***If you haven’t finished reading the latest serial yet, then don’t read this post***

 

Now that my recent serial ‘Home About Six’ has concluded, I am writing an overview of the process, as I usually do.

I decided that this serial would be approached in a different way to the others.
I would intentionally make it a little ‘silly’, in the hope that I would have fun writing it, and readers would enjoy the change of mood. It seems to have worked, as it is the most-read serial so far, with an average of more than 150 views for each episode, and more comments than previous stories, adding up to 3,750 views in total. Many thanks to everyone who stuck with it, and left great comments.

Thanks also to David Miller for his relentless efforts at punning every episode.

For those of you who like to read the complete story in one sitting, it will be published over the weekend.

Another idea I had was to make fellow bloggers and followers the ‘Stars’ of the story. I used real names in some cases, and partial names in others. This proved to be very popular, and nobody complained, or asked to be removed from the text. I would like to thank all of those who allowed me to use their names.

Anita is Anita Dawes.
Jane is Jaye Marie. They are both British writers and bloggers, who share a website.
Mike is Michael, a German Blogger.
Mick Steeden is a British blogger and writer.
Jude (Judith) Harley is a British blogger and photographer.
Sue Judd is also a blogger and photographer.
Claudia Hyslop used the surname of Fraggle, a British blogger and photographer.

Shaily Agrawal is an Indian blogger. She hasn’t read this story yet!
Richa Soni is also Indian, a blogger based in New Delhi.
Ian Hope is a British blogger. I don’t think he has read this story either
Betsy Pike is Elizabeth Slaughter, an American blogger based in New England.
Pete Springer is a retired American teacher and blogger.
Audrey Driscoll is Canadian, and also writes and has a blog.
David, Mum’s fiance, is David Miller, an American writer, blogger, and punster.
Nick Rossis is a writer and blogger, based in Greece.

And my thanks also to the other ‘characters’ who are all ‘real names’ and writers or bloggers.
Lisa Howeler.
Lorraine Lewis.
Jennie Fitzkee.

Cathy Cade
Don Ostertag.
Joan Hall.
Lucinda Clarke.

 

Some of you have pointed out the over-use of ‘cliffhangers’at the end of each episode. That was deliberate of course, and was reflecting the filmed serials that I used to watch at the cinema as a child. There was also the constant use of 6 pm (and other uses of the number 6) that appeared throughout. Again deliberate, and supposed to be ‘silly’.

The very last line of episode 25 was the original thought for the whole serial, and was worked back from that point, to achieve a ‘circular’ conclusion. Inspiration for the story came from the original ‘Final Destination’ film, as well as a documentary I watched about a real missing person.

As a lady was being interviewed about her missing (never found) husband, she tearfully said, “He left that morning, and said he would be home about six. I never saw him again”.