Lucie Novak's Blog

Well, I DO write. But mostly emails, blogs, and various nonsense.
I finished editing my sequel, someone looking at it at the moment.
I have started participating in a blog where once a week, I try to squeeze my verbosity into 100 words.

And I am writing a new book, something completely different, so different, I will publish it under a different name.
Lucie Novak is a woman who writes about fun, life, sex. NOT Erotica, though...

I love writing the new book, but never manage more than 2 hours a week.
Why?
Because I have too many great friends. So, I chat to them on WhatsApp, Google hangouts, exchange emails! Pathetic.
Somebody should lock me in a house with no Internet...
Any volunteers?

It is very frustrating. I have been looking for this book for a long time.
I do not know the name, or the name of the author.
The book is set in Wales, but I do not know if the author is English, I think so.
I read it in Czech, in the seventies or eighties.
It is a novel about an English teacher in a Welsh school, surrounded by Welsh nationalists.
There are other nationalists, too, the Cornish and Scottish (claiming to be Celts but only speaking English) and Irish.
There is a Celtic conference they all go to in Brittany.
I remember 2 Scottish men, constantly drunk.
The book was great fun to read.
But I asked my Czech friends, none of them read it. And not knowing the author or the name makes searching for it hard.
Can anybody help?
Lucie

I am just about finishing this book and I wantedd to blog about it, too.

The Interesting Narrative And Other Writings

Slave narrative, written by an African man who was kidnapped, age about 10, and sold into slavery, eventually, he buys his freedom, moves to England, writes this book. It was first published in 1789.…
The author is an intelligent honest person, navigating through life, slavery, learning English and many skills, becoming a Christian and abolitionist. The language is simple and archaic, and there is a certain charming naïveté, combined with a smart brain. I liked his arguments for better treatment of slaves, which later changed to a strong conviction that any slavery is bad. There is a development in the character, who grew up in Africa where slavery was part of life, with black slave owners.

It made me think about racism, and how I hear all those prejudiced idiotic generalisations about Muslims, Gypsies (Romany), Black people, Chinese .It is not only white people who are racist. I heard racist anti-Chinese remarks by an Indian guide, and from what heard there is a lot of racism between Indian and black people in Africa.
Reading about the horrible conditions of slaves reminded me of the war and the Holocaust. Many of my relatives were treated by the Nazis similarly to the slaves in this book. The degradation, cruelty, treating them as if they were vermin.
Those Nazis, like the white slave owners, did not consider their victims truly human.

For me, Olaudah Equiano is a hero- a man who starts as an 11-year-old illiterate “savage” and becomes an articulate adult, freeing himself from slavery, enduring terrible hardship, and yet remaining kind, optimistic, forgiving. I am sure some black people would dismiss him as an “Uncle Tom character”. I do not think they would be right, despite certain things – for example he buys his own freedom, de-facto recognising slavery as an institution. But to criticise it would mean we do not realise people belong to their epoch and cannot be judged by contemporary standards.
Of course, I read other good books about slavery written by black and white writers, contemporary- like Toni Morrison. This is different, and very powerful. It talks with a voice from 18th century. Fascinating.

https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/2016...

I took 2 quizzes.
https://www.politicalcompass.org/

http://www.gotoquiz.com/politics/poli...

The result were both the same, left wing ( albeit close to centre) libertarian.
In Prague, they call these people " Slunickari- Sunshine people. It is NOT a compliment.

Well, my blog is not very complimentary either.
https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/2016...

So my writing has got lot of sex in. Life sometimes does, too!

https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/2016...

So, I have been a bit absent from here, partly because I finally finished my second book, thinking about starting a third one, completely different, maybe under my real name. The need to protect my identity hurt my first book.

But I also started using Facebook. It is fun, but a bit time consuming, don;t you think?

And I still blog ocassinally.This is my last one:
https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/2016...

But with all those connections, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, blog, I also see people in person, go to the gym, travel.

Sometimes I wonder, which of my realities is more real?
The conventinal reality of my life in London, or the Virtual Reality on line?
Who knows?

Who knows?
https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/2016...

I have finished my second book. Now the hard bit- culling, getting rid of all those unnecessary paragraphs and chapters.
It is a bit like looking at old clothes in my wardrobe. The ones I haven't worn for a long time, but whenever I think:" Let's give it to Oxfam", I remember the connections, and try the dress or skirt on, and decide to keep it.
Do you do this?
But with my book, I need to be ruthless. It is far too long.
It is a very fictitious sequel to my not so fictitious first book. Although not all in my first book is true either.
It is a memoir of Lucie Novak.
But I am not Lucie Novak, not in real life. She is me, completely, but her life is not. Just her thoughts, personality and some adventures.
In a way She is totally me, but I am her + another, significant part.
My blog :
https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/
is more close to the real me. Apart of the name...
So what do I need now?
Discipline, patience, ruthlessness, all attributes that do not come easily to me.
But I will try.
Wish me luck.
Lucie

1) I am not in a great state of mind right now.
Maybe this blog post says a bit about it.

https://luciemuses.wordpress.com/2016...

The fact that part of me is glad my mother is no longer around makes me feel worse.

2) I have been travelling a lot

3) I started writing more

4) I decided to reduce the time I spend on my computer. I still spend at least 3 hours a day though.

I miss you, my Goodreads' friends. But I will be back.
Lucie