This time…

Ok, I’m determined to get my diary up to date this time. Possibly… 🙂

I’ve had quite a few good catches lately (probably because of my recent increase in releases, although a few are from books I released ages ago): Kiwi Dads by Jo Malcolm, which was one of the books we left on the Hermitage’s bookshelf on our ill-fated trip to Mt Cook was caught by a tourist who seems to be a bit confused about what country they’re in (though I suppose by saying “Love Australia” they could just be making a subtle criticism of NZ…); Queen’s Royal by John Quigley, released on Queen Victoria’s statue, and caught by someone from Victoria (it’s not often you get a themed catch!); three of the wedding books we released in Dunedin, Death by Marriage by EG Cousins, The Brides by Gila Berkowitz and Born to Wed by Gina Wilkins; Satisfaction by Rae Lawrence, caught at the Rakaia fish; Translated Accounts by James Kelman, one of the books I released at the university during my releasing blitz a few weeks ago (which I’ve given up on for now, because the semester is over and exams are in full swing, so most people around the place are too stressed to pick up books 🙂 ); and Galactic Patrol by E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith, which I released last weekend, and was one of the books from the great OBCZ cleanup last weekend (which I’ve just remembered I haven’t written about yet, so this entry is going to be all out of order. Oh well, you’re all intelligent people, I’m sure you can cope…)


So, the great OBCZ cleanup. Last time we were at Trattorie, we noticed that the bookshelf was looking pretty ugly. Most of the books looked old and tatty, and many of them had been sitting on the shelf for over a year. It wasn’t at all attractive, so it was no wonder none of the books were moving. And it was obvious the cafe owners weren’t happy with it (the cafe is reasonably upmarket, catering to the “ladies who lunch” crowd), because they’d shoved the shelf off into a corner out of the way, when it used to have a much better position.

So we decided it was time for a cleanup. We put out a call on yahoo for Christchurch members to come along to a brunch meetup at Trattorie with some nicer looking books, and to take some of the old scruffy ones away with them and release them into the wild somewhere they might have more chance of travelling.

The meetup was a great success. It was very well attended, for a start: me, MrPloppy, lytteltonwitch, TheLetterB, angela7715, and awhina – that’s the most we’ve had at a meetup for ages. And between us we had enough books to completely restock the shelves, so they’re now looking much more attractive (in fact, while we were sitting chatting afterwards, a couple of women came in and started looking through the books on the shelf – I haven’t seen that happen for ages!)

My contribution to the shelf (I tried to select books that would appeal to a broad range of reading tastes) was:

We sorted though the books we’d taken off the shelf, and found a few in good condition that could go back on, and a couple that were in such bad repair they had to be binned (pages missing, or no cover), and then the rest we divided up amongst us for release (I went out for a walk on Sunday and released Galactic Patrol and Grey Lensman by EE ‘Doc’ Smith, and Skeen’s Leap by Jo Clayton. I’ve got a few more still to release, but I want to do some repairs to them first). A good morning’s work.


On Saturday afternoon, Ian came round with a friend, and offered to take our car to get its WOF. If I’d been organised I would have taken some books to release in the waiting room – I’ll have to remember that for next time. It almost passed, except it needs something done to the brakes – something about fluid and lines, I think (FutureCat reveals her utter lack of knowledge of all things mechanical – I would have asked Ian lots of dumb questions about it until I understood, but his friend was a “real bloke” type, and kept looking at me funny when I asked questions, so I gave up), that according to Ian won’t be too horribly expensive to get fixed. I was expecting much worse, considering we got the car for free – you don’t expect a car that’s being given away to be in perfect condition.

Anyway, we’ll get that sorted in the next couple of weeks, and then we’ll have a totally road-worthy car. It’s even got insurance now, because I thought we’d better get some before it had to be driven across town for it’s WOF. Now all we need is someone to drive it… 🙂


MrPloppy organised a games evening on Saturday night, but half the people who were going to come cancelled at the last minute (that’s what happens when you have friends you met through a Social Phobia group!), so in the end it was just us, Tam, and lytteltonwitch. We had a fun night, though, even though I lost miserably at every game we played!


And finally, a warning. Blame MadameUrushiol. She posted this in her LiveJournal:

NoNaNoWriNoNoMo
(a.k.a. NoNoNoNo)
Non-National Not Writing a Novel Non-Month

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. So in response to those individuals who participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – which encourages people to try writing a 50,000 word novel in November), you are invited to creat
e 50 pictures between November 1st and Nov 25th.

You can do paintings, drawings, pencil sketches, collages, digital photography, print photography, graphic design, ink-blots, pastels, watercolors, pencil-crayons, Crayola crayons (Hey – get your kids involved!), or whatever tickles your fancy.

Just do 50 images in those 25 days (which averages to 2 images per day). The focus is on quantity, not quality.

Post your works of art to your website, or blog, or just show ’em to your friends at coffee. Be free. Express yourself!

I’ve always liked the idea of NaNoWriMo, but I know I’d never have the dedication to do it. I’m sure I could write 50,000 words in a month (hey, I almost manage that in a single diary entry some days ;-)), but stringing them together coherently into a novel? With a plot? Nah, can’t see that happening.

But pictures? Now *that* I can do. I imagine the bulk of my images will be photographs, but I’ll try and drag out my art supplies from whatever dusty corner they’re lurking in and attempt a few sketches from time to time as well (assuming I can actually produce anything I’m not totally ashamed of showing in public – it’s been quite a while since I picked up a pencil or paintbrush, and I’m ever so slightly rusty…)

So be warned. From tomorrow this diary will be getting a bit image-heavy for 25 days, so those of a bandwidth-sensitive nature may wish to look away.

This could be fun 🙂

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