Hello Geoff,

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you for the comment.

I can try to do both, as they are not mutually exclusive. The scene setting information could then be staging directions for the movie.

You might like to have a look at the final two chapters of the first novel. There are a couple of twists that you might find interesting, though if anyone wants to read the first novel in full then probably best not to read those two chapters before reading the novel from the start. I like to think that my writing gradually improved as I proceeded, but that may not be justified, I don't know.

Direct links to the final chapters of the first novel.

SPOILER ALERT Reading these two chapters before reading the novel is not a good idea if you want to read the whole novel.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/l … er_080.pdf

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/l … er_081.pdf

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/l … er_081.pdf

Readers who would like to read the first novel in full, including optionally the author notes, can find the PDF documents linked from the following web page.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/novel_plus.htm

William

Geoff's version seems quite different from my version. It may be better than my version.

I am trying to work out exactly why.

So I opened the browser twice, one instantiation displaying the PDF document version and the other displaying Geoff's version.

In Geoff's version the meaning has changed.

Edward works at the research centre where Edith is the Secretary-General. So Edith often sees Edward. Edith usually only sees Angela at social events, when Angela is Edward's guest.

Angela's reply has gone downmarket.

I like the way that Geoff has Angela "joining the small throng".

I used the exclamation mark deliberately. Although it was a question it was more a surprised and indignant exclamation in tone. Sort of more like an interrobang type thing of both question and exclamation at the same time.

"who was nearby, intervenes" is a good addition.

However, Julia's direct speech has gone. I try to write so as that if a movie is made of the novel then the words to speak are ready to use.

"who is angrily confronting a disbelieving Angela" is good. I can imagine Angela stood there looking amazed at his actions.

Alas, "This one" has gone, but adding "pointing rudely" does add to the imagery of him standing there pointing his finger, his hand going up and down as he points.

I notice that from Edward and Edith departing to the disbelief, that Geoff has converted my seven sentences to  two sentences. Perhaps that is the key difference between the two versions.

A bit about "old friends" is in the first novel, in Chapter 4.

> “The editor and I are old friends, or should I say we have been friends for a long time.”
chuckles Edith.

(For the avoidance of doubt, the editor mentioned in that quote is not the Editor of Trade Magazine!)

William

Thank you.

William

Ah, yes. A sixty point star directly.

Thank you.

William

I remember going to a bank to draw £5 and the cashier asking

"Have you got tupprence for a stamp?"

When I said "No, can you take it out of the account please, so I withdraw five pounds and tuppence please?" I was given a strange look, which I took as he thinking 'Young person coming in here to draw money out of his account and not bringing tuppence for a stamp with him, what is the world coming to with the youth of today' and he duly passed to me a form to draw £5-0s-2d from my account with a 2d stamp affixed to it.

On a later occasion I went in and asked to withdraw five pounds and twopence please, and can you use the tuppence for the stamp please. I got a peculiar look as if I should be walking around with loose change in case I needed to draw money out of my bank account.

Years later, at another bank, after stamp duty on receipts had been abolished and decimal money was in use, I needed to pay something in cash and it was so many pounds and so many pence, not a round number, so rather than go and pay with whole notes and get change, I drew the exact amount from the bank. The cashier just did it matter of fact, no comment about it, just did the job as he should.

William

The clock mechanism linked from an earlier post in this thread is 56 mm square, so just under 662 pixels square, so that is fine.

It will need a bit of care to get the circle with the glyphs centred so that the centres of the glyphs are in the correct place, as the glyphs have non-zero height and in the font the glyphs are not centred in their bounding box, being in the left-side 23/24ths of the width of the boundimg box.

William

I have had a go using Affinity Designer, just the stars at present.

Here is a png image at one third size both horizontally and vertically.

As it happens, Affinity Designer only goes up to 48 points on a star, so I made one with 30 points, then copied and pasted and rotated the copy around its centre by 6 degrees clockwise. So a star with 60 points.

Then I made another copy of thr original, pasted it, scaled it bigger about the centre, reduced the radius and reduced the number of points to 12, changed the colour, then moved it to the back.

I then added a larged coloured rectangle and moved it to the back.

William

Yes, I suppose so.

Maybe rotate, except for those at 3 and at 9, provided the glyph at 6 is right way up and those at 4, 5, 7 and 8 are rotated from the glyph at 6, those rotations, I acknowledge, being what you suggested earlier. The only difference being to have horizontal glyphs at 3 and at 9.

I may have mentioned it earlier, my intention is that the first glyph of the poem is at 12. The poem is such that the seasons in the poem are at the points of the compass if you know what I mean, mixed devices but hopefully conveying the meaning.

I suppose that if the clock were to be built using the mechanism mentioned and the glyphs of the poem specified, that there is then neverheless a great variety of clocks that could be produced, given the choice of clock hands styles, colours for glyphs and backgrounds, whether to include stars with 60 points and 12 points stars, if so, which on the inside of the other, whether to include other ornamentation, how to mount the items into a clock.

I wonder if such a clock will ever be made.

William

William

Hello Geoff

Thank you for your post.

In relation to my own novels, firstly it is nice that you have read at least some of what i have written.

I know that two people have kindly read it all and that a few other people have read at least one chapter.

Anything in particular that seemed to need altering please?

I only have two certificates in creative writing, each regarded as equivalent to 0.2 of a GCSE. One certificate for each term of a two-term evening course that I took in 1997. Assessment was by participation and a portfolio of one's own writing. The course included lots of types of creative writing, for examples, short stories, one act plays, haiku.

When my progress with the invention that the novel is about seemed to be in the doldrums in 2016 I decided to try to write the novel as a way to try to make progress.

The novels are rather unusual in that they are two things in one, both a sort of science fiction novel and a way to convey my ideas. One feature is the way that two or more characters can discuss something, so as to present various ways at considering something.

I know that the conventional way to write a novel is to complete it before publishing, but I published as i wrote, chapters not always in numerical order. If I had used a process of writing it all before publication it is possible that I would never have got it finished.

One person, in the early days, with not many chapters published nor wriiten, who I had asked for comments, expressed the opinion that the story did not enthuse him - I forget his exact way of putting it - but that it did convey my ideas.

If anyone would like to have a look at the finished novel, it is available, free to read, no registration required or requested, as follows.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/novel_plus.htm

The novel was intended to be complete story in itself. However after completing it I missed writing it so there is a sequel but it is not yet complete.

William