On chemicals, writing and Brum

30 March

A large fire was burning savagely over in the West Midlands all day yesterday and at one point there were 100 fire-fighters there working to get it under control. The site of the fire is a scrap yard where there are a large number of wrecked cars. Some of them will still have fuel of some sort in them along with various oils and grease lubricants, and all of them will have trims and foams and so on, mainly man-made material that give off horrendous toxins when they burn. It all makes for a potent mix of contamination in the wind blown from the site over nearby property.

This scrapyard seemed to be in an industrial estate, but these days housing tends to sit fairly close to those estates. It makes me wonder why council give planning permission to operate on such sites. I have called in at a number of chemical companies sitting right against housing. The possible dangers to that housing and the people living in there should be obvious to everyone. At least one in Hinckley has since closed and there is at least one supermarket on the site now, but how many remain operating in small units close to housing estates.

Writers are advised to write about what we know, it makes to task easier. The advisers are right, it does. However, we need to be careful about writing what we know in case we include our own hates and strongly held beliefs and prejudices come through in our writing. It will do so to some extent anyway; we just can’t help it. John Norman is a writer who allows his fantasy free range in his Gor series of books. I gave up with then after #11.

The basic story is of a sister planet to Earth opposite us, that circles the sun on the same orbit as us. As per normal there are two races fighting for dominance of the planet, the priest kings and a race of huge and vicious cats. Normans fantasy come in where in where the story touches on women and their role in their society. So you get a few pages of basic story line, followed by a large number of pages stating the case for how good slavery is for a woman, and how they blossom while a slave. A good basic story ruined by his fantasy about women.

Regular readers will know that I sometimes have a number of books on then go at the same time, reading that is, not writing. So right now I have Kings’ Dark Tower #1 and a ‘how-to’ book by Simon Whaley about a software program called Wunderlist, bit of these are on my kindle. In paperback I have Throne 5, which is getting tedious for me, so I am letting rest while I read something else. That something else is Chris Mooneys’ World Without End. So far I have four instances where his characters had poor or cruel fathers who didn’t love them. One is OK I think, but four? No, not in one books. And that is what I mean about allowing our own lives colouring our writer too much.

My first novel was The Mission. My old mate Bill Howe did a proof read of it, for which I am grateful, he’s also read through all of my work. The first couple of pages came about because of a run in I had with Dorktown cops one day. I had point out someone to them who was a known criminal who was wanted several offences, yet they claimed he wasn’t doing anything right then and there, so they couldn’t touch him. That really bugged me, so when I got home I sat and began typing my feelings about the cops. A few hours later I had the first five or six thousand words of a novel written. Bill read it through as I said above and he said afterwards that he could see me and my anger in it all the way through it. See what I mean here. Those first few pages list a number of incidents where cops didn’t act when I thought they should have, and each one is a real incident, not made up.           

Market Place in Dorktown will host the BBC Midlands Today Bus. The idea is to take the bus out on the road so that we, the public can meet and chat to the various newscasters and team members. Jan and I are going out later today but we will not be going in to town even if it is a market day. Jan mention Brum last night, but I wasn’t keen just then but maybe I was perhaps a bit hasty. On window shopping/photo shoot days I prefer using my scooter and not my walker. Add in our need to go shopping as well, then I wouldn’t be able to walk very far in Brum and then do the shopping. But I am beginning to think that the fruit and veg market in Brum might be a worthwhile visit anyway. Whatever, it’s just shopping later today and Brum on Friday when the main market is on and we both can use our scooters.

And so for today’s photo …

Jan on her scooter enjoying an ice cream in the sun.

Today’s funny …

Did you hear about the boatload of red paint that crashed into a boat carrying blue paint?
13 passengers were marooned.