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 Mags L Halliday |
Author! Author!: MLH |
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Posts: 468 13 January, 2006 1:43 AM the loa
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Ask me stuff. I am not afraid.
Mags
"You must not find symbols in everything you see. It makes life impossible." Oscar Wilde, Salome. http://halliday47.freeserve.co.uk http://moosiferjonesgrouch.blogspot.com |
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flynnparadox |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #1 | ||
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Posts: 13 17 January, 2006 7:36 AM |
Mags,
Hello. First, let me just say that Warring States is my favorite Faction book after This Town. A slight spoiler space follows just in case there are those reading who have not read the book yet. S P O I L E R S P A C E My question is this: how early in your conception of the book did you have Compassion involved? By that, I mean, was she part of your initial "wow" idea: the moment you conceived of the story, or did she come later? I know that you do quite a bit of research on each of your projects. Were you more interested in the period and the characters than the plot early on? I'm just interested in the process that you go through when you're writing, really. Flynn |
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Mags L Halliday |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #2 | ||
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Posts: 468 18 January, 2006 9:18 AM the loa
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The starting point was the locked room and the 1900 setting. At the same time I'd been idly reading about the mummies of Urumchi, which were red-haired mummies wearing plaid cloth found in the far NW of China. The Princess of Loulan in particular interested me. Rather entertainingly, the Loulan burials were orginally found by an explorer called Hedin, which may have planted the Homeworld idea in my head. I'd started reading about the Silk Road as well, and the idea that religion was one of the things which went up and down the trade route with the silk and spices. I knew there was an artifact, and that my characters would be after it, that some of them would kill for it.
The first line about Compassion I remember writing in my notebooks is "you never could resist the red hair, could you?" as originally she was the mummy. The earliest note I can find off the top of my head (since the first daily book with the notes is, er, not where it should be) is in some transcribed notes in July 2002, which was quite early on in the plotting process. At that point the note says "if FP, Octavia or Compassion [are after the artifact]." In January 03, the notes on key characters still reads: Quote: In Jan 03 she still wasn't in the book properly. There are lots of notes about Of the City..., since I already knew what happened in that, but it's all vague. By the start of February 03, there's a note saying "ENDs with Compassion + casket inside pyramid? "oh bugger"?". I'm much more obsessed with structure and working out whether or not Liu should be female. It finally kicks in on 18/02/03 with various notes about Compassion, immortality and the casket. In April 03 a note reads Quote: All the vague ramblings about Russia - and there was a lot more originally - ended up being transferred and condensed into the stuff with Sasha. I might be able to find the first notebook tomorrow or at the weekend. Skimming the Spring 2003 notes tonight, I'm realing just how many ideas were played with, put in and slowly stripped back out again. I suspect I have a rather labour intensive method of working... Mags<br>
<hr width="25%" align="left" /><br>
"You must not find symbols in everything you see. <br /><br>
It makes life impossible."<br /><br>
Oscar Wilde, <i>Salome</i>.<br /><br>
<a href="http://www.halliday47.freeserve.co.uk">http://halliday47.freeserve.co.uk</a><br /><br>
<a href="http://moosiferjonesgrouch.blogspot.com">http://moosiferjonesgrouch.blogspot.com</a><br>
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flynnparadox |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #3 | ||
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Posts: 13 20 January, 2006 10:02 AM |
Thank you very much for the detailed response. Your stories do seem to spring out from the research you do. I like to know that there really is a considerable amount of "substance" behind such a rich book. Thanks again.
Flynn |
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Jim Carner |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #4 | ||
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Posts: 93 11 April, 2006 10:31 PM |
Quote: Is Lawrence a fat drunk? People report that he stinks of booze at all hours and carries a can in his jacket. |
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Mags L Halliday |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #5 | ||
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Posts: 468 14 April, 2006 7:14 AM the loa
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A can? He's not that common.
Mags<br>
<hr width="25%" align="left" /><br>
"You must not find symbols in everything you see. <br /><br>
It makes life impossible."<br /><br>
Oscar Wilde, <i>Salome</i>.<br /><br>
<a href="http://www.halliday47.freeserve.co.uk">http://halliday47.freeserve.co.uk</a><br /><br>
<a href="http://moosiferjonesgrouch.blogspot.com">http://moosiferjonesgrouch.blogspot.com</a><br>
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War Arrow |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #6 | ||
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mother/father
Posts: 439 30 August, 2006 12:00 AM |
A Fat Drunk? That's a bit personal isn't it? I met him once and he seemed to giggle a lot, which was a little unsettling, plus he reminds me of Sexton Ming (google him if you're not sure), which was also a little unnerving. Plus I was too awestruck to come out with anything to suggest my not being something of a dick. Some of my best friends are fat drunks, and some of them are hard as nails. LM didn't smell when I met him, and I think I would have noticed.
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arfiem |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #7 | ||
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Posts: 847 11 September, 2006 10:55 PM cousin curmudgeon |
The one time I met Lawrence, he complimented my beard; he said it had an excellent sense of "gentlemanly evil" to it, which was rather nice.
Mind you, I have never seen his eyes. (This timeline is missing and can not be restored)
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War Arrow |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #8 | ||
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mother/father
Posts: 439 11 September, 2006 11:07 PM |
At the risk of assisting in the transformation of this site to a Hollyoaks forum, his eyes resemble Sexton Ming's thus implying danger and unpredictable behaviour. If I remember correctly. Madness and genius blah blah blah...
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Diovix |
Re: Author! Author!: MLH | #9 | ||
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Posts: 56 23 October, 2006 10:07 PM |
Mags, I know the advertising probably pays the bills around here but one of them from Circuit City is driving me nuts when its on a page. If my mouse crosses it at all I get a pop-up even my highest settings on my pop-up blocker can't block. Once my mouse was over it I couldn't leave the box without it also poping up again. I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get around it so I could go on.
Just an FYI I guess. I don't know what kinda control you have if any, or if anybody else has had this problem and not spoken up. r. |
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Steve Roby |
#10 | |||
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little sister/brother
Posts: 2 1 May, 2007 6:05 PM |
About Warring States... does it draw on events of the audios? Events from The Book of the War? Is ignorance of the real world historical setting likely to be
much of a problem?
(I have all the FP books, audios, and the two comics, but because I'm still catching up with a lot of other Who-related material, I've only actually heard the first two audios and read The Book of the War and This Town Will Never Let Us Go, and the comics.) |
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felice |
#11 | |||
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Posts: 331 1 May, 2007 10:54 PM godmother |
Well, I'm not Mags, but having read it:
There are references to the Book of the War, though more characters than events. I knew very little about the real historical setting, and that didn't cause any problems for me. I didn't notice any connection to the audios, and it can certainly be read with only Book of the War as background knowledge. It would probably read ok even with no familiarity with Faction Paradox at all, though there's one element that I suspect wouldn't work especially well to virgin readers (er, not Virgin readers). |
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ushas the rani |
#12 | |||
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mother/father
Posts: 285 19 July, 2007 9:32 PM |
Mags, which book(s) would you give your shadow away to have written?
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Mags L Halliday |
#13 | |||
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Posts: 468 12 January, 2008 10:36 AM the loa
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ushas the rani wrote: Hmmm... The Girl With a Pearl Earring, which causes shivers and is so simple yet effective.The Dark is Rising sequence, especially The Dark is Rising itself and Greenwitch. The Wizard of Earthsea sequence, especially Tombs of Atuan. Mostly they are books which are very simple but which have a narrative and emotional drive which carries the reader along. Oh, and The Also People. It's the kind of writing which, when you've finished the book, you have to stare out of the window for half an hour contemplating how lovely it was. |
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Zagreus |
#14 | |||
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little sister/brother
Posts: 19 8 July, 2008 3:50 AM |
In 'Eucatastrophe' from Walking in Eternity, is the behavior of the Evil Renegade's shadow creative license, or does it have
something to do with his involvement with the Faction?
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Mags L Halliday |
#15 | |||
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Posts: 468 30 July, 2008 11:17 PM the loa
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Zagreus wrote: It's a nod to the original source of the story: the misbehaviour of Peter's shadow which leads to it being cut off and then sewn back on by Wendy.
IIRC, there was a fair bit of stuff about Peter Pan, the Doctor and shadows doing the fan rounds at the time as the Faction had already started to appear in
the EDAs but the McGann Doctor had yet to be aged up.
Mags
-- http://magslhalliday.co.uk |
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