The Fear (aka, Revising a Big Piece of Writing)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

The Fellow sits outside Cromars fish and chip shop, and cogitates. The chips – which were too hot to handle five minutes ago – have magically cooled to the ‘am I still enjoying these?’ stage, but I have achieved my aim: a short walk by the sea, and chips outdoors for lunch. Now I have to go back to my desk and face The Fear.

Writing a book? You take a deep breath, and start. One chapter at a time, head down and just keep going.

You get it as good as you can, submit it, and wait for the feedback. Not so different from writing an academic assignment, really.

The report comes back. Taking a deep breath, you read it. Then again, carefully. In my case, it was kind and eminently reasonable. After a bit of thought, you respond.

But now for the scary bit! The revision. At this point, you have to address the gentle suggestions for improvements. Not only are you reaching into the recesses of your brain to produce new sparkling prose to align with someone else’s carefully considered suggestions, but there’s another deadline.

I’ve booked some scattered annual leave (so as not to cause too much inconvenience) and mapped out my time.

The Fellow has a busy couple of months ahead, disregarding the festive season!

What a Day! Action-Packed …

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I attended a lunchtime concert, gave a talk, and heard a doctoral presentation. Surprisingly – or maybe not – I’m knackered!

‘What are we doing in St Andrews?’, the books asked.

I have a bone to pick with Mozart Allan. I brought a backpack full of his publications with me. If anyone has seen a small, middle-aged woman with a heavy backpack, staggering around St Andrews, the lady is not a tramp! It just renders me incapable of going up or down stairs at anything faster than snail’s pace.

I really HAD to bring Morven with me, but I was starting to regret my decision before I’d even reached St Catherine’s Lodge yesterday morning! Much as I love my travelling companions, I’ll be glad to put them safely back on my shelf at home, where they can talk about the exciting time they had being the centre of everyone’s attention.

Those Wakeful Hours weren’t Wasted

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I would still have preferred a couple more hours’ sleep yesterday morning, but I sat down to revise my paper in the afternoon, and found my early morning brain had done me a favour: moving a couple of chunks of text didn’t involve much rewriting, and I think it makes a more interesting narrative.

My weekend working pattern is a bit disjointed – anyone running a household will understand – but that’s just my reality. Revise a bit of writing – start cooking dinner – a bit more revision. And so on. I tell myself that my subconscious mind is still working on it. (So, when I was carving the roast …? No, I don’t believe it was working at all!)

How to Slow Down Speaking Pace?

I also timed my paper. I think I must still read a bit too fast, though, although I do try to pace it. I don’t gabble. Maybe I should try again tonight, as slowly as I can manage. How do other folk get themselves to slow down? Any special strategies, tips or hints?

Here are suggestions from friends and colleagues. I’ve been practising with the first two already:-

  • Count one for a comma, two for a full stop, and three for a paragraph
  • Mark the script with where to breathe
  • Imagine you’re speaking to people for whom the language you’re speaking isn’t their first language.

I woke early again this morning, but thankfully my wakeful brain wasn’t in editorial mode today…

‘Sleep, Sleep, I couldn’t go to Sleep’ (to quote Eliza)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I didn’t sleep well last night.  Apart from external disturbances, once I was FULLY awake at 5 am – the fourth time I’d woken up – my mind did its usual trick of rehearsing anything I was worried about. I  reflected about my choir (I’m a church organist); had a wee think about an optician’s appointment; wondered  – again  – whether someone about to revise a book draft had any right to think about sewing a jacket – and mused contentedly about the first of two talks I’m giving this month.

Then, there it was. The second talk – the whole hour of it – there in my mind, Word headings structured down the side and all.  It’s a perfectly good paper, and I was happy enough with it earlier in the week. I was still pleased enough yesterday evening.

Or was I?

Yes, I was – consciously, at any rate.  Plainly, there was a subconscious part of my mind that was less so.

All it amounts to, is moving a chunk of text, and I can see how to make the link smooth at the beginning of it.  I’m just concerned about the other end of it. But lying in the dark, I was warm and comfy – and tired, albeit awake – and nothing was going to drag me down to my laptop at five in the morning.

My mind decided to have a go at something else: the PowerPoint. It’s a lovely set of slides, no problem there.

‘You’re going to have to rearrange the slides’, said my mind, shoogling them about in its imagination. ‘You’re bound to get in a muddle with the order.’

I don’t really think that’s a big deal, though. Just a practical detail, not a conceptual one. 

Huffily, my brain metaphorically shrugged its shoulders. ‘Suit yourself. Wanna go back to sleep, then?’

At 6.54 am? On a Sunday morning, when I have to rehearse the choir at 10? Nope, no more sleep. I put the light on. ‘Why is the light on so early?’, asked the other sleepy organist beside me.

So early? He doesn’t know the half of it. And I can’t do anything about my paper until this afternoon.

But it could have been worse – at least I wasn’t Eliza, after a giddy night out!:-

Bed, bed I couldn’t go to bed,
My head’s too light to try to set it down;
Sleep, sleep I couldn’t sleep tonight,
Not for all the jewels in the crown.
[I could have danced all night …]

Sung by Eliza in My Fair Lady, by Lerner and Loewe

Image by DanFa from Pixabay

Slavery and Empire: Exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Definitely on my To-See list! Details here

I’ve done quite a bit of work about diversity in library collections – whether diversity in terms of music composed by women, or music composed by people of colour. I’ve also devoted quite a bit of space in one chapter of my forthcoming book, to the influence of the craze for ‘minstrelsy’ music towards the end of the nineteenth century.

I was very much taken with the exhibition at the Hunterian Museum a couple of years ago, and I’m also very interested in Glasgow’s history as ‘Second City of the Empire’, and finding out more about some of our dubious merchant forebears. So – will I be going to see the Kelvingrove exhibition? You bet I will!

I’m conscious that I haven’t posted with my research hat on this week. Fear not, I’ll be back! But not in today’s posting. The exhibition very much deserves to be showcased in its own right.

Image by Michał from Pixabay

Missing in Caption

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

So here’s the thing, as we say in Glasgow.  Looking up Doris Ketelbey some weeks ago, I thought I saw an interesting heading in one of her books: it was the title or first line of a Scottish song.  And I did EXACTLY what I warn students not to do.

It made such an impact that I was sure I’d find it again. After all, her book titles weren’t that numerous. Of course I’d remember. Moreover, if I’d found it once …  right? (It’s possible that I found it by accident, with an unlikely set of search words, though.)

I bought a copy of her most popular school textbook, shelved it, and that was me. Sorted!

Until I looked at it more closely. This was European and a bit of world history. Post-Jacobite, I couldn’t see anything where a Scottish song title would have been a suitable caption. And – had there been an illustration above it? – or was I havering? (The caption might have been on a digital image, not searchable as text, maybe …)

Maybe I imagined the illustration, but I remained convinced about that caption. Just a pity that I couldn’t remember the song!

  • I started searching last night. In bed, I lay awake, agitated by my failure to source the mystery book.
  • Today, I searched Hathi Trust and Open Library. No luck. 
  • I looked at Jisc Library Hub and Worldcat, but they weren’t going to show me what I needed.
  • Finally, I made a list of any Ketelbey titles which might possibly have touched on Scottish history (given that she wasn’t first and foremost a historian of Scottish history), and came up with another pair of books possibly also aimed at secondary schools.

There’s only one problem: the nearest copy is in Edinburgh.  I had hoped to find it  in Glasgow’s epic Mitchell Library, but this time I had no luck.

So … Amazon and eBay

However, I’ve ordered the pair for about the cost of a return to Edinburgh. If what I’m looking for isn’t there, then I have to admit defeat. I still don’t understand how something I found before is now so very elusive…

Image by Pexels from Pixabay and by succo from Pixabay

Migraine in the Rain

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

I brought it on myself. A solid day’s writing should have been a delicious treat, but my eyes disagreed.

I’d written maybe 1k words (max) yesterday. Today, I was aiming for another 3k. And then – round about coffee time – the right side of my head suggested it might be a bit uncomfortable.

Nonsense, I told it. We’ll get a bit more of this written.

Very well, said my eyes. On your head be it. And it was! When will I learn?

Eventually, I capitulated – I went for a latte, two strong painkillers and a flapjack. I didn’t really want the flapjack, but it was intended to lessen the chance of the coffee and painkillers upsetting my gut!

Back to the laptop, I pushed on, but I did go for a quick walk by the sea at lunchtime. The waves were choppy, and it was raining steadily. But remarkably, the medication, the sea air, and a healthy walk in the rain did the trick.

A rainy St Andrews and a turbulent sea

This afternoon, I was more sensible. I took another break. Did I manage the target 3k? I’m afraid not! However, I got fairly close, and my head was clear to enjoy an evening seminar.

The trouble with taking a break
(It’s all for my weary eyes’ sake)
Is that less writing’s done,
Though the cuppa was fun,
And at least I’m alert and awake…

Tomorrow’s another day. I’ll get there yet!

Burns’ Songs – for his Centenary

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

You can imagine the enthusiasm with which publishers rushed to produce centenary editions of Robert Burns’s songs in 1896. We have a Bayley & Ferguson ‘new and revised’ centenary edition in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland library: well-used over the years, bearing the scars of untold tussles, its paper almost skin-soft through repeated borrowing. This one was published in Glasgow and London. I wasn’t at all surprised to see vendor Frank Simpson’s stamp on it – the Sauchiehall Street shop was there for many years, where the now defunct BHS store later stood. I can’t imagine how many of our old scores came from there!

Today, I needed to compare it with a more lavish bound presentation copy, which we acquired as a donation. The imprint likewise had Bayley and Ferguson’s name, but in larger print above it, it had Hedderwick, of Citizen Buildings in St Vincent Street. Both firms gave Glasgow addresses, and no mention of London. I suspect it was the earlier of the two, since I found 1896 newspaper adverts for this one. Hedderwick was a long established firm. And Bayley and Ferguson did publish music on behalf of other firms, groups or individuals.

It’ll have to go into the special collection – it’s so heavy that I can’t imagine anyone wanting to borrow it.

Plain or fancy, I imagine this title was a bestseller for several decades. I’ll finish cataloguing it tomorrow.

Now – have we got the Mozart Allan centenary Burns edition … ? Of course we have!

The Book Report Arrives!

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

UPDATE!

My book report arrived today. Yes, there are some revisions to be made,  but I don’t mind. That was to be expected.
Being ‘beautifully written’ is such a very lovely compliment. 😍

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

7 & 8 November  – TWO McAulays in a week (in different places)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

It appears both my husband and I are giving presentations in a fortnight’s time!

The evening of Tuesday 7th , Hugh is talking on Zoom about Newcastle trolleybuses, to an enthusiasts’ group in Turin.* (Sadly for him, he’s sitting in Glasgow, not Turin, to do it!)

Less than 24 hours after that, I shall be giving a talk about a couple of Mozart Allan Scottish songbooks, in the Gifford Room (at the University of St Andrews’ Laidlaw Centre) on Weds 8th at 2.30 pm.

The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song: compiling a book with the 1951 Festival of Britain in mind

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/assets/university/music-centre/documents/music-events.pdf

The Glories of Scotland is a ‘snapshot in time’, as I shall explain. It has connections with another contemporary Mozart Allan title, and also with the Festival of Britain.  Admittedly, it doesn’t look particularly special to our modern eyes, but it indirectly tells us a lot about postwar British culture.

As it happens, I’m giving a lecture to the historians later in November, in connection with my Ketelbey Fellowship.  But I’ll be taking a very different tack that time. The music talk on 8 November is about one – okay, two books, whilst the history one covers half a century. And it feels as though, whilst I’ll be introducing history to the music lovers, I’ll be sharing music history with the historians – looking at how contemporary trends were reflected in what Scottish music publishers produced.

I’ve just finished writing my music talk.  On Wednesday, I made a list of all the images I’d need for the PowerPoint, and I had intended on Thursday to see which pictures I had already (as opposed to those I needed to scan), draft the Ppt and do some reading. 

However, I didn’t bargain on Storm Babet. Suffice to say, I got a bus home to Glasgow and spent the afternoon and evening scanning and finishing the slides. No reading got done, but at least the talk and slides are all sorted. Well, apart from timing it …

Postscript. Thankfully, the postie’s delivery of one particular rarity didn’t get drenched in the rain last week. It was only 2/6 in 1950 – I dreaded it getting damaged. Especially as I’m talking about the diaspora intentions of the publisher, and this particular copy comes from France!

* For Hugh’s talk, visit the ATTS Torino Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/attstorino