Beaker Pottery Museum of prehistory and early history, Berlin Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3. License: Alfons Aberg
Just as the previous contract was about to end, I saw a position advertised at the local museum. Here, in Wessex.
Okay, so it wasn’t paying much but that was expected; a small museum, a pimple compared with the V&A. More relevant, the museum housed a good portion of the finds from the Royal Barrows of Salisbury Plain. The gold was amazing. But it wasn’t just that. The Beaker pottery, the Grooved Ware, the polished stone axes, the flints. I get as excited about that as most women would get about a new lover. My fingers trembled as I updated my c.v.; I could scarcely control the pen as I completed the application form. Oh, and I so wanted my writing to be immaculately tidy. In a job like this, it matters.
I was short-listed for interview. And, gosh, when I remember, I was tight with anxiety.
147 words for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt
An excerpt from Priory Project, a Sci-fi/Fantasy posted weekly back in 2015
crispina kemp 
Expertly done. I thought you were living it.
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I thank you, Violet. Though do consider, the original was written for a novel, so I take that as a big compliment. 🙂
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This felt like it was a sharing of a true experience, Crispina. I would have sworn it was about you.
Brilliantly done.
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Only in my dreams. That would be a dream job. Not it was written in the guise of my alto-ego. But I think you. 🙂
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Smiling… still… proof of your skills as a writer, Madam!
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I don’t deny. I post the story in weekly episodes way back.
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🙂
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I’ll accept that.
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Great story telling.
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I thank you, Sadje.
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You’re most welcome 🙏
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As I read this I was hoping you got the job. Now I see it was a fantasy. Well done 🙂
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Wish. Though it was written about a museum I’d visited and chattted merrily with the staff.
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Nice memory 🙂
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Yep. From such memories in my writing made
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I too thought this was about you. Mission accomplished, no? 🙂
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I smile. I thank you. I’m delighted it had such an effect.
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Lovely excerpt: really puts me the character’s head and feel her excitement. It made me want to go to that museum, too! And to wish I were qualified to work there…
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I thank you, Joy
The museum was in Devizes, in Wiltshire. Basically, the Wessex museum. And I too wish I was qualified to work there.
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I would be satisfied if I could just visit. I would really like to live near a history museum where I could meander over whenever I liked and browse. Instead, it’s always squeezed into an afternoon as part of a trip somewhere else.
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I spent several holidays in the area… good walking. Although Norwich Museum isn’t too bad. Boudicca and the Icena etc. Though it’s main feature are the art galleries.
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I love art museums too, so that works for me.
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Ours at Norwich mostly feature what’s known as the Norwich School (Crome and Cotman, with vast skyscapes) and a few of the Dutch masters. It also hosts travelling exhibitions from the London galleries. With this I grew up on my doorstep.
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Take all the above as encouragement to rework The Priory Project. Though that will present challenges, since you sort of sidewise into the Asaric universe.
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I was just going to pull the neolithic material out. But now … it would take some reworking, especially the bit about alternate universes. Yet … possible. Definitely possible.
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