General – Page 147

Yes, I suppose you would be forgiven for thinking that this post is actually about me, but I’m actually 5’8”. The accompanying drawing is one I completed in January 1987. I was obviously thinking, ‘less is more … ‘

: Just a quick look is it?

Today I’ve joined an aspiring site called Apollo Blessed which caters for creative types with an interest in writing, art and music. As is my habit I’ll add it to my links on the right side bar. At this moment I have yet to post any of my creative writing or artwork on the site but I will strive to do so before the end of the day. It looks promising.

My mini-series of fantasy poems following the fortunes of ‘Crystabel and Elf’ has now come to an end after ten episodes. It was my first attempt at fantasy so I may well try something along those lines again in the future.

About a week ago the talking book CD, ‘The Last Waltz’ was launched at the Arts Festival in the Darlington Arts Centre. The double CD is aimed at partially-sighted or blind listeners and is comprised of twelve short stories by the Inkerman Writers. As a member of the group I was pleased to have my tale, ‘Mary Had a Little Gun … ‘ included, which is read by Mike Watson, another Inkerman member.

I’m now working on a tale about a young British /Asian man who has recently returned from completing a training course in a secret location near the Pakistan / Afghanistan border. The working title is, ‘One Man’s Mission’.

It took imagination to come up with the idea of Wonder Woman though having said that, it didn’t take much imagination to find the right actress for the part in the original TV series. That lady was Lynda Carter. I did the accompanying drawing in 1984. On the subject of exercising the imagination, Lynda wore a fetching patriotic costume. It was the sort of outfit that made me wonder if Catherine Bach’s Daisy Duke outfit was loosely, or tightly based on the original. I digress. I always wondered what Lynda would look like without the starts and stripes … so I stopped drawing just below the shoulders.

As I beat the keys into submission with my efforts on Chapter 2 of my novel I occasionally take a break by writing poetry. I’ve always professed to writing to suit all tastes since starting to write verse about three and a half years ago and I wanted to do something different. Whilst thinking outside the box I realised I’d never written fantasy. It was as I was listening to music and editing the photos in my screen saver that inspiration struck. ‘Crystabel and Elf’ the mini-series was born.

Like all my mini-series the first episode is written without much idea about where the character or characters will go but a plot usually builds by the second or third. This one has been no different and I find myself now working on ‘Crystabel and Elf – Part 4’. There will be a lot of folk out there who probably don’t realise that these diminutive creatures that live in woodland etc, etc, have emotions and desires … enough. Hang on … shouldn’t that be fairy nuff?

I caught sight of a particular lady and imagined her as a fairy … okay bear with me on this … I wrote rapidly for a few minutes to make the idea a reality … as writers do, then I wrote the first episode. Romance is already in the air, amongst other places and I can already sense the desire to bring in a bit of adventure and heroics. Did I mention the elf is originally from north of the border? No, well he is!

If perchance you find yourself following the links to read about these little people feel free to leave a comment when the option is there. My plots are sometimes comment driven so if a good idea is suggested I’ll run with it.

Okay, back to reality. Thank you for reading this and I hope you find something else of interest on my links.