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Chris

Chris Scholes

 

Profile

Born in Greater Manchester, Chris Scholes has lived in Saddleworth for most of her life. Whilst attending Colne Valley High School in the 60's, she started to write for the school magazine. Some years later, and completely on the spur of the moment she posted some of her work to the BBC, they accepted it and her first short story was broadcast on television and radio 4.
She has been shortlisted for the Asham Prize and won the Sefton Prize. She was awarded an MA in Writing from Sheffield Hallam University where she also won the Hallam Prize and received a bursary from the Paul Nunn Memorial Fund. She has run writing courses, published short stories and poetry in magazines and anthologies and is currently working on a novel.

 

Creative Work

Ginger Cake and Celtic Knots

Today, because I have nothing more to do, I have been thinking about how to make ginger cake and Celtic knots. I can do a pretty respectable Celtic knot , even if I haven’t got a hand made rope with linty edges or a gold chain. The ginger cake is a lot harder.

Take three freshly laid eggs. If they are still warm, you will have to leave them for a few hours to settle. This would be a good time to attend to something more pressing. If it is January and the weather is fine, you could gather a few rocks together to prepare for an alpine garden in the Spring. Or, you could make a sowing of sweet peas, as long as they are planted under glass.

If I had the choice I would always choose a brown egg in preference to a white one, even though I’m sure that their insides are just the same. I know which hen lays the darkest brown eggs, and she’s a gentle soul.

I gave my recipe for ginger cake to Mrs. Stocks, who used to live next door. I wrote it down on my nice notepaper and deliberately forgot to mention the ginger. One Tuesday night, when she was going out to her ballroom dancing lesson, I rolled it up and passed it to her through a knot hole in the fence . She put it into her handbag and said that she was off to perfect her tango. The next time I saw her she said how much her family had enjoyed my beautiful cake. She moved to Basingstoke.

I like the knots that have a snakes head at each end of them the best, and the ones with a jewelled eye are even better They’re not all snakes, some of them are dragons or just the end of the thread splayed out into a fan.

For my ginger cake, you can use brown or white flour, or a mixture of both, equal or unequal, it doesn’t matter. If you use all brown flour the texture will be different but it will still taste good. If anyone tells you any different, don’t you believe them.Break the eggs into a white china bowl and prick each yolk with a pin. As the yellow leaks out, take notice of the three different shades. Even if the eggs are all from the same hen, laid over three days, there will be a difference. Starting at the centre, pull in a little bit of each colour with the end of a long tined fork until they are well mixed together. I use an old one that Aunty Florence gave to me. I use it when I’m cutting roast beef as well. She was my mother’s sister and it goes deep into the flesh and has three tines instead of the usual four. Don’t forget to crush up the eggshell and sprinkle it around plants you don’t want to get attacked by slugs. The slugs don’t like crawling over them. The shells give nutritional to the earth although I’m not sure what it is. It might be calcium.

There is no shame in inventing your own Celtic knot, mythology is for everyone. Sometimes it can take two or three days to get the smallest curve to lean in the right direction. I always use a ball of parcel string plaited in firm lengths. Green garden twine makes a nice change.

Beat up the eggs until a whirlpool appears in the centre of the bowl. Don’t try for a maelstrom, an eddy will do. As long as there are little bubbles around the edge of it you will be fine. I have known people make a wish at this point but I see no sense in it.

Sift the flour from a great height and sing a sweet song to it as it falls into a separate bowl. This encourages it to hold the air and lighten the cake. I never sing hymns, I am not a believer and I would fear for the sponge. If there are flowers in blossom, open the windows.

Adornment is quite acceptable when making Celtic knots. Pearl beads and rubies can look truly astounding when viewed from a distance. Tiny mistletoe berries can be fashioned from candle wax. Embroidery threads can entwine them. Loosely stitched garlands are easy to remove.

Melt the butter over a gentle heat and stir in the sugar when it is truly glistening. As soon as you do, you will suffer a great disappointment, because the sugar will take up the butter for it’s own. Be patient, and soon the golden liquid will come back to you and it will pour from a spoon like the sweet thoughts of a woman watching her children as they play in a field of poppies. Introduce the ginger to the mixture a little at a time and breathe in. Let the mixture cool.

The length of the knot when untied, can quite easily reach the end of the bed and beyond. It is a sad sight. When it has lost all direction wind it up and think nothing more about it.

Pour the beaten eggs into the butter mixture and stir until it seems to grow heavier in your hand. Disturb the flour with a silver spoon and mix it into the other ingredients with care. Pour it into a waiting baking tin and carry it to the oven without disturbing the air. Do not be tempted to look into the oven while it is baking, it will be fine. When it is cooked, the kitchen will smell better than you have ever known. Leave the cake to cool slowly. When it is quite done, you can decorate it with white icing flavoured with lemon juice. Put the cake into your favourite tin and leave it in a quiet place for three days. A ginger cake decorated with Celtic knots made from icing, would be quite something to behold.

 

Reflection

I chose this short story because I think that it gives a good feel for the way I write. I try to write a world big enough to live in but small enough to show the quirkiness of my characters. I truly believe that there isn't one person on the planet who doesn't have a secret or a strange way of looking at life. I don't have to seek them out they just walk into my scripts. 

The idea for this piece arrived one sunny day when I was trying to embroider a celtic knot and was having the devil of a problem when it came to crossing one line of thread over another. I couldn't get the distinction between the curving threads that I was looking for and it struck me that writing was like that too. Each character needs to have space around them but has to be a distinctive part of the bigger picture at the same time. It's that definition between the characters that I have to nail and it isn't always easy.

I don't have any set way of writing, sometimes the words spill out onto the computer screen without too much trouble and sometimes I just sit and wonder what on earth I'm doing. It doesn't matter, it all works out eventually. If I'm in the middle of a script, then the characters tend to move in with me. I mentally sit them on my shoulder and spend a day or two finding out what they are really like. I have had some surprises, and sometimes this method has completely changed a story's plot. 

'Ginger Cake and Celtic Knots' weaves between two creative tasks, I added a sunny afternoon and the life of a gentle person quietly getting on with her life. It is like a recipe. Writing is just the same.

 

 

Publications

"Pie Day,"  published in Myslexia magazine. 
Mouse Ears, Bitch Lit (Crocus)
Ginger Cake and Celtic Knots, Hula Hoops and Slinkies (Crocus)
"A rat's love poem," Urban Love Poetry (AK Press)

 



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