Dickensblog

Dickensblog Pledge Drive: The final tally

Thanks to everyone who donated their time and efforts and everyone who bought something in the pledge drive! We made $65 for the manuscript restoration effort. I'll be sending the museum a check. A few stories and drawings are still in the works, but I believe everything will be finished up soon. (And I just got my icons from birdienl -- you can see them here! Aren't they lovely?) Again, thanks.

Pledge Drive: Offer #9

Having received this box set for Christmas (thanks, Mom and Dad!), I now find myself with two copies of Our Mutual Friend on DVD. I'm offering one of these for $5 plus shipping, whatever that turns out to be -- I'll have to let you know when I ship it. Comment below if you want it. First come, first served.

Pledge Drive: Offer #8

So far we've raised $27 for the manuscript restoration. Don't forget, most of these offers (except for the book that I auctioned off) remain open until the end of the month!

Here's our newest offer: Nina will make you a pencil drawing of the Dickensian character or couple of your choice. Buyer will receive a high-quality scan of the drawing. Samples of her work are here.

Copy the following form and fill it out in the comments section below:

Novel:
Characters (two characters included in base price, $1 more for each extra):
Length -- bust ($5), waist ($7), or full body ($9):
Description (describe in detail):

 

Pledge Drive: Offer #7

Christy will write drabbles for you, based on the Dickens novel of your choice (except for Hard Times, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, The Pickwick Papers, or Edwin Drood). Just as a reminder, a drabble is defined as a story of exactly 100 words. Please specify character, couple, genre, and/or mood, if you have any in mind. Drabbles are $2 apiece. Go here to see some drabbles she's already written.

(Those of you who wanted drabbles from me, hang on, I'm still working on them!)

Pledge Drive: Offer #6

You might call this an expansion of Offer #1. I will write drabbles (100 words) or double drabbles (200 words) based on the Dickens novel of your choice -- except Martin Chuzzlewit, because I haven't read it yet. You may specify one or more characters that you want in it, and the mood you want (dramatic, humorous, romantic, etc.). Or, if you prefer, you can leave the details up to me. Drabbles: $2 apiece, double drabbles: $3 apiece. Comment at this post if you want to take advantage of this offer, and please specify whether you'd prefer to pay by PayPal or check. Stories will be posted on Fanfiction.net, and a link will be placed in the comment section here.

Samples of my work are available here.

Pledge Drive: Offers #3 & 4

With all the Oprah excitement around here (A Tale of Two Cities/Great Expectations is now up to #23 on Amazon! Hurray!), I've slacked off a bit on the pledge drive lately, so let's get caught up!

We've raised $5 so far, which is a good start, but I know we can do a lot better than that. I have not one but two offers to share with you today:

Birdienl will make you icons based on the Dickens movie or miniseries of your choice. You may specify scenes, characters, etc., if you'd like, but screencaps must be available online. Pictures, pictures/text, or text-only are available. You can see samples of her work here, here, here, and here. 10 icons for $5; 5 icons for $3.

A special offer for ATOTC fans: Scrabcake has offered to draw and mail to you an Egyptian memorial stele for Sydney Carton, for a contribution of $5. Here's a sample of her work.

Check back tomorrow for another offer!

Pledge Drive: Offer #2

Christy will write a sentence of 250 words or more on a Dickens-related topic for a donation of $5. The sentence can be related to any Dickens novel except Hard Time, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, The Pickwick Papers, or The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

(Thanks to David for suggesting the idea and the price. I'll contact you privately about payment for your sentence!)

ETA: Christy's 290-word sentence for David is now in the comments section. Well done, Christy!

Quick clarification

About the Pledge Drive: It would be really great if, under each offer in the pledge drive, everyone could confine their comments only to that offer. I don't mean to be a Miss Murdstone or anything :-) , but it would help a LOT in keeping track of what people want to offer and what people are interested in buying.

If you want to discuss any offers you would like to make, or any offers that you'd like someone to make, you can comment about them on this post. They'll all be taken into consideration, I promise.

Thanks for your understanding and help.

Pledge Drive: Offer #1

Welcome to the Dickensblog Pledge Drive, where we're raising money to help conserve three of Dickens's manuscripts (and trying to be a little less annoying than PBS pledge drives)! Go here to read all about how this will work.

And here's offer #1:

I will write drabbles (100 words) or double drabbles (200 words) based on Great Expectations. You may specify one or more characters that you want in it, and the mood you want (dramatic, humorous, romantic, etc.). Or, if you prefer, you can leave the details up to me. Drabbles: $2 apiece, double drabbles: $3 apiece. Comment at this post if you want to take advantage of this offer, and please specify whether you'd prefer to pay by PayPal or check. Stories will be posted on Fanfiction.net, and a link will be placed in the comment section here.

150 years ago today

My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening.

Pip in Great Expectations, Chapter 1

My memory is not as vivid as Pip’s, but I do have some recollection of my first encounter with Charles Dickens. On the page, I mean, not through animated ducks and mice.

I’m not sure whether it was a raw afternoon, but I do remember sitting in Mrs. Danelo’s ninth-grade classroom turning the pages of my literature book, curiously studying black and white photos that came, as I would later learn, from the 1946 film adaptation of Great Expectations: a wide-eyed small boy, a menacing man in rags and chains, a pretty girl with her chin arrogantly tilted, a shrewish old woman gazing with eager, witchlike eyes from under her white hair and tattered bridal veil.

At fifteen, I was an avid reader familiar with all kinds of books, but these were characters not quite like any I had ever seen or imagined. They were more eccentric, more unusual—and paradoxically, more real.

A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied around his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared, and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.

I didn’t realize then that the story that went with these strange pictures would be a kind of gateway drug for me—that the abridged novel in the pages of my reader would create such an appetite for more that after finishing it, I would go find and devour the entire novel. And then another Dickens novel. And another.

For if the film stills from Great Expectations had piqued my interest, the words had hit me like a wrecking ball.