Category: NaNoWriMo

NANOWRIMO – November 2025 – Day 2

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The Third Son of a Duke

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WE needed a central character

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So, in writing the outline, I came up with a premise that might change, but it seems a likely scenario, given that the title of the book is The Third Son of a Duke. It means that he is like having a spare tyre, or in the same position as the younger brother who is heir to the throne.

Here, it’s nothing quite so radical, just that he will inherit the title or the estate, which goes to the eldest son, yes, no equality, because I set it to start in the year 1913, that is, the Christmas before the First World War.  Remember, I was going to wrap something big around the story, and you can’t get any bigger than a world war. 

It’s a time when the classes were starting to break down and the aristocracy was becoming less relevant to everyone else.  It’s the Edwardian Era, and everyone is clinging to the last vestiges of the ruling class and the working class.  What was eminently workable in the 1800s is no longer viable. Nobility is finding it harder or impossible to maintain their lifestyles, fortunes are being lost, and a new class of wealthy people are emerging.

In 1913, there were still first class, second class, and third class.  On ships, on trains, and in life.  And something else is in the air, the coming of the Suffragette.  Women no longer want to stay at home, do as they were told and have no say over their lives.

We are going to start in that small world of classes, travelling together on a ship, one of the biggest for that time, with over 1300 passengers.

Soon.

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Today, 1235 words, for a total of 3025 words.

NANOWRIMO – November 2025 – Day 1

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The Third Son of a Duke

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Where do I begin?

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Like the words to a song, it’s just getting the ball rolling.

Perhaps at times, the easiest part of writing the story is to have that one paragraph premise around which all else revolves.

So,

A chance encounter brings together a group of people who in other circumstances may never have met.  The time they spend together changes some in ways they could never have imagined possible, and others, a chance to be someone else, if only for a short time.  In one case, however, it brings together two unlikely people who will find that anything that can keep them apart will.  Until, of course, fate intervenes.

Sounds good, and I could see myself pitching this to a movie studio because as I was writing it, I could see the characters assembling, I can see the expressions of both curiosity and interest, but not in a bad way, and then the ongoing interactions where the wall begins to fall, just a little.

It needs to have something big wrapped around it, but today, it will just be an outline of how it will start, and maybe a few lines, just to get the feel of pen in hand again.

Yes, we’ll be writing the first draft in longhand.

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Today, 1800 words, for a total of 1800 words.

NANOWRIMO – November 2025 – Day

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The Third Son of a Duke

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Day 0 – What’s it all about

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So this is what happens when you become so wrapped up in your family history that a story screams out from under the names, dates, and places.

Perhaps it’s not the history you were hoping for, but some of your ancestors could be incorporated into a story.

A lot of mine came out from England on various ships, from sail to steam, small and large.

A lot of them were farmers, farmhands, or the modern-day roustabout called a labourer.

A lot of these came to Australia to improve their lot in life.  Some did.

WE had no convict ancestors

We had no rich people, perhaps the one that might have been was a builder and stone mason from Dorchester in England.

It was his daughter who was the reason for my existence.

But a story can’t be just about ancestors; it needs a thread to pull it all together.  That’s why I’m working on a package to wrap my family story in.

It starts in England over Christmas 1913, with the third son of a Duke, David.

His parents are sending him to Australia to check on how his father’s investment in his uncle’s enterprise, a cattle station in outback Queensland, is performing.

The real reason, his parents want to shield him from the possibility of war, just around the corner in 1914.

In going to Australia, he will meet my grandmother, on her way out to visit relatives in Footscray, but I think something else was afoot.

It’s going to be a fun ride imagining what my grandmother might have been like at the age of 25, coming to Australia as an adventure, and definitely not the sort of thing girls her age did.

Memories of the conversations with my cat – 67

As some may be aware, but many not, Chester, my faithful writing assistant, mice catcher, and general pain in the neck, passed away some years ago.

Recently I was running a series based on his adventures, under the title of Past Conversations with my cat.

For those who have not had the chance to read about all of his exploits I will run the series again from Episode 1

These are the memories of our time together…

This is Chester. He’s come down from his bed in our bedroom to see what the commotion is about.

He stops at the top of the stairs down into the lounge room and sees the TV.

I might have guessed, the Maple Leafs are playing, he says.

Yep, I say, gleefully, and they’re winning.

Its not over until you know what…

Way to be a spoilsport. Stop complaining and take a seat. It’s a new day, a new coach, and a new invigoration in the team.

He sits and does that wrap around thing with his tail that indicates irritability.

Don’t get your hopes up, he says. And shouldn’t you be out in the office working on your NaNoWriMo project.

Under control I say. It’s practically writing itself.

Is that a shake of his head?

Memories of the conversations with my cat – 66

As some may be aware, but many not, Chester, my faithful writing assistant, mice catcher, and general pain in the neck, passed away some years ago.

Recently I was running a series based on his adventures, under the title of Past Conversations with my cat.

For those who have not had the chance to read about all of his exploits I will run the series again from Episode 1

These are the memories of our time together…

This is Chester. He’s feeling very smug.

Our focus has mainly centred on getting the NaNoWriMo project done each day, but in between all of this, a number of issues have arisen.

The first, the Maple Leads, and what Chester calls my obsession with ice hockey.

He doesn’t get it. No one plays ice hockey in this country at the same level, and you can never find it mentioned anywhere, so why bother.

Besides he adds in his most cutting tone, they’re a bunch of losers.

So they’ve lost six games in a row and sacked the 50 million dollar coach, but…

To him it’s but nothing. Chester now refuses to watch the ice hockey with me, not until they win again. That 6-1 drubbing two games back was the start of the slide.

I tell him that we’re missing key players and with the newish lineup it takes time to work as a team.

Right.

So we move to God Friended Me.

What the hell is going on there. Miles and Cara are stumbling, with doubts seeded, Rakesh has just had his heart torn to shreds and the incoming Bishop is at a crossroads.

So, for a little early advice…

What’s going to happen to Miles and Cara?

Chester: I’m cynical, their the heart of the show, they won’t be forced apart. It’s all about the ratings.

What’s going to happen to Rakesh?

Chester: Draw out the angst for another 14 episodes, we’ll have to keep tuning on to see what happens.

And the bishop and his girlfriend?

Chester: Send them to another parish, they’re just a distraction we don’t need.

I’m inclined to agree with him.

Except about the Maple Leafs. They’re in Pheonix tomorrow, maybe with a new head coach they might pull off a miracle.

NANOWRIMO – April 2025 – Day 30

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The Fourth Son

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The reporter

When the story is over, you realise you’ve forgotten a major chunk of it.

It’s one of those wakes in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, and screaming.

I was just looking at the first few chapters and realised, what about that horrid reporter that confronted them in the restaurant?

While Cherise dealt with the problem, it occurred to me later that she would be perfect for the new king to get an outsider, and a cynic at that, view.

Yes, he does get a little payback later on at the media conference at the Embassy when he arrives back from Ruth’s home.

So, now there’s a new chapter or section where the ambassador summons her editorial boss, and they put a proposal to both of them.

This will also then lead to an interview of sorts on the plane when they are coming home, where he has become King

I’m also including a new chapter where he meets with Archie, an old friend and the head of the principality’s only newspaper and TV station.

And there will be a revolving door of interaction with the media.

NANOWRIMO – April 2025 – Day 29

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The Fourth Son

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Well, it’s almost over, and it’s only the first week of the King’s reign.

There’s more, but I think the tale of the wedding might consume another book, with the plots and twists it can bring

And then there’s the coronation and the missing brother.  Yes, there’s every chance he’ll be thawed out and brought back to life.

Well, I doubt that can happen, but there is the spectre of his brother hanging over everything, and it’s going to play a part in the coronation.

The summer palace is going to become an international equestrian school.

Ruth is going to challenge all comers to many duels in the sword room.

And prove she’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Elizabeth is going to make a bid for the top job, Queen, and our new king is going to have to learn more about the country and its archaic laws, yes, we’re going back 800 years to the original charter when the land was granted to the first King.

Will there even be a coronation?

Stay tuned.

NANOWRIMO – April 2025 – Day 28

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The Fourth Son

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I have to say that just writing about Queen Isobel sent shivers down my spine.

At tome my hands were shaking over the keyboard, and I had to try very hard to find the words that might express some of that feeling and felt the despair of never being able to act on it.

In my mind, they were sharing a dance, a waltz, one where they could br together and apart when they could gaze into each other’s eyes.

I could feel that depth of feelings because it’s the same o have with the love of my life who’s been there for nearly 50 years.  All it takes is a look, a nuance, a simple touch that sends an electric shock through you.

And how hard it is not to show it when out in public.

It’s why Ruth is perceptive enough to see what there is and clever enough to realise that it was not a threat.  Their pact of telling the truth, no matter what, had given her his perspective, what had happened, and what it meant in a world that she could never imagine.

I’m still trying to reconcile those feelings because I’ve never quite experienced anything like it, so I could never say for sure what I would have done in similar circumstances.

Men are usually weak.  Perhaps I want this king to be sometimes more than his father, who certainly would have acted on what he would have assumed was an implied offer.

And just to be clear, I never expected there would be weighty moral issues arising in this simple tale of a fourth son rising to be king.

NANOWRIMO – April 2025 – Day 27

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The Fourth Son

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Queen Isobel.

Contrary to the myth that all witches were hags or drones, the wicked witch of nnnn swooped into their principality on her broomstick, in the guise of a Cessna citation, the private royal plane, to be greeted by the new king’s sister.

It was a calculated manoeuvre to get her to take the front line, her old partner in crime, when meting out punishment to her younger siblings.

His older sister, for that matter, had been more of a mother to him than his real mother.  But with that came the bad as well as the good.

It was always clear who the dominant one was, his sister, because he knew that she was more like her father than her mother, and she had inherited her father’s sadistic streak

When the Queen arrives at the castle for the proper greeting, she appears to be anything but what he remembered of her, and it scares him.

What had his sister and her conjured up in the car from the airport to the castle?

Formalities over and confusion settling in, it’s time for the brief private discussion in the green room.

Seeing her by the drinks cabinet pouring a drink takes him back to the days of hide and seek they played together in the castle, and that very room.

A look passes between them, and they remember.

Don’t forget that as a teen, he had a crush on this woman standing before him.  Now a queen, not just a crazy girl, that look between them transcended everything.

The kiss, well, not planned, not avoided, but an expression of feelings that still burned, but every so lightly they could be embers and extinguished.

So this was the reason why he never tried to hide from her.  Didn’t she know, or did she guess, but not want to think about?

Her sister had expressed feelings for the new king, her sister the one one shared his first kiss, the sister he wanted more than Eleanor, and the sister who told their father, and he nearly killed her for it.

Never, never, never will another princess from his domain marry a prince from the new king’s kingdom.  Ever.

The deal made over the dowry between the new king’s mother and his father had been contentious and nearly started another war.

Old rivalries never died. They simply festered.

As for their feelings for each other, back in the box and stored away, never to see the light of day.

NANOWRIMO – April 2025 – Day 26

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The Fourth Son

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Speaking of old feelings

There is no doubt in the new King’s mind that Ruth is the one, but all the old feelings are being stirred up now that he is back home, and it’s not just being home again.

In a castle that he grew up in, there is a memory both good and bad in every corner, every nook and cranny, in the paintings on the walls, in the rooms he used to play, weather, lounge, and entertainment in, and the people.

Talking about the summer palace long since shuttered, though no reason was ever given, was the place he stole his first kiss, with a girl he was soon to meet again.

She was as horrible to him as she was nice, and it was a short period that he could never reconcile in his mind and had never left but remained in the depths, waiting for the opportunity to resurface.

He was hoping it wouldn’t.

He’d got past Eleanor.

Now he had to get past Isobel.  Standing in the green room because of the green tapestries depicting the valley before the castle, when there were no village roads or farms, quite literally a sea of green.

The green room was the private reception room where the king met privately with other very senior dignitaries, and the first would be Queen Isobel of the other principality.

Isobel was a mystery to him and quite unlike any girl and later woman he ever met, and he put that down to the eccentricities of Royal blood.

He is both excited and filled with dread.