I just wanted to mention the setting and background for a scene which I’ve wanted to put into four different stories now, but sadly it just doesn’t seem to fit with them so has never been used. I tried to find a way of using it in my new one, The Raven Sound, as that has a Liverpool setting, but sadly it doesn’t feel right for the novel.
My plan, in a lovely double level of meaning, was to have a dialogue scene about someone finally needing to draw a line in the sand, having put up with years of mistreatment, and to realise they needed to take control of their own life. The setting was to be the actual café in the middle of Seffy Park in Liverpool, in the mid 1990’s, when it was very different from the shiny attraction of today. In real life it was a wonderful, if slightly grubby, place for chips, toast or tea back then, didn’t really have much of a tourist clientele and was used by a variety of locals. There was one genuine sign there which summed the state and approach of the place up wonderfully to me:
“No skinning up on the Pool Table!”
Like I say, everyone draws the line somewhere, and that was the sole instruction put up for patrons. I loved that sign and thought it was a fantastic, a practical rule to be obeyed which at the same time ignores the law. It was (mainly) observed.
Stay safe,
Kit