General – Page 149

The accompanying drawing is one of a series I completed of young ladies. I associated them with my work at the time.

It’s widely believed that everybody has a book in them, a story worth telling. Now after years of writing about my past and improving my skill I’ve started to write a fictional novel rather than my autobiography.

I believe a truthful, no-holds barred account would be a selfish and egotistical piece but a novel loosely based on my experiences would be more entertaining. Producing a good story is more important to me than simply writing about my own military life as it was.

I have now produced my updated intro to my novel, ‘A Life of Choice’. More importantly I’ve also rewritten Chapter 1 and revised three excerpts from that chapter. The excerpts are a taster of the content and style of my novel. They are ‘Gas Chamber’, ‘Live Firing’ and ‘Fitness …’

I would appreciate any reviews of my efforts because only then will I know if I am on track.

The drawing for this post I completed whilst I was on a course, still in the military. I had to occupy my free time when I wasn’t running.

This week I finished work on ‘Coming Together’, a poem collaboration with Brandy, a poet friend in the U.S. It should be added to my collaboration link in the next two days.

I’m now mid-way with ‘Flames of Desire’, another poem collaboration with Cheryl, another friend in the U.S.

I decided that it was insufficient to suggest that I had a certain number of short stories underway without actually giving some idea of their plot. To keep the record straight they are all at various stages of writing and editing:

‘One Man’s Mission’ – A young British / Asian man returns to the UK from a terrorist training camp in Asia.

‘Guardian Angels’ – A tale which involves a kidnapping and a Chapter of Hell’s Angels.

‘Windows of Opportunity’ – A young man waves his girlfriend off to work, then the day takes a strange turn.

‘Loose Ends’ – An assassin kills for what should be the last time.

All of these stories are destined for competitions so I hope to be adding them to my links before too much longer.

This week has also seen my return to the Writer’s Cafe site after an absence of 18 months. I have gone back there with a renewed confidence in my writing and importantly for me, also sufficient experience and knowledge to give constructive criticism. It’s a friendly site and buzzes with competitions and feedback on a writer’s efforts. Unlike some sites it facilitates the posting of both poetry and prose which for me is ideal.