Welcome to the fourth edition of the Scriptorium Newsletter. The scribes would like to apologise for it being later than intended. Quite a lot has been happening, and the newsletter slipped down the “To Do” list onto the “Get Around To It When You Can” list. On the plus side, it’s now done and being sent out, and it’s still September.
Literary Competition News
Following the feedback from the Prestigious Literary Competition about Pass The Duchy that it was a great premise and highly marketable but needed tightening and more editing, I have set to work with a vengeance. There’s a phrase used in writing circles to “Kill Your Darlings” or, to put it another way, chop out all the stuff you think is wonderful if it doesn’t need to be there. I’ve gone into this well distanced from having written it, with a steely determination to make it as good as I can. It hasn’t been easy to rip it apart and at times it has been brutal. The result is that it’s reading far better than it did before. I’m about a third of the way through and finding that the word count is staying more or less the same. A lot has come out but has been replaced with better material. The main character is more defined. Backstory has been moved around and made into dialogue rather than “tell”. I almost feel that I’ve gone up a level as a writer and am seeing things in the way the text has been put together that I didn’t before. The price of entry into the competition has been more than worth it for the feedback alone.
Talking of which, the feedback for All Steamed Up is still pending and might not arrive until the end of November. This isn’t a problem as Pass The Duchy is keeping me busy enough. Work on The Flipside Of Somewhen has been put on hold until I’ve finished with the Duchy. I haven’t forgotten about The Scriptorium Chronicle either, it’s ready to go for beta reading once I get a moment to organise it.
Now I stop to think about it, I’ve got a lot to do to finish these multiple Works In Progress before I can start anything new. I also think I’m now better equipped to do a more polished job of it. We’ll see how it goes.
Works In Progress
Having put everything on hold except for Pass The Duchy, there is one thing that’s still ticking away in the background—The Scriptorium Cookbook. I’m adding to it from time to time as we head into Autumn and some old favourites are coming back into season. It is also proving an opportunity to re-test the recipes for ease of following. Some minor tweaks have been made and so far there have been no culinary disasters.
The Scriptorium Chronicle illustrations that went onto Redbubble seem to be popular if the number of likes is anything to go by. There haven’t been any sales from this line yet, but odds and ends from other designs go from time to time.
The Wildflower Meadow (formerly the Front Lawn)
As we have now hit harvest time, the scribes went out with the new, razor-sharp scythe and cut (almost) everything down. What was spared was a patch of Evening Primrose and Musk Mallow as they were still flowering, the Red Clover sown this year and the Spotted Orchids, which were setting seed. After lying for a few days, the mown hay has been removed and more spring bulbs planted for next year. The scribes have learnt that there are two types of wildflower meadow—annual and perennial. After much deliberation (they thought about it over a cup of tea and a ginger nut biscuit), they have decided to go down the perennial meadow route and will be sowing and planting accordingly.
The chap below is an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar chomping away quite happily on the Evening Primrose. The scribes bid him a good day and left him to get on with his meal uninterrupted. They are now looking for an adult Hawkmoth but have not yet seen one.
Unrelated to wildflower meadows and caterpillars, the koh-koh-koh call they have been hearing from a big black bird has now been identified as a raven. The scribes gave the Tower of London a call in case one of theirs had gone missing but all are accounted for. They said it’s probably a wild one that has turned up. In case it is an omen, the scribes have been leaving ginger nut biscuits out for it to stay on its good side.
Dear Alexa,
Yesterday I saw seven magpies in a tree. Remembering my country folklore, I said “Good morning, Mr Magpie” to each of them to avoid back luck. When I said the magpie rhyme I realised that seven were a secret never to be told. I am now wondering what this secret is and who is not supposed to say it. Is it me or someone else?
Worried Bird Watcher
Dear Worried Bird Watcher,
It’s tricky, but if you think about it, the whole rhyme is about what will happen to you. One magpie will bring you sorrow, two joy and so on. Seven for a secret never to be told means that someone has a secret but isn’t going to tell you what it is. I have plenty of secrets—writing this Agony Aunt column has given me more than enough material to start a lucrative blackmail sideline—but I am enough of a professional to keep my mouth shut, at least until the time is right or the pay-off sufficient to retire to South America on.
Alexa
Ginger Nut Biscuits
Regular followers of The Scriptorium will know that Musky the dog is partial to the occasional ginger nut biscuit. They will also know that the scribes don’t mind them either with A Nice Cup of Tea. What you may not know is how quick and easy they are to make, which is less time than it takes to head down to the shops to pick up a packet.
Makes 16
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 10 minutes
Ready: 30 minutes
Ingredients
100g salted butter, cubed
75g light brown soft sugar
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
100g golden syrup
250g self-raising flour
1½ tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 small egg yolk, beaten
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/fan 170ºC/gas 5. Take two large baking trays and line with baking paper. Try to keep Musky out of the kitchen as he can get over-excited if he thinks there are fresh ginger nut biscuits coming.
2. Melt the butter, sugar, fresh ginger and golden syrup in a pan over a low heat and leave to cool.
3. Take a bowl and mix the flour, ground ginger and bicarb together with a wooden spoon. As far as the scribes have been able to determine, it doesn’t matter what type of wood the spoon is made of but yew is probably best avoided.
4. Gradually stir in the syrupy mixture from the pan and add the egg yolk. Bring together as a dough and knead briefly.
5. Go and get the scribe that does fractions. Half the dough makes two very large biscuits. Halve these and you have four. Halve again makes eight and halve again gives you sixteen. Make the scribe that does fractions a cup of tea as tradition dictates.
6. Roll the dough into balls and place on the baking trays with a good gap between each, say 3-4cm depending on how large your baking trays are. This will allow them to spread without running into each other. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Leave the biscuits to cool on the trays for a minute or two before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool down properly.
7. Allow Musky back into the kitchen and give him a ginger nut biscuit for being a good boy.
Mark Weaver 