I have now created for my lovely self a Youtube channel. Eek. Why eek you may ask? Well, it's mainly because I find it very strange the idea of uploading video of myself to the internet. I can't help but still think back to those school days where you were told to NEVER EVER give out personal information about yourself on the internet, such as your name, address, photos and suchlike. It was thought that the internet was full of strange people who would want to kidnap you. I went to school during the 1990s when the internet was so new and strange that we were to distrust it. Oh well, that obviously didn't happen.
Also, I don't think anyone is going to see these videos of me reading my stories or read these blog posts so it doesn't matter that much. It's a good project for me to keep myself writing.
(It's taking 45 minutes to upload a 10 minute video. Is that the average time for uploads to Youtube or is my laptop/wifi just slow???)
The video is published and live and can be found on my brand new Youtube channel here: https://youtu.be/UTkr_MT1qwg
The text of the story can be found below.
Apart from the Roll of the Dice short story for January I haven't done much writing on my other projects. My excuse was, and still is, that is was December and nothing gets done properly in December. Not only is it my birthday, but it is also those small holidays of Christmas and New Year.
But now that 2016 is upon us I will be making a more concrete effort to write and finish this current novel project. I am still so annoyed with myself that I didn't complete it for Nanowrimo. I've done that for the past few years and even if I didn't like the finished project I still got the certificate that said that I'd won Nanowrimo. I'm going to have a gap in my certificates now -_-;
My Nanowrimo account for my current project is still up online and can be found here: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/quothvictoria/novels/lady-of-smoke-and-mirrors
I'm wondering if I should get up earlier so that I have time before work to write, but I already get up at 6am and getting up before that seems uncivilised. I probably should though. After work my brain feels like boiled cabbage. Oh well.
My other New Year Resolution (dramatic capital letters intended) is to give up drinking alcohol for the month of January and raise money for Alcohol Concern by taking part in Dry January. I've got a Just Giving page so you can donate to Alcohol Concern as well if you so wish. I almost managed it last year, but I forgot once when I went out for lunch and ordered a lager. -_-;; I'm planning to suceed this year!
All is going well with the writing group. The upstairs meeting room at Central Library has been booked each month for 2016 so the meeting dates are all sorted and can be found here: http://nanowrimo.org/forums/europe-england-milton-keynes/threads/280891
I also updated the writing group's facebook group so that the page address is less full of numbers. It's now: https://www.facebook.com/groups/miltonkeynesnanogroup/
There may also be more 'carry on writing' meet ups at Central Library on Sundays, I'll create events on the facebook group is people are interested in that.
ttfn
RotD January 2016 Text:
“So… You’re saying that a banana destroyed the station’s only car?”
“No! Well, yes. Sort of. A banana was involved. More than one actually. But the banana itself was not the one who damaged your car....”
“Then who was the vandal?” Patience interrupted. She was already annoyed with how much Lee flustered and blustered as he rambled on at her, flapping his hands about like a panicked sea gull. She had spent the morning marching around the town interviewing all the shop owners on the sea front who may have been able to tell her who it was who had vandalised the car. The police station’s car. She wasn’t going to let this go. But the day had been hot and long and now she was tired and her short temper was becoming shorter.
Lee pushed his curly hair back off his forehead and huffed as he tried to think what to say next, or more to the point, the best way to say what it was he needed to tell Patience. “Vandal is such a strong word to use, don’t you think?”
“No.”
“Really? Was the…. damage really that bad?”
“The car is in the sea.”
Lee just stared for a long moment. His mouth opening and closing like a fish that had been just pulled out of the water.
“Oh.” He said. “I didn’t know that.” He paused again. “Quite damaged?”
“Wrecked.” Patience replied. “Which is why it’s important that I find out who it was.”
“But… What if who did it, didn’t mean to do it? What if they were not able to take responsibility for their actions?”
“They were drunk?”
“Oh no… I just mean…. Well…” He flapped his hands again.
Patience narrowed her eyes. “You know something. Did someone in your shop say something?”
Lee ran a book shop that was always bustling with customers and he was known to Patience as someone who tended to ‘overhear’ important pieces of information in said book shop. The shop was busy for two main reasons. One; it was the only book shop in town and so had cornered most of the market. Two; Lee had a helper monkey called Marvin who helped Lee in the shop taking money from customers and putting books in bags. This was very helpful as Lee was the owner and only member of staff in the book shop and couldn’t be expected to do everything. Lee had even managed to train Marvin to climb up to get books from the higher shelves, something that was rather difficult for Lee to do as it required him to get out of his wheelchair and haul himself up the ladder by only his arms. He could do it, but he’d rather not.
“No.” Lee said in response to Patience’s question but she could tell he was lying. She’d known Lee since they were small, they had both grown up in the salt air of the cove, so she knew he always scratched his nose when he lied and he currently looked like he had a bug stuck up his nose that he was trying to knock out of his nostrils with his fingers.
“Lee….” Patience said in the tone of voice that made Lee wince. Despite her name, and the hopes and wishes of her mother in giving her that name, she actually had very little patience. It was why she was stationed in the sleepy backwater of Spiral Cove rather than in the city. Her temper had not made her any friends among the city police force.
“Look it’s not what you think.” He held up his hands. “Please forgive him. He wouldn’t have known what would have happened. He never means it. He has a good heart, honestly.”
“Lee, I love you, but I will push you into the water myself if you don’t stop flapping and tell me who messed up my car!”
Lee took a deep breath. “Marvin.”
“The monkey?”
“Are there any others called Marvin in town?” Lee asked curiously, not sarcastically. He probably would have found it interesting to meet someone with the same name as his helper monkey.
Patience ignored his question. “How on earth did your monkey get my car into the sea?”
“Well, and it wasn’t on purpose of course.”
Patience didn’t reply.
“Bananas.” Lee blurted out in panick.
“Bananas.” Repeated Patience, still not feeling any more informed as to what the answer to the mystery of what happened to her car was. Then the penny dropped in her mind. “Oh! My shopping.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. But, yeah. There were bananas. Marvin loves bananas. So he jumped away from me before I could stop him and jumped into the car.”
“Where I had left the window open.” ‘like an idiot.’ Patience’s brain unhelpfully added. It had been a hot day and the air conditioning had never worked in that car. Patience had left the car for just a moment while she had popped in to the coffee shop to pick up drinks for the rest of her team at the station, partly because she wanted to and partly because she felt a bit guilty for using the police car to do her grocery shopping before work. She’d come out of the shop with hands full of coffee cups to discover her car missing. It had been a long, hot, awkward walk back to the station to report the theft of the police car. That hadn’t been a report she had enjoyed.
“Yes!” Lee realised he had replied too eagerly and coughed. “Yes. Well, Marvin got in and went to grab the bananas but… managed to grab the handbrake. The car started to move and he was so scared that he had jumped right out and ran back to me.”
“And you didn’t think to tell anyone that my car was rolling away down the hill?!”
“I had a panicking monkey to take care of! He was jumping about so much that it sent ME rolling down the other side of the hill. Luckily I rolled onto the beach and stopped in the sand. I had… I had assumed that the same had happened to your car…”
“No. It hadn’t.” Patience said sharply. “That had rolled on to the pier and then right off into the sea.”
“Was anyone hurt?” Lee asked immediately.
Patience shook her head, the beads at the ends of her braids clicked and clacked together. “Luckily, somehow, the car rolled right along the edge of the pier and everyone jumped out of the way. Didn’t even hit any of the booths.” Not even Madame Gratuity’s gaudy fortune telling tent.
Lee slumped down in his wheelchair. “That’s a relief.”
“The car is still wrecked at the bottom of the sea.” Patience crossed her arms.
Lee sat up straight again. “I am sorry. So sorry. I am prepared to take full responsibility. Even say it was me! Just don’t let them take Marvin away. He’s delicate really. He wouldn’t do well in a zoo. He’s so small. The other monkeys might pick on him!”
Patience stared at him and then shook her head. Lee looked like a seal that had just been kicked. She couldn’t bear it. “I wouldn’t do anything that would take Marvin away from you. I know how much you love that stupid monkey.” She sighed and stared up at the blazing blue sky. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I won’t do that.”
“Maybe it could be an unsolved crime?” Lee asked hopefully. He, for once, didn’t correct Patience as to the state of Marvin’s intelligence.
“Maybe.” Patience tried out a smile and it almost worked. She couldn’t stay mad at Lee. She’d known him too long. She’d work out something to do to clear everything up. She always did. That was another reason she hadn’t left Spiral Cove; no one could untangle the messes of the locals like a local herself.
“Come on.” Patience said to Lee and gestured to head along the beachfront back to the book shop. “Let’s go confront the criminal. Then you can get out the good rum you keep under the desk and we can figure out what I’m going to say to the other officers about the car.”
Lee grinned, teeth bright white in his dark face. He put his hands to push at the wheels of his wheelchair. “Deal.”
End.
No comments:
Post a Comment