tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post4266166828427130576..comments2024-02-17T09:53:06.168+00:00Comments on Notes from the Slushpile: Lost Landscapes - Finding Stories Candy Gourlayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07802791643303335762noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-38496817833819834012012-11-18T10:29:41.223+00:002012-11-18T10:29:41.223+00:00Oh, for them to be real! I think I'm a bit in ...Oh, for them to be real! I think I'm a bit in love with Terry Pratchett. Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-9133629672038626892012-11-17T22:29:43.724+00:002012-11-17T22:29:43.724+00:00I'm a big folklore fan too, Addy. I recently b...I'm a big folklore fan too, Addy. I recently bought a book on Scottish fables in Edinburgh with a foreword by Terry Pratchett who uses folklore from the book. It's very thick and I'm working my way through it wondering if I'll come across the Nac Mac Feegles going Waily Waily. But somehow I think they are from Terry's head. Maureen Lynashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16855138050232488108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-57455334019202316752012-11-17T22:18:01.875+00:002012-11-17T22:18:01.875+00:00I saw it! Took me ages but I got there.
I saw it! Took me ages but I got there.<br />Maureen Lynashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16855138050232488108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-13626210085143460042012-11-17T22:17:17.878+00:002012-11-17T22:17:17.878+00:00I blame my husband's claustrophobia on that sc...I blame my husband's claustrophobia on that scene. Oh to write a scene that can stick in the mind for thirty years!Maureen Lynashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16855138050232488108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-7162430020665551242012-11-13T22:15:31.414+00:002012-11-13T22:15:31.414+00:00The Owl Service was a very special book for Garner...The Owl Service was a very special book for Garner - so many odd happenings combined to help him form the story. I understand that the tv series (from the 70s?) was plagued by strange events and bad luck. It was the least favourite for me but probably the most disturbing. Good luck with Stormteller, David! Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-19456969865649680452012-11-13T22:11:08.743+00:002012-11-13T22:11:08.743+00:00That is absolutely brilliant. Sounds a bit like Wo...That is absolutely brilliant. Sounds a bit like Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire. It's a Gothic stone-built house at the bottom of a deep valley and it was abandonned mid-build; like the Marie-Celeste with ladders and tools left as though the builders had fled...Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-75271221543120375512012-11-13T16:34:14.037+00:002012-11-13T16:34:14.037+00:00gosh makes me wish that you WERE a novelist!
gosh makes me wish that you WERE a novelist!<br />Candy Gourlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07802791643303335762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-83969292118349836952012-11-13T15:33:12.797+00:002012-11-13T15:33:12.797+00:00I'm also a big fan of folklore and incorporati...I'm also a big fan of folklore and incorporating it within stories. It goes with a sense of place that means the story can be really well rooted. Alan Garner's books were big influence on me as well. In particular, The Owl Service, being set in mid-Wales, where I spent 17 years of my life until a year ago, was foremost in my mind in writing my last novel, Stormteller, which is also based on local myths and set in the same area. Aside from that, it is very different. This novel is not yet published, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that a Welsh publisher, which I'm due to meet later this month, may do so! If you want to no more about it, you can have a look at this website, which also details the myths and locations I use: http://www.davidthorpe.info/stormteller/DavidKThorpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04215770376688861114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-20441395394196903062012-11-13T10:50:57.220+00:002012-11-13T10:50:57.220+00:00Not folklore as such, but I was having a fascinati...Not folklore as such, but I was having a fascinating chat this morning to a local builder who remembers the area where I live when it used to be the old Lambeth Hospital (if you watched the Grand Designs programme featuring the water tower, that's the one). He described how, a few years back, he was asked to make good the roofs on some old cottages that had previously formed part of the surgeons' accommodation for the huge hospital and workhouse complex. The cottages still stand, he said (and I presume that they're listed and hence can't be demolished), but no-one had been in them for nearly 50 years. He walked in and found everything still there - all the old furniture still in its place, even pens still sitting in their pen pots. By this point in the conversation there were shivers going down my spine - not because I believe in literal ghosts, but because there is something inherently ghostly and elegiac about such a scene. <br />If I were a novelist rather than someone writing picture books I'm sure I could find a whole world in there to write about - it's endlessly fascinating. Elli Woollardhttp://wordstroll.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-44526244677652336402012-11-12T19:39:03.758+00:002012-11-12T19:39:03.758+00:00creeeeeepy!creeeeeepy!Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-23823821858132377132012-11-12T15:30:27.933+00:002012-11-12T15:30:27.933+00:00wish I'd been in yur class, Gill!wish I'd been in yur class, Gill!Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-30415077180047960322012-11-12T14:45:34.538+00:002012-11-12T14:45:34.538+00:00oooh that face! you're right. there's so m...oooh that face! you're right. there's so much to be discovered!Candy Gourlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07802791643303335762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-49712998463476506832012-11-12T13:44:43.607+00:002012-11-12T13:44:43.607+00:00Love the Alan Garner stories and used to read them...Love the Alan Garner stories and used to read them to my class. I remember we all cried at the outcome of the valiant dwarf's last battle. The chapter where they are trying to crawl out of the mine through increasingly narrow passages is just too claustrophobic for words!Gill Hutchisonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-67783653389976813332012-11-12T13:31:30.992+00:002012-11-12T13:31:30.992+00:00I loved The Dark is Rising! Thanks for reminding m...I loved The Dark is Rising! Thanks for reminding me, Paula!Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-75519905402778962882012-11-12T13:30:40.033+00:002012-11-12T13:30:40.033+00:00What's not to like?!What's not to like?! Addy Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00450583537731030466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-57992577306213967582012-11-12T11:21:13.249+00:002012-11-12T11:21:13.249+00:00Great blog, Addy! Susan Cooper also roots her fant...Great blog, Addy! Susan Cooper also roots her fantasy in the local in The Dark is Rising series. She uses Lyonesses in one of the books too!Paula Harrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01455380645038090414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-701894736280253278.post-53247970628759608272012-11-12T10:13:15.050+00:002012-11-12T10:13:15.050+00:00I've always been fond of Atlantis, so must loo...I've always been fond of Atlantis, so must look up more about Lyonesse! Thanks!A. Colleen Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13626402785266163594noreply@blogger.com