Category: NaNoWriMo

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 29

…

What is a love story without a happy ending?

It’s just all the trials and tribulations in between that make it seem like it’s all too much effort with nothing but pain and misery punctuated by a few moments of utter delight.

I’m sure a story where everything works like clockwork might have been easier, but the thought of having some meaty characters standing between them and ultimate happiness was more interesting.

The idea of Emile, or the Turk, being an affable person, was modelled on Sidney Greenstreet, a rather interesting actor in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, and I’d just seen his performance in The Maltese Falcon.

When I first started the story, I wanted Michelle to have a secret, but at the time, it wasn’t for her to be a prostitute, simply a fashion model who fell in with the wrong crowd and got into trouble with drugs and the high life.

But that wasn’t interesting enough.  By that time, I was dabbling in the thriller genre, and realised I couldn’t write a Mills and Boon-type book, so it veered into thriller territory.

Who doesn’t like a guy who wants to rescue a fallen angel?

Why not make the fallen angel an avenging angel?  Her friends help her escape, and then she decided to help her friends escape to the freedom she fleetingly had, and now, determined, would have again.

But, the idea of freedom and the actual getting of it are two entirely different concepts.  400 pages worth of angst, setbacks, love found, and love lost, the love found again.  Henry might be a little too naïve, but he had to be to provide the extreme contrast in backgrounds and notions of what life is like.

…

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 29

…

What is a love story without a happy ending?

It’s just all the trials and tribulations in between that make it seem like it’s all too much effort with nothing but pain and misery punctuated by a few moments of utter delight.

I’m sure a story where everything works like clockwork might have been easier, but the thought of having some meaty characters standing between them and ultimate happiness was more interesting.

The idea of Emile, or the Turk, being an affable person, was modelled on Sidney Greenstreet, a rather interesting actor in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, and I’d just seen his performance in The Maltese Falcon.

When I first started the story, I wanted Michelle to have a secret, but at the time, it wasn’t for her to be a prostitute, simply a fashion model who fell in with the wrong crowd and got into trouble with drugs and the high life.

But that wasn’t interesting enough.  By that time, I was dabbling in the thriller genre, and realised I couldn’t write a Mills and Boon-type book, so it veered into thriller territory.

Who doesn’t like a guy who wants to rescue a fallen angel?

Why not make the fallen angel an avenging angel?  Her friends help her escape, and then she decided to help her friends escape to the freedom she fleetingly had, and now, determined, would have again.

But, the idea of freedom and the actual getting of it are two entirely different concepts.  400 pages worth of angst, setbacks, love found, and love lost, the love found again.  Henry might be a little too naïve, but he had to be to provide the extreme contrast in backgrounds and notions of what life is like.

…

Mistaken Identity – The Third Editor’s Draft – Day 24

I have been working on the story, the editor is asking for a third draft after making suggested changes – and I’m now working on it

…

So, here’s a question.

If your mother and her twin sister are identical twins, how will Jack know that he has rescued the right woman?

We all know how some identical twins like to play tricks on their friends, by substituting each other. It’s a wicked game on the unsuspecting, but for a criminal, it’s a ploy that just might work.

But there’s that other issue we have between the son and the mother, quite a few years of lying and half-truths to get past, and a great deal of explanation.

Perhaps their reuniting is not going to go the way the mother or the son thinks.

Meanwhile, Jack is working on the idea of visiting his real father and trying to get some explanations out of him.

And, where is Maryanne?

Is it a bit late in the day to say that I’m not quite sure how this is going to end because one is not coming to me that will satisfy tying up the loose ends.

I suspect tomorrow will be the day when the last planning will be done. It may cost a day of words, but it will get the story done.

It’s the pointy end of the project and it has to come together.

Doesn’t it?

Today’s effort amounts to 1,786 words, for a total, so far, of 58,087.

More tomorrow.

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 28

…

Henry wakes to the realization that, one, he is in hospital with no memory of how he got there two, his brother Harry is nearby, three that he had no idea if his rescue mission succeeded or failed. And lastly, what happened to Radly.

The reality, he had been used as a human punching back, Michelle had disappeared, along with the Turk, and Harry made the conscious decision not to tell his little brother what had transpired while he was in the hospital.  Good news though, Diana and Radly were in the same hospital, and were alive.

Harry has pieced together the night’s events, and ever relating it, he wonders how any of them are still alive.

His father comes to visit, and it’s apparent he doesn’t know the real reason Henry is there.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  Henry has bought a house in his now favourite village by the sea, easily accessible by train, for now, and plants to go there when discharged.

Michelle has not returned, and he has told himself that she might never.  It’s that old saying, better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Then it’s off to Morganville.

…

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 27

…

Henry and Diana are sent to a hospital where Henry’s father is on call, both are appalled when he discovers the identity of one of the victims and is ready to operate on his son.

Banner curses his late arrival as the Turk got away, and so, apparently, did Michelle.

She returns briefly to see Henry and talk to Harry.  She asks if he is willing to help make those who caused Henry pain, and he readily agrees.

Henry survives but will be in an induced coma for a while.

Harry gets the call, and with some of his friends, they are off to capture those who caused Henry’s injuries, principally Felix and the Turk.  The mission is run by Michelle, whose slowly evolving plan has reached maturity.

First Felix, at one of the parlours.  He has one weakness, and it is his downfall.

Then the Turk, who thinks he is invisible, but there is one person who knows all of his secrets, his one weakness.

Both end up in a room, securely bound, awaiting their fate.

It’s going to be a long slow death.

Banner runs into one of his old felons, who just happens to be the Turk’s neighbour, and who is able to fill Banner in on some details, like who may have perpetrated the kidnapping.

He heads to Harry’s place and all but accuses him, but with no tangible evidence, all Banner has is suspicions.  He leaves empty-handed.

…

Mistaken Identity – The Third Editor’s Draft – Day 24

I have been working on the story, the editor is asking for a third draft after making suggested changes – and I’m now working on it

…

So, here’s a question.

If your mother and her twin sister are identical twins, how will Jack know that he has rescued the right woman?

We all know how some identical twins like to play tricks on their friends, by substituting each other. It’s a wicked game on the unsuspecting, but for a criminal, it’s a ploy that just might work.

But there’s that other issue we have between the son and the mother, quite a few years of lying and half-truths to get past, and a great deal of explanation.

Perhaps their reuniting is not going to go the way the mother or the son thinks.

Meanwhile, Jack is working on the idea of visiting his real father and trying to get some explanations out of him.

And, where is Maryanne?

Is it a bit late in the day to say that I’m not quite sure how this is going to end because one is not coming to me that will satisfy tying up the loose ends.

I suspect tomorrow will be the day when the last planning will be done. It may cost a day of words, but it will get the story done.

It’s the pointy end of the project and it has to come together.

Doesn’t it?

Today’s effort amounts to 1,786 words, for a total, so far, of 58,087.

More tomorrow.

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 28

…

Henry wakes to the realization that, one, he is in hospital with no memory of how he got there two, his brother Harry is nearby, three that he had no idea if his rescue mission succeeded or failed. And lastly, what happened to Radly.

The reality, he had been used as a human punching back, Michelle had disappeared, along with the Turk, and Harry made the conscious decision not to tell his little brother what had transpired while he was in the hospital.  Good news though, Diana and Radly were in the same hospital, and were alive.

Harry has pieced together the night’s events, and ever relating it, he wonders how any of them are still alive.

His father comes to visit, and it’s apparent he doesn’t know the real reason Henry is there.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  Henry has bought a house in his now favourite village by the sea, easily accessible by train, for now, and plants to go there when discharged.

Michelle has not returned, and he has told himself that she might never.  It’s that old saying, better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Then it’s off to Morganville.

…

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 28

…

Henry wakes to the realization that, one, he is in hospital with no memory of how he got there two, his brother Harry is nearby, three that he had no idea if his rescue mission succeeded or failed. And lastly, what happened to Radly.

The reality, he had been used as a human punching back, Michelle had disappeared, along with the Turk, and Harry made the conscious decision not to tell his little brother what had transpired while he was in the hospital.  Good news though, Diana and Radly were in the same hospital, and were alive.

Harry has pieced together the night’s events, and ever relating it, he wonders how any of them are still alive.

His father comes to visit, and it’s apparent he doesn’t know the real reason Henry is there.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  Henry has bought a house in his now favourite village by the sea, easily accessible by train, for now, and plants to go there when discharged.

Michelle has not returned, and he has told himself that she might never.  It’s that old saying, better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Then it’s off to Morganville.

…

Mistaken Identity – The Third Editor’s Draft – Day 23

I have been working on the story, the editor is asking for a third draft after making suggested changes – and I’m now working on it

…

It’s been a long, hard day, and working on both the A to Z blog challenge, and writing this book is taking its toll.

I’m surprised one lot of writing hasn’t impinged on the other.

Meanwhile, back on novel land where Jack is still reeling from the threats being issued by his real father, and torn between the idea of hunting him down, and getting to know more about him, he feels he should be more interested in knowing how and why his mother got involved with a man who eventually went to prison.

To try and further enlist Jack’s help in procuring the diary back, for the forces of good, she is taking him to see her handler, who maybe can shed some light on what is in the diary and how it can help them.

The trouble is, he still doesn’t trust her, and is worried that it might be a ploy to take him into ‘protective’ custody as leverage to get Marjorie to hand the diary over. That’s why he insists it’s in Trafalgar Square, a large open space where rules will have to be observed.

Tomorrow will bring about the rescue of Jack’s mother, some investigation gives rise to a lead that could be the possible place where she is being held.

But is she being held by McCallister, her twin sister, Jacob, or a cabal of all three?

Today’s effort amounts to 4,234 words, for a total, so far, of 56,301.

More tomorrow.

The Things We Do For Love – The final editor’s draft – Day 27

…

Henry and Diana are sent to a hospital where Henry’s father is on call, both are appalled when he discovers the identity of one of the victims and is ready to operate on his son.

Banner curses his late arrival as the Turk got away, and so, apparently, did Michelle.

She returns briefly to see Henry and talk to Harry.  She asks if he is willing to help make those who caused Henry pain, and he readily agrees.

Henry survives but will be in an induced coma for a while.

Harry gets the call, and with some of his friends, they are off to capture those who caused Henry’s injuries, principally Felix and the Turk.  The mission is run by Michelle, whose slowly evolving plan has reached maturity.

First Felix, at one of the parlours.  He has one weakness, and it is his downfall.

Then the Turk, who thinks he is invisible, but there is one person who knows all of his secrets, his one weakness.

Both end up in a room, securely bound, awaiting their fate.

It’s going to be a long slow death.

Banner runs into one of his old felons, who just happens to be the Turk’s neighbour, and who is able to fill Banner in on some details, like who may have perpetrated the kidnapping.

He heads to Harry’s place and all but accuses him, but with no tangible evidence, all Banner has is suspicions.  He leaves empty-handed.

…