit I hadn't read Reasons to Stay Alive - yet - despite the usual intentions.

His tweets recently included a lot of book launch stuff on his new release, How to Stop Time.  I knew that it was a Big Book, getting lots of attention and again I planned to check it out. Then, mirabile dictu, it came to me and it can come to you too.

If you have been here before you know I lurk around BBC Radio as much as possible. I was very pleased to find last week that How to Stop Time been serialized for the Radio 4 series, Book at Bedtime.  Here's a link to the web page where you can find it, at least for the next little while.

While we're on the subject, Book at Bedtime is just one chest of BBC riches that US listeners can now plunder, for free. There is sooo much more.  If you get the BBC iPlayer app for your smartphone, they will all be laid out there before you and you need never be bored again.

But back to the book. This BBC version is abridged so you'll probably still want to buy a kindle version or a hard copy,  but its a fine production of a wonderful story. I won't spoil the fun, but our hero is a man with a rare condition that has him aging at about one tenth the speed of the rest of us. The premise of the book is that these rare people have always been among us but hidden for their own protection.

It's been a long time since I came across a writer that pleased me so well.  I think David Mitchell of Cloud Atlas fame was the last discovery that had me chattering away like this.  So, you're welcome.  Happy New Year.  Thanks for stopping by.