Writing ideas

14 November

Chip Walker; never heard of him? I have a feeling you will sooner or later. Last night I finished his Children of Hern, a murder novel based in Peterborough. Hern is a new idea to me and I’ve found references to Hern the Hunter as an ancient myth/cult figure head. In Chip’s novel it becomes a god to be worshipped by human sacrifice. The priest wears a headdress of deer with a full set of stag antlers. Also wrapped up within it is a drugs ring based in Pakistan with links to the UK through Peterborough. Of course, the goody, in the form of DCI Frank Millard, wins. I liked it folks and I would recommend you give it a go.

So off I went to bed and continued reading on a Stephen King I began from the night before. This is called Cell, and it’s weird, even for King. Basically it’s about the effects of mobile (or cell phones as the call them) phones when users who answer a call seem to catch something that sends them mad. The main man doesn’t have one, he just doesn’t like them. He then meets another man who accidently smashed his phone the night before and hasn’t had the chance to get a new one yet. This pair eventually get to a hotel and take refuge in there. At that point I was ready to settle.

The idea behind Kings’ book if fine but it did get me thinking about where we writers get our ideas from. Where do my ideas come from? Well, Arathusia came in a dream; The Mission is the result of me getting angry at local cops, yet again; House of Pain came a news story about a child sex abuse case; Web of Hate came from – well, I don’t really know; Shipshape is mainly about the Royal Navy, I was in the Army, so why I story about sailors? And so on … Once this is done and posted I shall be getting on typing up Arathusia so I can begin writing more to it longhand, but I won’t leave it so long to type up next time.

And yet, all that doesn’t really answer the question of where the ideas come from. I’ve mentioned before about the number of note books I have scattered about the place. Two days ago I made a note of something that reads, ‘Notes – so many notes’, and yes, I do make loads of them. Something pops up in my mind so make a note of it. I’m well aware that not all of them will get used, but some will, either in here or in a novel somewhere.

And here’s another one I made; ‘Does being fashionable equate to being wasteful?’ This one came from see something on FB about fashion models and photographers. In a way I think that being ‘in the fashion’ is waste. Someone buys something and two weeks later it’s in the back of cupboard or in the bin cos something has replaced it … and there you go again, is there another novel in that little nugget I wonder?

Photo time … 

Red, Green and Yellow.

Today’s funny …

 A man saw a lady with big breasts. He asked, "Excuse me, can I bite your breasts for $1000?" She agrees, so they go to a secluded corner. She opens her blouse and the man puts his face in her breasts for 10 minutes." Eventually the lady asks, "Aren't you gonna bite them?" He replies, "No, it's too expensive."