I have been offline for a while and am disheartened to see so many postings which shift away from the intention of this forum. Perhaps a NEW forum should be suggested?

Personally, I was introduced to Mr. Bradbury's fantastic stories by my 7th (and 8th) grade teacher who actually READ Dandelion Wine to our class. Not many students of that age were used to being read TO; however, all of us were mesmerized and dreaded the end of a chapter.

Since then (I am now a mom of 3 in school), I own every book Mr. Bradbury has written and have read them all too many times to track. I have also learned that I have much in common with his late wife (my birthday is 1 day later; our love of cats; our affection for wine--in fact, my father-in-law has his own vineyard (but pinot noir grapes, not merlot!); plus, the fact that my husband is a writer at heart and his geneaology presents numerous writers who funded the publication of their own writings as early as the 1700's. All wrote very colorful essays, poetry and stories; not nearly to the extent of Mr. Bradbury's "paintings", but enjoyable in the context of the era in which they were written.

I will forever be indebted to Mr. Bradbury, whose brilliant wisdom I have introduced to our children. THANK YOU!

Welcome back, callalily.

Don't worry too much about this message board, it's just the wind changing direction from time to time. We had a few gusts of Michael Moore, and we're currently being blown about by high-schoolers working on a set project. I suspect the autumn winds, and the approach of Halloween, will put us back on course...

Phil
www.bradburymedia.co.uk

[This message has been edited by philnic (edited 09-12-2004).]

Ah, but beware of the Autumn People!

Once again... RESOURCES is 'sticking'. For those who can't access RESOURCES, you'll have to wait until Monday, 20th September. Whatever it is, it's only affecting RESOURCES right now. And the publisher is the only one who can try to get the problem eliminated.

For what it's worth, so far, I've been able to access resources except for a couple of times when it bounced me to "page cannot be displayed." It takes a very long time to load, always. Does the software top-out at 10K posts and delete elsewhere to create room? That might explain part of "ruled paper" vanishing.

I have not been able to get into Resources the normal way for several days. But if I click on "Today's Active Topics," it goes right into it. I can't figure that out, but it works for me.

lmskipper:

Never tried that before. It works great. Hey, thanks!!!

It's wierd really..I'm in the 10th grade and I just heard of Ray Bradbury in my English Honors 3 class. We read three of his stories. A Sound of Thunder, The Pedestrian, and There Will Come Soft Rains. I was pretty much to say the least blown away by this person's imagination and originality pretty much because it wasn't the typical "aliens take over the planet" kind of thing but one of a kind. If anything, it made me want to write a few stories myself besides the fact that I'm not a very good story writer... Funny thing, we were given an assignment to write a Sci- Fi story. I wish I could ask the guy how he came up with all these ideas so I could write an original too because pretty much I'm having a big writer's block as you may call it. Anyways, I was really inspired by these few stories, I wish I had all of his books myself.

Kaosgirl74: "Just" discovered RB! That is wonderful news for all here to ponder.

Try more short stories: Golden Apples of the Sun, Illustrated Man - for starts. And then his early novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and you will be well on your way...

You ask about insights into his writing, get a copy of Zen in the Art of Writing. Want a comprehensive overview of his 60+ yrs of stories, movies, plays, et al? Check a copy of Jerry Weist's recent biography, Illustrated Life " A Journey to Far Metaphor".

Also, visit regular friend to this site Philnic's great RB webpage: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in5379/index.htm

Of course, have your librarian help out when you need a copy reserved through inter-school loan.

Best wishes and enjoy!

Personally, I like The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451...wait...THEY'RE THE ONLY BOOKS I'VE READ OF HIS!!! I'm just now reading the Martian Chronicles, but it's so stinkin' confusing!

But they're all good...

--scaryneighbor