that is all.
I’m delighted that I took part in NaNoWriMo this year, what a fabulous concept! It was well organised and the communications were inspiring and witty, with just the right balance of encouragement and humour. I’d recommend that you give it a go next year. And if you did give it a go this year, I’d encourage you to donate to the good folk at NaNo (if you haven’t already). I’ve been blown away by how much such a small group of people can achieve, and they need our support to keep it going.
I hit the 50,000 target and then some, but it really was the taking part that was the important bit (to roll out the cliche). Also, it fast tracked my next novel, the sequel to The Truth about Sharks and Pigeons. I now hope to have this out in the first half of 2013 (working title ‘The Punchline’).
Take care,
Matt
A weekend binge of writing has put my NaNo quest back on track.
On Thursday I was at a word count of a touch over 15,000, 8k short of the target for that day. Over the past few days I have rattled off just under 15k words, putting me nearly back at par (30,000 as at today). Phew!
Do say hi on the NaNoWriMo site (http://www.nanowrimo.org) if you are taking part – I am registered as plotmash.
Just signed up for NaNoWriMo, my first ever!
🙂
I’m currently on holiday in the US. My first stop is Pasadena, and this week I’ve visited the very impressive Huntington Library. As one guide book notes, calling it a library is something of an understatement. The collection totals more than six million books, together making up one of the most impressive collections of British and American history anywhere in the world, one that attracts almost two thousand scholars every year. And that’s just the library: The Huntington also boasts an amazing art gallery and very fine gardens. My wife and I spent most of our time wandering around the gardens, with a couple of hours in the art gallery.
The library building was closed when we were there, but one of the most important books of the collection was on display in the art gallery building: a Gutenberg Bible. I was very keen to see this rare book, not so much for itself, but for what it signifies in terms of the intellectual and cultural development of all humanity (and particularly populations with a European origin). Gutenberg invented the printing press (although his invention was pre-dated by developments in the East). The Gutenberg Bible is one of the first examples of a mass-produced book, and the implications for society were huge. Until this point books were copied by hand, usually by clerics. It was slow and laborious work, and meant that the church controlled the production of books. The invention of the printing press was a game changer, allowing the (relatively) low cost production of books, and therefore greatly promoting the dissemination of information. The implications for education and social development are obvious, and revolutionary.
Read more…
A new permanent page for the site. Check it out https://plotmash.wordpress.com/things-i-am-not/
(or not, you know, whatever)
Hi there! I’m sat at the Bayview Chateau Tongariro looking at this view:
OK, so there are a couple of reasons why that’s not entirely true. . . First of all it’s cloudy and misty, so I can’t see the mountain at all. Also, it’s not currently erupting. At least, not as far as I can tell through the mist and fog.
Oh, I guess there’s a third reason: I am facing the wrong way. But with the cloud and fog it doesn’t really matter, and the desk was setup this way, so moving it around just to look at the fog clouds seems like a lot of effort.
Nonetheless, this is a beautiful part of a beautiful country, and my wife and I just enjoyed a nice walk around the local walking trails (in our ski gear: it’s pretty cold).
Anyway, the visitors centre had some cool displays on volcanoes. For example, did you know that the pyroclastic thingumies from the Lake Taupo eruption traveled at 600 – 900 kph! Now, I like a good disaster movie as much as the next man, but I reckon even Tom Cruise couldn’t outrun that in a jeep. Check out how big it was!
On that note, is it visitors centre, or visitor’s centre, or visitors’ centre? (ignore the centre/ center debate – what’s the correct punctuation here?)Â Answers on a pickled herring.
So, the Taupo eruption was a big deal. Want to know more?
I went to see the Riverdance farewell tour (http://www.riverdance.com/) in Wellington last night. It was Fabulous! (So much so the capital F was required). I had expected to enjoy it (I was a teenager when the Riverdance phenomenon swept the globe: there was going to be nostalgia value at the very least), but I wasn’t prepared for how impressive it was.
The music was sensational, and performed with real energy. The dancing was – as you might expect – superb. What impressed me most was the showmanship of everyone involved. You could tell that it was a true top-notch international performance from artists at the top of their game. And who could be disappointed with watching that many shapely legs prance about a stage for an hour and a half?!
I couldn’t help chuckle when the male lead sprinted enthusiastically to centre stage. Not at his performance, but at words uttered by Chandler Bing in the comedy series Friends….
Hi there, how’s it going? That good huh, I’m pleased to hear it.
OK, so the plotmash project is over and I have now taken over this blog for my own evil purposes. Mwa hahahahah!
Ehem.
OK, so maybe not 100% evil. 100% random maybe. The next project off the slate is the sequel to ‘The Truth about Sharks and Pigeons’. A number of people have expressed an interest in a sequel. I secretly suspect this is out of politeness…
“I’ve just finished your book. Is there going to be a sequel?”
“Sure is – Heck Yeah!”
“Oh…. I’m so pleased.”
Gotta give your fans what they asked for, especially if they are only asking to avoid hurting your feelings :-). The working title for Bill Posters’ second adventure is ‘The Punchline’. It was ‘The Dangers of Long Division”, but quite frankly that title scarred me too much (I hated maths as a kid). I like this one more, as it implies humour. It also makes sense, but to find out why you’ll have to read the book (which will be pretty difficult at the moment as I haven’t written it yet).
I’ll keep you posted.
OK, so that’s finally it: the last part of the Plotmash story is up. It took longer than anticipated. Sorry.
That means it’s also time for this website to change its purpose. That means goodbye Plotmash the project, hello Plotmash my general purpose blog. I guess what I am saying is that the number of ‘Random Musings’ on here is going to increase. Skyrocket in fact. If that scares you – run!
Oh, the story from the Plotmash project will be edited, proofread, hacked around and published under the title ‘Mnemosyne’. Keep an eye out for it.
Cheers,
Matt
plotmash 