Great WordPress tip from Belinda Crane about getting all your post out there instead of just some of it…
Author: Marje @ Kyrosmagica
Hi.
Welcome to my blog: M J Mallon - Kyrosmagica Publishing. A blog about magic, books, writing, laughter, and much more! I'm a YA fantasy author, poet and reviewer. My first YA fantasy novel The Curse of Time - Book 1 - Bloodstone is set in Cambridge and Book 2 - Golden Healer is now out too. As well as this, I have contributed to several anthologies, created my own with some amazing international writers, bloggers and creatives during the pandemic: This Is Lockdown and written two poetry collections: Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity & Mr. Sagittarius Poetry and Prose. I write book reviews on my blog and on Goodreads, book bub and on my bookstagram. I have a penchant for travel and have relatives in far flung places, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, (my birthplace.) I grew up in in Bonnie Scotland, in Edinburgh, and now live in Cambridge. I love sunny, hot places, particularly Rome, Venice, Portugal, Barcelona, and I forgot to mention the sun drenched beaches of the Caribbean, how could I? I am lucky to have been blessed with two lovely daughters and a husband who I fondly refer to in this blog as my black sheep. Family joke! With my passion for travel, culture, beautiful beaches, good food, books, theatre, writing, and humour, I hope to keep you entertained. I'm loving every minute of this creative journey, please join me.
My Kyrosmagica Review of Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis
Goodreads Synopis:
When Sky falls from Blackfin Pier and drowns on her sixteenth birthday, the whole town goes into mourning – until she shows up three months later like nothing happened.
Unravelling the mystery of those missing months takes Sky to the burned-out circus in the woods, where whispers of murder and kidnapping begin to reveal the town’s secrets. But Sky’s not the only one digging up the past – the old mime from the circus knows what happened to her, and he has more than one reason for keeping quiet about it.
Snippet from the book:
Silas’ spirit had inhabited the rusting weathervane for many years. From his perch on the school roof he watched the townsfolk of Blackfin through his empty eye socket as they buzzed through their lives beneath him, no more significant than the grains of sand piling up against the shoreline, clinging to the struts of Blackfin pier.
Doesn’t that just grab your attention? It certainly did for me!
Edinburgh Book Festival:
I picked up a copy of Blackfin Sky at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and was lucky to get a signed copy as well as Cat Clarke’s The Lost and The Found. If you’d like to see my photograph with Kat Ellis and Cat Clarke, and my write up of their talk, The Disappeared, here’s the link: https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/edinburgh-book-festival-edbookfest-cat-clarke-and-kat-ellis/
The Cover:
Do I judge a book by its cover? I have a tendency to do this to a certain degree as I think that well executed covers tend to give you a sense of the book. This one fitted the bill, I just loved this cover so much! It is so beautiful, and mysterious. Did the cover match the book? Yes in my opinion on the whole it did, Blackfin Sky had a lot to offer and was definitely mysterious.
My thoughts:
I was so excited about this book, that cover just had me trembling with anticipation but did it live up to my exalted expectations? Yes and No. I liked this a lot, but somehow it didn’t quite reach the ecstatic heights of loving it that I hoped it would. I think this was in part due to my not quite engaging enough with some of the characters in the novel, apart from the main protagonist, Sky, the others just didn’t seem to have enough depth to them. And the baddie with the amber skull, he just needed more baddie factor, I just didn’t really get him. At times Blackfin Sky seemed a bit confusing, and possibly a little too far off the believable line, (I do realise this sounds odd with regard to a fantasy story but even so the emotions sometimes seemed a bit dampened, particularly when Sky turns up after being dead, I just could have done with more feels. I know that Blackfin is meant to be a strange community but even so…..)
I think Kat Ellis tried to cram in a heck of a lot into this novel, (very ambitious,) which is something I like to do too, ah, makes me think possibly it is better to keep things a bit more simple? Maybe. Somehow it didn’t quite pack the four star/five star punch I’d hope it would, perhaps some of the plot threads could have been simplified…. to allow more time for secondary character development.
On the positive side it read extremely well, Kat Ellis can definitely write – no doubt about that, and it has a very imaginative fantasy setting, full marks for imagination Kat. I love the circus aspect, the Blood House, and the idea of pathfinders too. Yes, there are definitely aspects of this debut novel that really appeal to me, I think with a few tweaks it could easily have been a perfect read.
So would I recommend it ? Yes, I would. This is Kat Ellis’s debut novel, I do think she has great potential and amazing promise, so my recommendation would be to read this author and keep an eye out for her, I reckon her next novel might just pack that knockout punch.
By the way don’t forget to vote for your favourite debut author, Kat Ellis is one of the authors you can nominate for First Book Award, vote for your favourite, voting closes at 5pm on Friday 16th October: www.edbookfest.co.uk
My rating:
3.75 stars. Just short of 4, as I say with a few tweaks it could easily have been a 4 star read.
DISCLAIMER: “As of 13th September 2017 we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”
My opinions are my own and any reviews on this site have not been swayed or altered in any way by monetary compensation, or by the offer of a free book in exchange for a review.
Buying Links:
UK Kindle Version: http://amzn.to/2y1v7oe
UK Paperback: http://amzn.to/2fi605d
Have you read Blackfin Sky? If you have please do leave a comment to let me know what you think.
Bye for now!
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge #60 Bridge and Move
I’ve been out of the loop of Haiku challenges for a while as I’ve been up in Edinburgh looking after my mum after her operation. Luckily she’s as fit as a fiddle and bouncing back to health at a miraculous pace. She’s a regular churchgoer and apparently the congregation pray for those who are ill or in hospital, and in her case it seems to have worked, quite amazing, not much pain, just a bit tired as if she’s had a serious case of man flu or something.
So in between helping my mum out I managed to have a bit of a holiday in Edinburgh, taking in the delights of the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Book Festival too, you may have seen some of my recent blog posts.
Now that I’m back in Cambridge, I’m happy to be joining in this week with Ron’s weekly haiku challenge, here’s the link if you’d like to take part: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-poetry-prompt-challenge-60-bridge-move/
The prompt words this week are bridge and move.
My first haiku is about my experience on the train coming home from Edinburgh. I was sitting opposite a Chinese lady and her son. She was obviously hungry as she rummaged in her bag and pulled out a large chocolate cheesecake, (it looked like it served four people,) and sat there and ate the majority of it all by herself. Her son nibbled on a chocolate and in a short while finished off the last remaining crumbs of that cheesecake before polishing off a packet of crisps. This amused me no end. I know that Chinese people love their food, (my mum’s from Malaysia so I know this without a shadow of a doubt,) but I always thought they prefer savoury to sweet so this astonished me. In fact they were very entertaining to listen to, the lady started telling the people sitting next to her about all her travels in the Far East, so I got my eavesdropping ears on, (an absolute must if you have any aspirations to be a writer,) and had a jolly old-time. It ended up being a very interesting journey home.
So this haiku is an eves-dropping thank you for the Chinese lady on the train, and a celebration of her eating so much chocolate cheesecake in one sitting! I hope she likes cats, didn’t have an upset tummy afterwards, and will forgive me for being such a nosey parker.
Isn’t this picture cute?
A Sweet Bridge Too Far
Moving train journey
Kitty! Choc cheesecake delight
A sweet bridge too far?
And the next one, which I have entitled We’re Finished Lover, well I don’t know where this one came from!
Oh I tell I lie, whilst I was up in Edinburgh at the Book Festival I saw a little haiku book that caught my eye, it’s called Haiku for The Single Girl by Beth Griffenhagen, with wonderful illustrations by Cynthia Vehslage Meyers (Illustrator) so it inspired me to write this haiku:
We’re Finished Lover
Move an inch baby
Don’t dare cross that bridge sweetheart
We’re finished lover
Hope you enjoy my couple of haiku offerings this week. Haiku always make me smile, I hope they make you smile too.
Bye for now.
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
© Marjorie Mallon 2015 – aka, Kyrosmagica. All Rights Reserved.
Share this:
Blogger Recognition Award and Advice To New Bloggers
Thank you to Beaton at Becoming The Muse for nominating me for The Blogger Recognition Award: https://becomingthemuse.wordpress.com/2015/08/16/blogger-recognition-award/
It’s lovely that he thought about my blog, I appreciate it, it’s always nice to get noticed!
Especially when you’re only 5 foot 4 and tend not to stand out in the crowd. My husband is 6 foot 1 and makes me look tiny in comparison!
So my advice to new bloggers would be:
- To get involved, have fun, write or blog about what is in your heart, what inspires you. I’d like to mention a post I did about doing what you love: https://atomic-temporary-67364188.wpcomstaging.com/2015/03/19/a-writing-award-to-give-yourself-do-what-you-love/
- Join in challenges. There are so many to choose from, try out a few and see which ones appeal. Join in when you want to and don’t beat yourself up when you haven’t got the time.I usually take part in the following fantastic challenges:
- I love writing haiku so I’d highly recommend Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/category/haiku-prompt-challenge/
- There’s nothing like a quote to inspire you so I often take part in Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday: http://silverthreading.com/2015/08/26/writers-quote-wednesday-pure-inspiration/
- Recently I started joining in Rachael Ritchey’s Weekly Writing Short Story Blog Battle: http://rachaelritchey.com/blogbattle/
- This week I had a go at Julia at My Red Page’s Camera Lucida Photography Challenge: https://myredpage.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/camera-lucida-divergent/
- Try out new things, be spontaneous and adventurous.
- If you can write a Book Review then do, these nuggets of pure gold support authors so much. Or do Bookish posts and memes such as The Friday 56 via Freda’s Voice: http://www.fredasvoice.com/ or Book Beginnings, via Rose City Readers, http://www.rosecityreader.com/. I particularly take great pleasure in supporting new authors, that’s one particular blogging activity that is very dear to my heart. That’s why I love going to Book festivals, both here in Cambridge, and in Edinburgh, I love discovering new up and coming authors.
- If you do Book Reviews it is a great idea to have an A – Z list of all your reviews. Do this right at the beginning otherwise it is a lot of work to catch up with this. I’m currently compiling my A – Z list of Book Reviews and it’s taking me a long time to do this as I have 58 reviews on this blog and counting …….!!!! EEK!!!
- Don’t be afraid to be who you are, in fact being yourself is super important, if you pretend to be someone else it will probably show.
- Chat to people via comments, like and appreciate other bloggers posts, make it a community endeavour.
- Have a laugh, but be serious when you need to. Life is made up of both darkness and light so share both.
- Help and support other bloggers, this is a community so encourage others to fulfil their potential too.
- Get to know other bloggers if you can, meeting them in person at a blogger’s event is such a brilliant thing to do. But don’t meet up with random strangers, keep safe! I’d recommend this kind of organised event wholeheartedly, even if like me you’re intrinsically shy, push your boundaries. I went along to the Bloggers Bash in London on 1st of August and it was such a success: https://atomic-temporary-67364188.wpcomstaging.com/2015/08/02/the-bloggers-bash-oh-what-a-day/
- This blogging lark takes time, so be patient, developing a blog isn’t an overnight activity it takes a lot of hard work. I blog at all sorts of weird times of the day, forget to talk to my family, burn the dinner, done it all! Be aware that it is quite addictive!!!!!! No, that’s a lie it is 100%
quiteaddictive. - Remember to breathe, take in the odd bit of fresh air, watch the squirrels in your garden, don’t sit in front of your keyboard all the time! You have to experience life so you have something to write about.
- Don’t take it personally if people follow your blog and then seem to vanish into thin air, this happens. In fact in general try not to be too sensitive, just shrug it off. If people want to read your blog they will, especially if you write great content, so focus on that. That’s my no. 1 tip.
I’ve been very slow with this post, life has been extremely busy just recently, I’ve been helping out my mum up in Edinburgh after her operation, and taking in some of the sights of The Edinburgh International Festival which I’ve shared with you in my recent blog posts. So that’s my excuse.
To make up for my tardiness I’ll try to make this post as humorous as I can, I like a little giggle….
Blogging, well I never, over a year ago if you’d told me I’d be receiving awards for blogging I would have looked at you as if you were barking mad. I would not have believed it. Also I certainly would not have imagined that I’d end up going to a Bloggers Bash on the 1st August in London. No, I’d say stop teasing me, but yes I did go, and it’s been such an experience. What an adventure. Why didn’t I do this Blogging lark years ago? It’s a terrible setback being such a slow developer, ack, that’s life, have to accept that NOW is my time, and I’m lapping it up, loving each and every minute of this Blogging journey. Oh, a thought just occurred to me Blogging rhymes with Snogging. Random thoughts like this are always creeping into my mind. Have you ever noticed that before? No of course you haven’t, and even if you had you’d keep it to yourself wouldn’t you? There are some similarities between the two words I suppose, kissing is connecting with someone, on a personal level, and blogging does all of these things on a much wider platform…. That’s what I love about blogging you can say the most incredibly nutty things and get away with it…
Well, I hope I got away with it! I mean, please don’t unfollow me!! EEK!!
Awards are the icing on the cake, and a great way to shout out about great blogs. Hopefully the bloggers that I’m nominated accept awards – I know that many bloggers don’t accept awards due to time constraints. If I’ve nominated you and you don’t accept awards that’s fine don’t worry, I won’t turn up on your front door step, stand on my tippee toes, and and force you to join in! This Five Foot Four girl is a gentle soul so no cause for concern on that count. I’ll just smile and say, “No Can Do, No worries,” blow you a bloggy kiss and get going!
Right, where did all that randomness come from? Started off talking about my small frame and ended up having a bit of a moment. Well I’m writing parts of this while consuming a glass or two of wine, that’s my secret.
The other thing I like about blogging is the way that it encourages you to explore all sorts of creative activities and takes you on new pathways. When I started this blog it was mainly about books, and writing and now it’s kind of expanding in all sorts of directions: haiku, photography challenges, and general craziness, with a touch of magic. I called it Kyrosmagica so it was bound to happen. I’m casting a spell on you…. Beware!!
Here are the rules of the award which I’ve pinched word for word from Beaton’s blog:
The Rules:
- Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you. - Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers.
- Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog.
- List who you’ve nominated in the post.
- Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above).
- Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them.
- Provide a link to the award post you created.
- Provide a link to the original post on Edge Of Night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!
Without any more jokes about snogging, casting spells, or yapping on about my lack of height, I’d like to nominate some wonderful blogs for this award:
This is quite tricky as I have nominated quite a few people before for various awards so with this in mind I’ve tried to come up with some new nominees, hope I’ve succeeded, if I’ve nominated you before well that’s my failing memory’s fault…
Here in no particular pecking order, (couldn’t resist that!) my nominees for Blogger Recognition Award are:
The lovely Erika At BookVentureLand.: https://errka220.wordpress.com/
Sharukh Bamboat at India Destination blog. I’ve always wanted to go to India but have never been, so this is my way to go there on a virtual visit: https://indiadestinationsblog.wordpress.com/
Annika Perry’s Excellent Writing Blog. : https://annikaperry.wordpress.com/
Kevin at The Screenplay of Life’s Chronicles. Kevin is a stand up comedian, freelance writer and an excellent photographer: http://kevinhotter.com/
A wonderful poetry blog: https://poemsandpoemes.wordpress.com/
Julia at My Red Page. A girl that likes the colour red, writing and photography. Her blog is very stylish: https://myredpage.wordpress.com/
For creative endeavours look no further than Wild Daffodil: https://daffodilwild.wordpress.com/
D. Wallace Peach’s wonderful blog, Myths of The Mirror: http://mythsofthemirror.com/
Ameena at Randoms by A Random, poetry enthusiast, and mental health advocate: https://randomsbyarandom.wordpress.com/
EmMakwall Explains it all, especially her passion for films, television, humour, and soundtracks: http://emmakwall.com/
Kayleigh, a Scottish lass who blogs about books, life, and everything in between. She is a fellow Edinburgh Book Festival enthusiast. You can find her blogging at Miserable and Magical: https://kayleighm8.wordpress.com/
Hugh over at Hugh’s Views and News, I met him at the Bloggers Bash in London and he’s a lovely bloke, most definitely one to follow: http://hughsviewsandnews.com/
I’m a devotee of holistic health so I’d recommend Holistic Health Consultant, Reiki Master, and Nutritionalist, Gina Briganti’s blog: http://ginabriganti.com/
Poet and Author Adam Gainer. Adam is very approachable, a friendly guy who shares my love of poetry. https://authoradamgainer.wordpress.com/
and a new discovery, check out Denis’s wonderful afghan hounds and his haiku at Haiku Hound:
https://haikuhound.wordpress.com/
Thanks for celebrating this award with me.
Do leave a comment I’d love to hear from you. If you found the advice to new bloggers helpful please do remember to share, thanks so much.
Bye for now.
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
#Blog Battle: Ryder’s Feast of Unsuspecting Legumes
This week I’m taking part in Rachael Ritchey’s Short Story Writing Blog Battle. Here’s a link to her blog if you’d like to take part in this fun community of writers: http://rachaelritchey.com/blogbattle/
Week 25 Theme is Legumes
Date to Post: Tuesday, September 1st, 2015
This was a tough one, Legumes, huh, not the easiest of themes but I enjoy a challenge so why not?
The Genre of my entry is a New Adult Fantasy story, (for the purposes of this post I will try to keep it PG friendly!) This is a continuation of an idea which I have already started to develop on #Blog battle if you’d like to see the previous posts I’ve done then follow the following links: https://atomic-temporary-67364188.wpcomstaging.com/2015/08/04/blog-battle-week-21-writing-theme-eye/ and https://atomic-temporary-67364188.wpcomstaging.com/2015/08/11/blogbattle-week-22-time/
Ryder’s Feast Of Unsuspecting Legumes
The cupboards were practically empty apart from a few sorry almost forgotten tins of vegetables. Ryder picked them up, checked their sell by dates, and shrugged. A week or two past their sell by date wouldn’t kill him! He set them out on the kitchen counter and proceeded to open all of his flatmate’s cupboards looking for a large enough frying pan to create his imagined feast. He opened and shut the doors slamming them without any thought for his sleeping flatmates. He found a large wok that didn’t belong to him, but no matter, he decided that no one would notice if he borrowed it for this early morning feast. He set the flame to full throttle, flooding the pan with a cascade of vibrant vegetables, and loud legumes. The sizzling sound made him smile he loved the buzz of riotous noise in the silence of the early morning.
He waited patiently for the moment when someone would burst through the door and discover his antics and somebody always did, today was no exception. Olivia burst into the kitchen, a bleary-eyed look lay crumpled on her face. She scowled at him. Ryder couldn’t help but smile; Olivia was wearing her skimpy pyjamas again. Olivia must have clocked his lecherous look, but it was apparent from the dirty look that she gave him that she wasn’t in the mood for Ryder’s attempts at four a.m. flirting.
“What are you doing Ryder? It’s four o’clock in the morning, I’ve got a lecture at nine.”
“Making you breakfast,” said Ryder with a grin.
“Huh, that’s not funny, Ryder you’re driving everyone crazy with your early morning stir fries.”
“Oh, you’re too pent-up Olivia, you need to learn how to relax. Let me give your shoulders a rub.”
Olivia gave him a look that said that sounds about as appealing as a torturous Chinese burn. “Get lost Ryder, stop being such a creep.”
“I’m only trying to make it up to you Olivia, sit down, I’ll prepare you a very special VIP breakfast.”
Olivia looked at the legumes in the frying pan and pulled a face.
“I don’t eat out of date rabbit food.”
“Ah, but you haven’t eaten my rabbit food, trust me it will be amazing,” said Ryder, his eyes momentarily lifted their attention from the flambéed frying pan, and lingered on Olivia. There was something elemental in that look, Ryder knew it, it came naturally to him, he could turn on charm like a blazing uncontrollable flame.
Olivia’s barriers began to melt; little by little she began to return his look, now it was easy, all he needed to do was stare back, to penetrate the layers of Olivia’s resistance with his wicked eyes. He just hoped she didn’t faint, that would be annoying. He liked girls to be awake; they were far more interesting that way. He’d have to be careful not to employ too much Ryder charm, just the right amount of gentle coercion had to be used, a few words would help too.
“It’s not Rabbit food, Olivia it’s a feast fit for a king.”
Ryder set the food out on the table. It did not bear any resemblance to the simple dish of legumes he had just been cooking. Its centrepiece was an enormous, flat, round Indian delicacy resembling a chapatis pancake, and on the side was a bowl of richly spiced curry sauce with a side dish of fragrant legumes. The aroma would make you feel as if you’d been re-born in curry heaven.
Olivia gasped. Curry was her favourite, Ryder knew that.
“Sit down, Olivia join me,” Ryder said, his words gently caressing Olivia’s unsuspecting ears.
Olivia practically dived to sit down. She acted like she’d been on an enforced hunger strike and was now able to eat again.
But something stopped her from touching a bite. She just sat there staring at the food, her outstretched hand hung in the air as if she was about to pick up a chapatti. The reel of her life waited temporarily suspended for a second.
“Do help yourself,” said Ryder with a smirk.
There were no plates on the table, no cutlery, or napkins. Olivia picked up the chapatti, filled it with curry sauce and legumes and rolled it on the table as if this was the most natural thing to do. She downed that chapatti in a few ferocious bites and licked her lips.
“Don’t you want a plate?’ asked Ryder raising an eyebrow in mock horror.
Olivia blushed. It was obvious from her reaction that she was mortified by her own behaviour. This was so unlike Olivia. Olivia had a reputation for being neat and tidy, and would normally never eat off a table, particularly one in a messy student flat.
She glanced at the table, and her expression said it all. Poor Olivia turned a nasty shade of green, the exact colour of the curry that she had just wolfed down. She ran to the toilet to be sick.
As soon as she fled out the door, Ryder laughed. It wasn’t a nice laugh. He could hear her retching, but he did nothing to help her. When he stopped laughing a wretched feeling came over him, what had he done? He felt the crystal in his eye smarting, it was vibrating, sending spasms of guilt throughout his body. That wretched crystal, he wished he could dive a dagger into his eye and rip it out.
But he couldn’t do that, not without blinding himself, the crystal was there for keeps. He had no choice, the crystal fragment acted like a conscience making him want to help Olivia. So he tucked her into bed, and crept in next to her, she didn’t seem to mind. She thought he was a nice guy, but he and the the crystal knew otherwise. Afterwards he shed crystal tears; a deep feeling of disgust filled his being. He was tainted, a lost soul, blinded by the splendour of his own shadow, with no way of being saved.
© Marjorie Mallon 2015 – aka, Kyrosmagica. All Rights Reserved.
Rules:
1.1000 words max
2.fictional tale (or true if you really want)
3.PG (no more than PG-13) Content – let’s keep this family friendly!
4.Your story must contain the word(s) from the theme and/or be centered around the theme in a way that shows it is clearly related
5.Go for the entertainment value!
6.State the Genre of your story at the top of your post.
7.Post your story on Tuesday, by 11:59 PM PST
8.Use the hashtag #BlogBattle when tweeting your story, put a link back to your #BlogBattle Short Story in the comments section of this page, and/or include a link to this page in your own blog post (it creates a “ping-back” which will alert me and our friends to your #BlogBattle post)
9.Have fun!
I hope you liked my contribution to this week’s blog battle. Do let me know what you think. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite story.
Bye for now.
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
#Monday Blogs: Camera Lucida Photo Challenge: Week 8 Divergent
I’m having a shot at taking part in Julia’s Camera Lucida photo challenge this Monday.
Do check out Julia’s blog it is wonderfully dressed in a most brilliant, sumptuous Red!
Here’s the link to My Red Page if you’d like to join in Julia’s Weekly Photography Gallery:
https://myredpage.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/camera-lucida-divergent/
Julia’s chosen theme this week is : Divergent
The definition of divergent is things that move in different directions or that are far apart from each other.Opposites, dissimilar, different, contradictory, reverse.
I decided to focus on shadows as the theme of light and shadow, and in particular good and bad characters, is one I like to consider in some of my writing. The photo below is one of my Country park photos that I took in the woods, I’ve cropped the image to make it seem more scary looking! I’m particularly pleased with this creepy shadow, what do you think?
The photo below is a striking shadow on the mottled ground, I’ve manipulated the image to make the shadows appear darker, thicker and more menacing. Creepy huh?
This is a gentler image of my shadow set against contrasting brightly coloured hexagonal paving stones. What am I up to? Is it really me? There’s no way of telling is there? That’s the fascinating thing about shadows they leave so much to the viewer’s imagination.
This is another photograph that I took at the country park, I’ve cropped the image to focus on this interesting pattern of lined shadows that caught my eye.
Thanks for stopping by, what do you think of shadows? Do they fascinate and intrigue you too?
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
Edinburgh Festival: My Last Day and A Glimpse Of Princess Street Gardens
The final talk that I attended at the Book Festival was on Sunday 23rd of August, The Poems of Iain Banks, with Ken Macleod, a Scottish Science Fiction Writer, and lifelong friend of Iain Banks. The event was chaired by Stuart Kelly. It had been an interesting talk, suggested to me by fellow blogger, Stephen P. Blanchini, his blog is aptly named The Earthian Hive Mind: http://earthianhivemind.net/
I learnt a great deal about Iain Banks from this talk, and was struck by Ken Macleod’s obvious sadness that this lifelong friend that he had had the pleasure of knowing for such a long time was no longer with us. Very sad, it must be extremely hard to discuss a friend you have shared so many memories with over so many years, in such a public way particularly when you have had so much in common. I shall be delving into Iain Bank’s writing, and his poetry to find out more, but at this juncture I don’t feel I can do him justice by writing an in-depth article about the talk as in truth I just don’t feel I know enough about him, yet…. The fantastic thing about these talks is their ability to make you curious, and encourage you to read the author’s work which can only be a good thing. Ken mentioned that Iain’s strangest novel was A Song Of Stone, this features heightened prose, and a strongly dislikeable character. Iain was apparently disparaging about his final novel The Quarry. Ken suggested that The Quarry demonstrates a gentler revisiting of themes that appeared in his earlier novels. Ken said that there is almost an alternating nice hopper, nasty hopper with some of Iain’s books such as Whit, (about a young cult member,) Stonemouth, (this follows a man returning to a small seaport town after leaving due to a sexual scandal,) and Quarry, (which deals with an autistic youth, Kit, and his father, Guy, a misanthrope who is dying of cancer,) fitting into the nice hopper. The Hydrogen Sonata, a science fiction novel set in a techo-utopian Culture universe is possibly more optimistic too, though it takes part in Hell!
Sadly, Iain Banks died of Gallbladder cancer, as a token of the esteem he was held in the asteroid (5099) Iainbanks was named in memory of him shortly after his death. His dying of Gallbladder cancer got me thinking, I myself had a polyp in my Gallbladder which was discovered last year and I was operated on in October 2015. For a long time my symptoms were misdiagnosed, it took a trip up to Edinburgh, and a Scottish doctor to diagnose it immediately. The polyp was most probably benign but still it does make you think, that tiny polyp gave me so much trouble I’m so glad I went ahead and had my Gallbladder removed. Poor Iain.
After the talk the weather was so nice that I felt it would be a crime not to stop for an ice cream, so I stopped right by the large advertisement for the Book Festival that you can see at the top of this blog post. I had a feeling that I should wander on a bit and find somewhere that sold S. Lucas ice-cream, but there was no certainty that I’d find this wonderful childhood favourite which we used to eat in Musselburgh. So I settled for an ice-cream van at this spot, I fancied a chocolate wafer, a Scottish ice cream delight but was a bit disappointed to find that they’d run out, so I had to settle for a humble ice cream cone! Still it was very tasty and I lapped it all up. Of course, the inevitable happened I found a place along in the gardens that sold S. Lucas ice-cream, too late, I should have listened to that psychic voice telling me to wait! I couldn’t really justify buying another ice-cream so soon after the last!
As I ambled my way along Princess Street gardens taking in the sights I came upon the magnificent flower clock, this is a must see if you’re ever in Edinburgh, it is really pretty, especially on a sunny day. The floral clock can be found half way down the stairs into the gardens across from the National Galleries, at the foot of the Mound, commissioned in 1903, it was the first of its kind in the world. Oh, and amazingly it tells the correct time in flowers! How cool is that! Unfortunately my photographs could have been a bit better, there were a few shadows lurking about but still it does give you an idea of how lovely it is. I like how this wonderful display of flowers celebrates Books, Words and Ideas. Of course Edinburgh, my old home town, is the first UNESCO City of Literature in the world, and deservedly so.
More about that here: http://www.cityofliterature.com/edinburgh/
Links:
http://kenmacleod.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/18/iain-banks-final-book-poetry-published-2015-ken-macleod
So it was time to say farewell to Edinburgh until the next time. Time to go home and see my hubby and my daughters!
I do hope you have enjoyed all of my Edinburgh posts, I have bombarded you with so many of them but my excuse is simply this, I used to live in Edinburgh, I grew up and had many memorable teenage years there.
I love the city and always will.
Bye for now.
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
Edinburgh Festival: The Kelpies Sculptures
Aren’t these stunning?
These miniature statues are currently a feature of Edinburgh’s West End for the duration of the Edinburgh International Festival. The real Kelpies are one of the largest standing equine sculptures in the world, standing 30 metres high, and located within “the Helix” park, Falkirk, a 350 hectare park situated between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. The Kelpies are the creation of sculpter Andy Scott. Next time I’m up in Scotland I will most definitely be visiting the “real” Kelpies in Falkirk.
Taking photographs of them at different angles, certainly seemed to breathe life into these miniature Kelpies! Also I played about with the exposure, brightness, etc, on a photo editing site: http://www.picmonkey.com/ to get differing effects.
Links:
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/1876/world-famous_kelpies_come_to_edinburghs_west_end
Hope you enjoyed the Kelpies. I loved them. Have you seen the Kelpies?
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
Photography: The Cutty Sark London
I just found this in my draft folder, seem to have forgotten to post this, the powers of my memory are obviously declining. So here goes…..
I took this photograph of the Cutty Sark the evening we picked up my eldest daughter and all her possessions from her University at the end of term, she needed to vacate her flat.
Her first year gone already, how did that happen? Eek, time is flying past too fast. Slow down, dearest, I can’t keep up with you. Anyway getting back to her vacating the flat when I say all her possessions I mean all her possessions! All apart from her crutches no we left those behind, (she broke her ankle this term, poor girl,) hope those crutches don’t come in handy to the next person renting her room! No more broken ankles me hopes.
Luckily we just had enough room in the car for the rest of us and no more, we couldn’t have squeezed another tiny person in there believe me. Girls and our belongings! I tell you half of our car boot was filled with her university books, well this she could be forgiven for, she is a English Literature student after all! My husband commented that when he went to university all he had was a large rucksack! Nowadays an oversized rucksack would just about do for her books, and you wouldn’t want to carry those on your back and that’s a fact!
We travelled back to London from Brighton and had a fantastic night out in Greenwich, and stayed overnight at my sister in law’s house. It was a truly memorable night, we had a lovely meal and ended up in a pub singing along to a band.
There must have been some kind of event on at The Greenwich Observatory as there were several classic cars on display as you can see, very posh!
Here’s a couple of photos of this fantastic evening view, I couldn’t quite do it justice, I need a better camera, I just took these on my mobile phone. But still, I think it gives you an indication of what a beautiful night it was.
On the way to the pub a young man ran by us and threw lots of pound coins on the ground! I don’t know if he was drunk, or just wanting to share his money with passing strangers! A kind contribution for next year’s rent for my daughter? Perhaps! Given how much her annual rent costs all donations even pound coins gratefully received!
Oh, I do attract these kind of uncanny happenings, I wonder what it is about me?
Mustn’t complain it does give me lots of ideas for stories!
Such a funny and memorable night, I’ve been intending to share this with you for ages. It’s taken me a while to get around to it.
I hope you enjoyed my photos, all comments gratefully received in lieu of pound coins! Next year’s rent is looming…….
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
Share this:
Writer’s Quote Wednesday: Edinburgh First UNESCO City of Literature
I’m a bit late for Writer’s Quote Wednesday this week as I’ve been away in Edinburgh and trying to catch up on everything now that I’m home, but I suppose it’s better to be late than never!
Anyway if you’d like to participate in this wonderful community of quote enthusiasts here’s the link:
http://silverthreading.com/2015/08/26/writers-quote-wednesday-pure-inspiration/
My quotes this week are inspired by my trip to Edinburgh, and in particular to the Edinburgh Book Festival.
There are many more wonderful quotes about Edinburgh, the world’s first UNESCO city of Literature. www.cityofliterature.com
Here are some more of my favourites:
“Stepping into Charlotte Square was like stepping onto the pages of a fantastic new story.”
“City of the mind. A writer’s city.” Ian Rankin.
“It’s impossible to live in Edinburgh without sensing its literary heritage.” J K Rowling.
‘Edinburgh is my favourite city.” Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate.
“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.”
― Alexander McCall Smith
“Edinburgh is alive with words.”
― Sara Sheridan
“Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist.”
― Sara Sheridan
“From this height the sleeping city seems like a child’s construction, a model which has refused to be constrained by imagination. The volcanic plug might be black Plasticine, the castle balanced solidly atop it a skewed rendition of crenellated building bricks. The orange street lamps are crumpled toffee-wrappers glued to lollipop sticks.”
― Ian Rankin
Edinburgh is a great big black bastard of a city where there are ghosts of all kinds.”
― Sara Sheridan, Ma Polinski’s Pockets
“The drinking dens are spilling out
There’s staggering in the square
There’s lads and lasses falling about
And a crackling in the air
Down around the dungeon doors
The shelters and the queues
Everybody’s looking for
Somebody’s arms to fall into
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
There’s frost on the graves and the monuments
But the taverns are warm in town
People curse the government
And shovel hot food down
The lights are out in the city hall
The castle and the keep
The moon shines down upon it all
The legless and asleep
And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the wagons creeping through
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
The garrison sleeps in the citadel
With the ghosts and the ancient stones
High up on the parapet
A Scottish piper stands alone
And high on the wind
The highland drums begin to roll
And something from the past just comes
And stares into my soul
And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the Caledonian Blues
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
What it is
It’s what it is now
There’s a chink of light, there’s a burning wick
There’s a lantern in the tower
Wee Willie Winkie with a candlestick
Still writing songs in the wee wee hours
On Charlotte Street I take
A walking stick from my hotel
The ghost of Dirty Dick
Is still in search of Little Nell
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
Oh what it is
What it is now”
― Mark Knopfler, Sailing to Philadelphia
You can see I’m missing Edinburgh already! My old home town! Still it’s always nice to be home, especially as I know that I can go back to Edinburgh again.
There are so many Literary activities you can take part in here are some links that I’d like to share with you:
Edinburgh Book Festival, Charlotte Square: www.edbookfest.co.uk
Scottish Story Telling Centre: www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk
Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour: www.edinburghliterarypubtour.co.uk
Edinburgh Writers’ Museum: www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk
Edinburgh World Heritage Trinity Apse Storytelling Garden: www.ewht.org.uk
The Edinburgh Book Lovers’ Tour www.edinburghbooktour.com
Edinburgh Book Sculptures via : www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk
Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on Edinburgh for Writer’s Quote Wednesday.
Bye for now…
Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx
M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 