Tag: Thrillers

“Betrayal” – the penultimate final draft – Day 2

I’m sure I’ve been down this road more than once, and with the same novel, but whereas the last edit, which was probably the second or third, finished up in the pile, then forgotten.

I’m doing an active update to all my works in progress, and sending them to the editor, after going through the manuscript once again, with a view to publishing.  Hopefully, before the year is out.

…

Finally, the ship got clear of the wharf, avoided a collision with a barge that strayed a little too close, and had me as captain of the Titanic, worried about people drawing parallels with the barge becoming an iceberg.

But…

I got the first two chapters done, more or less as I wanted them, but, as you would expect, once you start editing, there are minor shifts in the way it plays out.

It’s fine, however, and I’m not going to change it.

The story is running according to the script, and it worries me. You know how it goes, everything’s great until the engines break down.

Perhaps I should be more optimistic rather than pessimistic.

But, sadly, not so much written today as I’d hoped.

Smoother seas tomorrow one hopes!

“Betrayal” – the penultimate final draft – Day 2

I’m sure I’ve been down this road more than once, and with the same novel, but whereas the last edit, which was probably the second or third, finished up in the pile, then forgotten.

I’m doing an active update to all my works in progress, and sending them to the editor, after going through the manuscript once again, with a view to publishing.  Hopefully, before the year is out.

…

Finally, the ship got clear of the wharf, avoided a collision with a barge that strayed a little too close, and had me as captain of the Titanic, worried about people drawing parallels with the barge becoming an iceberg.

But…

I got the first two chapters done, more or less as I wanted them, but, as you would expect, once you start editing, there are minor shifts in the way it plays out.

It’s fine, however, and I’m not going to change it.

The story is running according to the script, and it worries me. You know how it goes, everything’s great until the engines break down.

Perhaps I should be more optimistic rather than pessimistic.

But, sadly, not so much written today as I’d hoped.

Smoother seas tomorrow one hopes!

“Betrayal” – the penultimate final draft – Day 1

I’m sure I’ve been down this road more than once, and with the same novel, but whereas the last edit, which was probably the second or third, finished up in the pile, then forgotten.

I’m doing an active update to all my works in progress, and sending them to the editor, after going through the manuscript once again, with a view to publishing.  Hopefully, before the year is out.

…

I took a deep breath and could feel the tug pulling hard on the tow line, as the ship eased away from the dock.  In other words, this project is now underway!

It’s going to run like this, read the story chapter by chapter, ensure that the continuity is correct, and remove all spell and grammatical errors, well most of them anyway.

Then, tomorrow, move on and repeat.

The start is always the hardest because you have to keep in mind that it will serve as an introduction, with some explanation, about the character, and a situation, and still hold interest.  It’s a fine balancing act and I’m not sure if I have got it exactly right.

As for the next chapter, that’s another story.

Just the same, we have a long way to go.

“Betrayal” – the penultimate final draft – Day 1

I’m sure I’ve been down this road more than once, and with the same novel, but whereas the last edit, which was probably the second or third, finished up in the pile, then forgotten.

I’m doing an active update to all my works in progress, and sending them to the editor, after going through the manuscript once again, with a view to publishing.  Hopefully, before the year is out.

…

I took a deep breath and could feel the tug pulling hard on the tow line, as the ship eased away from the dock.  In other words, this project is now underway!

It’s going to run like this, read the story chapter by chapter, ensure that the continuity is correct, and remove all spell and grammatical errors, well most of them anyway.

Then, tomorrow, move on and repeat.

The start is always the hardest because you have to keep in mind that it will serve as an introduction, with some explanation, about the character, and a situation, and still hold interest.  It’s a fine balancing act and I’m not sure if I have got it exactly right.

As for the next chapter, that’s another story.

Just the same, we have a long way to go.

“The Enemy Within” – a thirty-day revision – Day 30

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

So, we have a mission, and we have the players.

…

We let it play out. People die, and others escape. If you escape, knowing that someone is trying to kill you, what is the first thing to happen in the spy world?

A debriefing.

Searching for the reasons why and coming to conclusions can result in accusations. Or at worst, the survivors are blamed for those that didn’t. I hesitate to say it was like in the first days of flying aeroplanes, if it crashed, it was pilot error, not the plane.

The unthinkable happens, the survivor is fired, and the researcher/briefer is sent to their own version of a debriefing to find out what went wrong. At least, that is what everyone thinks happened.

What actually did was far more sinister, and our man who was fired, with a little help, launched his own investigation. It is coincidental that he was in a relationship with the researcher right up until the briefing when she broke it off.

But what follows makes a very interesting story, and highlights the fact that in the shadowy world of intelligence gathering, everyone lies, everyone has an agenda, and not everyone has the best interests of their country at heart.

“The Enemy Within” – a thirty-day revision – Day 30

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

And so it begins…

…

So, we have a mission, and we have the players.

…

We let it play out. People die, and others escape. If you escape, knowing that someone is trying to kill you, what is the first thing to happen in the spy world?

A debriefing.

Searching for the reasons why and coming to conclusions can result in accusations. Or at worst, the survivors are blamed for those that didn’t. I hesitate to say it was like in the first days of flying aeroplanes, if it crashed, it was pilot error, not the plane.

The unthinkable happens, the survivor is fired, and the researcher/briefer is sent to their own version of a debriefing to find out what went wrong. At least, that is what everyone thinks happened.

What actually did was far more sinister, and our man who was fired, with a little help, launched his own investigation. It is coincidental that he was in a relationship with the researcher right up until the briefing when she broke it off.

But what follows makes a very interesting story, and highlights the fact that in the shadowy world of intelligence gathering, everyone lies, everyone has an agenda, and not everyone has the best interests of their country at heart.

“The Enemy Within” – a thirty-day revision – Day 29

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

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” – a thirty-day revision – Day 29

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

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” – a thirty-day revision – Day 28

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

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” – a thirty-day revision – Day 28

This book has also been written for some time, like The Document, and the manuscript was also sitting in a box with half a dozen others gathering dust and not quite as complete, so this month it is going to get the makeover, a first draft for the editor.

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.