CLOG?

[Will]

I've been in "sequel" mode.

The sequel to Love, Death and Tea is in beta, with a lovely coven of ladies ever so politely ripping it to shreds. That's called "Love, Death and Wyrds" where I get to write in the first person as a women. I must admit that it feels kinda kinky, like having silk against my skin.

A little bit further down the production line, I am 11,000 words into the first draft of the sequel to Global Domination for Beginners. "First Contact for Beginners" takes the anti-heroes from Global Domination and throws them into space. Because it's fun. Hopefully.

[Andy]

Howdy all,
Good to hear from everyone. I've just started writing again. I had a pretty lengthy break. I found it hard to be comical when I was so sleep deprived and grumpy. Damn children aye.
But I've started working on raw crimes, a titanic tale about war campaigns. It's only In Early stages but I like how the characters are forming, or deforming.

[Mr Savage Cushions]

Hi Cloggers

I came across an interesting article the other day:
https://www.tckpublishing.com/how-to-...

It is absolutely true that, upon discovering you have written a book, the first question is always, 'What is your book about?' I have been asked a number of times and my brain usually explodes.
What I found interesting from the article is that it states that, for a log-line, there is a formula to follow:

In a (SETTING), (YOUR PROTAGONIST) has a (CONFLICT) because of (ANTAGONIST or SOURCE OF CONFLICT) as they try to (GOAL).

I haven't worked hard on this to see if it works with The Flatpack Observer, but noted one elephant in the room: my book does not have an antagonist as such. Unless the antagonist is the village itself... as it is the village that is preventing the main character from achieving his goal - to leave the village.

Anyway, thought the article was worth a read.

good whiskers
Savage

[Raymond]

Mr Savage Cushions wrote: "my book does not have an antagonist as such...."

I'm not ready for my review of Flatpack yet; I unsolemnly promise it will be ready by Gruntle Day. But perhaps there is a protagonist and antagonist tangle within the work:
Edward vs Jack.

Just a thought.

[Raymond]

Observations of the observer upon Flatpack upon the Meander

The British are fond of going down rabbit holes and sewers, into train station walls, through looking glasses, into wardrobes or just flying out the window straight on till morning, second star to the right. They do it so well! Perhaps it’s a tribal memory of exploring fairy brughs. Then again, perhaps it’s escapism from all those awful boarding schools.

Whatever the cause, when arrived, a proper citizen of Albion can be certain of one thing: there will be tea.

Edward St. Claire is a total prat (great Britishism; not sure what it means but doesn’t it hint at ‘splat’, ‘frat’ and ‘shat’?) Edward has trashed his life; and like Graceless of the City of Destruction (Pilgrim’s Progress) has a helpful stranger point out the path to redemption. Granted, Graceless was anxious to go. Edward, not so much. But he is literally at the end of the road, and said end chivies him to the new life. The new life of Official Town Vagrant for the hidden hamlet of Flatpack on the Meander. Where everything is: chaotic, happy lunacy. Let’s consider those two adjectives, before we get to the noun.

First, ‘chaotic’. The humor of Alice Through the Looking Glass is dreamlike; yet orderly. Household items and daily habits are distorted, reversed, turned alive; but always keep a domestic logic. The humor of Flatpack is more chaotic. The town has customs that exist in no other land, occur to no minds but theirs and Roger Kent. Much of the humor is in the seriousness in which they accept the absurdity. Think Monty Python skits, putting straight faces on inexplicable words and motions. And yet there is depth in the absurdity, which all real humor requires. Depth? There is literally a mind beneath the town for whom the thoughts of the villagers is breath, life and purpose.

Let’s move to the second adjective: ‘happy’. This is a deeply happy story, for all that the protagonist is a prat, a wanker, and five other words for ‘jerk’ commonly shouted upon the playing fields of Eton. For there is a magic called ‘The Flatpack Effect’ which has the power to redeem. And Edward St. Claire is in need of the Effect. In a critical point of the story he is shown that difference between Flatpack upon the Meander and any modern village is... it’s happy. The mad customs are mere froth. Happiness is the quality that tilts it fourteen and a half degrees from the horizontal. And Edward sees, perhaps better than the villagers, that the cause of its happiness is kindness. He’s an immediate convert.

Does that seem strange to you? It won’t, if you have ever lived where all faces were poison, all words were barbed, all emotions base... your face, your words, your emotions included. You live as one more denizen of the jungle. And then some magic door opens, and you come to another house, another family or town where the default sentiment is kindness. At first you’d scoff, hold yourself aloft. But soon you’d know why these people laugh easy, why they seem absurdly concerned about you. Simply put, they are kind.

If that change of environment has ever happened to you, then you will understand what Edward feels as he rescues Flatpack upon the Meander; just as it rescues him.

‘Chaotic’ and ‘happy’ are done; now to the noun: ‘lunacy’. To the mind of the unredeemed Edward, Flatpack is an asylum. He come to see wisdom in the madness. We readers, of course being wise folk all of us, already saw the wisdom of dancing on a giant pie. But how did Edward transcend? Seemingly by falling for a pretty girl. But I say he has fallen in love with Flatpack itself; for whom the pretty girl is only symbol. Readers may do the same.

Oh, I should say in passing that Mr. Kent has written a damned excellent adventure; full of sly quick mad humor, insane characters you’d like to meet and buns you’d like to bite. As for the poem at the end... I can hear the Reverend Charles Dodson laughing aloud, from up the rabbit hole and beyond the mirror.

[Mr Savage Cushions]

Raymond. Thank you. What an extraordinary and kind summary.

I feel that you know me better than I know myself - my influences, background and the things that make me laugh. These include: observational humour, the English, straight- faced/dead-pan humour, random humour to which an explanation is neither required nor provided, (e.g. Being hit on the head lessons,) and recurring/running jokes,

Incidentally, I intend to continue including a 'u' in 'humour' because I just love those red, wiggly lines.

Amongst the things....(pause; now why does 'Amongst' deserve a red wiggly?)... unpause. Oh this is getting ridiculous.

Amongst the things that don't make me laugh.. at all...ever, are slapstick, puns, vulgarity, one liners, (to be honest, stand-up in general with the exception of Milton Jones and Billy Connolly when he isn't talking about bodily functions.)

I digress. Edward puts up a good fight to escape from Flatpack - he has become a selfish pig and it is all he knows. The villagers are alien and deeply beneath him. He has been given a get-out-of-jail card and still he would rather return home to his miserable life with all the accusations about his affair. The rather-obvious turning point is his first sight of Primrose and her look of recognition.

I enjoy traditions and customs, and some of the real ones are pretty darned silly, so the retrieval of 3 coins from a giant pie and the annual hanging of the village's founder in effigy are only extensions of cheese-rolling and wife-carrying.

Anyway, thank you Raymond for reading the book and for your above summary. If you could put an abbreviated version on nice Mr Amazon's site, I'd be most grateful.

regards.