Day 3: 

 On the morning of my first full day in Tristolaria, I looked out of the bedroom window after a relaxing night's sleep, and saw a garden which almost exclusively consisted of moss. There were a few ferns here and there and the odd dead tree trunk in the distance, which of course were covered in moss like all the walls and other features which lay before me, giving the impression of green waves in a green sea. Where moss wasn't growing, there were lichens and liverworts and hornworts.

The whole landscape was a glorious mixture of green, green and bluey-green; punctuated only very rarely with reds and oranges. Glorious in their complementary nature.

I eventually reached the bank and managed to change my high value ( old and reviled) currency for a selection of notes in more useful denominations. I include here a glimpse of these notes. It would appear that the notes were redesigned after the fiasco, and the tradition of using portraits of prominent Tristolarians was discontinued. The main image was now one of the local bird life. This was quite important in Tristolaria, there were no animals to speak of and the off-shore and local flocks of birds were a major, if secondary source of food and other essentials. It was drizzling, just another day in Tristolaria, and the forecast was for rain, drizzle and heavy showers. Following my ablutions, I went down to a breakfast of mossy toast and jam (don't ask!) followed by a bacon mossy sandwhich and something the landlady, bless her heart, called moffee.

I eventually reached the bank and managed to change my high value ( old and reviled) currency for a selection of notes in more useful denominations. I include here a glimpse of these notes. It would appear that the notes were redesigned after the fiasco, and the tradition of using portraits of prominent Tristolarians was discontinued. The main image was now one of the local bird life. This was quite important in Tristolaria, there were no animals to speak of and the off-shore and local flocks of birds were a major, if secondary source of food and other essentials.

Upon stating a requirement to exchange some of my 237 bryta notes, she kindly directed me to the nearest branch of the Royal Bank In passing she did mention that these notes were not in common use because of the so-called fiasco caused by a certain Mr A T Zalekiat, a previous Chief Minister at the treasury, when he decided to design two notes including the 237 bryta note in order to take revenge on his wife. Of course, there was a different story from his wife but I don't intend to include tittle tattle in this serious travel journal.

There was actually no royalty in the dominion of Tristolaria, but the bank along with a number of other institutions had retained its title, for the sake of tradition. In fact, not only was there no royalty but little in the way of government officers any longer. There was at one time a distinct lack of funds to pay for such un-necessary frippery and as very little changed on a day-to-day basis in Tristolaria, life simply carried on as it had for centuries There was little need for new rules and regulations or laws which after all only caused problems when they were not upheld. There was no crime in Tristolaria, because people made up their own rules simply to get by on a daily basis. A very phlegmatic population, were the Tritolarians.

I eventually reached the bank and managed to change my high value ( old and reviled) currency for a selection of notes in more useful denominations. I include here a glimpse of these notes. It would appear that the notes were redesigned after the fiasco, and the tradition of using portraits of prominent Tristolarians was discontinued. The main image was now one of the local bird life. This was quite important in Tristolaria, there were no animals to speak of and the off-shore and local flocks of birds were a major, if secondary source of food and other essentials.

See previous posts for the beginning and explanation of this post

Tristolaria, day 2

Just reviewed the journal ( see last post) and because it is so very short, I am posting this without waiting.

TRISTOLARIA – A TRAVEL JOURNAL

Day Day 2: Managed to change a little of my currency notes this morning. I was struck by the design of the 1 (one) bryta note. Apparently Mr A.T.Zalekiat (a former chief Minister of Banking) was a bit of a joker, and had his wife's picture put on this note closely following the design of the 237 bryta note with his own likeness upon it.

TherThere is no record (known) of the reaction of Mrs A.T.Zalekiat to this design

I will wait a until tomorrow to ((day 3) to continue this journal

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Just for the sake of posterity

I am aware of the time that has passed since my last post, unfortunately family illness mad it impossible for me to carry on as normal and so this blog was pushed to the sidelines. This is not yet
an attempt to rescue it from the grave, but simply to record a story which I once wrote (or at least
started to write) because of an art challenge. It was a somewhat unusual challenge but was based on
the idea of designing a set of banknotes for a fantasy country of your choice. The person who set the
challenge also mentioned that it might be fun to write about that country.

Well writing was not one of my interests at the time but I took up the challenge and started to write a travel journal based on the country I had imagined. I have just remembered this because of annother WRITING challenge and it took me some time to find it on my computer - actually archived on a external hard disc. So here are three posts which summarise this MY FIRST ATTEMPT at writing something other than song lyrics, which I hope will mean I can find it again should I decide to complete it just for fun.

TRISTOLARIA – A TRAVEL JOURNAL

Day 1: I have only just set out on a voyage of discovery to TRISTOLARIA, where the unit of currency is the BRYTA. I give an example of the 237 bryta note. This is the largest note in common circulation although for special purposes The Royal Bank of Tristolaria has issued a 1024 bryta note but which is rarely used in practice.

Other denominations of paper currency are 1, 4, 9. 16. and 52. I will post photos of these as I discover them. Like most bureau de change offices, I have only been given high denomination notes when I purchased my currency for this visit.


Tristolaria is a little known country in the southern tip of Eire, and it is possibly best known (amongst those who do know it) for its WET weather. It is almost perpetually raining or very damp. The humidity is the highest of any recorded anywhere in the world. Despite the so-called gazetteers claiming this record for tropical or mountainous regions of the world. Because of this persistent weather pattern, its main agricultural crop is moss. It is shipped from here to Japan and many other countries cultivating Japanese style gardens. It is also used in the production of whiskey but the main whiskey producing areas mostly grow enough of their own moss. There is little or no industry in Tristolaria, except sharpening gardening tools because they rust so quickly in the climate here.

Everywhere you go, the land is covered in moss and it is near impossible to grow any other crop. The constant threat of famine was raised when it was learnt that in Finland, peat mosses were used to make bread in famine situations there. A use which was seized upon by the tristolrians with great joy and rejoicing. Moss was hung as decorations on every spare wall and lamp post ( not many of the latter as the electricity fails regularly due to corrosion of the contacts) and then dried and converted into bread with a recipe stolen from the Finns by their great hero Anktu Robircha.

I must go know to claim my "bed" for the night ( stuffed with moss of course) as the dry ones go very quickly due to population pressures. There has never been so much food to go around. All hail Anktu.

Taking A Long Time To Write That First Novel?

Well you and me both, my friend.

I have been getting so frustrated with the target / aim / call it what you will, to write a novel. I have a story inside me that I want to get out but life simply gets in the way.

And today I saw this post on WritersRelief .... Five authors who took 5 years to write their books including JK Rowling and JR Tolkien. So there has to be a chance for me yet.

I have continued to think occasionally about the plot and how the story will unfold. I know I should be doing more but it is not only the novel which is suffering but I have done very little writing for several months. I know, I can hear the comments, "calls himself a writer and isn't writing!" But as I said life is simply too complicated at the moment and my focus is elsewhere. I cannot do the writing any justice and so I find it too hard to move it forward at all.

I know it is a flying visit but I simply had to share the post, and you never know it could give me that little push to get back into the habit of regular writing.

What Happened To That Routine?

In my last post, I stated that I had finally written and published three books of poetry and one on running an art group. I said that I thought I had been procrastinating and that now those books were available, I would be getting on with the novel. Did it happen?

Unfortunately and most definitely not!

Partly because of a total knee replacement, which meant that sitting still to do anything was very uncomfortable - let alone writing creatively. But that was not the only reason. I have been spending a lot more time painting, which you can read about by browsing my painting blog. All my blogs are available from the menu bar above, under the header.

I have also been getting involved with a ukulele group. I have taken the task of learning to play this new (for me) instrument to heart. I am really enjoying the group sessions. My son bought me the Uke for Christmas last year and I feel I owe it to him. In fact this has taken precedence over many other things at home recently. Again, read more on my music blog.

So, the novel has taken a back seat. I have been reading copiously whilst recovering from the operation and I have started to doubt my own abilities to create a novel which I would be proud of. I need to recover the confidence with which I started this project, but in the short term I do not think this will happen. Music and Art have captured my creative side and this leaves little time for writing, even poetry.

I will be planning and noting ideas, etc, for the time when I do again find my writing muse but for now I feel I will have little enough to report on this blog apart from why I am not writing, but I will try to report on progress or not as the case may be.

Getting back into the routine

OK, the poetry books have been published, the decks have been cleared and I am ready to roll - again.

My first action was to read the chapters I have written so far. Ouch, doesn't look too good but I am assured that this is par for the course for a first draft. The story itself still excites me, so I guess I just pick up where I left off and leave improving it until later.

One of the first things which I have been making notes about is to fill in the structure of the story, the outline. I am preparing a list of "titles" for the scenes in the next part of the story. To this end I am trying to put a little flesh on the bones of the story by preparing some visualisations as discussed in a reccent post.

So far I have dealt with:-

•  an introduction to the story, 
• the magical accident which results in an evil twin of King Eadwyne being "born" as an adult, 
• how this twin (who becomes known as FEAR) begins to explore the castle and
• the discovery of the library of magic by FEAR
• and how Dinbar, Eadwyne's Court Magician is used by FEAR to learn how to use the power of the library for his own evil ends.

I have outlined several other chapters but I am now working on adding the flesh referred to above. As an example, here is a photocollage of a scene where the Castle Commander, Bryssan Firaeus is being warned about FEAR by Dinbar. I am not yet sure who the imp in the background leaning over the wall is supposed to represent but it could yet lead to an interesting side plot.

(check out my photography blog for how I did this, or use the page menu at the top of the page).

Procrastination or clearing the decks?

It has been five weeks since my last post but I have not been idle. I have been converting a number of articles and poetry collections into a format which I can publish on Amazon. I have used their own independent publishing company Createspace. Createspace offers a completely free service including ISBN numbering and an on-line cover designer however a number of professional services are available if you need or desire that help. I chose the free services but found that proof reading is a skill I definitely need to cultivate, LOL.

I have been "clearing the decks" of some material I have had around for some time and decided that I would take a few weeks and then I would have a clear way forward with the novel. I hope I am not simply procrastinating, it would be such a pity since I started "Emcounter with Fear" with such high hopes and expectations.

For your information, the four books published so far are:-

 

You can see them all on my author page on Amazon (Nightmare may take a couple of days to appear due to the Amazon processing).

Depending on how I approach the next couple, there may be another 2 or 3 books to be converted, however I shall not be spending too much time on those and expect to be back to writing the novel very soon.

I have not been completely out of touch with Eadwynne and hiw friends however I have been making notes and scribbling down ideas. I even visited a local castle, Kenilworth Castle,  to take in the atmosphere and take a few photos to help with setting the scenes for my story. Hopefully I will be back to regular postings by the end of this month. Watch out for postings via the usual social networks.