Autumn Update
The Nights are Fair Drawing In
This week’s picture has an autumnal feel: these mushrooms were growing on our lawn until I cut them down. They were getting out of hand and threatening to take over the neighbourhood, so they had to go. As we get into the back end of Autumn, things have turned a lot more wintry in my little corner of North Yorkshire. I don’t mind the weather changing so much, but I always feel a little pang of sorrow when the days start getting shorter. Still, I’ve just got to hold on to the fact that spring is just around the corner. OK that’s a little far-fetched, but a guy’s got to dream.
It’s NaNoWroMo Time!
The big advantage of winter nights is that there’s more time for writing and posting on this blog, and I’ve been a bit more active on this front recently. During November I take part in National Novel Writing Month (NANoWriMo), with the goal of writing fifty thousand words towards a novel. Except, after last year’s truly dismal attempt at historical fiction, I’ve abandoned fiction and become a NaNo rebel – one of a small group of people who take part in the month, but do other forms of writing.
I wanted to do something towards my family history project, Spanning The Years. So, I’m writing a mixture of memoir, notes about my ancestors and some articles for this blog. It’s turning out to be a useful exercise and I’ve remembered a few memories of my early childhood. This year I’m concentrating on what I’m calling the ‘Cowboy Dave’ years (see my post from August 11th this year). Apart from the blog articles I doubt whether anyone but me will see the other things I’m writing, but they’ll be a prompt for what I want to write in the future. But what ever I do in November will benefit this blog.
What’s Coming in November
Here’s a few of the things to expect over the next week or two:
This Friday, 9th November, I’m publishing an article to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Words From the Past, contains some of the items in our family archive that reveal a little about what it was like to live through the war.
On Friday 16th November, I’ll be heading back to the present with an article about The Joy of 35. I’m revitalising my photography with the simplest of lenses.
On Friday 23rd November Spanning The Years puts some flesh on my big project and what I’m trying to achieve.
I’m also making a few tweaks to the site too, like introducing a new home page. This should make it easier for people to find their way around.
Anyway, for now I’m back to NaNoWriMo. Part of the fun is being in a virtual community of other writers, experimenting with all sorts of writing: from SciFi to Fanfic, horror to humour. If you want to know more about NaNoWriMo, go to www.nanowrimo.org