Tag: NaNoWriMo

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 12

“Opposites Attract”

…

The inimitable Mrs Bakersfield

…

It’s not every day of the week you get to meet a genuine god-zillionaire.  Or so it seems to our boy.

She is Mrs Bakersfield, CEO of a conglomerate, rivalling the once fortunes of the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and others.  To her granddaughter, Emily, she is simply Grandma.

It doesn’t take long to see that her grandmother and Emile have a special bond, one that might have included Emily’s mother, Grandma’s daughter.

And for the record, Emily and Tim are her last two direct descendants.

Of course, Grandma has noticed the change in her granddaughter because of our boy and she has a private talk.

It is an interesting conversation.  She can see that he has the same affection for Emily as Emily does for him, enough to believe that something might come of the relationship.

She is no doubt aware of the differences in background, but sometimes those are just details.

She offers him a job, well, not so much a job, but an introduction to the HR manager, the equivalent one might say to an interview.

Oh, and one final detail, the grandmother has stage four cancer and has only a matter of weeks to live.

…

Today’s words:  2,489, for a total of 19,048

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 11

“Opposites Attract”

…

A visit to New York

…

I remember my first trip to New York.  We came via Los Angeles, and we were late arriving and therefore missed our outgoing flight.

It was winter, but in LA it was not cold.  That first trip we didn’t really know what cold was about.

Then, New York had been suffering from snowstorms and the weather was so bad it had stopped arrivals.  We were delayed, then got on the plane, and waited, and waited, until the pilot decided we were going, come hell or high water.

What happened?

We arrived at two in the morning, at a terminal that hadn’t been used for years, along with four or five other planes and thousands of bags sans carousels.

It was the stuff of memories, no matter how much hardship was thrown at us.

Of course, none of this is relevant to the story.  Our boy is summoned to New York, gets a ride in the corporate jet, and is staying at a swanky hotel.

There will, he knows, be a price to be paid.

But, reunited with the love of his life, all is good.

For now.

…

Today’s words:  2,138, for a total of 21,186

“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 26 days

Your friends are not my friends

…

So, integration into the Featherington empire is not going according to plan.

Whose plan, it might be asked.

Instead of just settling into a life of luxury and being the plus one for a woman who simply needed a consort, David has the nagging feeling everything around him is not as it should be.

He could cite the pain-killing drugs sending him into a world of conspiracies and hallucinations, that not everything around him was suspicious.

Take, for instance, her new business partners, far too handsome for their own good, and why is Susan flirting so openly with them?

Then there are the three Russian maids.  See no evil, hear no evil, speak evil, if they’re maids, why did they look and act like Russian spies?

Perhaps an old friend might be able to clear that up for him/

And why does the old family Butler, the only authentic person, other than the housekeeper who truly is both British to the core, and as genuine as they get, whispering in David’s ear that the mistress has changed, and he is concerned/

On day one in the London residence, it doesn’t take long to realize the walls have both eyes and ears, and thus the game’s afoot.

Once more he finds himself back in the murky world of lies and deceit.

…

The worst part of it is that he has no tangible truth that anything is amiss, and truth be told, David just wants everything to go back to the way it was.

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 10

“Opposites Attract”

…

Oops, I think it was too much.

…

Our girl goes missing.

Our boy has not received a call for a day or two, and there’s no answer when he calls.

Has the use-by date just been declared?

The experience at the charity was hardly what she had expected, and it was only reasonable to believe that her arrival would cause a few issues.

The head of the charity tried to explain to the boy that the people would not recognise the fact she was trying to help, just the fact she was part of the problem.  Behaving irresponsibly and then trying to mend those ways didn’t sit well with anyone.

The boy’s friends think he’s bonkers for trying to get her in to help.

So he assumes radio silence is the same as a break-up, and laments the fact to his sister, happy to see her little brother finally get the girl, but that the girl had to be who she was.  She secretly doesn’t think it will last, or worse, that he will stuff it up somehow..

Except he goes to visit his sister and finds the girl there.

Explanation, she was whisked away to New York to be with her grandmother who had stage 4 cancer and is not long for this world.

The girl and her grandmother have a special relationship since her mother died, and both she and her brother Tim are the only other living relatives of this grandmother.  She is also very, very wealthy, and there is another story about what’s going to happen to it when she dies.

Cue the vultures, circling the almost-dead carcass at the waterhole.

…

Today’s words:  2,489, for a total of 19,048

“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 26 days

Your friends are not my friends

…

So, integration into the Featherington empire is not going according to plan.

Whose plan, it might be asked.

Instead of just settling into a life of luxury and being the plus one for a woman who simply needed a consort, David has the nagging feeling everything around him is not as it should be.

He could cite the pain-killing drugs sending him into a world of conspiracies and hallucinations, that not everything around him was suspicious.

Take, for instance, her new business partners, far too handsome for their own good, and why is Susan flirting so openly with them?

Then there are the three Russian maids.  See no evil, hear no evil, speak evil, if they’re maids, why did they look and act like Russian spies?

Perhaps an old friend might be able to clear that up for him/

And why does the old family Butler, the only authentic person, other than the housekeeper who truly is both British to the core, and as genuine as they get, whispering in David’s ear that the mistress has changed, and he is concerned/

On day one in the London residence, it doesn’t take long to realize the walls have both eyes and ears, and thus the game’s afoot.

Once more he finds himself back in the murky world of lies and deceit.

…

The worst part of it is that he has no tangible truth that anything is amiss, and truth be told, David just wants everything to go back to the way it was.

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 9

“Opposites Attract”

…

I’m trying not to be cynical

…

There’s a reason why I am reluctant to give money to a lot of charities.

Quite often when you see them on TV, or in the papers, it’s usually someone very familiar to you, a movie star, or a TV star, a person people would respect, making a pitch for donations.

These people are usually very well paid for their services, with all manner of perks.

So, in reality, for every dollar you give, a large percentage goes into this person’s pocket, another large slice for the administration, and in the end, the people who are supposed to get it, get nothing.

You could argue without them there would be nothing anyway.

On the other hand, a lot of famous people do donate their time, and help raise funds that mostly go to those who need it.  I give to those.

What I would like to know is what motivates these people.

Enough pontificating.

Our girl gets to go with her boy to the charity to help, firstly to peel potatoes, then to hand out food to the needy.  It’s an experience that brings her to tears.

It doesn’t help that it is the reductions and downsizing in her father’s company that put the people she is serving in their situation.

…

Today’s words:  1,722, for a total of 16,559.

“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 28 days

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.

But as always there’s a problem lurking, and maybe even an unexpected visit from …

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 8

“Opposites Attract”

…

Something’s not right.

…

You know how it is when you’re working away, an idea comes to you, but the problem is, it cannot come out of nowhere.

There has to be a previous reference to it so that when the reader gets to that point in the story, they can say, oh, yes, I read about that two chapters back, and that was what it was about…

So, back I go, in my time machine and re-write history.

Just to be clear, I didn’t write myself out of existence, which I often wonder in these shows on TV where you can go back, that they do not alter their own timelines.

Of course, I keep forgetting when we watch these shows we’re supposed to suspend belief for the hour.  If we could do that in reality, how many of us would make the same mistake, or create a whole new timeline?

…

Today’s words:  1,579, for a total of 14,837.

“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 28 days

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.

But as always there’s a problem lurking, and maybe even an unexpected visit from …

“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 29 days

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.

And so the rollercoaster ride begins…