Welcome…
September 1, 2009 by RuthThe Truth About Writers
November 13, 2009 by RuthWent to hear R J Ellory talk to an audience of readers’ groups at Milton Keynes Library last night. That is R J ELLORY not JAMES ELLROY with whom he is sometimes confused. I can’t vouch for Mr Ellroy but Roger Ellory is a great speaker – fluent, intelligent, thoughtful and funny – so it’s no wonder there was a long queue to buy books afterwards.
One of the first points he made was that the writer’s life is not quite how some people imagine it. We do not, he explained, lie in bed most of the morning with a hangover, then bash out a few immortal lines, fend off the film offers and head out in the evening to get drunk at the next launch party. (I’m paraphrasing here.)
He’s absolutely right. Apart from the hour or so in which I dictate 1,000 words to my secretary and send the research assistant off on the latest assignment, I spend most of the day lying on a chaise longue painting my toenails and watching The West Wing.
Please excuse me. I could go on, but George Clooney’s just rung to say he’s popping round any minute, so I need to slip into a fresh pair of silk pyjamas.
Does anybody know this man?
November 4, 2009 by RuthThe Large Print edition of Persona Non Grata has now been published with this fine chap on the cover:
Author’s aren’t consulted about Large Print covers (or at least, I’m not) so there was no chance to ask where this shot was taken. I’d love to know because the background is not unlike Corbridge, where I spent many happy hours researching the second of Ruso’s adventures.
If anyone knows who the tip of that nose belongs to, please pass on my thanks.
In or out?
October 26, 2009 by RuthTwo ‘firsts’ this weekend. Poisoned Pen’s Webcon was allegedly the world’s first Online Mystery Convention – and what a brilliant idea. The archive of events is on their website so for those of us who weren’t able to spent all of Saturday glued to the computer, there’s a chance to catch up on the ‘live’ panels and interviews and a lot of the pre-recorded material.
Given the cost of attending real conferences, maybe we’ll be seeing more of the virtual sort in future? No travelling, or worrying about what to wear or who’s going to feed the cat. Obviously there were glitches – BlogTalkRadio isn’t always as clear as it might be and some of the participants had pitched battles with their computers – but there was some excellent material available. For twenty-five dollars (including a virtual goody-bag) it was a great day out/in.
The other ‘first’ for me (which clashed with the Webcon, as things do) was a trip to hear some professional actors read three short dramas by upcoming writers, one of whom is a good friend. I’d never realised before how trained performers can bring well-written words to life – even when clutching copies of the script. It was simply wonderful. So I guess I won’t be retreating to live on the Internet just yet.
Anyone for coffee?
October 23, 2009 by RuthFinally got organised to register for Poisoned Pen’s Webcon. I’ll be donning my pinny to host the chat in the Virtual Coffee Shop at 4.30-5 pm UK time tomorrow (Saturday 24th). If anyone’s around and would care to drop by, you’ll be most welcome.
I’ll be taking over from the excellent Jane Finnis, who’s making the coffee for the previous half-hour, so hopefully there will be some crossover*. If it’s quiet we can have a chat over the washing-up about some gloriously obscure aspect of Roman Britain and the fiction we both weave around it .
As regards the technical aspects – ‘fraid I haven’t a clue how this sort of thing works, nor what time 4.30 will be across the rest of the virtual community, but people who DO know have made it all clear on the Webcon site.
*LATER – no there won’t, not unless something goes seriously wrong, as the final schedule says there should be a half-hour gap between us. I’ll be sharing the hosting with Jenny White – hopefully that’s the right link!
Persona Non Grata audio
October 21, 2009 by RuthAt last! Thanks to Randy for the good news that Ruso and Tilla’s third adventure is now available for US listeners to download from Audible.com
The publishers Tantor also have it on CD. I’d like to think it’s also in All Good Bookshops, but possibly it’s only in selected Very Excellent ones.
(Apologies to anyone who can’t access items from American websites, to whom this is no use at all. ‘Ruso and the Root of All Evils’ will be out in the UK next spring and, partly due to snail’s pace at which I seem to be writing Book Four, publication dates WILL be better synchronised in future.)
Stonehenge – loved not wisely, but too well
October 20, 2009 by RuthI’m one of the generation whose family archive holds – somewhere – a childhood photo that you wouldn’t be allowed to take today. It’s of me sitting on one of the fallen stones of the Henge. I seem to recall there was an ice-cream involved somewhere. There may even have been a picnic, probably involving fish-paste sandwiches, orange squash and a thermos.
Years later we took our own children there. No such photo opportunities now. Visitors are shepherded round a circular path at a safe distance from the stones, allowed to Look But Don’t Touch, before trotting back through the tunnel to hand in their audio guides. It’s all very necessary, given the numbers of folk involved, but it’s kind of sad. It’s hard to get a perspective on our ancestors’ incredible achievement when you can’t stand underneath it, run your hands over the surface of the stone and think, how did they get that up there? swiftly followed by, If that falls on me, I’m dead.
The ‘visitor experience’ at Stonehenge has been under discussion for years. Everyone agrees that it’s unsatisfactory: nobody can agree on what should be done about it. However… it looks as though something may be happening at last. For some pretty pictures of how things might turn out, have a look at the English Heritage proposals.
Still not much chance of being able to sit on the stones with an ice-cream, though. Like the taste for fish-paste sandwiches, some things just aren’t going to come back.
Japan: ‘I’ll send you a map.’
October 19, 2009 by RuthOr, What We Did on Our Holidays part III – The Final Destination.
I must admit that when the kind friend who was meeting us in Tokyo sent two maps, a series of written instructions and an emergency phone number, we thought she’d gone slightly over the top. Japanese railway notices are in English, and the staff are famously helpful. In fact this summer they were told that if they didn’t smile enough at the customers, they would be sent on special training courses.
So, how hard could it be?
Very, as it turned out. Shinjuku station is the busiest in the world. It’s a miracle of efficiency that boasts miles of corridors, millions of travellers, dozens of escalators and two hundred exits. (I’m quoting Wikipedia for the exits figure. We didn’t visit them all, although I did begin to wonder if we might.)
Having rescued us from Shinjuku, Kind Friend took us to see Tokyo the easy way. This is NOT the famous view from the bar of the hotel where ‘Lost in Translation’ was filmed, and where beer is allegedly £30 a pint. This is taken from the top of the Metropolitan building, which is apparently just as good – and free. We were told Mount Fuji was out there somewhere. Please use your imagination.
After the urban madness of Tokyo it was a relief to go somewhere with only two possible directions, UP and DOWN:
Here’s the view the skiers would have seen from the start of the downhill run in the 1998 Winter Olympics. Presumably with more snow.
Below: in Kind Friend’s flat, clutching a traditional soft drink whose name I’ve forgotten and relishing the thought of not having to navigate anywhere at all. Note the absence of chairs, which is an interesting challenge for the British back.
You can’t go to Japan and not try Sushi…
…and Japanese fast food, which is a work of art. Here’s a display of ‘Bento boxes’, supplied with disposable chopsticks.
Whilst it might not be as comforting as a bag of chips, I have to say the Bento Box wins hands down for presentation. And possibly goes some way towards explaining another cultural difference. After a fortnight surrounded by slim Russians and slender Japanese and Koreans, I began to realise that all those things they say about the British being overweight are truer than some of us would like to think.
To be honest some of us (well OK, me) aren’t very fit, either. So no wonder the smiles gave way to expressions of regret when the nice men in the ticket office told us the last train to the airport was leaving in three minutes’ time from a platform somewhere else in the middle of the dreaded Shinjuku station.
Luckily our very few words of Japanese included ‘Excuse me!’ and ‘Thank you!’ – much needed as we rampaged through corridors, up and down escalators and along platforms in pursuit of Eldest Son who had finally, just in time, figured out how to navigate in Japan.
South Korea: ingenious, or what?
October 10, 2009 by RuthStill on the ‘what we did on our holidays’ theme, this post has been brought forward a few days (there really is a plan here – sometimes) because…
There’s a chance to catch a little of Korea in the UK this week. The amazing percussion group GongMyoung are touring southeast England. Fantastic to watch live, they’re also on YouTube here.
The instruments in the clip are their own invention. After our swift visit to Seoul this comes as no surprise. South Korea truly appears to be the land where there’s an ingenious gadget for everything.
August is not the best time to visit Seoul, as any fool who’s read the guide books will know. Still, having travelled so far, this fool felt obliged to turn off the aircon (remotely controlled, of course), abandon the amazing guesthouse plumbing (more later) and drag herself out to see a few sights. After this:
and some of this
and some sitting around in this
and some marvelling at the absence of litter and graffiti while wondering where the riots were (sorry, no photo of riot police out practising on the streets, but there were lots of them) the only sight we still wanted to see was this, dispensed by machines that sell it very cold and very cheap:
…which just about gave us the strength to stagger back to the wonders of Korean plumbing. I’m not going to elaborate except to say that the heated bathroom mirror is an eminently sensible invention. As for the rest - Googling ‘washlet’ will provide all the details anyone could ever want to know, and visitors to Japan will not need to be told.
I began to understand what it must have felt like when our barbarian ancestors first encountered aqueducts and underfloor heating. We’d have been the ones running back to the farmstead, shouting, ”You’ll never believe what those Romans have got in that Bath House!’
If you don’t know the language…
October 7, 2009 by RuthStill mulling over the holiday (will get back to Ruso 4 in a minute). One thing I think I learned was how clueless you are in a society where you don’t have the language. Things happen that you have no way of interpreting or understanding, and other things, possibly of enormous significance, probably pass straight over your head unnoticed.
All of which leads me to wonder how much the Romans really understood about the Britons and their customs when they came over here, even with the help of interpreters. It’s such a pity that we don’t have any account of how the Druids saw themselves before the Roman Army – allegedly – wiped them out.
Russia: ‘Don’t smile – they’ll think you’re crazy.’
October 4, 2009 by RuthMore than a month after the mega-expedition and I still can’t assimilate it. It was probably ridiculously optimistic to hope for ‘cultural insights’ on a whistlestop tour of three or four days in each country, so I won’t attempt them. Just a few random observations instead, posted now because there’s a deadline in sight for the next Ruso novel. Tied to the computer here at Downie Towers, it’s nice to remember there’s a real world out there.
First stop: Russia. A country about which we knew little that hadn’t been gleaned from news bulletins and old spy movies (could these possibly be a little biased?). I loved the Martin Cruz Smith ‘Renko’ novels, but they’re mostly set at the other end of the country, and Vladivostok barely gets a mention. Our apprehensions weren’t helped by a warning that the standard tourist trick of grinning helplessly and waving your hands about was unlikely to impress. So… in this woeful state of ignorance, off we went.
Vladivostok in a heatwave. The sign translates as ‘NO SWIMMING!’
This was a rare instance of being able to catch the photo you want without violating the dignity of local people. There are no pictures of The Pothole of Vast Proportions. The beautiful but fearsome waitresses whom we christened The Breakfast Police remain unrecorded, and whilst I’d love to have a snap of the truckloads of real (and scary) police who trundled into town one afternoon, I didn’t want a trip to the station afterwards. So yes, the Western stereotypes of Russia were there.
There were things I should have caught and didn’t. The reality that the stereotypes don’t reflect. The bright and defiant patch of flowers tended outside a flat where the heat had reduced the surroundings to a dustbowl. Someone putting out food for stray cats. The second-hand buses full of Russians where the signs, still in Korean, announce cheerfully and untruthfully that they are headed for Seoul.
What I couldn’t have caught in a photo, though, was the good humour of Russian drivers who seem constantly amazed and disappointed by the bad driving of everybody else. The extreme fairness of the restaurant based on a Workers’ Canteen theme, where good food at reasonable prices is ladled onto the plate and then weighed, adjusted, and weighed again before it’s handed over. The relentless optimism of young women who, finally freed from winter boots, persist in wearing tight skirts and eye-wateringly high heels despite the state of pavements ravaged by ice (see ‘Pothole of Vast Proportions’ above). The generosity of the taxi driver who handed round bags of crisps before we set out on the long drive into town from the airport. The helplessness of our struggle to spell out words that a Russian four-year-old could have managed with ease, and the mingled relief and shame at the discovery that so many people on the other side of the world were studying our language while we had barely a clue about theirs.
Above: Vladivostok station, one of several possible ends to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Taken from this angle in a not very successful attempt to include the statue of Lenin against the trees in the background. Later examination revealed that the great man had a pigeon on his head (see below) so it wasn’t much of a photo anyway.
For a far better view, check out the webcam here. The station is the big building on the right.
Below: somehow the Cold War doesn’t seem so cold now we know what the Russian submariners were getting up to in their spare time. This picture was taken inside a submarine that’s now open as a museum. Well worth a visit, although this was the day I too decided to wear a tight skirt and discovered they really aren’t the thing for clambering through hatches.
Incidentally, lest there should be any confusion, we found that smiling is frequently practised in Russia despite the warning we were given, and we heard stories of hospitality that were positively humbling. The thing NOT to do is to grin at strangers, apparently. Especially the Breakfast Police. (We’ll get to smiling later, with Japan.)
Only three days, and it was time to move on. Next stop, South Korea.
In the meantime, for a better-informed piece on Vladivostok, there’s this article on the Way to Russia website.
