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Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: Secrets

Not so secret society

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

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Tags

A.J Campbell, Alex Campbell, Cosplay, D.A Lascelles, Elizabeth Morgan, Erica Hayes, Leeds, Leeds Steampunk Market, MancsterCon, Ninfa Hayes, Pat Keheller, R.A Smith, Salford, Secrets, The Tea Society


I guess over the last few months an insidious and influential group has slowly been showing its hand. You may not have been aware of them, at first. They are an organisation who were cloaked in shadow. However, you may have met some of them, maybe at an author event, maybe passed them in the street. They have guided civilisation from the earliest days, raised kings and toppled princes, manipulated the stock market and contributed to the success of numerous creative artists. They have agents everywhere. Well, mainly in the UK. Actually, mainly in Manchester really with a couple elsewhere. To be honest, not all that many even in Manchester… but, so great are these agents they don’t need many to fulfil their schemes.tea society badge2

The name of this epic organisation? Why, it is none other than the Tea Society.

And if you are at this point thinking ‘Who?’ then that is testament to our ability to so totally blend into the background.

The origins of the Tea Society go back a number of years when a handful of writers who lived in Manchester started having sort of not very regular meetings to talk about writing. The name was a joke that rose out of the fact that we could not think of a name and all we seemed to do at the meetings was drink tea and in the end it sort of stuck.

Later, after some discussions around a shared trade table at a steampunk market, we came to the conclusion that it was really difficult sharing a table as we tended to do and maintaining a solid identity for customers to recognise. So, Elizabeth Morgan arranged for there to be a banner and Rachel Bostwick (Queen of trailers and other graphic design goodness) was hired to give us some brand identity with our official logo.

The banner debuted at the Yorkshire Cosplay con earlier this year and was also seen briefly at the World Book Night event at the Fab Café. It will next emerge this weekend at the Literally Literary event at Leeds Central Library and then at the MancsterCon in Salford on August 29th.

stallSo, now that we are out in the open, you may be able to guess some of our members… they include R.A Smith, Ninfa Hayes, Miriam Khan and of course myself. But there are others such as Pat Keheller, Erica Hayes and Alex Campbell (whose book is out soon, you should totally check it out).

If you see any of us at an event, especially if we have the banner up, feel free to come over and have a chat about books in general or our books in particular (and maybe even buy some). I am also currently pondering a special deal where if you promise to do some publicity – take some leaflets to be delivered to local businesses, tweet or share on Facebook, or otherwise spread the word – you may qualify for a special limited edition Tea Society badge. I’ll get out more details of this once I work them out properly.

Hope to see you all at an event soon!

The Name of the Doctor

19 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

alien intelligence, bill and ted, Doctor Who, Season Seven, Secrets, Steve Moffat, Television, The Name of the Doctor, The Silence


A recent announcement has stated that the final episode of season* seven of Doctor Who will be called ‘The Name of the Doctor’. Of course, the hints have been building for a while that this is one secret which may be revealed. The prophesy of the Silence – ‘Silence will fall when the question is answered’ – is a pretty big telegraphing clue as to what is going on and as more and more is revealed about that plotline it becomes even more obvious that, at some point, the Doctor will be put in a position where he will have to reveal his truethe name of the doctor name.

At least that is what Steve Moffat wants us to think…

You see, I am not convinced it is going to be as easy as that. Moffat is a master of the double bluff and especially the double meaning and the prophesy as stated is full of potential double meanings and misunderstandings. What exact definition of ‘fall’ is meant here? Does ‘Silence’ actually refer to ‘the Silence’ or something else entirely? Their self centered interpretation has led to the belief that the Doctor is their enemy and so, as a result of this, they have acted to try to prevent this and, in the course of events, made the Doctor their enemy… It is an excellent example of a Cassandra paradox – by paying attention to the prediction you cause the events in the prediction to come to pass. The Doctor is only their enemy because they paid attention to the prophesy, got scared and tried to kill him. The lesson here being, of course, never trust prophesy. Especially not when dealing with immortal or long lived beings. More so if they can Time Travel. Because the chances are they were probably there when the prophesy was written. They may even have written it themselves, AFTER the events that ensued from you following it. After all, even Bill and Ted managed to work out that particular munchkin flange of access to a Time Machine and they were dumb stoners. Just think what an ancient alien intelligence with centuries of surviving in the universe against every hostile alien that has ever existed could do given the motivation. The Doctor has in the past been shown to be a manipulative person who plays chess with people across the centuries, I personally do not see him having any issues with him setting up a nice little fake prophesy to send his enemies off in the wrong direction… even if all he manages to do is edit the original rather than simply delete it from history to make sure none of this can ever happen.

So, I am not sure what to expect on the final episide of Doctor Who this year. I am hoping for something epic. I am also hoping for something clever and emotional. If it comes to the final confrontation and the question is asked and it turns out his name is Bob I think there will be disappointment. It’s a fairly major anticlimax. A secret that has been kept so long is not a secret to give up lightly and maybe it would be better if that particular one is kept secret. Secrets are more fun when they are kept, the frission of knowing there is something you do not know and the endless speculations can be an addictive mix. I am hoping that the way the prophesy is worded will work to add a surprise to this plotline and cannot wait to see what that surprise might be.

 

*Season? Season! Dammit, we’re English, it should be series. Americans call them Seasons, we call them series… *grumble, mumble, moan*

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