Emma's story begins to take shape

I, for one, read your blog, Arthur! So there is someone else out here in the ether. Though I don't blame you for feeling a bit like Emma and wondering where you have landed up and if there is anyonnnne thereeeeeee... who will we meet on the Web... who will she meet in Underwych? Presumably her pink mobile phone won't be much good underground?

I must say that having read your blog, I am really looking forward to the Underwych Writing Day on Jan 13 when we will all get together to create Emma's story. Your account not only helped me visualise what Emma would see as she fell and how she might travel underground but it also proved that truth is stranger than fiction. Dinner parties held in the salt spheres, the canal subsiding into a large hole... anyone would think that your imagination was running away with you...

Perhaps naively, I had not imagined Emma being in a watery world but that is probably because Winsford Salt Mine was dry as a bone when I went down it. But then it is a rock salt mine and not concerned with brine pumping. What a great opportunity it was to go down the mine, though thankfully we used the lift instead of being lowered in a wooden tub! You could taste the seaside... I am hoping to post my account of the visit just as soon as I have double-checked the technicalities with our hosts.

Speaking of technicalities, you asked about quoting other people's work. My understanding is that you can quote short sections as long as you acknowledge where you got them from by including a reference (e.g. book title, name of author(s), publisher and date published). I do hope that you'll post some more of your interviews whether you decide to quote other people's work or not.

One of the things that fascinates me about this project is the idea of the changing surface above Underwych. When we visited Anderton Nature Reserve, we walked the length of the one of the huge salt sheds which is now a meadow with no sign of the building apart from occasional stones from the foundations. Dave, the Countryside Ranger, was being tailed by his dog Blue. Lots of people walk their dogs there now and probably many of them are oblivious to the history they walk past every day, as I was until someone told me. But Blue got me thinking... maybe Blue would hear Emma trying to find her way to the surface and start digging! Blue might even play himself in the performance... though what do they say about working with children and animals?

Happy New Year!

Caroline