So Saturday we all met up, and Sunday I chapel hopped and actually was able to dine for lunch at Magdalen, which was lovely. I hope to go to their evensong tonight as well, although Christ Church was spectacular as well with theirs. I spent today in the Radcliffe, but still several hundred pages of manuscripts to go through so I know what I shall be doing Wednesday/Thursday! (Tomorrow I’ll be going on the Lewis Tour). I’m trying to decide whether to go to Magdalen, then the Eagle & Child, or the other way around now. I think I will go to Mag, but then I have 1 hour to fiddle with until the service and I’d need to go after. hmmm.

I found a computer here! Looking forward to seeing Stevie and Fiona tomorrow. I just had a few pints at the White Horse so I can’t really type very well lol it is one of the lesser known pubs the Inklings frequented. It is much smaller than the B&B but they were very kindly.

The fall colours here were spectacular on the ride over from Heathrow. And whilst waiting for the bus, there is a huge fountain show with all sorts of trick effects with the water that is quite lovely. The hotel is right next to the train and bus stations, though on the opposite side of City Center from Maud so I’ve yet to penetrate that. I might go after this but more likely I’ll go for lunch at the B&B.

Above all I did manage to get into the Radcliffe yes I have my library card right here. It was much more difficult this time but a highly obliging Admissions staff member was willing to accept me. Diolch yn fawr!

In case you try to email me or wonder why I am not posting: Until 22 Nov I am in Oxford, UK without internet (irony yes) 

Crossed the 30,000 mark tonight

So far I have been rewriting, cutting and adding a lot and at this point the audio series and the novel are quite different. I can see listeners irately shouting “that wasn’t in the audio” at the book. (Welcome change that of course).

There are definitely some different dynamics between people as well since I have gone through more since originally conceiving this and that is being reflected.

I finished translating seven of the Exeter Advent Poems and I figured that was a good number to stop on plus I need to get it out for people to do their lines.

There will be two rounds so that the overlapping sounds like it fits and not that two people on opposite ends of the world tried it without hearing each other (which would be true).

Hopefully the episode will go out around mid December.

Word count is 4,738 for today so far, although I had a head start of 13,881 that I couldn’t help but begin as I told people earlier. This way hopefully Kelmah will be a lot closer to being done by the end of November. My jaunt to Oxford will dampen it a good deal, but still I hope to have at least 30,000 written by the end of the month.

On saturday, I spent the day in 1901 where some of the Living Historians combined at an encampment in the Presidio (San Francisco, CA). Most people are entirely unaware of this war and the occupation of the Philippines which came after. In short:

The Spanish were occupying the Philippines, and when the American battleship Maine was mysteriously destroyed, the Spanish were blamed and war declared. It was quick and decisive, and in short order the Dons were routed, as it were. America then decided that instead of leaving, they would stay to protect and educate the population. (In reality they needed a base and were worried about the Germans who had warships circling and waiting to come in the moment the US left). As a result, insurrectionists began attacking US troops, the first two were from Petaluma which is where I am right now. People back in the US were confused– wasn’t the war over? What was this all about? Some called it occupation, and were furious that we had stayed, others considered it our duty that we should not retreat but stay and help until the situation had cooled. This dragged on for years and years.

It is a very complicated issue and I happened to draw the lot of being an Imperialist so obviously I memorized most of the arguments for that position. It turned out quite warm, which is not particularly comfortable in turn-of-the-century garb as we had all worn more the autumn rather than summer clothes. The rangers were very friendly and helpful and even bought us all lunch. It is one of the hilarious parts of museums / collections around here– the government has basically made it impossible to add anything to them. It took 2 years to get a table for a dining room and now they won’t let anyone touch it. As a result we end up spending hundreds and hundreds purchasing historical items as well as careful reproductions for our own use. The group of us come into a park and turn a basically bare historic building/ship into what it really would have looked like while being lived in. Really the park should have done that, but the red tape is impossible to get through. It does involve a lot of carrying heavy objects and bags in corsets up hills which is not fun I’ll tell you.

This is continuing at a fair pace, I’m through Christ VI now, and only a few more to go. I need to finish all of them before leaving for Oxford as I do not want to bring library books from here over there for fear of them being misplaced. I daresay I could pick up a manuscript for it at the Radcliffe but I am not there to research Old English so that would be a waste of time really.

In a long complicated saga which had me basically about to delete the entire sets of series’ I came up with a somewhat radical concept to fix it.

Basically I remembered the old scratch and sniff books I had when I was little, for example:

“Little bear picked up one of the freshly baked cookies.
[scratch and sniff image of cookie that smells like chocolate]
As you can see, grandma had baked chocolate flavoured…etc”

I also had a huge number of spectacular scenic shots people had sent me for the series so I considered changing it to pure e-book with lots of pictures.

The result of thinking on these two items was to create what might be the first ever interactive audio/visual e-book. It is set up like the old scratch and sniff in that, for example:

“Sir Oliver was quite worried that his queen was angry with him. She was striding impatiently across the palace courtyard, wringing her hands. Let’s listen in to see why she was upset:
[Click here to listen which has a short audio drama scene about how he’d let isabel escape again]
The knight is certainly in trouble, isn’t he? I hope Zoulvisia isn’t too hard on him.”

It is mainly geared towards children, but everyone that has seen it so far that is older enjoyed it as well. Each spread has half a page with a huge montage of that scene, some of which I spent a long time on and others are simply the lovely scenery of the area. Personally I think they are fabulous and an interesting new twist on using audio and visual elements together.

I have the first 2 done and am halfway with the 3rd. Check by Misfitsaudio on monday to see them.