The good morning, good night thread

[Ed]

Very cool, Geoff

Del - glad you're enjoying your writing time. If I had brought my own comp here I'd be banging out the words over the next few days. My wife and kids are pool and sun worshipping in this sweltering 30C heat, which really isn't my scene at all. I've read most of World War Z and don't feel like reading any more (of anything) but I do feel like writing somthing.

Went to Pompei yesterday, but ye gads it was hot there and packed with tourists. To my and the kids' disappointment, there weren't any bodies turned to stone there. I get the impression all the artefacts are in a museum in Naples Which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Oh well - better hurry up and log off - my internet card is just about to run out

[delboy]

I know what you're saying, Del, but please don't wish any more rain on us! My cycling and hiking muscles have flabbied

I know what you mean. I've been very lax this last month and am really noticing it - a general lethargy more than anything. The rain hasn't helped, admittedly. But I have just had a quick ten miles on the bike in between storms this evening. Must get back into it... One of those "week-off resolutions" that one make when one has time to sit back and really consider how one's life is going.

Derek

[Geoff_N]

I managed a slow 30 miles cycle ride in the sunshine today.  (we need a cycling smiley). I met three other local cyclists I haven't seen for weeks, and a spitfire flew over me about 200 feet up! I suppose it was a replica but even so I had to  stop and watch it head for Harwarden airport.

Off for a long weeked in the car  to visit relatives and pick up books for FantasyCon in Nottingham next month.

I'll have Internet withdrawal symptoms by Saturday...

Geoff

[Ed]

We're on our last couple of days here in Roma, and as per usual I'm beginning to capisce da lingo just before I return home. Today is a national holiday, so we are beginning to regret bringing travelers cheques, because all the banks are shut for the holiday, and will be tomorrow too, because it's saturday Had to go to the airport to change a few up, which cost us a 10% commission Ouch.

Still, nevermind. We'll be home by sunday night and wishing we were still here. I love driving here - they're all lunatics. That's something I'll miss, along with the good food and warm weather.

[Ed]

We heard the pilot announce that we'd soon be starting our descent into Bristol. Shortly thereafter it suddenly got dark, and I looked out from the window to the ground below and would not have been in the least bit surprised to see bands of marauding orcs circling an all seeing eye. It's difficult to believe one could go from 30C and dauntless sunshine to 15C and pouring rain in just two and a half hours. There's progress for you, eh?

Still, home now, and looking forward to sinking into my own comfortable bed tonight.

[SharonBell]

Welcome home, Ed!

[Ed]

Thanks, Sharon I get the impression it might be the last holiday we get for a while. The news reports are full of the word 'recession', which is likely to impact on my work for at least the next couple of years May well be time for a change of direction, I think.

[T.L. Kenworth]

Today, gotta get the bios done for my characters for book 2 in a series.     I like to sort of interview my characters so I get to know them a little better.

[Ed]

Funny how they take on a life of their own, isn't it?

Getting more and more into our (limited) self sufficiency tip, here. Tonight's meal is a fish chowder made almost completely with home grown produce - the spuds, onions, peas, parsley and the runner beans are all from our own garden. For pud we've got our own strawberries slathered in double cream from the farm shop down the road from us, so it's nearly all locally produced and very tasty. Dunno how the figures stack up on whether we've saved any money or spent more, but that's not the point, really. Not when it all tastes so good and you know nothing has been sprayed on it except water. Love it. We've also got pumpkins and melons coming along nicely. Tomatoes and huge cucumbers, plums, apples. My makeshift timed watering arrangement gubbins worked a treat, although I think the outdoors stuff was probably getting enough h2o on it's own anyway. It kept everything going in the greenhouse, though.

[Ed]

I really ought to get on with some work, but I can't seem to get myself moving. I've got several jobs that need pricing, but every time I pick up the paperwork a feeling of dread washes over me and I find some excuse not to do it. I probably need some exercise to get the blood circulating again after a week and a half of stagnation. Funny, while on hoilday I was twitchy, feeling as if I should be doing something, unable to just lie back and relax. Now I'm back, all I want to do is lie back and relax. Such is life, huh?

[Geoff_N]

Today, gotta get the bios done for my characters for book 2 in a series.     I like to sort of interview my characters so I get to know them a little better.

It's fascinating how our fictional characters develop a life of their own, and sometimes different to the future we originally map for them. Naming them is an interesting occupation too. While considering a scifi short story for our Escape Velocity mag I've had to ask the writer to consider changing the man's name from Bobby. Maybe it is because I'm a Brit but Bobby doesn't inspire me with a strong and rugged personality the writer tried to portray.

Related to names, I was chuffed to bits today because a major national newspaper's (The Guardian) scifi book reviewer now has a copy of my Exit, Pursued by a Bee. Normally the nationals only review hardback books from major publishers but he said his load was quiet at present and will give it a read. Then I wondered if I'd used the reviewer's name for a vile character! I admit to avoiding my own family's names in my writing. Do other writers not only go positively for strong names but deliberately avoid others such as friends and family?

Geoff

[Pharosian]

While considering a scifi short story for our Escape Velocity mag I've had to ask the writer to consider changing the man's name from Bobby. Maybe it is because I'm a Brit but Bobby doesn't inspire me with a strong and rugged personality the writer tried to portray.

If I may be so bold, I don't think it has so much to do with being a Brit as the fact that the name Bobby is a diminutive of Robert, just as Johnny and Tommy are diminutives of John/Jonathan and Thomas. They're names typically applied to growing lads to distinguish them from their fathers, and don't carry the gravitas of the "adult" names.

Related to names, I was chuffed to bits today because a major national newspaper's (The Guardian) scifi book reviewer now has a copy of my Exit, Pursued by a Bee. Normally the nationals only review hardback books from major publishers but he said his load was quiet at present and will give it a read. Then I wondered if I'd used the reviewer's name for a vile character! I admit to avoiding my own family's names in my writing. Do other writers not only go positively for strong names but deliberately avoid others such as friends and family?

Geoff

Congratulations!

Yes, I tend to avoid using family names, too. How does one explain to one's mother that there was really no connection between her and the evil bitch in the story who killed off her lover(s)? or the victim who came to a grisly end?   

[Ed]

It's looking like Exit Pursued by a Bee might be your breakthrough novel, Geoff - fingers crossed for a glowing review from the man at the Guardian

Re the names thing, I don't think I've ever named a character after a family member or a friend. Not conciously anyway. I used to have a bad habit of naming all my male characters 'Steve', at least until I'd found a more satisfactory bespoke name for them. Now I usually begin with a character in mind, and once I've thought about him for a while a name comes to me that would suit them. Likewise with secondary characters. I don't think I've written a female lead character for quite a while. Probably because I usually write a very close third person, and I don't think I can carry off a convincing female voice. Ahem... *cough*... (up an octave or few) ... ahem... no.

[elay2433]

Do other writers not only go positively for strong names but deliberately avoid others such as friends and family?

For me the name doesn't need to necessarily be a strong one so much as it needs to be a real sounding one. Just has to ring true to my inner ear as I'm telling myself the story. Because of that I think I've nearly exhausted my supply of family member's names. Conversely, if I've "borrowed" character traits, or anectotes from a family member, I make sure their name appears nowhere in the story. Afterall, a name is just a name, but the way my brother Ryan - er... I mean Jesse used to slurp his cereal at the breakfast table until it annoyed the hell out of the rest of us is a little personal.

-elay

[T.L. Kenworth]

It's saturday and just finished 4 chapter critique for cp.     i have to do some revisions-2 chapters and a preface and then flesh out chapters 3 &4.   also check out more agents to send out my first book to.    a full plate.  lol