Hello from the UK! I'm in East Anglia, United Kingdom. I'm busy writing a family saga. I love the letters of Virginia Woolf, the poetry of Ted Hughes, and the diary of Sylvia Plath. I enjoy all the writing the Plath-Hughes relationship has generated e.g., Janet Malcolm's 'The Silent Woman'. The diaries of Evelyn Waugh contain the most scintillating descriptions of boredom and inertia I've ever come across. A set-work at school, 'The Great Gatsby' blew me away. As a child, I found Enid Blyton's 'The Magic Faraway Tree' absolutely magical. This quote from Nicholson Baker's ‘The Anthologist’ (2010, p. 77) made me laugh: "At some point you have to set aside snobbery and what you think is culture and recognise that any random episode of 'Friends' is probably better, more uplifting for the human spirit, than ninety-nine percent of the poetry or drama or fiction or history ever published." Nothing nicer than a whole free day, preferably rainy, in which to read and write, with music and a cup of coffee. Just joined today, I wrote my username as somemorningrain; now I'm wondering whether SomeMorningRain would have been better? Apparently you can't change it. I'm keen to learn from this community and discuss all things writerly!
Welcome to the forum! I've just joined today. It might be possible to contact the site admins to ask about changing your name. I did this with another forum that I'm part of as I didn't realise that I could use a handle instead of my real name and they agreed to change it. I'm in West Yorkshire and read a lot of Enid Blyton as a child. It feels like I have the Enchanted Wood at the bottom of the garden, I only moved here about 18 months ago.
Thanks for the welcome! Welcome to you too. Thanks for the tip about changing my name. I might just leave it but good to know there are potential options. How wonderful that the bottom of your garden is an enchanted wood. Have you seen any wildlife in it yet? It might be home to some hedgehogs or foxes. Another enchanted garden in books was Roald Dahl's 'James and the Giant Peach'. This was a primary-school set-work which our teacher read to us, and my book has the most wonderful pen-and-ink illustrations. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker's house was perched on top of an impossibly steep hill, and at the bottom of their garden was where the peach tree grew. I forget what happened - there's a wizened old man like a gnome beckoning his finger at James, a jar of something that was spilt, and from that combination a giant peach sprouted on the tree. Another 'enchanted garden' story is of course 'The Secret Garden'. Have you read either of these? What do you write or what sort of writing things are you interested in?
