Melting!

[katiefoolery]

It's so hot!  Why must it be so hot?  Why must it be so hot at quarter past ten at night, when all good sunrays should have gone to bed?

If Weatherzone is to be believed, it's still 30° celsius (86°F) at the moment and we can look forward to a 42° (107.6°F) day tomorrow.

Oh joy.

It'd be fine if our "repaired" air-conditioner worked.  There'd be no complaints whatsoever from here.  We'd just whack the air-con on and refuse to step outside unless someone felt like paying us several thousand dollars to do so.  Alas, the air-con doesn't actually work, despite being "repaired".  So I guess we just have to look forward to sweating off another couple of kilos tomorrow.  Or maybe we should go and spend the day with friends who have air-conditioning.

Come to think of it, my Timothy's parents have air-con and a huge TV.  Maybe they'd feel like a visit?

Despite the all-encompassing heat, I've been thinking about my first-person narrative theory and I've come to the inescapable conclusion that my most successful (ie. award-winning or commended) stories of the past few years have almost all been told from a first-person perspective.  I also think they were my most enjoyable stories, too.  Alas, I still haven't worked out how to turn Black Fiddle from third to first person.  It needs something extra; a new dimension or aspect... anything!  It just needs something that will inspire me to get back to it and to turn it into a working novel.  I get the feeling that the only way I'm going to find this indefinable something is by actually getting around to that second draft.

I could almost be inspired to start it if it weren't so damn hot.

Comments

[tim-of-oz.livejournal.com]

I got to work for 7 hours in a 30+ degree store :D

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh, you lucky thing. It was bad enough hanging around doing nothing on the couch. I couldn't imagine having to do stuff.

[tim-of-oz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, stuff sucks.
Then again, I was the moron who stayed up until 5am on MSN cos I had nothing better to do.

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

You could come down to Clifford Park with me and plant some trees tomorrow in the 43dergree heat :P Or, you could not...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

No, I wouldn't want to deprive you of that honour, good Cat. ;)

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

It's ok, we can share the honour around :P

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

WET TOWELS!!! we discovered this amazing fact at New Years. If you have a fan, get a clothes horse, place clothes horse in front of fan, place sopping wet towels on clothes horse and you have yourself a home made air con! It was a godsend in 42 degree heat under a tin roof. You have to keep changing the towels, and really need to sit in front of it, but it's better than your ordinary fan! I can't gush enough about that little contraption :P

And you're right, heat sucks. It's also thunderstorm season, so it's muggy too. gah! hate summer. bring on winter, i say!

[rigel-7.livejournal.com]

Did you not see that CSI episode Flitness? where that man died in horrid gruesome ways from the 'swamp cooler' :P

Come and visit me Bunly! It's a loverly mild 17 at night here.

Perhaps 'Black Fiddle' needs a framing device, a book within a book; like Wuthering Heights (though my Bronte obsession may be colouring my opinion on that somewhat) Good luck with redrafting though!

[tangledtale.livejournal.com]

For some weird reason, I could never get into the narrator sections of Wuthering Heights. He was too much of a fuddy duddy for me to handle in grade six and alas, my prejudice against that character seems to have stood the test of time. Nelly was great though, very much a storyteller.

Oh Bunne, I loathe this weather too! It's terrible! But at least we'll get wonderful, exhilirating thunderstorms before the cool change on Monday...if you can call 28 degrees (sorry, don't know how to do the little circle) cool. :-/

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Goodness - you read Wuthering Heights in grade six? I had to force my way through it when I was about 22. Why did all the characters have to have the same name? It was impossible to keep track of who was who.

28 degrees would be lovely! It's not cool, but it's better than 42.

If you're interested, you make the degree symbol by typing & deg ; without the spaces. :) There's a whole list of symbols and characters here (http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/reference/article.php/3472611).

[tangledtale.livejournal.com]

My adored grade 6 teacher recommended it to me along with Tess of the d'Urbevilles and Rebecca. WH was the only one I read and I hated it with a fiery vengeance equal to that of Heathcliff's! It was too confusing, Heathcliff was a psychotic jerk and you're right, the names thing didn't help either. Studied it recently and it's much better than I remembered though.

And you should meet my friend! She was devouring Dickens' Hard Times and Great Expectations in grade 6. My mind just boggles at the thought.

And thank you for the link! My inner luddite bows down to your tech-y know-how.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

17! Wow. I thought it was supposed to be hotter over there? Someone tell the Bureau of Meteorology that we've got our weather mixed up!

I'm definitely considering the framing device. Thank-you muchly for that suggestion. :)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

But don't the towels drop water on the carpet? Hang on, what am I talking about? The water will evaporate before it has time to hit the floor. Thanks for the tip - we may have to try that later.

Usually, I don't like Winter, but at least our central heating works. Stupid air-con, or lack thereof.

[flippyfrog.livejournal.com]

Rigel is right tho, water and electricity aren't really that good together.... maybe if you put a towel underneath the clothes horse it'll catch the drops. don't think you have to worry about that much tho.

i like winter, aside from the colds i always get. i like my quilt, my coats, my boots. i love trying to skate on frosty grass... and the food! food in winter is better because you get to have so many stews and roasts and veggies and *drools*
*stands on towel*

Def. a winter person

[decryption.livejournal.com]

Ughhh, I'm supposed to live in Melbourne, not Darwin... make the heat go away :(

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I know! I don't mind Summer being hot - it's the whole point of it, after all. But I think we've reached the point known as "too far".

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

I'll trad you for our -2 C weather. :)

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

That was supposed to be trade. Stupid early morning.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

That'd certainly be nice for a change. Even if it was just in a box that we could open up and stick our heads in from time to time.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

*snugs you after sitting in the refrigerator for an hour* Coolness! Coolness for you!

I like the idea of a "framing device" for Black Fiddle. You could start it when your main character is older and has grandchildren of her own, and she is telling them her version of the story of the Black Fiddle. Or something. It would be a good opportunity to use the Irish storytelling style. ^_^

*is writing Jane letter*

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank-you! I've been thinking of taking up residence in the fridge, actually. It's also nice to stick my head in the freezer every now and then.

I shall indeed think about the framing device for Black Fiddle. I have to do something with it - it does no good just sitting there on the floor of my study.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

That brings to mind a Simpsons episode where Bart and Homer sat in their underwear under a "tent" made of a blanket attached to the open door of the fridge. Hee.

Indeed. It looks lonely and dejected down there, I expect.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

It was odd (or appropriate) because that very episode was on yesterday, about ten minutes after I'd quoted it to my Timothy. :)

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

*dies* That amuses me greatly.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

oh gosh, I feel your pain...we've had to deal with that several times. First summer we didn't have an airco at all..horrid! I hope you get yorus properly fixed soon. In the meantime, cool thoughts coming your way!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Well, the problem is that we rent and the air con has already been "fixed" according to the agents. If they bring someone out again and they say there's nothing wrong with it, then we'd have to pay for it.

I hate renting.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

I hear ya...but..if it's not working...

[crazedturkey.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain
stupid sun..

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, it is such a silly thing. I don't mind warm weather. Days of 30 degrees and a bit higher are great. But forty-plus? No, that's just wrong.

Now we just wait for the change. The humidity's down and the air pressure's dropping, so it's looking good!

[crazedturkey.livejournal.com]

lucky you!

p.S Bunne, the power of MSN compells ye! LOG IN!!