Category Archives: Scotland

The Rituals of Writing – Plus a Monkey Wrench or Two

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Many many thanks for your patience, gentle readers, and thanks to those of you who got in touch to see if we were okay. Yes. Better than okay because Fall or Fly: The Strangely Hopeful Story of Adoptions and Foster Care in Coalfields Appalachia has gone to the publisher on time.

We all know writing comes with a few rituals. Some people work in specific locations, others have lucky editing pens, or writing clothes. Me, I get sick as soon as the book is in. That’s how it goes. The relentless rush to the last deadline, followed by five days of lying catatonic in bed, staring at Scandal on Netflix. (How many ways are there to murder someone without getting caught in DC? Don’t answer that.)

So I pushed send on Monday, and then lay down in a stupor. But the two weeks prior to that, I had been doing nothing but type and crochet for so long, my right hand went numb. When I got on the Crochet Addict Black Sheep list (this is for people who have been kicked off Crochet Addict, a thing that is not hard to accomplish) they gave spot-on advice naming the actual muscles that needed attention by number. I went up to see the amazing TNB, aka Brandon Tester, chiropractor to cat rescuers everywhere (his wife is the local vet) with the recommendations, and he went down the list and made everything okay again.

But he did suggest, given the frenzied typing, that I cool it with the crochet for a bit, saving the muscles. For which I apologize to those waiting for their braided scarves. My crojo (mojo for crochets, ya know) is back and all orders will get filled by St. Paddy’s Day. My hand is in order, my book is in, my life is my own again, and my threads are running true.

So thank you for being patient – about the disappearance of this blog, and the crocheted stuff. And for continuing to be patient about Fall or Fly. It is in the Spring 2017 publication list from Swallow Press. I’ll be getting final edits back in May, and another month of ducking and diving will follow, and then this book full of shadows and light will be ready to roll.

It’s such a different book from Little Bookstore. And yet it’s a community story. I’m looking forward to its telling. A couple of the readers have suggested I will be getting it in the neck, because there aren’t a lot of punches pulled in it. But there it is. My hand didn’t go numb for nothing.

Meanwhile, back to the threads of a different life, and onward toward Spring of this year, with its many promises. Including snow tonight, in the Gap. Stay warm, neighbors.

(For those interested, this is the photo that got me kicked off Crochet Addict into the arms of the Black Sheep.)

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The Monday Book – Kind of

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The Monday book isn’t a book this time because Wendy is getting close to a deadline for HER current book, so Jack is doing this post and it’s a movie (because he hasn’t read any interesting books lately!)

I’m a sucker for memoirs and war stories so I was intrigued when Netflix offered me ‘The Railway Man’ – a movie based on a memoir of the same name by Eric Lomax. Lomax was from Edinburgh in Scotland and was captured by the Japanese army during the fall of Singapore during WW 2.

The movie apparently received mixed reviews when it was released, but I must say that I found it riveting. Lomax is played by Colin Firth and his wife Patti is played by Nicole Kidman – both, in my opinion, playing right at the top of their game.

The story is relatively simple. Lomax is fascinated by railways and after capture is sent to work on the notorious ‘Burma Railway’ (think Bridge on the River Kwai). He suffers terrible beatings and torture but remains focused on the railway he’s building. Finally, he survives the war but he is psychologically broken.

On his return, the only people he can relate to are other ex-POWs and he continues to be fixated on railways, traveling around the UK cataloging timetables and logging journeys. On one of these journeys he meets the recently divorced Patti and falls head over heels for her.

They marry and Patti sets out to rescue him from his self-imposed mental exile by becoming friends with his best friend who had shared the horrors of Japanese imprisonment.

That’s as much as I’m going to tell you, so you’re going to have to watch the movie or buy the book (which I certainly intend to do – films never have enough time to do it properly!)

My favorite scene, of course was a dream sequence where Colin Firth was knocking on a door in North Queensferry in my beloved county of Fife with the glorious Forth Rail Bridge behind him – the whole thing was worth that!

Four thumbs up – – –