Hi folks! I have to keep this V - quick today as I'm signed up for the 'school-run' all week. Just a not to say how much I have appreciated all your feedback as regards the covers for the new book, both left as comments here and as direct email to me. Taking various peoples advice and the consensus opinion I have made one or two changes to the chosen cover which I hope improve matters. A momentary glance at the sidebar will reveal I have taken the opportunity afforded by creating a link to my latest (not newest - never newest!) publication to rearrange various features, not least of which being to make my direct email link more obvious. You will also see I have taken steps to ensure a PDF download version is easily available. I have also made a hard cover edition available; I wouldn't expect anyone to purchase this - it works out far too expensive, what with the dreaded 'postage and packing' and all - but it all helps make the book more visible to the various search engines, especial;y LULU's!
Right; before I go, here is a lovely little artwork sent anonymously to me and which I just couldn't resist sharing with you. I hope it leaves you as it did me... er...stimulated... In fact it has got me writing again! Just when I had ground to a halt. I have no idea as to the artist's identity so if you are he (or her) let me know and I will acknowledge you (or remove the image should you object).
I think you were finally right to choose the shadow of the old-style street lamp. The staircase was appealing but incongruous since it looked like an inside staircase and was not in keeping with the window which is obviously overlooking the street.
ReplyDeleteI still have one reservation (I know, I'm a pain in the ass) about the vivid colour of the word THE since the rest of the picture is in various shades of grey (ha, ha)and as grim as it should be in those dark ages.
Hi there, Orage!
ReplyDeleteNot everyone liked the streetlight, I suppose because it threatens to over-complicate things. But it was actually in the street where I took the photograph of the terrace, although not the street in which I took the picture of the window in which the governess figure appears, wielding her cane. If that window actually had been in the position it appearers in relation to the rest of the terrace of houses, then the lamp post would have cast a shadow pretty much in the position depicted (give or take a bit of artistic license). For that reason, and the fact that obviously it would have been there throughout the 1960s (when there would have been many more similar) I thought it should be included.
If you look carefully at the upper-left part of the image there is a wall plaque dating some structure or other to 1963. This was not part of the street but was actually from a shot I took of a 1960s-built post office in a place called Southgate, North London.
I think the stairs you are referring to are an artifact created by the overlay of multiple images and the steps you can make out are actually those leading up from the pavement to the street door (or doors) of one or more of the houses making up the terrace in the background. Those steps and the railings surrounding the basement areas of the houses are of the type I have tried to describe within the pages of the book, and, as I have said before, are typical of the houses within the area of London touched upon in Mr Richard Manton's Janus magazine piece of all those years ago 'Whips Incorporated'.
And What an inspirational piece that has proved to be over the years - together with another of the same author's works, 'Elaine Cox - A Well-Reared Tomboy' (I hope I got that right!).
Fifty shades of what??? The 60s weren't that grim - some of it was in colour! And the sun was always shining (except for that God-awful winter of 63-64; and the year it rained red desert sand from the Sahara... and of course all that fall-out from all those atmospheric H-bomb tests... Oh!... And all that fog and 'smog' that used to stop me getting to school for fear of it triggering a fatal asthma attack!)
I meant grim in the sense that the buildings were filthy, precisely because of the smog.
ReplyDeleteAt long last chapter 23 of the Girl in the Striped Pyjamas!
ReplyDeleteDon't remember grubby buildings in particular - well, no more than London generaly - but I do remember a sort of yellowish-greyish murk hanging everywhere when the weather was cold and the air still. Fog tainted with coal=fire smoke and painted a sulfurous yellow by the amber street lamps.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Striped Pyjamas!' saga: Yeah, been looking forward to the next chapter / sequel (a direct link can be found in the right hand sidebar, under the ''Blog List' heading, you eagle-eyed folk you!). Anyone think it Was getting just a little repetitive though... Still loving it though! And therein lies the problem most of us folk writing im the genre face at some point or other; I know it troubles me about what I write, which is why the next (assuming there will be one) may well be some time coming.
Me, I'm just a drunk - you can tell me by the way I walk!
Now, if there are more typos than usual in this comment it's because I have left my reading glasses behind and can't quite make out what I'm typing now (getting late - eyes tired!)
In a pub called 'The Manor' in Potters Bar, Heartfordshire; just north of London. Pint of Vagabond by Oakham Ales in my hand (for even more pedantic detals see my Twitter and ' or Facebook accounts).
Bought a new dangle－ｔｙｐｅ earing in ’The Great Frog’ If you're even luckier I won't...Ｈａ， Ｈａ！
Love the cover design -I do remember grimy old buildings and my town even had huge coal tips in the 70s
ReplyDelete