Tag: Fiction

In a word: Line

The English language has some marvelous words that can be used so as to have any number of meanings

For instance,

Draw a line in the sand

We would all like to do this with our children, our job, our relationships, but for some reason, the idea sounds really good in our heads, but it never quite works out in reality. What does it mean, whatever it is, this I’d where it ends or changes because it can’t keep going the way it is.

Inevitably it leads to,

You’ve crossed the line

Which at some point in our lives, and particularly when children, we all do a few times until, if we’re lucky we learn where that line is. It’s usually considered 8n tandem with pushing boundaries.

Of course, there is

A line you should never cross

And I like to think we all know where that is. Unfortunately, some do not and often find their seemingly idyllic life totally shattered beyond repair. An affair from either side of a marriage or relationship can do that.

You couldn’t walk a straight line if you tried

While we might debate what straight might mean in this context, for this adaptation it means staying on the right side of legality. Some people find a life of crime more appealing than doing honest days work.

This goes hand in hand with,

You’re spinning me a line

Which means you are being somewhat loose with the truth, perhaps in explaining where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing. I think sometimes liars forget they need to have good memories.

Then there are the more practical uses of the word, such as

I have a new line of products

Is that a new fishing line?

Those I think most of us get, but it’s the more ambiguous that we have trouble with. Still, ambiguity is a writer’s best friend and we can make up a lot of stuff from just using one word.

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 4

With the best of intentions

…

Susan is used to the best things in life, being a very rich Lady Featherington, and staying in three-star tourist hotels, which is where David is staying, is somewhat downmarket for her.  For one night, it’s just a short stopover on her way back home, with David officially accompanying her as her spouse to be introduced to the world.

Not exactly his idea.

Perhaps she might find it amusing, but they have a history in staying in such hotels before they were married, and then it was ‘fun’.

With her arrival is a few unwanted and unwelcomed others, and David seeks these people out and warns them off.

Back together again since their last spell together in Greve, he is beginning to notice the little changes in her, perhaps from her time in incarceration, not enough to cause an issue, but is food for thought.

As background to this, Alisha advises that she is investigating Susan’s increased travels to Russia, and Moscow in particular, and requests David to assist with a subtle interrogation.  Perhaps later.

Sadly, the trip back home will not be in the company jet but on a commercial flight.

And, very nearly not the triumphant return expected when another assassination attempt happens at the airport.

Fortunately, Alisha is there once again to save him, patch him up, and send him home.

It begs the question; who wants him dead?

…

Words written today, 1,901, for a total of 8,281

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 5

A triumphant return, not!

…

Whether a spy or an ex-spy, for some, nothing ever goes according to plan. 

And, fortuitously or otherwise, David is saved from the press conference at the airport, relegated in his absence to become the forlorn husband struck down by a mysterious malaise.

It’s a bit hard to explain being cut up in a knife attack in an airport restroom. Especially when the perpetrator is still resting in a broken toilet stall.

David never expected that life with Susan was going to be normal, whatever normal was or could be.  The fact is, David never really got to know the Susan that he married, somewhat out of convenience to her, other than that he loved her.

With the mother she had, the friends she had, and the constant battle with all of them, it had been hard to find a reason why he had chased her all over Europe, much less what to get back what only could be described as trouble.

Perhaps it had been the opportunity to dive back into that murky world, one that he had hated, and yet quite possibly loved, and missed.

The chase over, it was either time to get reacquainted or move on.

And what better way than to dive headfirst into her heady lifestyle, move into the Featherington London residence, go to parties, meet her new friends, and try not to upset the house staff.

Those who were genuine servants and those, alas, who were not.

…

Words written today, 2,609, for a total of 10,890.

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 3

A holiday in Berlin

Most people think the life of a ‘problem solver’ is simply staying in the best hotels, and virtually going on an expensive all-expenses paid holiday, with a little work on the side.

They’d be wrong.

No first-class hotels, no living in the lap of luxury, just a hard slog, sometimes without result, sometimes ending up in a hospital, or in detention in a country where you really don’t want to be in detention.

And definitely no sightseeing.

So, in his place, we will take in the sights, like:

The Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, Tiergarten and Hitler’s Bunker

Just to name a few.

Of course, there is the Stasi records office where our main character spends time researching various people.

Then, there are the beer halls, like then Hofbräuhaus München Berlin, and Alexanderplatz, accessible via the U-Bahn, and a station that was partially closed off during the division of Berlin, up until 1990.

But, after a week David is getting restless, and it’s time to go home.  Fortunately, or otherwise, Susan is coming to join him as she has decided it’s time for them to present him to the world at large, and back into her life.

…

Words written today, 2,071, for a total of 6,380

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 4

With the best of intentions

…

Susan is used to the best things in life, being a very rich Lady Featherington, and staying in three-star tourist hotels, which is where David is staying, is somewhat downmarket for her.  For one night, it’s just a short stopover on her way back home, with David officially accompanying her as her spouse to be introduced to the world.

Not exactly his idea.

Perhaps she might find it amusing, but they have a history in staying in such hotels before they were married, and then it was ‘fun’.

With her arrival is a few unwanted and unwelcomed others, and David seeks these people out and warns them off.

Back together again since their last spell together in Greve, he is beginning to notice the little changes in her, perhaps from her time in incarceration, not enough to cause an issue, but is food for thought.

As background to this, Alisha advises that she is investigating Susan’s increased travels to Russia, and Moscow in particular, and requests David to assist with a subtle interrogation.  Perhaps later.

Sadly, the trip back home will not be in the company jet but on a commercial flight.

And, very nearly not the triumphant return expected when another assassination attempt happens at the airport.

Fortunately, Alisha is there once again to save him, patch him up, and send him home.

It begs the question; who wants him dead?

…

Words written today, 1,901, for a total of 8,281

Setting goals, bad idea

Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people who work well to plans, so setting goals is not a good idea.

But…

I did make several new year’s resolutions that I would try and do things differently each year.

Except…

This year, I set a goal to restart editing one of my novels on 1st Feb.  I thought, setting it so far into the year it would be easy.

It would give me the time to clear up all the outstanding writing tasks that have been getting in the way, what are more commonly known as distractions, and be free to finally finish it.

No such luck.

Going away, spending long, sleepless hours flying from one side of the world to the other had fuelled my imagination more than I expected and I now have three stories that need either a continuing plot outline or be written as ideas come to me.

If only I could focus on one story at a time.

So…

I’ve been working hard on getting those stories done, and now that November is approaching, I have come up with a brilliant idea.

I’ll work on the novel then as my NANOWRIMO project.  At least I have completed every one I’ve started over the last four years.

Let’s see if I can stick to it.

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 2

Renewing old acquaintances

…

Alisha, the agent that helped David track down Susan in the first book, is called back to once again rescue him, and, of course, play the devil’s advocate.

She doesn’t believe Susan is Susan.

And has been waiting in the wings for something like an assassination attempt to happen.  While not apparently keeping an eye on him, he had enlisted the services of a waitress in his favorited café to alert her if anything happens.

In the washup, he’s forced to consider two possibilities, that Susan arranged for him to be killed, that coincidence of her just leaving and the assassin’s arrival, or that Bespalov’s friends were on a revenge mission.

It’s just another little indicator that his Susan might not be ‘the’ Susan.

But more importantly, it brings Alisha back into his life, a woman who Prendergast assigned to help him in his quest to find his wife, and along the way, nearly getting too close.

She convinces him his time in Italy, and keeping away from the problems of his marriage to Susan, is over, and arrives to take him back to England via Berlin.

And, of course, there is that latent threat Prendergast gave him back when he offered to help David, find her, get back together, or come back to work for him in his old job.

Somewhere, one might say, between a rock and a hard place.

…

Words written today, 2,356, for a total of 4,309

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 3

A holiday in Berlin

Most people think the life of a ‘problem solver’ is simply staying in the best hotels, and virtually going on an expensive all-expenses paid holiday, with a little work on the side.

They’d be wrong.

No first-class hotels, no living in the lap of luxury, just a hard slog, sometimes without result, sometimes ending up in a hospital, or in detention in a country where you really don’t want to be in detention.

And definitely no sightseeing.

So, in his place, we will take in the sights, like:

The Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, Tiergarten and Hitler’s Bunker

Just to name a few.

Of course, there is the Stasi records office where our main character spends time researching various people.

Then, there are the beer halls, like then Hofbräuhaus München Berlin, and Alexanderplatz, accessible via the U-Bahn, and a station that was partially closed off during the division of Berlin, up until 1990.

But, after a week David is getting restless, and it’s time to go home.  Fortunately, or otherwise, Susan is coming to join him as she has decided it’s time for them to present him to the world at large, and back into her life.

…

Words written today, 2,071, for a total of 6,380

Almost nonsensical descriptions we sometimes use without thinking

I found this explanation on the internet which seems to sum up what odd phrases like ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’ mean: ‘a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.’

We, as writers, are constantly reminded that we should not use these in our writing because most people might not understand their use.

But, being that unconventional, never to be told, type, I honestly think that it sometimes adds a degree of whimsy to the story.

I remember some years ago when I working with a Russian chap who’d not been in the country very long, and though he had a reasonable use of English, was not quite up with our figures of speech.

And made me realize when he kept asking me what they meant, just how many I used in everyday conversation.

Most of these figures of speech use descriptions that do not necessarily match the word being described, such as ‘I dance like I have two left feet’.

And that pretty much sums up how good I can dance.  But …

‘Like a bat out of hell’, not sure how this got into the vernacular, but it means to get the hell out of dodge quickly.  Hang on, that’s another saying, American, and the way Dodge city was in western American folklore, if you irritated a gunslinger, then best be on your way, fast.

Otherwise, yes, you guessed it, you were at the end of another saying, you would get a one-way ticket to boot hill.  In other words, the cemetery.

And while I’m digressing, again, Yul Brynner made a trip to boot hill very memorable in The Magnificent Seven.

Then,

‘Like a bull in a china shop’, describes a toddler let loose, not necessarily in a china shop, but I have seen it happen in reality and it wasn’t pretty

‘More front than Myers’, as my mother used to say, but in context, Myers is the Australian version of the English Selfridges or Harrods or Paris Galleries Lafayette.  It refers to the width of street frontage of the stores, and means that someone has the nerve to be so confronting

‘As mad as a hatter’, though not necessarily of the millinery kind, but, well, you can guess, it’s from Alice in Wonderland

‘As nutty as a fruitcake’, provided your fruitcake has nuts in it, we seemed to have coined the phrase nutty, or nuts for people who are a little, or a lot, eccentric

You can see, if you get the references, they are somewhat apt, and, yes, they sometimes creep into my stories.

 

NaNoWriMo – 2022 – Day 1

People change.

It’s a fact of life that over time people change.  Yes, they do keep some of their original characteristics, but a lot of people sometimes wake up, forty years later, and wonder who it is that they are in bed with.

It hasn’t happened to me yet, but the person I married has changed.

We all do.

External influences like workplaces, friends, enemies, attitudes, and even children, all have an influence on who we become.  I personally have no idea where the 18-year-old version of me has gone, not that I remember much of him.

So it goes for our hero, David.  He has an inkling of who Susan is or was, but so much has changed for her.  Her mother is dead, she had been held captive by a madman, drugged and tortured, it would have to affect anyone.

But, then, there are different nuances, so un Susan-like.  Little changes he knows she might not partake in, and it is these that start him wondering, what if…

Firstly, she cuts short a planned reunion away in Italy, time for them to reconnect.  Yes, she is now head of the family business, yes, she is hanging out with new men in her life, and no, it seems he does not fit into her corporate persona.

Then there is the first assassination attempt.

On him.

…

Words written today, 1,953, for a total of 1,953