Chapter 2 Scene 3.5

The ladies of the Kensington Gore Croquet Club are attacked in a grotto.

Link to Google Drive

Chapter 2 Scene 3.5

This is an "then all hell broke loose" scene (a phrase Elmore Leonard says you must never use) Leonard is right of course - the trouble is he says you mustn't use "suddenly" either which I find much harder. Avoiding it does seem to me a good discipline though.

One of the things that was a great movie experience for me as a child was the atack on the Nautilus by the giant squid. Someone once said that if you want a single symbol of what steampunk is go for the Nautilas in 20,000 Leagues under the sea.  And let's face it, by the loch there does have to be some sort of monster.

I was hoping for something really atmospheric for the underground quay

When it comes to secret passageways my mind never goes far past Young Frankenstein. You remember? "Put - the - candle - BACK!"








There is supposed to be a secret passage at Boleskine to the graveyard at least. I don't think it's ever been found.

My idea of a Kraken - I could go quite as far as the one in Pirates of the Carribbean

Twenty thousand leagues under the sea is one of the first movies I can remember seeing and being thrilled by. No wonder I'm a steampunk fan.

This is the toy my parents bought me after the movie. I have a precise memory of playing with it in a rock pool at Brixham

Janet at her most dramatic.Who would have thought that that nice Geraldine McKewan from Miss Marple could look like that. Her fist film role was about when I was playing with my Nautilus. There's a thought.

I wanted something really KAPOW!!! for Angel's rifle / shotgun. I'm not sure the Winchester is exactly right but there's only so much research you can do.




Well here is one of the scenes that thrilled me all those tears ago. My goodness, doesn't it look like return to the forbidden planet?

James mason and giant squid

and here is the one that stayed in my mind.

Mason ventures out

Mens sana in corpore sano

"You should pray for a sound mind in a sound body," says Juvenal - my father too, as it happens. 

Here I come to the old joke (Douglas Adams perhaps)

'At time like this I wish I'd listened to what my father said.'
'Why, what did he say?'
'I don't know i didn't listen.'

 I didn't either. I wish I had ; the bit about keeping healthy anyway, The hour or so I spend in the Gym most days does wonders for my creativity. I'm getting the hang of meditating while I do the exercises and that seems to work well.


And so, here by way of evidence - yes I really do it - and not a pretty sight you'll agree - this is me at the Gym becoming inspired.

My health plans go along with my writing plans, more or less.  By the end of 2013 I plan to have my second draft finished and to be at the right weight for my height. (About a stone or so to go)

Chapter 2 Scene 3.4

Recovery in the Kitchen. Eliza investigates the hearth

Chapter 2 Scene 3.4 link to Drive

More footage of Crowley and Boleskine - this time a little less frantic - here

BBC programme about Crowley and Boleskine

 This is an Edwardian kitchen. The one in this picture and the one in the next are, I suppose, close to what I envisaged for this scene - not exactly though.







I really think of the one my grandmother worked in. It was in the basement of a large house just off Kensington Gardens. There was a very long table (or so it seemed to me when I was small). There wasn't much activity in the house; only Colonel Mountenay lived there. My grandmother and another couple of elderly ladies sat round the table drinking tea most of the time. That is my memory. I particularly remember the servant bells like the ones in the picture below.

Here is my grandmother Sarah (She liked to be called Pollie by her friends - as in put the kettle on, she would say,) The place is Kensington Gardens, I think, with the Round Pond in the background. It is not far then from where she worked. The alien moonface in the pram is me.

At times like this you always wish you had better photos. I know that it is a bit out of place in this blog but, well - there you go.

By the way this picture would have been about 1950; Forty-five years after the events in my story. It is sixty - two years old so closer to then than now.

 I expect the hearth where Eliza found the charred scraps looked like this one.

A fun app

I thought I'd share this fun app called 'I write like'. You copy and paste a chunk of story that you have written - say a few pages - and it tells you who it calculates you write like. It turns out that I write like Lewis Carroll. Which is a suppose about as good as I could hope for although I would have preferred George MacDonald Fraser (who I don't suppose they have).
Anyway that's all I know about it.  Good luck!

Link to 'I write like'

Chapter 2 Scene 3.3 (V1.0)

The ladies are surprised bt the madwoman

Chapter 2 Scene 3.3 (V1.0)

Another picture of Boleskine House. This is the front.






The house and surrounds.

I was hoping this picture of Mrs Rochester would give a clue as to what my madwoman looks like.

Chapter 2 Scene 3.2

The ladies arrive at Boleskine House

Chapter 2 Scene 3.2

I agree with Alice. I was hoping for something a bit more Gothic too.

Here is  Boleskine House.  It is said that Crowley chose it for it's orientation after a long search. It is hard to believe that he had to go so far just for orientation, Someone on the internet said that he chose it because of the Loch Ness monster but that seems unlikely as there were, as far as I know, no reports of sightings back then. They came later.

Here is the layout of Boleskine House. I tried to heep the action at least plausible in terms of the reality of the location. As a general rule though, while I try to keep as close as I can to how things really were, when push comes to shove, the needs of the story come first.

This is a picture of a Crowley ritual. It is occult but not devil worship or black magic. Within the reality tunnel of the occult, Crowley was said to have been good at it. I'm not sure that this was taken at Boleskine House or in Italy where he owned a place subsequently.


There is quite a lot on Youtube about Crowley and Boleskine House. I haven't tried this before but here I hope will be a link to one of them.

Chapter 2 Scene 3.1

The ladies of the Kensington Gore Croquet Club travel by car to Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness

Chapter 2 Scene 5.1

Here is Loch Ness. Not a monster in sight - sorry.

Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness. It was bought by Aleister Crowley in 1899. This gave him the right to call himself Laird Of Boleskine, which I imagine he liked enormously. In the 1970s the house was bought by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Another family live there now who ask to be left alone by occultists and other nuisance visitors. Crowley is rumoured by some to have left a half raised spirit behind him.

We're used to seeing pictures of Crowley when he was relatively old. But, at the time of my story he was in his twenties still. (There are any number of pics of him I could use in this blog.  I think he liked the camera.

The Boleskine cemetery doesn't look quite as gothick as in my story. In fact I more had my mind on my local cemetery at Shacklegate Lane. Nevertheless there is reputed to be a secret tunnel from the graveyard to the House. It has never be found though. (To my knowledge, anyway)

When I I put into my story the spirit of a young girl what I had in mind was a sequence in the 1970s computer game 'The Colonel's Bequest' by the legendary Sierra Games. This pic though makes a good illustration.







For the madwoman I had in mind an actress I saw in Sydney playing a convicted murderess in 'The Art of Success'. Her only previous acting experience had been as Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh.  She was BRILLIANT!

Alas the Sydney production of this play was immediately after September 11, 2001, As a result the audience were outnumbered by the cast.  Anyway she is mt ide of what my madwoman looks like.  I couldn't find a pic of her so make do with these ones.