Liz De Jager

that is actually the short list…

A great swathe of SCBWI British Isles members were watching the internet in panic this morning as the chosen UV list was due to be announced.  I know, I checked at half past six this morning, over breakfast!

And then news broke on Twitter.  And it is fantastic news – I have been shortlisted.  As Mark explains it – the 25 on the UV list aren’t really the longlisters as from these the winning twelve will be announced in December.  So, it makes sense to call ourselves the shortlisters instead.  So I’ll go for that.

But yes, wow.  What a rush.

I can’t explain it in words, so I thought I’d show it in pictures.

All these emotions in such a short space of time. Needless to say, I am no use to man or beast today. Unfortunately boss-man decided to return from his weekend away today, instead of tomorrow, and this of course means that I will have to clamp down on fear/sadness/worry/relief/happiness/more fear/ until the end of today and then go home and knock back a stiff Twinings Everyday tea.

In the meantime, I am very zen in the “no mind” kind of way.  Which really isn’t a good thing.

Sara Grant, co-organisor and editor of the Undiscovered Voices wrote this incredible piece on the SCBWI yahoo group to try and help everyone feeling the fear and doub and self-doubt.  Here is a tiny extract that raised my spirits and made me come over all emo.

I know the waiting is hard and soon everyone will know the Undiscovered Voices long list. Over the past six years this process has taught me that publication takes talent and creativity, sure. But it also takes luck and timing. You have to submit the right manuscript to the right people at the right time. If your name isn’t on that long list, don’t get discouraged. Many talented writers, who have submitted to previous Undiscovered Voices anthologies, are now published — sometimes with the piece they submitted. And many SCBWI writers have found publishing opportunities without the assistance of this project.

Follow this link through to the official announcement from UV for the writers and  illustrators.  I wish my fellow listed aspiring writers and artists the best of luck.  I am proud to be part of such a strong list.  Even if we don’t go on to be in the anthology, we have done gorram great.

Writers:

Rosie Best, Jan Carr, Veronica Cossanteli, Liz de Jager, Julienne Durber, Sandra Greaves, Jane Hardstaff, Deborah Hewitt, Jennifer Hicks, David Hofmeyr & Zoe Crookes, Sharon Jones, Rachel J. Latham, Maureen Lynas, Michael Marett-Crosby, Richard Masson, Stephanie McGregor, Anne Mitchell, Chantel Marie Napier, Sally-Jayne Poyton, Melissa Rogerson, Joanna Sargent, Lara Williamson, Rachel Wolfreys, and Jo Wyton.

Illustrators:

Kim Geyer, Jennifer Graham, Julia Groves, Amber Hsu, Heather Kilgour, Shana Nieburg-Suschitzky, Nicola Patten, and Rachel Quarry.

  Three cheers for Team SCBWI BI.

In my daily wanderings I always come across some utterly cool articles and comments by people I follow on Twitter and via my RSS feed.  And I really should make more work of it to pass along bits of cool things I find on my site and not just on Twitter.

2012 will be a busy year for reading and writing.  Reading wise I am already thinking ahead for MFB and for my personal reading and I’m thinking I want to do something like a Retro Wednesday once a month.

Retro Wednesday/oranyotherdayoftheweek will be a book review on an older (older than 2 years) book which I have loved and recently re-read.    So as part of this I’ve bought up copies of books I now no longer have – books by authors like Alice Borchardt, Juliet Marillier, Terry Brooks, Alice Hoffman and others.  These will go onto a bookshelf I hope to be able to call my “retro” reading shelf. 

I also want to read more fantasy- not just adults but fantasy for kids too.  It is one of my big loves and yet I find myself not reading it.  I have no reason not to.  I am after all my own boss…right?!

I also found some very interesting articles I’d like to share:

1.  An interview with Alice Hoffman - I wonder how many people know that she wrote Practical Magic? I loved the book, long before seeing the movie.  And I may be ostracized for this, but I really do like the movie too. 

2.  Over at the Shrinking Violet Promotions website, is this article about writing for Middle Grade.  As it is a US based blog, they use US references but it is still a very good article and something to keep in mind.

3.  Over at The Yale Center For Dyslexia & Creativity webiste, Kyle Redford wrote this deeply interesting article about her son’s dyslexia and how his summer tutor opened her eyes to new ways of introducing reluctant readers to great books they will enjoy.  As a teacher this was invaluable and I just love the glowy hope and happiness in this article.

4.  Over at Trapped by Monsters, Mark Robson writes up all the cool things he found reading Tommy Donbavand’s novella WOLF, published by Barrington Stoke.  I have a copy of it as well and cannot wait to sink my teeth into it….getit? Teeth..sink into it? Oh, nevermind.

5.  Over at Cupcakes for Clara, the girls get busy with some salt dough.  I sometimes regret not being a child…or breaking out of my creative inhibitions and doing something like this.

As you can tell, my day and online wanderings are really truly random. 

This weekend sees me going off to meet bessie mate Sarah Bryars and newer hanging out friend Caroline S at Foyles for the Anne Rice signing at Foyles.  Anne Rice influenced my reading taste as a younger person and I can’t ever thank her enough.  I’m not even talking about Lestat, I never read her vampire books, instead I focussed on the books at the witches and demons and fallen angels and of course, Rameses the undead.  Biggest. Lit. Crush. Ever. 

After that Sarah, her hubby along with Mark and I, are heading to Madame Tussauds to help them celebrate their 250th anniversary! There will be photos and shenanigans. Oh, let me be clear – Madame Tussauds’ anniversary not Sarah and her husband’s 250th anniversary because that would be a bit weird.

Sunday – crazy dancing – will be editing day and also movie day and we are hoping  to go and watch the new steampunkish The 3 Musketeers.  I suspect it will be a bit rubbish but I am a ridiculously huge Dumas fan so I have to go and watch it.  And cry about it afterwards.  However! I may be surprised – pleasantly, I hope.

Also, I am having the mop of random curls sticking out of my head cut off into a manageable shorter hairstyle.  I suspect I’ll regret it, but it has to be done.  *bites the bullet*

Mark and I watched DBAOTD yesterday.  And I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Probably more than I should have, as really it was a pretty standard script:

1. young girl travels to live her dad in a new home

2.  the dad has a new love interest.

3. the love interest has doubts about her abilities as a “step-mum”

4. the young girl is melancholy most of the time anyway, but the move has made her more so.

5.  the house is odd and spooky and peculiar

6.  she hears voices, tries to tell the adults about it, but no one listens

7. the resultant chaos predictable

But, what I loved about the movie is how we aren’t entirely sure if the creatures we are seeing and hearing are real.  There is doubt, because the writers have already created doubt in our minds, by showing that the young girl isn’t too stable.  Also, the young girl who took the role of Sally – actress Baillee Madison – utterly convinced as this shy, arty, sensitive child who already has so many issues to deal with. Guy Pearce was good as the distracted dad, who is so busy renovating the house, he doesn’t have much time for young Sally.  Katie Holmes did really well as Kim, the “wicked” step-mum-to-be and I liked that in the end she was the one who took Sally’s side, when she realised that what Sally is going through is more than just childish tantrums.

Another thing I liked: Nixey’s eye for colour and composition.  Strongly influenced be Del  Toro, the locale of the house and the house itself was just superbly created.  Both elegant and rambling the house exudes enough menace yet enough old world charm to make you shrug off feelings of concern.  You will want to live in a beautiful pile like this if you are an adult, but for an uncertain child, not so much.

The fact that it is shot during autumn, into winter, also gives a great appeal.  Thunderstorms and glowering skies abound through the movie and it all just continues to enhance the look and feel of the movie.

I loved it because I am a GDT fan and I think he is genuinely a very talented writer and producer.  I know Mark enjoyed it too as he likes darker stuff but somehow I wanted more but am not sure what that more would be, you now?

It was a satisfying, yet unsatisfying movie.  It’s not at a high enough level to be compared to either The Orphanage or Pan’s Labyrinth but probably on par with Hellboy. If that makes sense?

Mark and I both headed off to the Bullfrog for today’s Masterclass with Sarah O’Connor.  Although Mark writes adult fantasy, he has got a notebook packed full of story ideas for younger readers.  All of them deliciously dark and gory.  Yum.

We were a full house – 21 of us, I think.  Sarah was lovely – truly funny, SO enthusiastic and chatty, no one felt out of place and all questions were welcomed.

She started by introducing herself to us, she chatted about her credentials and showed us two slides: one was of a Waterstone’s bookshelves which held series fiction…the next one she showed us was a slide with the names of packagers.  She explained that if we were to write series fiction, we had to look at what has gone before, what is being developed now and who the competition is, not just other everyday writers (if I can call all my fellow scribes that) but also the big ideas people, packagers.  And this means that our ideas that we come up with has to be superb, astonishing and amazing.

How frightening is that?

Next Sara had us do these funky exercises:

1. Pick an age group for yourself (I chose 9-12)

2. Pick something YOU loved at that age (I chose mythology, Indiana Jones, Egypt)

3. Add it to something you love now (Fringe, the tv show)

And that was so revelatory…story ideas abounded! There was another similar exercise but this time around we swapped at the third stage with the person to our right, and then they had to write the thing they were interested in now, in the third place.  it was awkward and weird but then…if you thought about how to make it work, it could work!  I won’t share with you about this one as it has sparked a fab story idea, so thanks Donna!

Sara next spoke about how important titles are.  She used several examples, such as Chaos Walking / The Hunger Games / Beast Quest / Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She also spoke to us about the strapline, i.e. Beast Quest: Fight the beasts, fear the magic / Hunger Games: Welcome to the deadliest reality tv show ever / Percy Jackson: Half Boy.  Half God.  All Hero.  She explained that straplines are a useful tool for both nailing down the concept of your series, and for selling your books.

Lunch was served, it was delicious! We got to chat and socialise a bit more.  Then we were roped back to the class – it wasn’t a chore, I promise.

Sara started chatting to us about framing the story i.e. setting it up, especially if there is one BIG idea that will feature throughout the book / series.  She also gave some great examples: the poem from the Rainbow Fairies books / the legend at the front of every Beast Quest book.  It was incredibly interesting seeing these and it did really make me stop and think about Grimm and Djinn.  About writing a series or companion novels to each of these completed books.  And then I had to stop thinking about it because my brain went into a tizz. The possibilities = endless.  But of course, you do not want to put the cart before the horse.  Sarah stressed to NOT get on with writing a three or five book series before you have sold the first one.  And it makes 100% sense.  Your agent and editor will of course have tremendous impact on the first book you’ve written.  If you’ve gone and written the second and third books, it means that whatever changes were implemented in the first book, by your agent and editor, means that those other books may now be obsolete and that you have to back and write it all over again.

She suggested – and I’ve heard and seen this from other agents and editors too – to go and write something completely new.  This means you improve your chances several times over to impress and editor or agent, when they ask you: what else have you written?

She spoke about inter book story arc and had us brainstorm why people by the second, third, eight book in a series.  Of course it’s things like collecting the full series, the characters are so much fun you want to know what happens, the fact that there are unfinished business, etc. All great reasons and all valid.

She also spoke about endings and continuing with a series and how to keep things fresh and interesting, not just for your reader but for yourself as a writer too.  A great many tips and ideas were shared.  Sara also spoke to us about pitches, synopsis, covering letters etc. I won’t go ahead and mention more here, as obviously I have no right to do that, as it is Sara’s class and a deeply interesting one, and one I hope she gets to share with more SCBWI members soon.

All throughout a lot of questions were asked by those attending with some great discussions and thoughts thrown out.  It was a great class.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and I asked Mark what he thought about it and he said he had a fab time sitting in on it because all the advice Sara gave, also pertained to writing for adults and older kids.

I am so pleased we got the chance to attend this.  Thank you Mo and your team for arranging it and thanks Sara for your boundless crazy enthusiasm and for answering a kazillion questions and doing it with a big smile.

Today I received this:

I am genuinely excited – I’ve been waiting for this set of moleskines to be released for a while now.  The artist is Paul Wang and I just love the style of art on the covers.  This is his blog and here is a cool interview with Paul.  This is his flickr account.

It’s been a very crazymad busy past few weeks.  I’ve attended various signings and events both in London and in Bath.  It’s been crazy and mad and I’m utterly exhausted.  But I’m not complaining because doing all these things create such an incredible buzz of excitement.  It feels like my blood is fizzing with creativity.  I love it. 

Grimm is behaving and is being edited.  I discovered the coolest thing ever.  Printing my manuscript in booklet form! I separated all my chapters and printed each chapter off as a booklet.  This means far less paper which is off course a good thing.  But it also means it is easier to carry around with me.  I can have three or four chapters with me in my bag to work on during lunch or commute and it’s handy as heck and it doesn’t take up a lot of space. Purrfect!

I know, I get excited about rubbish things.

This weekend is a SCBWI Masterclass with Sara O’Connor and that is quite intense.  We had homework for this and I’ve not managed to do it and I’m wracked with guilt.  The homework was supposed to be sent on to Sara for discussion during the class, so I’m doing mine retrospectively tonight and tomorrow night.

This is what the class is about:

Saturday October 8^th, 2011 From Trilogies to Infinity: by Sara O’Connor

A talk on series fiction for children covering concepting series ideas, pitching your proposal to publishers, inter-book story arc-ing, how to keep it fresh when you’re forty books in, etc. This class will be especially tailored to young fiction (5+, 7+ and 9+), but young adult will be discussed as well.                                                      

After two years at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in New York, Sara O’Connor has spent six years at the series fiction packager Working Partners developing series like Dinosaur Cove, the Hoozles, My Sister the Vampire, and Sisters of the Sword as well as working on Rainbow Magic, The Lady Grace Mysteries and the New Adventures of the Wishing Chair. She will be senior editorial manager for fiction at Hodder Children’s Books as of 1 November 2010. She is also co-editor of Undiscovered Voices.

I am always intrigued by how authors plot trilogies and always wonder how to create a series where each book is pretty much a standalone, yet have a common thread or storyline run throughout, that pulls the books together.  Does that make sense? 

I will be doing a write-up of the event too.  And then this Sunday is my 12 year anniversary.  It is pretty special.  I thank the heavens every day for Mark who is beyond cool.  I am pleased that our interests have remained the same and that we have grown together – blech, so soppy, I know! Totally not me, but it has to be said.  Without his support, I think I would have sold my laptop and computer and given up on this writing malarky a long time ago.  But he’s good for the soul and makes me sit down and write and plot and plan.  He’s a bit of okay.

Last night at Foyles I attended a talk by Marcus Sedgwick about his new novel, Midwinterblood.  He is such a nice guy and I am hosting part of his blog tour on the 11th October.  He decided to write about symbolism, folktales and mythology for MFB and I am so pleased he did.  Because in my search for hare and the moon pictures I discovered this lovely artist:

Claire Barker – http://www.clairebarkerpaintings.com/page15.htm 

Just stunning and a bit dreamy.

That’s enough from me for now!

Last night I hosted this year’s SCBWI British Isles Agents Party at the Theodore Bullfrog pub in London.

By all accounts it was a success.  The agents who agreed to attend the evening were incredible and did an amazing job at keeping all the SCBWI members spirits flying high.  Next year I think we will do our utmost to have more illustrator friendly agents in attendance as that is the only criticism I  had heard.  It was also incredibly hot – with this mini-heatwave we are experiencing packing around 100 people into a room took some doing.  But even so, I saw so many smiles and nods of appreciation whilst the agents were chatting, my heart soared a little bit.

Also, the staff at the Bullfrog were superb, as always.  I over catered too, as usual, which was annoying but like my mum always said, rather too much than too little.

Today, I got the day off work and am so pleased that I did.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a godawful migraine and by the time I woke up again this morning, it had firmly settled.  Big events like this do it to me – I don’t know if its a combination of lots of talking, not hydrating enough and all the excitement in general, but I am usually wiped out in such a diva-fashion, it is embarrassing.  So I spent most of the morning in true diva-fashion on the couch, having utterly surreal dreams.  I blame the syndol.

And to make matters worse – again with the super heat outside.  And our door has decided that it refuses to be locked from the outside, which means I have a super anxious Jack Russell who hates me right now as he can’t go for his walk in the park.

However, all that aside, the party was a success, Benjamin our ARA did really well handling the Q&A and the bill at the end of the night did not break the bank.  Phew!

And today I heard from the person whom I had approached about the Slush Pile challenge I’ll be hosting for the next year, and it is full steam ahead for that and her challenge just sounds like such awesome fun, I can’t wait to share it with our SCBWI members.  And yes, it is a SCBWI members only challenge.  Another good reason to join the society.

I’m about to head back to the couch with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by le Carre for some reading.  I doubt I will get far as the syndol really just wipes my mind of coherent thought.  I’m surprised I even managed to write this blogpost!

For those who couldn’t make the Agents Party last night, or who is maybe just interested to see what it was all about, Jeannette Towey wrote a great write-up over at her blog - http://www.jetowey.com/2011/09/scbwi-2011-agents-party.html -

This is my big question for the past few days.  What is it about the weather changing that makes me want to do craft things?  Now that we are experiencing, not just grey dull days, but also colder days, my mind is turning to making things. 

I used to be a very creative child.  I used to draw, and knit and make clothes for my dolls and creatures.  I made faces for my mum to carve and sculpt.  Yet now, the most creative I get is drawing a doodle for a story and then realising I have totally ripped off Shaun Tan’s Eric.  I am not counting writing as part of this creativity, by the way.  I know I should, but in this instance I am focussing on CRAFT things. 

Things to make with my hands.

In fact, hubby Mark started it off this week by making quince preserve.  As well as making sloe gin the week before.  And I’m sitting there thinking…what the hell? He’s getting all creative, why can’t I?

And yesterday, I was chatting to @cupcakes4clara on Twitter and followed a link of hers to her existing gorgeous and more-ish website and subsequently fell in love: http://www.cupcakesforclara.com/cupcakes_for_clara/2011/08/a-tilda-garden-angel-kit.html 

Isn’t she lovely?  I like the bit of geekiness I can sense in this doll. 

I am very keen to take up knitting again.  I used to knit too when I was little and was incredibly adventurous, designing my own patters and making pretty clothes for my orange teddy I had.  Also, my dolls and my sister’s dolls all wore the outfits I made for them.  My family was convinced I would become a designer.  Then I grew older, discovered I liked words more, and completely stopped drawing and making things.

It annoys me a little, to be honest.  So this year I’ll definitely be taking up something.  For sure.  Also, what has been inspiring me is an Etsy shop called Filligree.  I have showed some of their monsters on here before.

I love his enquiring gaze!

Skydancer - I bought this one

I honestly would love every single creature and dragon they make.  Find their webiste and their etsy shop details here and here.

I particularly fretted over the following design Martin and Celine created.  I desperately wanted it but it was far too expensive for me.  I just loved this and it made my heart soar and I wanted to write stories about them.

Magic Carpet Ride

My dream at the moment is try and create something as cutely mythical and odd as these creatures Michael and Celine fashion. In fact, I have a kit to make a tiny doll, so I’ll start with that first, I think.  It has instructions.  I am good with instructions.

Matt Damon

This is a speech Matt Damon gave over in the States as part of their “Save our Schools” march in protest against Obama and the US government’s attempt to standardise tests in schools and in support of teachers. 

I flew overnight from Vancouver to be with you today. I landed in New York a few hours ago and caught a flight down here because I needed to tell you all in person that I think you’re awesome.

I was raised by a teacher. My mother is a professor of early childhood education. And from the time I went to kindergarten through my senior year in high school, I went to public schools. I wouldn’t trade that education and experience for anything.

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all come from how I was parented and taught.

And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned — none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success — none of these qualities that make me who I am … can be tested. 

I said before that I had incredible teachers. And that’s true. But it’s more than that. My teachers were EMPOWERED to teach me. Their time wasn’t taken up with a bunch of test prep — this silly drill and kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn’t promote real learning. No, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. They took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us. They were empowered to unlock our potential. They were allowed to be teachers.

Now don’t get me wrong. I did have a brush with standardized tests at one point. I remember because my mom went to the principal’s office and said, ‘My kid ain’t taking that. It’s stupid, it won’t tell you anything and it’ll just make him nervous.’ That was in the ’70s when you could talk like that.

I shudder to think that these tests are being used today to control where funding goes.

I don’t know where I would be today if my teachers’ job security was based on how I performed on some standardized test. If their very survival as teachers was based on whether I actually fell in love with the process of learning but rather if I could fill in the right bubble on a test. If they had to spend most of their time desperately drilling us and less time encouraging creativity and original ideas; less time knowing who we were, seeing our strengths and helping us realize our talents.

I honestly don’t know where I’d be today if that was the type of education I had. I sure as hell wouldn’t be here. I do know that.

This has been a horrible decade for teachers. I can’t imagine how demoralized you must feel. But I came here today to deliver an important message to you: As I get older, I appreciate more and more the teachers that I had growing up. And I’m not alone. There are millions of people just like me.

So the next time you’re feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called “overpaid;” the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that’s been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything. … Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.

The above is from the Washington Post with the video of his speech.  I read this then watched the video and I am blow away.  I love that everything he says basically echoes my feeling towards teachers I met growing up.  Occasionally, there was the odd one who had stopped caring, but overall, my teachers were fab.

Specifically my English teachers in high school.  All of them.  Supportive, intelligent, funny, encouraging and strict, they genuinely pressurised me to write the best stories and essays I could produce.  They introduced me to a wide range of authors, both classical and modern.  They did not laugh at my cowboy book obsession, knowing that Louis L’Amour plotted and created intricate worlds and great characters.  They introduced me to Alistair MacLean’s books that taught me plotting and plunged me into stories so intricate, you got palpitations reading them. I read my first fantasy novels in that class, The Belgariad books, and right then, I knew that writing is what I wanted to do when I’m grown up. 

I still believe that.

I realised this when we travelled to West India Quay on Sunday by DLR to go and watch Super 8 by JJ Abrams.  Superb!  Go watch it – clever script writing too.  Lots of visual lessons to learn to for storytelling. 

I love the DLR and think it’s superbly futuristic, especially when it starts going through the Docklands and Canary Wharf.  It makes me feel like I’m in a Batman movie, in Gotham, riding the uni-rail or even in Blade Runner, only without the androids…for now…

So whenever we head out that way, we take one of our cameras with us or, like I did this Sunday past, went a bit crazy with my iphone and Hipstamatic packs.

This is the result:

The Journey Starts

Chugging along nicely

Pretty lights

Phantom reflections

Destination

So last night Mark and I got home, turned on the TV and watched as our adoptive city morphed into a foreign and terrifying place you would never want to visit, even if someone paid you £1,000,000.

I am of course talking about the riots that took place on the 8th August.

I try not to get too involved in the news – I always get shouty, but these past few days things have not been a good time for London and the UK.  I feel embarrassed, angered and heartsore that a country and a city that is one of the most incredible in the world, can be brought low by a bunch of well organised yobs. 

Where we live, which is theoretically Kent although the suburb / area we live in is smack bang on the border between London and the county of Kent, we are very much aware of idiocy.  Beckenham and Bromley are genuinely nice places to live and to visit, but there are elements that tend to get shipped in via the tramlink from Croydon and by buses from surrounding areas like Penge, Lewisham and Catford, who make Beckenham and especially Bromley not safe places to be in the evenings, especially during the summer and on Fridays and Saturdays.

Because these two places are so accessible, Mark and I suspected that things may kick off and although loads of hoodies turned up in both Becks and Brommels, the police kept the order.  A handful of windows were smashed and some idiot tried breaking into a bank.  Really?  The bank? 

We stood outside last night at around eleven and just listened.  We are far off the main throughfare, but traffic noise carries.  And there was no traffic noise at all.  Nothing.  Except, after a few minutes there was the sound of a single emergency vehicle siren in the far off distance.

Against the night sky, to the right of our house, just beneath the moon we could see whispy dark clouds and a tang of smoke in the air.  This was from the fires in Croydon. 

We went back inside, sat on the couch and watched BBC News Live and Sky News Live and my heart cried.  Mostly out shock and disbelief.  But I also felt so much anger towards these people out there who were taking this opportunity to become lower than the lowest mongrel there is, by become thieves and looters.  And robbing independent stores who are struggling at the best of time.  And then the destruction of cars and busses?  How pointlessly blind and stupid.

Your actions are not great.  They are not good.  You deserve to be shut away and made to pay for what you’ve created.  That fire in Croydon? That was five generations of hard working normal people’s livelihood that went up in flames.  That jewellery shop that you robbed in Beckenham? A regular guy who is trying to make a living and perhaps living a bit of his own dream.

Lucy Coates has written this amazing blogpost and I am far from as eloquent so all I can say is yes, I agree.

We are all leaving early from work tonight as various train services shut down stations last night for fear of damage and helping the undesireables getting to their chosen target destinations.  And you know what?  I absolutely hate it.  Because of a few, I have to change everything, and feel afraid.  It is reprehensible and I honestly hope that it does not kick off yet again tonight. 

To all my friends who live in and around London and other affected areas – be careful out there.