Pangolin Issue 26

This month’s Pangolin marks the end of my second lunar year of blogging. Our mystery object this month is Dr Merryweather’s Tempest Prognosticator. George Merryweather was Curator of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society’s Museum. He perfected this design, which was shown in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Commonly known as the leech barometer, this device harnessed the ability of medicinal leeches to respond to electrical changes in the atmosphere by climbing upwards. When a leech did so, it triggered a lever system that rang a bell. The more bells ringing, the more severe the storm predicted.

I haven’t yet been to Whitby to see the Prognosticator for myself, but my research for Novel 2 has taken me to Hendy near Swansea to see some old acquaintances – Fred Hechtel and Roy Sawyer – who helped to identify our Kenyan leeches over 30 years ago. These days the medical and veterinary leeches at Biopharm are cared for meticulously by Carl. He was able to confirm that his leeches also climb as high as they can when an electrical storm is brewing. This has happened only three times during his tenure.

Novel 2 is set in 2015 and the main protagonist is a 56-year-old woman called Freya. She spent a few months in Kenya in the early ’80s. More fruitful research has come from reading my mindful soulmate’s letters home from rural Kenya at that time – not only do they remind us of things forgotten, but they also trigger other unrecorded memories. I am enjoying the challenge of writing an entire novel with one first-person narrator. The fact that she is a woman means that I am particularly grateful for the constructive criticism I get from female members of Leeds Writers Circle. In Chapter 7, Freya is about to get together with Ogden, in what he likes to refer to as inosculation. This word was gleaned from Robert MacFarlane, whose ‘Words of the Day’ are one of the few balms of Twitter. 23rd March 2017: “inosculation” – the growing together & melting-into-one-another of tree branches. An en-kissing (Latin osculare, to kiss).

I should confess that I did not complete 25,000 words in my extended #NaNoWriMo (see Pangolin 25). I didn’t even get close – 16,000 was the final count. I learnt that although it is possible to write 1500+ words a day in short bursts, I did not enjoy it much. I like to hone my prose as I go along, that’s part of the pleasure. Anyway, thanks to #NaNoWriMo I did finish most of the section with Kenya flashbacks and I am 28,000 words into the story.

I wish all my readers (and you are a very select bunch) a Christmas of unexpected joys and a New Year of welcome surprises. January will mark the opening of my second season of agent-hunting on behalf of the first novel, now known as Yetunde’s House. Perhaps its shortlisting by Cinnamon Press will improve its chances. Let’s hope that enough of the creations in my work, energised by the electricity of my brain, will ring sufficient bells for it to be noticed, a bit like Dr Merryweather’s Prognosticator. Now that’s what I call a stretched simile.

And don’t forget the plight of the real pangolins. My next instalment will emerge on January 17th.

 

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