And is a cross-dresser upset about their wardrobe?
Just some notes about things going on in the world of Clockwork Storybook. Awhile back I mentioned that I joined this august collective of multimedia writers (I think I’m the only monomedia guy there), and we use the blog to talk about what is known among the pretentious as “matters of craft” — AKA, the writing biz. I just wrote a post called Iron-Clad Scrooge about the bullet-proof narrative structure of “A Christmas Carol. ” Really, there’s seems to be no damage you can wreak on this story that will derail it.
But more fun than my post is what my Clockwork cohort Paul Cornell has put together. On his blog, he’s hosting “The Twelve Blogs of Christmas,” and Day 8 is a cheesy 1960’s Christmas special co-written by all the Clockwork folks. Enjoy.
Daryl Gregory 
(I tried posting this at Clockwork Storytellers, but ran into technical difficulties.)
Late to the party here, but I have to share my “A Christmas Carol” anecdote.
Shortly after I hooked up with my now-wife (who is blind), she mentioned that back when she had vision, she had a tradition of reading herself A Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve. We decided that, to sort-of revive that, we would make a new tradition of me reading it aloud to her on Christmas Eve. We did this for a few years, but she was kinda restless during it. For a few more years we watched a movie adaptation instead.
Eventually, she realized what was wrong. When she had read it to herself, she *skimmed* all of “the boring bits”; i.e., the depressing stuff, the moralizing sermons, and the Cratchit family scenes. Was there some way we could do that?
Now, I am a purist at heart, and generally hate adaptations that take extreme liberties with their source material. But I am also a big gushy romantic, and will do almost anything to please my wife. So, gritting my teeth, I found an e-text of ACC and started slashing.
The Cratchits are entirely gone, except for one lingering nameless mention of Scrooge’s “clerk”. Removal of moralizing has reduced the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to a very few pages. Overall, length has been cut to about 50% of the original.
And it still works. Minus several major characters and themes, it still works. It even still has a pretty kickass last line: “…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”
hello and merry xmas to every one – hope yous had a nice one – back from parents 12lbs heavier a`hhh just back from tenerefe weather crap , all the best for the comming year – mick b