May 2011
24 posts
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Soldiers make you feel safe?.....
……It was still quite early, so I decided a nap was in order. I returned to my room, lay on the bed and awoke three hours later. I showered and changed, then headed back down to the restaurant to see what was on the menu for dinner.
I stepped out of the elevator and into a crowd of uniforms heading in the opposite direction. Deftly side-stepping through the onrushing army I managed to narrowly...
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Ebook....
Started the ball rolling to have my first book released as an ebook. It will be available for Kindle and Epub (amongst others).
My publishers have everything they need to get things moving now, so hoping it won’t be too long before it’s out there.
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Sarajevo…..
…..I was picked up from the airport and driven to the hotel by a driver that may or may not have been able to speak English. He never tried, just a grunt when I acknowledged the card he was holding up at the airport, a second grunt as he nodded his head to indicate which car was his and a third when we arrived at the hotel to indicate that we had arrived, and I should get my own suitcase out of...
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The beginning of the end….
…….The next couple of weeks were really busy. My crew and I couldn’t afford to share the relaxed attitude of the plant management. We had a job to do and a limited time to do it. So the days were long and the evenings short and very little writing was done.
The last truck left for Sarajevo and I had a few days at home arranged before we started to install the equipment in it’s new home. I said my...
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AKGMAG http://www.akgmag.com/
Good place to go if you are looking for something to read (I’m on there too) http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Making_of_the_World.htm
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Luuuuuuuuuuuunch….
…..We set out in three cars and drove for only five minutes to reach a rather smart restaurant. On entering, we found ourselves to be the only customers and a waitress showed us to a large table. There were twelve of us in all and all but myself and my boss seemed to know what they wanted for an aperitif. I’d had a conversation with a friend in the pub before I’d left home, he had visited Italy...
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The executioner….
…..I got my wish. My work crew spent the next two days finding their way around, I.E. visiting every pub, club and eating establishment in town, leaving me in peace with my writing. The book was coming along well now, almost 100,000 words. I reckoned that I needed around 20,000 more to make it a reasonably sized manuscript for a first fantasy novel. The story had taken shape quite well, but I was...
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Venice? Yeah, right….
……After a short break at home, I found myself on a flight to Venice. Wonderful I thought, the art, the architecture, the history….ahhh! Finally, for the first time in two years, a project in a place I wanted to go.
I arrived at Marco Polo Airport, and was met by a driver who didn’t speak a word of English, but seemed to know where I wanted to go. We set out from the airport and he drove…..and...
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Goodbye Berg….
…..The time came for me to leave Belgrade and move on to the next project. The work here was complete, the line was running, and my work crew had loaded up their van ready for the journey home.
I left my laptop in my room that evening, as I was meeting the plant manager and the work crew team leader for dinner in Berg’s restaurant. I thought it was going to be a quiet meal and a beer with two...
Tourist attraction or curiosity….
…..Each night, for the next four weeks, I sat in Berg’s restaurant eating, drinking and writing. I always sat at the same table (the one in the corner, next to the power socket) since the battery of my laptop was a little the worse for wear and would only keep me going for about an hour or so. This table always seemed to be available when I arrived, no matter how many other people were dining at...
Tuesday…
…..No, not the day, the character. I wanted one of my characters to be a very powerful and fearsome chap and therefore felt that I should name him accordingly. Most of the names I had used so far had been Eastern European, as that was where I was at the time. I changed the names slightly to make them more original and this seemed to work just fine. (Besides, I probably wouldn’t have spelled them...
Names and Characters….
….The food in the restaurant was excellent. My large friend turned out to be the chef, the waiter and the barman all rolled into one. The meal he brought me (veal cutlets and mixed vegetables) was of very generous proportions indeed. If there was one thing that was not in short supply here, it was meat. I cleared the plate, along with the two chunks of very heavy bread that came with it and washed...
The Making of the World →
ellorae:
this is the prologue to the Novel “The Waking of Carag Cri’eth”.
The book has been written by my partner’s father and I’m trying to spread the word about this undiscovered gem of a fantasy novel! Please pop on over for a read and see what you think :)
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The wooden restaurant……
……It was the smallest hotel room I had ever seen. If I put down my suitcase anywhere in the room, I couldn’t get past it, rather I had to stride over it. I was tired and harassed from the trip, so I resolved to have a word with the plant manager the next morning to get the room changed. (No-one in the hotel spoke a word of English, and I certainly didn’t speak any Bosnian)
I left my shoebox and...
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A short break….
…..Well, my time in Slovakia was coming to an end and I was due for a welcome three week break at home with my family. I arrived home and announced that I was writing a book. This was greeted with the odd ‘Hmm, okay dear’ and barely interested ‘right, cool’. I didn’t expect anything else.
I was far too busy to write for those weeks; catching up with the list of jobs that needed to be done around...
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Peace and quiet…..
….The rest of the weekend was spent in undisturbed bliss. The weather was hot and sunny, so I spent Sunday and Monday up on the roof terrace making notes during the day, (I was one of very few people staying in the hotel who was capable of climbing stairs) and sitting at the bar typing in the evenings. All of the hotel’s other residents were across the river taking advantage of the hot springs and...
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The Long Weekend
The next few days were hectic and I had little time to myself. Two of the company big shots arrived from Vienna (that put paid to my evenings as I had to ensure they were adequately entertained) and I had to spend a tediously long day in Bratislava for a dreary and apparently pointless meeting.
The weekend arrived and I discovered that there would be a holiday on the following Monday. The plant...
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The first pages….
…..The next day was a busy one and I had little time to think on the previous nights events. When I returned to the hotel (about 7 pm) I went directly to the bar for a beer. They were cold for a change and the resident (and ever present) prostitutes had thoughtfully left me a place at the bar.
I ordered a beer and set up my laptop. I had to write something, but it was difficult to know where...
The View Through the Window!
Hi Steve,
I’m most impressed the way you captured the the details of your surroundings, it was easy to picture you vision, and the humor along with it. It reminds me of our travels. and the many episodes of fun we shared with Willie, and when PIT were all together. I suggest that through your travels you could capture many of what you interpreted in your own indulgent manner, I for one,...
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Odd, but somehow profound…
When I went to bed that night, I couldn’t get the thoughts of that scene out of my mind. I was looking out at a vista that had no doubt been repeated a million times over eons. My observation of the scene had been but for a few minutes, and I had thought it magnificent. There was a thought at the back of my mind that would not let go, but I couldn’t give it substance.
Then, as I was dozing off, it...
Author Website →
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The view through the window….
…..The hotel was habitable….just. I had been there for three days and there were few other guests, until on the third evening, a convoy of buses turned up. These buses decanted a host of people of, I believe, German origin. They were unceremoniously herded from the reception area, through the bar, (where I was sitting with my warm Slovakian beer), to the restaurant where they were systematically...
Steve Jones Snr Facebook Fan page →
Who am I? ......well ....
I was born in the North West of England in 1955 and managed to survive in this fickle and bewildering world for 47 years before any thought of writing anything, let alone a novel, entered my confused and (I think) rather odd mind.
From when I was a child, my teachers said that I had a very vivid imagination. On reflection, this was likely a compliment, but I didn’t take it that way. Teachers back...
