Taking a short break

I run my blog through Blogger, uploaded via FTP to my own site. Recently, Google announced they will be turning off that facility. The "better option" Google proposes is running my blog off of a custom domain. Doing so would destroy every other page I have on this site, and mean I can't run my podcast (also a Blogger blog) on the same site.

So, I'm voting with my feet and moving to Wordpress. This will take a little while to achieve, and so I'm not going to post any more until after the move. Those of you who have subscribed via RSS and email shouldn't be disrupted: I run my feed through Feedburner, so the RSS feed will remain the same.

IN a sense, this provides a solution to another problem that had cropped up - that I was in imminent danger of losing my Haloscan comments (which cannot be exported to Blogger). These are easily ported across to Wordpress, so there will at least be continuity in comments.

With work, and various writing projects, I don't have a lot of spare time at the moment, so bear with me while this goes on, but I'm hoping to be moved by the end of February at the latest.

Cheers everyone.

Paul

Testimonies, not resolutions

Well, it's over half way through the month. The fad of the new year resolution posts has now passed. That little pause gave me time to reflect on what follows. I've elected not to do "resolutions" this year, and possibly not ever in the future. Most resolutions fail, quickly and spectacularly. What I want are long term changes.

I've mentioned it before on here, but for about a year now I have been attending my local Quaker meeting, and it is my intention to apply for membership sometime next year. Quakers, at least in the UK, live by four main testimonies, which are the application of faith in practice. They are the closest things Quakers have to a creed.

The four main testimonies are Peace, Equality, Truth and Simplicity (and for those interested I've linked through to the Wikipedia articles about them).

So my "resolutions", such as they are, are these four testimonies.

Peace
Peace is not just the absence of conflict. It is an active state to be worked for. Quakers seek to "take away the occassions for all war". I am someone who is quick to anger. A focused anger can be a good thing, it can initiate change for the better. But unfocused rage can be destructive. My own anger has in the past been unfocused, turned inwards. I'm looking for peace within myself. And then in a wider sense, what do I actually do to contribute to peace in the world. Do I speak out against those things that cause conflict? Do I work to resolve those conflicts, or do I close my eyes and claim it is not my problem? Externally and internally, peace is something that requires as much, if not more work, than it takes to be in conflict.

Equality
Just as I can ask whether I close my eyes to causes of conflict, do I close my eyes to inequalities in our society? Gender, race, sexuality, social standing, nationality, political opinion. Rather than being judgmental, can I look beyond my own prejudices to the person, not the category? I am conscious that I am dismissive and offhand with a lot of people I come into contact with. They are equal to me, and I am equal to them, and that attitude should permeate all I do.

Truth
This is possibly the hardest one to speak about. I have struggled with truth in my life, and it has cost me dearly. The absence of truth has caused immeasurable pain to those I love, my family, my close friends. For Quakers, even dissemblance and white lies are unacceptable. I have rarely been completely honest in my life, so time to start being honest with myself, about myself, and in my dealings with others.

Honesty does not just mean telling the truth however. It is about integrity, about being true to yourself, in your words and actions. And so I can no longer shuffle along and deny my own wishes in exchange for a quiet life of not rocking the boat. I want to write. I want to paint. I want to be an artist. And so that aspect of my life has to be one of my highest priorities, because anything else is not inkeeping with my own true self.

Simplicity
Originally, simplicity was to do with manner of dress and speech, but now it has come to embrace such issues as environmentalism and good stewardship. Over a period of some months I have started to become less attached to "things". I realise that I don't need much, materially, to be happy, and even those things that I take, such as books, I am happy to pass on, rather than hoard. Simplicity to me is about only acquiring that which is essential, making do with what I have, and making choices that do not unduly burden the planet, or society. Reducing my waste, my consumption, and being more frugal in my choices cause an uncluttering that introduces a simplicity to life leaving me with more time.

As with so many other things, this all sounded so much better in my head, and perhaps I will regret posting it? But I want to put these things out there, to hold myself accountable for the things I believe, the way I want to live, and to speak honestly about things that are important to me.

Confessions of a literary fraud From Write Anything - 22 November 09

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on November 22, 2009. The original text can be found here.

Confessions of a literary fraud

My day job involves a lot of clerical work. I have come to realise that there is a curious assumption made about people who work in clerical roles; that somehow, perhaps through psychic ability or secretive organisations, we all know each other. Therefore, when asked to do something that involves contacting other people outside our own organisations, we don't need to be told who to contact, or how, or sometimes what organisation they work for. It is assumed we entered the role with that knowledge in place.

Image used with kind permission, © 2009 Julia Anderson.

A similar assumption operates for writers. We all know each other, and we've read everything. In my experience, writers are generally well read. But there are only so many hours in the day. Nobody can read everything, let alone read everything and get on with their own writing.

So you read what you can, and you bluff the rest. And you hope nobody catches you out.

For your delight, edification, and my own embarrassment, here are my embarrassing literary secrets that would shake your faith in me as a writer.

1. Despite my deep interest in dystopian societies, I only read 1984 this year, I have just started Brave New World and I have never read Lord of the Flies.
   
2. I list The Three Musketeers as one of my favourite books, even though after six attempts, I've still only got half-way through it (the first half is really good...
   
3. Similar to the above, I count myself as a "fan" of Dostoevsky, despite only reading one of his books (and I considered myself "a fan" before that...)
   
4. I am vocally critical of authors and book series that I have never read.
   
5. Thanks to a handful of quotations, pop culture knowledge and BBC adaptations, people assume I've read far more Dickens and Shakespeare than I actually have...
   
6. I am extraordinarily ignorant of my own genres, having read little to any of it.
   
7. I have never read Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia.

They say confession is good for soul. So join me, confess your literary secrets, subvert the expectations that people have of us as well-read and of exquisite taste.

Google Friend Connect

Because I run my blog on my own domain and with a custom template, I don't get to benefit from the snazzy little widgets that can quickly and easily be added to Blogspot blogs, like a followers widget.

Google have however now made this available as HTML code, so I have added it to the sidebar. If you have a Google account and want to follow my blog through Google, then please do sign up via Friend Connect.

Otherwise? As you were...

A Nano widow writes From Write Anything - 15 November 09

This article first appeared on the Write Anything website on November 15, 2009. The original text can be found here. For some time on Write Anything we had considered letting our other halves take a turn and write an article about living with a writer. For NaNoWriMo, I decided to put that into practice...

A Nano widow writes

Today I thought you'd be interested to hear from the other half of your Sunday Writer, on the trials and tribulations of being a NaNoWriMo widow...

I have lost my husband. Not permanently, you understand, but for the duration of the month of November, it's as though I am merely haunted by the ghost of Paul Anderson, pacing the bedroom, tap-tapping away on his keyboard, bleating periodically for another cup of coffee. This is the third year running that Paul has participated in NaNoWriMo, and I'm just about getting the hang of this temporary widowhood. So here are my tips for the spouses and partners, especially the first-timers, on how to cope.

1. Bring coffee. Or tea. Or gin. Or beer. Or whatever it is that helps your honey write like a demon for several hours straight. Make sure the kettle always has water in it, and that it's just off the boil. Having to fill the kettle up and wait for it to boil saps creativity and is responsible for trains of thought disappearing into the ether, never to be seen again.
2. Stock up on snack food. Crisps, biscuits, crackers, the odd Pot Noodle or instant pasta meal. Anything that requires minimal preparation. Because there's nothing worse than coming in from an evening out and finding the writer in your life trying to make a meal out of a block of cheese. Paul will do this regardless of whether or not it's NaNoWriMo, but at least for the other 11 months I know he has time to prepare a meal if he wants to and that it's simply laziness preventing him from doing so (and the plaintive wail of "But I like cheese!").
3. Don't ask anything of them. If you have any paperwork, get it out of the way in October. If shelves need hanging do it yourself or get a handyman in to do it. If your writer does the cooking all the time, subsist for the whole month on microwave meals or take-away pizza. Just make sure you take up running (see point 4 below) and consider stocking up on vitamin supplements.
4. Take up a hobby or indulge in your existing favourite pastime. This is perhaps the only month when you can go off on your own without feeling remotely guilty. Gardening is my pleasure, but unfortunately November in Britain is the dreariest month of the year, with nothing whatsoever to recommend it, leaving me bored and frustrated indoors with only the seed catalogues for company. Organisers of NaNoWriMo, I beseech you to move it to September or April, or some month when the sun warms my back and the rain is kept to the minimum needed to encourage growth!
5. Don't interrupt them in the middle of their work. Set up some kind of signal - a sign to let you know when they are amenable to interruptions (when they've just finished a five-hour writing session and are now messing about on Facebook) and when it is absolutely, categorically a Do Not Disturb moment (the plot has just come together, the muse is with them, the bells are chiming and they know - just KNOW - that this is the best chapter they have ever written). Door open versus door closed, music on versus music off - that sort of thing.

Above all, indulge them in this. It is, after all, only for one month, and it is actually worth the inconveniences of having an absent partner to be able to crack open that champagne with them at 11:59pm on 30th November and see their faces lit up with the achievement of it all. Get in touch with the other widows and widowers in your spouse's writing circle and swap tips, rants and sympathy.

And give back rubs.