Without Reading, Would our World End?

Posted in Reading by heatherbwriter

Certainly the world as we know it. And I’m not just talking about reading books, newspapers and magazines, but reading in the wider sense.

Think about it. If none of us could read – what impact would it have on our world?

Well, you wouldn’t be reading this article for a start as there would be no Internet. All those stunning Internet images would be meaningless without the words to accompany them. So, there wouldn’t be any emails. Perhaps it’s not all bad; at least you wouldn’t be receiving junk. There’d be no junk mail through your letterbox either, or text messages. Just imagine, a world without the Internet. How would we cope?

Oh, but we’d still have televisions and phones, I hear you say. Ah, but how functional would television be with any written scripts to work from? Media – it’s all words in one form or another, often accompanied by eye-catching images, but words are still a fundamental part of it.

Telephones. How would the telecommunications companies operate with limited means of contact? Communication isn’t all carried out by phone. For example, how would they keep financial records if nobody could read the words and figures on the screen or on paper?

That brings me on to the financial world. Money would no longer be represented as figures on a screen or in a ledger. Instead it would take on a more tangible form. People would be weighed down by coins as they would be the only representation of money. Notes would be useless if they bore figures as nobody could read them. Perhaps we could develop a method of colour-coded notes. And we wouldn’t be withdrawing money from the cash machine because we wouldn’t understand any of the bright green gobbledegook on the screen.

Supermarkets wouldn’t have names; they’d probably have a logo instead. They’d have to have more staff so they could tell you how many small coins you needed to buy an apple and how many large coins to treat yourself to a bottle of wine. How would they deal with special offers? Two for ones? Three for twos? At least we’d (hopefully) see an end to black Friday.

Travel. How do you know which bus to catch to work when you can’t read the numbers on the front? How do you know which junction to come off at the motorway? How do you find your way to somewhere new if you can’t read a map? There’s always Sat Nav but you have to type in your selections before it will direct you to your destination. You need to be able to read and write to do that.

Work. How many office jobs involve working with words and figures on the screen or stacks of letters and forms? Which industries would survive? Probably the more tangible ones but even they would have to adapt totally to a world without reading.

Just thinking of a life without reading makes me realise how difficult it must be for those who cannot read. I’m sure there are other ways in which it must impact on their lives. Maybe there are a few things I haven’t thought about. I would love to get your comments on this.

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20Nov2015

The Positive Side of Manchester

Posted in Manchester by heatherbwriter

People who read my books might get the impression that I don’t like Manchester much, as I always write about the shady side of life. I tend to focus on that aspect of Manchester because I write Manchester based crime thrillers. Really, though, it’s no reflection on how I feel about Manchester. Sadly, every city has its share of crime. However, Manchester also has a heck of a lot going for it and I’m extremely proud to be Mancunian. So, I thought I would dedicate this blog post to things about the city that are worth celebrating.

Sports

As well as having two famous football teams, Manchester City and Manchester United, Manchester also has many other sporting facilities. These were vastly improved following the hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and include:

Manchester Aquatics Centre – one of the biggest swimming centres in the UK and the only one with two indoor 50 metre pools.

The City of Manchester Institute of Gymnastics – run by qualified gymnastics coaches who train gymnasts up to Olympic standard.

National Squash Centre – seats 1,200 spectators and hosts tournaments at national and international level.

A J Bell Stadium – Home to the Sale Sharks, one of the UK’s top rugby union teams.

Chill Factor^e – an indoor ski centre with the longest indoor skiing and snowboarding slope in the UK.

National Cycling Centre (The Velodrome) – The first indoor Olympic cycling track in Britain, which houses the headquarters of Britain’s governing body for cycling. The track’s regular users include Sir Chris Hoy and Laura Trott.

Arts and Culture

Manchester has a good selection of art galleries, theatres and museums. Here’s a list of 10 art galleries that are well worth checking out: ten Manchester art galleries. There are also many smaller art galleries outside the city centre, and private art galleries in the Northern Quarter and elsewhere.

There are many museums in Manchester, some of them housed in historic buildings, and several of them themed, such as the Greater Manchester Police Museum, the Gallery of Costume, and the Manchester Jewish Museum. One of my favourites is the Museum of Science and Industry, which is a great day out for children because of its interactive exhibitions.

Theatres are abundant and tickets are a fraction of the price you would pay in London. You can expect to pay around £30 – £50 for a city centre performance of a well-known play or musical. However, I enjoy visiting local theatres in towns outside the city centre where you can watch lesser known plays written by local writers with tickets costing as little as £8.

Architecture

According to Wikipedia there are 236 Grade ll* listed buildings in Greater Manchester and 48 buildings are Grade l listed. Here are a couple of examples of the city’s architecture:

Manchester Cathedral is a grade I listed building, which has a rich history. It is built from locally sourced sandstone with floors made of limestone from the nearby Peak District. Although the cathedral has been redeveloped and added to over the years, there is evidence of an early Saxon church. The cathedral has a small carving of an angel with a scroll in one of its walls. It’s called the ‘Angel Stone’ and dates back to around 700 AD.

The Old Wellington Inn and Sinclair’s Oyster Bar are both Grade ll listed buildings. The Old Wellington Inn was built in 1552 and was the residence of the Byrom family from 1554. Writer John Byrom was born there in 1692.

Following the Manchester bomb in 1996, and the regeneration of the city, these two old pubs were dismantled and rebuilt on a site 300 metres away. They now form part of an area known as Shambles Square which is located near to the cathedral.

The modern buildings which I have shown in this article are located near to some more historic buildings. Yet the city is designed in such a way that the various periods of architecture sit comfortably alongside each other.

Music Scene

Take That, James, Oasis, Simply Red, Stone Roses, The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, New Order, Inspiral Carpets and Joy Division are just some of the big name bands to have come from Manchester. Although the days of Madchester and the Hacienda are now over, Manchester still has a vibrant music scene. As well as big venues such as the Manchester Arena and The Apollo, which host international artists, Manchester also has many smaller venues where local, unsigned bands play.

Nightlife

In some ways it’s a pity that my partying days were in the 80s because Manchester is so much busier than it used to be, and there’s something for everyone. Whether you want pubs full of old world charm, trendy nightclubs, bars that cater to office workers wanting to unwind at the end of the day or bargain priced cocktails for students, Manchester has it all. You can go out in Manchester on any night of the week and it will always be busy, unlike the recession-hit early 80s when Fridays and Saturdays tended to be the only really busy nights of the week.

Then there’s the world famous Gay Village, a collection of gay bars and restaurants centred round the pedestrianised canal street. The Gay Village holds the annual Manchester Pride carnival as well as other annual events.

Dining

As with nightclubs, there’s a vast array of places to eat, and almost every type of cuisine you can think of. China town has been around for a long time as has ‘The Curry Mile’ but following the redevelopment of the city centre, there are more and more restaurants springing up all the time. There are also newer developments where several restaurants can be found concentrated into the one area such as The Printworks and Spinningfields.

Shopping

Manchester is a great city for shopping. Apart from the Arndale Centre with over 200 indoor shops, there are several department stores: Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Debenhams, House of Fraser and Marks and Spencer. There are also smaller shopping areas including The Royal Exchange, Barton Arcade, the trendy Affleck’s Palace, and The Triangle. The latter contains mainly upmarket shops. The Arndale Centre is Europe’s third largest city centre shopping centre, and is the eighth biggest UK shopping centre in terms of floor space. However, just a few miles out of the city centre, we also have the Trafford Centre, the UK’s second largest shopping centre.

For independent, boutique stores you could try the Northern Quarter, also known as the creative quarter. As well as individual shops, the Northern Quarter is the location for the Manchester Craft & Design Centre and the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art.

Media City

Just outside the city centre is Media City, a relatively recent development aimed at the creative and digital sectors. It is home to BBC North and ITV, and has one of the biggest HD studio complexes in Europe. It’s a thriving and expanding area of the city which includes offices, retail space, apartments and restaurants.

Transport Network

If you’ve grown up in Manchester you probably won’t realise the advantage that the city has over many other parts of the country. It has an excellent road and rail network, regular bus routes to most parts of the city and an ever-expanding tram network. It does suffer from some problems caused by increased traffic flow, which the additional tram lines are designed to alleviate. Manchester also has an international airport with three terminals.

Others

I’m sure there are many more things that I haven’t thought of and no doubt they’ll come to me after publication of this post. However, just to make sure I haven’t missed anyone’s favourites, here’s a fun article I found: 27 Excellent Things Manchester Gave the World.

In upcoming blog posts I’ll be looking at some of Manchester’s wonderful, historic libraries.

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13Nov2015

Starting Work on a New Novel

Posted in Crime Thriller by heatherbwriter

Having completed most of the initial promotion for my second novel A Gangster’s Grip I’ve finally made a start on my third novel. I use the words, ‘initial promotion’ because I realise that promotion is ongoing. However, it is more concentrated at the launch of a novel. Because of this, together with client work, it has been several weeks since I have done any actual book writing.

After such a prolonged break I found it difficult to get started with the third book. I already had a plot outlined so I thought it was just a matter of doing some research and then the ideas would start flowing as they usually do. Unfortunately, after carrying out some initial research I found that my plot was totally unworkable. So there I was a few days ago with no plot whatsoever for my third book.

It was an ironic situation because there are plenty of other books I would like to write and I have even penned some ideas for several of them. The problem was, I had to write this book because it’s a trilogy. It’s promoted as a trilogy, the book cover designs show that the first two books are part of a trilogy and I’ve written the first two books with a third book in mind.

Panic!!!

Ok, I was tempted to panic but instead I tried to stay calm and think of a different angle. It wasn’t coming to me immediately so I broke for lunch. Then, when I had switched off, the ideas started forming. By about three in the afternoon I had the bare bones of a plot. I know that my subconscious brain kicks in when I am relaxed so I took another break and had a walk to the bank. By the time I returned I had the whole thing worked out and couldn’t wait to type it up.

It’s still quite daunting though because what I have is a basic plot outline. I would still like to throw in a few more and twists and turns here and there. I’m also feeling a bit dissatisfied because I had psyched myself up to write the book I had originally planned. However, I have only just touched on the research for this book and I know that more ideas will start to flow once I get engrossed in the writing. (They usually do as long as I keep focused and stay positive but, like most authors, I’m prone to periods of self-doubt.)

I think starting a new novel is always going to be a bit scary if you let yourself get carried away. Basically what you have initially is the germ of an idea, which may be between a few hundred to a few thousand words. You then have to decide whether that idea can run to a full-length novel. Even when you’ve made that decision you can still have feelings of trepidation that you might not quite make it, even if you’ve succeeded with previous novels.

You might even have the characters in mind but how do you flesh out the plot? How do you take a novel from a sketchy outline and develop it into a full-length novel. I personally go through a process. Beginning with the outline I gradually build it up into a chapter by chapter synopsis. I start to write the actual narrative when I think I’ve got enough ideas to work with. These ideas can come at different stages and are helped along by various processes: research, exploring any initial ideas, adding sub-plots to the main plot, building on the early outline, planning the sequence of events and the highlights of the novel etc.

The more engrossed I become, the more the ideas flow. I also often find that I write out of sequence if, for example, I think of an idea for a scene later in the novel. I prefer to write it out in full straightaway while it’s fresh in my mind then I can slot it into the overall framework.

I love the feeling when the ideas are flowing. I’ve not quite reached that stage yet and I think this is because I hadn’t done any (novel) writing for several weeks. It’s starting to come though, but I need to carry out more detailed research before I can push forward. I’m off to the library tomorrow to comb through the archives. I need to read eye-witness accounts of a particular event so that I can get a real sense of what it felt like. I’m hoping to come home fired up and raring to go.

The third book in the trilogy will be another work of fiction but, as with ‘A Gangster’s Grip’, it will be based on real events. It looks like I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. 🙂

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