What cultures are you familiar with or inspired by?

[Pik]

It is good to travel to sample new cultures. I like to write about Japanese ideologies l, intrigued by their thinking and an old school friend of mine (he was a Japanese exchange student) said I should visit Japan to learn more. He gave me the lovely option of staying at his house.

What stories do you write @Pik ?

I read a few of Japanese traditional plays and they were very mystical and inspired by local legends and myths I think.

I've written a lot of texts recently where the topic or the genre was already set so it can be confusing to answer that. A lot of the texts I wrote were character-driven and about quirky personalities and social misfits. Sometimes otherworldly topics but still realistic (e.g. drama with elements of fantasy etc) Tell us about the stories you write if you feel like it.

 

[Mr Mononoke]

I read a few of Japanese traditional plays and they were very mystical and inspired by local legends and myths I think.

I've written a lot of texts recently where the topic or the genre was already set so it can be confusing to answer that. A lot of the texts I wrote were character-driven and about quirky personalities and social misfits. Sometimes otherworldly topics but still realistic (e.g. drama with elements of fantasy etc) Tell us about the stories you write if you feel like it.

Your writing sounds very interesting. I write a lot of character focused stories and the social misfits and quirky personalities fit well with this writer.

I have written a few Japanese based stories... all quite different. One is of a yokai where I built this Fantasy world that is quite peculiar whilst the second one is told through a series of emails. It is set in the present but the writer has a very strange job but is growing in popularity in Japan.

I write Fiction, but mix it with a little Fantasy, Romance, Mystery and a little Magical Realism. Some have said that my stories lean towards Literacy but I don't think they are. I have my own style and own structure to story tell. I am currently working on an anthology, the first in a four book series. Each book are completely different in style, in telling, in approach but they all build and help the reader see a much bigger story.

I would love to read your work if you are willing to share. Feel free to PM me.

 

[Pik]

Your writing sounds very interesting. I write a lot of character focused stories and the social misfits and quirky personalities fit well with this writer.

I have written a few Japanese based stories... all quite different. One is of a yokai where I built this Fantasy world that is quite peculiar whilst the second one is told through a series of emails. It is set in the present but the writer has a very strange job but is growing in popularity in Japan.

I write Fiction, but mix it with a little Fantasy, Romance, Mystery and a little Magical Realism. Some have said that my stories lean towards Literacy but I don't think they are. I have my own style and own structure to story tell. I am currently working on an anthology, the first in a four book series. Each book are completely different in style, in telling, in approach but they all build and help the reader see a much bigger story.

I would love to read your work if you are willing to share. Feel free to PM me.

Thanks for sharing about the stories you write, didn't know what yokai were until I read the word in your post. I probably watched few animes where yokai appear. The story told through a series of emails sounds intriguing, reminds me of few novels and films I watched. Good luck with the anthology, maybe I'll share some of my writing in the future.

 

[JT Woody]

My efforts have been concentrated in trying to learn more about Jamaican Creole/Patois, because I think it's a really interesting language but my family doesn't really speak it [they've been in the US since the 70s give or take]

My paternal family is creole from Louisiana. My grandma and great-grandma used to lapse into dialects i couldnt quite understand. My grandpa really looked "west indian" and i look like him. So growing up, people always assumed i was an islander (among other things)

 

[JT Woody]

I have various interests, but in terms of my current WIP, i was inspired by Tuareg (and other Saharan) cultures, and east African tribes.
Of course, im not writing historical fiction. But i weave in some influences when creating my world.

 

[DLC]

I'm fairly knowledgeable about the US, but there's a few things I wonder about - I was told they don't use kettles to boil water for coffee / tea, they use the microwave oven, and few people hang their washing on the line outside, they all use dryers? I have no idea, but that shit sounds wild, and it's the little things that interest me.

 

[Rad Scribbler]

I'm South African, so mainly familiar with the southern african countries such as; Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I was told they don't use kettles to boil water for coffee / tea, they use the microwave oven

That's possible I suppose but I've never seen anybody do it. It'll get the water hot, obviously, if you want to go that route.

and few people hang their washing on the line outside, they all use dryers?

This one will kind of depend on where you live and what the propriety of the particular neighborhood is. It'll be totally acceptable in some places, but others will take it as a sign of poverty, or worse, a symbol of pejorative ethnicity. Growing up in the 80s, everyone in my neighborhood had a clothes line and would regularly air their clothes to dry, weather permitting. Everyone had a dryer as well, but why not take advantage of God's laundromat? But as time passed, as people got more uppity, as the neighborhood grew 5x then 10x then 20x more expensive, having a clothesline was regarded as something only immigrants or poor people did. This would have been Italians or Irish in the US when I was growing, but then evolved to Hispanics as the demographics changed. One by one--even though many of the same neighbors had been living there for decades--all the clothes lines came down. Except for my mother, who still has hers. There were one of two people who made some comments about that, which if you know my mother, you wouldn't do.

Nowadays, I'm sure there's plenty or areas where nobody cares. Other places, there's probably a hybrid as people struggle with perception and self-identity (tongue in cheek on my part). Then there are other neighborhoods where they are forbidden. Particularly where I live in the Northeast where even a chicken coop costs a million dollars as you get near the ocean. Neighborhood associations will enact "codes" forbidding anything that can lower property values. Not enough trees. Too many trees. House paint not bright enough. House paint too bright. And no clotheslines. Hell to the the no. They will knock on your door and let you know about it.

My net income would need another zero to live in those neighborhoods, so it's not something I have to deal with. Funny part is, I think more people hang their clothes up now then 20 years ago, but more so on foldable racks than permanent lines. Shit shrinks if you put it into the dryer. And not just lady's clothes anymore.

 

[DLC]

I'm not sure where I got the 'Americans don't use kettles' thing. It sounded like bullshit. Those neighbourhood associations I've heard of, and they seem at odds with the whole 'freedom' concept dear to many. Also tipping - yeah who does that? Americans, that's who! My biggest fear if I ever visit the US is forgetting to tip and making people mad. Anyway, here's a picture.

 

[JT Woody]

I was told they don't use kettles to boil water for coffee / tea

Ive always had a tea kettle. My parents and grandparents had them in their kitchen so when i moved out, i got me one, too.
We have one at work, also.

few people hang their washing on the line outside, they all use dryers?

Like homer said, some places, its acceptabe. Also cultural.
My grandma grew up in the rural south and didnt have a washer or dryer. So when she moved to Washington DC as in her early 20s, she still hung her laundry. My grandparents lived in a nice area, owned their home, etc. But my grandma was just used to hanging clothes on the line. I remember being a kid and running through the clothes as a game.

Growing up, my mom would use a clothes line in the summer. More so when we lived abroad, and less so when we moved back to the states.
And in college, i strung a line across my window and airdried my clothes in my dorm room rather than wait for a dryer machine to be available. My short time roommate used to think it was weird and gross.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Right now, I'm delving into Ozark Mountain folklore, folk magic, and mid-19th century history. My grandmother's family was from the Arkansas Ozarks and I'm wandering down this path in search of a new storyline.

Sheets on lines: waaaaay back when I was a legal assistant, much of my caseload involved asbestos litigation. One of the things that stuck in my mind is the number of wives and children who contracted mesothelioma though they weren't directly exposed to asbestos at home or school. Dad came home with asbestos fibers on his clothing. Mom washed his clothes and hung them on the line. Kids played hide and seek in the drying laundry. Voila: exposure.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I just have to wonder: why not hang your washing on a washing line? *confused* I don't have a dryer, but I've used the one in laundromats when it was too rainy to hang it up.

When I hang it up, of course it takes longer to dry ... but it also feels (and smells) nicer than putting it through a laundromat dryer. *shrug* That's been my experience, anyway, for what it's worth.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Why not? It is so dry and windy here that laundry hung on the line either ends up in Nebraska or dries so quickly that it is stiff as a board and full of wrinkles. I don't like to drive to Nebraska, iron, or spend time hanging and unhanging clothes that I could spend gardening.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Who doesn't love the mad dash. Hang 'em out. Quick, quick, it's raining. Only a shower, hang 'em out again. Down for the day, might as well leave 'em there, wash 'em again tomorrow. Ya gotta love it.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I remember hanging clothes on the clothes line as a kid, but I have never had one as a married woman.

 

[Pik]

I have something like this:

 

[Rath Darkblade]

I also have something like that, but it's nowhere near big enough to hang bed linen on. (Plus, anything I hang on that thing takes at least 24 hours to dry. *shrug* I'm just glad I have an extra set of bed sheets I can use, instead).

 

[Pik]

In summer it takes less time I think. Agree about the bed linen, perhaps it can fit if it's the only thing getting dried, or it can be folded.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

If the bed linen is folded, it will take much longer to dry. =(

If you're washing all your bed linen (mattress cover, duvet cover, and pillow cases), it's best to hang them outside if possible. If not, having your own dryer works too. =)

I don't have a dryer, so I have to go to the local laundromat ... where, because people are careless and don't bother fishing out change from pockets, there are scorch-marks on the dryer walls where coins made it through the grilles at the back. Not a good look (or smell), but at least it's fast and doesn't make the garments smell.

 

[Pik]

Dryer is probably for people who have a lot of clothes, there was one when I was living abroad for few years and I had some good and weird experiences with it. If I was living in a house I would probably dry the clothes outside, in the apartment I prefer the indoor breezy method, if I do get the dryer in the future I would need to figure out where to put it but it doesn't seem like the necessity atm.