Tag: Charles Heath

“One Last Look”, a thriller

A single event can have enormous consequences.

A single event driven by fate, after Ben told his wife Charlotte he would be late home one night, he left early, and by chance discovers his wife having dinner in their favorite restaurant with another man.

A single event where it could be said Ben was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Who was this man?  Why was she having dinner with him?

A simple truth to explain the single event was all Ben required.  Instead, Charlotte told him a lie.

A single event that forces Ben to question everything he thought he knew about his wife, and the people who are around her.

After a near death experience and forced retirement into a world he is unfamiliar with, Ben finds himself once again drawn back into that life of lies, violence, and intrigue.

From London to a small village in Tuscany, little by little Ben discovers who the woman he married is, and the real reason why fate had brought them together.

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“What Sets Us Apart”, a mystery with a twist

David is a man troubled by a past he is trying to forget.
Susan is rebelling against a life of privilege and an exasperated mother who holds a secret that will determine her daughter’s destiny.
They are two people brought together by chance. Or was it?
When Susan discovers her mother’s secret, she goes in search of the truth that has been hidden from her since the day she was born.
When David realizes her absence is more than the usual cooling off after another heated argument, he finds himself being slowly drawn back into his former world of deceit and lies.
Then, back with his former employers, David quickly discovers nothing is what it seems as he embarks on a dangerous mission to find Susan before he loses her forever.

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The Memories of Christmases Past

There is this thing called the march of progress.

It can be good, or it can be bad.

I remember, a long time ago now, the many holidays I spent at my grandmother’s place in the ‘country’.  Back then it was.

Now it is just another suburb of Melbourne.

I remember the drive, and it used to take about half an hour, perhaps longer, and as we traveled, it was mostly the countryside we saw.  Little towns like Beaconsfield, Officer, Berwick, oases in the middle of farming land.

The last time I went for that same drive, there was endless houses.

My grandmother’s house was very large, and the land it was built on, extensive.  There used to be gardens, several garages, a number of old cars, and a huge workshop.

My brother and I used to spend our Christmases exploring, and on a particular one, found some tools and decided to recover some of it.

We found a huge fountain buried beneath the overgrowth, the centerpiece of what must have been a remarkable display.

It was like we had our own secret garden.

There was also a fernery, also overgrown.

Now, sadly, all of it is gone, and in its place a multilane highway that follows an alternate coastal route between Melbourne and Sydney.

All I have left is the memories of a time that will never return.

 

NaNoWriMo – Day 30 – Just crossed the finish line

That’s it for another year.

67,941 words written, but if I sat down now to read the novel, the post-it notes would get in the way.

Oh, there is so much revision to do!

But, at least I managed to write a complete novel in a month which is what I managed to do each year, and then worry about editing and refining for the next eleven.

Not looking forward to that job, no sir.

Of course, the ending is nothing like what I envisioned thirty days ago in the plan, but where does it ever once the characters take over.

Until next year or something momentous, I bid you all a good night.

NaNoWriMo – Day 29 – The finish line is in sight

And everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

The end I had all formed in my mind and ready to put down, well, I don’t think I should have gone to bed last night.

I had a dream.

Sounds a bit like a familiar speech, doesn’t it.

My dream wasn’t quite as prophetic, it was a new ending.

Damn.

Had I stayed up and wrote the damn thing as it was, I wouldn’t be here now, trying to pull down walls and re-cement them back together a different way, two hours before the official opening.

I could just scream!!!

NaNoWriMo – Day 28 – The final two chapters are coming

That’s right.

Two chapters to go, before I get to type those two wonderful words. ‘The End’

Of writing that first draft, of course.

But not the end of the process.  A little rest time away from it and then the next laborious task begins.

Editing.

Perhaps we should have a NaNoWriMo, with the Ma standing for May, and setting a month aside to do the first edit.

Come to think of it, maybe I’ll do it just to see how it goes.

NaNoWriMo – Day 27 – All’s well if it ends well

Three days to go, so much to do.
Although I’ve reached the 50,000-word target I have not finished the novel, and the plot changes are causing a little consternation.
I know now how it is going to end, but it’s the getting there, in three days that’s the problem.
So, back and forth I go, laying the groundwork in the earlier chapters and I now have only one more piece to fix, the words on the document that set the series of events in motion.
Novel writing is exhausting.
The first draft is going to be a horrible mess and when I print it out it’s going to be covered in post-it notes, but after all is said and done it will be a novel written in 30 days, a remarkable achievement.

NaNoWriMo – Day 26 – Something had to change

And that, my friends, is the words on the document.

When I conceived the original story, the words were quite simple, a memo from one man to another, words that should not be committed to paper.

Ah, yes, the dreaded paper trail.

Those words were adequate at the time, but now, with developments in the story and a shift or two in the plotline, it’s time to change those words.

They need to be damaging enough to kill a lot of people in the line of making both the words and the document they appear on, disappear forever.

And here’s the thing…

No one ever counted on the fact deleting on a computer is not deleting.

NaNoWriMo – Day 25 – The end is nigh, for someone!

For all those people out there who think the end of the world is coming, it is not.

For all those people out there who think my story is getting the end, I really hope so.

I’m writing three separate chapters, each a little at a time, trying to dovetail the sequence of events that will lead to the unmasking of the murderer and find the whereabouts of 30 odd missing persons.

What had begun as a simple quest has turned into a convoluted tale of lies, distortions, and people whose propensity for being something other than who they appear, had muddied the waters,.

Yep, everything you’d expect in a completely unexpected ending.

I hope.

NaNoWriMo – Day 24 – Sanity, if nothing else, returns

Got the 50,000 words, 51,540 to be exact, but the story is not done yet.

Hasty revisions, adding more words, taking out some others, it’s a long and difficult day, with the yellow post-it note collection growing exponentially.

Where would we be without them, endless scraps of paper strewn over an already cluttered desk?

All it would take was one enthusiastic cleaning lady, and it would become an ‘oh-my-god’ moment.

The end, however, is becoming clearer, and I’m working towards it from three different angles.