Adele, I know what you mean. When I left home, in rural Northumberland, at the age of nineteen and moved to a job in the centre of Liverpool I needed an interpreter!

Becca, Epping Forest sounds wonderful. There’s something very mystical about old trees, isn’t there. And beech are so stately.

As for the skeleton – it hasn’t been identified yet but it’s likely to be one of the Chinese cockle gatherers who drowned in Morecambe Bay in February. Apparently two of them are still unaccounted for.

And the inspiration – I’ll let it rattle around in my head for a while… see what shakes out.

Dee
x

Dee, that's extraordinary, I'd imagined an ancient skeleton, so he/she must have floated out of Morcombe over to the marshes?
I've seen the tide come in at Morcombe, and it's awesome. Before that I watched an old guide with a stick take a group of around 30 people across the bay in a long line, slowly. That was awesome too. I understood that whole tractors have disappeared beneath those sands. It's a fantastic place.

Funny that canny has so many different meanings. I'd used it more in the sense of 'sharp.' How it could have come round to mean 'nice' is a mystery. I suppose it could have travelled from 'knowing' to 'helpful or 'useful' to 'nice.'
Hey, I suddenly realised I'm feeling perkier this morning.
Becca.

Becca, I’m fascinated by Morecambe Bay. It is so big and dangerous. I once had to run off the marsh when I realised the tide had come in behind me. It was up to my knees and almost knocking me off my feet by the time I got back to dry land.

The body – if it is who they think it is – must have been carried out to sea, around Sunderland Point (now there’s a mysteriously insular little spot. It’s the northern rim of the Lune estuary and can only be reached by boat or by a causeway which is under water at high tide and there are all sorts of weird tales associated with it.) and then washed back up the estuary. Of course it could be anyone…

When the tide is out it’s two miles – TWO MILES – from Morecambe promenade to the water’s edge. The man you saw would be the Bay Guide. At certain times it’s possible to walk the four miles across the bay from Morecambe to Grange-Over-Sands but you need a guide to keep you out of the shifting quicksands.

Too many people think they can do it without help. The sand looks so flat and innocuous but, yes, there are several tractors down there as well as horses and carts, a brand new JCB and, if local tales are true, a stage-coach complete with six horses, the driver and all his passengers.

Needless to say, there are countless tales of hauntings!

Glad to hear you’ve perked up.

Dee
x

I once had to run off the marsh when I realised the tide had come in behind me. It was up to my knees and almost knocking me off my feet by the time I got back to dry land.

bloody hell Dee, it must have really hit home when those cockle pickers hit the press. A real "mortalitly" moment. Sometimes, although these things can be scary at the time, the real seriousness doesn't hit in until months, even years later.

Colin M

Believe me, Colin, the seriousness hit me at the time! I lived in the area and was well aware of the dangers so I was really angry with myself for slipping up.

But, yes, it really did hit me very hard when the cockle-gatherers died. As it did whenever anyone drowned. The most common victims these days are young guys visiting Morecambe for a stag weekend. They get pissed and think it’s fun to wander around on the beach. As I said earlier – it looks so flat and innocuous, they don’t believe there’s any danger.

Dee

You would think they would put up the things they have on the causeway to Lindisfarne. I don't know the exact term for them, but there are towers sticking out of the sand that you can reach if you end up being cut off by the tide. The tide cancome in fast enough to cut a car off, let alone a walker. If this happens you can abandon your car and make your way to a tower where you can stay until the tide goes back down. I don't know if they are still there, but I saw a play about them about five years ago.

Colin M

Interesting Thread.

I did read one peice where an author of a number of published books/shorts (can't remember which)was asked about his 'theme'.
The author wasn't sure what the interviewer meant. The interviewer explained the 'theme' as being the inclusion of a midget as some point in all his stories. The author was sure that the interviewer was incorrect until he checked and found a midget in each peice.

I think unintentionel 'theme' is just that, some subconious thing. I think finding your own is quite interesting, but nothing more.

I like to explore, in many different ways, the effects of the passage of time. I remember, in my early teen years, being besotted by an actress in a re-run TV series. The show was 20 years old. So I was really besotted by a non- existant person. On one hand it's perfectly normal, on the other hand
there seems something intrinsically weird about it. Also, ever been remeniscing and discovering a memory is wrong? Probably unimportant, but what if that memory was an important one? I suppose that's my theme, but I never aim for it, it's just the kind of story that I like and that I would like to write.

I'm of the opinion that we can only write, and enjoy what we can write. I'm sure that offered enough money, I'd try to write a Sci-Fi Teen Romance Comedy, but would I enjoy it? Nope.

That's the end of my ramble on the matter.

Darryl

It's an interesting idea Becca, and looking at a list of my short stories, nothing obvious jumps off the page. Then again, you said stories that work well, and I still think some of mine work well to me somedays, but not others.

I know what I like to write about most, something very slightly wrong in a perfectly normal situation. Take a couple of gardeners digging away when one discovers a new colour. Take a Women's Circle, and throw in selling souls for better cakes. I don't know why this sort of thing interests me at the moment, or whether it will last, but to be honest, I still feel like a beginner when it comes to writing.

Ben,

I still feel like a beginner when it comes to writing

When do we ever move beyond that?

Dee
x

Ben, Dee's right about that, if we're not deluded, we all think we've only just started.
Morecombe is extraordinary Dee, and somewhere quite close by I remember boys fishing for plaice maybe with their feet.
Becca.

I've not heard of that fishing method, Becca!

Dee
x

I'm sure it was close around Morcombe, maybe just down the coast a bit. Lines of people who at first sight appeared to be standing in the water up to their knees looking outwards. Then one of them would bend down and pick something up, put it in a bucket. I'm sure they were plaice lying in the sand just beneath the surface, and the fisher men and women were using their toes and the soles of their feet to find them.
Becca.

Becca, I wonder if they were imitating the action of gulls? I was in Llandudno a few years ago and saw scores of gulls (not sure which – herring or black-backed) standing in a line along the waters edge. They were paddling their feet in the wet sand which, apparently mimics the vibrations caused when the tide comes in and attracts razor-shells up to the surface. They poke their heads out of their shells and the gulls eat them.

Actually it was quite a surreal experience because it was very late at night and I was extremely stoned... but I’ve kept the memory and used it in Paying For The Gallery. It’s all grist to the mill.

Dee
x

Becca, using soles to catch plaice - what a fabulous image!

Well, funny thing about gulls,.. my daughter drove me to the big rubbish dump in Essex, called 'Muckin', if you can believe that, and all the gulls there faced in the same direction on and around the rubbish fields. I'd needed to go there to write a story I've never sent out or put up on WW called Maynard's Mountain. Maybe I should resurrect it. Gulls are weird all right. I bet though, if I looked up fishing for plaice on the net, I'd find a ref. to it. I'll do that later.
Becca.