Have Orchid explain his stance on being an alien, the various levels - alien to Grace City, to New Paradise, to humanity..? When you cease to be an alien in terms of citizenship of a nation, you are 'naturalised' - the alies are unnatural by design.

Heard some good things at dinner tonight. How being pleased with £3000 fees, Mark felt like he had the fuckin moon on a stick. How Alan used to shag doors. How Kim is only with her bloke for the Ferrari and she bought a T-shirt with 'Gold Digger' on the front. How Mark and Alan once shared a bed and woke up with a stick of rock in between them and no memory of how it got there.

US astronauts get their wings when they reach the altitude of 50 miles.

Inconsistensies, anxieties and trauma: what's wrong with my novel?

a) Just how well does Shelley know her cousin's family? I have no clue, and it shows.
b) Why would they wait 3 days before calling her?
c) Where is her mother all this time; isn't there a family grapevine?
d) Would she really quit her course to work on a novel she doesn't even have an outline for? I don't think so...
e) Her cover story to Coral isn't convincing
f) If I was her I'd read all Jamie's diary entries in one sitting - maybe I shouldn't try to work them in logically, it's too constraining.
g) I don't think I've exposited enough, and still it's boring. How can I put more description in without making the reader fall asleep, wake up and shoot themselves rather than read any more of this tedious drivel?

put some additional frustrations into Shelley's life, like a delivery man that doesn't come or a plumber or something.

remember things smell!

Loosen up a bit, flesh it out, play with the order.

if I was shooting this as a film, what would I show? paint those pictures!

Jamie should have a friend but a friend who doesn't 'count' for some reason; dumpy, unglamorous, unappreciated.

lichen could be the key to what motivates the Authority – mines everyone knows about, produce various minerals, crystals, but it’s the lichen they scrape off the buildings, what everyone thinks is waste, that actually make the Authority’s corrupt pseudo-aristocracy it’s wealth.

The shiny kit in the waste-disposal centre is what tips the revolutionaries off to what they are up to.

Open with Shelley having tried, and failed, to get a hangover, having drunk all her ration of alcohol for, ooh, a month. Like half a bottle of vodka or something. She’s quit college, again, and she’s got serious writer’s block. She tries over and over to write the opening line of a new Detective X novel, and fails. She only answers her aunt’s summons because she figures the day is already lost. She thinks things can get no worse; of course they get a LOT worse. Hehe.

If the Puritan movement (or similar fundies) founded this colony, they would have to rewrite the Bible to allow for there being more than one planet. They would think of themselves as Chosen for salvation, and would vehemently deny the spiritual validity of any alien races. If they met any other races coming here, they wouldn't want to admit to their existence later... I don't want to get bogged down in religious details but I do need to understand these people.

ACTION?

set the whole thing between halloween and bonfire night

It’s not about hatred; it’s not about righteous anger. I won’t play them at their own game; I wouldn’t, even if I thought I could win. And I could never win; never match their bile-ridden, strait-jacketed, small-minded spite. But I won’t let them steal my spirit with their spying eyes, won’t let them crush my joy or make my world small, do you see? I don’t hate them… but if they get in my way I will fight them, and if they get hurt in the fight I won’t weep for them, for if I’m willing to die for freedom them I’m also willing to kill.

Orchid or Jamie (if need to take Jamie in a more heroic direction) could have attended an evangelical church and learned to preach at the feet of a master (abuse?)

Nobody’s allowed to be a bigger star than Jesus, doesn’t matter if you’re a prophet or a saint; Jesus would choke if he saw what they’ve done with his teachings, an’ if he came back today they’d lock him up, ‘cause a living prophet, well that would be tricky to manage.

After working out my rough plotline, I did some googling on the history of controversy and music. Unsurprisingly, most of the hits were American sites. Most depressing were the ones I've quoted in my last post - the right wing Christian defenders of 'our children' and their morality. I remembered that there is a very, very serious side to this story - and wondered whether I need to even bother making up a totalitarian state where religiosity is rife and freedom of expression is curtailed, when America is already heading that way at six zillion miles an hour, with the headlights switched off.

I need to watch Rocky Horror again, get myself into a lighter frame of mind, or I'm not going to be able to carry this on.

Well I worked for hours this afternoon, and here's what I came up with:


Technology (from New Scientist, October)

Roll-up monitors – but I think 3D heads-up glasses a better idea
Fuel cells – mini power packs for phones, PCs etc
Community wireless net nodes – no government control?
Smart tags on everything, readers all over, this is v. Minority Report but could well actually happen. Adds to danger as chars have to avoid being tracked.


Have a scene where Orchid takes Shelley up into the city at night and uses a bow to shoot out security cameras. Extra dimension – not just rock-terrorists but actual (if non-murdering) terrorists.

Soundtrack thoughts

MM for really scary dark bits
The Cure for sad/disjointed bits
Shudder, T-Rex for happy, sexy, sci-fi bits
RATM for hunting/chasing
Air, Garbage for romance
Ziggy for general feel
Curve, Garbage for uncertainty/paranoia
Depeche Mode will work all sorts of ways

Socio-political Background

Puritanical. Maybe even have a Purity Party. The Authority is the name for the govt., probably a city-state govt. Has a President.

Religion and political paranoia of a certain kind (i.e. rather like some parts of America just now) have led to all ‘unnatural’ interferences with the human body being classified as sinful, therefore abortion is illegal, as are non-essential plastic surgery and recreational drugs (including alcohol and cannabis but not tobacco or caffeine). Make-up, coloured contacts, tattoos and hair dye are all legal but considered sinful and not respectable. Homosexual sex is illegal, and cross-dressing (for men and women), whilst not strictly illegal, would get you beaten up and possibly arrested on suspicion.

Animals and plants however, whilst considered Gods creations, were given to us to have dominion over them and are therefore given no respect and GM’d into unrecognisability. But as there will be almost no animals that’s not going to figure much.

There is no non-religious political movement in the mainstream, though there are various flavours of Christian affiliation. Outside the law are illegal, largely atheistic political groups, but they are free-form, anti-authority and disorganised. It is quite common for students to drop out and join this underworld (about 1 in 100 will do so) but it is expected that the majority will drop back in at some point rather than try to make a career in the underground, never mind raise children.

Even though this underground is known about and tolerated to some extent (by the Authority, not necessarily the general public), there is no free mainstream media (controlled by commerce rather than the Authority overtly, but in fact they are in bed together) and no overlap between the mainstream and the underground is allowed if the Authority can prevent it. Should the underground ever be more than a few thousand disaffected junkies, it might become a threat. Therefore any popular movement which might drive more young people that way is squashed. Dissent is squashed. Artists (musical or otherwise) who express dissent are banned from mainstream media coverage, cannot play/exhibit in licensed venues and cannot sell their product on the legal market. Nobody in the underground has any money and all are open-source nuts, so artists who change direction can go from rich and famous to poor and infamous overnight. Anti-religious and anti-Authority feeling from the netherworld side is hyped and exploited by hysterical proponents of these things.

Chuck some really fantastic dream sequences/hallucinations into it. Think Winter’s Tale. Unicorns in the brickwork, like that photographic set I was going to do in the NQ.

Use the fire escape!!

Have someone at some point suggest that they are living in the Matrix. ;P

So, plot-wise what have we got?

Shelley’s Story
Open with Shelley being called by Jamie’s mother because he’s gone missing. His father caught him with make-up/homoerotic downloads, whatever. Was spending too much time on the net, the community net. Daddy revokes net privileges. Jamie ups and leaves. He is 17. Mum distraught. As good a Christian as she is, she’s worried for her little boy. Dad blusters to cover his guilt. She may be hiding from him that she’s seeking help. The cops don’t care, they won’t follow him into the netherworld. (they know he’s there, they scan everyone in and out. Once inside, they’re lost to the Authority)

Shelley is a crime novelist, a bad one, writes potboilers (her latest of which foreshadows this story) and doesn’t make any money. She should be in college studying archaeology but she can’t afford it. She’s 25. She’s pretty straight. She thinks of Jamie as a quiet boy, kind but shy, never blossomed under the eyes of his harsh and loud parents, demanding younger sister. She has soft spot. Agrees to hunt about on community net, see what she can find out.

Discovers that Jamie has alter-ego name of Halo, sees himself quite differently; space-vampire glitter-king lord-of-the-netherworld… him and about 200 other people. A movement. A silly, superficial-artificial, sexually ambiguous musical and philosophical movement. She finds his blog. We read it along with her, and we find out all about Orchid.

Shelley finds that one of these people is someone she’s met; she goes to see her to find out how she can find out more. Coral takes her to a party, first having to disguise her, kit her out, allow her to fit in. Shelley is uncomfortable. Jamie is not there, but people who know him as Halo have snips of gossip, rumour.

Over period of days/weeks Shelley follows these through dark and dangerous, but undeniably exciting places. This period interspersed with snips from Jamie’s blog and articles/transcripts from flicks and casts about politics, music, Orchid being a threat to the morality of the city’s children, etc. A picture of the world is built up. Shelley’s danger is realised. Stories about members of Orchid’s entourage being killed are dropped in. The Authority believes they are Satanists, or at least it persuades the media to put this about. Added are stories about sacrifices, vampirism, androids, aliens. People will believe anything.

Shelley is gradually drawn into the scene. There are drugs.

She tracks Jamie/Halo to Orchid’s entourage. It is possible he is one of the dead. The Community has its own news system but it’s unreliable. She must somehow infiltrate this close-knit sub group about which she has heard so much conflicting and unpleasant rumour. She is afraid.

-and I can’t type with my weight on my elbows and a cat on my arse *sigh*-

Somehow, she gains entry to the hallowed inner circle. Jamie is there and OK but going by another name and looking pretty different. He doesn’t recognise Shelley, either, at first. Orchid has a manager who started some of the rumours himself not figuring that Orchid’s assets would be frozen and he would lose money. There is suspicion and bad feeling all around.

She discovers that
a) they are not monsters or Satanists although they are pretty weird and she won’t say they aren’t aliens
b) they don’t know why their people are dying
c) another member of the entourage, (possibly someone she’s been hanging out with and trusts?) starts acting a bit odd, name of… Gork.
d) they are actually politically active freedom fighters not just posing pansys – Orchid takes her up to the city to shoot out surveillance cameras.

She falls in love with Orchid as everyone does and being a newcomer she gets his attention for a while, earning the envy of other members, who then welcome her as a sister when Orchid has tired of her. She and Jamie figure out who each other is.

She sticks around to investigate the deaths. (This is the bit P disapproves of).

Simultaneously, she is picking up clues that there may be areas of the under-city that hold fascinating secrets. She may find a way to discredit the Authority and make much more of a difference than they can with their current methods. OK so this is exactly like the main plot in the Barbarian Queen, but WTF, I don’t got another one. So she stops going upstairs with Orchid to shoot stuff, and goes down. Don’t know if Jamie accompanies her or not. Gork does.

They look like they might have found something – proof that an alien race built Grace City, maybe handy artefacts? Gork reveals that he is an undercover agent and attempts to talk her around, knowing she is also undercover and not strictly one of ‘them’. But he appears to be crazy. She refuses; he tries to kill her. Obviously, he fails. She must then try to kill him; she works through all the possibilities (there are many with motives) and deduces that Gork is the Boa Constrictor. She then has a dilemma of whether she really wants to empower the Community as there’s a lot there she doesn’t approve of. Maybe she kills Gork at this stage, maybe she finds a way to prevent him killing anyone else while she thinks, I dunno.

She goes back home to take time out but it all seems strange and alien to her. She visits her aunt to say Jamie is OK and their cosy clean life seems rotten and corrupt. It chokes her. Still, she is about to decide to do nothing and go back to her former life when she is arrested and interrogated like Neo. Somewhat like Neo, even though she is released without charges, this forces her to come down against the Authority.

She goes back into the netherworld and kills Gork, if she hasn’t already. With a bow and arrow. She equips the Community to start a revolution, but refuses to take part in it, instead choosing to explore the alien ruins. The End.

Jamie’s Story
Jamie’s blog, which we read in an order dictated by Shelley and her investigations, reveals how he feels out of place and has been bullied at school. He is anxious because he can’t form relationships with girls, and is under considerable pressure from his mother (Pat) to do so. His father (Bill) is pushing him into a career in the civil service, which idea repulses him. His sister (Martha) is a holier-than-thou church attender who is 2 years younger (15) and tactless. Perhaps it’s her who finds the eye-liner and grasses him up? He doesn’t entertain the idea he might be gay, but Orchid’s lustrous purple eyes find their way into his fantasies.

Everyone around him seems crass, ugly, hidebound. He seeks refuge amongst the unreachable, beautiful people. He dreams of the netherworld, and spends all his time on the net trying to make friends with people who will tell him how to get there. Before Orchid is banned, he attends gigs (and of other bands who walk a fine line, too). Afterwards he downloads their music from the net and fantasises. Eventually he meets/gets to know someone who tells him about an underground gig. He is very excited about going. Things have been particularly bad lately, his schoolwork has been lousy, and his father is revoking net privileges. He cannot tell anyone about the gig and doesn’t know how he will survive a week without the net in the run-up to this most exciting event. This is the last entry.

What Shelley learns from rumour is that Jamie (under his net name Halo) hooked up with a young man called Zeb at the gig, took a hit or two of Heaven and decided to never go home again. -Put in some lyrics from an Orchid song that echo Sheila or Barbarism-. He and Zeb have a tempestuous, drug-fuelled sexual relationship that in turns thrills Jamie and confuses him. They live in Zeb’s netherworld squat, sleep all day and go to gigs and parties at night. Zeb gets them backstage at a gig, not an Orchid gig, but Orchid’s entourage turn out to be at the party. Zeb gets Orchid’s attention, leaving Jamie burning with rage and desire for both of them. He overdoses. People shrug; they don’t know if he’s dead or alive.

When Shelley turns up and susses Jamie out, she learns that Jamie did survive. Zeb pleaded with Orchid, who still has some money and influence, to take care of Jamie. Thus they both became members of the entourage. Jamie changed his name again (to what? Sabre?); fresh start. Soon after this people start to turn up dead, strangled. At least one of them Jamie is close to, fond of. He is afraid. He is possibly, probably, in some danger. He pleads with Shelley to stay, to help them, and she does. After much rowing, he and Zeb are back together; Jamie too has had his fling with Orchid. He reckons on making a life in the netherworld and will never go back.

Bashir (new)
Motega (Native American for ‘New Arrow’)
Lucas, Luka (LightBringer)
Sabre/Saber (as in the sword)

Arrow would have a good complex meaning – his father could have banged on about the arrow of the Lord or the arrow of Justice, swift and sure. Jamie is about to make himself the arrow of the opposition. An arrow could also be a phallic symbol. Motega would be great but it’s not very glam. *sigh*

And don’t go home tonight
Come out and find the one that you love and who loves you

And I realised, I realised, I could never, never go back home again

If it's a boy, call him Shelton? Or something more ordinary and call the protagonist Shelley?

Remember to put crowds in, don't make this city a ghost town.

Call the city Grace City (Grey City).

I'm still struggling mightily with the vexed question of whether to set the story in Manchester or somewhere completely imaginary. I want a rooftop world - even Manchester is maybe too spread out plus there's no way I could make it accurate. But I lose so much by disabling cultural references. :(

I've decided to call my runaway girl 'Shelley'. (Or maybe it should be a runaway boy? That would freak the AP's out more...) No name for the protagonist yet. Who also still could be male or female...

Another cool quote: "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." - Ray Bradbury

Bother, I did lose it. :( Oh well, easy come easy go. At least now I have a blog address to post on NaNo.(NaNoWriMo - all this drivel is notes for my planned NaNo novel.)

some trouble with blogger - looks like I might lose my template...

Themes

Sexuality, relationships, freedom, music, passion, duality, multi-level nature of everything (it’s all more complex than you think).


Scenario

Planet settled by humans good long time ago (same sort of frame of reference as Snowball). Not terraformed, as inhabitable (though no need to mention). Was previously occupied, or rumours of same denied by authority. Authority is big-brother style, Thatcherite (commerce has freedoms, individuals don’t), traditionalist, grey, narrow-minded… but also incompetent, chaotic (think freedom to bugger up the railways and dig up the roads), insecure. History has been largely deleted (though still awareness of having come from Earth). No aliens in evidence now whether or not there were any before, but some belief that ancient buildings and technologies that the Authority takes credit for are actually alien structures. (Why would they cover it up?) Simple curiosity about this could be one strand of the story – an idea that the proof lies under the city. No absolute proof is ever found of course. Into this grey authoritarian scene walks X and The Fallen Angels.

The Black Dahlia
Columbine
Orchid – Phil Orchid?

Don’t try to write about music or art when you should be writing music or doing art – it won’t carry. Be literary. No slash?

Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth?
You can use drugs to escape from yourself or to find yourself; it’s a question of courage.

Remember that video of the poo going back in time to become the cow at Rollercoaster…

Mix in some Russian?

Will there be animals in my city apart from rats and pidgies?

Should defo have a river. Thought last night maybe one overground river and one little known underground river.

Have narrative parts 3rd person past tense but intersperse with transcripts, maybe even diary entries to get closer to the action or represent things not directly experienced by the protagonist.

Deep deeper deepest but it isn’t dark no it’s brightest at the bottom; that’s when the lights start up…. The lights inside your head?

Have a room full of mannequins – Orchid is so in love /hate with the idea of being an android, something more and less than human, he surrounds himself with artificial people – OK so this is going to resonate with Bladerunner but so bloody what I haven’t got time to worry about it.

Could I set it here, soon, but Liverpool or something? For the river? Then I could acknowledge all my inspirations. Bugger.

P suggests more P K Dick, more fractured, don’t worry about a plot, chuck in more aliens… govt could be aliens? But P is not writing this – I am.

Buffy-Faith style relationship conflict between the 2 leads?

Another thought entirely – have the disappearing character be the wife / long term gf of the questing character. Have him be also somewhat seduced by the scene. Or just any way to make him a him (lost gf is clichéd and also difficult as too emotionally charged)

Idea of parallel worlds – use the metaphor of parallel worlds – though the second world, the underground world is right there in actual fact, it may as well be magical realm requiring magical portals because most people are so unaware of its existence. Or aware but afraid. An old ruined town under the bright and sunny place? Sewers, tube tunnels, bomb shelters…? Alien ruins? Submerged starship? (too rocky horror?)

Remember the gothic side to it
Remember the funny side to it (it’s so cheesy it had better be funny or nobody will forgive).

If the infiltrators are androids, the aliens could look like anything – cthulus? The alien presence on Earth could in fact be gone; leaving a factory that builds and tracks the androids, which no longer have a master or a purpose. Who cares if it’s cheesy? Nefertiti could have been an android. Cleopatra.

If it’s not Earth, same general idea, easier to invent but loses impact & resonance.

Sub plots needed.

Remember the dream with the phosphorescent cocktails and the sun rising behind the mountain? Feel for that.

Set in a future Manchester – what would stick? Not my fault Jeff Noon lives here too, so don’t worry about that. Or maybe a fictional town very like Manchester. Want references to glam, to RHS, to Victorians… VG is set in a fictional alternate-history version of London; I could do the same. Draw Manchester in 2004 as it might have been imagined in 1989 – if the Tories had not fallen out of power, and people hadn’t gotten over AIDS. If gays were still as vilified. If the acid house movement had been crushed the way the government would have liked….

http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Meadow/8887/elect/

Or should I be brave and write this as if it was the acid house movement and the glam movement combined (i.e. to really freak out the mums and dads) in a completely fictional world? Oh, it’s so tricky!

“The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold, and the curve of your lips rewrites history.” – Kurt Wilde in Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine

--What if Brian Slade’s lips had rewritten history?--

Murder Mystery plot option

Char gets sucked into entourage of rock star. Contacts sister to plead for help as entourage are being picked off 1 by 1. Disappears. Killer strangles victims with feather boa. Many ppl have motives – jealousy, money, homophobia. Turns out the entourage are aliens being killed by other aliens in a mafia stylee, OR being removed by the authorities who have found them out… might be best is we never find out if they are actually aliens or not, just have the killer believe they really are. Leave the reader uncertain. Are they/aren’t they, are they/aren’t they? Hehehe.

Have another undercover agent working for the government… have people change, or appear to change, loyalties.

"The Universe is thronged with fire and light, and we but small suns, which, skinned, trapped and kept, enshrined in blood and precious bones, hold back the night." --Ray Bradbury

1. mousy on the outside, repressed glam queen on the inside, finds late release a la Janet but much more real, takes her further than she wants to go

2. cop type character only wants answers, finds more questions, takes him/her further than she wants to go (investigating a death? Looking for a lost friend or sister? (char 1?))
(get picture of characters following one another down the rabbit hole)

3. slinky sexy satanic gender-ambiguous rock star alien android thang

4. his entourage

5. the killer…? Killer could be undercover agent who believes they are aliens and has gone into drug-addled frenzy and starts killing people. Bit P.K. Dick-ian…

murder mystery but nobody’s dead, or are they?

acts 1, 2, 3 & 4

who needs a straight-man?

Boa Constrictor… a character? The murderer? Or just an aside?

Current culture offers reference for superficiality and humour; how can I hide my dark and futuristic world within it?

Aliens walk amongst us, The Man Who Fell To Earth, demons running karaoke clubs in LA, Liquid Sky, oh yes…

Set some of it here and take it underground and then orbital, clothe it in chintz and china tea cups (only never too much like Robert Thingy) then reveal it like Frank throwing his cloak off? NO DON’T – make it all up. But still reveal it gloriously.

NaNoWriMo novella – first thoughts


http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/velvetgoldmine/hotone.htm

Spaceships – rejection / acceptance – love – envy & anxiety

http://www.lyricscafe.com/ost/v/velvetgoldmine/006.htm

living above the planet – quadrant44 – vicious metal hounds – a slap on my ass by a lipstick kissed elbow glove – ten feet tall better walk it back down

hi-tech futuristic just for fun bows-and-arrows swords-and-sorcery walk the line
feather boas, dirty pavements, mega-transit, fast and loose, underground illegal shocking beautiful dangerous dissolute drug-induced
Pure innocent troubled ageless beautiful dangerous elvish untouchable

Ladies In Waiting

I am waiting for Nerenya to give me back my comb.

's funny, I don't remember being ill in March! oh well.
hopefully now that P has got the network running in the flat and I can do this on the laptop, I'll keep it a little more up to date. you never know. not that anyone's ever going to read it, mind!
I've gone off fencing a bit. I think that happened as soon as I realised that there's a fairly high possibility of getting hurt when someone is coming at you trying to hit you with a big pointy metal stick. *rolls eyes*
archery on the other hand has been jolly relaxing, and the real bonus is that I'm just as good at it as P is, which I wasn't expecting. we're looking to get our own longbows soon, maybe even this week as we can pop into Quicks whilst in Leicestershire for our dry suit training course this weekend.

Sick as a sick thing. Why do people say dog, or parrot? I feel more like a prickly pear with arms and legs made out of plasticine.

Ack, well, salsa didn't happen last week as we got our wires crossed; I thought she was driving, she thought I was driving, we were both sat at home all dressed up and waiting impatiently until it was too late!! Oh well.

I went on my own on Tuesday - darn, this week has been hectic - because K couldn't come and I won't be able to go for the next 6 weeks due to commencement of ARCHERY COURSE! Hurrah! Really looking forward to it. On Wednesday night we had our first fencing class... hmm... what to say about that? We both selected the sabre because it's an edged weapon, i.e. you can score points with the side of the blade, not just the tip like with a foil or epee. That translates to whacking with gusto rather than nancying about poking your opponent. It was brilliant ! I'm not going to be as good as P; his reflexes are a lot faster and he's bigger and taller of course. I loved it though, and I loved watching him fight. So sexy!

Back from France, settled back into work and everything, and feeling like I've never been away! Cats being v. clingy, obviously they missed us. Snowboarding improved a good deal although P is certainly keeping well ahead of me and did black runs and all sorts. I stuck to nice easy ones accessible by cable car - Courchevel is magnificently served when it comes to lifts, the pistes are broad and we were blessed with excellent snow. The resort was a bit pricey but much nicer than Tignes; rather like an expensive version of Cervinia.

In the evenings I managed to get some work done on the Bloomin' Epic, and since I came back I've done a fair amount of research so am feeling quite positive on that front. Also found some time last night to play Warrior Kings - no, not a kinky bedroom role-play, but a new real time strat game. It's a bit pants but OK.

Off to salsa tonight with K, rather stiff from boarding and lousy hotel bed so that'll be fun. I.e. I will probably fall over. Oh well. TTFN

Well, I've been a bit crap about keeping this up to date. Nearly as bad as Amber! Just a short one for now as I'm at work, but I wanted to test Jack's amends to the page code. Which works beautifully... hugs, kisses and kudos to you, Jack. :)

PS Dan and Sarah had their baby, they named her Eloise Daisy. Nice to know I'm not the only mixed up aging goth/indie crossover nerdle left in the world. Also I didn't mean to imply that I don't approve of Utopia GT. I love those bored, anarchic fools. :)

*yawn* really tired today

had a good w/e, mostly, well, actually Saturday morning was hellish and Sunday revolved around decorating but there were some nice moments...

new team member started today at work, which was nice, I think she'll work out well but it will take a while for her to get to grips with everything - citrix confuzzled the heck out of her! o well.

reading a book called Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson @ the moment. sucks. well, not totally, but it's told from too many different POVs and you never (I never) really click with any of the characters enough to care what's happening to them.

Haven't done any work on the Epic for a few days, and Scribblers Corner has been a bit quiet. Shame. Maybe it peaked too early. I will have to do some more marketing. Trying to work my way up to doing a FOTR review for Imladris - a bit chicken as so many reviewers are so much more articulate and thoughtful than I. Logged on to The Tolkein Forum last night when Imladris was down, and was struck by the difference in atmosphere. The posters at Imladris just put so much more work in, and seeing the same topics discussed, but in the lazy, slapdash fashion you might get at Utopia GT for example really brought that home.

Well I'm at work, Friday night, everyone else is at the pub... I'm waiting for our database vendors to dial up and fix our backups... I have to stay here in case the modem crashes... a word to the wary: never ever ever ever ever ever work in an IT department. Ever.

And nobody can even read this because blogspot is down - maybe I was right and there are hordes of leftward leaning 30-somethings swarming all over it.

All I want to do is go home and watch last night's Buffy. *sigh*

Yay, I did it! Go me! :)

Testing multiple text strings inside box
Attempting to get more than one link

Heeeeeeello world!
I couldn't resist it, I just couldn't hold myself back.... so am I now the only blogger over the age of 30 or has the Guardian brought us rushing in our droves, bleating and baaing foolishly? Or what?