As well as the books I’m writing (my 1950’s novel, my ‘So You Want To Write Your Family History’ guide, the anthology with a friend, the anthology with two friends, and already thinking about my next Radwinter novel) there are the stories which may develop into something more than a collection of random tales (my Gus story, my Button story) and then there are the ideas which may never become anything more than just that, ideas.
I had a title pop into my head, and although I have since discovered Michael Ondaatje has already used it for his most recent novel and is also a computer game, I am not discouraged… maybe I might have to amend the title – if I ever write it! The title which arrived in my head when I was writing something else was ‘War Light’, and I imagined a post-apocalyptic landscape, or a distant planet in an unknown galaxy… I hav never written anything in either type of setting so it would be a really knew challenge.
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje sounds very interesting:
In London near the end of World War II, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his sister Rachel are left in the care of an enigmatic figure named The Moth, their parents having moved to Singapore. The Moth affiliates with a motley group of eccentric, mysterious, and in some ways nefarious characters who dominate the children’s experience early in the postwar period
WarLight the game is:
– a customizable Risk-like strategy game where you compete with your friends to conquer the world.
I don’t think I shall be investing in that somehow!
Inspiration comes from the tiniest spark – something observed, something overheard, something imagined, something which arrives from goodness knows where. The idea for a new story could be triggered by an exchanged look between strangers, a whispered scrap of conversation in a crush to get on a train, an incongruous sound, a scent of something, the way the light falls in an empty room, the lazy flap of a curtain, the sound of birds, the taste of a children’s lollipop… the tiniest thing or a combination or unexpected juxtaposition, can trigger a whole stream of thought…
So ;War Light;, ;Warlight;, ;WarLight;… Maybe I won’t use those words, maybe just the images they conjure.
Lois Elsden 