Books with fireworks and pretty lights

2 November

Writers sit and dream of their story lines and the characters that will appear in them. We dream of being the net Ian Rankin or Peter Robinson or whoever is at the top of our genre. I’m not different of course and after typing up around 1500 words of Arathusia I decided a quick look on Facebook was due. So that is what I did. Here I sat scrolling down and I came across a story from our local paper about the closure of part of Dorktown due to a ‘police incident’, and I thought Now what is that all about?

Jan is off to a funereal this afternoon and after that she is taking a load of stuff to our favourite charity shop in town and then off to Asda. On the short shopping list she asked me to make for her I’ve added a Dorktown News, seeing as we no longer have it delivered. You see, my writer’s nose is twitching at the news of a police incident in the town over the weekend. The twitch became a full need to scratch at it after a later report said that the incident was over a stabbing behind the Lidle store that was now a murder investigation. I smell another DI Marty Jayne story brewing up in the depths of my brain. So now I will follow that story in the local press before I start taping the keyboard.

Anyway, back to work already on the go … as I went through to bed last night I realised that all that typing up I did yesterday was a mistake. The mistake was not actually doing it, but what I typed. Now I need to go back and re-work around half of that section of work seeing as the mistake is so bad it would not even get passed Jan, let alone a pro editor. What this has shown me is that a first draft really is needed, and that is what my long hand work is. I really should have seen they error as I typed it, but I did see it in plenty of time to correct it before moving. The writing part I find fairly easy, it’s all the crap that comes after that I struggle with, even if it is vital!

That dreaded date is coming up folks, November 5^th. Over the years we have come to hate the day and the whole idea of fireworks being sold to the general public. It really is time it was banned by law. I remember our Sally-pup who so frightened by them that she would jump up on to my lap and bury her head under my arm. Cindy-pup was the same, but as a small dog, even by Yorkie standards, she was easy comfort. Sally was a golden lab cross and was a big dog.

I wonder just how many elderly folk sit and cower in fright for the next few days as thoughtless morons start pushing the things through letter boxes; how many have been made ill by it. And that doesn’t count the number of people who get hurt in some way because of it. There is national petition running now about getting the sale of firework sales to the public stopped but I can’t find the link right now. When I do I shall make sure I post it tomorrow.

Did you know that normally October 31^st is the day that Blackpool Illuminations are turned off for the year? Well, it is anyway, but the last time we went up for it, it wasn’t so good anyway. However, it is round about now that we start to see Crimble lights appearing in houses and shops. Last Friday as I closed the bedroom curtains went we through to be I saw that one of neighbours over the road already had there lights up. Talk about early? Our little tree and the few lights we do put up, will go up a few days before and by Boxing Day I am ready for it to come down. I don’t know about you of course, but for us we don’t actually feel like Christmas these days, not because we are miserable but simply because we have no kids to enjoy it with. So we always have a quiet Christmas.

Most towns will decorate their shopping areas and I do like to see them, maybe cos Dorktown’s are so poor these days perhaps. But for years Walsall in the West Midlands used to put on a lights display in the local park and it was worth a visit. I’m not sure if it still goes on though. So for today’s photo then … 

One from Walsall the one time we went there.

Today’s funny …

Teacher: "Kids, what does the chicken give you?"
Student: "Meat!"
Teacher: "Very good! Now what does the pig give you?"
Student: "Bacon!"
Teacher: "Great! And what does the fat cow give you?"
Student: "Homework!"