When I sit down and think about it, it strikes me as completely absurd that I'm still writing a story which was intended to last a few episodes, and is now just about twenty away from 1800. Five years ago if someone had asked me if I'd be able to do another twenty episodes, I'd have been far from confident about saying I could - now, it's taken for granted I will - both by readers and I suppose myself, as well.
In boring the pants off readers, I've learned quite a lot about writing and about me, too. I always knew I could scribble a bit, and doing Snafu and my Gabysodes, knew I could write novel length stories - Bike has shown me I can also write library sized stories - though I admit some episodes and plot lines are better than others.
The characters perform in my head and I write down what I see and hear, thankfully, it's mostly literate, although my keyboard is aging and some keys don't always register, so I'm grateful to one or two editors who correct my typos and others who point them out to me.
In the original hundred or two episodes, I wrote directly to the website, so they were completely spontaneous - warts and all. Then for several reasons, I began losing them as I tried to save and so on. So I began writing at home, then cutting and pasting. I was such an ingenue, I had to enlist the help of Karen to do this at first, then I managed it myself.
My much missed friend, the late Gabi Bunton, helped me with Bike and my other scribbles and taught me quite a bit about presentation and editing. She also believed in my abilities when I had occasional self doubts, and told me I was good enough to write professionally. When I give up the day job, I might well have a try at writing a mainstream novel, but that's two or three years away just now.
I notice the numbers of hits has dropped a bit, but then I get comments from someone who's reading it from the start and I'm encouraged to keep going. When I hear that one or two have actually read it more than once, I'm tempted to do so myself - apart from anything else, the plot has twisted so many times, I often forget earlier bits - so there are some mistakes at times.
I still write each episode quickly - well one to two hours - and post it immediately, site permitting. Which means so far, I've given between 1800 and 3,600 hours to my readers on this project alone. The payback is to see the comments and kudos of which I generally get my share, I also get grumbles - huh, ten percent of this site is that bloody rubbish by that stupid Welsh woman - yeah, okay; everyone is entitled to their own opinion - even if it's wrong.
So, my genius apart - yeah, it's only my modesty that holds me back - do you, the readers want me to continue this seemingly endless drivel, I mean example of great literature, or have you had enough of Cathy and her family?
One day I'll get fed up with writing it, but at the moment, providing I have time, then I'll continue posting most days, providing of course that Erin is happy to continue indulging my ramblings.
So, let me know if you want me to carry on for the moment, anyway.
Angharad
Comments
Only as long as you want to
But please, don't cut us off cold turkey. Just find a way to wrap it up.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
I would like to see Bike continued
although I feel from you that you would like to expand out some more to writing other things. I encourage you to. But don't forget us Biker's when you do :)
Sephrena
Just to clarify
I'm not looking to stop Bike in the near future unless the consensus says differently. However, I like to get a mandate from readers to continue, as well as agreement from the management to do so.
Angharad
Growing Old Gracefully
By all means please continue only if your muse sees fit. It has been such a wonderful adventure thus far, enough so that I have spent the last couple of weeks rereading it once again from the beginning am just now catching up to the finish line again and anticipating what Trish is going to pull out of her planet sized noggin this week. :)
So, please carry on and let us watch the kids and Cathy grow older gracefully or lead us to a gentle conclusion if your Muse thus travels in that direction.
Beverly Colleen
Beverly's Balcony
**********
I am a leaf on the wind, but someone turned the fan off.
Yes please
'Bike' is the highlight of my day (sad or what?) so please continue for as long as your muse, your audience and, especially, you want to do so.
And yes - I'm one of the 'read the whole thing more than once' brigade; it's no wonder that my own stories are so slow being written. Between you and a small but select band of authors here at BCTS, I'm kept amused for hours.
S.
if you write it i'll read it.
if you wish to continue to write "bike" then i for one will continue to read for as long as you do so.
As one who has been reading daily since about the 400's, and read through again after 1600, i'll just say thank you very much.
hugs
Amanda
Bike
It's one of the nicer things I do all day. If you write it, I will continue happily to read it.
I would like you to continue.
But if you decide otherwise I would like to see plot lines resolved. I'vebread from the beggining and am part way through a second read.
Thera
Still reading...
...and still doing bits 'n' bobs occasionally on my project to migrate the old summary spreadsheet onto a new Wiki. I've now got a script to help with the automation, but in running it I realised that some of the stuff I added to the later summaries (including a paragraph or two of text, interesting titles / part numbers etc.) wasn't added to the earlier ones. So I'm starting to get those updated on a local copy of the spreadsheet, then I can start porting over the summaries.
In the meantime, the character sheets are already 'live' over there, and free to edit by anyone bored enough.
If you're curious, head over to The Daily Dormouse Wiki - don't be afraid to experiment - Wikia saves the full edit history so if you accidentally delete half the text, you can revert to the last saved revision :)
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Approaching 1800
Please continue on.
With respect to all the other contributers, this is the best story on the site.
It makes me happy every time
It makes me happy every time I see a new chapter of Bike pop up on the front page. Like some others, I got into it somewhere along the way, then went back and read it from the start.
I hope you have the desire to continue for quite some time. I'll continue to be a loyal fan.
Give Bonzi and Izzy a scratch behind the ears from me.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Full circle
I initially only joined here in order to write something to you about a similar question! My answer then was the same as it is now: pray continue, os gwelwch yn dda!
doorstops
I am glad I started this at the beginning, I hear from the odd person... oooooh god I'm not touching that one after looking at the numbers or maybe seeing one of those comments were some maniac has printed out the entire thing. Sort of brings to mind some dotty old hoarder with wall to wall newspapers and 50 cats and such. I mean this is the war n peace of BC and probably (?) much bigger and more readable.
Still I can probably after succumbing to senility go back and read the entire thing and laugh and cry and it will be all new, not that your writing will push me there of course Ang, well maybe a little, I only need a nudge after all. I do know I am bereft if it doesn't appear each day and have to attack the lolly jar for comfort. I am though of course utterly boggled at your ability to keep it rolling the way you do with so few punctures.
Sarcastic ravings aside do please pedal on as long as you feel able, you don't want to be responsible for people all over the globe attacking the lolly jars they are desperately trying to ignore. Or maybe give an excuse to indulge, oh the guilt.
Pedal on, maniacs unite and good sportswoman biking person stuff Olympic style and this Bike thing is that too. What's a Bike marathon? Silly and glib aside thanks eh.
Kristina
Continue? ,yes!!!!! I look
Continue? ,yes!!!!! I look forward to every episode and virtually feel bereft if there is not one or the site is not up when I try to log on (rare these days). As far as critics, those who can write well, write well, those who cannot,criticize the efforts they cannot emulate. Ignore them for the silly people they may be. Maintaining "Bike" for as long as you have (and as long as we hope you will) is the mark of a good writer with characters you like as well. Please keep it up.
CaroL
CaroL
carry on as long as the story works for you
I'm far behind, having just finished the first 100 chapters and probably wont ever catch up unless I win a lottery and can quit my job and spend a couple of months on it. Despite that, I hope you keep writing it as long as ideas come.
Who New
WOW that's all I can say , and the story line is still interesting & fresh
To Be or Not to Be
That is the question.
I for one ask for more, More, MORE! I enjoy the characters. They have become old familiar friends. I expect difficult situations, and solutions involving Cathy, Simon, the whole family, and all their friends.
I look at the growth of each of the characters, and wonder what they are doing, what they will be doing, and what will become of them.
I see plots unfolding into plots into plots. There is an almost infinite variety of situations, events, and possibilities. I can hardly wait to find out which of them comes to pass.
But, most of all, I'm addicted. I need my Daily Dormouse. It's my soap opera of choice, and I'm depressed whenever it fails to arrive.
As long as you are up to it, I am eager to read it. If and when you hang it up, I shall be depressed for weeks on end. My family will have died, and they will have left me to walk the earth, alone.
Red MacDonald
Yes, please continue
I am not sure that it is as Easy As Falling Off A Bike, anymore, but I have enjoyed each episode very much. I look forward to my daily bike fix, and if you really really really really really must stop this wonderful series (I hope it never ends!), then please take a few episodes to wrap it up.
Scratches to Bonzi and Izzy
Don't let someone else talk you out of your dreams. How can we have dreams come true, if we have no dreams?
Katrina Gayle "Stormy" Storm
Ang, I love reading the Cathy
Ang, I love reading the Cathy Chronicles, but I say keep going with it as long as you feel inspired to write it. Don't write just because we say so. I do request that if you end it end it such a way that it is ended and not just dropped. But I hope you don't end it soon, love the direction it is going in.
Gadzooks, please do continue!
I'd also be pleased if you would find a way to bind these, as even long after the internet passes on, I would like the option to re read it. Admittedly the first 20 episodes seemed to lack direction and mission, but after that, it has been fun to watch Cathy do everything from fight off villians to breast feed babies. I thought that her temper was a bit volatile at first, but she seems to have become increasingly comfortable in her skin and now has presence when dealing with riff raff and others.
I would indeed enjoy your continuing this fine tale.
Much peace
Gwendolyn (With suitably meek curtsey)
PS. I have no idea where I picked the custom up. Pardeep certainly did not teach me. But in certain situations in dealing with people I value, I frequently do a modified bob when we are finished speaking. I do wonder if Cathy taught that to me?
Bike
Well, I guest I have to agree with those ahead me and probally after me too! Please Continue as the day is not complete until I(WE) have had our latest eposide from you of BIKE! Please Continue!
Richard
As long as the muse moves you,
I firmly believe that you should keep going.
I may not comment often, but I read every episode (sometimes I let them stack up for a week or two, then read all at once), and I have enjoyed the story.
I could see the story being able to be condensed down into approximately ten, maybe twelve, 'books', much like the old Nancy Drew/Tom Swift/Hardy Boys books. Just a series of chronologically connected books, intended for fun. That's the joy of editing :)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Approaching 1800
I say CONTINUE Bike and your other tomes.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Still reading
I'm still reading and I look forward to each new chapter.
Julie
10,000.00
Please don't stop until you reach 10,000.{Highlight to read}
I feel like I should start with, "These are the day of our Lives
I do enjoy this "little" story, and remain both grateful for the writer(s) and astounded at the quality (and quantity!)
I can only hope that you continue writing it until you are tired of it, and that day remains firmly in the distant future!
Janice
YES
YES YES YES YES YES. Bike was the first series I started to read 4 years ago when I stumbled into this literary wonderland. It has been read and reread several times and both of my girls [ 7 and 10 ]are well versed with my ramblings about Catherin and her family and ask regularly how they are and what they are doing.
I would feel very empty with out the presents of Bike and all the delightful characters running around within the stories. And as silly as it may seam I would realy wish to be a friend to a person like Catherin it would be an honor and joy to be her DR Watson, even if I needed to go toe to toe with the Goddess herself I would be proud to do it. Scared shi#le&% {Brown trousers time} but proud.
Huggles
Michele
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Carry on
If you feel the desire of course. Know that my botnet of supporters above has fooled you into believing there is more support ... erm, never mind.
The only thing I really ask is if you do plan to end the series that the whole blue light arc is provided closure and a reasonable thumbnail sketch of Cathy's future be presented in the epilogue.
Kim
Nooooooooo!!!!!!
I mean, please don't stop writing Bike! I can personally claim 4 converts to the bike-verse...
As always, the answer is within you. I will read it if you will write it. Thank you for the years of enjoyment you have given us and we all want more!
Abby
"library sized"?
Sounds like you've come up with a new unit of measurement, even if it's not standardized. = D
I say non-standardized, because my local libraries are considerably smaller than The Great Library of Alexandria was. Mobile libraries are even smaller.
Please continue.
Dear Angharad,
While many others have expressed their love of your story, especially in how the characters have evolved along with them as the saga continues, it also confirms what you already believed.
Yes, you are a writer. One whose skill has been enhanced by the sheer length of your saga. It is not a matter of waiting for the ‘muse’ to strike but your day after day of writing has meant that your ‘scribbling’s’ have value and merit.
I for one will read anything you write, yes even the shopping list, complete with apple and custard pastry.
So love and thanks to you for all your effort and to Bonzi and the Whizz, for lkeeping you at it.
Love to All
Anne G.
Most definitely.
For as long as you choose to continue I'll read. I started late but still have 1600 and change to go. I have a giggle at the fact I get to read a dozen or so episodes a day at the day(ugh)job. Take that (large evil company) you're paying me to read Bike, an unexpected part of my benefit package.
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair