Re: Forum Fiction - Merry Xmas!

[gregrowlerson]

What a grand collection!!

And of course we need a polar bear. LW, it's a must

The bees around the honey pot are terrific, the hungry hippo is rather huggable, touche on those rabbits, the squirrel nuzzling a nut is FURRtastic, and yes, we do need a frog too!

Oh, and you know how I feel about unicorns

Though I'm not sure how I feel about leopards that look like cheetahs

[Laikipia]

cheetah/leopards okay so we all on that one but it's kind of nice anyway!

I think I got a bit carried away looking through those again anyway it was fun looking.

Lai

[gregrowlerson]

"That's okay Mr Leopard (cough cough cheetah!), we still accept you into the WAA with open arms."

And sharpened claws

[gregrowlerson]

CHAPTER FOUR - A LOVER OF KNOTS


The place appeared to be sizeable indeedy. It certainly wasn’t Berlin, Vancouver or Melbourne, though nor was it Yea. Summer was so immersed in it all that it was a good twenty minutes before she realised something that would normally have been obvious.

She was walking around without shoes. They must have come off during her trampolining exhibition. But that she hadn’t noticed it earlier meant that it didn’t matter….too much. She could walk au natural without discomfort, but still, she was a girl, so she needed shoes. And it wasn’t just the shoes per say that she was interested in.

For a while she went around in circles, and after all she’d been through, who could blame her. We need direction sometimes, and again she saw it. The sparrow. It appeared to look at her and give a trusting smile that charmed – not that Summer required any extra incentive to trust the creature who had saved her life – before flying away, but slowly. Summer followed without hesitation.

The bird took Yea’s finest along some major roads and into a shopping precinct. A little further inwards and there was a mini shopping centre of sorts. The sparrow winked at Summer and the girl knew to enter, even with the bird flying once again out of sight. The shopping centre itself was nothing to speak of – so we won’t speak of it. But upon entering Summer immediately focused her blue eyes on the Adidas sign. Summer wasn’t particularly interested in sport – unlike all those boyish boys in her class – as there didn’t seem much point to it. However, Summer, like most girls, did have quite a fondness for shoes.

But it’s not like what you think. Summer was hardly ever stereotypical of course.

It must have been when Summer was about four, when her mother first attempted to teach her about shoes. Well not shoes as such, but the tying of them up. And it was this that Summer – curious playful girl that she was – found rather bemusing. Please note that Summer was always at least double her real age in terms of English speak. Unlike this not so prim and proper author.

“Beautiful eyes on your shoe, look down here darling,” said mum encouragingly. “I would like you to tie this knot.” She pointed at her own done up shoe as an example of the finished product.

Summer began to laugh. At first the sides of her lips curled upwards, then her shoulders bobbled around, and before long, she was cackling with laughter. Healthy childish laughter.

“But what is it my dear? What is so funny about shoes?”

“Not the shoes,” replied Summer. “It’s the knot. You say that you would like me to tie this,” she paused. “Not! So which is it mother? To tie, or not to tie?”

And she began laughing again.

“I really would like you to tie that knot,” her mum again repeated.

“So you do not want me to tie that then?” commented the giggling girl, giving a healthy emphasis on when she said not and that of course.

Mum knew how much her daughter loved to play around with words and challenge her mind, so she continued along with this game, even though she knew what Summer was getting at.

“It’s not not as in the opposite of can,” she said with a smirk, “but the knot with the silent k.”

Again Summer was super dooper quick out of the blocks.

“Would you like to come into my itchen, because I am just soooo itchin to do some cookie cooking,” she said firmly, somehow managing to keep a straight face this time around. “It’s located inside my ing, which is oh so totally royal. And while you’re at it, you may as well meet my friend ate, and her pals Seven and Nine.”

Now it was mum who could not control herself. But after a while she managed to whisper, “Okay my little one. It’s really time I think for you to tie the knot.”

“Aren’t I little young for marriage,” the anything but snailish Summer shot back.”

And then, after all of that, she did actually tie a knot, and then another and another and another and another. Tying knots became a favourite pastime – in fact it was a kinda challenge at times to see how many she could do on the one shoe. And the knot numbers could depend on her mood. When she wanted to be as free as a bird she would tie just one – this led to a few unfortunate clumsy accidents by the way – but if she went outside in the rain she would tie as many as possible. The shoe would give off the appearance of a bow, and thus Summer coined the term of a rainbow for her tied up shoe.

Summer had an infinite amount of knot tying co-ordination.

As a result of her love of knots, Summer never took to the stereotypical shoes that girls usually grow up to like, because those didn’t have any. They just weren’t as fun to Summer. She would therefore cringe when she wandered into shoe stores with her friends, who would point and stare and seemingly worship these objects that didn’t even have a face. Because as Summer always said, “the face of a shoe is it’s lace, and when done up it is like the shoe has had a haircut or a makeover. So a shoe without a lace is a shoe without a face. And what sort of a character is that?”

So as you might gather, Summer did care for hair and makeup. She wasn’t a total tomboy after all.

But the shoes she gathered – yes, she did have quite a collection – were actually rather boyish ones, though with a little more style. They came in a range of colours, and often she would purchase laces separately, because she liked to try out different colour combinations with the shoes. Her footware also tended to be rather supportive, for she was a very passionate hiker as we all know. And her hikes would often take her into the hills, and one doesn’t particularly want to be stuck in high heels when in climbing mode.

And now that we’ve tied up the loose ends of that tale, it’s time to go back to our story.

Summer was excited to have seen something vaguely familiar in this town of apparent difference. And so she traipsed into Adidas with a feeling of comfort – even though in wider terms she hadn’t the foggiest of where she was.

Though mainly a hiker, Summer did also enjoy the odd spot of jogging – in fact she had been a rather competitive little girl during her first two years of school before the pointlessness of it all came into view - and since Adidas was a sports store, she figured that this was the place to buy some rubber shoes. Ones that were lite. Ones that felt good. Really good.

Being located in a shopping centre, the area was beautiful people plentiful. And Summer was actually most definitely one of those.

And she was not long in the store, when a man suddenly approached her. Did she ask for this in any way? Nope. But he arrived on the scene regardless, with somewhat of a strange request.

"Hey slender girl. Want to go for a run with me?"

"What, like now?" Summer was a little taken aback.

"Yeah of course," he replied matter of factly. "Why not?"

“Well it's kind of short notice,” she replied snailishly, fumbling around for words. "And well, I'm not really ready. Not at all actually. Sorry."

The man appeared a little bit disappointed.

"Oh…okay then. But just to let you know; I'm ready whenever you are."

"Wow, you're keen! But I'm just here to shop for some shoes."

The lover of knots carried on with her plans, but it was difficult for her to even get a chance to try some on. In fact this really was impossible. For she just kept getting hassled by men wanting to go for a run with her. Initially she was quite flattered and all, but after a while it became quite tiresome. So she decided to approach the front counter. Summer tried her damndest to explain her story to the woman.

"Excuse me madam, but I'm constantly being approached around here. I’m just here to try on shoes. What gives?"

"Well I'm afraid that telling that to male runners can often be like talking to a brick wall. They just really love their running. They always seem up for it. Personally I don't really get it, but that's the way it is."

The girl returned to her task at hand, but sure enough, it wasn't long before she was approached again. This time it was the original man.

"I'm sorry to intrude," he whispered, "but I would very much like to go running with you. I am so sure that it would be really nice. Come on. Why don't you give it a try?"

Summer finally snapped like a crocodile Goddess. "Bloody hell! Can't you see that I'm not interested? I mean, you look like a nice runner and all, but geez, I've just eaten and haven't even stretched. Besides, I'm not even dressed for the occasion. Plus I don't even know if I feel like doing it."

"How could you not feel like doing it?" came the confused reply. "I absolutely love it. I want to have a run all the time."

The girl stared at him with daggers. "Well why don't you try to see it from anothers perspective!"

The boy went silent and the girl wondered if she had over reacted.

She then decided to at least try to see things from his perspective.

"Are you training for a 200 metres race?" she asked the boy quietly, who was now looking down at the floor.

"No," he whispered meekly.

"Or how about a three k then?" asked Summer more upbeatly.

He now looked at her again. "No I am not, but thanks for asking."

"So it's a marathon then is it?" persisted the girl. "You’re a marathony boy,” she said in a childish breezy manner. “Geez, you're keen."

"No," repeated the boy. "I'm not training for anything at all."

Now our star looked extremely perplexed. She took a few breaths and gathered her thoughts together.

"So you don't require a reason; an actual reason - to want to run a lot?"

"Exactly."

"That's weird."

“No, you're weird.”

"Well we probably both are."

Both of them now broke into smirks and the tension eased.

It's still a bit hard for me to understand," continued Summer. "I ran personal bests that I was satisfied with, especially my best run for 444 metres. That's my baby you know."

"So what do you mean exactly?" the boy asked. He looked like he’d never heard of a 444 metre race before. Boy did he need to get out and open his eyes.

"Well I had reason to run then you see. Reason to do all of the things that would get me in the right mood to go for a run. Yes, it is still kind of fun, but well, without reason I can't be bothered getting my pants off, if you know what I mean."

"I think I do," he replied. "We are just different that's all. It's no biggie. Like even now, after all this discussion, I still want to run with you."

"Oh really!" The girl bursted into hysterics. "You, my friend, have a serious problem!"

"So we are friends then? I suppose that's...okay."

There was a brief pause.

"Uum, well, I'd better let you get going then," he said casually. "I hope that you find your perfect fit." He looked down at her bare feet. After all this time he’d only noticed them now, despite being a running enthusiast.

"Yeah, like Cinderella," Summer joked, “though as you can see, I shall not be too fussy!”

And off he wandered, to look for some shoes presumably.

There had been so many distractions that Summer had still yet to sample a pair of shoes. Now in one knot mode – free as a bird, remember – she relished the opportunity, yelling “yaaay” as she made her first footware selection.

But there was a problem. At this moment she could hardly have been anymore anti Cinderella. For the shoe was far too small.

She looked at the size again, and then again she tried to place her foot inside it – only this time she tried the right instead of the left; well, you just never know. But her foot looked like it belonged to the BFG in comparison.

So it was understandable, that given such a moment of ridiculous duress, that Summer would break down and sob. I dare say that you would have done so too, if placed in this same scenario. Summer quickly felt like a freak, and didn’t in the least feel like being social. She continued to sit and cry, wishing that a giant hole would swallow her up. “Boy, would that spiders web come in handy right now,” she thought to herself.

But suddenly on the scene arrived the woman from the front counter – she must have been doing some bean stalking.

And she was simply there for her. There for Summer. In this time of need she just put an arm around her shoulder and managed to get her to calm down. And then some sense was able to be made from this massively confusing situation.

“I’m a four,” Summer whimpered. “But look. My foot gobbles this shoe up.”

Which was rather appropriate, since she was now an eight.

“How can my foot be soooo big?! I’m only a little girl.”

“You look more to me like a beautiful young lady,” said the counter woman in a most serious tone. “Why, you should really be a model you know. And models can probably be taken to really exciting locations.”

“Possibly,” Summer shot back with a sign of a smirk.

“Now stand up my dear, and come have a look at yourself in this mirror. Then you will see that you are the fairest of them all.”

And to Summer’s astonishment she was. Oh yes indeedy. She looked like a princess; one who would be fit for any prince, like Arwen was for Aragon. And at a time like this there was only one thingy for one to do. Faint. She fell to her right, nestling softly into the confines of the womans neck.

[Laikipia]

I love chapter 4 very clever and very quirky and Summer is still as Sharp as ever.

I'm going to read this again later and probably start right at the beginning again tomorrow, good Sunday reading.

Thanks for sharing Chapter 4.

Lai

[littlewid]

Lai & Gr, I have added practically all Lai's smilies to the forum for you, you can find them in the animals smilies. Some of them, like the squirrel didn't work, it came out as a still picture so I didn't post that one. We are now full in the animal section so I posted the beautiful bees in the general section so they didn't get left out.
I hope you are both happy with these and if you find anymore that you want adding to the general, occassions/hols etc then please find them and either post them on here or PM me with them and I will add them for you. I didn't post your plain pictures GR as they are not emoticons so they don't work but if you cn find a smilie of a Jack Russell we can surely add a little Bellaroo somewhere
Happy posting you two
littlewid-x-

[gregrowlerson]

Thanks for the kudos again Mrs Kipia

Yep, Summer as always, is as sharp as a tack.

Chapter four was one of the earliest properly organised chapters of my book. I think that it has barely had any alterations for a very long time, but it still holds its own as one of my best sections.

Summer really carries my book for a long time until the other characters make their entrance. Initially I felt that there were two main characters (Summer & Weggy), but it really is Summer's story, and if I had to group characters in sections of importance than Weggy would be on the second line with a number of other (cookie) characters!

LW, we love your work with the smileys. It is greatly appreciated and we will be sure to use Lai's new suggested creatures often. I can see and getting a lot of use!

Yes a little Bellaroo (or Bellawoo as I call her) would still be pretty good. I will see if I can find anything smileyesque to represent Bella. And for major animals still missing I think there is maybe just the hyena? You mention that the animal section is now full, but since this is an animal forum (and since there is a lot of smiley room elsewhere) maybe there could be two animal smiley sections? You have a baby section; perhaps this could be for baby/youthful animal smileys (Simba could be moved there for starters!)?

Anyhoo I am ting too much again!

[littlewid]

You are not too much GR, I was in fact thinking of getting rid of the baby section and adding a second animal one myself, I will look into that one tomorrow for you and I too will keep searching for a Bellawoo smilie for you as well.

littlewid-x-

[Laikipia]

Thanks a million Littlewid, much appreciated, and it's lovely to add and change the emoticons but I am sure it is a pain for you, so we are Littlewid for taking the time for us.

Good to know that Summer is top character as I am relating to her and like her style, so am much looking forward to extra chapter as and when. And when I've a bit of peace and quiet here and good read of all from the very beginning of this thread.

Mrs Kipia

[gregrowlerson]

Well I'm glad that you like Summer, as many of the other characters are kinda like her too! An issue with the book is possibly that my individual characters don't come across as individual enough, as far as their conversational style goes, though as far as the main characters go, here is an attempt to list them in order of most childishness:

Breezyweezy
Summer
Weggy
Universitycorn
Kristina
Daniel & Jack
Unicorny
Sam

Maybe I am forgetting some other characters, or else they are just more minor ones.

You have only been introduced to two of the above, so you have heaps of character introductions to look forward to!

And many 's deserved for you LW

G R
aka

[Laikipia]

so we have some to look forward to, that's great news.

I like the sound of Universitycorn and of course Unicorny this will allow plenty of scope for which I am loving.

Lai

[gregrowlerson]

Yes, quite a lot of unicorn conversation indeedy

GR

[gregrowlerson]

CHAPTER FIVE - BURNER OF RED RUBBER


A strange thingy happened during this ‘action’ scene. A balding man with a gregarious and kind nature took such an interest in this event that he produced a camera and took a photo of the two women.

“I beg your pardon, but do you mind?” said the shoe saleswoman sternly. “This girl has just fainted. And you’re taking happy snaps?”

“Oh, most of us have fainted at one time or another,” he said with wisdom, “and looks see here, she’s coming too.”

And indeed she was. In fact our Summer wasn’t even particularly perturbed; she was after all a fainting expert by now. A brief rubbing of her eyes and she was wide eyed again. “I am rather…pretty,” she choked out aloud in astonishment. And no woman is ever totally happy with their look, as we all know, but it’s fair to say that Summer was pretty happy with hers. Now she looked more so at the stranger. “And who might you be my good chap?”

“Foxrobin’s the name, reporting’s my game,” sprouted Foxrobin with a pleasant pride.

“He just took our picture,” informed the saleswoman.

Summer began to twirl her fingers through her hair playfully whilst pulling off a series of pouts. “Come on, get your camera back out. I’m modelling you see!”

“Oh no! I am not one of those photographers who primarily take’s shots of the female physique; lucky buggers though they are. Rather I am a writer. I specialise in analysing social quirks and changes that appear to be taking place in the ways with which we go about our daily lives. And I believe that I have an excellent slant to put on your little incident here.”

“Me? You wish to write about me?” Summer again spoke aloud but more to herself. She was physically beautiful and worthwhile enough to be the centre of a story. It was a lot to take in.

“Of course. It’s not every day that someone faints in a shoe store.”

“It’s very flattering all the same.”

“Well, I’d better be off. I have a story to write, and as the old adage goes, time is of the essence.”

“Thanks. Really,” uttered Summer with gratitude. “Thanks heapsy. The idea of someone writing about me makes me smile.”

“If I can make somebody smile, my day has been worthwhile.” And with that he was off.

The other funny thing was, was that once Summer came too, and once her initial encounter with Foxrobin had ended, her focus immediately returned to her purchase of shoes, or “my soleys” as she called them. And the decision was a rather quick one now. She found herself walking back to the counter – with a rather relieved shop keeper in tow – with a pair of red rubbers. Perfect for any weather conditions.

She got her card out and then immediately said, “Pin please madam. I’ve never been a signature girly myself. Cause my signature is going to be worth soooo much money one day, when I’m famous. And yaaay to that!”

“What is this?” the woman asked, obviously a bit thrown out by what the girl had handed her. “Viser.” She said it slowly; extremely snailishly indeedy, and pronounced it like she wanted to take aim at something.

“It’s a Visa” declared Summer, as if it was as common as oxygen. “Do you mean to say that your Adidas store does not take Visa?”

“Never heard of the bloody thing! Do you have any cash?”

“Uum. Eer.” Summer sighed despondently and laid her head on the counter. Her arms residing outstretched in front of her.

“Oh what do we have here?” stammered the store woman, suddenly excited by something. “I have never seen such a beautiful antique ring. Why, this must be at least one hundred years old!”

“This? You like this?” asked Summer, now once again upright. Again she was totally taken aback by the circumstances that engulfed her. She did indeed wear a ring; in fact it was the only one she could get her hands on, not that she cared greatly for it. Well, she cared for the sentiment as it was a gift from her mother on her eleventh birthday – you’ll soon be needing it to ward off unwanted admirers she partly joked – but not being much of a girlish girl, she wasn’t really into rings. And this one couldn’t have been worth much of anything on the street. Even her mum had acknowledged to not spending too much on it – Summer had been concerned that she had forked out too much for a birthday gift. Yet here was this Adidas worker, who was very much taken aback herself.

Trying to take stock of it all as quickly as possible, Summer realised that the same ring was in fact larger than before. Of course! Everything to do with her had become larger due to the effects of the big black web hole. But this wouldn’t make it of much greater value. So she wondered what else had changed in her surroundings. Why was her Visa card unacceptable? Visa was the most accepted card in all the world. Was.

“What date is it today?” Summer asked as fast as lighting.

“September 8,” answered the woman nonplussed. “But that is not important. What’s important is this ancient ring. I must have it! May I make you an offer to buy it from you?”

It was indeed September 8, the day after the big black web hole, so Summer’s senses returned to relative normal. “How many dollars shall you offer?”

“I’m afraid I cannot offer you dollars young lady, only kroners. Will sixteen thousand do?”

Summer almost fainted for yet another time, but regained her composure in an awesome manner.

“Uum. Eer.” She repeated this just as before, but in a totally different tone. “Obviously my ring is worth a great deal of money, so it is most difficult to part company with it, but you are such a nice woman that I will make the trade.”

“This is totally jibbycola!” she shouted emphatically. The Adidas woman came out of it feeling like she had been done a huge favour.

As for the term ‘jibbycola,’ Summer had never heard of it. But she loved the childish happiness that she felt upon hearing it.

The cost of the shoes was deducted from the agreed price, and Summer received a receipt for the shoes. She was then asked for her account details, for where the rest of the money was to be deposited for the ring. It was just at this moment that Summer looked at the receipt.

And saw the year. It wasn’t 2012. Rather it was 2112. Again she was taken aback, like being suddenly hit by a summer breeze.

“Uum. Eer.” It was said with a tone of difference again. “I actually don’t have an account.” Her best guess was that her account wouldn’t exist a century into the future. “I live very freely, so please forward me the money in cash. Gimme gimme gimme!” she chirped childishly like a hungry kid who wants some ice-cream.

The lovely lady was further gobsmacked, but agreed to Summer’s request. Though being afraid for the young woman’s safety, she insisted upon organising to have transport take her home. The only problem was that Summer didn’t know where her home was.

“Take me to the hotel in town,” she blurted out. “My father works there, so he can take me home once he has finished his shift.”

“But there are many hotels around. Which one do you mean?”

“The magic one.” Summer stopped. She had no idea of why she had said something soooo outrageous. “I mean, it’s in the heart of town.”

The fan of the falling fainter giggled. “Oh you must mean the Hotel Merlin! I will organise this short trip for you. No problems at all.”

And so all was set. Summer breathed a sigh of relief. In all the commotion she hadn’t even acknowledged just how much she needed money; of how much she needed to get a room. And no, not in the sense that she wanted to get up to any funny business. Just a room. Plain and simple. She would likely have had nowhere to go for the night if it weren’t for the luck of the ring, and perhaps nothing to eat either. For she only had had her $44 Canadian dollars, and who knows if they were worth anything here, wherever she was. So she now had the money to survive on her own two feet. For a while. Then eventually she would need to find work. But she wasn’t worried about any of that for now. She was far too excited about this great adventure.

Instead of just waiting for the taxi, Summer now yayed and ventured across to some other stores.

She entered a book store, which was rather peculiar indeedy. For every book in sight was either about cooking or vampires. There wasn’t a classic childish book to be found. “What has gone wrong with the world?” Summer whispered to herself.

But there was enough right with it for our hero. Soonish enough she was swept away in a vehicle and taken to a rather exquisite hotel. It was to Summer anyhoo. She felt quite uncomfortable with it all, of how particularly prim and proper it all felt. And it was only 3 stars. In some ways this Yea girl could be easily impressed.

Not that she cared too much for hotel rooms. So it shall come as no surprise that she removed herself from that room almost as soon as she stepped foot in it. The day was much older now, but still young, just like her. She wished to hike. There was living to do.

[littlewid]

Sorry GR, I need to catch up on your storys, however, I was looking back through this post and I realised you had asked for a Hyena smilie, that had escaped me so, the man asks the man has got, here's a laughing Hyena for you
, he can be found in Animals 2.
littlewid-x-

[gregrowlerson]

Another great addition to the smiley family LW

GR

[Laikipia]

G R Chapter 5 is very surreal and interesting and I enjoyed the Foxrobin appearing.

Jibbycola is an ace word - reminds me of jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll's poem) You are a GR with your imagination.

I didn't get to read all the chapters again but will do so they flow in my mind.

Lai

[gregrowlerson]

Mrs Kipia.

The Foxrobin has been a very late addition to the book. Alas there is not a heap of WAA influence (it was all largely written before I joined here), but perhaps for future stories This reporter character was not even really created as such though as a result of OUR Foxrobin, as there was already an interviewer at books end who didn't have a name or proper role defined yet, so that's where I decided that Foxrobin would fit in really well in a minor role.

Jibbycola is stolen from elsewhere It is a very smirk-inducing word though and I use it a number of times in the book. It actually comes as a phrase from another country; the country where Summer now finds herself. But I won't give that away just yet!

Being a good story writer is just as much about knowing what a good idea is as it is about having a great imagination, or perhaps these two thingys are combined. My mind doesn't flow with incredibly vivid pictures of fantasy worlds and so forth, but my main passion is words - generally the English language - and to play around with them as much as possible; to twist them to suit a point I want to make, or to take the story to a new place that I desire. I highlight this in a way in Chapter Four - A Lover Of Knots, where I discuss Summer's cookie word play. It probably wasn't the original intention, but there is quite a lot of Summer in myself.

Writing is all about getting positive inspiration, and for me it is really about surrounding myself with the right people who can provide such inspiration. The WAA ensures that my story writing is not cactus, as you guys provide me with story writing inspiration, as has already been shown by some stories I have written. I don't come here looking for ideas, but sometimes they will simply occur as a result of the creative happy fun that we have here, and there is especially a lot of play on words!

How much actually comes from my 'imagination' is open to conjecture, since I am influenced by the world around me, and in particular by certain people. It's probably more of an ability to recognise something as an :idea: (there is a use for this smiley ) and to make it work with the bigger picture that is my real skill in story writing.

Sometimes I can just pick up on something - totally out of the blue - that will get my creative juices flowing. Simple things, like walking or driving can often do it. But you can't really try to 'get' ideas; they just come to me when they are meant to. The trying part comes in more with the putting them alltogether in a cohesive manner. I have had multiple pages of 'ideas' that I have gone back to at various times. Slowly but surely it is all coming to fruition!

GR

[Laikipia]

My theory is that you have to be creative to write. We are all creative in different ways though and your talent is definitely for writing, maybe not for attracting birds to your feeder though so we all have our talents

I like the facts that things come to you and get you going - a hard part would not be going over the same bit time and time again and tweaking it too much.

Lai

[gregrowlerson]

I like to keep it pretty natural (some of my best short stories have come together within a few days), so some tweaking, but not too much. In that sense I am not too much of a 'perfectionist'; in fact my writing style, which is not all that prim and proper is probably best suited to not too much editing.

On the otherhand I am very obsessed with particular details going into a short story or in this case a book. I will work hard if need be to find an appropriate spot for a quote, or a scene, etc. Once it is there and I have done some fiddling it generally won't get changed too much thereafter. I try to keep an open mind too. There were a couple of short stories that I thought could be adapted to fit TSP, and certainly both still could (perhaps in book 2), but in book 1 they just didn't fit right. Then I am aware of other things that are happening in the book, and whether they are effected by the absence of these parts. In this case not really. All I did was change the dress up animal of one character and give him a different one, and change some small amount of dialogue in that scene as a result.

There is certain conversation though that just HAS to be in the book; there would be no argument about some thingys But everything that is there has mesched really well. I am really surprised at how well I was able to write some of the story, so a big to me. It gives me the confidence that book 2 is a possibility too, even though there is stuff all over the place, apparently no structure whatsoever, but I reckon it has legs. And then maybe even a 3rd book

I'm not getting ahead of myself am I?

With talent, I have virtually zero for anything else. My hands are hopeless; I cannot make anything, nor draw or paint. I cannot play a musical instrument nor sing. But I can write. I am so grateful to have been given this talent (sounds like I'm making a speech after winning my Booker prize ) as I really would have been lost without it.

Perhaps I could never write for a living because I live to write

Oh yes indeedy.

[Laikipia]

Very P indeedy, but despite your Booker prize speech I think writing is a huge talent.

No comment on the others, I can't do any of them either but I can for sure.

It's good to be ahead with planning and thinking about book 3 is good.

Lai et al

[gregrowlerson]

ing is most defintiely a talent too! And we all know who the is

Being a is also a talent

[Laikipia]

you definitely get the prize for chatting too.

Still on the hunt for a smart button/sharp cookie smiley ........... I had no idea there were quite so many out there

Mrs Kip et al
E

[gregrowlerson]

In the middle of today I did a few pages of brainstorming (without even looking at my other notes) for the second book, so there seems to be motivation there. I simply wrote about what roles I have in mind for my various characters for the story, and I am liking the overall concepts

Need to get this first book accepted though

With the sharp cookie smiley I think that this is good enough. We can know it as a sharp cookie ourselves, and use it as such. If you take a close look it looks like the hungry chap has taken quite a bite, leaving the edge of that cookie side looking rather sharp!

[Laikipia]

I agree about getting the first book sorted, but it's good to have thoughts for the second/third.

I like your idea about the - so that's what we'll do

Lai
aka Mrs Kipia

[gregrowlerson]

Getting ready to send the book tomorrow, so am very excited

The editor that I have been conversing with says that she is already going to support it, so now we just need one more editor to okay it and we will be able to talk business!

G R

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