Kia ora koutou,
I started work properly a couple of weeks ago but that was a choice not a have–to. Soon schools will begin and students will pass by on their way to the kura down the road or the other way to Otaki College. I can almost feel the year going up a gear.
I have plans, I guess we all have plans, some will work out, some that won’t.
I want to finish another crime novel or at least get close. I have three workshops to teach, someone to mentor, poems to write.
I’m planning some reading around Greek myths. I know the basics, I did a Greek Lit 1 paper a long time ago, I have the plays of Aeschylus. I want to refresh my memories and add new ones.
As an entree into this world I’m re-reading Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles and enjoying it even more in what is probably the fifth or sixth read since I first read it in hardback then got it as an ebook.
The novel is about the life and death of Achilles and its told by his lover Patroclus. I like the tone and the style as much as the story. Its always very satisfying when these three jell together. Story, tone, style. We all know when a writer has got a good story but gets the tone skewed, or ruins it by too stodgy a style. In The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller gets it exactly right.
When the crab apples ripen I want to make some crabapple jelly. The little tree is laden. They ripen March/April. Crabapple jelly is so easy to make, so versatile, it goes with anything, cheese, meat, peanut butter…
This year I’d like to keep my workroom looking a little less like a dump. My desk is covered with cords and stuff – the result of having this big screen running off the MacPro. Lots of cords and all cords do is look jumbled. There’s nothing elegant about cords. I am toying with the idea of getting a new 27 inch MacPro. This would be an extravagance because I got the current MacPro 15 inch laptop new in April 2018 which means its not even two yet. At that stage I didn’t know how bad my eyesight would get. Even so it seems a bit over the top to get a new (quite expensive) one simply because it has a 27 inch screen and I could get rid of this screen and all these damn cords. So I’m letting it mull around in my head.
I’m going to Auckland in May for the Festival. I like Auckland and I like staying with my cousin and her husband so I’m looking forward to that.
At some stage, maybe not this year, I’d quite like to go for a trip to Waikaremoana, just to say kia ora to the lake. In Rick Gekoski’s Lost, Stolen or Shredded: Stories of stolen or missing works of Art and Literature, there’s a lovely essay on the art theft from Wakaremoana, its outcome, and also the great question he poses re the value of art versus the value of a person or people and their land. How much is a work of art worth? If a painting is described as priceless what does that mean? Is the Mona Lisa worth more than a baby’s life?
I’m having stronger lights put in. The electrician came yesterday and we had a discussion. Such a pleasure to have someone who listens, goes over various options, says he’ll do some more research and be in touch. And he did and was today. Had the same good experience with Vivan Chin at The Cut. We talked about my hair, soft, wavy, flyaway, I said what I’d like, he listened then offered his professional advice and I listened, then he cut my hair. So of course I’ll go again.
Anyway, that’s my year. Or my plans for the year I should say. There will be surprises, there always are and I guess the same applied to disappointments. Always some lurking.
I’m glad to be at this stage of the year looking forward to a busy but enjoyable, if possibly occasionally irritating, 2020.
How about you?
Renée
