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

Hi, there! Great to find your message on Insomniacs. That and the good old Interminable have been a bit like the Mary Celeste lately.

What good news about the work, of various sorts? Feels good to be wanted, doesn't it? Do tell how it's going from time to time.

I've spent all afternoon and half the evening writing. Had minor heart failure part-way through - I'd typed the next scene into Word, and was closing the file when I got one of those 'this program has performed an illegal operation and will be closed down' messages. I know this isn't the end of the world, as normally whatever you were working on is 'recovered' when you next open Word. Only it refused to open. Okay, I thought, restart the computer and THEN it will be 'recovered' - only what it seemed to have got was the document MINUS the most recent scene. After 15 minutes of messing around, opening and closing everything I could think of, suddenly there it was again. Goodness knows what that was all about. Admittedly it wouldn't have been the total end of the world, because I do write in longhand first, but I'd just as soon not have to retype all those pages!

Talk to you sometime.

Dear Nicky,

Many thanks for your message. Yes, I do feel a bit energized by having work to do and being wanted!

Glad you recovered your lost scene. Reminds me of losing the peice of paper with Clipped Wings on.

It has been very quiet on the threads, but as you've said once before, I think, it goes in waves.

I'm going to be very quiet on the airwaves until January. I have so much to do with applications etc that I'm having a bit of a headache. So I'm going to finish reading, reviewing and voting for Spiderbaby's 60 word challenge, and then I'll have to get on with other stuff.

I hope to start a new group in mid December - for the first challenge to start on 1st January 2005. It will be based on an idea from Spiderbaby and Tom Hobbit. The group will probably be called 'First Two Paras'. There will be a challenge every month to write the first two paragraphs of a novel/short story, based on one of four given titles. These will be reviewed by the 15th of the month, and then we will have a fun vote for the winner. The second half of the month will be devoted to people getting help with the first two paragraphs of their own stories. People could write a short synopsis of their story if they wanted, to help us see where the first two paragraphs are going. Or they could just leave us with a cliff hanger, or wonderful opening moment that could be translated many different ways.

Anyway I would be really thrilled if you, Serin, Spiderbaby, Enig and all the others had the time to join. I'm hoping for a few joint owners to spread the time needed to run it.

I will not have time to post about it until mid Dec.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend. Have you got frost and clear skies? Everything here is frosty.

FG.

What happened with your piece of paper and Clipped Wings? Have you told that somewhere and I missed it?

I'm into the next scene now. The love she was starting to acknowledge and allow to grow is about to be blighted forever! (Have you seen Arrowqueen occasionally telling snippets of what she's writing? - '...only he's going to be hanged in the next chapter and he doesn't know it!')

We were forecast the weather you mention, but though it's cold and bleak, we've actually got grey skies and occasional rain. November weather, really. And I don't think it's *as* cold as they thought - I woke up too hot. We're off present-shopping for the m-i-l in a little while, which needs to get done so we can do the statutory meet-and-swap in good time beforehand. Her birthday's early January, too, so we have to think of both at once. (That information is all of a piece with gloomy weather!)

However... my husband just had a phonecall from a couple of good friends suggesting we meet and go out for a meal this evening, so that's brightened things up considerably!

Sounds as if you've got your hands into lots of things at the moment, and the new challenge group as well. Just like buses, all coming at once, eh? Don't know about coming in - thanks very much for asking me. I've a lot of things happening in life also, as well as A LOT of writing ideas coming in. I'm getting a strong feeling that I should get my head down and write them - get them out there in the big world. My moment? No messing? There's some time between now and then, and I'll maybe have a clearer idea.

I'm getting to grips with ScriptSmart. I like it. Saves no end of time formatting. Do you do/Have you done any scripts?

Well, I dare say you'll be lurking, even if not participating very much. Do drop a line from time to time to say you're alive, and tell of all the triumphs, one after the next!

See you around!

Cheers and more cheers Nicky. The piece of paper I lost had my 60 word entry on it - written longhand - lost somewhere on a trip to Weymouth, but discovered in a biography of Jane Austen.

It's started to rain here now. Means I won't be planting raspberry bushes with Mrs FG - but some friends are coming over for tea.

Talk to you soon.

Fats x

Nice to see you about. Hope everything's going well.

With all that's happening about GW, not knowing what's to come and when, I'd like to know that you know how to contact me without it should you want to. (Lots of knows.) (I'm a 'knowsy' person, evidently!)So, without posting something that can be automatically collected for spamming, imagine the names venton and carter and the number two (as a figure), all run together with no punctuation or spaces, at the universal provider of 'warm post', and you're there. Please try it if you'd like!

Dear Nicky,

Nice to get your message.

Yes, I'd really like to keep in touch.

I'll try to send you an email, but if I fail then Serin has my details, so you could contact me through her.

I think the trouble is that there are people that you obviously would want to keep in touch with; but then there are all the others that you don't have much contact with, but are fantastic people/writers/sparky characters. It takes all of us, and even the antagonistic banter, to make GW interesting.

It could be that different writers groups appear from the ashes. I hope all the 60 word people, and many others, do manage to still work together.

I think we all need a few of these.

Hear, hear to all of that.