Category: NaNoWriMo

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 27

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Helicopters and compromise

…

I have been in a helicopter once or twice and they literally take my breath away.

My wife thought it would make an amazing present, and it was coupled with a jet boat ride that was heart-pounding, and some other experience that I can’t remember at this point.

It was the helicopter ride that stuck with me, skimming the grass tops as we left the airport, heading for a mountain top known as the Remarkables.  We went up the side and then peeled away, almost sideways, and

Wow!

There was more.  It was meant to be a ten-minute ride, but it ended up being nearly half an hour when we got a call to pick up someone beside a river.

That was only a small helicopter.

The one in the story is bigger, the trip longer, over the forests to a small clearing that is only accessible by air.

Tim is basically hiding there, from everything.

Taking his very ill girlfriend there, the girl he couldn’t help because he burnt every bridge, was always going to be problematical.

Our boy didn’t ask her to go, but he was glad she did.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 28

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

All’s well…

…

Maybe.

Shotguns are in abundance, Tim has one, and it’s a standoff until he sees Annie.

I guess when I was writing this it was a little moving, and not for the first time when writing something that is emotionally difficult, a tear or two happens.

It’s the same when I watch really emotional movies, though I never used to be like that.

To be honest, I don’t know what it would be like to be confronted with a very ill loved one.  I think there would be stunned silence, then the start of the realisation of what it means, followed by all sorts of thoughts.

Not what it would be like if there was nothing I could do.

It has happened to a lot of people around me.  My sister-in-law lost a daughter, taken by cancer.  They had been hoping she had beaten it, but it came back.

My wife’s best friend’s daughter has finally discovered why she was having stomach pains, yes, cancer again, stage 3 and there is hope.

But the emotional roller coaster is not one any of us want to get on.

At least in this story, I can give hope.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 28

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

All’s well…

…

Maybe.

Shotguns are in abundance, Tim has one, and it’s a standoff until he sees Annie.

I guess when I was writing this it was a little moving, and not for the first time when writing something that is emotionally difficult, a tear or two happens.

It’s the same when I watch really emotional movies, though I never used to be like that.

To be honest, I don’t know what it would be like to be confronted with a very ill loved one.  I think there would be stunned silence, then the start of the realisation of what it means, followed by all sorts of thoughts.

Not what it would be like if there was nothing I could do.

It has happened to a lot of people around me.  My sister-in-law lost a daughter, taken by cancer.  They had been hoping she had beaten it, but it came back.

My wife’s best friend’s daughter has finally discovered why she was having stomach pains, yes, cancer again, stage 3 and there is hope.

But the emotional roller coaster is not one any of us want to get on.

At least in this story, I can give hope.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 26

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Shotgun Annie

…

Some characters sometimes leap off the page.  I have to say at the time I was watching a Western Movie, and it had Annie Oakley in it, and the idea came that I should have a woman handy with a shotgun.

It’s not as farfetched as it seems, since a lot of women who were brought up on farms, or ranches, were good at shooting, hunting, and horse riding, though for us city-bound types it might be something of an anomaly.

Whatever I was thinking, I decided Tim needed a different girlfriend. Or perhaps not so different.

On the other side of the coin, I have two separate instances where friends are going through maladies, one that is not treatable, and the other requiring long and expensive treatment that will only last a few years.

But a few years is better than the alternative, death.

To find out where Tim is our boy goes to meet her, fully expecting to be shot at, but devastated to discover how ill she is.

There is, of course, only one thing he can do.

…

NANOWRIMO – 2024 – Day 0

Behind the Green Door

  .

I was going to give the story the tag line, ‘a game show with a difference’.

But…

Then I remembered “The Running Man”, Arnold Swartzenegger running to save his life.  Not like that at all.

Yet…

I have been watching a number of TV shows of late that have a number of particularly interesting elements.

Silo – these people are living in an underground bunker, while the earth outside is unliveable.  Not sure why, but it doesn’t look good.

Fallout – same deal, underground bunkers are the in thing, but outside is recovering from a nuclear war, and lots of strange people.

Logan’s Run – this has the notion you can only live till 35.  I thought that was a little restrictive and made it 65

Oops…

Sorry, Soylent Green, it’s about the same age, or perhaps later but voluntary … but no, I’m not turning them into food.

I Robot – I liked the idea of a self-aware robot, but I decided to make it more life like than real life.  In other words, unless you knew it was a robot, you wouldn’t know

So…

Yes, I’m using the underground city trope but in my case it’s built inside a mountain and is only fifteen levels deep.

Outside, well, they had time to build underground city’s before all the volcanoes blew up, spewed ash and sulphur fumes, and a lot more, turning the earth into ice and an unbreathable and scorched barren environment that nearly killed everyone who couldn’t get to their bunkers.

Almost 200 years later, outside is almost liveable, but no one knows except those who run the cities, and after all this time, the original owner who saved a select population to repopulate the earth had morphed into the dictator, his power over everything in what might be called his kingdom, and causing growing discontent and the creation of a ‘resistance’ called the Brainstrust.

Now, that’s a lot of threads to tie together into a cohesive story.

So…

The protagonist is Michael.  He is an investigator, one of several.  Crime is minimal, but it occurs in his city of 25,000 people.

He is 65, and it’s time to retire.  He knows he gets a week with a guidance councellor to wrap up his life, leave a legacy, and go to the adjudication ceremony which will, after a jury determines what his outcome will be, hence the green door, the best possible.

What’s behind that door no one knows because no one comes back.

However, over the course of the week, a number of his old cases are reviewed, and with them, it is revealed that he knows far more about the city, its leaders, what is outside…

And a lot, lot more…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 27

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Helicopters and compromise

…

I have been in a helicopter once or twice and they literally take my breath away.

My wife thought it would make an amazing present, and it was coupled with a jet boat ride that was heart-pounding, and some other experience that I can’t remember at this point.

It was the helicopter ride that stuck with me, skimming the grass tops as we left the airport, heading for a mountain top known as the Remarkables.  We went up the side and then peeled away, almost sideways, and

Wow!

There was more.  It was meant to be a ten-minute ride, but it ended up being nearly half an hour when we got a call to pick up someone beside a river.

That was only a small helicopter.

The one in the story is bigger, the trip longer, over the forests to a small clearing that is only accessible by air.

Tim is basically hiding there, from everything.

Taking his very ill girlfriend there, the girl he couldn’t help because he burnt every bridge, was always going to be problematical.

Our boy didn’t ask her to go, but he was glad she did.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 27

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Helicopters and compromise

…

I have been in a helicopter once or twice and they literally take my breath away.

My wife thought it would make an amazing present, and it was coupled with a jet boat ride that was heart-pounding, and some other experience that I can’t remember at this point.

It was the helicopter ride that stuck with me, skimming the grass tops as we left the airport, heading for a mountain top known as the Remarkables.  We went up the side and then peeled away, almost sideways, and

Wow!

There was more.  It was meant to be a ten-minute ride, but it ended up being nearly half an hour when we got a call to pick up someone beside a river.

That was only a small helicopter.

The one in the story is bigger, the trip longer, over the forests to a small clearing that is only accessible by air.

Tim is basically hiding there, from everything.

Taking his very ill girlfriend there, the girl he couldn’t help because he burnt every bridge, was always going to be problematical.

Our boy didn’t ask her to go, but he was glad she did.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 26

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Shotgun Annie

…

Some characters sometimes leap off the page.  I have to say at the time I was watching a Western Movie, and it had Annie Oakley in it, and the idea came that I should have a woman handy with a shotgun.

It’s not as farfetched as it seems, since a lot of women who were brought up on farms, or ranches, were good at shooting, hunting, and horse riding, though for us city-bound types it might be something of an anomaly.

Whatever I was thinking, I decided Tim needed a different girlfriend. Or perhaps not so different.

On the other side of the coin, I have two separate instances where friends are going through maladies, one that is not treatable, and the other requiring long and expensive treatment that will only last a few years.

But a few years is better than the alternative, death.

To find out where Tim is our boy goes to meet her, fully expecting to be shot at, but devastated to discover how ill she is.

There is, of course, only one thing he can do.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 26

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Shotgun Annie

…

Some characters sometimes leap off the page.  I have to say at the time I was watching a Western Movie, and it had Annie Oakley in it, and the idea came that I should have a woman handy with a shotgun.

It’s not as farfetched as it seems, since a lot of women who were brought up on farms, or ranches, were good at shooting, hunting, and horse riding, though for us city-bound types it might be something of an anomaly.

Whatever I was thinking, I decided Tim needed a different girlfriend. Or perhaps not so different.

On the other side of the coin, I have two separate instances where friends are going through maladies, one that is not treatable, and the other requiring long and expensive treatment that will only last a few years.

But a few years is better than the alternative, death.

To find out where Tim is our boy goes to meet her, fully expecting to be shot at, but devastated to discover how ill she is.

There is, of course, only one thing he can do.

…

“Opposites Attract” – The Editor’s second draft – Day 25

This book has been sitting in the ‘to-be-done’ tray, so this month it is going to get the second revision and release to beta readers.

…

Facing the music

…

With the altercation at the bar spreading like fire through a tinder-dry forest, our boy goes home to see Darcy.

Yes, she already knew what was going on, and no she’s not happy, and yes, she is overjoyed that our boy will be marrying Emily.

Talk about mercurial relatives.

Then there’s that little gathering that Darcy has arranged where he can get roasted for his sins.

And from one person in particular, Xavier, who positively hates her and all her friends.

Like our boy, he had been treated badly by the girl and her friends, and having someone who was her friend wasn’t going to improve his lot.  But he did agree to be the best man.

It was not going to be a late night.

The next morning there’s a mission, he has to go and see shotgun Annie.

Yes, you heard it right, shotgun Annie.

Tim’s staunchest female ally, but there is a problem.  Just another of many he has to get past.

…