365 Days of Adventure

Adventure 336 ~ The Big Renga Project [Day 2]

/ intrepidjane

I posted the hokku (the first verse) of our renga yesterday, and, from now on, it’s my job to be a diligent sōshō . The  sōshō makes sure that the renga is completed and that the renju (renga poets) adhere to the complex rules.

Verse 2 should be in 7-7 format, and Leslie (the second poet) had lots of options. She could have continued with winter, or moved on to autumn, or onto love, or onto some of the minor (but allowable) themes such a summer, travel, mountains and shores. The only topic off-limits today was spring (you can’t mention spring until after the 8th verse!).

She needed to use a kigo word (to identify the season) and not repeat any previous images. She needed to demonstrate some kind of link with verse one, but also a shift in direction.

Leslie stuck with winter and this is what she came up with :

Lone wolf sings a lullaby :
bear dreams the new icy day.

So, there is continuity because we are still in winter, and there is a shift : the temperature just dropped! Leslie also introduces animals into the image and a she alludes to hibernation too.

You can get the full low-down on today’s episode of The Big Renga Round-Up.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 335 ~ The Big Renga Project [Day 1]

/ intrepidjane

Today sees the launch of the Big Renga Project.  Over the next 25 days, 13 poets will be working together to create 25 linked verses. The first stanza (the hokku) is in and the game is on!

The first stanza was my responsibility, and this is what I wrote :

Prickly ghost blankets
spread out of winter shadows :
butter melts on toast.

I’m running a daily TV show throughout the project to give you the full low-down on all the renga news. Every day, I’ll be explaining the rules and you’ll get to see how the poem is growing (and why it’s growing the way it is!) You can watch today’s show here :

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 328 ~ Retreat From The Real World And Dive Into My Imagination

/ intrepidjane

The Merrow Of Murlough BaySo, that’s me! I’m checking out for a week 🙂 . The decks are (more or less) clear, and after this evening’s coaching clients, I’m ready to retreat from the real world and take up full time residence in my imagination.

I had forgotten how busy I am at the moment : 2 webinars coming up in the next 10 days, the launch of my collaborative poetry project on the 1st of December, and work (yes, actual work!) on top of all that! I’ve done what I can to create the necessary “silence” for writing (I don’t like distraction : I do like sustained, and uninterrupted, quiet focus).

I’m clearing my office space, I’m shopping for as much food as I can after I’ve posted this blog post (so I don’t even need to leave the house)  … and then, I am going in!

I’ll be keeping a video diary, but I won’t be posting daily on my blog. I expect to be back on the 30th November / 1st December. You can keep up with my videos on my YouTube channel

My feet are already in the water : it’s beautifully warm 🙂 .

See you on the other side!

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 327 ~ Write The Final Haiku For My Collection

/ intrepidjane

first winter frost November 2014So, I’ve been clearing the decks, ready to start writing my next faerie story. The plan is to start writing tomorrow. The last couple of days has been about tying up loose ends of other projects and about starting the process of bringing The Merrow Of Murlough Bay to life.

There is one loose end that is still waiting to be tied up though. It’s been waiting to be tied up for a while.

If you remember, I started writing a collection of haiku poems back in August. The aim of the collection was to track the turning of the seasons from summer into autumn. I decided that the last haiku would be written when the first frost appeared.

So, I’ve been waiting for the first frost for some time. These past few weeks, I’ve been jumping out of bed every morning to take my dog for a walk. I couldn’t wait to get outside just in case the frost had come. It just never came!

And today it arrived : right on time. Everything is tidied away now until my story is done.  I’ve a bit of juggling to do with coaching clients, but I definitely have the space to get that merrow’s story on its way  🙂 .

I read my haiku out in today’s video blog : it’s called First Frost. You can also read it here.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 326 ~ Visit Murlough Bay

/ intrepidjane

murlough bay church treeFor today’s adventure, I visit Murlough Bay to soak up the atmosphere and to find places to weave into The Merrow Of Murlough Bay.

I spent time looking at various maps  and researching some local legends before setting out to visit the coast. I knew what I wanted to see. I knew what I needed to be able to recreate in my mind’s eye to help me write.

Today I got to see Lough Doo, the residence of a devil horse who shapeshifts into The Grey Man, lulls people into a false sense of security, and then pulls them into the dark waters of his home!

I also visited the shoreline to find the spot where the merrow crawls ashore and to find places where he might be able to hide.

I managed to locate the entrance to some disused mines. And (after quite a bit of huffing and puffing) I eventually found the ancient church of Drumnakill (the place that has the magic clay)!

You can see all these places on today’s video blog.

I think I’m good to go.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 325 ~ Start To Explore The Setting Of My Next Story

/ intrepidjane

from Murlough Bay to ScotlandFor today’s adventure, I started doing some off-line research for my new story. The storyline is complete. The next step is for me to anchor the story to a place and time.

For this story, I didn’t really need to look for a place. A place has been calling me for a while. The place is called Murlough Bay and is on the Antrim coast, Northern Ireland.

The last time I was at Murlough Bay was in July 2012 at the time of the Venus Transit. To see the transit, I had to be at the cliffs above the bay just before dawn. Unfortunately, I arrived 24 hours early for the transit (:P – I’m very keen) but I did get to witness a fabulous, eerie sunrise.

As the sun rose, it illuminated the Mull of Kintyre, Rathlin and the Scottish islands of Islay and Jura. It was beautiful. And it was very spooky. The kind of spooky that magics your feet into the ground. The kind of spooky that turns your breath to glass.

I got out a map of the area and soaked in all the place names. I then ploughed (yes, it was quite  a demanding read!) through the relevant sections of a book called The Moyle Shore. This book offered me some fascinating information that will be really useful for building the story’s set.

dawn-hunter murlough bayThe book described how local fisherman would have caught glashan (coalfish) and lythe (pollock). It talked about coalmines and lime kilns; about an ancient church surrounded by healing clay; about pilgrimage routes; and about rocks in the sea with special names.

Yup. There is magic in this place. And if I can weave the magic of this place into my story… well, that story might just be potent  enough to unmagic a body’s feet from the ground or turn glass breath into stardust.

Oh – and the story has a name now : The Merrow Of Murlough Bay. The story likes it 🙂 .

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 324 ~ Clear The Decks!

/ intrepidjane

Well …. I’ve heard back from the publisher : they read the complete manuscript for The Faerie Thorn – and they “thoroughly enjoyed it”. After the “it’s all really great” bit, I sensed a “but” coming. But there wasn’t a “but”. There was an “and” instead!

They asked if I could send some more stories in the same vein because they thought a collection of my stories would work really well! 4 or 5 stories of a similar size to The Faerie Thorn would do the trick, and we agreed that I would submit the second story by mid-December.

I have the sense that this second story is a bit of a test, a test to make sure that I’m not a one-story wonder. I am happy to write the next story : it’s burning to be written. And I’m happy to write the next story because I think it’s bringing me closer to the possibility of getting my stories published.

So today’s adventure has been all about clearing the decks and getting set up for writing. I’ve put some projects on hold. I’ve done some more research about merrowmen. I’ve done some more research about the area in which the story is set. I’ve got the story complete in my head (with a full and intricate set of unexpected twists and turns). And I’ve taken the first big step towards breathing the soul of the story to life.

Once I breathe the soul of a story to life, I just have to climb inside the story and write or tell what I see, hear and feel. To breathe the soul of a story to life, I have to find the soul of the story and then feel it. The soul of the story sits right underneath the storyline. Feeling the soul of the story breathes it to life.  (Sounds a bit weird , I know! But that’s how I do it 🙂 . I talk more about this process in today’s video).

The story is now alive. It’s walking. It’s at large. It’s lurking around corners. It’s hiding in cupboards. And today it was in the shower.

It’s too late. There’s no going back. If I don’t tell this story, it’ll haunt me until the other side of Forever.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 323 ~ Ask For A Young Reader To Review The Faerie Thorn

/ intrepidjane

Today’s adventure feels exciting! The full manuscript of The Faerie Thorn is now with the publisher, and I’m awaiting a decision. The fact that the publisher liked my work is brilliant : up until this point, the only people who had read my story, or listened to it, were friends and family (my cheer-leaders 🙂 ).

The landscape suddenly changed when I read that the publisher liked the story. I somehow felt more like a “proper” writer.

The thing is, proper writers have proper critics and proper reviews. And so for today’s adventure, I am asking a young reader whom I have never met , who doesn’t know me at all, to review my story.

The reader is a 13 year-old girl. She’s an avid reader and up for the job of casting a critical eye over my work.  I requested a “no-holds-barred” review.

I sent the manuscript this morning.

I am holding my breath.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 322 ~ Try Out Haiku Deck

/ intrepidjane

haiku deck slideFor my corporate work, and for some of my webinars, I have to create presentation slides. I normally use PowerPoint for this : it can often be time-consuming, and the results aren’t always that great!

Today I tried out a new on-line slide creation platform called Haiku Deck. The good news is that it’s free, fast and FUN. I managed to work out how to use the platform in minutes (it’s really intuitive) and created a very short presentation to show you the kind of thing you can create. You can check out my presentation here (it’s one of my haiku poems 🙂 ).

You can share your presentation via a private link (as I have today) ; you can share it on-line for the whole world to see; and you can download your presentation in both PDF and PowerPoint format. In the Powerpoint download, the Haiku Deck branding is less obtrusive than it is in some of the other formats.

So, today’s adventure was really worthwhile. I think it will save me a lot of time – and I think the slides are a little more captivating than the ones I’ve created in PowerPoint!

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT

Adventure 321 ~ Do Some Research About Mermen

/ intrepidjane

Anais Nin quotes about mermaidsMy head got dangerously near exploding point today. The big conversation of the moment is all about the new VAT regulations for supply of digital products in EU members states. As I’m thinking about launching some digital products, this will affect me, and I really needed to spend some time understanding the implications and deciding what steps to take to support my business.

It was such an odd experience. As I got more and more into the detail, I felt one side of my body being pulled right down. The other side of my body was trying to pull the “VAT side” back up! I felt all out of balance – and I felt all sorts of anxieties and feelings come up too as I waded through all the regulations.

That’s when the insight came. Right now, some stuff is going on behind the scenes that is quite challenging for me. The VAT stuff just adds to the pile of stuff. But that pile, and those feelings, cause something very brilliant to happen in me.

The pile of stuff I’m talking about is unspeakable stuff. If I were to attach words to that stuff, the words would be so sharp that they’d cut the life out of me on the way out. And when stuff becomes unspeakable for me, something very special happens : a new story gets born.

This was the same for the genesis of The Faerie Thorn : unspeakable stuff got spoken in a way that soothed rather than cut (okay, there was some pretty painful cutting in there – if you remember the bone-ghost scene – but the telling of the tale soothed.)

Today, as I felt one side of me try to pull the other side of me back into line, something inside me moved. It was a new story. I recognised its tickle immediately. And a word came straight to mind : merrow.

A merrow is the Irish word for a mermaid. You can find out about merrows here . I spent my lunchbreak researching merrows and was particularly captivated by the contrast between mermaids and mermen (mermen are not “lookers” at all!) I think my story hook has caught something 😛 .

To help the creative juices flow, I read some short stories from The Kingdom Under The Sea & Other Stories. My body soon came back into line – and I felt completely soothed by the experience.

I am just going outside and may be some time.

JT