POP QUIZ - Time and Function

[Irish Witch]

A couple of people on this forum will know that I've been writing a book, but I've just realised something. In my novel the primary character lives in England but I've screwed up the time-frame. All my seasons are out of whack (I've given them summer when we get it.) I've got schoolstarting at the wrong time of year, and I realised I have little idea what the English weather is like.

So tell me:
- When does the British school term start (plus school holidays)
- When would be the best time to go to the beach.
- and is there any way I can salvage my story without re-writting it completely!

Also:
- Notes on American school terms as above, and lists of public holidays for the two countries would be apreciated!

Thankyou for your time!

Since,
K. Irish

[SpasticSage]

I pulled up school calendars (K-12) for my home state of Florida, and most counties have some combination of:

-Veterans' Day (11/11) or Columbus Day (10/11)
-Thanksgiving Holidays (11/24 or 11/25 through 11/26)
-Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday (1/17)
-Presidents' Day (2/21)
-Memorial Day (5/30)

These holidays may not be the actual holidays (we usually make our days off either Mondays or Fridays). They also don't include holidays over the summer (Labor Day and Independence Day).

Students usually also get about 4 days off over the course of the year for teachers to plan.

There's usually 2 weeks of Winter Break (in December - Early January) and one week of Spring Break (usually March).

School terms start for the year in August and End in May, with the semesters divided by winter break (some schools cut the semester 1-2 weeks after winter break gets back).

For a sample college schedule, go here: http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/3yearcal.html


The Beach: The best time to go to the beach is all the time (March to September or October if you want to swim) in Florida. I don't remember if November and February are good then, too. It likely depends on the year. If you live further north, March and September may be a bit cold for the beach.

I'd like to hear CJ's answer about the beach...

[Squidflakes]

There is no good time to go to the beach in England, unless you leave the country and fly to some other place where the water isn't 1 degree above freezing.

[Irish Witch]

Please vote as well. It feeds my eago, and I need that right now!

[Squidflakes]

Please vote as well. It feeds my eago, and I need that right now!

You're the most beautiful thing to come out of Australia since caramel Tim-Tams.

/ego stroke

[CJBurgandy]

I'd like to hear CJ's answer about the beach...

Beach? What the hell is a beach?

[Codebear]

Please vote as well. It feeds my eago, and I need that right now!

ill feed your ego. you sexy beast of burdun.

[Nithos]

The weather in England isn't all that nice. It's at a fairly high latitude for the most part, and a lot of it's really dreary and rainy (kinda like where I live). The water up there's pretty cold, so there's no really great time to go to the beach, but I assume during summer (your winter) it would be nice enough to just walk the coast line, though I think most places it'd still be too cold for a swim.

EDIT: Though living fairly far north myself, I can attest to how nice having a huge stretch of beach to yourself is (or with some chosen company ). There's nothing like a beach abandoned for the winter with good company, even if you can't go for a swim.

[Honor]

I voted yes, not because people will laugh at you, but because every incongruity you introduce into your story without a stated reason takes the reader's attention away from what they should be doing... which is losijng themselves in the story.

IOW, When they should be consumed with why Anne is Not going to meet Heathcliffe at the docks, they'll be wondering why the fork it's snowing in july... Snow in july seems awfully important to a northern-hemispherer, they'll think something must be going on... thus the actual plot elements will slip by almost unnoticed.

As re-writes go, this one will be a breeze. All you have to do is change some dates, right?

[Irish Witch]

Snow! What's snow?? I've heard of the stuff but I've never seen it outside the television!!

Practically all the snow in Australia is up the top of with Mt Hoffum or the fabled 'snowy mountains'.

But yeah and no. The argument is in the fact that the primary character is schooy age. This means at the begginning of the story there's a lot of having to work around the school year. Also there were things that I wanted to speciffically happen on certain dates (holidays) which is why I needed them. It may be necessary to change when these events happen!

That said, I still get your point about drawing people away from the main story. Thanks for that!

*Grumbles, and starts crossing things out*

[CJBurgandy]

snow...? Isn't that the white stuff falling outside my window?

[CottonStar]

I say do whatever you want to.

If need be, just apply what you know about the location and work around the stuff you don't.

Of course, I suppose there's the possibility of you wanting it to be as accurate as possible....but what's the likelihood of THAT?

[Prettydragoon]

What Honor said. Things like seasons and holidays and which side of the road you drive on, say, are things that give your story local colour. Get them right and nobody will notice, but get them wrong and... you know... Better fix it before you get published.

Sorry I can't help with the holidays. I think summer holidays are in July or August, but I don't know the dates. The weather in England seems to be pretty variable, "if you don't like the weather, wait fifteen minutes" variable. I'd say it's chilly from November to March. I've been in England in January and it wasn't cold. The temperature stayed above freezing all day and not far below at night. There may be some snow, but it's usually the wrong kind of snow.

That's pretty much all I know.

[SpasticSage]

Snow! What's snow?? I've heard of the stuff but I've never seen it outside the television!!

Practically all the snow in Australia is up the top of with Mt Hoffum or the fabled 'snowy mountains'.

I'll take care of this.

I grew up in Florida, and most of the snow I had seen was either (1) on television, (2) on mountains, or (3) in rural areas (2 or 3 occurring while I was on vacations).

So I was under the impression that snow was this white fluffy stuff associated with skiing, skating, sledding, snowball fights, and snowmen.

Then I moved to Philadelphia for school, and sure, it's pretty nice once it's just fallen.

But then the snow gets dirty.

Yes, snow gets dirty.

Really dirty.

And the dirt stays there until the snow melts.

In April.

And then it leaves the dirt and crud all over the place after the snow is gone.

It's really quite disgusting and miserable.

Unless you go to the mountains and ski.

[Bigred1970]

if you wana know what england's weather is like, go to new zealand, well the parts that are less then 1000 meters above sea level. they have the same kind of climate, (Cool coastal....). here in the usa the closets thing we have is seattle or maybe vancover.... the east coast has weather NOTING like eroupe, you have to be on the west coast. that is why so many western trees do so well in eroupe...., and Newzeland.. 8)

[Goddessmisca]

If that is the case, I know a lot about seattle weather, seeing as my college is about 40 min from seattle (if I were to drive with no traffic at all...)