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The general indifference to Chapter 2 of 'The Van ...' has been quite deafening. I have therefore decided to discontinue it. At least as a TG/TV tale. I still think there is mileage in the idea and am toying with rewriting and perhaps posting in on Fictioneer in due course. I enjoy writing and, if other commitments permit, that is perhaps the way forward for me.
I shall leave my other stories here on the off chance that they may provide amusement for a few future readers. The 'Van' itself as shall mark as unfinished as an interim step. If Erin or other administrators think it would be best removed rather than left unfinished then I will be happy to do so. Or they themselves have my permission to do it.
I am not deserting the site but hope to drop in frequently so as not to lose touch with those whom I have come to regard as good friends. I owe this site a lot as through it I have come to greatly enjoy the experience of writing. For me this has been a source of considerable enjoyment. Alas it appears that this pleasure is not one that has been greatly shared and so the time has come for me to move on as far as story telling is concerned.
This then is basically to apologise for leaving a tale unfinished and to try to explain why I have done so.
Hugs,
Fleurie
Comments
A pity ...
... because the story had passed me by - even the first episode. However, a year is quite a long time between postings and we forget even writings of this quality. Anyway, I know that Peak District village ... both of them :) I also remember a report in the Matlock Mercury about a stolen county library van a few years back. It was never recovered and what was already only a few paragraphs on page 2 faded to nothing very quickly. Now I know why.
Robi
Regardless of how things play out, please consider
continuing to contribute here? You're a fine writer who adds much to this site, and I am blessed for that! Thanks and best wishes!
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Horses To Water
Sigh.....I can understand how you feel. The deafening silence of the absence of comment; the disappointment of a low hit count when you have poured your all into the story.
What makes things worse is that everyone should know what a fine writer you are. "Fleurie" on the title block should have an automatic cachet. Classics like "An Eft In Her Bra" should stir interest in anything you post.
How do you explain why this latest story does not resonate with the BC audience? I don't know. I certainly can't. I found it intriguing and was/am looking forward to the next episode.
All I can say is that at least some of us will miss you. Your friends here know your generosity of spirit and appreciate your talent as well as your wit and marvellous grasp of the language.
I hope you will find it in yourself to post here again in the future,
Joanne
I don't know
anything about "Van" but Eft was brilliant. if it tanked it tanked, I think we've all written stuff that we had not work the way we thought it would.
Bailey Summers
One in twenty-two thousand novels submitted...
...for publication is accepted.
Rejection is a fact of the writing life. Heinlein had his famous five rules: "You must write, you must finish what you write, you must place it on the market, you must not rewrite it (unless an editor guarantees to buy the rewrite), and you must leave it on the market until it sells." Heinlein was not a likable fellow, and it's easy to mistake the protagonists of his novels for idealised representations of himself, but he knew lots about the business of writing.
His other telling observation on writing was: ""A writer is like a beggar with a bowl. No one has to read fiction. A man can always spend his spare cash on beer. The reader I have in mind is someone who bought my book instead of a six-pack of beer. My purpose is to be entertaining enough to get him to do it again."
Of course, at least some of this is fatuous nonsense probably spurred on in part by his hatred of Alexi Panshin -- a brilliant writer, by the way, and his Rite of Passage is one of the best attempts by a male writer to "get inside" a young girl's head -- but there's a grain of truth in it. Whilst Heinlein is not *merely* a hack, every writer is in part a hack, because they publish in anticipation of an audience. Much of what they teach in writing schools is the array of "tricks" a writer uses to appeal to wider audiences.
If one writes stories, after all, which appeal only to one-handed cab drivers in lower Slovenia, one mustn't be surprised if one doesn't make the New York Times Best Seller List or win the Booker Prize within the next few weeks.
As a general rule, the BC audience is far more accepting and encouraging than any editor in the real world, whose only correspondence or comment is likely to be: "We regret to say that your article/poem/short story/novel dos not meet our present needs." *If* and *only* if, you supply a self-addressed and stamped envelope with a pre-printed rejection letter along with your submission. Many submissions are simply ignored, in these days of electronic submission, because one is no longer required to drop the returned manuscript in its SASE into a letterbox.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style