ThursdayNext : www.jasperfforde.com
A discussion of all things Thursday !
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: Carla (---.cableinet.co.uk)
Date: December 02, 2002 10:05PM
<HTML>oh about poetry...
i'd have chosen a different Keats one:
Can death be sleep when Life is but a dream
and scenes of bliss as a phanton pass
the transient pleasures as a vision seem
and yet we think the greatest pain's to die
(i'm writing this from memory - i used it and translated it as a introduction in an essay for my "Creative Writing" course at uni)</HTML>
i'd have chosen a different Keats one:
Can death be sleep when Life is but a dream
and scenes of bliss as a phanton pass
the transient pleasures as a vision seem
and yet we think the greatest pain's to die
(i'm writing this from memory - i used it and translated it as a introduction in an essay for my "Creative Writing" course at uni)</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: December 02, 2002 10:31PM
<HTML>Not that bloody blasted Coleridge!!!!! Life's too bloody short and i wish the French revisionists had given the man from Porlock Weir a better timepiece to interupt him before he started, dammit!
And relax...
btw - no Seamus Heaney? Reading Beowulf out loud in the garden with a beer was the highlight of my summer. The neighbours appreciated it too, apparently.</HTML>
And relax...
btw - no Seamus Heaney? Reading Beowulf out loud in the garden with a beer was the highlight of my summer. The neighbours appreciated it too, apparently.</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: Jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 09:45AM
<HTML>No, no Seamus Heaney; a) he's still alive and very much in copyright, and b) he's never made much impression on me, for some reason. I have got Beowulf, and there's a page marker about a third of the way in as a memorial to where I got fed up with it.
As for that prize loon Mr. Coleridge, yes, I know it's meaningless dribble, but it makes a magnificent noise!</HTML>
As for that prize loon Mr. Coleridge, yes, I know it's meaningless dribble, but it makes a magnificent noise!</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: charles ronayne (---.liv.ac.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 11:27AM
<HTML>I find it disturbing that I have read more on your what not to read list than on your ten 'to read' books. It probably comes from the fact that I was until quite recently being weaned on the Narnia stories. I have to stand up for Hardy though, the man is a legend. only Aorris can create bigger coincidences than him. Or possibly Charlottle Bronte. Jane ending up at the Rivers' house was probably a bit unrealistic. Maybe she should carry around an entroposcope ...</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: Jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 11:34AM
<HTML>I was like many people put off Hardy by having to study him - Jude the bleeding Obscure, to be exact. The King of Coincidence is of course Dickens, although Posh Bronte does run him close (and is there any narrative necessity for Rivers to be Jane's cousin? Couldn't he just have taken her in out of Christian charity?).
The missing body on both lists is James Joyce; I had to study Ulysses as well, and I have never sorted out my feelings toward him or it; parts of it are brilliant, and parts of it are unbelievably awful. (Finnegan's Wake is entirely awful, and a sad lesson as what happens if grammarsites are allowed to breed unchecked).</HTML>
The missing body on both lists is James Joyce; I had to study Ulysses as well, and I have never sorted out my feelings toward him or it; parts of it are brilliant, and parts of it are unbelievably awful. (Finnegan's Wake is entirely awful, and a sad lesson as what happens if grammarsites are allowed to breed unchecked).</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: dave (---.addleshaw-booth.co.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 12:27PM
<HTML>Apparently Radio 4 are doing 'His Dark Materials' in the new year. Should be interesting. I lost the plot a bit midway through 'The Amber Spyglass'....
btw Jon, great short stories on your site. Inspired me to do more on mine, 'Monty and the Sigils of Power'...</HTML>
btw Jon, great short stories on your site. Inspired me to do more on mine, 'Monty and the Sigils of Power'...</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: Jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 01:00PM
<HTML>Would that be Monty as in Python, or as in Field Marshal, or some unrelated Monty?
I am currently working on Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Grail, a treat for all those Conan Doyle/King Arthur fans out there....</HTML>
I am currently working on Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Grail, a treat for all those Conan Doyle/King Arthur fans out there....</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: dave (---.addleshaw-booth.co.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 02:14PM
<HTML>Monty as in Edward Montacron, gentleman thief who gets embroiled in a struggle to find the 5 parts of Leonardo's perpetual motion machine, going up against the might of Cornelius Zenn, head of Zenn Industries, evil baddie type. All very silly in a james bond/clive cussler stylee.</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: Jon (---.abel.net.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 02:18PM
<HTML>Sounds promising .... write on, old boy, write on!</HTML>
Re: Shameless self-advertisement
Posted by: dave (---.addleshaw-booth.co.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 02:41PM
<HTML>I did a first go, which was ruthlessly ripped to pieces by my friend Pete, who is in the process of writing his own novel. I did a second draft, which was infinitely better. He offered the following advice.
1. take your time. My opening paragraph is now a page and half. It's gonna be a long story, take your time in telling it.
2. a best-selling novel in the same genre as your book is basically a blueprint on how to write a best-selling novel. He advised me to look at Cussler and how he stages scenes/ dialogue etc. Very informative. My dialogue was previously:
"blah", said Mr X. "blah blah", replied Monty
Looking at Cussler, he does it more like:
"So, the submarine has been following us for some time", said Dirk, his opaline green eyes looking out over the wind-whipped waves. He took a slug of his long-cold coffee, then lofted the empty mug high out over the grey ocean.
"It would appear so", replied Al. He picked up his own mug and hefted it after Dirk's, the splash coinciding exactly with the first, leaving only concentric ripples where they had landed.
3. make sure your character bios make sense. I had Monty's grandmother as a society jewel thief, married to an ex-miner turned international haulage magnate. Where would they have met? Unlikely pairing...
Anyhoo, enough guff. Chapter 1, page 1 is available for general perusal, if anyone wants (or is daft enough) to drop me a mail....</HTML>
1. take your time. My opening paragraph is now a page and half. It's gonna be a long story, take your time in telling it.
2. a best-selling novel in the same genre as your book is basically a blueprint on how to write a best-selling novel. He advised me to look at Cussler and how he stages scenes/ dialogue etc. Very informative. My dialogue was previously:
"blah", said Mr X. "blah blah", replied Monty
Looking at Cussler, he does it more like:
"So, the submarine has been following us for some time", said Dirk, his opaline green eyes looking out over the wind-whipped waves. He took a slug of his long-cold coffee, then lofted the empty mug high out over the grey ocean.
"It would appear so", replied Al. He picked up his own mug and hefted it after Dirk's, the splash coinciding exactly with the first, leaving only concentric ripples where they had landed.
3. make sure your character bios make sense. I had Monty's grandmother as a society jewel thief, married to an ex-miner turned international haulage magnate. Where would they have met? Unlikely pairing...
Anyhoo, enough guff. Chapter 1, page 1 is available for general perusal, if anyone wants (or is daft enough) to drop me a mail....</HTML>
Writing novels
Posted by: Sarah (---.vip.uk.com)
Date: December 03, 2002 08:21PM
<HTML>I'm writing one too. Not my first, but hopefully my first published (I'm an optimist!).
I was thinking the other day about a male friend who had better be nameless, who is about six weeks older than I am and the world's most reluctant virgin. This is by no means for want of trying, but from my own feminine point of view I can assure you, ffellow Fforumites, that he is not exactly the world's greatest catch. Then I started thinking about unicorns. As far as I know, you don't have to be young, beautiful or even female to end up with a unicorn. The only qualification is virginity.
So I had a character who is rather like my friend, landed him with a rather bossy lady unicorn who is trying to solve a transdimensional murder mystery and needs a human assistant to work in our reality, and threw in a lot of stuff about a minor English aristocrat called Lord Smallpiece of Oxtongue who is both dead and not dead at the same time (sort of like Schroedinger's cat), a mysterious Italian by the name of Guido Borlotti who turns out to come from an Escher print, and, oh yes, how could I forget, Merlin. Actually, Morwenna. The business about sleeping for thousands of years in some draughty cave is just a publicity stunt so he doesn't get bothered by a lot of people wanting spells and incantations doing. In fact Merlin reincarnates on a regular basis as his own son, but this time he got a bit careless and slipped a chromosome. Could happen to anyone. So he's turned up this time as his own _daughter_, and having been used to living in a male body for all those years, he's not too happy about it.
This is either going to be brilliant or dreadful. But I'm having fun writing it, anyway, and it makes a change from science fiction, which is great stuff to write but hopeless to get an agent for.
Anyone else out there writing a novel, then, apart from a certain very quiet person who happens to be the other "Blake's 7" fan on this Fforum? ;-)</HTML>
I was thinking the other day about a male friend who had better be nameless, who is about six weeks older than I am and the world's most reluctant virgin. This is by no means for want of trying, but from my own feminine point of view I can assure you, ffellow Fforumites, that he is not exactly the world's greatest catch. Then I started thinking about unicorns. As far as I know, you don't have to be young, beautiful or even female to end up with a unicorn. The only qualification is virginity.
So I had a character who is rather like my friend, landed him with a rather bossy lady unicorn who is trying to solve a transdimensional murder mystery and needs a human assistant to work in our reality, and threw in a lot of stuff about a minor English aristocrat called Lord Smallpiece of Oxtongue who is both dead and not dead at the same time (sort of like Schroedinger's cat), a mysterious Italian by the name of Guido Borlotti who turns out to come from an Escher print, and, oh yes, how could I forget, Merlin. Actually, Morwenna. The business about sleeping for thousands of years in some draughty cave is just a publicity stunt so he doesn't get bothered by a lot of people wanting spells and incantations doing. In fact Merlin reincarnates on a regular basis as his own son, but this time he got a bit careless and slipped a chromosome. Could happen to anyone. So he's turned up this time as his own _daughter_, and having been used to living in a male body for all those years, he's not too happy about it.
This is either going to be brilliant or dreadful. But I'm having fun writing it, anyway, and it makes a change from science fiction, which is great stuff to write but hopeless to get an agent for.
Anyone else out there writing a novel, then, apart from a certain very quiet person who happens to be the other "Blake's 7" fan on this Fforum? ;-)</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: Jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: December 03, 2002 08:58PM
<HTML>Everybody has at least one novel in them. Why people eat novels I don't know, but it keeps laxative manufacturers happy.
I'm not writing a novel, yet. I have other irons in the fire <I>haven't I, Ben?</I></HTML>
I'm not writing a novel, yet. I have other irons in the fire <I>haven't I, Ben?</I></HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 09:02PM
<HTML>Er, yes... I am working on it. Sporadically. I'm applying the Douglas Adams approach....</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: Jon (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: December 03, 2002 09:13PM
<HTML>Oh dear. If you wanna slip it over here I suddenly seem to have a lot of spare time on my hands.
Sorry I didn't say before, but Sarah's synopsis looks interesting - as did Dave's material he sent me. Talented bunch, aren't we?
(I am available for proof-reading at reasonable rates).</HTML>
Sorry I didn't say before, but Sarah's synopsis looks interesting - as did Dave's material he sent me. Talented bunch, aren't we?
(I am available for proof-reading at reasonable rates).</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 09:28PM
<HTML>I'm back on the case now - it's amazing how much more inclined to write about trains I am after a day at home without suffering the modern buggers. I'll bung a new copy over with the extra stuff by Saturday... I want <i>some</i> new stuff to show you...
Irons in the fire gives me an idea though...</HTML>
Irons in the fire gives me an idea though...</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: poetscientistdrinker (---.cache.pol.co.uk)
Date: December 03, 2002 09:41PM
<HTML>Open to the floor - what the hell has the same shape as an iron but has comic potential?</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: dave (212.158.104.---)
Date: December 04, 2002 09:02AM
<HTML>I like the sound of your novel Sarah, looking forward to reading it! Do us Fforumites get some kind of Nextian discount?</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: Rob (---.leeds.ac.uk)
Date: December 04, 2002 10:13AM
<HTML>I like the sound of the above novels.
I wrote a book once. Well a thesis actually, dull as ditch water.
'The Mass Flux Response of Premixed Flames to Sharp Pressure
Changes' (or some such)
Don't tell the powers that be but lots of that was a work of fiction !</HTML>
I wrote a book once. Well a thesis actually, dull as ditch water.
'The Mass Flux Response of Premixed Flames to Sharp Pressure
Changes' (or some such)
Don't tell the powers that be but lots of that was a work of fiction !</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: dave (212.158.104.---)
Date: December 04, 2002 10:26AM
<HTML>makes a handy doorstop though.</HTML>
Re: Writing novels
Posted by: Sarah (---.vip.uk.com)
Date: December 04, 2002 10:59AM
<HTML>Nextian discount? I hope so... but I need to get an agent first...
Drat you, Ben, I've spent three weeks stuck in Victorian Merthyr Tydfil looking for that iron substitute since last night, seriously confusing (and annoying) my great-great-grandfather, who happened to live there. We ended up having a major bust-up over politics. So _that's_ why he got fed up and went off to found Donetsk.
Sorry I got cut off last night, by the way. Even the Chrono-Guard can't always get computers to behave!
(PS The bit about my great-great-grandfather isn't total whimsy. His name was John Hughes, and he really did found Donetsk. There's still a hotel there named after him!)</HTML>
Drat you, Ben, I've spent three weeks stuck in Victorian Merthyr Tydfil looking for that iron substitute since last night, seriously confusing (and annoying) my great-great-grandfather, who happened to live there. We ended up having a major bust-up over politics. So _that's_ why he got fed up and went off to found Donetsk.
Sorry I got cut off last night, by the way. Even the Chrono-Guard can't always get computers to behave!
(PS The bit about my great-great-grandfather isn't total whimsy. His name was John Hughes, and he really did found Donetsk. There's still a hotel there named after him!)</HTML>
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