No News, The MIssion and writing from nowhere

9 March 2013

I'm a bit lost today seeing as our Dorktown Telegraph hasn't arrived this morning.  The News didn't arrive either.  So now I shall have to think up something to write about eh ;-)))

Actually I don't really.  Last night I lay reading the writers thingy and read the Jeffery Archer article.  I've never read any of his books simply because I haven't fancied any of them.  Mind you, him being a Tory didn't help any either.  But he actually made sense in what he said.  When I think about it though I do remember watching an interview with him on telly a long time ago.  There he pointed out that would be writers can't go a writer's shop and ask for 2lbs of plots.  That made sense too. 

Another article I read last night claimed that no one actually sits and writes a book from nowhere.  There is always some sort of preparation beforehand.  Perhaps the writer was always writing notes or stories at school; perhaps they have completed a degree or a number of other courses.  My book The Mission came to me very easily really and I can see what and understand what the article meant.  English composition was something I enjoyed and did well at school; in the army I would write long rambling letters home and to various pen friends I had; I have taken and passed a number of courses at our local college and a BA Hons from the Open University.  So as you can see there was progress if you like from one stage to the next.  But what of The Mission then?  Where did that come from? 

There's a lot of me in the character of main man, Thomas Parker.  Over the years I have become more and more disillusioned with the police.  That disillusion is what pushes Parker into his mission.  Here's part of what drives him to the edge ...   

Damn coppers, they really are bloody useless aren’t they!  They come knocking at our door when something happens and promise the earth but deliver nowt.  I don’t know why I bother to phone them, I really don’t.  Look at all that fuss over the break in over the back last week.  “Well, if you see or hear anything strange going on give us a call and we’ll be out straight away,” they said.  And look what’s happened now.  The bloody dog going nuts out the back at just after nine pm and there’s another van out there.  I call the cops and it takes them over two bloody hours to get here and get us up out of bed when they do come ... and the sodding van has gone!!!  I really don’t know why I bother.  And what about that kid who was having the shit punched out of him by that bloke?  They arrived quickly enough but didn’t do anything when they got the bloke, no evidence they said, no witnesses.  What about me and the woman by the phone box?  We both gave names and addresses saying we would attend court. So where do they get the ‘no witnesses’ idea from?  Oh yeah, and remember those kids I caught trying to set fire to the rubbish bins out the back the other Sunday?  The cops said they’d send the local beat bobby out when he comes back off leave ... deeerrrrr ... I wonder if the kids will wait for him.  And what about all that copper wire I saw being loaded in to a car across the way and the guy on the phone didn’t want to know about it.  The following day there was the report of twenty grands worth of wire stolen for a supplier in Nuneaton.  And what about when our lad was hit by a car while he was riding his bike.  The lad was given a false phone number by the car driver, written on a betting slip.  The lad even pointed out the car to me but did the cops do anything about it?  Not bloody likely, too much bother, too much work involved!  

Look at all those coppers who were sat around at the services in Corley the other week waiting for whatever they were waiting for ... I wonder if it turned up?  Then when you need a copper you can’t get one, they’re all out on jobs they say.  Probably all on courses like Inspector Jack Sanders told me about some time ago. They get a brochure that comes round at the nick; they call it the holiday mag and it has all the courses they can go on over that year.  They read it and choose which ones they fancy for a few days off, paid of course!  “Better than the crap we get on the streets,” he said.  No bloody wonder they get crap on the streets when they behave the way they do.

 

You need to remember that all of these are actual instances that I have experienced at the hands of the cops at one time or another - and these are not the only ones!

I remember sitting in my study with my PC on and fuming over the amount of stuff stolen during a break in while we were on holiday and the excuses the cops were giving for not trying to get the person responsible.  It was that fuming that caused me to begin typing.  98,000 words later me old mate Bill Howe did a proof read for me.  And that is how it's gone on.  So you see, that article was right, none of us writers at sit and write in a vacuum.

Today's photo is of the Coventry Canal ... 

nice and still with good reflections on the surface.

Funny time ...

Mrs. Jones goes to the doctor for a full medical.
After an hour or so, the doctor looks at Mrs. Jones and tells her what he thinks: "Mrs. Jones, overall you are very healthy for a 45 year old. There is however, only one problem. You are over 20 kilos overweight and bordering on obese. I would strongly suggest that you diet now to save any complications in later years."
She looks sternly at him and says, "I demand a second opinion".
"OK" he says, "you're ugly as well!"