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NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 6

“Opposites Attract”

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A night meeting

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Who can sleep when you’re stressing over whether the girl of your dreams is or isn’t the girl of your dreams?  Yes, it can be that confusing.

It’s obvious the father doesn’t think it’s over, yet.

And when he gets the call, in the dead of night, it’s a ridiculous question to ask him if he’s still awake, especially when he answers the phone.

Yes, the heart does flutter at the sound of her voice.

And a meeting, in the middle of the night. At the diner.  A diner that was once a den of iniquity and now just an empty reminder of what the city was before it was bypassed with the new interstate.

Looking for the chauffeur he figures she hasn’t arrived.  He doesn’t believe she drove herself.

Does that come under the category, you learn new things every day?

He finds her already there, nursing coffee, and looking like an unmade bed.  In other words, she is definitely the most beautiful girl he has ever met.

And the kiss tells him this thing is far from over.

Perhaps it’s worth it when he tells her she will be coming with him, and learning the ropes.

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Today’s words:  1,518, for a total of, 11,019.

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 5

“Opposites Attract”

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A rather odd request

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How many people have been in limbo, wondering whether the last conversation was actually the last conversation?

Relationships that are in the early stages are always on a knife edge.

The boy knows that it’s possible this relationship has a use-by date, that while the father seems to think his daughter is benefitting from them being together, it might just be possible to spend some time with the girl of his dreams.

What will happen when reality sets in?

It seems the father of the girl is impressed with the boy and asks to meet him, but once again the PA is sent to fetch him.  Since it is her father our boy makes an exception.

Wondering what he wants…

It seems she wants to start a proper charity foundation and run it.  Of course, being so young she cannot start at the top, so she has to learn the ropes, so to speak. And he knows the boy does charity work.

We all know what that means, taking the once spoilt brat to a place where people would judge her for what she was, not entirely because she’s from a rich family, but more because of the fact she was, and maybe still is a brat?

A challenge?  Indeed.

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Today’s words:  1,288, for a total of, 9,501.

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 4

“Opposites Attract”

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A different type of girl friend

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Let’s get it right from the start.

Our boy knows there’s something going on and is bracing himself for what he thinks might be the mother of all pranks.  She is, after all, the best in the business.

Then there’s the little thing like status, and he has none, so it’s only a matter of time before the father pulls the plug.

But…

As much as all this weighs on his mind, she is not going anywhere.  She learns her first lesson, that our boy will not be summoned like a dog.  She has to ring and ask him where and when they can meet.

There’s that small thing like the limelight, and it shines very brightly around all of the members of her family, and especially on her.  She is a news magnet for all the wrong reasons, and that limelight spills over onto our boy.

He makes the news in the local paper; with a suggestion they might be dating.

They might, or after finally meeting at the local diner they disagree, she leaves not very happy, so maybe they might not be dating.

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Today’s words:  1,876, for a total of 8,213.

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 3

“Opposites Attract”

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There’s always a downside.

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So, our couple have made a breakthrough.  She realises that he loves her, and makes that startling discovery, that she has very strong feelings for him.

Pity that he’s from the figurative wrong side of the tracks.  People in her family marry who they’re supposed to, to perpetuate wealth and prosperity.

But, her father likes him, notices the change in her, and -, well, anything might happen.

Except…

She had a brother, a bully and a spiteful rich spoilt brat (not unlike his sister, whose behaviour was mostly why her new boyfriend kept this distance) who didn’t like him.

To underline his hate he gathers a few of his friends and when our boy is returned from a secret assignation with the girl, they waylay him.

Threats are made.  It is not unexpected by the boy.

And just as they are about to take him out the back, you know the routine, she comes back, and, well, let’s just say, it sucks to be a younger brother.

There’s no sleep after the ball, adrenaline running high.  She calls, and they talk.

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Today’s words:  2,353, for a total of 6,337.

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 2

“Opposites Attract”

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It all came together in one dance

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So, after yesterday, how do I go sorting out the words, and get the story underway.

As the heading suggests, I wrote the story around watching the Viennese Waltz in real-time, and if you play it starting at the exact right time, everything matches, the steps the movements, and their conversation.

Actually, I had to watch that Waltz about twenty times to get it right.

It kind of made me wish that I could have found the woman of my dreams and danced with her.  The fact is, the woman of my dreams, now my wife of 50 years, was an excellent ballroom dancer, and me, well, I’m the definitive two left feet, which I think may have been ne of her disappointments.

We could have made such a statement on the dancefloor if only I knew how!

As they say, it’s never too late.

But, the dancefloor is where our two main characters come together, and by the end of it, everyone knows what they themselves haven’t.

I feel a song coming on, ‘Love is in the air’!

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Today’s words:  1,992, for a total of, 3,984.

NANOWRIMO November 2023

“Opposites Attract” – Day 1

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An invitation to the ball

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Every story starts somewhere, and there is a catalyst.

This story was going to be a short story, which is why the first chapter is so long.  In rough form, it is nearly 5,000 words.  Today I write it, tomorrow I’ll edit it.

But…

How did we get here in the first place?

Firstly:  I heard a Viennese waltz way back when I used to watch Walt Disney on a Sunday night, and one of his shows over two weeks was about Johann Strauss.  It stuck with me all these years, until…

Secondly:  I heard it again on the radio when I was looking for the classic music station.  All at once I was back in that brief period of my childhood.

That’s another story, moving on.

Thirdly:  When my wife and I started out nearly 50 years ago, we hated each other at the start.  I mean seriously.  Then, over time, when you see who the person is rather than what you think they are, things change.

It’s a common story, this love-hate relationship.

Just what happens to kick this off … you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

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Today’s words:  1,992, for a total of, 1,992.

NANOWRIMO November 2023

“Opposites Attract” – In the beginning

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How many times have you been sitting somewhere, and in the background there’s a song playing?

The interesting thing about music is the memories and the feelings that can be invoked.

And, if you’re a writer, it can tug at the inspirational strings.

I had one such experience not so long ago in a shopping mall of all places while having some ghastly junk food.   The chef must have been having a bad day.

I digress.

It was a Viennese waltz, and you know, if you’ve heard one, how it can stick on the mind, that ebb and flow effect.  I saw an episode of Disneyland many, many years ago that had Strauss composing the waltz in time to the clip-clop of the horses drawing his carriage.  I don’t think it was as simple as that.

But however it came into being, it stuck in my mind.

So much so, that I went to YouTube and pulled up people performing the Waltz, and in watching it I because almost mesmerised.

Where’s this going, you ask?

Well, it gave me an idea.  That first idea was to write a story of two people out on the ballroom floor, having a conversation, with the dance moves thrown in a appropriate times, in essence guiding the conversation.

Boring you say?

O light be, but then make the two people a girl and a boy who have niggled and hated each other all their lives, only to discover shortly before the ball, that the opposite was true, that they loved each other.

Hate is easy when you’re a pre-teen and teenager, but once middle school turns into college, and people change, though some not necessarily for the better, odd things happen.

Now, again, if it was an ordinary girl and an ordinary boy that would almost be boring, so to spice it up the girl is from the wealthy part of town, and the boy from the less wealthy side, those that the wealthy tend to look down on.

But he’s not too down and out, just from an old well-known family that has fallen on hard times.

Oh, and like all the romance films I’ve been looking at as research, this will follow one of the tried and tested premises, that she was always in love with him, and he was always from the moment he saw her in elementary school, just never thought he had a chance.

So, strap yourselves in for the ride!

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A photograph from the inspirational bin- 34

This is the moon, unexpectedly observable in the late afternoon.

For me, the moon provided inspiration for an episodic story I have entitled, for now, ‘I always wanted to see the planets’.

It’s about a freighter captain who gets a gig as First Officer on an exploratory starship, who by a series of inexplicable events gets promoted to captain, and has to navigate not only the outer reaches of space, but new species.

But in the back of my mind there is that expression ‘shoot for the moon’, which could mean almost anything.

It could mean going for the unobtainable, whether it be a job, or the partner of your dreams. Failing can be heartbreak. Success might mean you’d be ‘over the moon’.

Them there’s travelling to moon, perhaps the next logical step for regular people, heading off the spend a week on a moon base hotel. I’m not sure what we would see out there in space; Perhaps a UFO?

Fictionalised, a moon base might just be the meeting place for various species, and being the mystery writer I am, what if there was a murder?

As always, the possibilities are endless.

The past creeps back when you least expect it

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been lamenting the loss of many things that once existed, once upon a time.

All children have memories of their childhood, but some dissipate over time and become forgotten, almost to the point where it is as if they never existed.

Like my grandmother’s house in the country, bulldozed to widen a main highway. I have a lot of difficulty remembering it even though we had spent many Christmas holidays there.

Other, more insignificant items just simply disappeared into the mists of time, as the manufacturers were slowly bought out by overseas companies and in their desire for globalisation, parochial items made for what seems, to them, to be too small for their economies of scale were no longer made.

No thought is ever given to the consumer. Nor does it matter that the item, made in this country for a hundred years, is especially attuned to the tastes of the people of this country, and therefore has a continuous core market.

Of course, as a child over 60 years ago, most of these items were confectionary. Names of brands such as Hoadleys and Rowntree have long since disappeared. Products like licorice squares, polly waffles, toscas and Crispins have gone too.

Some products like Kit Kats still exist but are made by new manufacturers like Nestle the change no longer taste anything like they used to.

But what started this lament for the old days was triggered by seeing an old, old favourite called Life Savers, which came in fruit flavours, peppermint, and musk. My all-time favourite was musk and walking through the supermarket I saw the words Life Savers on a box almost hidden on the bottom shelf and lo and behold they had musk.

The packaging had changed, and the manufacturer had changed, but that timeless confectionery had reappeared. Given its shelf location, I don’t think it will be for long.

Now, if only they could bring back Toscas, and Tarax soft drinks in small bottles. Raspberry and cola were my all time favourites.

I’m not perfect…

I was told a long time ago I wasn’t perfect, and it didn’t bother me. Then.

But it’s true. I don’t always get it right, sometimes I get annoyed and say things in the heat of the moment that perhaps shouldn’t be said, and sometimes I can be ‘difficult’.

I’ll be the first in line to say my blog isn’t perfect, in fact sometimes it bothers me some of the bits and pieces that go up because I doubt if they’re interesting, at the time, to anyone but me.

Perhaps it’s because I chose to be a writer.

It’s a hard slog at the best of times. Getting ideas, carving out time to write, having to live a normal life as distinct from that of living in a garret, on your own, writing that next great Nobel prize for literature, or is it a Pulitzer?

I don’t get that, I don’t have that, and I don’t want that.

For those of us living on that ‘edge’ of finding time to write, maintain a blog, keep up with social media, do the daily chores and watch some television, something has to give.

So, I’m not getting any writing done if I’m working on the blog, or I’m on social media. If I’m doing the blog, something else has to be sacrificed.

Mostly it’s my blog. My blog is about writing stuff, visiting places that have been or will be used in stories, and once, a recalcitrant cat who sadly has passed on. It also has running episodic stories, usually four different at a time.

It also had about 2,000 past posts. When I don’t get the time to do my blog, which has been mostly for the last three months off and on, I sometimes repackage or repeat past posts, just to keep it ticking over, much like a scoreboard.

It is also a tool for advertising my books and stories, and what’s coming (if only I stopped using social media) and these are repeated every four or five days. It’d the equivalent of advertising because I can’t afford other advertising. If this is an annoyance, I’m sorry.

And just so everyone knows, I will always keep writing, not because I want to become the next James Patterson, though it would be nice, I write because I want to, and it pleases me when someone reads something I write, and they like it. It is the greatest compliment of all, and I believe in encouragement. It’s why I spend a lot of that social media time highlighting other writers so they can build a following.

After all, we are all in the same boat, it would just be nice if we were all rowing in the same direction.