h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Testing, testing - just checking to see if I can leave you a PM. One of the things I posted on 'Hey hey' has been returned to me, basically because GW has closed, although I accessed the thread from here. Odd. Anyway, we shall see.

f*ckin f*ckers!

there wasn't any language or innuendo or anything in those posts!

what was the reason for removal?

after i got banned as fredthe3rd during my reckless youth i made up a new email address and returned as waringhudsucker.

only problem is i can't remember what the email address was or even who it was with so i never get these emails.

it's my own fault i suppose...

I don't get any email to say there's a post on here - didn't on GW, either. You'll just have to drop in and check. Otherwise, we could continue the conversation on Writer's Dock, and at least there when you sign in, there's a little thingy at the top or the side on any screen that says, 'You have 1 message unread,' or however many it is. Also, I THINK I'm right in saying that personal messages over there actually are private, unlike with the BBC sites where anybody can pop in and have a read through whatever you've been saying. Some cow did that with a conversation I had, and then taunted the other person on a public thread with what she'd been telling me.

I've been asking on another thread, and it seems they've put pre-mod on every thread that was originally a GW one. The public conversations aren't allowed to continue, so the private ones like 'Hey hey' have been axed as well. It's not anything to do with what was in the posts.

I never knew you as fredthe3rd, but I remembered the name when I saw it was your email. Ooh, had a reckless youth, did you?

Here, I just remembered that you've never said how your trip to London went. Did you have a good time?

I've been very busy this last couple of days trying to get some stories off for 31st. I think I could do with some 'hits' for the CV for when I get the novel done, hence the effort on doing short things as well at the moment. What are you writing at the moment - or is that something I shouldn't ask? (DON'T tell me your self-addressed script got lost in the post, PLEASE...)

thought i told you, it came back and i sent off a script to the bbc.

since then some sort of magic's come over me and i've been making faster progress than ever before.

making some good headway on an episode about a maniacal milkman at the minute.

did i know you were working on a novel? i'm not sure... what's it about? is it top secret?

i got kicked off for repeatedly calling aardvark woodvark a tw*t. a word i never normally use but it seemed perfect for him.

worst part was that he won because he got the better of me and bye-bye fredthe3rd...

i quite like waringhudsucker.

it is named after the most inventively written film ever after all (the hudsucker proxy - which you really ought to get cheap on video).

ps. where does nicky richfield come from?

it sounds like someone out of the manic street preachers - are you a massive fan of them? (unlikely seein as you're not a student)

writersdock is private but i'd much rather be able to see all past messages for reference - or at least the last couple so i know where i am.

so maybe email is the way forward?

and i just went to the front page and so a picture of doctor who!

don't worry come back i'm not a fanatic!

in fact it was the first full episode i'd ever seen.

i was more excited about christopher eccleston (fantastic in shallow grave) and ruusel t davies (cannot believe mine all mine didn't get a second series.)

i thought it did what it meant to really well and will stick with it.

back again...

i can't get onto writers dock!

it's just www.writersdock.co.uk right?

i thought it was the computer or server at first but other sites are fine!

i even tried connecting via the original email they sent to confirm registration and that didn't even work!

I thought 'THREE new messages'??? But now I see why!

And I've just realized I can only see the one I clicked 'reply' on. Oh, well, maybe you'll get several answers! (No, I've just managed to get two screens going so I can look back. Took my own advice from the next para.)

Writer's Dock has had a couple of funny five minutes-es over the last couple of days, so could still be it's them - you've got the right address. Just thinking - maybe it's possible to call up the reply screen in a different window, so you can toggle back and forth while you're answering. Might be worth a try. I saw you'd got over there yesterday, I think it was - you were on one thread I was.

No, you didn't tell me you'd sent off the script - hooray! The last you'd said was that you'd had to send the script to yourself a second time, and were waiting for it to come back. Glad you've got the wind in your sails. Maniacal milkman, eh? We had one of those when we first moved here in 1980. We had the system that we had a marker by the door, and he was supposed to leave whatever number of bottles it said. But our house is the one furthest from the road, and he used just to leave us whatever he'd still got in his crate - too many or too few, and he didn't give a damn! The last straw was one Christmas Eve. We'd been left a paper asking us to fill in the number of pints we wanted for each day from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day inclusive - so they could plan ahead, was all they said. As it happened, we were going away on Christmas Eve, so I put down 1 pint for then, and zeroes for all the other days. The mad milkman decided that I didn't know my own mind, and he would give us 3 pints (the most we ever had) for every day. So I opened the door, and there were 27 pints of milk all over the path!!! I mean, how the hell would you store 27 pint bottles in an ordinary domestic fridge, even if you WERE going to be there?

The bit about writing a novel and a play for live theatre is what is/was on my personal space. I don't think we've ever talked about it, but I'm part way through it. It's about a woman who takes a job helping to run a pub/hotel. She's good at her work, but not very confident in life situations, and obviously she gradually learns to trust her own judgement more throughout the story. There's a romance, but a lot more than that.

Well, you weren't wrong about aardvark/woodvark. He was one of the big multi-posters/trolls, wasn't he? (I think I remember rightly.)

I'll have to watch The Hudsucker Proxy. My son's said that, too.

Nicky Richfield was a pen-name I came up with for a competition where you had to put every piece of work in under a different alias. I always try to think of a name that's good luck in some way. (I won one under the name 'Victoria Riches', obviously 'victory - lots of money'.) Nicky was a variation on Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and Richfield - an area where I can earn, again! So when I joined GW, and the prompt came up 'nickname', Nicky Richfield was the first thing that popped into my head. (I don't know anything about the Manic Street Preachers except the name - are they worth me finding out?)

What about Christopher Ecclestone all over the NATIONAL NEWS today for saying he's quitting Dr Who after only one series!? He'll probably earn more as a result of his leaving publicity than he got for being in it. I think he's excellent in just about everything, as you say, likewise Russell T Davies. I really liked Saturday's episode - witty stuff in there that will have gone over a lot of the kids' heads, I bet.

I sent things in for all the comps with the 31st deadline - bit of a rush as I got two bits of other work today that I wasn't expecting, but it fitted in in the end. Shattered, but done.

no you're better off without the manic street preachers in your life. they're quite a long way up themselves - which is why students like them. i'm probably wrong but i thought one of them had a name simlilar to your nickname.

oh my mind works overtime!

i've just checked on a manics website:

the cross-dressing guitarist is called NICKY wire.

the one who mysteriously vanished about 10 years ago was called RICHEY

and the lead singer is called james dean bradFIELD!

so perhaps you can see where i was coming from...

but no don't bother with any albums. not when there are albums like 'i' by the magnetic fields to be had!

but i digress...

anyway i'm considering sending off multiple copies of the script to different production companies (some people seem to think you definitely should do this or you'll take forever to get anywhere, while others say the one and only production company that you send off to at a time will appreciate feeling exclusive)... anyway we're starting to think the carpet bombing approach makes most sense... got any views on this subject?

i'm feeling a bit lowly at the moment after me and a group of drunken mates accidently crashed my sisters first date with her new boyfriend the other night after we ran into them.

so i'm never drinking ever again!

God, no wonder you thought of the Manic Street Preachers, with those bits of name around. How odd!

I've heard people say both kinds of advice about sending off work. I'm inclined to think blanket bombing is the thing to do, 'they say' as long as you're honest about it if anybody shows any interest. Like anybody would calmly let two companies put the same series into production! (It might be different when you get to the stage of having written several shows and they can all be out there at once, each one an exclusive offer - that's the ideal, I expect.)

So, has your sister been bending your ear? Is she seeing the bloke again? If she is, I bet she's not telling you when and where - or was that the problem this time, and you didn't know where to avoid?!

I was about to post something to let off some steam then remembered this is readable by anybody. I'll put it in an email.

no my sister was even more pissed than me and thought it a great idea for us to come along. i suspect she was glad of the extra people, she's not in a hurry to arrange to see him again.

by pissed i mean drunk of course, not livid.

we've been thinking about the whole script thing and realised if we send them all out at once and they all have problems with the same areas we could make those changes but then we'd have no one left to send the improved version to (they'll hardly be in a hurry to read the same script again but tinkered with).

so we'll wait for the bbc's reply - presuming they don't accept it straight off (that woul be hopeful!) and it will hopefully have some pointers for where we went wrong then we can use those changes sending to to everyone else.

so one at a time - but only for the first one, then carpet bomb the rest into submission.

we're calling it the bit of both method.

Ah, there you are - I'm following you by one minute, apparently, having just answered your email!

Oh, well, if didn't wreck the love of your sister's life, that's one good thing, I guess. (D'you know any Americans? That's odd - they say 'pissed' for 'pissed off' (angry), and don't understand 'pissed off' for went away/home. Round here, we get a mix-up in local dialect with 'gone on', which most often means 'gone home', but quite often means 'died', so I've found myself doing the, 'Oh, dear - I never knew he was ill; what was it?' and then the other person says, 'I'm seeing him in the pub tonight.'!)

What you're doing about your script makes a lot of sense. You know when you said you've gone on writing more than ever before? - are you doing that with this same writing partner, or on your own?

Must go - GOT A SCRIPT TO READ...

same writing partner.

he's good people.

i was thinking i'd never be able to stop having new ideas for episode one but since i moved on to another episode i haven't had a single idea for it which is good. amazing how you can switch yourself on and off from certain trains of thought. i was worried i'd be re-writing after it had gone to air but maybe i'll be alright there. that would have been maddening!

i'm wishing i hadn't pushed you to reading that scene now i'm having doubts all of a sudden. no pressure or anything but i'll be completely devestated if you don't like it.

'amazing how you can switch yourself on and off from certain trains of thought'

That's the same feeling I get from having several things on the go at once - the novel and the full-length play, then the short stories or plays for competitions alongside as I feel like doing. It IS good, because it means you can stop yourself picking at one thing, even though you know what it needs is to sit quietly for a while.

I'm going to answer your answer about your script on WD. My god, what a responsibility you're putting on me! I KNOW you must have been feeling bad 'cos you even used a smiley! Thank heavens I did like it.

I had a phone call yesterday afternoon from a woman I know who writes poetry. As far as I can tell, it's very GOOD poetry. But even though I like to read SOME poetry SOMEtimes, and I can write it (done some song lyrics), I can't imagine spending all a writing life 'being a poet' - does that make sense? And this woman seemed to have a tendency to assume that I was going to think the same as she did on various points - not pushy, but just enough that it was a bit irritating that I kept feeling I had to say, 'Well, no, actually I...' and try to explain myself, when everything was making it clearer that her life has been VERY different from mine, and she's probably not going to 'get' it, and she'd actually be happier if she just left it vague. But I didn't think I ought to flat-out lie, either, and agree with everything. (I'm starting to think I ought to send in some stuff to greeting card manufacturers. Trouble is, I'd probably feel pushed after 10 'nice' verses, and the eleventh would be a right piss-take.)

Right, going to do some more to a story about all-in-the-mind lust among the over-60s over a ballroom dancing session - there's one to curl your toes!

curl my toes?

it's the story i've been looking for all these years!

is it humorous or straight out filth?

piss takes of nice greeting cards could be the way forward. people with a sense of humour who gets that it's a piss take could send it to someone they don't really like who they know has no sense of humour and will accept it as genuine.

even better they'll feel a bit uneasy but then assume it's genuine.

so everyone's happy...

you could rake it!

and as for the smiley... well there's no excuse is there?

sorry drunk when i wrote that.

read:

'someone with a sense of humour'

and

'you could rake it in'

thank you.

Right. A healthy, well set up feller like you, and you've been looking all your life for a tale of lustful geriatrics. M'mmmm. Did you hear a sound outside? Is it the people in the white coats?!

The story as I'm writing it isn't funny - it's rather sad, really, because the woman MC has been very uptight all her life and never had anything to do with men, then meets the dance team's Casanova and begins to get a rather specific inkling of what she might have been missing. I intend to leave it at the end of the piece that you don't know whether she'll actually do anything about it or not, but she definitely might. (I don't think I know anybody in real life who's done that - I've seen some old maids, but I'm fairly sure they stayed that way!)

Yep, I think you're right about the verses for cards. Maybe I'll dig out the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook for some addresses.