Mr Ponsea had just commenced steaming open the scented mail recently taken from the letterbox of number 26 when he looked up and saw it happen. In his surprise (or was it terror?) he let the lip gum back down onto the main body of the envelope where it firmly re-attached itself- a permanently puckering mouth, looking up at him with disbelief and disapproval. A very similar expression, in fact, to the one that Const. Frey is now giving Mr Ponsea as he repeats his story.
"I looked up and I saw her, the lady in flat 26 and she was turning into a bird. I believe she was approximately half-way through the transformation when I saw her."
Const Frey forgot to put on his laundry last weekend and consequently this morning he was forced to put on the old navy jocks that have shrunk around the legs. He is uncomfortable and when he is uncomfortable he is impatient with people like Mr Ponsea. Const Frey is 22 and recently relocated from his country town, where he had, until now, lived his entire life. He does not like this city and on his nights off he drinks himself into childhood then weeps on the shoulders of strangers on trains.
Const Frey does not believe Mr Ponsea and his story of seeing the woman in flat 26 transform, within a matter of minutes, into a bird. He looks around the room and notices the disapproving envelope lying on the counter. It strikes him as an unlikely thing to belong to this man with the drooping nose and cough-lozenge eyes. He picks it up and sees the address.
"Do you know it?s a federal offence to tamper with the mail?" says Const. Frey.
By the time Mr Ponsea is released he has decided that it is wisest not to mention the woman in flat 26 again.
For those of us who were unable to make the DAC conference, the papers are now online to be read at your leisure. Lots of fascinating topics- I'm looking forward to reading the one that compares paperdolls (which I was very fond of as a child) with The Sims (which I've never played, but suspect I'd like quite a lot.)
Ok, two character profiles are up on Exit Page Left. And both have already started to flesh out the story. Looking forward to reading some more... (don't forget to put your character's name at the top!)
Hmmm. Could be a writing exercise in that. Possibly a serialised one? People write one bit and post it on to the next person? Dunno. Already doing too much.
Still experiencing Internet probs- I'm writing this from someone else's machine. Hopefully it'll be sorted out today. In the meantime, for people who haven't used Blogger before and are unsure what to do to get started in this group fiction thing here's what to do:
1. go to http://www.blogger.com 2. log in using the two fields at the right of the screen using the name and password you would have used to reply to my invitation 3. This will take you to a page with a heading (to the right of the screen again) that says Your Blogs. Click on Exit Page Left 4. This takes you to the Post window. Type your post into the top part of the screen, then when you are happy with it, click the Post and Publish button (it's to the top right of the screen. 5. The post will appear in the bottom half of the screen. If you want to change anything in the text, click the blue "edit" hyperlink. This will make your entry appear in the top of the screen again and you can make changes to it there. Then republish it.
I was thinking that rather than mailing your character profiles to me perhaps we could make this our first posting? It's up to you what to include, of course, but perhaps consider things like age, place of residence, likes and dislikes, employment etc. Other than that, the character can be whoever or whatever you like. Don't necessarily try to make them fit to the backstory. That's just a starting point. The more unusual they are the better, I reckon...
One more thing- I think we should title each post with the name of our character so that it's clear who is writing what.
