Tag: Charles Heath

Thoughts maybe

It’s Monday.

To me it’s just another day of the week, because as a writer there is no nine to five five days a week take the weekend off.

Or perhaps that’s just my interpretation of what a writer’s life is.

Not that I’m being much of a writer at the moment.

There’s writers block and there’s laziness.  Me, I’m in the latter basket.  I sit down to write and can always find something else to do.

I think it’s because I’m not satisfied with the story as it stands.

I finished writing the sixth or seventh draft, didn’t like the way it was reading, and added a new section.  The problem with that is having to go back to the start and seed the threads that lead to and/or incorporate the new part.

It’s just about formed in my mind how it is going to do, but I have not written a word, or looked at the story for at least four months, and that’s probably a good thing.

In between I have written a short story, well bits at a time and put it in the blog as an insight into how y mind works and how I write stories.  Or perhaps it highlights how twisted my mind is.

I still believe in the happy ending.

So, I’m going to flesh out the second draft of the story with the new ideas and see how that looks.

Then it will be school holidays for my grandchildren, and we are going to go and visit a maze.

OK, you ask, why?

A long time ago my eldest grandchild asked me to write a story for her.  She is 12, she acts like a princess, so I told her I would write her as one.  The other two girls also wanted to be princesses, and this sparked some interesting discussion.

Now we sit around when they are all together and brainstorm ideas.

And, as the story progresses I have three of the best beta readers any writer could want, actual readers of YA novels.

But back to the maze and why. they want to experience it first hand so they can give feedback for the story.

It has become a collaboration.  It has also sparked an interest in writing in them, and a greater interest in reading, something that cannot be underestimated in the development of young minds.

Then, after spending the holidays with them, it’s back to work on another novel which is in the editing stage.

Alas there is no rest for the wicked.

Short story writing – a change in the plot – 3

Time to look at Annalisa’s story.  I’m not sure if I want to change much about her, but now we have a tenuous connection between her and Jack, maybe we can explore this a little further.

It will certainly change the dynamic between them, and reflect in whether or not she lets him go or not.

But the story would benefit more from relating how the disaster happened, and the fact the relationship between Simmo and Annalisa had run its course.

There will still be that basic fear of being left alone with the shop keeper and the consequences, which she believes will have a very bad result.

The rewrite:

 

Annalisa had known the moment she had agreed, or rather having been coerced to agree, to go on this foolhardy mission, it would not be the ‘piece of cake’ he said it would be.

It was the culmination of a series of events the brought her to the revelation that is was not her he loved but her money.

And the fact the ‘recreational’ use of drugs was far more serious and far more costly that she had realized.  Until her parents cut off both her access to her bank account and credit card.

Simmo had gone quite literally ‘ape shit’ when he found out, and the full extent of what was a ‘recreational use’ of drugs became clear.  In the first stages of withdrawal he was nothing like the boy she used to know.

But, she would go along with him this once and that would be an end to it.  Her funding his habit, their relationship, though she chose not to tell him at the exact moment because he was very threatening, in fact it was going to be the end of everything to do with him.

As they left the apartment for the last time, an eerie calm had come over him, and he had revered to the Simmo she used to know.  There were flashes of the old Simmo from time to time, but the ever increasing use of drugs had changed him, changed his personality, and now there was very little left.

She thought about staying, trying to being him back, get him to go to a rehabilitation center, admit he had a problem.

Stepping out of the building into the cold night air brought her back to her senses.  There was no helping him, now or ever.

It was nearly time, a few minutes before the shop closed, the time, Simmo said, when the shopkeepers ‘other’ customers arrived.

She hoped there were no other customers.

The plan was simple.  Simmo would show the money, a twenty dollar note wrapped around a wad of blank papers, the shopkeeper would get the bag, he would give the wad, take the drugs and they’d run, hoping he wouldn’t discover the truth before escaping out the front door.

And if he did, she asked.

He had it covered.

She didn’t like the sound of that statement, or the savagery with which it was delivered.  More and more this was sounding like a suicide mission.

Simmo patted her on the shoulder.  It was time.

She looked at her watch, 11:25 pm.

From across the road she had watched the shopkeeper going through the motions of closing the store, bring in the sidewalk displays, wiping the counter, sweeping the floor.  As they crossed the road she could see him standing behind the counter, waiting, watching the clock tick inexorably towards 11:30.

Closing time.

She preceded Simmo into the shop.  His idea was that seeing her would create a distraction.  He smiled when he saw her, frowned when he saw Simmo.  He knew the moment he saw Simmo exactly what he was there for.

© Charles Heath 2016

Short story writing – a change in the plot – 2

Still in the process of re writing the story, I think the shopkeeper needs a little more fleshing out as a character, not as a man who is bad, but a man who has been forced into a position where he had to do what he’s doing just to stay alive.

So he’s basically unchanged but with more detail.

 

The rewrite:

 

Alphonse, the shopkeeper, had stayed too long missing his opportunity to sell up and retire. 

By the time he had been ready to call it a day, his wife had got sick with cancer and it had taken all their retirement funds to keep her alive for another six months, when despite the doctors best efforts, she died.

There was nothing left, and unable to find a buyer for the business he could not just close the door and leave. 

There were complications.

Like right now.

The sideline he’d basically forced his way into was always going to come back and bit him.  Selling a little weed on the side to the upper classes forced to downsized after the global meltdown had turned into a range of products, the worst of which was ice, the result of taking too much very evident by the boy on the floor.

It was only a matter of time when one of the more edgy clients came in and started making demands with threats.  He was asked to sell low to get the customers hooked then forced to raised the price and stop supplying those who couldn’t pay.

It might be a good plan from their perspective but from his, at the coalface, it meant nothing but trouble.

Which is why he was now looking down the barrel of a gun.

 

© Charles Heath 2016

Thoughts, maybe

With my wife in hospital getting a complete knee replacement, I have been running the household.

It’s like putting a plasterer in charge of a steam locomotive.

It’s also brought to light an oft used, but probably very misunderstood phrase, ‘taken for granted’.

A lot of people think they are, and it’s probably true.  So many of them do the little things that need to be done without mentioning it, and, when they are not around, don’t get done.

Why?

Because us people who apparently ‘take them for granted’ don’t realize the half of what they do.

True.  We don’t.  We know a lot of stuff happens, but not why.

My epiphany came a long time ago, after the kids left home.  I took over the cooking, learned to iron, still can’t stack a dishwasher, but I can empty it, and so on.

But still there was a lot more that I failed to realize happened like:

Feeding the cat, replacing his litter, filling and emptying the dishwasher (sorry, I wasn’t allowed to have a mad hatter’s tea party and just move around the table till there were no empty spaces left), doing the washing, hanging out the washing, bring it in, drying, ironing, sweeping floors, cleaning kitchen bench tops and sinks, cooking (and how quickly you can run out of easy recipes, or think of what to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner), it never ends.

I heard a friend of mine whose wife stays home rather than work, tell his friends he couldn’t understand what it was his wife does during the day.  They have teenage, but still at school, children.  He asked her what she did with her day because just once she hadn’t cooked dinner.  He’s still wearing the bump where she threw a rather heavy saucepan at him.

If I had a gun I’d shoot the fool.  Perhaps not a few years ago, but now I can appreciate everything that is done, and apparently it’s not by magic.

I’d like to think I didn’t take anything for granted, but I guess I’m still learning that there is lot of stuff that needs to be done just to keep a household going.

And for one or the other, it;s a full time, unpaid and unappreciated job.

Which is why I now try very hard to make her feel appreciated.

 

Short story writing – a change in the plot – 1

What if we make a slight change to the plot, how would this affect the outcome?

Like any writer given time to reconsider the possibilities during that time between the first draft and the first re-write.

For a variation I have decided to create a connection between Jack and the girl.  It is only a slight connection, they live in the same apartment block and have met once or twice in the elevator or on the stairs.

Introducing a degree of familiarity changes the dynamic.

 

The rewrite:

 

Another long day, another argument, always the same one, when were they going to move to a more ‘desirable’ neighborhood?

OK, the neighborhood was a little more down market than they expected, and the landlord could do more to make the apartments more livable, but it was as much as they could afford in the inner city area.

But Chelsea kept arguing for the fact their lives would be better and she would feel safer if they moved to New Jersey.  It would mean being much closer to her parents, and it meant a longer trip to the office.

Rather that get into a more heated discussion, which always came back to her parents, he stormed out slamming the door behind him.

Now out on the street it was very cold, in his temper forgetting to collect his coat.  There was no going back, not until he calmed down.

He could see the lights of the corner store on and headed towards it.  A six pack would help soothe the nerves, and perhaps tell the shopkeeper his problems.  He been in there a few times and the chap seemed amiable enough.

He crossed the road, quiet for this tine of night, and pushed the door open, setting the bell that alerted the shopkeeper of a new arrival.

Something was wrong.

Jack was looking down the barrel of a gun.

He’d seen the girl holding now holding the gun  several times and knew she lived in their apartment block, closer to the ground floor.  She had seemed pleasant if not a little out of place, but quite a few people who once had money were down in their luck.

He had thought she was in the same situation.

Then his eyes strayed to the floor beside her, just as the door shut with a bang putting everyone on edge.  Except the man on the floor whom he recognized as her boyfriend.

They’d spoken one and Jack didn’t like him.  Chelsea said he was a meth junkie.  Sprawled the floor curled up in an almost fetal position, he didn’t look very well.

Had she shot him?

A quick glance at the shopkeeper told him this might be an attempted armed robbery, but for what?

The guy on the floor either needed drugs or hospital care neither of which would be available at the point of a gun.

She looked nervous and the gun was wavering in her hand.

“Get in front of the counter and make sure you show me your hands.”  She motioned with the gun where she wanted him to stand.

He put his hands out where she could see them.  He wanted no trouble.

“What’s wrong with your friend on the floor?” Jack asked trying to keep his voice and manner calm.

“He isn’t my friend, not anymore.  Shit.”  She waved the gun at the shopkeeper and said in a slightly hysterical voice, “This is entirely your fault.”

 

© Charles Heath 2016

One Last Look

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 favourite 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.

Purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-OneLastLook

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What Sets Us Apart

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 realises 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.

Purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-WhatSetsUsApart

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The Devil You Don’t

John Pennington’s life is in the doldrums.  Looking for new opportunities, prevaricating about getting married, the only joy on the horizon was an upcoming visit to his grandmother in Sorrento, Italy.

Suddenly he is left at the check in counter with a message on his phone telling him the marriage is off, and the relationship is over.

If only he hadn’t promised a friend he would do a favour for him in Rome.

At the first stop, Geneva, he has a chance encounter with Zoe, an intriguing woman who captures his imagination from the moment she boards the Savoire, and his life ventures into uncharted territory in more ways than one.

That ‘favour’ for his friend suddenly becomes a life changing event, and when Zoe, the woman who he knows is too good to be true, reappears, danger and death follows.

Shot at, lied to, seduced, and drawn into a world where nothing is what it seems, John is dragged into an adrenaline charged undertaking, where he may have been wiser to stay with the ‘devil you know’ rather than opt for the ‘devil you don’t’.

Purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-TheDevilYouDont

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Echoes from the Past

What happens when your past finally catches up with you?

Christmas is just around the corner, a time to be with family.  For Will Mason, an orphan since he was fourteen, it is a time for reflection on what his life could have been, and what it could be.

Until a chance encounter brings back to life the reasons for his twenty years of self imposed exile from a life only normal people could have.  From that moment Will’s life slowly starts to unravel and it’s obvious to him it’s time to move on.

This time, however, there is more at stake.

Will has broken his number one rule, don’t get involved.

With his nemesis, Eddie Jamieson, suddenly within reach, and a blossoming relationship with an office colleague, Maria, about to change everything, Will has to make a choice.  Quietly leave, or finally make a stand.

But as Will soon discovers, when other people are involved there is going to be terrible consequences no matter what choice he makes.

Purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-EchoesFromThePast

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Sunday in New York

“Sunday in New York” is ultimately a story about trust, and what happens when a marriage is stretched to its limits.

When Harry Steele attends a lunch with his manager, Barclay, to discuss a promotion that any junior executive would accept in a heartbeat, it is the fact his wife, Alison, who previously professed her reservations about Barclay, also agreed to attend, that casts a small element of doubt in his mind.

From that moment his life, in the company, in deciding what to do, his marriage, his very life, spirals out of control.

There is no one big factor that can prove Harry’s worst fears, that his marriage is over, just a number of small, interconnecting events, when piled on top of each other, points to a cataclysmic end to everything he had believed in.

Trust is lost firstly in his best friend and mentor, Andy, who only hints of impending disaster, Sasha, a woman whom he saved, and who appears to have motives of her own, and then in his wife, Alison, as he discovered piece by piece damning evidence she is about to leave him for another man.

Can we trust what we see with our eyes or trust what we hear?

Haven’t we all jumped to conclusions at least once in our lives?

Can Alison, a woman whose self-belief and confidence is about to be put to the ultimate test, find a way of proving their relationship is as strong as it has ever been?

As they say in the classics, read on!

Purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/Amazon-SundayInNewYork

Sunday In New York