Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix
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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

One of Phoenix's Future Plans is to check his summerhouse in the morning to make sure that its contents have been fully protected from the torrential rain that has been lashing down upon it for a good half hour so far. I wonder if it will snow during the night. I'm sure that Lois and Alex will be hoping so, if they are still awake at nearly 11o'clock, that is.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Rach has just texted to ask me to take Lois to physio tomorrow for an 8.30 appointment at St. Michael's Hospital here in Hayle. I'll pick her up at 8a.m. It's all to do with the arm that she broke in the local park when she lost control of the heelies that Lynne and I bought for her in Penzance. She is due to have an operation in Treliske Hospital near Truro later in the year to remove as much as possible of the unsightly scar near her elbow, but the hospital specialists want her to have more mobility first. Presumably I'll be taking her to school straight from the hospital. As Rach will be on her way to work at that time, she will probably ring the school to notify them of what will be Lois's late arrival. The office staff will probably recognise me anyway from that time when I took her out of school, which, if memory serves, was so that she could be taken to Treliske for treatment on her elbow. What goes around comes around.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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The physio specialist was very efficient, as expected, but gentle. Lois had had sessions with her previously, and consequently there was an immediate rapport. The specialist clearly wanted to see to what extent she was coping compared to her last visit, and to know how she was managing with her homework exercises. Lois told her that she was maintaining her set targets. The physio was later able to tell Lois how much better she was dealing with keeping her left arm straight in assorted positions. She had to stand with her back firmly against a closed door, and raise that arm several times palm upwards. Not quite as straightforward for her as it seemed. Then she had to do the same thing lying on a mat, followed by a similar move while kneeling on the mat moving her upper body forward with her arms outstretched, again with palms upwards. The physio was pleased with her, updated her notes and then we left. I got her into school for 10 past 9 so she didn't miss much lesson time, if any. She asked me to go in with her to confirm to the receptionist where she had been and why she was late. Her only other remarks to me before we went in were "Are you picking me up later?" and, then, looking back at the car, she looked at me and said, "sh*t parking, Gramps." I was only going to be there for three or four minutes, so why did it matter if the car was on a bit of an angle?

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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This afternoon I started to put all the serials that have made the cut for inclusion in BUNTY AND HER SISTERS into alphabetical order, as that is how I am going to present them. At a stroke that does away with the need for an index of titles, which of course an author would normally put in alphabetical order. I have also made the definitive decision to use the 3-line synopsis system, therefore thirteen summaries to a page, that I used in THIS WAS THE WIZARD. I hope to have the list complete later in the week. Furthermore, due to the success of the pages of scanned images of the heading block drawing illustrating the first instalment of all the serials in THIS WAS THE WIZARD, I will be repeating that process for what I hope will turn out to be a very acceptable pictorial presentation of the selected girls' stories.

Where the subtitle The Great Stories is concerned, I suspect that it is inevitable that some members will disagree with some of my selections, and will wonder why others have been omitted, but I can't allow that to influence me. Equally I will not be influenced by any of the synopses that are on Lorraine's excellent GIRLS COMICS OF YESTERDAY site, or anywhere else for that matter. I will simply be approaching the task with an open mind, effectively starting from scratch, but I really hope that the end result will be a tour de force. At the very least it will be innovative.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I have this morning decided that I will be making no further comment on either of my writing projects until at least one of the books has been published. As I am going to be writing them roughly simultaneously, I will certainly not have any time spare to post comments on any other matter on ComicsUK or Girls Comics Of Yesterday, so if I need to contact any member during this time, it will be by Private Message.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:I have this morning decided that I will be making no further comment on either of my writing projects until at least one of the books has been published.
I have no idea why I keep making these ridiculous decisions. I'm ignoring them so you might as well do so too.

Apart from picking Lois up from school this afternoon, I've been going through my listing of the story titles in SUZY today. It really is an unusual story paper because its focus is not only on fiction, although five instalments in each issue are the norm, because the rest of the 32 pages present full-page photographs of stars of film and music, at least one fashion page, a 'Birthday Spot', brief articles on birds and the like, backstage support for the ladies competing at Wimbledon and suchlike. The presentation of the stories is a mixed bag. Some are drawn, as was the norm from issue 1 of BUNTY onwards, some are photo stories in black and white, with speech bubbles, and sometimes there is one photo serial in colour. The first page of a new drawn serial can sometimes be very demanding of the reader's attention. A good example is the first page of Tears In The Darkness in issue 148 of SUZY (July 6 1985) where the entire left hand side of the page is devoted to an ill-dressed blind girl without any shoes playing a violin, standing in front of a church in a snow storm with a cup on the ground beside her for any contributions from the public that she would be able to take back to the orphanage. There may be some coins in the tin but they definitely don't reach the brim. The right hand side of that page consists of three panels, which get the story underway, and need to be read from the top downwards. The remaining pages of the instalment are read from left to right as is normally the case.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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According to a calculation that I have just done on a small calculator that I bought several months ago in a B&M store in Maghull, near where I used to live, there are over six thousand serials for girls from which to select those that are worth their place in my next book. As I will be using the thirteen three-line synopses to the page presentation that I used for THIS WAS THE WIZARD, I would require 476 pages if I decided to include them all, which is clearly unrealistic from a financial point of view. If I reduce the number of synopses to four thousand, or roughly two thirds of the total possible, I would still require 308 pages, plus a handful for the Introduction. I would have to contact the printers before I start writing anything in order for my writing to respond appropriately to the price they quote. I'll let you know when I know more, but I will be making the alphabetical list this weekend.

Just time for a cup of coffee before I have to go and pick Lois up from school. I'm staying at hers with the two of them until Russ gets home from work. Tonight we'll be down in the Copperhouse with the children as Rach will again be working late. I mustn't forget that today is their pocket money day. Mind you, I can't imagine them letting me forget.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I am currently busy listing all the serials in TRACY, and I've encountered a problem that I would like some help with. It concerns the date and/or issue number in which the serial A Dog's Life For Debbie starts. In the listing for TRACY on Lorraine's Girls Comics Of Yesterday site, it states that the serial started in issue 109 (October 31 1981). I do have this issue but it doesn't feel like its first instalment. I don't have 108 (October 24 1981), which will have contained trailers for any new stories starting in 109, nor do I have 107. On the other hand I do have 106, in which six new serials start, and all are introduced with a bit of a fanfare.

Patti The Prefect - BEGINS NOW!
Slave To Her Sister - STARTS TODAY!
Moira And The Moonflowers - FIRST INSTALMENT
Two In A Tangle - EPISODE 1
Posh Penelope - BEGINS TODAY!
They're MY Mum And Dad! - NEW STORY

In my opinion, a comment similar to the above must have appeared on the first instalment of A Dog's Life For Debbie, which would appear to rule out 109. Can anyone confirm please that this serial started in 108 (October 24 1981)?

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by peace355 »

These aren't issues I own instead it is information I got from a visit to national library, so it is possible I noted it down wrong.

What I noted:
108
"They're My Mum and Dad!"
Mary in the Middle
Moira and the Moonflowers
Patti the Prefect
Posh Penelope
Schoolgirl with a Secret
Slave to her Sister
The Girl Who Didn't Belong
Two in a Tangle!


109
"They're My Mum and Dad!"
A Dog's Life for Debbie (new)
Mary in the Middle
Moira and the Moonflowers
Patti the Prefect
Posh Penelope
Schoolgirl with a Secret
Slave to her Sister
The Girl Who Didn't Belong
Two in a Tangle!


But like I said if I am wrong I will correct on site.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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peace355 wrote:These aren't issues I own instead it is information I got from a visit to national library, so it is possible I noted it down wrong.
You didn't make any mistakes, Lorraine, so there is nothing for you to correct. Thank you very much for responding so quickly and so fully, because you have certainly answered my question. In the meantime I have reached issue 132 of TRACY with the starting and finishing numbers and dates. I'll crack on with it till bedtime. I finally completed SUZY last week. I already had complete lists for BUNTY, JUDY, MANDY, DEBBIE, DIANA, EMMA, SPELLBOUND and M&J. I will be rechecking DIANA later this week, and making sure that my coverage of NIKKI is complete. At that point I will be in a position to give my full attention to the final selection process for the book.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I went to Penzance on the bus yesterday morning to extract a few treasury notes from my bank, and on the way up the main street I bumped into Russ and Rach, who had decided that as it was Russ's birthday they would spend a few of theirs, in the first instance on a cooked breakfast in the Tremenheere pub. It's actually a Wetherspoons but it has retained its original name. When I saw them, they were chatting away to the ex-wife of one of Russ's classmates from his schooldays in Maghull. What a small world it is!! We went our separate ways eventually but when I had finished my shopping I rang him to ask if they were still in Penzance. They were so I got a very comfortable lift home in their BMW. We got together again last night in an Indian restaurant in Hayle, with all the family members who live down here, those being Jordan, Russ and Rach's first born, with his partner Kerry, and their three-year-old daughter Ava, Kerry's mother, my ex-wife Lynne, her brother Philip and his wife, coincidentally also called Lynne, and of course Lois and Alex. As I was driving Lois and Alex there and back, I settled for one bottle of Cobra, supped slowly. This morning I took Lois to school, only the second time I've been asked to do that so far, but now that Rach has a full-time job, albeit with days off, it may well become a more regular event, and then I went down to my local Post Office to collect a large flat parcel that the postman had tried to deliver yesterday when I was in Penzance. It contained three issues of DIANA, 368 (March 7 1970), 454 (October 30 1971) and 456 (November 13 1971), to add to my collection and knowledge.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:I will be making the alphabetical list this weekend.
I didn't get round to it, although after we got back from Marazion to Russ's where I'd left my car, having first dropped Lynne off in St Ives, I did do a thorough accuracy check on my complete listing of the serials in TRACY, which did take about three hours. Over the next two or three days I will be just as diligent checking my entries for DIANA and NIKKI. I'm already happy with my notes on the serials in the other eight story papers.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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I decided this morning to get started as soon as possible on the preparation phase of ADVENTURE AND HIS BROTHERS, which will be the companion volume to BUNTY AND HER SISTERS. At the very least I want to select the serials that will feature because I need to do something to challenge a very real sense of weariness that I've been feeling for quite a while. Going up to Camborne earlier today to help Jordan and Kerry transport their belongings from the place they've been renting for some considerable time to their new rented accomodation round the corner from me in Hayle, did help me to chill out somewhat. Nevertheless I hadn't got round to starting the preparation by the time I had to go and pick Lois up from school, and I still haven't. When I got there I discovered that since Friday the council have painted double yellow lines on the side of the road where everybody parks while waiting for their children. Unbelievable!!!! So what does everybody do? Yes, you've guessed it. They park on the other side of the road. And what is the logic behind it all? Don't ask me. I think I will need a couple more University degrees to figure it all out. Talking to Lois at least calmed me down.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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According to my notes, assuming that I haven't miscounted, there are nineteen serials of Jane - Model Miss in DIANA. The title is only entitled to one three-line entry in the book so quite how I am going to manage to cover all those is anyone's guess. All sensible suggestions will be considered.

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Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

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Phoenix wrote:According to my notes, assuming that I haven't miscounted, there are nineteen serials of Jane - Model Miss in DIANA. The title is only entitled to one three-line entry in the book so quite how I am going to manage to cover all those is anyone's guess. All sensible suggestions will be considered.
Derek couldn't you sort of cheat i.e. Jane model miss 108 ( for example or whatever number or system you use ) 108 A 108 B 108 C etc but i have no idea how you will lay it out etc but i think that's what i would do so each serial although the same character etc still gets 3 lines and i would do that as a synopsis for all multi arc serials,just a thought.

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