Djibouti

The rule: if you hear the name of a country and you couldn't find it on a map, post three facts about it.

1. Djibouti just turned up in my crossword. I'd heard the name of the place in a few lame jokes but had only the vaguest idea of its location. It turns out to be a teensy nation tucked away between Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia, spitting distance from Yemen across the Red Sea. It gained independence from France in 1977. (Are there any bits of Africa which weren't colonised by Europe?!) It has a population of about half a million people, of whom 11,000 use the Internet.

2. Djibouti's economy depends on its strategic location (it allows the US to use a base for Operation Enduring Freedom) and on trade moving through the ports. It suffers huge unemployment and poverty.

3. Like all countries I have to get out the atlas for, Djibouti produces awesome stamps, such as these bird stamps.

The state of the writing: thinking out loud

I've got three writing projects seriously on the go right now:

1. Wild Honey, formerly Earth Park. The bees one. Doing some rearranging and rewrites on this. I hope to stick to the story until it's finished.

2. The Accelerated Dragon, a complete rethink of Quiet Game. The chess one. I've made a good start on this, but should leave it aside until I finish #1 above.

As with #1, this isn't a little rewrite, where you go back and cut out a few adjectives. The more crap you write, the wider your focus becomes, until you're throwing out and sticking in whole scenes and characters. Word lengths are therefore pretty much meaningless at this point.

3. The Strawberry Peppermint Stamp Collection, which I'm mucking about with when I get stuck on the other two. :-)


... four, actually, since I've still got eight beefics to write!

Beefic #3

For savantesque, some AU ST:TNG with an OFC. :-)

( She's on a shuttle when the news comes through. )

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Next cab off the rank: lferion's request for Highlander / Doctor Who: two great tastes that taste great together. ;-)