Writers' Conference

Here's a link to the Surrey International Writers' Conference in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. I have never attended, but have heard great things about it.

Narratives online

I have spent most of the last six weeks travelling (for work). I am back home again, tired, and way behind on everything, including posting to this blog.

I have been spending some time surfing the net looking at examples of work by young people that involves constructing narratives using multiple modalities (e.g., text, images, animation, voiceover) and posting them online. Very typically what people do is use resources in existing software utilities, like role-playing games. They draw upon the game to create characters (robotic soldier), settings (futuristic battleground), and actions (jumping, shooting), then put together a storyline or short episode. Machinima (machine + cinema) is an example of this creative genre.

The video below provides a tutorial of how to create machinima using the game World of Warcraft. It also models character creation, and plays with the boundary between exposition and fantasy.



I find it fascinating that the power of story is such that people find ways to create narratives using whatever is at hand. Around each of these types of creativity, a community springs up, offering an audience, critique, and suggestions. At the same time, commercial enterprises that create the games, films, and products (all interlinked) have a huge role in shaping the fantasy worlds, character options, and narrative themes that are possible. Hmmm.

I am trying to get my head around how this fits with the traditions of written literature (e.g., novels) especially, and also oral storytelling, performance, and film.

We are storying beings.

Another Alessandro Andreuccetti Watercolour

Here is another painting by Alessandro Andreuccetti that I just love. What first strikes me is the movement, like autumn leaves in a breeze. The theme (autumn trees), the colour palette, and the impressionistic looseness are characteristic of my own painting style (when I used to paint, although I work in oils, not watercolours).

Free write: A Rock

Here is the beginning of a story. What would you write next?

Evan stood on the beach facing the grey inhospitable sea. At the farthest distance, the rough woolen sky was separated from the clay-coloured ocean by the merest smudge of a horizon line. In the middle distance, the ocean was like stippled granite. Then closer to him, grey-green waves with foamy tops rose up and raced toward him up the beach, stopped just short of his dirty canvas runners, then slid back down carrying away little rivers of beach pebbles.

Pebbles. Rocks. In his pocket, a weight against the top of his thigh. A rock. A rock like the heat of an egg yolk, an eyeball, a heart pulsing in his pocket. . . .

Tuscan Hills landscapes

This watercolour was painted by Alessandro Andreuccetti. Images from his recent show were profiled on the Urban Sketchers site. I especially like this painting because of the sense of spaciousness and the quality of the light.


You can go to his blog at: http://aandreuccetti.altervista.org/blog/ and view other images of his paintings.

Excerpt from WIP

Lately, I have been thinking about, but not writing much on my novel in progress. However, tonight, after a happy, tiring day of digging in the garden, I actually worked on the novel for a while. Here's a short excerpt from the evening's writing:

It is amazing what happens to time when you are having a major life experience like your first relationship. It gets completely filled up. Every single moment becomes intensely saturated with significance. Later, when you look back, there are all these events, emotions, and significant moments packed in one after another and you remember them all perfectly. So it seems incredible when you realize that only, say, three weeks have gone by, yet more has happened than in three normal months. And those three months that you would have typically had in the past seem so pale, empty, and pathetic compared to every colourful, jam-packed hour in your current eventful life.

That’s how it felt for me when Percy and I began going out together. It’s like all my senses got switched from sleep mode to full on. I smelled coffee with an intensity that almost made me faint, and suddenly I could see things around me with the clarity of an artist – the colours, the composition, the pattern of twigs against a winter sky. Yet at the same time, every little nerve ending was like an antenna tuned to the frequency of Percy; every part of my body was alike an octopus tentacle reaching towards Percy. The pop music singers always sing about the “electricity” of love, or the “magnetism” of their lover, and I totally discovered what they meant. I felt astonishingly alive, the blood pulsing under my skin, and I could hardly even recall how dull and vacant my life had been only weeks before.

Yummy chicken recipe

Chicken with Dark Beer (Coq à la Bière)

"Southerners in France like their chicken cooked in wine, preferably a rich red, but northerners go for the caramel intensity of dark beer laced with plenty of onions. The sweetness of the beer is enhanced with a spicing of juniper berries and a shot of gin, the local tipple. I enjoy a puree of celery root or lentils on the side, but the traditional accompaniment would be mashed or boiled potatoes. The chicken can be prepared ahead and refrigerated in its sauce up to three days, or freeze it up to one month. Thaw, reheat, and add the yogurt and vinegar before serving." —AW

Yield

4 servings

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bone-in chicken breast halves, skinned
• 2 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
• 2 chicken drumsticks, skinned
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 3 tablespoons dry gin
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 3/4 cup chopped peeled carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots (about 3 medium)
• 3 juniper berries, crushed
• 1 (8-ounce) package mushrooms, halved
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup dark beer
• 1/4 cup whole-milk Greek-style yogurt
• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preparation

1. Combine first 3 ingredients; sprinkle evenly over both sides of chicken. Heat butter and oil in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove pan from heat. Pour gin into one side of pan; return pan to heat. Ignite gin with a long match; let flames die down. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.

2. Add celery, carrot, shallots, and juniper berries to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms. Place thyme, parsley, and bay leaf on a double layer of cheesecloth. Gather edges of cheesecloth together; tie securely. Add cheesecloth bag to pan. Return chicken to pan, nestling into vegetable mixture. Stir in beer; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in the meaty parts of chicken registers 160°. (Breasts may cook more quickly. Check them after 35 minutes, and remove them when they're done; keep warm.)

3. Discard cheesecloth bag. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Place pan over medium heat; stir in yogurt. Cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated (do not boil, as the yogurt may curdle). Remove from heat; stir in vinegar. Taste and adjust seasoning, if desired. Place 1 chicken breast half or 1 drumstick and 1 thigh on each of 4 plates; top each serving with about 3/4 cup sauce and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 370

Fat: 16g (sat 6.6g,mono 5g,poly 3g)

Protein: 30.8g

Carbohydrate: 15.1g

Fiber: 1.4g

Cholesterol: 103mg

Iron: 2mg

Sodium: 465mg

Calcium: 55mg

Anne Willan, Cooking Light, JANUARY 2009

Okay, I haven't tried this recipe from Cooking Light yet, but I plan to. . . .