Tag: NaNoWriMo

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 29

A crisis of conscience?

When I started the story, it was the day after Agatha was found dead.  From there it was a story of how her ex-husband charted a path through the tangled web of her life and business.

It was going to be one told through the various people in her life and the effect they had, good and bad.  It was also meant to be a story of taking something good and twisting it, which is not what always happens but can.

I had always believed that being rich is a curse rather than a blessing, because you eventually start worrying about those around you who want to take it away, the fact, in the end, you can’t trust anyone.

I guess that it doesn’t happen a lot in real life.

Or maybe it does.

Is this why we believe rich people are eccentric?

These are only a few questions that are going to get a much bigger airing in the first edit, because at the moment, there are arts I’m not happy with.

I know who is responsible for her death.  Now.  For almost the whole of the story, I was like the reader, waiting to find out, and speculating along the way.  It’s not who you think.

…

Words today, 1,854, for a total of 53,287

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 28

Whittling the suspect list

…

It’s not the General

It’s not Adria or her daughter.  No one could be more distressed at the turn of events than both of them.

It’s not Genevieve, though there is a long-standing jealousy that could have been construed as a motive, but there was no means or opportunity.

It’s not either of the personal assistants.

It’s not any of the board of trustees.

It might be one of the workers, but their sentiments were not enough to deem them viable murderers. 

This was a long and calculated attack, aimed at disabling not killing the victim.  This was someone close to her and had been given cause to embark on such an operation.  Or perhaps for some other reason, quite unrelated, on someone else’s behalf.

The police are still chasing the most convenient suspects.

Michael on the other hand was not looking at those close to her.

Howard Joffs, her father, and her personal staff in her London residence, because the only other place the poison could be administered was at home.

…

Words today, 1,920, for a total of 51,433

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 22

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

I need a plan.

This lark of making it up as I go is getting a little more difficult because I had an idea where this was leading, and now it seems to have hit a brick wall.

We have a friend in hiding with a mysterious diary, we have a mother who is missing, we have an agent of sorts following Jack around in the hope it will lead to the mysterious diary, and we have said agent and Jack looking for Jacob.

Why?

In my book, you don’t go looking for trouble.

What these two intrepid adventurers should be doing is trying to find Jack’s mother.

That, of course, leads to the other important question, who has her, if anyone does?

OK, so let’s let loose the diary’s owner, a man named McCallister, who coincidentally is father to both Jack and Jacob.

What’s in the diary?

This needs some background, and it needs to have the seeds of the plot sown earlier in the story when Jack was investigating who Jacob was. He would find out who Jacob’s father was, and likely his own.

A part of the current plot is that McCallister calls Jack and wants to exchange the diary for his mother. So that will mean McCallister has her.

I had considered that perhaps her sister was holding her captive, but why would she after all these years?

So, from her…

The call from McCallister, Maryanne needs to draw on her organisation’s resources to find McCallister (he was in jail but escaped, ok the back story is being virtually written on the fly) because of what’s in the diary, and he needs it to stay alive. What’s in it? One would have to presume it had something to do with his life before producing children, and that was as a politician.

So, was he a corrupt politician, or did he know of one, or two, maybe? Politics can be dangerous, as well as lucrative.

As they say, the plot thickens!

More tomorrow.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 27

Round and round and round we go

…

If nothing had happened to Agatha, then the General would have walked away, his reputation and bankability intact.

Perhaps his biggest problem, one of many, was that he was a friend of Agatha’s father.  Perhaps Agatha’s father’s biggest problem was his ego, and the fact his daughter was smarter than he would ever give her credit for.

The General had a secret, and as we all know, secrets are the hardest things to be kept.  Someone knows, someone always knows, and that person cannot be trusted with secrets, cannot trust themselves with secrets.

Have you ever tried to keep a secret?  It’s nigh on impossible.

Some people can.  Unfortunately, none in this story can.  But the problem is they are not willing to share, but will eventually because they have a momentary aberration, or it just comes out in normal conversation.

People can’t hold those sorts of secrets, not when it concerns someone as important as the General/.  Someone else must be told so it doesn’t feel like they’re the only one holding down the most important and incredible fact in the world.

Pity then that Michael knows the friend of a friend of a friend who has a relative, that has that secret.

…

Words today, 1,998, for a total of 49,513

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 22

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

I need a plan.

This lark of making it up as I go is getting a little more difficult because I had an idea where this was leading, and now it seems to have hit a brick wall.

We have a friend in hiding with a mysterious diary, we have a mother who is missing, we have an agent of sorts following Jack around in the hope it will lead to the mysterious diary, and we have said agent and Jack looking for Jacob.

Why?

In my book, you don’t go looking for trouble.

What these two intrepid adventurers should be doing is trying to find Jack’s mother.

That, of course, leads to the other important question, who has her, if anyone does?

OK, so let’s let loose the diary’s owner, a man named McCallister, who coincidentally is father to both Jack and Jacob.

What’s in the diary?

This needs some background, and it needs to have the seeds of the plot sown earlier in the story when Jack was investigating who Jacob was. He would find out who Jacob’s father was, and likely his own.

A part of the current plot is that McCallister calls Jack and wants to exchange the diary for his mother. So that will mean McCallister has her.

I had considered that perhaps her sister was holding her captive, but why would she after all these years?

So, from her…

The call from McCallister, Maryanne needs to draw on her organisation’s resources to find McCallister (he was in jail but escaped, ok the back story is being virtually written on the fly) because of what’s in the diary, and he needs it to stay alive. What’s in it? One would have to presume it had something to do with his life before producing children, and that was as a politician.

So, was he a corrupt politician, or did he know of one, or two, maybe? Politics can be dangerous, as well as lucrative.

As they say, the plot thickens!

More tomorrow.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 26

And yet it took so long

…

It might well be the lament of the person who was the principal behind the operation.  It was meant to take a few weeks, then leave as though nothing happened.

That might have happened if the building hadn’t been loaded up with CCTV coverage, most of which only a few knew about, and certainly not those who were in on the operation.

Yes, someone forgot the drug made it’s victim paranoid on top of everything else.

And, taking on someone like Agatha, who had learned from dealing with her father that she always had to be one step ahead of everyone else, was probably a sin in itself.

Never, never, underestimate your enemy.

And yet another slice of what could be called dumb luck, it was not anticipated that Agatha would fall down those stairs and end up in a coma.  Not for long, but just long enough, before succumbing to her injury.

To say that was not supposed to happen was an understatement.

It brought in the police, a very, very close inspection of the people inside the operation, and word, it brought back her husband, Michael, and he was looking for vengeance.

…

Words today, 1,601, for a total of 47,515

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 25

Well, that wasn’t what was expecting.

…

There has to be a motive, means and opportunity.

In any investigation, suspects can have the means and the opportunity, but often it’s hard to find a motive.

And until you start scratching below the surface, there can be a point where the perpetrator can begin to believe they’ve got away with it.  Especially when there are so many other convenient suspects.

The first clue, if it could be called that, is that Agatha was slowly poisoned.  It was not something she would be overly aware of, other than the perpetual fatigue, nor was it a poison that would show up in the run-of-the-mill blood tests.

You have to be looking for a very specific substance, and even then, it’s difficult at best, because it is often used for heart troubles.

Fatigue is generally treated as fatigue.  Doctors do not often look beyond the obvious and prescribe something they believe will fix the problem.  That, of course, is rest.

The thing is, what happens to Agatha was not meant to be part of the ‘punishment’.  She was simply supposed to be removed from her position of running her charity, to take time away while others ran it, using the organisation as a cover for another purpose.  Once.

…

Words today, 1,804, for a total of 45,914

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 19

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

Jack finally gets to spend those moments with Rosalie that were so tantalisingly close before he left.

The question is, would he dared to do so if it had not been for the events that had just occurred. There always seems to be an element of danger that spurs people on to do things they might not necessarily do if life had not taken a particular turn.

But, it was everything he expected, and more.

Of course, as advised yesterday, there are problems, not of their making but of the intrepid Maryanne, who reveals herself now as an agent working for an organisation that is equally after the package that Jack’s mother had left in Rosalie’s safekeeping.

And ironically it is Rosalie who captures Maryanne in the act of trying to steal it.

So, if an effort to keep it from everyone Rosalie agrees to leave with the package and tell no one where she is. Not until Jack decided what he was going to do with it. One possibility is to use it to get his mother back, but like all ransom exchanges, it never turns out the way it’s supposed to.

So, Maryanne is going to have to come up with a convincing plan to get Jack onside, but the lies and deception are not a very good start in forming trust.

It’s an interesting premise, and beyond the raw writing, I fear it will need some more work to get it where I want it to be.

More tomorrow.

NANOWRIMO – April 2024 – “The One That Got Away” – Day 24

And if I didn’t have an alibi…

…

The first meeting with the police on a murder investigation can go well or it can go badly.  Michael’s first meeting with Detective Chief Inspector Davis and Detective Sargeant Bains went badly, but that was more to do with his short temper and the fact they were wasting time on him.

There was no possible way he could have done anything, but the police were more interested in the fact he didn’t show up anywhere in official documentation, and Michael had to admit his passion for staying off the grid, was only going to make matters difficult.

Being escorted to an interview room at the nearby police station was the last thing he expected.  Perhaps it was the sudden discovery that someone had deliberately and callously killed her that made him angry, and it was always going to be directed at someone.

Why not the police.

His friends had said that it might not be a good idea to give them a hard time.

Good advice, given at the wrong time.

…

Words today, 1,671, for a total of 44,110

Mistaken Identity – The Final Editor’s Draft – Day 19

This book has finally reached the Final Editor’s draft, so this month it is going to get the last revision, and a reread for the beta readers.

…

Jack finally gets to spend those moments with Rosalie that were so tantalisingly close before he left.

The question is, would he dared to do so if it had not been for the events that had just occurred. There always seems to be an element of danger that spurs people on to do things they might not necessarily do if life had not taken a particular turn.

But, it was everything he expected, and more.

Of course, as advised yesterday, there are problems, not of their making but of the intrepid Maryanne, who reveals herself now as an agent working for an organisation that is equally after the package that Jack’s mother had left in Rosalie’s safekeeping.

And ironically it is Rosalie who captures Maryanne in the act of trying to steal it.

So, if an effort to keep it from everyone Rosalie agrees to leave with the package and tell no one where she is. Not until Jack decided what he was going to do with it. One possibility is to use it to get his mother back, but like all ransom exchanges, it never turns out the way it’s supposed to.

So, Maryanne is going to have to come up with a convincing plan to get Jack onside, but the lies and deception are not a very good start in forming trust.

It’s an interesting premise, and beyond the raw writing, I fear it will need some more work to get it where I want it to be.

More tomorrow.