The Heart Of The Rose

Hi here's a picture of my grandma and granddad outside the family home! No not really, this is the house I am writing about in my book, The Mackintosh one in Northampton I still can't sort the comments thing on my blog but a few people have sent me emails and if you like you can do so via my web page.
After chatting to Lucy however, she thinks The Heart of The Rose is a better title. I was worried it might be a bit soppy, but it is actually the name of one of Margaret Macdonald's works. There is a lot about love in the story and roses, because of the Mackintosh theme and his relationship with his wife Margaret Macdonald, but most of it is set in the present day and is looking at why that house, why then, and I think there is a bit of a mystery about the place. A researcher/writer comes to check it out and stays in a Mackintosh style B & B that has recently opened and there, run by a woman who also has a bit of a Mackintosh obsession. And I'm just on the very last chapter....

The Way of The Rose

What do you think of this as a title then The Way of The Rose for my next book don't you know? I've not felt anything was right, I thought this might be particularly apt as the book partly concerns the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but I don't know. I've just checked on-line and there is a fantasy novel of the same name with something like Xena Warrior Princess on the cover, so it's put me off. Also there's that famous book The Name of The Rose I think. Any suggestions? However, book going really well. I've been living in 1917 all week as I've just had to go back into the past and shut myself in my room to write it, on a lap top of course, so I didn't go for ink and parchment or whatever they had in those days, but it's going well. I went back in time as Margaret Macdonald Macintosh actually that's some of her work here. The stained glass is her more famous husband Charles Rennie Mac "Toshie" .

Anyway, I'm in my Saxmundham office again (The Deli) and running out of time, before they close or my battery runs out. So just a quickie. However, I hear I've not been getting comments for my last few postings as there's no comments button on the bottom of the comments, so I'll try and republish see if that fixes the gremlin. Probably something I've done trying the HTml stuff. Oh well! Please leave comments or try to I do enjoy them.

No postings for ages then three come along at once.....

Here are my two "oldest" friends visiting me in Aldeburgh. We've all known each other since we met at school when we were about 12. And that's quite a long time ago!

That's the famous Maggie Hambling sculpture on Aldeburgh beach they seem to have managed to break. As you can see the weather was amazing and we walked miles and chin-wagged and put the world to rights and drank lots, then put our worlds to rights too. As a matter of interest my Wendy house is in those trees behind the sculpture.

I did a rather drunken I Ching reading for one of them, and rather upset her I think, because she didn't like what it told her. So perhaps I shouldn't do that sort of thing for people really. Is anyone out there know about it? I came across it when I was researching synchronicty for my new novel (though it's not really about that now) that research took me to Jung and the idea of meaningful coincidence in our lives, which took me to the I Ching, and reading about that just blew me away, as it's great for asking questions, especially when you are in a process of change in your life as I was at that time. (And still am!) I think all it does really is tap into your subconscious and it's a way of expressing what you really want to do, without all those doubts and ifs and buts and that'll never work, all the stuff our conscious brain tells us not to do! It's the reason I'm in Aldeburgh anyway, so I love it! But it's made me realise I perhaps shouldn't get other people to try it, especially when we're all a bit tipsy to say the least. I still recommend it though!

Ready Steady Cook Here we Come!

Well would you believe it? Lucy & I have got an audition to be on Ready Steady Cook. OK so it's only an audition, but they're saying as long as we like food and have a personality we should be in! Bring it on Ainsley! Pity I can't chop an onion, but don't tell them that anyone! Anyway if we get on should be great publicity for our books. Way to go red tomatoes!

The Whole Madonna Adoption Thang

I decided I'd better comment on this as my book is about an adoption assessment.
My fellow author and friend Lucy has even been quoted in the papers and been on Radio 4 about all this, as she has adopted two little girls from Russia. Check out her viewpoint and her novel Blood and Water (also with an adoption theme) on her blog. Some of the stuff written and said though has been absolutely ridiculous. I mean I know she's fabulously wealthy (Madonna not Lucy!) and gets through life doing what she likes more or less, but I'm sure she has feelings for the child, and people seem to be almost demanding the child be taken away from her and that seems a bit harsh as I'm sure she means well and from what we hear she's no terrible mum so lighten up I say, let them be. I also know that no one can adopt children here or abroad without going through a homestudy adoption assessment and, as my book Selfish Jean explores, that is never as straight forward and easy as it might seem to people on the outside, so there's no way Madonna could buy her approval by the adoption services.

However, I do wonder which social worker got the short straw and had to ask questions such as... so how is your sex life these days? Are you using contraceptives? How many partners have you actually had? Do you still have a problem with the Church Madonna? Have you ever really got over your mother's death? So why a black child, have you got black relatives, or close friends who are black? What makes you think you can promote the child's culture? And on and on, meanwhile I imagine Guy is practising his Judo kicks in a corner.

At least I got a book out of it if nothing else and Selfish Jean has humour and pathos about the whole debacle. It is a fictional tale, but of course it is no surprise to anyone I guess that I've been through an adoption homestudy. She had to have had an easier assessment than I had, but then as a result of that assessment I've transformed my whole life in lots of positive ways, so who's to say that if I'd had an easier time of it I might be trapped in a very difficult situation I was unable to get myself out of. Who knows? We can never see the lives not lived. Here endeth the very philosophical bloggeth today.

a groovy place to play with my lap top.....

Look at this! Here is where I've found to use my lap top in fact that is the actual table I'm sitting at as I write this. The one through the little alley way. This is a such a cool place I've found The Bistro at The Deli, in Saxmundham Suffolk, a few miles away from Aldeburgh. It's totally groovy, great coffee, chilled music, good atmosphere, there's even a roaring open fire, and sofas, so I imagine I'll end up spending a lot of the winter in here. Also, friendly service from the owner Bob, who says "Hello". Only don't put your feet up on the sofas, he doesn't like it! Not that I did such a thing, I hasten to add, I was just ear-wigging, and being nosy, or being writerly and observing, take your pick! My only worry is that I'll end up spending all my time and all my money in here, but there are worse places to be. I've decided I'm going to be rich anyhow and the book I am writing now is going to be a great success. If I believe it maybe someone else well, but it is just going so well, the writing of it. Now I know that might just be that confidence writers get and we need to be able to finish the book, then with the re-writing the doubts set in, but for now I'm loving it.