So have done no writing or studying yet today due to: rows at home, having to drive, doing shopping/housework,doing more driving and going for a pot of tea with my friend Carol. I’m back at the wee house now so doing my blog before Harry and Murray get back.

Last night I enroled Harry at the gym in Wisbech which seemed to cheer him up muchly. He was in there for two hours so I sat in the caff in Tesco’s (the gym is in the same building as Tesco’s just opposite the caff) and read the intro to the course materials and intro to the forum on my iphone. Harry came out in a pretty good mood and by the time he did I knew a lot more about what is expected from me on the MA. Plan to read more tonight after the boys have had their teas.

Today  read a v. weird short story by Clarice Lispector who’s a Brazilian author translated  into English. Not sure if the weirdness is from the translation or the writer but I like it. Its weird in a good way.

I’m reading her stories because this October I’m having a story of mine published in a thang called No Bindings. It a sort of folded poster full of poems and flash fictions that you can read like a book or put on your wall and it’s accompanied by a podcast about the creative process. The editor Lily is coming to record me for the podcast bit in October and we’re going to explore the importance of memory in story writing whilst sorting through old photos  (This was inspired by Lily not being sure if my story was about real events or not.) I should stress Lily and I have never met and do not know each other beyond the fact that I submitted a flash story to her project) but this suggestion really struck a chord with me. My story is very sad – about loss – a fictional loss but everything I write, I realised, when pushed to consider it, is hovering in a hinterland close to autobiography but not quite – I use names of real people in an imagined setting, a real voice talking about a fictional happening. Lily thought my writing to be in the same continuum as Clarice Lispector (what a great name by the way) and now I’ve read one of her stories I kinda see what she means. Am going to read some more tonight when I’ve ploughed through the ‘how to use the on-line library’ bit of the website.

Lily is going to get all the contributors together too so we can chat about our work. I love the idea of this sort of ‘flash’ community that will meet once, share stories then dissolve – reminds me of the OU. You get so close to you tutor group digitally speaking for a year then you all break up come June never to meet again. You share such personal, intimate stuff, bearing souls and creativity then poof it all dissolves.

Right off to do some learning now. Oh yes – if you’re wondering why there’s a pug at the start of the page, it’s because when I started writing I thought I wouldn’t have much to say and thought it might fill the page up a bit. The pug in question is Hogarth who loves nothing better that to snooze on my chair, as you can see.

 

 

 

Back on the blog again after the dash of going back to school/college. George not entirely back to college but has done his induction for the new i-journalism course at CRC, starts properly on Monday. Not entirely sure what i-journalism is – think its a mixture of blogging, instagramming, digital photography, snap-chatting, tweeting and u-tubing with a sprinkling of app development chucked in. Doesn’t give details on website. My nephew Billy who works in PR and came to stay last week on a job in Peterborough says the Sun has an Instagram editor these days so shows what I know.

Harry went back to school last week and has been playing rugby practically every day. We had to drive to school three times even before term started for pre season training. He’s on the first fifteen this year but he’s having a tough time readjusting to being back – early mornings, long drives and newly extended school day not helping the usual reaclimatisation problems. Still I’m sure all will sort itself out in the fulness of time – anhyoo that’s not why I’m blogging – that would be because the OU website for the MA has gone live. Have decided that the focus of this blog will be to plot my progress as I try to become a better writer.

Have had a wee play on the website and it feels very daunting – the desktop is unfamiliar and seems to be a portal to room after room of stuff I need to know just to learn how to use it and the course materials! -never mind learning about Creative Writing I need to read the following first: Module guide, Forum Guide, How-to-use-the-on-line-library Guide, Assessment guide and that’s just for starters and everything’s digital so I’ll have to print them all out and read them with anotations like they used to do in the dark ages when there were only paper books (My default setting I’m afraid. I’m fine reading fiction digitally but manuals and  instructions just don’t go into my brain unless I scribble on them, read them twice, re-read them then then re-re-read them.And I have no printer here so I’m going to have to buy one and a wee table to put it on. So much to do prep-wise before I can even start learning about creative writing! But it must be done.

Tomorrow I will blog about my progress – might help secure what I’ve learned. I will also do my first OU MA site blog (we have a collective blog space where people have already started introducing themselves.) I will do the same in the morning.

Harry turned 16 on Tuesday which also didn’t help with the going back to school thing. He has such a rubbishly timed b/day – always the first week back after the longs hols – very depressing for him. I feel his pain as it was the same for me when I was a girl, only my birthday was always back to school in January after the Chrimbo holibobs – even worse if anything becuase it was back to school, freezing cold, everyone was skint, everyone was on a diet, everyone was sick of celebrating and just wanted to stay in eating gruel by themselves. On my 16th birthday I got a hairwash cos Mum and Dad were cash strapped – and that was wrapped up in old Xmas paper! So I really felt for poor old Harry and am taking him to join the gymn tonight now he’s sixteen by way of compensation. He’ll be back from school in a mo. Hoping the gymn thing will cheer him up.