The Story Museum

So today my friend Anna and I headed off to check out two exhibitions at the as yet officially unopened Story Museum in Oxford (its due to open properly in 2015, I really cannot wait). The first was Rochesters EXTRAORDINARY story loom, a large steampunk creation with a backstory which must have made the  writers of EastEnders jealous...

(Although the backstory also confirmed something I had thought for a while that Oxford is a centre for Literary genius as it is centre to a vortex of story energy (Philip Pullman etc al you have been rumbled!)) Anyway  I digress...

The story goes that a the main protagonists, a young man (Barnabas) invented this machine for the object of his affections (Felicity, who was at this point obsessed by literature and falling for the charms of a writer, Charles Dodgson). It worked by feeding off the imaginations of children, leaving them as husks.

The chap in question sent many metal roses and wrote many a wooing letter to the maiden in question but nul points, so he unveiled his creation.

 

 Perhaps unsurprisingly she was horrified and went off with the writer anyway. He was heartbroken for a bit but cashed in on his misfortune by selling the patent to the machine and becoming wildly rich (yes I also noticed the excellent use of slinky's at the top of the machine).

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But these were massed produced stories and soon the tide began to turn. People stopped buying them and instead turned back to stories written by people and thus the revolution was complete and most of the story machines were smashed, this claims the museum is the last one in existence.... Anna was brave enough to have a go (although alas we couldn't find any children to put in...). 

ready to roll, oh and we are off

wha ha ha, at the end of the exhibition we got to vote did we think the machine was pure humbug or a machine marvel. We obviously said machine marvel (it was very pretty and must have taken AGES to build).

Next up was the sister exhibition tea with Alice. First off the lights were amazing 

 Upside down teacups you see, isn't that lovely? 

The exhibition was lots of Alice illustrations (and a few photos that Anna very much fell in love with). All were very different but all really captured the spirit of the story quite beautifully. Here are some of our favourites

Absolem - Drugs are baaaaddddddd

 Time for tea (you can't see it very clearly on this pic but that is the white rabbit in the middle)

This may well have been my favourite favourite but it was a close call.

This is exactly how I imagine the queen to be!

warrrrrrr

Excellent hatter

This was the other serious contender for favourite for me, I love how vivid the hatter is even though you can't see his face. After the main gallery there was a reading room and this rather marvelous room

The trees on the wall had tea time in all different places marked. This was my favourite tree as it had Oxford on it

Anna rather fancied one of the hats with ears

while I stayed true to form

Once a mad hatter always a mad hatter... In the end Anna also gave into the charms of the flowery number

Suits you madam. So there you have it, to extraordinary exhibits.

The hightlight for me was the attention to detail of both exhibits, the way the staff had pulled out strands of the story behind the beautifully constructed loom made it believable. Equally in the Alice exhibit the sympathic surroundings (cups of tea on the wall and the illustrations being displayed in table tops, plus the actual mad tea party (with excellent hats)) helped distinguish this exhibition and stopped it from becoming 'just another lot of Alice stuff' (something Oxford is want to do very well).

The detail was everywhere and we spotted this little gem on the way out

    Brilliant! After all that, ahem, hard work we headed off to a cafe for refreshment...

...carrot cake, it had to be done!
Sadly this weekend was the last for these two exhibits but there are plans for other exhibits and activities such as printmaking to follow. Keep a wary eye on the website and get yourself down there as soon as you can. The Story museum is a wonderful place to visit whatever your age and deserves its place amongst the true gems of Oxford 

Group 2012 and a breadstick experiment

I've got a bit of a confession to make. I've been attending a writing class for the last two months. I didn't post about the first meet because it was all very new (and quite scary) and I wasn't sure I had the nerve to go back (I still don't really think of myself as a 'proper writer', which may be part of the problem). This time I had dutch courage (in the form of a single malt before I set out) so let me introduce you Group 2012.

Set up as a joint venture between Blackwells, the Oxford Editors and Hersilia Press the group aims to support its members by inviting published authors to give talks and advice and supporting work in progress by offering feedback and advice. The first session was a mixed meet and greet where the aims were put in place. The second meeting we had the quite wonderful James Attlee talking about his latest book Nocturne: A Journey in Search of Moonlight (and offering copies up for a very reasonable price, alas I didn't go via the cashpoint on the way but I will be buying a copy of Nocturne for my dad's birthday & a copy for myself if my bookcases can bear any extra strain). The talk itself was fascinating, James describing how he had followed stories and images of the moon through time and cultures ending up with a kind of distilled essence from which the book flowed.

We had the opportunity to quiz him after he had finished and I asked about his top tips for writing when you have a job as well (as he does, good man). He told me that you have to train your brain into the habit. He had written lots of stuff on the train to and from work in what would have usually been dead time & he now knew this was writing time so it was easy to stick to.

 Certainly food for thought as my rewrites don't seem to be going anywhere quickly at the moment. The rest of the meet was given over to socialising and attempting a critique with something already published as real critiques are due to be happening at the next meet (my friend Ali will also be talking about his newish book the man who rained, which I ranted about on here already) so lots to look forward to there. You can follow the progress of the group on their blog here (I believe there is an official post being written about the Feb meet at some point).
The second bit of this blog title refers to a connected but quite different part of the event. We had been told to bring a bottle and treats to share. I decided as I'm in a bit of a bread phase to take some homemade breadsticks. I made them in 3 flavours Parmesan, salt and chili. They turned out wonderfully (the Parmesan and salt being particularly good).

I then discovered (to my horror) that the meet was not on the Monday as I had it in my diary but on the Wed. Homemade breadsticks do not keep (and these indeed went v.mushy) and even the chickens refused to eat them, so I ended up taking these.

Honestly the best laid plans...

It's all been happening!

There has been all sorts going on in this my already quite full life these last few weeks (hence the lack of blogging, sorry but most of these seem to have required pen and paper rather than internet) so it seems only fitting to recap...

Last Thursday the fabulous and very talented Jayne from over at a Novice Novelist came by train (the 4.50 from Paddington  no less) and we hotfooted it down to Oxford Blackwells where author extraordinaire/the crabbit old bat Nicola Morgan was giving a talk on how to get published/write your pitch for your novel (there is a lot more of that kind of advice on her blog here). Jayne writes up the whole thing fabulously here and all I can add is that the workshop was incredibly informative, Nicola was lovely and we managed to drag her out for a drink afterwards (photographic proof of us muchly enjoying the Grande cafe, when in Oxford etc).

I had the Friday off as I wanted to take Jayne to the station & the plan after that was to write but I mostly just sat down to enjoy my friend Ali's second book The Man who Rained, its really good, so good in fact that I'm trying to ration the chapters else I'll speed read it which is glorified skimming and I'm enjoying this book too much to miss any detail (plus look how pretty that and his first novel look on the speculative fiction part of my new bookshelf, indeed!).

Tuesday evening saw me head back to Blackwells (if I'm there enough maybe they will let me move into poets corner?) for the launch of group 2012 the new writing group. The aim is to help with your writing. Having got two novels in first draft (written in the undergraduate years, obviously, when I had time and was doing my creative writing minor) I'm finding it really hard to find the motivation/time to re-write/improve them so the plan was to find some support and some other writers to share my thoughts/time with. I managed to meet some lovely people (quote of the evening: "It's really exciting, like we are the new Inklings. You can be Tolkien" me "Why do I have to be the weird one with elves...", and there was more wine, most excellent) and the next meeting is in a month (by which time I have pledged I will have revisited at least one chapter, gulp). I also managed to find out the dates for this years Oxford Literary Festival at which the author of my favourite novel of all time (An Equal Music - Vikram Seth) will be speaking alongside the literary greats and um Alex James (who is talking about cheese). I'm so excited I may have to take an afternoon off to go and sit in the same room (although they say you should never meet your idols).

Last night was spent at Wood school, trying to finish something I've been working on for a while (I can't really post it on here as I know the person its for is a reader of this blog, ahh the problems) but here is a sneaky peak.

This morning was freezing and my bus didn't turn up (booo) so I was in a pretty cold and bad mood by the time I got to work (after being rescued by one of our lovely neighbours), that was until I found out one of my close work friends James (indeed we used to be desk spouses, until I cruelly moved upstairs) keeps a blog on Dr Who (I'm a massive Who fan & the site is brilliant) and indeed had taken the time to create a pretty epic Sherlock/Dr Who script which you can find here, I also got sent this piece of genius, music students take note!

Arrow accurate

Yesterday's feeling that yesterday was going to be rubbish, proved all too accurate. I got dragged into a meeting mid morning and ended up missing most of the meeting about the play, although I got a recap from Becky H afterwards, (the exciting news is they they have settled on a play, Shakespeare's a midsummers nights dream, imagine the costume possibilities! I'm guessing I'm going to get some practice at making wings :-). Last night I went and gave blood, I foolishly thought I'd be able to do that and then hot foot it to the OFF meeting. I was wrong and went really woozy. I was laid out on the sofa shouting at tv characters when Mel arrived home, but I'm feeling much better this morning, although I am craving caffine like no one knows (maybe they got a pint of tea instead?).

Already I'm looking forward to this weekend. The decorating on the hall is starting in earnest on Friday night (Mat M is helping and we will be accompanied by wine which may speed it up or slow it down, depending on amounts I'm guessing :-). Friday is also the day we get paid and the deadline for the creative issue of the work mag (side thought, I've approached a local music mag about writing for them and have got a test assignment, no pressure then). I've already got plans for my pay packet in the form of a charger for my digital camera (which hopefully means more photos on here, hurrah! And that I can finish the spinning article for Elizabeth, (the roving arrived last weekend, it is georgous!)). I would have thought some of my pay packet was also destined for our local wool shop but my mum very kindly bought the entirity of my stash last weekend (and boy what a stash it is, containing some discontinued chunky Rowan in varying shades of blue and some candy floss fluffy dark blue angora, I'm thinking I may have to buy a bunny sometime in the future, as I love this fiber). Until then its going to be very hard work, better get back to it.