Thursday…

November 11, 2016 James Collins

Thursday…
After another very pleasant evening (thank you again A&A), I was home just before a thunderstorm passed over. A quick dash around to unplug anything vital, like routers and computers, turning on the tap so that the sterna collected some rainwater, and then I stood and watched the storm for a while before turning in.

Thursday dawned with large clouds lit up by the sunrise, all very dramatic and colourful, as you can see from today’s photos from the roof. It was a warm day and when the clouds moved on, actually felt hot when in the sun. Not that I was in it for long. I popped down to the supermarket for some supplies, and to order some water to be delivered later. It was its usual madness and mayhem with George on the till, Sultana on the weighing scales (not literally), Habib and Stavros bringing in new supplies and hoarding them above the deli counter next to the song birds and Sotiris wandering around packing up bags for delivery to those who order by phone because they can’t leave the house. The wall outside was, as it often is, piled high with everything from flour to Flora and the place was a hive of activity.

Earlier I had been on the balcony watching the coastguard boats, the only two boats in the harbour, that I could see, when I noticed a couple of kestrels above me. As I looked closer I realised there were six, out catching the bugs and things following the night’s rain. Wishing I had a longer lens, I took a snap on my small camera, so the dot you can see against the cloud here is actually one of the birds.

There was no book work yesterday as I had things to do. Shopping and preparing a meal for Miss DJ who was coming for dinner. I made a start on tidying the house ready for Neil’s return on Saturday and did some piano playing in the afternoon. Such are my days on Symi now the season has finally finished. And it has only just finished, now that the Panormitis festival is over. I expect there are still pilgrims there and the boats are still coming into Panormitis as well as Yialos, though that service will stop soon enough. We had the Blue Star on Wednesday and a catamaran no Thursday, the Blue Star is due back today, so we are still being reasonably well served with connections. Let’s hope that continues.

And now, having prepared the blog, it’s time to see to the washing and sweep some floors. I will wait for the leaves in the courtyard to dry out before sweeping them up so as to avoid a mess, and then go and feed the strays, empty Jack’s litter tray and put my feet up for a short while. Have a good day.

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Day to day on Symi

Yesterday

November 10, 2016 James Collins

Yesterday
It was a little windy as I headed down to Yialos on Wednesday, and I took the camera to get you some images of the grey day we were having. It’s been windier, but every now and then a gust came along to help me on my way.

Symi Greece Symi Dream photos — Grey and windy

I popped out for a drink at Rainbow on Tuesday late afternoon, met some friends and was treated to two glasses of wine by Yianni, as a way of celebrating the start of the winter season, perhaps. Afterwards, we went to Georgio’s for something to eat. It’s always good to go there out of season, sit inside and listen to the local gossip (from the staff) and feel warm. The menu is a bit reduced as you’d expect but there was still chicken in the oven, liver and chips, pork casserole and other dishes on the go and, as we were early, there was the BBQ later too. Thing is, I’m going there again this evening (Wednesday), and I wonder what will be in the pot tonight.

Meanwhile, in the harbour… Takis was moving shop. He’s closing down his older/original part of his long fontange and moving everything into the right-hand building; a way of cutting costs I think, after a difficult summer for everyone. I did what I had to do, went to the bank and the post office – where I collected a second marriage certificate for Neil. We only need one for his passport application, but they’ve sent two by mistake. I contacted them later and they assured me that the divorce cert I was expecting had also been sent, so this must have been an admin error. We’re only waiting for that, and the man himself to return with his photos and a couple of other pieces of paper, and I’m hoping we can get the application out next week.

After that, I called into the newsagents to pick up a Speedex delivery, as you do. There were some gypsies there (the local term) asking for money form everyone and being told, politely and firmly, that there wasn’t any to give. These folks must travel around on the inter-island ferries, spending a day here and the next day there as they go about their business. I woke at six yesterday morning to see the Blue Star leaving, it was either on a slightly changed schedule or running late; I guess they sailed in on that.

Then it was a walk back up the Kali Strata (must do it more often) and home for lunch. The afternoon was spent writing the next book and preparing for a social evening ahead. And that was my day. Hope yours was as fun-filled and action packed as mine.

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Day to day on Symi

Jets, cat’s ears and other matters

November 9, 2016 James Collins

Jets, cat’s ears and other matters
With all the celebrations going on over in Panormitis, I spent a very quiet day at home yesterday, working. Looking out from the balcony (the day was warm a little humid and very pleasant) the harbour was like a ghost town, I only saw a few people moving about. The bus was running though. The village was quiet, apart from a few people passing the door on their way to a festival somewhere no doubt.

Mind you, we had a bit of shock when a fighter jet flew low overhead on Monday afternoon, doing barrel rolls and, I assume, wishing the island well for the festival. Crickey those things are loud.

View from Kokimides a couple of years ago

So, a Xronia Polla to everyone celebrating their name day at this time and maybe I’ll go to the festivities next year. I have to say, it has been nice to spend the time at home, with peace and quiet, getting on with what I wanted to and needed to do, though tonight (Tuesday as I write) I may pop out for a drink at the Rainbow just to set eyes on other living beings. The only company I’ve had for a while has been Jack. Mind you, that’s often enough.

I’ve been looking at his ears and his slowly growing skin cancer. We may have to take him to the vet before long and have his ears taken off. Yesterday he scratched off one of the black scabs and left the skin exposed and bleeding. I’m keeping an eye on it for infections and I can, if I am very sneaky, get some cotton wool and dab on some antiseptic but, if you’re ever tried putting cream on a cat for any reason, let alone on an open wound, you can imagine how traumatising it is – and the cat doesn’t like it much either. Every now and then I see a blood splatter along a wall, or over the floor and wonder who has been murdered, but then realise it’s just the cat scratching his ears and then shaking his head. Ah well, a little warm water and a sponge and all evidence is removed.

So, apart from corrupting crime scenes, risking life and limb with some Savlon, or similar, and listening to the eerie silence of an apparently empty village, these last couple of days have been very productive. Not with walks and new photos for the blog, hence the old ones, but with words and stories. Perfect.

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Day to day on Symi

Panormitis day – Symi sky

November 8, 2016 James Collins

Panormitis day – Symi sky
Photos of the sky today, taken from a house in the middle of the village on Sunday afternoon. While there, we also saw a buzzard flying overhead with alpine swifts and some black redtsarts, all too far away to get photos with my small camera. We also saw the buses heading up and down the hill, to and from Panormitis as the festival is well underway now.

I doubt I shall be going to any of the events this year, sorry, but my writing project is fully occupying my head and my time. But I have been offered a lift, so you never know, I may suddenly drop it all and head off for a couple of hours away from the desk. It’s one of those things that not many people understand, when you have a whole novel, musical, script or whatever in your head and can’t put it down. It does tend to make me uncommunicative at times, sorry about that too; I’m not ignoring you if I’m quiet, it’s just that there’s a whole world going on inside my imagination and it rather takes control. Still, if I don’t get to the festival this year I will see if I can borrow someone else’s photos and share a couple with you over the next few days.

I’ve attended the festival and various others held on the feast day (today) in the past. We’ve walked up to Kokimides above St George and stayed for lunch, we’ve walked to Roukouniotis and eaten there, joined in the celebrations, and we have also walked to Panormitis, as we did last year. If you enter ‘Panormitis’ into the Search Symi Dream search engine (over and own on the right) you will find several posts by me and others about the festival, such as this one https://symidream.com/still-walking-to-panormitis-4/ from our walk there last year.

Meanwhile, it’s back to the desk for me to get this MS done and dusted before my deadline.

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Books & writing

On writing (weak words)

November 7, 2016 James Collins

On writing (weak words)
First though, for my Symi-fan readers, a quick update on what I have seen or been told: The weekend weather was wonderful, after light cloud and rain early on Saturday morning. Looking at the harbour on Sunday morning around seven, it was bright, flat, calm and empty; all very peaceful. Out and about on Saturday afternoon, I noticed that the Rainbow is open again now Yianni is back from his break attending a wedding. The Panormitis festival starts today and runs for three days (I may be going, I may be writing) and the boats from Rhodes are mainly calling in to Panormitis rather than Yialos. Today’s photos are Symi photos from the summer taken from Neil’s file and so have nothing to do with what I’m talking about today .

This morning, I thought I’d put up some of my own ideas about writing. I’m not a writing tutor or anything but I thought a few notes on how I go about things might be of interest to others out there who are writing fiction and going down the indie-publishing route. You could be going down the ‘traditional’ publishing route as well, it doesn’t matter, but as I’ve done very little this week but write, I thought… Well, why not? (There may be more of these kinds of posts in the future, if they are of interest; feedback welcomed.)

And so: Draft three. I’m working on ‘The Saddling’ a new novel which should be available next year. The first draft of this one was actually a screenplay as that’s how it started out, the story idea came from a moment in a dream and developed from there, the first prose draft was partly written on Tilos earlier this year and the draft I have just gone through was based on my notes after reading a printed copy of the MS – much easier than reading one on the screen.

I’ve been asked if a third, fourth, whatever draft is a complete rewrite and in this case it’s not. Some sections have been re-written, yes, some sections have been taken out, other parts improved and others left alone as they are fine. One of the things I like about this edit/draft stage is the tidying up. You’ve done all the hard work, the bashing out of, in this case, 111,000 words and now you can get critical with yourself. This draft was all about 1) making sure the story is there, 2) making sure the facts add up, 3) making sure it’s logical 4) cutting out repetitions. Now, with a draft four, I can look at what I call ‘weak words’ and then sit back and ponder the deeper things like: 1) is there motivation here? 2) Would that really happen? (Difficult that one, as we’re talking about a gothic style novel where there is a little supernatural and where the setting is a place that has its own lore and law.) 3) how can I draw out those characters more interestingly? And how can I avoid words like ‘interestingly’?

Actually, ‘interestingly’ is fine, but I am now about to check through the draft looking for my weak-words. What are they? Well, for me, they are normally verbs such as: went, started, looked, walked, turned, and to a certain extent, said. There are a lot of ‘saids’ in a novel with dialogue, and it’s the best (simplest) way to tell the reader that someone said something, but too many close together in dialogue and it becomes too obvious. He said, said Tom, he said, he said… So, one way to improve the MS is to think again about ‘said.’ You don’t always need it. For example, if you put a character action after the dialogue.

‘I’m not doing that.’ Barry started walking to the door.’ (Factual, but dull.)

We know Barry spoke as his action is in the same line. What’s wrong there though, for me, is ‘started walking.’ I found ‘started’ 46 times in the 100,000 words MS. (The other thing I did with the draft was cut out roughly 10% of the words, so we’re now down to 100k.) That’s easily done by ridding your MS of ‘started to’ and simply putting ‘walked’, as in this case. But ‘Walk’ is weak. How did he walk? What mood was he in? Why did he walk? What was he really doing?

‘I’m not doing that.’ Barry backed away, searching for an escape.

That gives us some new information and still the movement, but it now means so much more.

I could go on like this all day but I won’t as I expect you’ve had enough now, but for any writers out there here are my first few tips:

Don’t think about it, do it.
When not writing, read.
Don’t get it right, get it written (then re-draft and edit).
Don’t pay a lot of money for creative writing courses to get you started, you don’t need them; the only thing useful about them might be making contacts and discussing your, and others’, work. Cheaper to join a forum or set up your own writers’ group.

But I shan’t go on about my thoughts on that one either, not today. I’ll leave you with this longer-than-normal post and get back to my trawl through draft 3-to-4 looking for weak words and maybe, tomorrow, I will have left the house and have some local chat for you.

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Writing on a Greek island