The good morning, good night thread

[Pharosian]

I just looked up Ramsey Campbell in Wikipedia, and had to think of delboy when I read the following:

At the suggestion of August Derleth, he rewrote many of his earliest stories, which he had originally set in the Massachusetts locales of Arkham, Dunwich and Innsmouth, and relocated them to English settings in and around the fictional Gloucestershire city of Brichester, near the River Severn, creating his own Severn Valley milieu for Lovecraftian horrors.

This speaks to the question raised about how to create a fictional city within a real geographical area... thought it might help.

[delboy]

Cool! Thanks for that, Pharosian. I have a ton of Ransey Campbell stuff in the garage - novels and books of short stories. I must dig a few out and see how he fared at creating a new city down these parts. At the moment I've elected to use real settings for my story, albeit with a few name changes. It takes away one mental problem for the first draft. Once everything's down on paper I can always change my mind.

Regards,
Derek

[Rev. Austin]

Well another week starts, and I really, really need to learn to stop starting a story then move onto another one...still need to properly finish the circus one, and Echoes... and etc etc etc

Also wonder if it's a good or bad thing that coming online to do story research often results in reading other sites that have nothing to do with my initial research but are still good for something else...

Rev. Austin - AWAY!

[delboy]

Yeah, that non-finishing stories used to be a major issue of mine, too. I have hundreds of fragments and half completed stories and novels that it's not funny. Some of them could be good, too. Luckily these days I seem to be getting better at maintaining my focus on a single piece through to completion... of the first draft. I now need to work on extending that commitment to redrafts and submissions. Those are now my weak areas (aside, from the actual wriiting and story telling).

Today was the first time in several months that I've worked on a piece other than the main WiP. I just wanted to get something ready for the April Session.

Derek

[Rev. Austin]

I've got about five stories I'd like to use but I doubt any of them will be ready on time to choose from so I'll probably end up putting up another older story, but the good news is I really feel like I'm learning so I can look at older pieces and now see what needs changing, a lot easier than say, three months ago.  Soon I won't need the crit group at all hahaha no of course I will.  OR WILL I?  No, I will.

[Rev. Austin]

Well howsaboutthatthen?  I managed to initiate some self-discipline today and not only finished a story I started just two days ago, but it's going to appear in the crit group and join the long list of, yes you guessed it, time travel stories!  Woop!

[Geoff_N]

I like writing time travel stories, and reading them. There's always an aspect of time no one has covered that's worth exploring. Best to keep away from the too-obvious paradox. It's often handy to have an unpublished time travel story on your memory stick cos every year some publisher or other compiles a new antho just based on time travel. I had one published in 2006 at Reality Complex. I played with the notion of time travelling - ie time is doing the travelling, not people travelling in time. Fun.

[Rev. Austin]

I've initiated a paradox in mine  but hopefully it's a bit different.  I've wrote it for that Permuted Press sub call but I'm not sure if it's gritty enough...I guess we'll soon see!

In other news, I've put my name down to join in on a collaborative zombie novel with a bunch of people from Library of the Living Dead, so that's quite exciting!

[Caz]

And I'm working on a time travel story too. They're just like buses really.

[Ed]

Ghhhhhoddddd I'm bored! Typical, really. I'm sitting here, surrounded by all the things I should be doing, with the rain hammering against the window, feeling sketchy and tired, when I know I should get on and use the time productively, because I get very little free time. Right now I'm wasting it.

[delboy]

It never feels good to waste time, but sometimes doing nothing is cool - a recharging of the batteries. Having said that, this morning I had a lie-in until just before eight, then  coffee and toast whilst watching a programme I'd taped earlier in the week (The Man Who Cycled The Americas), critted a story whilst looking outside at the sunshine. Eventually, I thought sod this, I'm going for a ride. By the time I got out there the sun was gone and it was pi££ing down. Twas very windy and now I'm very wet. But I feel good for having done it.

Not sure what this afternoon holds. The dog keeps looking at me in that "How about my walk?" way, and I need to do a bit of work on my WiP. But right now...I'm doing nothing as well.

Del

[Geoff_N]

This morning we drove to Nottingham to see granddaughter, son and his fiancée. But while there I arranged to meet up with a cafe doom member, Rev Austin,  whose girlfriend lives near my son. Also arranged for another writer to be there. He's Leigh Brown, a fellow critique group member of the British Science Fiction Association. He's also on CD. So although we'd have love to have attended EasterCon at Heathrow Airport this weekend, we couldn't go there for various reasons and enjoyed a private mini-con in a Nottingham suburb Tesco Cafe instead! Haha. Both Rev Austin and Leigh are only as old as my son - made me feel young again. Thanks Rev for a stimulating chat. Those couple of hours flew by. I liked your girlfriend too – good that she has patience.

Back with my son's family I went to Eastwood, just north of Derby, to visit the DH Lawrence Heritage centre. I thought ummm, rather too grown up for my son's fiancée's little girl only just 4. But in fact she enjoyed skipping through the house DHL was born in - preserved as a Victorian home. A real aspidistra in the front room, tin baths, etc. She was highly impressed by the digital alarm clock - actually a digital temp and humidity sensor! Also to the heritage centre, which had a mock-up Victorian school. We sat at the desks and used chalk and slates. The DHL house had hidden yellow chicks, which if a child found them all, they were rewarded with a mini chocolate egg on the way out. They wouldn't let me have mine.

Geoff

[Ed]

Ah, cool - I'm glad you all managed to meet up and have a chat. Maybe one day we can all make it to the same place at the same time

[Caz]

Having a good Easter weekend so far down her in the sunny/rainy south-east of England. So far I've watch a tv show about the special effects that the British and French film makers used in the early silent film era. Some great old footage in that one. I finished Joe Hill's 'Heart-Shaped Box,' and a fine story it is. Worked out how to make the time travel aspect of the story I'm writing work. Well, I think I have, tricky old game this time stream stuff. And I played pool.
Now I'm not one to boast, but if anyone's interested in the final score of this epic battle here it is,

[blink]Caz: 5[/blink]

Woody: 1

Good game my friend.
   

[Rev. Austin]

It's been a good weekend - it was ace meeting Geoff and Leigh - and then (oh no! I said it!) on the train back home this afternoon some chap interrupted my reading Exit, Pursued by a Bee  to offer me a can of stella!  Thankfully he wasn't some drunk nutter just a real friendly chap, and he told me loads of little stories about his life!  Then got back checked my emails and found out that Fubard Noir antho's hit the skids - here's the deal: http://bucketoguts.wordpress.com/foetus-fatale-fubard-noir/ (I'll also post the details in the short story section)...