Author: Ruth Livingstone

Walker, writer, photographer, blogger, doctor, woman, etc.

The joys of Twitter

The beauty of the ‘newspaper’ is you don’t have to obsessively watch Tweets. Just read my online paper Books and Writers Daily Update

Twitter logoA few weeks ago I joined Twitter. I post under RuthlessTweets, because somebody else had purloined my real name.

What on earth is the point of Twitter?
I resisted joining for years.
Yes, you can waste endless hours.
And, the temptation to keep checking for new Tweets is overwhelming.
And, yes, Twittering can be the single most time-wasting experience ever.

But … Continue reading “The joys of Twitter”

What’s in a name? Aptronyms

What’s in a name? We believe, of course, that we make choices in our lives from our own free will and, as a result of those choices we have some control over our own destinies. But do we?

An aptronym is, according to Wikipedia, ‘a name aptly suited to its owner’.

There is a wonderful list on the Wikipedia page. I won’t repeat them all here, but I can’t resist listing some of my favourite real aptronym names.

  • Russell Brain – neurologist (doctor who is a brain expert)
  • Margaret Court – a tennis player
  • Bernard Madoff – who ‘made off’ with billions of pounds of investors money

Are names important?

Word CloudMy father was born in Yorkshire. His family had no connection to medicine, nor to the church and had never travelled abroad. They didn’t know any missionaries or explorers. Neither were they related to the family of the famous missionary explorer, Dr David Livingstone.

But they named my father David Livingstone. Did they realise the significance of that name?

Would you be surprised to know that my father attended theology college, became a missionary, and spent 10 years in East Africa?

My own name is Ruth Livingstone and, although I hope I have not become truly ruthless, I have become a medical doctor. Hence my name is now ‘Doctor Livingstone’.

So, between my father and myself, we have recreated all the key ingredients of the name ‘Doctor David Livingstone’ – including the connection with Africa, missionary work and medical qualifications.

We believe, of course, that we make choices in our lives from our own free will and, as a result of those choices we have some control over our own destinies.

But do we?


While on the subject of names, here are some interesting sites:

  1. Name Structures – report card based on your name.
  2. And a related article in The Sunday TimesThe names that will get your baby into Oxbridge, July 31, 2007.
  3. The top 100 baby names in America on BabyNamesGarden.com.
  4. Or have a laugh at the 50 craziest celebrity baby names, again from the Sunday Times, July 24, 2007.

Rejections….

“rejected”
No reason given.

hand writingSome months ago, I applied to do a MA in Creative Writing at a well known University.

I paid £25 for the privilege of applying online and found 2 referees and asked them (both very busy people) to write references and submitted a sample of my writing and found various ancient certificates and photographed them and sent them in by email. This took many days of careful thought, effort and work. And, of course, I rearranged my work commitments to make sure that I had the time to participate in the MA course, turning down offers of work for October 2011 onwards.

Photo of green binThree months later I receive a response, arriving late one evening in my inbox; a brief email asking me to look at a web page in the applicant portal. So, I find my user name and my password, logon and scroll down the page to find the single new word that tells me the decision status.

“rejected”

No reason given. No hints or suggestions for the future.

A few days later, I receive a letter through the post. The letter is a little gentler, but still gives no indication of why the rejection. Writing sample not good enough? Not enough previous experience? Had I set my sights too high? Poor personal statement? Too old? Fierce competition from better applicants? All these may be true, and probably are, but I am not told.

Working on the basis there is no failure, only feedback, I have applied to a few other places, offering creative writing courses.

Interestingly, I have not had to pay for these applications.

  • Been accepted by the Open University (I love the Open University!) for their Start Writing Fiction course. 12 weeks, starting in May.
  • Applied for a part-time BA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. Birkbeck offers evening tuition and the course looks really good.
  • Enrolled in a 3 day “Writing Great Short Stories” course at Knuston Hall

So, plenty of things to look forward to.

In the meantime, I continue reading ruthlessly and writing daily.

Stephen King on reading

I know I have not been writing much recently. And still have my NaNoWriMo novel with the final chapters to do.

I am following Stephen King’s advice. He says they way to learn about writing is to read.
So, I have been reading.

And who have I been reading?
Stephen King of course!

Stephen King's book cover, Bag of Bones

This is the first Stephen King novel I have ever read. Shame on me.
I have posted some comments about this particular book, Bag of Bones, on my Ruthless Reading site.