“Interesting” neighbours, maybe a curtain at your
lounge window maybe advisable or better still at their bedroom window!!
Those were the
actual words written in the guest book at a gîte I stayed at in South West France
in the summer of 2008.
The exterior of the house
The house was located in a small village called Daglan in the picturesque Dordogne region just as it is in the short story and it indeed was named Concazal. Yes, it pretty much seems like I made none of the story up myself!
The house was located in a small village called Daglan in the picturesque Dordogne region just as it is in the short story and it indeed was named Concazal. Yes, it pretty much seems like I made none of the story up myself!
One could quite
easily hazard a guess as to what the actual words meant in the book but I opted
to speculate that something rather more macabre had transpired. It wasn't until I learned later in the holiday about the horrific technique for producing foie gras in the region that I decided this would fit the story perfectly. And so was born the witch-like Madame Joan Boucher.
Some fois gras I had in a restaurant in Daglan
Looking back
through my holiday photographs I noticed a few more details I had peppered throughout the story that I had clearly based on things I had observed whilst staying at the wonderful, though somewhat haunting, location.
The barbecue where the keys were left
The lovely views
The creaky staircase
The name of the story comes from The Doors song of the same name from their first album. I bought all of my Doors albums in France and frequently listened to them whilst out there.
A sunburned Mr. Gore writes the story in Daglan
So they were all of the elements that I eventually tied together to write the story. And it all began with a comment in a visitors book. I did actually jot down the names of the people who wrote the comment but I'm not going to mention them here... just in case they want some sort of royalty payment or something.
The name of the story comes from The Doors song of the same name from their first album. I bought all of my Doors albums in France and frequently listened to them whilst out there.
So they were all of the elements that I eventually tied together to write the story. And it all began with a comment in a visitors book. I did actually jot down the names of the people who wrote the comment but I'm not going to mention them here... just in case they want some sort of royalty payment or something.
THE END OF THE NIGHT
For the most scrubbed-up version of the story read it in "The 'Burbs Unauthorized Quiz Book: Revised and Expanded Edition" - Out to buy now from Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment