Tag: suspense

A photograph from the inspirational bin – 47

What story does it inspire?

…

…

A table for two…

This was at a winery in Italy where, on the tour we took, we had lunch as part of the tour, after, of course, a tour of the winery.

It was a picturesque setting, and the food, and matching wines, were exquisite, and perhaps we may have had slightly more than we should have.

But, they did leave the wine behind…

However…

Inspirationally, we could base the story around a lunch or dinner, two people looking to get their relationship back on track, deciding to take time out alone to see if the part is still there.

How could it not in a setting like this?

It could be the setting for a chef, trying out his new menu, or working on a new menu, getting tourists to sample the courses and wines.

We’d have to make the chef a man, or woman, on the edge of disaster, and looking to recover from a disaster of some description – like a failed restaurant and the need for second chances…

Or…

A failing chateau, typified by the declining visitor number and warring family members, all of whom were left a share in the large but rapidly deteriorating mansion.

Should they renovate and turn it into a hotel with a 5 star restaurant, or should they sell to developers and see it bulldozed, or will one, secretly very wealthy, offer to buy them all out and preserve the ancestral home?

Anything is possible…

First Dig Two Graves – the editor’s second draft – Day 4

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

…

John’s search for Zoe was at an impasse, simply because it was her job to disappear and reappear at will, and he knows he was no match for her in that regard.

So, having gone to her residence in Paris, not finding her there which was predictable, the place looked like it had not been visited in months, he concluded a short stay might help to clear his head.

Until he gets a phone call.

Kidnappers, other than the Russians, have captured Zoe, and they’re ringing him for a ransom.

Odd, because he was not the one who placed the kidnap order on her, so why would they be ringing him?

This was initiated by Zoe, no doubt playing the kidnapper by sending him to a bigger payday.

If that’s the case then John has to deduce she has faith in him to come and get her.

Which he’s going to do, but not on his own.

It’s time to call Sebastian, someone John knew would know what to do.

Or at least hope he does!

First Dig Two Graves – the editor’s second draft – Day 4

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

…

John’s search for Zoe was at an impasse, simply because it was her job to disappear and reappear at will, and he knows he was no match for her in that regard.

So, having gone to her residence in Paris, not finding her there which was predictable, the place looked like it had not been visited in months, he concluded a short stay might help to clear his head.

Until he gets a phone call.

Kidnappers, other than the Russians, have captured Zoe, and they’re ringing him for a ransom.

Odd, because he was not the one who placed the kidnap order on her, so why would they be ringing him?

This was initiated by Zoe, no doubt playing the kidnapper by sending him to a bigger payday.

If that’s the case then John has to deduce she has faith in him to come and get her.

Which he’s going to do, but not on his own.

It’s time to call Sebastian, someone John knew would know what to do.

Or at least hope he does!

First Dig Two Graves – the editor’s second draft – Day 1

The second Zoe thriller.

…

At the end of the first book in the series, Alistair, Zoe the assassin’s handler, was killed.

As far as he was concerned, Zoe had reneged on the contract to kill a target, and for that, she had to be punished, just to let the rest of the team know they could not decide arbitrarily who or who they would not kill.

For her sins, Zoe had been captured and was about to be executed when John, the man who wanted to become her boyfriend, turned up on a luckless and unplanned rescue mission.

But as ad-hoc operations go, that one was very successful.  Zoe, though badly injured aided John in a do-or-die escape.

Alistair learned to his chagrin, that a badly injured Zoe and untrained well-meaning friend trumped overconfidence.

Of course, Alistair’s death does not go unnoticed, and his mother, a renowned and very capable ex-KGB agent with connections, wanted to avenge his death.  Her influence reaches as far as the upper echelons of the State’s intelligence services, and requests from her would never be ignored.

Such a request for information is made, and so starts the next book in the series.

Revenge.

Of course, nothing to do with Zoe or John, or their relationship, runs smoothly, and once again in pursuit of the impossible, makes it his mission in life to win over the assassin-on-sabbatical.

But first, he has to find her., and sort through the lies and treachery of his best friend who is also looking for Zoe, but for entirely different reasons.

First Dig Two Graves – the editor’s second draft – Day 1

The second Zoe thriller.

…

At the end of the first book in the series, Alistair, Zoe the assassin’s handler, was killed.

As far as he was concerned, Zoe had reneged on the contract to kill a target, and for that, she had to be punished, just to let the rest of the team know they could not decide arbitrarily who or who they would not kill.

For her sins, Zoe had been captured and was about to be executed when John, the man who wanted to become her boyfriend, turned up on a luckless and unplanned rescue mission.

But as ad-hoc operations go, that one was very successful.  Zoe, though badly injured aided John in a do-or-die escape.

Alistair learned to his chagrin, that a badly injured Zoe and untrained well-meaning friend trumped overconfidence.

Of course, Alistair’s death does not go unnoticed, and his mother, a renowned and very capable ex-KGB agent with connections, wanted to avenge his death.  Her influence reaches as far as the upper echelons of the State’s intelligence services, and requests from her would never be ignored.

Such a request for information is made, and so starts the next book in the series.

Revenge.

Of course, nothing to do with Zoe or John, or their relationship, runs smoothly, and once again in pursuit of the impossible, makes it his mission in life to win over the assassin-on-sabbatical.

But first, he has to find her., and sort through the lies and treachery of his best friend who is also looking for Zoe, but for entirely different reasons.

“The Enemy Within” – the editor’s second draft – Day 29

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

What’s a spy story without an insidious plot?

…

So, the world of the spy is usually in the most expensive clothes, the most expensive cars, staying in six-star hotels, high rolling in the best casinos, in the company of very beautiful women. Also let’s not forget they can shoot with almost any weapon from a Luger to a sniper rifle, to a portable land-to-air missile launcher, they can fly any sort of plane or helicopter, and to finance all this, a briefcase full of money, six different passports, and whatever documents might be needed in a crunch situation.

Let’s not forget that he or she is an expert in martial arts and self-defence, and the notion of taking on six assailants at once does not faze them one bit.

Yes, larger than life.

But do they have to be? I mean, at some point our agent has to be a newbie in the field, after months and months of training in all the essential things they need to know.

That first job in the field.

Will they succeed, or will they be found out and killed before they draw their second breath?

This story starts out as a first mission of a newbie, and the fact that from the moment he is on the ground in the target zone, everything goes wrong. He is still working on the premise that those who sent him had researched the mission and planned for a basic safe working space. After all, it was a matter of going in, getting the target, and getting out. Since no one else was supposed to know they were coming, it should have been simple.

Shouldn’t it?

“The Enemy Within” – the editor’s second draft – Day 29

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

What’s a spy story without an insidious plot?

…

So, the world of the spy is usually in the most expensive clothes, the most expensive cars, staying in six-star hotels, high rolling in the best casinos, in the company of very beautiful women. Also let’s not forget they can shoot with almost any weapon from a Luger to a sniper rifle, to a portable land-to-air missile launcher, they can fly any sort of plane or helicopter, and to finance all this, a briefcase full of money, six different passports, and whatever documents might be needed in a crunch situation.

Let’s not forget that he or she is an expert in martial arts and self-defence, and the notion of taking on six assailants at once does not faze them one bit.

Yes, larger than life.

But do they have to be? I mean, at some point our agent has to be a newbie in the field, after months and months of training in all the essential things they need to know.

That first job in the field.

Will they succeed, or will they be found out and killed before they draw their second breath?

This story starts out as a first mission of a newbie, and the fact that from the moment he is on the ground in the target zone, everything goes wrong. He is still working on the premise that those who sent him had researched the mission and planned for a basic safe working space. After all, it was a matter of going in, getting the target, and getting out. Since no one else was supposed to know they were coming, it should have been simple.

Shouldn’t it?

“The Enemy Within” – the editor’s second draft – Day 28

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

How do we tell who’s good and who’s bad?

…

Everybody has an agenda; it’s just we don’t necessarily know what it is. It’s where this story is headed, and I’m just spitballing at the moment…

Perhaps having worked in an office where there is a hierarchy of bosses, each actively working on getting up that next rung on the ladder, using whatever and whomever at their disposal to achieve such a result, it is sometimes not so easy to see whether we are being used as pawns in their insidious games. They know you are malleable because you’re the new kid on the block, and you want to make your mark.

I’ve certainly worked in offices where my work had been used and passed off by them as their own and basically promised if I did well (and supported them) I would also succeed, only to find once they move on you’ve been dumped. Or you’ve been asked to do a job that you know is going to have an adverse effect on someone else.

You only find out what’s really going on when you jump the chain of command, or you use initiative.

While offices are not usually hotbeds of insidious activity, another name for office politics, the premise is basically the same. People are being used by other people to further their own agenda, whether to curry favour with people of influence or get a promotion. Or they just want to get rid of someone that’s in the way.

And if you are the new kid on the block, would you really know what was going on, until it all explodes in your face.

This story, at long last, is getting more interesting by the minute.

“The Enemy Within” – the editor’s second draft – Day 28

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

How do we tell who’s good and who’s bad?

…

Everybody has an agenda; it’s just we don’t necessarily know what it is. It’s where this story is headed, and I’m just spitballing at the moment…

Perhaps having worked in an office where there is a hierarchy of bosses, each actively working on getting up that next rung on the ladder, using whatever and whomever at their disposal to achieve such a result, it is sometimes not so easy to see whether we are being used as pawns in their insidious games. They know you are malleable because you’re the new kid on the block, and you want to make your mark.

I’ve certainly worked in offices where my work had been used and passed off by them as their own and basically promised if I did well (and supported them) I would also succeed, only to find once they move on you’ve been dumped. Or you’ve been asked to do a job that you know is going to have an adverse effect on someone else.

You only find out what’s really going on when you jump the chain of command, or you use initiative.

While offices are not usually hotbeds of insidious activity, another name for office politics, the premise is basically the same. People are being used by other people to further their own agenda, whether to curry favour with people of influence or get a promotion. Or they just want to get rid of someone that’s in the way.

And if you are the new kid on the block, would you really know what was going on, until it all explodes in your face.

This story, at long last, is getting more interesting by the minute.

“The Enemy Within” – the editor’s second draft – Day 25

This book has finally come back from the Editor, so this month it is going to get a second revision, a second draft for the editor, and beta readers.

And so it begins…

…

What is the truth?

…

When I first started writing this story, I had an idea in mind where it would lead.

All I knew was that by the end of the story, a person who thought he knew what was right or wrong, would discover that the concept of right and wrong was just a matter of who told you what was right, even if it was wrong.

After all, he was on the right side, and doing good often meant doing anything and everything to ensure the bad buys didn’t win.

You know, the ends justify the means.

What if the one person you thought was on the side of truth and justice, was simply someone who wanted wealth and power and didn’t care how it was achieved?

The first draft of this story saw the main character, our protagonist, get sent on a mission that was compromised before it started.  What he thought was a mentor, and killed in action, and only just avoiding the same fate himself, was later portrayed as anything but the honourable man he thought he was.

It was meant to be a glimpse into the smile and mirrors world where nothing is as it seems.

In editing, the story seemed to take on a new life, and the true meaning of what the Enemy Within is about starts to come through.

It’s what I think I originally intended.