It's not just books. But mainly.

Reading, writing, sharing. Short form thoughts. 

[anastasiatasou]

Hello!

It’s very very almost 2017 and I never normally make resolutions, but this year I hope to really push myself creatively and try new things. CASS ART sent me some art supplies to try out as part of their #BeInspired challenge, so it’s perfect timing for me to expand my art brain and my work into the New Year by creating in new (and challenging) ways.

These are my first thoughts on the package, but I’ll be posting scans of the work I created with these materials in the next few weeks too (as well as my thoughts about them and how they worked for me).

The package was sent in an amazing pink CASS tote bag, which made the whole *receiving new art supplies to play around with* thing even more exciting. Here’s what came inside the bag:

- Derwent Inktense pencils

- Derwent line & wash sketching set

- CASS ART soft pastels

- a selection of Winsor & Newton markers (and marker paper)

- Staedtler pigment liners

On my first play around with these materials, I tried out the soft pastels, W&N markers, and the pigment liners. I’m gonna be honest with you here and say that working with pastels was HARD for me and although I enjoyed challenging myself with colour (using black is my comfort zone and go-to, always) I’m not particularly proud of what I created with the pastels, hence the messy scribbly drawing and dusty pastel hand. I’ll keep on trying with them, as I love the soft colours they create and I really like how they blend. I keep reminding myself that sometimes the process is more important than the outcome, and even though it doesn’t seem like a challenge to most people, trying out soft pastels was a big leap for me which I’m super proud of.

Next, I focused on working with the Staedtler pigment liners. I was immediately hooked - I had always been scared of using these pens, as I thought they’d only suit very precise and delicate work, but actually they pretty much blew my mind and I loved the option to pick a line thickness (I think the chiselled nib pen was my favourite to work with). These pigment liners are SO EXCITING TO USE, especially as I typically draw with quite thick and chunky markers so they made a welcome change. I enjoyed layering different thickness of lines (I used 3 sizes in the ‘I’M DOING O.K.’ drawing) and I found them particularly fun to use with a continuous line technique. I’ll for sure be posting a lot of work created with these liners and feel like I really connected with them as a new medium.

After drawing my plants about 100 times with my new obsession: the pigment markers, I challenged myself by working straight onto the drawing with a Winsor & Newton Promarker. Usually, I’ll try out a product before using it on a drawing for fear of ruining something I’m already happy with, but this time I wanted to fully immerse myself in the CASS #BeInspired message and just go with what I felt.

I usually use Posca markers to fill out black areas in my drawings, but I have to say the black Promarker I used this time was awesome. It has two ends, one thin and one slightly thicker, which is practical and also sweet to use. The black colour is black black black - hopefully that makes sense to someone reading this, but it definitely satisfied the part of me that wants to cover all of my work in the blackest of black pigments. I really love how the pigment liners / Promarkers look together, and the variation in line quality makes me super happy.

I have a few more things to try out, and I’ll be posting my thoughts and what I’ve been creating as part of the #BeInspired challenge on here and my other social media pages. It’s a scary / lovely feeling to try something you’ve never tried before in your creative practice, and the excitement that comes along with the feeling of really *clicking* with an art product is my definition of inspired.

So thank you CASS, for pushing me to work with new things and new ways in 2017.

Check out CASS ART here (they really are a wonderful company with a beautiful manifesto): https://www.cassart.co.uk

[liveotherwise]

This is just wonderful and now I *need* that line and wash sketching set!

[liveotherwise]

Practising manga style sketches. #learntodraw #sketch #art

[disabilityinkidlit]

…it’s no surprise that authors jump on the magic cure. They have written a character that has no real hope of surviving with their disability, so the only way to end the story on a happy note is to cure them. They get their love interest, graduate school, and most likely drive off into the sunset, leaving their disgruntled blind readers behind. The author has done virtually no research and is relying on their own prejudices to write the book. Many abled people believe that life with a disability must be terrible. I can’t count the number of times someone has approached me and told me they are sorry I’m blind, but that I do so well regardless. Not only is that extremely offensive as it assumes that a typical blind person doesn’t do the kind of things I do, it’s also incredibly misinformed. When a book is built on those kinds of ideas, I often feel resigned to the fact that being sighted is presented as the only way that blind character could ever reach their full potential.

Holly Scott-Gardner, “When Blind Is Forever” at Disability in Kidlit (via disabilityinkidlit)

[bethanyhagen]

The Thing All Women Do That You Don't Know About

There's this thing that happens whenever I speak about or write about women's issues. Things like dress codes, rape culture and sexism. I get the comments: Aren't there more important things to wor...

I find this article so true and powerful. I was in a professional situation last month with a man who kept doing things during the course of the day (in the company of hundreds of people) that made me uncomfortable–touching the back of my neck while we spoke to a group, brushing against my arm, staring at my breasts. I would try to deflect, step away, laugh it off, because I didn’t want any confrontation. After all, anyone who knows me knows that I joke about my body all the time. How could I qualify why I was comfortable joking around with a friend but uncomfortable with an acquaintance merely looking at my body? I couldn’t at the time, (although now I could say a lot about it.)

And then later that night, while thirty or forty of our colleagues were around, he asked for a hug goodnight. And I should have said no–I should have listened to my instincts that this guy did not want the friendly, professional half-hug that I’m used to giving other authors. But if I said no to a direct request for a hug, I’d be a bitch, right? I’d be denying a man’s request to touch my body and in retrospect, hell yeah I have that right, but at the time all I could think was that it would be rude, that this guy is well-known and successful and that if I was rude to him, everyone in my industry would think I was rude. And maybe, deep down, I was conditioned to think that this man had a right to a hug, that it would be unreasonable and even needlessly cruel to say no, even though after a day with this guy, there was literally nothing I wanted in the world less than to hug him. So I did it, and then he groped my breasts. Right there in the bar, right there in front of thirty or more people. And even though I’m twenty-eight and informed and fairly successful and have already survived sexual assault as a pre-teen and am blessed with the unearned privileges of my skin color and the country I was born in, I immediately felt small. And dirty. All of my advantages and privileges, unearned and earned, meant nothing in that moment, because in that moment, I saw myself as the usable, grope-able thing he saw me as–and I believed it.

This is the power of a micro-aggression. Whether it’s sexism or racism or ableism, it’s the subtle, unceasing influence of an environment flattening you to a stereotype, to one feature about yourself. For me last month, I was flattened into a pair of breasts. To the sole function of satisfying the passing sexual whim of someone I had just met. I’m lucky–I was raised by a father who taught me the value and dignity inherent in my life and I’m married to a man who does the same. I’m lucky that this event, in its brazen severity, has been very rare for me, although I could trot out scores of stories about having my ass groped in passing on the way to a bar bathroom or being touched by male patrons at the library–a hand on the shoulder or a pat on the head or the uncomfortable jokes about my husband being crazy to let me outside his sights. When a man makes a joke like that, maybe he thinks he’s being flattering. But all I could hear in that joke was an implied threat. Do you remember ten years ago when an Olathe librarian was followed home by an assailant who had tampered with her car to make sure it would break down on her way home from work? I do. I thought about it every time a male patron leered at me or asked me what my plans were after my shift. Right now one of my best friends is working in a place of such breathtakingly casual misogyny that she, the most experienced person in her department, is constantly belittled and diminished, and when she tries to speak up, she’s labeled a bitch or a Feminazi. And if she gets upset, hey it was just a joke. Why can’t you take a joke like one of the guys?

It’s just a joke. It’s just getting fondled in a bar. It’s just getting followed home by an admirer. Why so sensitive, ladies?

And so. This is how it is.

[liveotherwise]

I found books. Would anyone mind if I just stayed here and stroked #shepherdscrown? #reading #bookblogger #blogfest15 #library #bookstagram #instabook

[liveotherwise]

Island by @nickysingerwrit pics by @chris_riddell #BookOfIsland I suppose all books have a story of their own (as well as the story they tell). I was introduced to Island by SF Said over on twitter, when it was a kickstarter campaign rather than a book. Before that it was a play, and the kickstarter successfully raised funds for Nicky to write and produce the novel. The quiet buzz around this project was fascinating, and I was very happy to support it. Now I'm holding the book in my hand (and it's signed!) and it is all the wonderful I hoped. "the sky seemed wider - and lower - than any sky Cameron had ever seen. But then maybe he had never really looked at the sky before. Never looked up. "Had he never looked up?" #lookup #sky #sea #beach #book #nofilter

[liveotherwise]

Took my crochet to home ed softplay, but not my camera. Can you tell? Can't decide whether I like how this is working up, but am determined to finish it. There are too many unfinished projects hidden around this house. Also, do you love my Sparkling Pumpkin hook roll? Because I very much do. #crochet #yarn #creatorscircle #crown

[hollybourneauthor]

Save our NHS

This is a bit of a serious post today. But, last night, I got this rather-desperate message from my university housemate. She’s a junior doctor (and she’s AMAZING - honestly, the amount of times she patched us up at uni) and, quite simply, everything she loves and cares about her job, her life, and the NHS, is being decimated by our government. 

So, if you want Bree to have been adequately looked after when she was in hospital. If you want Evie to know that care *is* there if she has another relapse. Or if you want all the real people in your life to be looked after when they’re sick, please do take the time to read this and sign the petitions. 

Thanks, you wonderful, lovely, spinsters you. 

Dearest friends I hope that you will put up with me having my five minute post-night shift rant & take a minute to read this. I’m writing because in the last few months those of us working in the NHS have become increasingly worried about its future. We discuss it constantly at work, but we’re disappointed by the poor press attention that the new NHS changes are getting & it’s important to me that I feel like I‘ve done my small bit to get the message out there. I think this is something that has been going on for a while, but I was completely oblivious to new what was going on until the government announced that they are going to impose unfair and unsafe contract changes on all junior doctors. At the same time as this there was also a quiet move to opt out of the European Working Time Directive and also restrict strike action in the public sector. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11732668/david-cameron-working-time-directive-eu-referendum.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11599020/Tories-to-bring-in-tough-anti-strike-laws.html At this time, those of us in the NHS started to finally pay attention to what was happening. We have had meetings and thousands of us have begun to protest and will soon be considering strike action. I know that this is a difficult topic. Emergency care will still be provided and our Consultant colleagues, who we appear to have the support of, will work on the wards to make sure that patients do not come to harm, but I wanted to just write a couple of paragraphs about why the British Medical Association is balloting us to do this, because when this day comes we need as much support as possible. The term junior doctor applies to anybody from day one after medical school to the day before becoming a consultant or qualified GP- this will be a minimum of 5 years , but for most of us will be in excess of 10 years. We are currently protected by the European Working Time Directive. This means that our average weekly hours are limited to 48, with a maximum of 91 hours in a consecutive seven day period. This protects us from going back to the days when Doctors worked 24 hour on-calls. It’s stating the obvious but research has shown that over-worked, tired Doctors make mistakes. After all, would you want your relative being operated on by a Surgeon who was in their 14th hour of work, or put to sleep by an anaesthetist who had been on call for 24 hours? Opting out of the EWTD would mean that we lose our safeguards that protect us from these shift patterns, Jeremy Hunt has already stated that in an 11 hour shift we should only be entitled to one twenty-minute break. We would also suffer a significant pay-cut, the details are not clear yet, but estimates would suggest that people with high out-of-hours commitments (I currently work one in three weekends either days or nights, a week of nights every six weeks and an on-call 13 hour day every six days) could lose between 15-30% of our salary, as normal working hours will be reclassified as 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday. Just as a side note, we do not get paid if we cannot leave work on time due to sick patients and extra pairs of hand being needed to ensure that they get proper care. In the jobs I have done so far, I have regularly worked anything from 1-5 unpaid hours per day. I revise around three hours per night for three months leading up to each of the six exams I will have to take. This year I will also pay around £3500 (not refunded) in registration, medical indemnity and union fees, exams and courses. I will move hospital around Merseyside between every 3 and 12 months, I get no choice about where. I work Christmas, miss friends weddings and reunions, miss my familys birthdays. I am the same as every other junior doctor out there, we are all in a similar situation- we work the same hours and have the same extra commitments necessary for us to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. The reason I’m telling you all this is because I love my job. I wouldn’t change it for the world, I couldn’t think of a bigger privilege than what I do day-to day and I would never have even thought of telling you all this unless everything that we work for as junior doctors was being threatened. We are being completely devalued and demoralised, treated like an easily replaceable workforce and presented as lazy, money-grabbing ‘juniors’ who shouldn’t complain because we went into medicine as a vocation. We want to take action against these changes, which are both unfair and more importantly unsafe. However, to make sense of all of this you have to put it in perspective. The government are privatising enormous chunks of our NHS, 70% of NHS services between April 2013-2014 were awarded to the private sector. 77 MPs currently sit on the boards of firms that bid to run NHS services, they will directly profit from privatisation of our NHS. The most expensive cost in the NHS is its staff. Junior doctors are just the first in a long line of cuts, if we lost this fight it will be nurses and physios and hospital porters next. A cheaper workforce is a more attractive bid for companies lining up to profit from running hospital services. Our NHS is not perfect, but privatisation is not the answer. We measure our success in terms of patients, private companies measure success in terms of profits- this will mean pay cuts, staff cuts, increased pressure on those left to manage struggling wards and a demotivated and demoralised workforce. Just look at what happened to Hinchinbrook Hospital, the first privately run hospital, where the company pulled out of its contract after only 3 years, leaving the Hospital in special measures. Is this where we want our friends and relatives cared for? The NHS is unbelievably important, most of us were born there, it looks after our families and friends when they are sick, it looks after the vulnerable and the elderly. It’s one of the best health services in the world and spending on healthcare per person is also one of the lowest in the world. Your level of care if the same regardless your wealth. This is so precious that we cannot afford to put our NHS in the hands of companies who put profit in front of patient care. We cannot afford to let our NHS go. If you have read this far I am enormously grateful to you. If you want to find out more, there is plenty posted to my facebook page and plenty online that makes interesting reading. There are petitions against back-door privatisation of the NHS and for the doctors strike on 38 degrees, the daily express, the guardian etc and if you agree with any of what I have written then I’d be really grateful if you would take the time to sign these, it’s so important that people are behind this and supporting us. Please talk about this with your friends and family so the news about what is going on is spread. If you feel so inclined, please feel free to email your MP with a couple of lines to show your support, they need to be inundated to realise how important this is. Share this with whoever you like if you want to. As Aneurin Bevan, who spearheaded the development of our NHS said “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it.“

[liveotherwise]

Coffee drunk. Drawing drawn. Today I've also done two loads of washing, fed children lots of times, driven eldest to next town before 8 am, cleared the hall and living room tables, planned my world domination strategy (selling usborne books, hmm) and failed to find my purse. I think I'm proudest of my little robin though. #mymonthofsundays @me_and_orla #instaart #pastels #robinredbreast #bird #robin #sketch #sketchalong

[liveotherwise]

Pastels and coffee in the afternoon sun. #mydrink #instaart #drawing #pastels #sunshine

[liveotherwise]

Tonight's sketch is dedicated to @susankmann. Thank you. #instaart #sketch #seagull #drawing #pencil #sketchalong

[liveotherwise]

The Shepherd's Crown. Terry Pratchett. I have tissues. #amreading #books #bookstagram #booklove #discworld #alltheemotions

[liveotherwise]

Sketching at the beach #drawing #pencil #instaart #learntodraw

[liveotherwise]

Really looking forward to reading #neurotribes thanks @AllenAndUnwinUK #review #bookstagram #instabook #autism #booklove #booklover

[liveotherwise]

My #emergencyhappiness box from @Viking_Chat thanks @softthistle :) I was having a rough week before our #reenactment break, and a friend nominated me for an emergency happiness box. It arrived while I was away, and then I popped it in a bag as we set off for Wales. After driving for 6 hours yesterday, and then getting very little sleep with unhappy children last night, a pick me up was definitely called for. And look, there's even a black jack sweet, I grew up on those ;) This is a lovely lovely idea, and I'm very grateful to have been nominated for it.

[liveotherwise]

The end of the day. Coif off, bowl washed, hair down. Time to relax on the front sward @kentwellhall in the warmth of the setting sun. #mymonthofsundays @me_and_orla #reenactment #Evening #sunshine

[sshannonauthor]

can u tell us a bit about the oxford interview process. did they ask you what kind of fruit you would be? when you entered the interview room, did the interviewer ask you to sit down, but their was only one chair??

Nothing like that. They just asked me questions about … English Literature.

For both interviews, I was first asked to examine a piece of literature chosen by the tutors. I was then invited into the room, where there was ample sitting space, to discuss it with them (two tutors per interview). After that, we talked about my personal statement, literature I enjoyed, that sort of thing. I felt I did quite badly in the second interview – I was asked to analyse a poem I didn’t really understand, and I’m sure it was obvious when I was talking about it – but I suppose they look at your performance overall. 

One thing I always tell Oxbridge applicants is that Oxford doesn’t seem to care about so-called “blacklisted” subjects: things like Drama, Media Studies, Film Studies – you know, the ones people call “soft”, sneering as they go. I took Media Studies at AS-Level, against a teacher’s advice to do Theology instead. I got a B, then dropped it. During my year of Media Studies, I learned about Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory. (I did not learn about this theory in my English classes.) My first Oxford interview was partly about the original story of Sleeping Beauty, which took me by surprise, but because I knew about Propp’s theory – which Propp used to analyse fairy tales – I was able to talk confidently about it. So Media Studies actually helped me a hell of a lot! The moral of the story: Oxford wants you to be passionate about what you want to study, and isn’t going to refuse you because you took a “soft” subject. 

I’m fairly sure the weird interviews are either an old-fashioned thing or an urban legend, although I did hear a rumour while I was there that someone was asked why they were wearing a watch. 

[liveotherwise]

This is encouraging