HOLIDAYING WITH AMELIA

I've spent the last few days in Central Otago - the Maniototo basin to be precise. Being inland, winter, and of a reasonably high elevation, the temperature was rather cold. On Wednesday and Thursday the night time temperatures plummeted to -12. Now those sorts of temperatures are rather foreign to this coast dwelling Dunedinite. Did you know that water can come out of the tap so cold it makes your hands ache, or that simply clutching a woollen top, that has sat in the drawer overnight, can chill your fingers until they tingle?

Ah, but even these troublesome events are fodder for the writer. You see, totally without plan, I have travelled the same roads as Amelia is about to travel (in the next chapter of my book) and at the same time of the year.

Here's a couple of shots of the views on the way to Strath Taieri.

Having crossed over a mountain range we descended into Strath Taieri, where Middlemarch is the main town.

Then, leaving Amelia to her own devices, we travelled on around the the northern end of another mountain range until we reached the Maniototo basin.

On the side of a hill not far from the old gold mining town of Hamiltons is our destination: An old TB sanatorium converted into a Christian community named En Hakkore. A few families farm here and there are several houses available for families if they need a break or a holiday. They have also converted the nursing home into accomodation for conferences and turned the old Laundry into a hall. We spent many holidays here when the children were younger, but it became less attractive as the kids moved into their teens. Now, it seems, they are over that and off we went, minus our eldest.

The complete break from television, the internet and phones was a real blessing. I feel like I have had a complete rest and now I'm rearing to go again.

Nor far from where we were staying

Firewood stacked up in front of an unused dormitory. Essential for heating and hot water.

Some of the residents!

The eggs were yummy.

The view from just below En Hakkore looking out over the Maniototo.

More of my holiday coming soon!

A NEW BEGINNING

Yet another week has flown by. A week where I was laid low by the 'flu. I did however manage to attend the Dunedin Writer's Workshop on Wednesday evening. A red letter day: my first meeting as the new president and my good friend Ruth as the new secretary. Nervous as we were, it was an enjoyable time.  

Our exercise for the evening was on developing characters. First we filled in a questionnaire for a new character, then we wrote that character into a scene. There were some interesting scenarios read out at the end.

I created a character - Mary - who sold flowers at Covent Garden, London, in Victorian times. It was fun, and she has captivated my muse. There may be more of Mary to come. I think Shaw's Pygmalion had just a little influence on my character - though there isn't a Henry Higgins in sight! Just a young butcher boy with an ailing younger sister.

Now for an update on my Catlins novel as promised. It has been one of those stories that is quite bothersome. Nobody does what they are told and writing it has been a real struggle. I decided to move the location, but then I still battled with it. So yesterday I consigned it to the scrapheap. Having purged the horrid story from my mind I lay down for a nap (I'm battling 'flu, remember) and bingo! A totally revised and workable plot dropped like a great weight into my lap!

The main characters will remain the same. The back story will be tinkered with. The plot and all its conflicts are brand new, however, the ending will still look the same. There is one sub-plot to be wrought and another to be streamlined, but I'm confident it will now fall into place.

Unfortunetly I still have no title, but I can't refer to it as my Catlins novel any longer. It is now set in Strath Taieri. A wonderful combination of Scottish and Maori names. The Taieri River meanders through a wide shallow valley- a strath, an hour's drive inland from Dunedin. In typical Central Otago country, brown grass and golden tussock is broken up with protrusions of crumbling schist rock.

The summers there are hot and dry and the winters bitterly cold. I used to holiday in this area as a child and I've always loved the solitude of the place, the sense of being millions of miles from anywhere. There's something magical about the rocks: they take on the shapes of animals, mythical beasts or strange turreted castles.

The small township of Middlemarch is positioned in the centre of the valley: a cute little railway station where the rail trail begins, two stores, two cafes, a museum, a handful of houses and the odd church. I drove up that way a few weeks ago for a poke around and to capture the landscape on camera. It feels like the right place to set my story.

ME AND MY KOBO

Two and a half weeks since my last post! Where did the days go?

The school holidays flew by, filled with trips down south to Gore, a jaunt to Middlemarch and shopping trips to town. Then there was Easter in the middle weekend, which sliced up the holidays with church services, the walking of the cross and numerous tasty breakfasts of Hot Cross Buns.

It had been my intention to spend a good part of the time writing, but it just wasn't to be. I did however begin a short story for an upcoming local competition. The theme is crime or mystery and I unearthed an interesting historic event that occured not far from here. It was labelled at the time as the "first sticking-up" in Otago. What a quaint expression. My muse was taken with this event and a story based on it is developing nicely. More on this in a later post.

After some careful consideration, I am moving the location of my novel - hence the jaunt to Middlemarch.(A little township in the midst of a remote plain, an hour's drive inland from Dunedin.) And more on this in a later post too.

But what I really want to post about today is:  My new Kobo e reader!

Now let it be said that I adore books. The real kind, made with paper and ink. I love the smell of new books and the musty aroma of dusty old books. I admire the colours on the front cover and the fancy embossed writing that you can run your fingers over whilst marveling at the fancy fonts. I like the way they look placed in a bookcase in their sets, or stacked horizontally until they bulge from the shelf. There is nothing nicer than turning the crisp white page of a new book, or wondering about the stains and smudges of an old treasure. And nothing beats the thrill of finding just the right book in a dark corner of an op shop, or unearthing a long forgotten book at the bottom of a storage carton. I love books!

So, how could I have succumbed to an e reader, you ask?

The answer: logistics and cost.

Logistics: There are only so many books that a house can hold.
Cost: There are only so many "real" books that I can afford.

Now that I actually own one, there are more considerations to add: no need for a bookmark, it slips easily into my handbag, and reading in bed is so much easier. You know those chilly evenings when you snuggle down and only your nose and the hand holding the book pokes out? And there is always one side of the page that is harder to get at? And you have to squint because wearing glasses lying down in bed is impossible. Well, with an e reader the problem is solved: there is only one side to it and you can enlarge the font.

Will I still buy books? You bet! But I'm glad I finally succumbed to technology.