Lincoln Inspired

In May, a very exciting festival is coming to Lincoln.

Taking place between the 7^th and the 12^th May, Lincoln Inspired is a festival of Literature, Performance and Art.

For more information, please see the website at: www.lincolninspired.co.uk/    (You can view my ugly mug under ‘Team’).

There is also a Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/home.php#!/LincolnInspired?fref=ts

I am proud to have been involved in the setting up of the festival and am sure it is going to be a fantastic week.

Tickets go on sale on the 30^th March. I have already got my tickets for the Poetry Workshop with Alison Dunne http://ivoryfishbone.wordpress.com/ on Friday 10th May at 11am at the Drill Hall, Lincoln.

Hope to see you at the festival.

 

Forensic Night at Lindum Scribes

On the 19th March, Lindum Scribes were blessed with the presence of a very knowledgeable and interesting speaker.  Dr Dorothy Gennard is a Forensic Scientist and Principal Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Lincoln.  Her speciality within forensics is entomology.    That means she is the Lincolnshire equivalent of Gil Grissom from CSI.  Pictured here are myself (in the gloves) Jacquie and Jonathan, preparing to look at the evidence...

Dr Gennard introduced the night by producing a meerkat that seemed to have hung himself.  Poor Alexander!    All of us were equipped with gloves (most SOCO wear double and replace them regularly) and aprons in order to ensure the scene remained uncontaminated.  Fred was up first to secure the crime scene.  If there had been any chance that Alexander was still alive, we could have cut him down; being careful to keep any knots in tact as they could provide vital clues.  Sad to say however, he didn't make it.

Marjory - with gloves and protective clothing - then read up the 'suicide' note.  Removing it from the scene, she placed it into a large A4 evidence bag; all the time using the corner of the paper to handle it. A number of members were then asked to seal packages with the evidence that was found at the scene.  Each item is given a crime scene number.  

A few interesting tit bits were picked up.  A specific Drying Room is used to dry any blood stained items, in order to reduce the bacteria on items.  In the case of blood on a T Shirt, an arrow would be used to indicate the direction of the blood splatter.   The T shirt would then be folded in such a way that the blood could be seen.

Sealing the evidence bags was harder than it looked and every seal had to be initialled to indicate who had touched the item.  However, it was very difficult to ensure that the evidence bags were correctly 'sealed' - even with a double seal on every opening.  This is something that could be picked up by a defence team, so it is very important that it is done correctly.  As Dr Gennard stated, she works for the court and not for whoever is paying!

In the case of guns or knives, they would be wired into an 'evidence box'.   Then taped up and sealed.

In the case of a real crime scene, there would be someone taking photographs, or even a video, of everything; especially the evidence.  Today, it was just me!

The members then had a chance to take each others fingerprints for elimination purposes.  The photo on the right shows the equipment required.    We were given a number of handouts that led us through the Loops, Whorls and Arches that make up the classification.  

What was interesting was that there are 900,000 outstanding criminal cases where fingerprints have been taken, but police have yet to find a match.

Scribes members had a great time, but the ink took a lot of getting off!  What was nice is that Dr Gennard gave us all a key ring that we could put our own fingerprint into.  A lovely reminded of a fascinating evening.

Many Thanks to Dr Gennard.

 

Keep Walking....

Saw this in an interview with Michael Crummey (Canadian Poet and Author) in April's Writing Magazine:

I may not always know where I'm going but I will keep walking until I get there....

What's most important in life.....

Over the phone, his mother told him, "Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday." Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.
'Jack, did you hear me?"
"Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It's been so long since I thought of him. I'm sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago," Jack said...
"Well, he didn't forget you. Every time I saw him he'd ask how you were doing. He'd reminisce about the many days you spent over 'his side of the fence' as he put it," Mom told him.
"I loved that old house he lived in," Jack said.
"You know, Jack, after your father died, Mr. Belser stepped in to make sure you had a man's influence in your life," she said.
"He's the one who taught me carpentry," he said. "I wouldn't be in this business if it weren't for him. He spent a lot of time teaching me things he thought were important. Mom, I'll be there for the funeral," Jack said.

As busy as he was, he kept his word. Jack caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser's funeral was small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away. The night before he had to return home, Jack and his Mom stopped by to see the old house next door one more time.  Standing in the doorway, Jack paused for a moment. It was like crossing over into another dimension, a leap through space and time The house was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture. Jack stopped suddenly...

"What's wrong, Jack?" his Mom asked.
"The box is gone," he said
"What box?" Mom asked.
"There was a small gold box that he kept locked on top of his desk. I must have asked him a thousand times what was inside. All he'd ever tell me was 'the thing I value most,'" Jack said.
It was gone. Everything about the house was exactly how Jack remembered it, except for the box. He figured someone from the Belser family had taken it.
"Now I'll never know what was so valuable to him," Jack said. "I better get some sleep. I have an early flight home, Mom."

It had been about two weeks since Mr. Belser died. Returning home from work one day Jack discovered a note in his mailbox. "Signature required on a package. No one at home. Please stop by the main post office within the next three days," the note read. Early the next day Jack retrieved the package. The small box was old and looked like it had been mailed a hundred years ago. The handwriting was difficult to read, but the return address caught his attention. "Mr. Harold Belser" it read. Jack took the box out to his car and ripped open the package. There inside was the gold box and an envelope. Jack's hands shook as he read the note inside.

"Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bennett. It's the thing I valued most in my life." A small key was taped to the letter. His heart racing, as tears filling his eyes, Jack carefully unlocked the box. There inside he found a beautiful gold pocket watch.

Running his fingers slowly over the finely etched casing, he unlatched the cover. Inside he found these words engraved:
"Jack, Thanks for your time! -Harold Belser."
"The thing he valued most was... my time"

Jack held the watch for a few minutes, then called his office and cleared his appointments for the next two days. "Why?" Janet, his assistant asked.
"I need some time to spend with my son," he said.
"Oh, by the way, Janet, thanks for your time!"

12 Ground Rules For Writing

Having started planning my next set of articles for publication, I was glad I found a recent article from December's Writing Magazine, which listed Keith Waterhouse's ground rules for writing.  I also found the site: http://grammar.about.com/od/advicefromthepros/a/Keith-Waterhouses-12-Ground-Rules-For-Writers.htm which provided the following information:

English novelist and newspaper columnist Keith Waterhouse (1929-2009) was a prolific writer: 16 novels (including Billy Liar), countless plays and film scripts, and--for almost 40 years--a twice-weekly newspaper column. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a recipient of the Edgar Wallace Award, which recognizes writing and reporting of "the highest quality."  Waterhouse made writing look easy. In his popular guide for journalists, he said that writing "consists simply of choosing a handful of words from the half a million or so samples available, and arranging them in the best order."

At the end of the Waterhouse on Newspaper Style, Waterhouse summarizes a number of his key points with these "ground rules" for writers:

1.  Use specific words (red and blue) not general ones (brightly coloured).

2.  Use concrete words (rain, fog) rather than abstract ones (bad weather).

3.  Use plain words (began, said, end) not college-educated ones (commenced, stated, termination).

4.  Use positive words (he was poor) not negative ones (he was not rich--the reader at once wants to know, how not rich was he?).

5.  Don't overstate: fell is starker than plunged.

6.  Don't lard the story with emotive or "dramatic" words (astonishing, staggering, sensational, shock).

7.  Avoid non-working words that cluster together like derelicts (but for the fact that, the question as to whether, there is no doubt that).

8.  Don't use words thoughtlessly. (Waiting ambulances don't rush victims to hospital. Waiting ambulances wait. Meteors fall, so there can be no meteoric rise.)

9.  Don't use unknown quantities (very, really, truly, quite. How much is very?).

10.  Never qualify absolutes. A thing cannot be quite impossible, glaringly obvious or most essential, any more than it can be absolutely absolute.

11.  Don't use jargon, clichés, puns, elegant or inelegant variations, or inexact synonyms (brave wife died saving her son is wrong; wife is not a synonym for mother).

12.  Words are facts. Check them (spelling and meaning) as you would any other.

Bottled It!!

This week I have been trying to give the house a good clean as we have people coming Thursday night and also Sunday.  When I am doing one of my Spring cleans I end up writing a large To Do list of more things to do, but I always feel so much better once the house is sparkling, jobs are done and everything is in its place.

One of the many things on this week's 'To Do' list has been there for a while, and that was to chase up both my pitches.  I had intended to ring them both this morning - as that's what the books say, but after ringing Spirit and Destiny and being told that the line was 'unavailable', I bottled it and sent them an email instead.

This wasn 't entirely wasted however, as about 20 minutes later I received a return email stating that;

Many thanks for contacting us again.

Your original email was forwarded onto the features department who will be in contact with you in due course should the article be of interest.

I gave a big smile - as at least it means I got the right email address - and then sent a similar email to Writing Magazine.  Haven't had a reply from them this morning so far, but still feel excited about Spirit and Destiny.

Have a huge 'To Do' pile at the moment; mostly of my photography stuff.  I have a picture that is to be featured in an exhibition in April / May at The Museum of Lincolnshire Life, so next week I will be devoting my time to that particular pile.  Hopefully, when I come back to writing, there may be a specific feature to finish.  If not, I still have a small pile of 'possible' markets to propose articles for.

Competition Winner (Photography)

OK, so it wasn't a writing competition, but I am pleased non-the-less!

I am a member of a Lincolnshire based Photography group and every month they run a competition on a particular theme.  February's theme was 'Love' and I entered the following photo:



The judge said: I have chosen this winning image for the Shutter Chimps February Flickr competition, Joannes image stood out to me, the focusing and Boken is great. I seriously lost sleep over which image to pick, so many great images to choose from.