So... yer writin' a story, eh?

Hi Carolyn,


First of all I'm glad to hear that you've negotiated some kind of cease-fire arrangement with the spiders and snakes in your kingdom. Are sheds and garages considered part of the inside or the outside when it comes to the spiders? Also.
 " Bull snakes " ??  That sounds absolutely jungle-ish.

 I must admit that I can't even conceive of touching a snake without convulsing! We had a superficially domesticated barn cat named Dickens who ruled the roost in these here parts for almost 18 years. He was completely democratic when it came to predatory activity.  Snakes of all persuasions were as much fair game as anything else - I truly miss Dick!

 

Well, Carolyn, your Lunar Lunacy blog struck a dusty but primary chord with me - one that I hadn't played for about four months. The image of the author scribbling away in a speeding car ( I'm sure you weren't exceeding the limit ! ) was really vivid, for some reason.  It prompted me to go back and visit that stillborn story that I started longer ago than I care to admit. I really can't pin my reluctance to return to it prior to that to one thing. I'd reached a wall of sorts, to be sure. However, it seems to be more of a collection of small things than one glaring impasse that has put my story in limbo for now.

 

 

 

 Something we'd spoken about a few months back relating to copyright, etc., was probably the biggest single factor. The set-up of the story involves the use of short ( i.e. two lines or less ) hunks of lyrics from a number of classic rock songs  ( yeah, it has a lot to do with rock music - are you surprised ? ) in a fundamental manner. They`re not offhand references like those in a couple of Captain Jackson`s episodes.   The heroes quest that I want to set up can`t be done any other way than  by having the main character exposed to small snippets of these songs.  Given what I'm trying to do I can't see any other way to achieve it.

Oddly enough, those questions for Wormhole writers that  I forwarded to you awhile back came fundamentally from personal experience. I haven't lost contact with my characters at all - if anything I've had them appear on more than one occasion with the pointed question - " What the *&%$# are we doing?? " attached.
 

 

I simply didn't have a straight, detailed and author-itative  answer to give back at those times.
 

 

Okay, the confessional is hereby closed.
 

 

Let us slither over to the riddle cave, now. My last offering was " shingle " Perhaps this is a minor Canadianism or something not widely used in your parts but when professionals - particularly doctors or lawyers, began their private practises the process was sometimes referred to as hanging out a shingle. Truth be told, Carolyn, I thought " unmarried status pronounced by  drunkard " was gonna be the dead give away for this one. 

 

Your last riddle, I think, is lip-balm or lipstick ( or maybe a combo of the two?? I'm not a user of lip stuff of any kind so I'm sorta just giving it lip-service here!! )

 

I offer this one this time:

Brings out the carnivorous side of robins

Sometimes sought by prayer but

Not invited to the picnic

 

 

 Also, in a surprisingly serendipitous manner, two interviews with Harlan Ellison, whose two collections of TV and social comment columns from the Los Angeles Free Press in the  late sixties I am going back to revisit , appeared online just recently. It will be cool to see if he`s still singing any of the same tunes.

 

 

 

Enjoy your break.

 

Don

 

 

 

Fig. 2 sourced from Google Images - tvtropes.org