the fossil and the factory
I spent most of Valentine's Day working on The Men Cast By Shadows and had it finished by early evening. This is the first short story I've completed in almost a year, and surprisingly I don't hate it.It needs some fleshing out, maybe. I'm already making notes for a gentler weird tale called Like Stone, Like Salt, Like Time. Probably a vein of kink in it and certainly more hankering for deep time: in this case, the Silurian seas where the Black Country now stands. (This isn't so far fetched: there was a trilobite nicknamed "The Dudley Bug" and there are trilobites in that town's coat of arms.) It'll need thought and research and probably some good walking.
I had a very good night out on Saturday, with my partner and best friends. I wore the t-shirt Martin got for me: an ammonite (Douvilleiceras mammillatum) taken from an illustration by Ernst Haeckel*. Some choice innuendoes from JH about my fobwatch, which I'll be wearing with a velvet waistcoat in future; we talked about Wells' films. Somehow we managed to trace a link between Riddley Walker through Clockwork Orange to Blackstar. (fade_2_black brought me a DVD of Bowie interviews. <3) Good banter and good company; thanks all.
Not so much to report of today: I slushed, read through the galleys of The Frost Sermon; later I'll cook quesadillas. Tomorrow's my last placement day at the charity shop. I'll go back as a proper volunteer, I think. I won't miss the drudgery of weekly worksearch at the placement provider, or the constant hassle of trying to get a full week's busfare out of the place. (Seriously, do not expect unemployed folks to always fork out the money to travel to unpaid work they'll lose benefits over if they don't go. Ain't the Conservatives a scream?)
*photo of t-shirt and its inhabitant up at Facebook, if you know me there.
I had a very good night out on Saturday, with my partner and best friends. I wore the t-shirt Martin got for me: an ammonite (Douvilleiceras mammillatum) taken from an illustration by Ernst Haeckel*. Some choice innuendoes from JH about my fobwatch, which I'll be wearing with a velvet waistcoat in future; we talked about Wells' films. Somehow we managed to trace a link between Riddley Walker through Clockwork Orange to Blackstar. (fade_2_black brought me a DVD of Bowie interviews. <3) Good banter and good company; thanks all.
Not so much to report of today: I slushed, read through the galleys of The Frost Sermon; later I'll cook quesadillas. Tomorrow's my last placement day at the charity shop. I'll go back as a proper volunteer, I think. I won't miss the drudgery of weekly worksearch at the placement provider, or the constant hassle of trying to get a full week's busfare out of the place. (Seriously, do not expect unemployed folks to always fork out the money to travel to unpaid work they'll lose benefits over if they don't go. Ain't the Conservatives a scream?)
*photo of t-shirt and its inhabitant up at Facebook, if you know me there.