It's been a while since posting my last blog. Moving house, settling in and all the adventures that go with becoming familiar with a new town and new friends. Not to mention having to deal with an erratic climate. More cold than hot. Not to my liking as any respecting tropical fish needs to criticize. Nevertheless, the universe has sent me here for what ever purpose or learning experience. So I'll just bite the bullet and move along with life.
My new novel to be released at the end of the year is coming along smoothly. Alex Hunter, the no fuss private detective has entered the labyrinth, met an ancient man who holds his own secrets close and is about to face the daemon sent to earth every three hundred years to cause havoc on humanity. But no spoilers here. This is a fast paced thriller that offers the reader a sense of psychological torture when another twist turns the tide and leads the reader to search for answers and the answers are nothing one expects. I'm having a lot of fun writing this novel because not even I know what is coming next. The characters have taken over and are telling their own story.
Here is a little excerpt from one of the chapters:
Harrison held up the glass jar and observed his latest science subject. A large green praying mantis. After discovering this magnificent specimen crawling up the porch handrail yesterday morning he had happily trapped it inside his observatory. The mantis was the mother lode of super interesting crawlers. Never before had he seen such an amazingly creepy creature.
The praying mantis now confined in an inescapable glass prison, cleaved to a single small branch Harrison had placed in there. The jar was a cold and airless penitentiary. A prison where the insect would never leave alive and it now swung from side to side while its extra-terrestrial arms reached out; each arm a green twitching stem, moving anxiously backward and forward while feeling the glass barriers exploring its borders and looking for a means of escape. What the mantis thought of the giant jailer with big green eyes who stared at it from the outside. No one can ever know.
On the bottom of the jar inside with the mantis was a small black beetle. Harrison had put the beetle in the jar as food for his captive and he waited patiently to see this fascinating green alien insect eat the other. So far nothing had happened.
In times to come Harrison would never remember what had distracted his attention from the jar and its trapped occupants. In fact he would never remember much about those few years of normal consciousness because a moment later he was gone. He’d left the jar on the top step of the porch and wandered off into the garden. Barefoot and still in his pyjamas; Harrison unconsciously followed a path towards the forest. His last warning thought came in a voice that belonged to his father who said. “Never go into the forest alone.” Still the big red object he had spied through his glass jar and hidden amongst the trees was too irresistible and interesting not to go look.
After a pleasant journey through the soft green grass he reached the border of the forest and by this time he had already determined it was a red door in amongst the trees where it didn’t appear to be attached to anything. Harrison’s mesmerised five year old eyes watched as the door began to slowly open and filtering from its dark depths Harrison heard the sound of children’s laughter; then as they faded into distant echoes, a single child’s voice rose out of the dark and spoke to him. “Come in here Harrison. Come and play with us.” Harrison smiled and without any hesitation began running towards the door. But the closer he got the further the door seemed to recede. The faster he ran the further the door moved away and after a time Harrison, momentarily confused, stopped running.
At his indecision another thought arrested his mind and again it was his father’s voice. This time it was panicked. “Harrison Stop!” So close and so real was his father’s warning that Harrison turned back and looked at the path he had just travelled entirely expecting to see his father standing behind him frowning. But even after scanning the entire surrounding forest he could see no one and soon realised he was now alone and lost deep in the forbidden forest. The home garden was no longer visible so he stood for long moments torn between retracing his steps or moving forward when once again the child’s voice cooed. “Harrison come and play with us.” and in the innocence of a child’s curiosity. Harrison moved towards the red door where this time it remained stationary, open and inviting. As Harrison approached… it opened wider. Once again he heard children’s laughter and behind, mingled with their voices was a song.
Ring a ring o`roses,
a pocket full of posies,
a-tishoo! a-tishoo!
We all fall down
Harrison, soon found himself standing on the threshold and forgetting his father’s warnings leaned headfirst inside the doorway. Bathed in some other worldly twilight he saw a single stone spiral staircase that travelled downwards into a red fiery glow and beyond that - pitch dark. From somewhere down the bottom of the stairs another voice filtered up. “Come on Harrison, hurry, come and play.” Without any further hesitation he stepped inside the door and moved to the top step, here he paused. Far below a small ball of light appeared floating just above the stairs. Harrison watched in quiet awe as its illumined glow travelled up towards him. Its journey lit the stone walls surrounding the stairwell and Harrison now saw other doors set into the wall at different intervals.
The soothing light swept away all Harrison’s uncertainty. He was fascinated. All his attention directed on the light and as he took the first step down the door above him closed sharply. He looked back only to see it had disappeared leaving no trace of its existence, it was now gone. He knew at once he had nowhere else to go but down. Still at this point he was not afraid and began his decent, taking one slow step at a time.
My new novel to be released at the end of the year is coming along smoothly. Alex Hunter, the no fuss private detective has entered the labyrinth, met an ancient man who holds his own secrets close and is about to face the daemon sent to earth every three hundred years to cause havoc on humanity. But no spoilers here. This is a fast paced thriller that offers the reader a sense of psychological torture when another twist turns the tide and leads the reader to search for answers and the answers are nothing one expects. I'm having a lot of fun writing this novel because not even I know what is coming next. The characters have taken over and are telling their own story.
Here is a little excerpt from one of the chapters:
Harrison held up the glass jar and observed his latest science subject. A large green praying mantis. After discovering this magnificent specimen crawling up the porch handrail yesterday morning he had happily trapped it inside his observatory. The mantis was the mother lode of super interesting crawlers. Never before had he seen such an amazingly creepy creature.
The praying mantis now confined in an inescapable glass prison, cleaved to a single small branch Harrison had placed in there. The jar was a cold and airless penitentiary. A prison where the insect would never leave alive and it now swung from side to side while its extra-terrestrial arms reached out; each arm a green twitching stem, moving anxiously backward and forward while feeling the glass barriers exploring its borders and looking for a means of escape. What the mantis thought of the giant jailer with big green eyes who stared at it from the outside. No one can ever know.
On the bottom of the jar inside with the mantis was a small black beetle. Harrison had put the beetle in the jar as food for his captive and he waited patiently to see this fascinating green alien insect eat the other. So far nothing had happened.
In times to come Harrison would never remember what had distracted his attention from the jar and its trapped occupants. In fact he would never remember much about those few years of normal consciousness because a moment later he was gone. He’d left the jar on the top step of the porch and wandered off into the garden. Barefoot and still in his pyjamas; Harrison unconsciously followed a path towards the forest. His last warning thought came in a voice that belonged to his father who said. “Never go into the forest alone.” Still the big red object he had spied through his glass jar and hidden amongst the trees was too irresistible and interesting not to go look.
After a pleasant journey through the soft green grass he reached the border of the forest and by this time he had already determined it was a red door in amongst the trees where it didn’t appear to be attached to anything. Harrison’s mesmerised five year old eyes watched as the door began to slowly open and filtering from its dark depths Harrison heard the sound of children’s laughter; then as they faded into distant echoes, a single child’s voice rose out of the dark and spoke to him. “Come in here Harrison. Come and play with us.” Harrison smiled and without any hesitation began running towards the door. But the closer he got the further the door seemed to recede. The faster he ran the further the door moved away and after a time Harrison, momentarily confused, stopped running.
At his indecision another thought arrested his mind and again it was his father’s voice. This time it was panicked. “Harrison Stop!” So close and so real was his father’s warning that Harrison turned back and looked at the path he had just travelled entirely expecting to see his father standing behind him frowning. But even after scanning the entire surrounding forest he could see no one and soon realised he was now alone and lost deep in the forbidden forest. The home garden was no longer visible so he stood for long moments torn between retracing his steps or moving forward when once again the child’s voice cooed. “Harrison come and play with us.” and in the innocence of a child’s curiosity. Harrison moved towards the red door where this time it remained stationary, open and inviting. As Harrison approached… it opened wider. Once again he heard children’s laughter and behind, mingled with their voices was a song.
Ring a ring o`roses,
a pocket full of posies,
a-tishoo! a-tishoo!
We all fall down
Harrison, soon found himself standing on the threshold and forgetting his father’s warnings leaned headfirst inside the doorway. Bathed in some other worldly twilight he saw a single stone spiral staircase that travelled downwards into a red fiery glow and beyond that - pitch dark. From somewhere down the bottom of the stairs another voice filtered up. “Come on Harrison, hurry, come and play.” Without any further hesitation he stepped inside the door and moved to the top step, here he paused. Far below a small ball of light appeared floating just above the stairs. Harrison watched in quiet awe as its illumined glow travelled up towards him. Its journey lit the stone walls surrounding the stairwell and Harrison now saw other doors set into the wall at different intervals.
The soothing light swept away all Harrison’s uncertainty. He was fascinated. All his attention directed on the light and as he took the first step down the door above him closed sharply. He looked back only to see it had disappeared leaving no trace of its existence, it was now gone. He knew at once he had nowhere else to go but down. Still at this point he was not afraid and began his decent, taking one slow step at a time.
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