The Sigla Blog

Happy 07 to everyone and hopefully Christmas was restful and fun or insane and forgettable, depending on what you were after.

I’m lazily trying to get back into a routine (I’ve watched far too many old films and have not yet been to the sales) so it’s digest posting of a few bits and pieces for today.

*Louise Doughty looks back over her ‘Novel in a Year’ column - which I’ve been following but doing nothing about - in The Telegraph.

*Hopefully this might change in future, thanks to my artist pal, who gave me a bevy of xmas presents including Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within. It has a slightly American self-help tone, but it’s full of arse-kicking writing exercises, so I’ve got the new Moleskin at the ready. I say this with faux confidence, knowing that the damn thing will probably still be blank by the end of January.

*That said, Maura has a spot-on, if pithy motto for 2007.

*Why oh why don’t the BBC show their Ghost Stories for Christmas series year round, or at the very least, dotted throughout the year? The series originally ran in the 1970s and over Christmas, BBC4 showed a welcome glut of MR James stories, including a new adaptation (’Number 13′) starring Greg Wise. In 2005, they showed an eerie Dickens’ story called ‘The Signalman’ with Denham Elliott, which was one of the spookiest stories you’re ever likely to come across.

* Speaking of decent TV adaptations, I also read via an interview with Peter Capaldi that Tales of the Unexpected is to return - hurrah! Wonder if the opening credits will still have the silhouette of the naked woman?

*Reading is getting back on track this month, after catching up on some of the best books of the year, including Yiyun Lee’s fantastic short story collection A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and MJ Hyland’s Booker short-listed Carry Me Down. I’ve also joined a new book group with friends and am really looking forward to getting stuck in to Mary McCarthy’s The Group.

*Big congrats to Donncha who’s going to be a daddy. He shares some sad background to the happy news and points out that miscarriage is not something bloggers talk about. Recently (through talking with Conor about cancer), I came across a blog called The Waiting Game about one woman’s story of trying to conceive and her subsequent losses. It’s incredibly honest and often heart-breaking to read, but an indefatigable sense of hope seems to come off the page and I find myself constantly rooting for the author, Feebee, every time I check in.

*Why is it that the paint is barely dry on 2006, when an album comes along every January that will probably make it on to next December’s best of the year lists? We’re talking about you, Gruff Rhys and your ridiculously addictive solo album Candylion. And thanks for being so considerate with the title - it’s far easier to pronounce than Yr Atal Genhedlaeth. The vid for the single of the same name is here:

Resolutions? Hmm. Blog less, write more, ignore the internet if possible. That sort of thing…