tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.comments2019-12-26T07:40:56.071+00:00A Few Kind WordsJamie Jaunceyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10487256106040012552noreply@blogger.comBlogger237125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-82626988305811079452012-06-16T21:52:19.867+01:002012-06-16T21:52:19.867+01:00Hope you all have great times on this year's &...Hope you all have great times on this year's "Troot Tour"... and that you're all back for tunes soon xxAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-59271544074802998372012-03-06T04:26:43.233+00:002012-03-06T04:26:43.233+00:00I first met Shawn, Anecdote's founding directo...I first met Shawn, Anecdote's founding director, in London. I was a delegate in a workshop he was running. Co-incidentally, Kevin was also a delegate that day.) <br />After two days, I was unshakeable from the belief in the power that story has in making a real difference in business. They can be such a potent way to find things out, to align, and even to clarify thinking. The knowledge has changed the way I work. I'm proud to call the people at Anecdote friends and would recommend them without hesitation.<br /><br />GregGreg Stewart, Clarity Ruleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05513568169161460291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-67655722446731007542012-03-02T10:36:52.304+00:002012-03-02T10:36:52.304+00:00Dear Jamie
Thank you for that. I’m pleased to say...Dear Jamie<br /><br />Thank you for that. I’m pleased to say that I was not familiar with either “Squirrel Inc.” or “Who Moved My Cheese?”. I am now. A little, anyway. But quite enough.<br /><br />Oh dear. It’s like watching a car-crash.<br /><br />What a load of vapid, badly written patronising nonsense.<br /><br />‘Ugh!’, as The Beano would have it.<br /><br />Any writer who can’t self-edit the sentence “None grasped the centrality of narrative to leadership and communication or systematically spelt out its multifaceted dimensions and methods.” should consider a different line of work, in my view.<br /><br />Thank you for your continuing kind words.<br /><br />MalcolmAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-60375171702411653442012-02-27T11:40:32.082+00:002012-02-27T11:40:32.082+00:00This is a wonderfully evocative and candid meditat...This is a wonderfully evocative and candid meditation Jamie. A real conversation-opener. I look forward to cracking open a bottle of wine with you and referring back to this one.Stuart Delveshttp://www.henzteeth.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-15713193839695453182012-02-25T11:25:09.090+00:002012-02-25T11:25:09.090+00:00Jamie,
this resonates so much with my experiences ...Jamie,<br />this resonates so much with my experiences of clearing out both my grandmother and her sister's homes in Edinburgh many years ago.<br />My grandmother kept diaries from the age of 18(born-1894,died 1995)and I found that many had survived. I have them now and they make fascinating reading.<br />I particularly love to read about my childhood! A sense of my history and my fore bearers feels grounding.<br />Enjoying this beautiful day!Hazelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04693293470771440324noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-68382024730115299102012-02-25T11:24:02.815+00:002012-02-25T11:24:02.815+00:00Jamie
I read this on my birthday - you know the nu...Jamie<br />I read this on my birthday - you know the number, it's close to yours. So this post resonates with me. Particularly as on my birthday afternoon my cousin Jo is dropping round so we can try to identify the faces with names in my parents' wedding photo. We can identify my mum, and my dad, Jo's mum, grandparents....I'll get nostalgic but I wasn't there.John Simmonshttp://www.26fruits.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-57792276075485991692012-02-10T14:06:56.658+00:002012-02-10T14:06:56.658+00:00And if you would like the book of 26 Treasures - f...And if you would like the book of 26 Treasures - from projects at major national museums of England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as Scotland, you can sign up here www.unbound.co.uk/books/26-treasures<br /><br />It will be a lovely book and a fascinating collection for all the reasons Jamie gives.John Simmonshttp://www.26fruits.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-76428731863065149082012-02-10T09:58:42.970+00:002012-02-10T09:58:42.970+00:00Such a wonderful project. As an archaeologist data...Such a wonderful project. As an archaeologist data and facts are what I'm looking at, but People and their Stories is what I'm looking for.Fayehttp://thesecretarchaeologist.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-15301770833485321332012-02-07T13:37:05.266+00:002012-02-07T13:37:05.266+00:00I am currently absorbed in the movie. Even as an o...I am currently absorbed in the movie. Even as an outsider I'm finding it surreal. A great find, Jamie. Thanks for the link!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15554829702482614267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-2678129259944372492012-02-03T20:06:50.277+00:002012-02-03T20:06:50.277+00:00As if you needed confirmation, a film to remind yo...As if you needed confirmation, a film to remind you. Looking forward to it.Fayehttp://thesecretarchaeologist.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-67426943044750404092012-01-30T13:44:18.430+00:002012-01-30T13:44:18.430+00:00Jamie, you sure write a great adventure story. I w...Jamie, you sure write a great adventure story. I want to know what happens next. I want to know what happens to Adam and his family. But I quite understand your dilemma and of course you must do what you really want to do, not what you feel duty-bound to. The energy has to be racing. There are ways of helping that of course - by introducing a new element to the story that effectively puts you the writer in the dark; that gives you the excitement of making the discovery of where the story is going. I remember Alexander Stuart (writer of that remarkable novel The War Zone) telling me how Graham Greene knew the peaks he needed to reach but didn't know what was in the valleys of his stories (and therein lay the excitement). When I was working on the stage adaptation of Riddley Walker with the late great Russell Hoban he told me that not only had it taken him five years to write the story and god knows how many drafts but that he'd actually ripped the whole thing up at one point. And then he discovered that remarkable broke down richer than anything language. And then Philip Pullman at Merton on last year's Dark Angels Master Class telling us how it took 17 drafts before the idea of the daemon emerged and Pantalaimon joined Lyra in the hall of Jordan College. Both Riddley's language and Pullman's daemons are devices that took the stories in new directions that the authors didn't know where they might lead. Hoban had this view of all his novels and stories which I found really illuminating and exciting. So maybe you know your story too well, know where it's heading and maybe that's part of the problem (it's too mapped out). What about if Adam had an impediment, fits say? Or the gift of second sight? A missing finger? Something that you don't know the answer to (yet) or that will take you somewhere you don't know where (yet). Hope that's of help! All best, StuartStuart Delvesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-68210614413737987462012-01-28T12:05:39.568+00:002012-01-28T12:05:39.568+00:00Well that's just great isn't it, tease us ...Well that's just great isn't it, tease us with enough that we want to know the story but sounds like there's a chance we never hear the ending? Whit's hodding ye back? Sounds like excuses tae me. It's true that if yer heart isny in it, it might no be yer best work, but if ye canny find a way to forgive yer own sel for not finishing it and freeing yersel wholeheartedly tae spread yer Jamie magic in other ways, it will remain a wee niggle til the end of time! Yer heart doesny always get it right, neither does yer head, i find yer tummy always tells ye whit tae dae. Listen tae yer tummy. You will feel what is right for you.silli gillinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-76830774576103097162012-01-28T09:35:55.280+00:002012-01-28T09:35:55.280+00:00Here's my take on it for now, though I look fo...Here's my take on it for now, though I look forward to reading your draft chapters.<br />Doing anything from "oughts" or "shoulds" is constraining. It strangles any sense of drive, passion - the racing pulse thing. It may be that you actually do have a passion for this project but you can't access it because there's all these veils of obligation and duty between you and it. At least that's what I see in the words you use in this blog post. It may be you have a passion for the story but there's a really thick veil representing some need for school visits and the obligation to write a sequel: if so, how true is that? You also seem to treat your stories as entities with feelings: you feel bad about tearing the pages off one book, abandoning another. You could go down two roads: a) reflect on the truth that your story is NOT a person, and you are free to do what you like with it, with no moral obligations, or b) if your story was a woman, would you give her your commitment if you felt for her as blank, or negative, as you do for this story? Or would you part ways, acknowledging the good times you've had together (because you say this story has already done its job for you). I suggest the way forward is to try and catch all your constraining thoughts, including any not very pretty ones, and see how they will inevitably point to what's important to you deep down, and this may bring you clarity and make the heart race one way or another.<br />Hope this doesn't sound to bull-shitty, but you may not be surprised if people don't want to give you straight answers!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-4070059811604316002012-01-27T17:10:37.453+00:002012-01-27T17:10:37.453+00:00You write beautifully that much is fact, my gut fe...You write beautifully that much is fact, my gut feeling though is if your heart isn't truly in it, then perhaps it's not the time to tell that story just yet. <br /><br />Why not try what Katrina suggested, with regards to her tossing a coin to decide what to do. If you don't like the answer and decide to give it a best of three chance then you know that you disagree with whatever answer it gave you in the first place. <br /><br />I should point out many of my decisions are based on the tossing of a coin, and I once met a man whose entire train journey was spent for want of a better word, stalking me, all on the basis of the toss. You never know where it might lead you ...<br /><br />Row xRownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-82543115235448330212012-01-27T12:52:25.608+00:002012-01-27T12:52:25.608+00:00You should most definitely NOT finish the book &qu...You should most definitely NOT finish the book "just because it's there", but I think you should finish it because you want to... But only if YOU want to.<br />I've read three of your books, Jamie - one for kiddies, one for teens and one for adults. Without exception, they were spell-bindingly good. If you want to finish your book, you will. And if you do choose to finish it, I have no doubt that it will be a great read.<br />If you decide not to finish it, you'll do something else instead, and that will be equally successful, because that's the type of person you are. Good luck! Toss a coin if you're still not sure... ;) KxKatrina Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-3666422229789011732012-01-27T10:46:52.227+00:002012-01-27T10:46:52.227+00:00Jamie, I will read those chapters and get back to ...Jamie, I will read those chapters and get back to you. What a dilema! It's such a commonly offered piece of advice that the writer must gird the loins and keep hammering away at the keyboard. But is it always valid?<br /><br />I'd never tell anyone to give up a project; the spark that brings it all alive again for you may just be a matchbox away. But I will say this, having seen you talk through a drunken fug (mine, not yours) about your days on the road in South America, and having read your Spanish travelogue, I'd say you have a memoir that needs to be written.<br /><br />Moreover, if your promotional tour involved you reading from the book and singing some of the songs you wrote on the road, that would be entertainment indeed. I'd buy a ticket.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397463075189044198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-25301630469208402692012-01-25T17:18:47.756+00:002012-01-25T17:18:47.756+00:00Yes!! The more books on Kindle the better for tree...Yes!! The more books on Kindle the better for trees. (I still do like the feel of a good book in my hands, but Kindle is such a great way to go)Jane Lewishttp://alohacoaching.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-38832667301895672222012-01-24T15:22:38.081+00:002012-01-24T15:22:38.081+00:00Hurrah - I'm so glad your out of print books a...Hurrah - I'm so glad your out of print books are going to be reKindled! This composer's now wondering how long we'll have to wait for an orchestral Kindle, so the conductor just loads up his score and 80 musicians automatically see their individual parts for the symphony appear on their stands - now that would be magic! With a bouncing-ball app for amateur orchestras, obviously... ;)Katrina Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-84080387312746912582012-01-20T19:10:17.827+00:002012-01-20T19:10:17.827+00:00My IT Director has an iPad. Must investigate for T...My IT Director has an iPad. Must investigate for The Angel of the Stories...John Simmonshttp://www.26fruits.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-62493605374370474992012-01-20T12:09:44.810+00:002012-01-20T12:09:44.810+00:00Jamie,
you know my take on this. Technology is ch...Jamie, <br />you know my take on this. Technology is changing the world - and in many cases for the better. Loved this blog. Julianjulian stubbsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-68482692931696628932012-01-20T11:07:27.634+00:002012-01-20T11:07:27.634+00:00Thoughtful stuff, Jamie. It made me think of a boo...Thoughtful stuff, Jamie. It made me think of a book I read last year called "The Gift – How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World".<br /><br />It's rather too long, but the book's central thesis is appealing: people who can write are literally "gifted" (by whom, I don't know); having accepted that gift, they are obliged to make use of it, to give it to others, in this case in the form of stories and literature.<br /><br />Now, that may sound rather fluffy (it does to me), but the author supports his case with some interesting analysis of other cultures in which the giving and receiving of gifts is a serious business. These are places where if you tried to sell something that had been gifted to you, you would find yourself in a lot of trouble (and also out of pocket, as the "gift" item – aka novel – has only minimal financial value). <br /><br />His conclusion, rather sadly, is that there is an irreconcilable conflict between gift exchange and the market: "As a consequence, the artist in the modern world must suffer a constant tension between the gift sphere to which his work pertains and the market society which is his context."<br /><br />Although that probably wouldn't apply to JK Rowling.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397463075189044198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-66831982030269212552012-01-18T16:38:00.347+00:002012-01-18T16:38:00.347+00:00I am desperate (er) to read it now. That kind of a...I am desperate (er) to read it now. That kind of armchair travelling seems to meet the need all writers have for input in order to produce output...without inspiration, without connecting at least imaginatively with our fellow humans, writing doesn't work, and it certainly doesn't challenge us as we need it to.Write Now, aka MAry McDonough-Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08193008219254406716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-39475409711442894422012-01-16T16:52:33.219+00:002012-01-16T16:52:33.219+00:00Hi Jamie,
Such a terrific post, thank you. That no...Hi Jamie,<br />Such a terrific post, thank you. That notion of being able to travel "somewhere else", to another time and place like the South Pole or Stalingrad or a different state of mind, like into the heart of grief - it makes reading a kind of essential moral act. I'm reaching for some great quote here - ah, here's one. "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Grouch Marx<br /><br />Richard P.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-2776944647662133862011-12-18T13:37:25.005+00:002011-12-18T13:37:25.005+00:00I guess I connected with Carol Ann Duffy's &qu...I guess I connected with Carol Ann Duffy's " The Bees" because of her beautiful poem "New Vows" about the very strange experience of divorce. Very moving and consoling.<br /><br />Paulpaulddmurphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15077946419230255961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-709106806146552376.post-86417341053703304392011-12-16T18:17:01.166+00:002011-12-16T18:17:01.166+00:00Thanks again, Jamie, for spreading kindness. God k...Thanks again, Jamie, for spreading kindness. God knows, it's needed. It's been the year of Room 121 for us and I've missed that daily exchange we had while writing it. But reading your weekly blog is the next best thing.<br /><br />Next year, the book of 26 Treasures will offer cups, candlesticks, plates and even sackcloths of kindness.<br /><br />Happy Christmas to you and family.<br />JohnJohn Simmonshttp://www.26fruits.co.uknoreply@blogger.com