Archive for posts on Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle

Lovely changes Saturday, November 17th, 2007

I miss my Katie lots. Being in Oxford will be great for next year when she’s nextdoor in London, but right now it makes getting in touch harder, and when loneliness sometimes strikes it makes the blow even firmer.

Anyway, here are some lovelier changes:

1. I live in Oxford now. Oxford is actually a much smaller city than you might expect, and I like it a lot. There are grand old buildings peeking out against the skyline everywhere and everybody rides bicycles, which reminds me of Amsterdam and makes me happy.

2. I’m volunteering at Oxfam now. Currently I’m working on the intranet, and it’s a fairly dull job but also one that I find quite easy, which means that I’ll have the task finished sooner than planned and I can have a look around other departments that I’m more interested in. The people I work with are all lovely and there is something a little liberating about working for free, at least for an organisation that deserves the support. I suppose the knowledge that you’re not prostituting yourself is quite a nice one.

3. I’m going out now to send query letters to agents who may be interested in working with me to get my children’s stories published. I’ve been wanting to send out the queries for weeks but one complication after another has arisen and I’ve only just reached the point where it’s both possible and smart to do so. Perhaps now that I live in Oxford I will have greater credibility as a writer!

4. I’m a vegetarian now. I’ve wanted to turn vegetarian for some years and only recently felt that I could handle it: this seemed like a good time to make the switch, given all of the other changes occurring (especially since I’m only just really learning to cook), and it’s worked out nicely.

Posted in Books, Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Short Tall Tales • 7 comments

3-2-1 Monday, October 29th, 2007

Some exciting things:

1. I’m moving to Oxford. I’ll be staying in an amazing freshly refurbished house (”the loveliest house in Oxford,” one of my housemates correctly said) with three other guys, all lovely, and starting an internship with Oxfam, which will, I hope, lead to a permanent position in a few months. It’s all happening; I’ll be off within the next couple of weeks. I’m excited to gain my independence, to do something professionally that I think is worthwhile, and to move to one of the nicest locations in England. Yay!

2. Katie was accepted to come to London with college next semester. With her in London and myself in Oxford, we can see each other at weekends and even some evenings and at not much expense. Yay!

3. Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle is ready to send to prospective agents, and I’m very excited about getting query letters out there (I’m waiting until I’ve moved). Wish me luck!

Some less exciting things:

1. Anybody who had trouble seeing my web site before should be much better off now. I’ve made it much simpler and more streamlined so that it should work on any computer. It’s not as much fun as before but on the whole it’s an improvement. Fascinating, yes?

2. There are fifty-seven days until Christmas.

Something depressing:

Why has it suddenly become de rigeur for huge corporations to cut thousands of jobs? Cadburys, Royal Mail and the BBC are all planning absurd quantities of redundancies because the people at the top still want more money for themselves. It’s “definitely in the best interests of the BBC,” says Michael Lyons. What about the interests of the people who work for the BBC, with families to feed and rent to pay?

3-2-1. Not a bad ratio, I think.

Posted in Books, Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Short Tall Tales, kkcom • 5 comments

What I’ve been up to Friday, August 10th, 2007

Well, I spent the Summer (so far) with Katie in New Milford and Tulsa Oklahoma. I explained before that there were a few reasons: I got to spend lots of time with my sweetheart and other rarely-seen friends, and get away from a withstandable but menial job, and get some illustrations from Mrs. Robson to accompany my short stories. I had such a wonderful time; it’s difficult to explain what a relief it is to be able to socialise with everybody without the ominous knowledge that I’ll be leaving in one week, five days, two days, surrounding every event like an uncast shadow. I’m really excited for Katie coming to England in January, when she’ll be staying for five months (and, if I’m wily, I can sneak into her Shakespeare classes at the Globe theatre…)! The Robsons got so used to me that they were looking for ways to keep me in the country, which was so sweet and very ego-inflaming. The US immigration system is set against me coming permanently, though. There are endless variations of visas available to non-US citizens, but I’m eligible for none of them. Did you know that there is a visa available for which the only criteria is a high enough salary? Incredible.

My menial job will be up for grabs again towards the end of September. That gives me a month and a half of free time, in which I’m going to try some street performing. There’s a pretty little town called Colchester a short train ride away from me - it’s the oldest recorded town in England and a tourist haven. Perfect! If I can make a half-decent living from it, I won’t return to Argos, because why would I when I can stand and play blues and entertain people all day instead, and choose my own hours?

Mrs. Robson just doesn’t have time to illustrate a whole book. She drew some concept sketches for me and they were wonderful but we both have to accept that an entire book, albeit a short one, isn’t going to happen, let alone four books. That’s fine. In fact:

That’s why it’s lucky that I discovered a delightful program called ArtRage, which is literally a virtual canvas upon which you can draw, sketch, paint, smudge and so on. The paintbrush even runs out of paint, and you have to wash it off in order to avoid the colours mingling.

I’m really pleased with the results. I have no skill at all with a tangible paintbrush, so being able to create something vaguely pleasant to look at was a nice surprise. Hopefully, soon, I’ll have finished the illustrations for my first story and somebody with a gambling personality will take an interest in publishing it…

(Click the pictures to englarge them.)
Illustrations © Kinders Kinley. All rights reserved.

Posted in Books, Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle, Personal, Short Tall Tales • No comments