I have just spent ten minutes

on Twitter - on my personal rather than work account. Yes, I have two. I caught up with the overnight news and what my friends in "Upover" had been doing. I sent a friendly tweet or two and responded to a couple of messages. I know where some of my friends are going in their tomorrow and what they will be doing. It is friendly and pleasant. I will prowl in again for a few minutes later today - their morning - and catch up again.
I flicked over to Facebook and left a message for someone who is not on Twitter. I have glanced at the posts for the blogs I follow. I may get back to those later in the day if I am waiting for someone to respond before I can go on working at something else.
Once a week I prowl into Ravelry - a huge site for knitters and crocheters. I check my messages there (again from other friends in Upover) and the groups I keep an eye on. I might look at something else if I have a moment to spare. That is it.
I do not do "LinkedIn" which is apparently another sort of networking device. I looked at it. Several people have suggested I join it but I feel enough is enough. I do not want to spend my limited "social" time on the internet looking at such things.
All this happens not because I am very disciplined. I am not. It just happens that I do not have the time.
I have been told that "LinkedIn" could be a useful way of meeting with other professionals. There is something called Google Plus which I have not even looked at. I have a nasty suspicion it too would just add to my work load...which is too big now. I really do want to cut back. I want more writing time. I am old enough to retire - especially from high work load job I do not actually get paid for. (No, that is not caring for the Senior Cat. He is easy to look after. It is the world of humanitarian emergencies which causes the problems.)
I must admit the internet makes my life much easier - I can prowl into almost any university in the world, find an e-mail address and make contact with an academic. It is probably just as irritating for them. I am conscious of that and I try to keep requests for help to a minimum. The vast majority are very good tempered and helpful.
But, all this apparently professional socialising is not for me. It might be if I was at the beginning of my working life but I do want to retire at some point - or at least reduce the workload. I have seen too many people who have never done any of the things they wanted to do because work got in the way. I am afraid it might happen to me too.

I began reading a novel

last night. This is my "bedtime book". I always try to have something there. It helps me wind down, relax and go to sleep.
This one is by a well known female author. It is supposed to be a psychological thriller. So far there has been an unlikely escape from prison and a string of subsequent events that are - unlikely.
I know that thrillers, crime yarns, detective stories etc etc often have unlikely events in them but this may be too unlikely for me. So far the plot is full of holes. It just could not happen that way. The law is wrong. How in the heck did the writer get away with it?
I have just looked at some reviews of the same book. There are the usual glowing reviews but there are also hints of uneasiness within them. There are several reviews which query aspects of the plot but still commend the book. Perhaps I am demanding too much. Perhaps I need to be more willing to suspend my disbelief.
The book has done me a favour however. It has reinforced my belief that my own writing will need a good editor. All books need a good editor. Mine, if they ever get that far, will not be an exception. It would be arrogant to suppose they did not.
I suspect that outstandingly good authors employ outstandingly good editors. If I had a lot of money one of the few things I feel I would like to be self-indulgent about is to have one of those really good editors sit down with something I had written and pull it to pieces. I would probably hate a lot of what they had to say but, if I was sensible, I would learn a lot from it.
I wonder if some authors get to the point where they are so well known they feel they do not need an editor for anything more than a cursory glance at the manuscript? Do they want nothing more than someone to check that the hero has not changed eye-colour or occupation - unless it is part of the plot?
I read a book intended for children recently. A child gave it to me and asked me to read it. Their comment was, "It's supposed to be a good book but I think it's stupid because kids don't do things like that."
I had to agree with the child. I understood why the book had been written. It had been written in an attempt to teach children something. I explained this and received a look of disgust. "Then just write about that. Don't try and make a stupid story out of it."
I have some sympathy with that point of view. At least the book had been edited. The plot was unlikely but the facts were accurate. It would teach a child something.
However the book I started last night does not even have that excuse. Outright attempts to teach in adult books rarely, if ever, succeed anyway.
I will try to be completely fair and read some more of the book this evening. Perhaps there will be something there to grip me and say, "This book is worth reading. Persist."
If that does not happen then I will read something else.

My friend Jen Campbell needs

help. She wants ideas for one of the most difficult things of all - how to raise money for medical research into something which appears to be obscure but is actually a problem which potentially affects everyone.
Jen has EEC syndrome and she has written about one of the many side effects here http://jen-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-i-talk-about-when-i-dont-know.html and here is what she wants to try and do http://jen-campbell.blogspot.com/2011/10/thinking-caps.html
Jen has a brilliant and wicked sense of humour. She has a contract for a book about the weird things people say in bookshops. Did I mention she runs a second hand bookshop in London? Go and look at her blog to discover more. Jen is also highly intelligent. She writes poetry and short stories - and she gets them published. She gets things done. I have no doubt she will do something to raise some funds for EEC syndrome research.
But why should it matter to the rest of us? Does anyone else reading this blog have EEC syndrome? I do not know. It is rare. It is unlikely.
That however is not the point. Research into one genetic disorder always has the potential to assist people with other genetic disorders. It also has the potential to assist in research into things like cancer. All these things cost lives, cause misery, cost money and need to be considered.
The search for the charity dollar or pound or euro or whatever is always going to be there. Research will always need funds. I do not have the financial capacity to support what I would like to support so I like to support friends and things I know about at a personal level. Ideas do not in themselves cost money. Can you think of something unique, witty, fun and fundraising? If so, please prowl on over to her blog and leave them there. Thankyou.

I do not watch

very much television. I sometimes manage to watch a programme called "Global Village". It consists of short documentary pieces, often from France or Germany, about life and culture all over the world. I usually manage to watch an international news service and the headlines of a local news service. Once in a while I see something else, most likely a documentary.
I would not want to watch televised court proceedings. I do not believe television cameras have any place in courts.
Yes, courts should be "open". The public should be able to go in and out if they so desire and they respect the proceedings taking place. Most people will never bother but the possibility is one of the things that keeps the system on track.
Television cameras are something quite different. This puts the legal system on show and turns it into something it should not be.
It is often said that the best barristers are also actors. They can feign concern, worry, understanding, misunderstanding, incredulity and anger as well as a range of other emotions. They can, for a short period of time, appear to be experts in all manner of subjects - about which they really know nothing but will have been coached by someone in the field.
It can all be intensely tedious. Moments of high drama are rare although they can occur. With television cameras present barristers will be under increased pressure to "perform".
That however is the least of the problems. Television cameras will show too much. They will show the guilty, the innocent, the accusers, the victims, the duped, those who have misjudged the consequences of their actions, the well intentioned who tried and failed and all other manner of people. They will also show witnesses, bystanders caught up in something they have no wish to be part of, experts called on to assist both prosecution and defence.
Oh yes, they say that the use of cameras in courts will be limited but the reality is that once the cameras are there the potential to show everything is there. Everything is too much, even a little can be too much. Guilt and innocence are by no means always obvious.
We have to be able to trust the legal system to do the right thing as far as possible. Mistakes will always be made and an open court system drastically reduces the potential for abuse. But, an open court system should not become a trial by media. Media powers have to be limited.
The law is not there for our entertainment.

Is it possible to say too little?

My friend Nicola Morgan has been asking people to pitch their books in 25 words. (There is an ulterior motive of course but do go and have a look at her blog post about it on "Help I need a Publisher".)
Now, I tried just because I thought I should. I cannot do it. I can do succinct. I cannot do this in 25 words or less.
Oh yes, I can say that my young hero has found a body. I can say his parents have been killed. I can say he is on the run. I can tell you he is running from the people he should be able to trust. At the second attempt I put that into 24 words. It sounds boring. Put like that it is boring.
In my first attempt I had informed the reader that my young hero is eleven and that the body he has found is by no means a fresh corpse. Both those things had to come out for Nicola's purposes. I understand what she was getting at but, for me, it did not work. (I told her this and she agreed that the second attempt was not actually gripping.)
There are things that matter here. They need to be said for the idea to have any impact. The likelihood of a child falling over a fresh corpse is pretty low - and it would not suit the story line at all. I have tried to suggest a scenario where an old corpse might well be found - and no, it is not in a graveyard. (It matters that my hero is eleven and not twelve too but that could come out for Nicola's purpose.)

I have written the first draft of this book. I am working on the revisions. Despite the apparently trite story line I think it may work. One adult has seen it and said nice things and, of the ending), "All the clues were there but I did not see that coming." That is the way I want it to be.
But, if I try to put it into twenty-five words, or less, it does not work. It needs the words "long dead" to suggest there is something more than "boy finds body, parents get killed, he's on the run".
I think it is possible to say too little. Some things simply need more words.

A man's life is reflected in

his garden. Yesterday's birthday party was held in a back garden. It belongs to the man who was celebrating his 80th. He is a "retired" priest - only priests never seem to retire. He, and his wife, are still involved in many things. They know they are fortunate to have the physical and mental capacity to be involved and they make the most of it. They also know how to make the most of their surroundings.
Their garden, mostly his work, is a work of art. It is also productive. There are vegetable patches. There are fruit trees. There are flowers. Herbs - rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, chives and others appear in between other plants. There are plants in pots. The side of the garage is a mass of sweet peas at present. Two enormous rainwater tanks collect the roof water and maintain the garden throughout the summer.
Yes, they do spend a lot of time there - but they also find time for other things. I thought of that as people wandered around the garden, chatted and exclaimed over things they had found. I also thought of the other gardens along the route I had pedalled to get there.
It is my regular pedalling route and I think the gardens reflect their owners. Ours is fairly tidy at the front - a small patch of lawn, the rosebushes my mother planted, the lavender I planted because it brings the bees to the garden, the side patch where the bluebells come up unassisted each year, the peach tree and the orange tree and the lemon verbena bush. Around the side there are more fruit trees and my father's attempts to grow things in tubs, lettuce, shallots (spring onions), beetroot, a struggling rhubarb plant, the almost empty row where the carrots were planted. There is a huge carrot plant by the tank. It reaches well above my waist. Yes, it may go to seed and we may have seeds but I doubt it. There are three tubs of parsley, the winter tomatoes, broad beans, stocks, more lavender, spinach, courgettes (zucchini) and capsicum before you reach the plum and apricot trees at the back. It is all, like the house, rather untidy. It is productive. The garden shed is untidy. My father's shed is untidy. We are not tidy people.
There is one other rather untidy but highly productive garden on my pedalling route. It belongs to a man who was a landscape designer. He likes his garden the way it is too. Most of the other gardens are patches of lawn, a few shrubs, a rosebush or two. They are neat enough but their owners are not, by their own admission, interested in gardening. One house on a corner is an exception. That garden is rather like ours, untidy but productive. The owners, two men I know well enough to pass the time of day with, lead untidy but productive lives in other ways. They also find time to be good neighbours.
There is one other interesting garden before you reach the home of the priest. It is across the street from his home. It is another one of those gardens with unexpected plants in unexpected places, one of those "planned but unplanned" gardens that look right. The owners are good friends of the priest and his wife.
I am no gardener. The garden is one of my father's interests. I do not interfere - even when he plants far more of one thing than we can hope to use or give away. But, if I had my own place, I would want more than a patch of lawn and a rosebush. It would not be tidy. It would have variety. It would be like my life.

We are going to a birthday

event this afternoon. I will not call it a "party". It is a "drop in" for an 80th.
I do not like these sort of events. I never know when to arrive - or leave. I am not an "idle chit-chat" sort of person. I am not sure I like birthday parties either
I have made the requisite card with 80 quotations on it. The birthday "boy" is a retired priest. Some of the quotes are "religious", others are "gardening" (his passion). Some are in Swahili. (That is less clever than you might think. I do know a few words of Swahili but all this requires is a little searching on the internet and a little cross checking.) Yes, he spent some time in Tanzania as a "missionary". I make the card for the person, not for my own interests.
I will, as mentioned a little while ago on this blog, make another for another friend - for her 70th.
The cards are just a bit of fun. They are also a compromise when the invitation says "no presents" and you know you really do not know the person well enough to offer a present anyway.
But, I do not want anyone to make me one. I do not want my birthdays celebrated. If I had grown up having an annual event which centred around "me" I might feel differently. I did not. I feel uncomfortable when people attempt to make a fuss. I would not want a party. One reason for this is that most people will be celebrating something else anyway. They always have been. They always will be. Sometimes, when I am asked, people refuse to believe me when I tell them the date.
The celebration of birthdays was under discussion several days ago. I was told I was selfish not wanting to celebrate my birthday, that I should think other people might like to acknowledge it.
I do not mention my birthday unless directly asked. I do not expect people to know when it is or acknowledge it - especially if they question my veracity as to the date. Is that really selfish?