Blog – Page 6 – Alison Runham

Sharing my Birthday Book Blurbs: Part 1

June 2, 2015June 2, 2015 by Alison Runham

Lucky me! I had a birthday recently (21 again – obviously), and when I put time aside to jot down a few book titles on my birthday list, I saw that one of them was in that angel/devil Amazon’s 3 for £10 offer. Whoops. That sent me looking for others in the same offer…

Lucky me again, because I got all seven books on my list. So I thought I’d bore you with why they appealed to me and then make you buzz with booky excitement by sharing their blurbs.

In this post: The three books my teens bought me.

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

What appealed: The title, the tagline (‘How do you solve a mystery when you can’t remember the clues?’), the fact that it’s about lost memories (something I’ve have in mind to write about since wandering around Chloe Meineck’s fascinating and touching Memory Box ‘Identity’ exhibition at The Design Museum in London back in 2013), and the blurb…

Blurb

Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn’t remember to drink it. She goes to the shops and forgets why she went. Sometimes her home is unrecognizable – or her daughter Helen seems a total stranger.

But there’s one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about it, to leave it alone, to shut up, Maud will get to the bottom of it.

Because somewhere in Maud’s damaged mind lies the answer to an unsolved seventy-year-old mystery. One everyone has forgotten about.

Everyone, except Maud . . .

The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan

What appealed: This came up in a search for slipstream fiction (on Goodreads, I think). The blurb says it’s ‘for fans of Kate Mosse‘ (excuse me while I fangirl) ‘and Kate Morton‘ (give me time. Guess whose book will feature in Birthday Book Blurbs Part 2?). My son was very intrigued by the blurb, so without further ado…

Blurb

A haunting novel about two women separated by decades but entwined by fate.

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts, none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton whose only traces remain in a few tantalisingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish?

As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph – and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth’s . . .

Station Eleven by Emily St.John Mandel

What appealed: I read about this novel months ago, but naughtily I’ve got no idea where. Maybe it was recommended on someone else’s blog, or perhaps in a ‘must read’ column in a newspaper. I really like the sound of it, anyway – I like it bit of apocalypse, me – but I had no idea that it won the Arthur C.Clarke award last month) at about the same time I put it on my list. I’m surprised it was on the 3 for £10, then! George R.R. Martin said: “One of the 2014 books that I did read stands above all the others, however: Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel . . . It’s a deeply melancholy novel, but beautifully written, and wonderfully elegiac, a book that I will long remember, and return to.” Now I’ve put that, I’m wondering if that’s how I heard about it – on a George R.R. Martin Top Ten Reads or the like… yes it was. He named it his favourite novel of 2014 here.

Blurb

What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.

One snowy night in Toronto famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America.

The world will never be the same again.

Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse.

But then her newly hopeful world is threatened.

If civilization was lost, what would you preserve? And how far would you go to protect it?

Read any of these? What did you think? I can’t wait to get stuck in, but I have one book to finish (Matthew Plampin’s The Devil’s Acre) and another to read first.

Random Fact Friday: First Chocolate in Space

May 30, 2015May 29, 2015 by Alison Runham

Chocolate in space? I hear you cry. What WAS the first chocolate in space?

M&Ms became the first solid chocolate products to go into space in 1981 when they went on a mission with the first space shuttle astronauts.

M&Ms were launched in 1941 by the Mars company but didn’t get the little printed M trademark until 9 years later. This was introduced to ensure customers were buying ‘the real thing,’ inspiring the slogan: ‘Look for the M on every piece.’

In 1981, the astronauts chose to take M&Ms (or ‘candy coated chocolates’, as NASA diplomatically refers to them!) into space on the first shuttle mission. Yet ironically in 1982, Mars rejected the idea of a tie in to the E.T franchise and inclusion in the film – while Hershey agreed to the inclusion of their Reese’s Pieces (similar to M&Ms), and saw a dramatic increase in sales.

M&Ms have since gone into space on 130 missions – including the final Atlantis shuttle mission in July 2011. Members of the team were presented with special blue, red and silver M&Ms. They had the usual “m” on one side but on the reverse was either an image of the shuttle orbiter, “3… 2… 1… Lift Off!” or “July 8, 2011”. These special M&Ms remained on the ground, but the astronauts had the almond version on board to snack on.

Special M&Ms for final shuttle mission — Photo credit: http://collectspace.com/

But M&M fame and glory doesn’t stop there. In 1984 M&Ms were one of the official Olympic snacks along with Snickers, and in 1990 they were a sponsorship snack for the Soccer World Cup in Italy along with Mars Bars. When blue M&Ms were introduced In 1995, the top of the Empire State Building was bathed in blue light to mark the occasion, and in 2000 M&Ms became the official ‘candy of the new millennium’… because MM represents 2000 in Roman numerals!

Today, M&Ms are available in Milk Chocolate, Peanut, Dark Chocolate, Dark Chocolate Peanut, Almond, Peanut Butter, Pretzel and Coconut, and M&Ms World Stores in New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, London and Shanghai are visited by millions of people every year.

A Fair Hearing in February

February 19, 2015 by Alison Runham

Apologies. The title of this post is a terrible joke based on two of my articles published this month. At least I presume they’ve both been published, because I can’t find one of them in any digital versions of magazines that usually publish me, but where they go is up to my Ed, so who knows :).

My health column this month was on tinnitus, because tinnitus awareness week was this month (2nd to 8th February). It’s a common misconception that tinnitus is ‘just’ an occasional ringing in your ears. Not so – it’s a lot more complicated and varied than that, and I wrote about it for three reasons. Firstly, Techie Husband suffered from it quite badly (not so much any more – I’ll explain why in a bit), as does Arty Daughter on and off; secondly, it’s a poorly understood problem that needs a higher public profile; and thirdly, I’d also recently gained a greater knowledge of tinnitus by pitching for (but narrowly missing out on) a contract to write three leaflets for the British Tinnitus Association aimed at children from different age groups.

Even though it’s still not fully understood, tinnitus appears to occur when our brain, used to filtering out superfluous signals (e.g. noise from humming refrigerators), finds itself not getting enough noise. It demands more information from our ears, and this is what triggers tinnitus. This phenomenon in itself can have other root causes, such as certain medications or illnesses. Of course, if your ears already don;t work as well as they should, your brain is aware that it’s not getting enough signals – and this is why people like Techie Husband, who have poor hearing, are more prone to tinnitus (particularly if, like him, they are missing specific frequencies or narrow frequency bands). Techie Husband has now had hearing aids for several months and it’s really made a difference. That’s great news because his tinnitus had been getting steadily worse, growing from a minor and occasional irritation into a major nuisance that made it difficult to relax.

So there’s the hearing reference. As for the ‘fair’… Fairtrade Fortnight is coming up soon. From 23rd Feb to 8th March there will be a host of events and promotions to spread the Fairtrade message, and to draw attention to this year’s specific theme – as I explain in this paragraph (from the short version of my article’.

This year, Fairtrade Fortnight’s nationwide ‘I See’ Campaign aims to ‘reinforce personal and emotional connections with Fairtrade’, making us more aware of how our shopping choices can have positive and profound effects on the lives of others, and helping us understand how Fairtrade benefits producers.
Claire Salundi, Project Manager for Fairtrade Fortnight, hopes the celebrity-fronted campaign will help consumers “understand more about what lies behind their everyday shopping and to make the connection between brewing a cuppa and someone’s son learning to read as a result.”

So I’ll leave you with this thought from my article:

‘The Power to Change the World Every Day’
By swapping your tea, chocolate or even your skirt for a Fairtrade alternative, you support farmers and producers in developing countries and Fairtrade’s campaign for a fairer, more sustainable food system.

“When you buy Fairtrade tea, I notice,” says Mario Mantagna, a Sri Lankan tea farmer. “Thanks to the premium price I get, we’ve been able to build a school in my village.” Proof enough that we really do – as Fairtrade says – have ‘the power to change the world every day’.

Not-So-New Year Resolutions

February 3, 2015 by Alison Runham

Making resolutions for a whole year is not to be undertaken lightly (and some would say, best not undertaken at all). It’s true that resolutions are often too ambitious, too vague and too unrealistic to do much except falter miserably before January is out – and sometimes, shock horror, they’re not even SMART (if you’re not familiar with this acronym, commiserations/congratulations – delete as appropriate. Where have you been?).

I’ll explain SMART to the (happily? unfortunately?) uninitiated in a moment. But you’ll notice I’ve already cleverly avoided the ‘faltering before January is out’ trap by making my resolutions in February. I’ve also limited myself to five – enough to cover more than one ‘life area’, but not so many that I don’t have a hope of remembering the bloomin’ things, let alone sticking to them.

So… SMART. What are SMART goals?

People are taught slightly different versions of what this acronym means, but I’ve usually been told it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. According to www.projectsmart.co.uk, these are some of the other meanings attributed to the letters:

S – specific, significant, stretching

M – measurable, meaningful, motivational

A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T – time-based, time-bound, timely, tangible, trackable

Here are my five Not-So-New Year Resolutions, which I’ve done my best to ensure are Specific, Measurable and Meaningful, Achievable and Action-Oriented, Realistic and Rewarding, and Timely.

To walk for at least an hour and a half a week. Every week.
I used to do this and more, but it’s fallen by the wayside. I know the reasons why, so I need to do something about it. Some weeks all I do is walk to work, which only takes me up to around an hour a week.
To submit at least one short story every month, whether that be to an anthology, competition or magazine.
To fit in a 15 minute session of yoga or WiFit exercises every week, hiatus hernia allowing.
Again, I’ve got out of the habit and once I’m out, I find it hard to get back in!
By my birthday in May, to have lost and kept off 4lb, meaning that I can have a blip without returning to the Number of Doom (I make no apologies for using pounds and stones; as far as people’s weights are concerned, I never went metric, okay?).
To have a plan for fun and practical stuff and review it regularly with Techie Husband (and kids where appropriate), so that a) as a family and a couple we go out more this year, and b) we carry on making progress towards the garage conversion and D.I.Y projects. Keeping on top of the small steps will hopefully help us (metaphorically) build the staircase! So far we’ve chosen a shed, I’ve ordered it, and Techie Husband has constructed it with help from all of us (not the best pics, as they were taken on my phone).

I also advertised the hundreds of plastic sacks taking over the garage to FB friends, free to any takers, and got rid of quite a few. Next we need a snow and rain free day to start moving items out of the garage and into the shed! You can barely move in the garage at the moment, let alone convert it.

It was tempting to put in an extra writing resolution or two, but I’m sticking to one for now. I really would like to get back into fiction, so it’s best to focus on that. Any other strides I make with my writing will be a bonus.

Oh no! I just thought of a number 6 that’s really important.

6. Set aside half an hour a week to write a blog post and keep my website up to date.
At the moment, details of my published articles are months behind and I’ve now got some PDFs to use on the site too.

I’ll revisit my resolutions on here now and then to see keep myself accountable.

So did you make any New Year Resolutions? Or did you decide not to this year? If you made them, have you stuck to them? Perhaps you make monthly or quarterly resolutions instead. I’m interested to know what works – or doesn’t – for you, so let me know. 🙂

Bugs, Busting and Bug-Busting

January 19, 2015January 17, 2015 by Alison Runham

Hah. A January post that’s not about resolutions. Never fear – that one is on its way…

Bugs

Bugs of all kinds have been a theme in the last few weeks. In December a stomach bug tore through the village, leaving everyone feeling distinctly unfestive. Despite one of my beloved preschoolers throwing up quite spectacularly on my shoes, I thought I’d avoided The Bug (having sprayed everything in a 5 metre radius and disinfected my shoes). But no. It hit me the Sunday night and Monday before Christmas, and I still didn’t feel great on the day – so snacking and boozing were very limited and happened more at New Year.

Since Christmas, my laptop has puffed smoke and made a strange popping noise as a dodgy USB port died, my F key stopped working (fixed by Techie Husband. What would I do without him?), my K key is behaving oddly and the printer has suddenly decided to sleep whenever it wants to, and won’t wake up on anyone else’s terms. Useful, not.

One bug-bear (theme stretch alert) is my need for somewhere proper to write – somewhere that’s not dark, poky or a constant reminder of housework I could be doing, and doesn’t involve being unable to pull back curtains because my desk and its hutch are in the way (i.e. the corner of our bedroom). Somewhere I can have my paraphernalia handy, and not have to pack everything up and move it. Short-term, I think I’ll be moving back to the spare bedroom again (which is tiny, so don’t come and stay, anyone – because once I’m in there with my big desk, you won’t fit.) Long-term, Techie Husband and I have decided the answer is a garage conversion, which will hopefully happen in the summer. I’ll keep you updated with the Great Garage Project, but Step 1 is finding somewhere to house all the garden furniture and equipment it contains, so a shed arrives next weekend. I’ll take pictures but I can guarantee it won’t look like this… .. more’s the pity.

Busting

Well, more busted really. The hand I damaged in the Cheese Sauce of Doom incident hasn’t really improved, much as the GP predicted. Currently debating whether to go and get a second opinion on the ‘nothing to be done, come back when it’s a claw’ diagnosis. It limits writing longhand and, shock horror, peeling potatoes (which was completely impossible at first) is doable but very awkward and slow. The loss of sensitivity in the thumb and poor grip means I drop things more often and have to bend down all the time, so it’s no surprise that my hiatus hernia has been playing up again. These things don’t get me down as much as frustrate me. I just want to GET ON!! 😀

Bug-Busting

I’m afraid that’s the unglamorous subject of my health column this month, as one of the three annual Bug-Busting Days falls on January 31st. Bug-Busting Day: Say Goodbye to Head Lice may well be in a local magazine near you, so if you have school-age children or work with them, have a read – unfortunately you’re a sitting-duck (but don’t need to be a lice-ridden one, if you follow my tips!).

At the moment this is the only thing of mine published in print this month, I think. And that’s all I’ve got time for, folks, because self, Techie Husband, Arty Daughter and Constructo Boy are off to a birthday party. Arty Daughter’s best friend (K the Cat)’s mum has a Significant Birthday. For a real step back in time, I’ll end with a photo of K the Cat and Arty Daughter in their Cosplay gear – nearly 4 years ago now, at the Spring London MCM Expo in 2011.

They’ve grown up a lot since then…

Before We Say Goodbye To Christmas…

January 1, 2015January 1, 2015 by Alison Runham

Before we say goodbye to Christmas, I thought I’d (somewhat belatedly) share one of my favourite projects this year – researching the Christmas Truce of 1914. The resulting article was my most syndicated yet, and appeared in more than 15 different magazines, which I was very chuffed with!

I particularly liked this layout used in Harpenden Now magazine, because I thought the image of soldiers used behind the text was very effective. The layout below is from The CM21 Connection, who seem to have bought the full length version rather than the edited one.

Christmas Truce handy mag
The Handy Mag designers used some charming Christmas imagery to illustrate the article, shown here on the left. I like the snowy background effect.

When researching the article I used many letter excerpts, including some from letters written by Henry Williamson – yes, the same man who went on to write Tarka the Otter, a book that made me cry when I first read it around age ten. If you would like to read letters from this period, I can heartily recommend the amazing Christmas Truce website, “borne out of research conducted by Alan Cleaver and Lesley Park in 1999 for a booklet on the Christmas Truce called ‘Plum Puddings For All'”. Alan and Lesley became “aware of the vast resource lying dormant in newspaper archives: original personal letters from participants describing what happened and the effect it had on them”. Alan, Lesley and other volunteers have since made it their task to seek out and transcribe these records, and it’s a stunning resource, so do visit.

Several magazines had obviously noticed the emphasis on personal letter excerpts and the mention of carols sung by both sides, and chose to to illustrate the article with letters or German music scores, as Community Spotlight did (see right). The photos used were very touching too and provide proof that it wasn’t all swept under the carpet; the Christmas Truce events were reported in the UK just days later, with letters and photos appearing in national newspapers. While there was some disapproval in the higher ranks, it wasn’t the national disgrace it’s sometimes made out to have been.

If the experiences of WW1 soldiers interests you then there are dozens of books to read, but some I’ve dipped into recently are The Soldier’s War and The Quick and the Dead by Richard Van Emden, and also Mud, Blood and Poppycock by Gordon Corrigan. Corrigan’s book raised a few hackles when published due to his determination to bust what he saw as some of the most troublesome and persistent WW1 myths.

If you would like to read my article, you can find it here on page 52 of the digital version of Yes magazine – if you’re interested in vision correction, my article on that is in the same magazine on page 36!