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Wednesday 28 January 2015

If you want to get ahead...

With the fifth instalment of his Krishna story, my young self has introduced an element of mystery. I'm still astonished to think of the poor teacher having to follow thirty different kids' stories in such tiny weekly chunks.

I see that I had latched onto the technique of implying events and letting the reader fill in the gaps. After decades of movie-going, it's a little harder to write that way now.

That's L Sprague de Camp there, quaffing cragot.

*  *  *

“The World of Krishna” part 5: “The Dasht” 

Within moments Acer had completely vanished. He reappeared in an old stone dungeon. Around him were a few of the missing people.

Acer asked one where he was. “In the castle of Dasht* Larock,” was the reply. “He’s caught us to be his slaves.”

About an hour later, one of the Dasht’s guards brought a tray full of food for the prisoners. Two minutes later, Acer left the cell in the guard’s clothes. Meanwhile the prisoners dragged the guard into the corner of the cell. He was out cold.

(*A dasht is a Krishnan baron.)

To be continued.

4 comments:

  1. Bish bash bosh! I read the * like the * in Fire*Wolf (as some kind of guttural glottal stop thing, making it sound more Klingon!).

    L Sprague de Camp was apparently rather cool, from what I've heard. Not as cool as rescuing a twin brother from the Mayan Underworld while on honeymoon cool, but still rather cool :)

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    1. I'm trying to remember whether Victor Borge covered the asterisk in his phonetic punctuation guide...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bpIbdZhrzA

      De Camp completed a bunch of Conan stories, but he was no Two-Gun Bob. (Who is?) Still, from that photo he looks like a good bloke to spend an evening with.

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    2. I saw the rather good bio-pic The Whole Wide World with Renee Zellweger (not as Robert E, obviously). Two-Gun Bob had some problems, bless him. But he did rock an amazing tasselled cowboy hat.

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    3. Vincent D'Onofrio was great as REH. If you liked the movie, James, try the book: One Who Walked Alone, by Novalyne Price Ellis.

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