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

...so very true Prof - even though we are mostly typed characters, behind our keyboards we are real enough!

surreal, even

Moi? Surreal - never! lol

of course not, dear

i was referring more to myself - and maybe a few other whose names shall not be mentioned

could have been fun to have dali paint your portrait though

with me! what you see in written type, is what you get in real life, no pretences ask Lil

my psychiatrist says I'm getting betterbut I have reason to doubt him, as he's seeing a psychiatrist now

I would consider it an honor to meet you someday, prof.

I too with you Paul, I to my friend

all we have to do is win the lottery. i am still w*rking on it

with the lottery, I'm playing cowboys and Indian's, I keep surrounding the numberseither side

I'll never win if I keep forgetting to buy a ticket.

I'm really great with money! I have absolutely no problems with spending it

we should use the principle of improbability - like the guys who built 'the heart of gold'

anyone remember where they live

I feel sorry for my walletit's got anorexia nerviosa(slimming disease)and I can't find a cure

The people who built the Heart of Gold live well outside the perimeter of places I can get to.

When I was about ten or eleven I was a prodigious reader, and having read all of the books in the children's section of our library - I was given an adult ticket. The only thing that really grabbed my imagination there was the sci fi section. I used to really believe that we would conquer space and meet other beings 'out there'

I suppose that's why I've always had a soft spot for 'Hitchhiker' and would jump aboard the Heart of Gold without a backward glance if it passed my way.

no, that doesn't mean I believe in aliens abductions and crop circles, more a fondness for the writings of Iain M Banks (the Culture Series) and so on.

i practically grew up in a library. my father was a librarian. (after he died my mother became a part-time librarian and more or less at the same time my oldest sister finished library school, but that's another story)

before my father got another job (as a historian) and we moved to another town there was a period when i visited him most afternoons, made tea and shared a few s and conversation - usually with a guest or two (this was a small town and my father was the only one w*rking in this particular library)

before and after i would go through whatever books were available - and even if this was a small library there were thousands - plus we could always borrow more from other libraries

where was i

oh yes, scifi caught my interest when i was just 10 or 12 or so. jules verne first, i think, later isaac asimov, robert a heinlein and - of course - the great arthur c. clarke!

dang this air is dry and i talk too much. i need an

Well I never! what a coincidence, all my (girl) friends were reading romance and stuff, but I never could get interested in any of that sort of nonsense.

Ages ago, in the dim and distant past, my husband opened a bookshop, and then I really was happy. I just LOVE the smell of new books.

drat I meant

I

I grew up in a small town. My mother when to work in the town library when my younger brother was little. At one point, my father was on the board of library trustees, and I was mowing the library lawn every summer. Some kind of conflict-of-interest law went into effect, and we all had to sign a statement to the effect that we were not taking unfair advantage of the town by all working at or for the library.

Anyway, I came late to science fiction as a literary genre. I did like fantasy, though. My sister has since taken up writing, and her efforts are mostly science fiction/fantasy stories.

there is so much more you can do when writing scifi and fantasy. even the sky is no limit. as opposed to a romantic story set in - say - england in the 17th century. or serious contemporary journalism. douglas adams wrote something along these lines somewhere, i seem to remember, but can't remember when and where right now and it doesn't matter anyway

and adams himself proved it. not only did he let his imagination run wild (well, not quite uncontrolled, but still), he also added a lot of humour and actual science. and proved that he knew and understood way more about science than i ever will

my throat is dry again

pours Pierce a glass of good red wine for the sake of the conversation.

I have to agree, there is so much that you can conceptualise, when writing science fiction, whether it is a Utopian or dystopian society or the philosophical questions of machines with sentient 'brains'

I suppose this is the reason that my favourite film will always be Blade Runner, and the last scene with the death of Rutger Hauer as Roy will always bring tears to my eyes.


I am SO glad I met you lot!