That's Beauty and Living: Autumn Winter Fashion Presents The Car Bootique – ...

That's Beauty and Living: Autumn Winter Fashion Presents The Car Bootique – ...: Fashion lovers - get ready - as the Car Bootique returns to Westfield London Shopping Centre for its second year, this season in associati...

Beautiful Britain family travel writing contest call for submissions

A family travel writing competition celebrating the beauty of Britain is calling for submissions.

The contest at www.havealovelytime.com has a top prize of £200, a second prize of a weekend stay at the Park Inn in historic York and an English Heritage family pass for everyone finishing in the top ten, as well as a copy of Travelling with Children, by Catherine Cooper, one of the competition’s judges.

There’s also a mystery prize on offer for the entry voted readers’ favourite after the competition closes on October 1, 2011.

Journalist and author Linda Jones who edits Have a lovely time, and is Catherine’s fellow judge, adds: “We want to celebrate all that’s great about family tourism in our stunning land. That might include breathtaking adventures in the Lakes, laughing til your sides ache at a family-friendly Edinburgh festival, savouring the splendour of the West Wales coastline, a Devon cream tea or a knees up at a holiday park…or of course plenty more.

“Wherever you love to find quality family time in Britain – we want to hear about it. We’re looking for entries about family holidays, breaks, days out or adventures.

“Perhaps your stories could be inspired by firing your imagination at an English Heritage (www.english-heritage.org.uk) property – as we’re delighted they are backing our contest – and there are so many adventures to be had for you and your family.

“We won’t tell you what we mean by ‘family’ – so long as you feel the title fits, that’s fine by us. Perhaps the break you want to write about is a first one without children when they’ve flown the nest. Maybe you don’t have children but consider a beloved pet part of your family."

A first entry is free but if you’d like to try more than once, there’s a fee of £5 per subsequent entry. If you’d like a professional critique of your submission you can pay £12.50 for feedback on your style, structure and content. A proportion of all fees paid will be split between Have a Lovely Time’s chosen charity, CCPA (www.ccpa.org.uk) (formerly NACCPO) and their support for an organisation called the Torbay Holiday Helpers Network (www.thhn.co.uk) which helps offer free holidays, to families who have seriously ill life threatening/limiting, terminally ill and recently bereaved children.

Prizes:
1st prize
• £200
• English Heritage family day pass to visit a property of your choice
• Copy of Travelling with Children by Catherine Cooper
2nd prize
• Weekend break at the Park Inn, York
• English Heritage family day pass to visit a property of your choice
• Copy of Travelling with Children by Catherine Cooper

3rd – 10th prizes – Highly commended
• English Heritage family day pass to visit a property of your choice
• Copy of Travelling with Children by Catherine Cooper

More details and contributors’ guidelines can be found at www.havealovelytime.com

About the judges:
Catherine Cooper is a freelance journalist specialising in travel with children. Her clients include The Sunday Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, The Baby Directory, Practical Parenting and several airline magazines.
Catherine has written extensively about travels she has taken with her own children since they were babies. Family trips have included mule-trekking in the Atlas Mountains, a city-break to Marrakech, donkey-trekking in France, beach holidays and skiing holidays as well as visits to Butlins, camping in the UK and abroad, self-catering cottage holidays and many others. Last year Catherine and her family relocated from London to the South of France.

Linda Jones is editor of Have a Lovely Time and Ready for Ten. She wrote her first freelance travel article in 1994 when she was working in St Petersburg, Russia and helped launch a travel and lifestyle magazine. She has reported from France, Spain and the US for regional UK evening newspapers and as a freelance has contributed features to most women’s weekly magazines and national newspapers. These days Linda is the director of Midlands agency Passionate Media where she also runs popular workshops for established and aspiring writers.

Brian Aldiss and Gavin Pretor-Pinney kick off the New Term at London's Idler Academy

Science fiction legend Brian Aldiss is giving the first English class at the Idler Academy this term.

Mr Aldiss will be in conversation with actor Sir Timothy Ackroyd and Melli Bond, and will discuss the creative process and his long and successful career as a writer.

Says Idler Academy founder, Idler editor and Penguin author Tom Hodgkinson: "We're delighted to welcome a writer of the stature of Brian Aldiss to the Idler Academy, and look forward to a fascinating evening." Mr Aldiss appears on Tuesday 6 September. Doors open at 6.30pm. Everyone is welcome: there is no sign-up process involved. Just buy a ticket.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney gives the Idler Academy's first science class of the term. He is the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and author of the international best-seller, The Cloudspotter's Guide. Gavin has chosen waves as his topic. Says Tom: "Again it's a delight to have Gavin back for a talk. We founded the Idler magazine together in 1993 and worked together for 14 years. Gav left to stare at clouds and waves, and now he is bringing home the fruits of his study."

Gavin's talk is on Wednesday 7 September at 6.30pm.

The Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment was founded in March of this year by Tom and his partner Victoria Hull. It is a coffeehouse and bookshop by day. It is situated in Bayswater, opposite the Westbourne Tavern.

"This really is a free school as we are free to do exactly what we like," says Tom. "This term we have great speakers such as Will Self, Frank Gardner, Phillip Knightley, Roy Strong and Louis Theroux, and a wide range of day and evening classes in everything from Latin to carpentry and needlework.

"At the Idler Academy you can educate yourself and have a lot of fun while so doing. It's open to everyone. The Greek word scholia, which turned into our word for school, originally meant leisure. So in the old days, going to school was something you did for fun. Now that's true once again."

The Aacdemy's motto is "libertas per cultum", meaning "freedom through education". Its patron is Emma Thompson.
 

You can view the full term timetable at www.idler.co.uk/academy/events.

That's Beauty and Living: How to wear your little black dress this winter

That's Beauty and Living: How to wear your little black dress this winter: From Jules Standish, The Colour Counsellor and Author of How Not to Wear Black.

(EDITOR: I have included this story because it is a perfect example of how a writer has used her expert knowledge to write a book. What expert knowledge do you have to create a book with?)

Be That Writer update

This is a special update from Be That Writer. Be That Writer would like to offer you a friendly, inspirational challenge.

Be That Writer would like you to take part in the following exercise. Look around you and see what you can see. Pick up on one item and write between 50 and 150 words on that item.

If you wish, you can send the finished written article to Be That Writer in the form of a comment to this article. Or you can keep it and see if you can use it as the basis for a saleable article. And before you dismiss this idea, consider this: G.K. Chesterton once wrote an article for a newspaper entitled: "What I found in my pocket."

There's no time limit to this exercise and no prizes. Please have fun with this.

That's Green: The 6th INTERNATIONAL GREEN AWARDS™ is calling for...

That's Green: The 6th INTERNATIONAL GREEN AWARDS™ is calling for...: "The INTERNATIONAL GREEN AWARDS™, a global programme that recognises innovative and creative approaches to sustainability, is now searching..."

New facility for readers of Be That Writer

There are many books available for the aspiring and the more experienced writer. But if we are not careful we can spend far too much of the income we generate from writing on buying such books.

We can guard against this unfortunate event by buying our books wisely. Such as buying from Amazon who do stock a wide range of books of great interest and worth to us writers.

Be That Writer has introduced an Amazon search box/sales facility which you will find on the right hand side of Be That Writer.

Be That Writer hopes you will enjoy using this facility. Will Be That Writer earn any income from such sales? Be That Writer certainly hopes so, as this will help defray the costs of running the site!

Write On! The Writer’s Help Book

This is an essential guide for all writers, from the newest to the more experienced amongst us.

Seasoned and published author and writer Adrian Magson (you’ll probably have seen  his name in writer’s magazines) will help you get your ideas in to action and then on the screen and the printed page.

He reveals the many tricks and tips that professional fiction writers use to help them in their craft.

There’s advice on how you can edit your own work before you submit your work for publication.

Adrian covers a variety of topics and subjects involved with writing from dealing with writer’s block, right through to getting published.

The book is inspirational and makes a fine reference work for all writers, no matter if they have published dozens of articles and books or if they are hungering after their first sale.

Hunger no more! This book will feed you  with what you need!

The book is available via The Be That Writer Amazon Search Box to the right of this item at £9.99 (or less).

It is published by Accent Press and is available from 10 August. Paperback, ISBN 9781908006776.

Some more on ideas

As I said in the introductory chapter; “Some books for writers merely say: “Ideas are all around you.” Whilst that is true, it is foolish just to leave it hanging there. There are ways that you can find ideas and even generate ideas with a little hard work and application of effort.”

So, then, how do we find ideas or generate ideas? If there is this goldmine of ideas out there, how do we start digging for nuggets?

In every case, the basic idea that is the kernel at the heart of each and every article ever written was inspired by something. There are a number of tricks, schemes or methods that can be employed to help us find an idea for an article. The following exercises are only some of them. Explore them, see what you ca do with them.

Listen to a talk radio station for 60 minutes. Record  it, if you want, but certainly make notes on every aspect of the hour-long segment of programming that you listened to.

Was it entertaining? Informative? Did any of the calls or the presenter say anything to you? Give you any ideas for future articles? Don’t forget the adverts. If the programming was broadcast on a commercial radio station, did any of the adverts give you ideas for future articles?

Look through the news pages of a daily or a weekly newspaper.

Study the stories.  Do any of them strike up the spark of an idea in your mind for future articles?

Here are three headlines taken from a British daily newspaper:

“Too Much TV can damage Bone.”

“Fresh Alert Over Irradiated Food”

“300 Million Year-old Forest.”

Let’s take a closer look at the first of those headlines, shall we?

Can watching too much TV damage bones? If so, how? And how would a person guard against this? Watch less TV? Take food supplements? If you did watch less TV, could you create your own entertainment? Would you need to ensure that whatever you replaced TV watching with did not have a potentially equally damaging effect upon the bones?

Sometimes we might see an article in a magazine or a newspaper that sparks off an idea.  It might be at total odds with the point of view expressed in the article. If so, that’s all to the good.

Ask other, perhaps older, members of your family if they have an interesting story, or if there is an interesting story to the family history.

In all likelihood they will say: “no” but that might not be quite true. For example I was told: “Nothing ever happens in our family!” I was told.. But a little gentle questioning revealed a tale of International espionage, the witnessing of a cold-blooded assassination on the crowded streets of Barcelona and a “skin-of-the-teeth” escape from the thugs of Franco’s Gestapo-trained secret police.

Not bad, for a family in which “nothing ever happens!”

The Edward De Bono method for generating ideas.

Edward De Bono is one of the world’s foremost experts on thinking and especially the field of lateral thinking.  He has devised a system for generating new ideas. The original concept featured a simple mechanical device which had two lists of words that could be combined randomly.

Professor De Bono explained that this could help to generate new ideas. In the interview which mentioned the concept the random selection of words presented “nude” and “chocolate.” Immediately Professor De Bono said: “Perhaps there could be a market for chocolates that are sold “nude” i.e., with less wrappings to make them more environmentally friendly. This was some 20 or 30 years ago before the concept of “environmentally friendly” products and wrappings became such a large issue and important issue.

Could such a concept help a journalist to create ideas for new stories?

Here are a list of randomly selected pairs of words, culled from a dictionary. Take a look at them. Could any of them be used to create a news story or a feature article?

OATH – LAVATORY

WET – FOOL

VISTA – PIECE

TREAD – ORANGE

LUGE – BRUNT

ONCE – KIDNEY

IT – GRADIENT

DOBRO® - EYELET

HOODWINK – DEMISE

DELIVER – BUSINESS

AGE - VISUAL

ACCEDE – UNBUTTON

Nonsense? Undoubtedly! However, allow them to get your creative juices flowing. Did the fact that someone was hoodwinked lead to their demise?  Can you get a  fool to come in form the rain?

Why not try experimenting with you own ideas? Your own random parings?

Claim and a challenge

In an Internet writing discussion group I once made the claim (perhaps rather foolishly!) that I could write an article on any given topic.

One person rose to the challenge. She asked me to write an article on her Brother-in-Law who, although an otherwise very sober, sensible and respectable businessman, always wears one red tennis shoe and one yellow tennis shoe. The last time that she could recall was to a wedding.

This is the article that I wrote and which she seemed reasonably pleased with.

Why would someone wear one red and one yellow tennis shoe to a wedding? Or even wear one red and one yellow tennis shoe at all?

It could be so that, should he be challenged, he could respond with the rather old an hoary joke: “Yes, and I have another pair just like it at home!”

Perhaps he feels the need to be noticed or to be different, but does not feel inclined or motivated  to make a real statement of being “different?” Wearing a red  and a yellow tennis shoe as an unmatched pair could be a safe way of proving his individuality. His own statement of uniqueness in a world bedeviled by uniformity and sameness.

Unless, of course, there is another reason that he chooses to wear such footwear? Perhaps he made a bet that he would wear one red and one yellow tennis shoe for a specific time? An unlikely idea? True. But more likely, it can be said, than the true story of the man who took a bet –and won it!- to walk around the world by himself wearing a heavy iron mask whilst he was pushing a pram with his belongings in it. So, taking a bet on wearing an unmatched pair of shoes would be a modest bet, when compared to a wager of such magnitude.

What makes the story of the man in the iron mask even more interesting is that, although he was a very wealthy young man, the terms of the bet forbade him from carrying more than one US Dollar on his person and he supported himself by selling postcards, one of which was bought by the then Prince of Wales. His weary trudge around the world was only interspersed with a “break” to volunteer to serve in the US Army during World War 1.

And tennisshoes –or the older tennis sneakers- featured in the fascinating life story of Dr Timothy Leary. Apparently two well-respected and well-known English philosophers wanted a psychologist in America to work with them to study the psychoactive drugs Mescaline and LSD with a view to having them used to help people.

They had been recommended to talk with Dr. Leary. Yet they were initially disappointed, put off by the fact that they needed someone who would  be a freethinker and capable of being radical, but Dr. Leary –at that time- wore a typically conservative business suit and sported a crew-cut hairstyle, much beloved of every conventional American male at that time, in the 1950s.

They were about to reject Dr. Leary as unsuitable, when they noticed that he was wearing a pair  of white tennis sneakers. They concluded that, although Dr. Leary seemed on the face of it to be conventional, that his footwear showed him to be capable of being different. Or what today would be called: “thinking outside the box.”

Incidentally their plans to have a properly controlled research programme into the possible use of mescaline and LSD to help humanity were thwarted, because one of Dr. Leary’s colleagues at the University Psychology Department was conducting secret tests on the possible use of LSD as a weapon under the control of the CIA.

These secret trials of LSD eventually lead to the deaths of a top American scientist and several US servicemen, all who had been given LSD without their knowledge or approval. 

But of course, you must understand that these illegal trials –arguably amounting to homicide, one might suggest- were perpetrated by people who wore sensible brogues or smart leather shoes. I doubt if they would have even dreamt  of wearing tennis sneakers with a business suit or wearing one red and one yellow tennis shoe to a wedding.

Perhaps we need more people to wear tennis sneakers with business suits? Or willing to wear un-matching tennis shoes?

Although the premise of that story was rather slight, a person who always wears un-matched tennis shoes, I was able to touch on such subjects as a rich man who took an improbable bet and won, the guru of the counter-culture Dr. Timothy Leary and dangerous CIA experiments that lead to the deaths of innocent, unwitting test subjects.

Anyone for grammar?

You might be surprised but I have decided not to cover the rules of grammar and the perceived wisdom of what is good or bad English in this short book.

Why? Because there are many good books (and several not-too-good books!) that are available on the market that purport to be able to teach you how to become an expert grammarian. But that is not the purpose of this book. However, here is a question for you. What would you rather be? An expert grammarian? Or a good writer or journalist?

I remember the puzzlement and frustration that I felt when, as a young teenager, I read a science fiction novel written by a man who was a professor of astronomy in his fulltime job.

He had written a figure of speech for one of the main characters and followed this with the really punchy tagline: “He said, rather ungrammatically.”   I read, and re-read that sentence many times, yet could not see which rule of grammar it had offended.

Eventually I showed it to my father –a journalist himself and certainly no slouch when it came to the correct use of English and English grammar- and asked him for his opinion on what rule had been broken. He read it through a time or two, scratched his head and then said: “There’s nothing wrong with that sentence that I can see. Perhaps this would be a good reason for not allowing professors of astronomy to write science fiction novels?"

This incident took place some 30 years ago. Yet all I can remember about the book is the pedantic use of English (which he might have been wrong about in any case!) by the author. An example of grammar being a stumbling block to the enjoyment of a piece of written work, one might argue.

However, there is one book that I can definitely recommend for journalists and writers. It is “Lapsing Into a Comma” “A Curmudgeon’s guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print – and How to Avoid Them” Written by Bill Walsh, the Copy Desk Chief of the Business Desk at the Washington Post, the book is an erudite and witty guide to the use of English for journalists. The one draw-back is that it is written primarily for American journalists, so does use American rather than British or Australian English (for example) although does contain some helpful hints for copy editors to “correct” British English for  American newspapers. It is published by Contemporary Books and has an ISBN of 0-8092-2535-2 at a cost of $14.95. Mr. Walsh also answers questions on the use of English via his website www.theslot.com