Pseudonyms

Is a pseudonym - or several pseudonyms worthwhile?  In my view yes, it is.  The reasons are various but many writer's like to feel their work stands alone from the day job.  For those fortunate enough not to have to work, a pseudonym is often still worthwhile as it allows an escape hatch into their ideas. 

At a Writer's Convention in Bristol, sat amongst other writer's I was surprised at how many people wrote under fictitious names.  The lady sat on my left hand side was a well known writer of romantic novels.  In the course of conversation it turned out she was also a fully qualified accountant working from home and her husband was a GP.  Living in a rural village in Cambridgeshire (I'll give no more away here!) she didn't want to be the focus of local gossip or bothered by people asking endless questions about her next book or plot.  She wanted to get on with her main day job (Accountant), her domestic life (wife to a GP and mother to two teenagers) and - oh - of course - a Writer too!

Behind me another lady - in a most resplendent hat - was a highly successful historical novelist.  Again, her 'writing' name was also a pseudonym and she is lucky enough to have a holiday cottage in Devon where she goes to write.  Her real home is several counties away.

Lots of writer's and poets adopt another name to free them up from any expectations.  After all, Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr were one and the same person.  William Trevor is really William Trevor Cox.  Even Elena Ferrante is another author by another name but nobody knows who.  She (or he) has created a modern Italian mystery by hiding their real identity.

Am I Ruth Snell?  In some ways yes, although several of you will know me as someone else.

Plymouth Poetry - Past and Present

Poetry about Plymouth - Past and Present.  Well, I wonder who started the ball rolling on that one then?  It always makes me smile when someone 'borrows' an idea you have had (and published) by then masquerading it as their own.  When I published Inspeximus:  Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred I realised I was writing for a very niche market.  Not everyone likes history.  Few understand specific local history and even fewer people these days read poetry.  So, when I see a certain 'historic' institution in Plymouth deciding to have an open evening for people with 'Plymouth Poetry Past and Present' as a grand theme, I fall off my chair in laughter.

Remember.  You heard it here first.

Remember also that nepotism rules in some cities which have refused to unlock their minds but want all the benefits when things go right.  Truth is stranger than fiction in Plymouth.

English: The Best Language in the World ...

English:  The Best Language in the World ... also classed as one of the most difficult, ambiguous and tricky.  Perhaps.  One of the joys of the English Language is the variety of the vocabulary sources.  Flick through a Dictionary and what do you find?

I = from the Old Saxon of 'ik', Old Norse of 'ek', Indo-European of 'ego' (check out the Latin too).
Will = from the Old English of 'willan' or 'wyllan', Old Norse of 'uilja' and Germanic 'wel'.
Telephone = from two words: tele and phone.  So we look at 'tele' from the Greek of 'far off' and 'phone' from the Greek of 'phone' meaning 'voice' or 'sound'.
You = from the Old English 'eow' and the Old Saxon 'ju' and the West Germanic 'iwwiz'.
This = from the Old English 'thes', Old Saxon 'these' and the Old Higher German 'dese'.
Evening = from the Old English 'aefnung'.

Now say the words in bold aloud replacing them with one of the original archaic words.  You will 'hear' some similarities to the modern sentence but it will also demonstrate how much English has evolved over the years.

We haven't even touched on some of the French or Celtic words which filter into our everyday lives.

Are we doing enough to protect the English Language?  In France, the Academie Francais fiercely defends the purification of the French language.  This is the key reason French is so pure and fine when translated; plus it is a remarkably polite language to use.  It is literally all about entente cordiale.

One of the pleasures of writing poetry is to drill down and quarry out each word.  I don't write for performance poetry (I'm not an actress and have no intentions of being one) as to me the word itself has to stand up out of the page and really mean what it says.  That can become more difficult in poetry that rhymes, or like a rendition of 'Under Milk Wood' by Dylan Thomas, the actual sound of each word adds a remarkable weight to the picture formed in the reader or listeners mind.

Poetry and pictures.  More to follow.

Ruth

Magna Carta and Inspeximus .... the Link

We now, in 2015, stand on the threshold of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.  A document signed by King John in 1215 after pressure from the Barons - not to mention the church - speaks of freedom and liberty.  King John was a very unpopular King and was eventually pushed into a tight corner at Runnymede where he was encouraged to sign the document we recognize today.  As a legal document, the Magna Carta has never been revoked and English law is founded on its beliefs.

The word 'Inspeximus' means literally in Latin = 'We have inspected' and comes from the right of land owners to show that what they have is legally theirs.  At Domesday, a record was taken of all land holdings (manors) and what they consisted of; from people to livestock and woodland.  In later years, a re-visitation took place and in 1381 when King Richard II was on the throne, an Inspeximus grant of Walkhampton manor took place to certify ownership.  Walkhampton was a Royal Manor and the premier lead manor of The Roborough Hundred.  Plymouth barely existed and was just a small fishing village called Sutton. 

Time has moved on and much has changed.  However, to hold the 1381 Inspeximus grant in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office was quite a special feeling.  So much can be learnt from our surroundings.  We just need to know how to look.

The Story So Far ... Inspeximus

Grateful thanks to everyone for the interest in the book.  I'm now being asked what I'm working on next.  Well, I'm always working on or with something and my work does take time but I don't talk about it when it's 'work in progress'.  A piece of art grows gradually; writers, painters, musicians etc always have to let their creations evolve from within.  I don't consider it something technical enough to be clinically planned out in advance and bolted together.  If any 'bolting together' is done, its usually at the very end in the final editing process.  From the beginning and for a large part of the book's evolution, you enjoy 'it' finding it's own way out and upwards.  It is similar to nurturing a plant.  You keep it warm, water it and watch it shoot.  The green shoots don't always spring up where you expect them to.

Marketing a book takes time and patience - it also brings a few surprises.  I was delighted that Waterstones Plymouth and Lee Furneaux Books in Tavistock have been selling copies.  Sales have also done well in the creative writing environment and with local history enthusiasts too, as Inspeximus is now being publicised in Totnes.  Interestingly Plymouth Arts Centre (where I was a member) weren't interested in selling copies.  So, I didn't renew my membership last month.  Support works both ways in business.

I was lucky to have the professional services of SilverWood Books in Bristol help me in the final editing and publishing process.  I can't recommend them enough.

Lee Furneaux Books of Tavistock now stocking copies of Inspeximus

Lee Furneaux Books of Tavistock in Devon is now stocking copies of Inspeximus: Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred.

Inspeximus: Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred by Ruth Snell

Inspeximus:  Poetry from the Manors of The Roborough Hundred by Ruth Snell.  ISBN: 978-1-78132-302-1. Published by Silverwood Books of Bristol with a release date of 6 October 2014.

... Re-examines an area in south west Devon where the bustling community around Buckland Monachorum was once more heavily populated than any of the Plymouth manors.  Moving from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Norman Conquest and beyond, the unusual genre of weaving poetry from manorial and local history seeks to peer into the past through a searching tangent of the imagination.  Each manor had its own story to tell and was occupied and worked by colourful personalities.

Here in the early 21st century with so much destroyed by either war or development, a stop to pause and look by physically visiting former manorial sites and envisaging how people would have lived, offers a tangible breath of the past.