Writing, Story Tellling & Things That Go Bump In The Night

A Story With a Difference:

Writing is something strange, you either feel it or you don’t.  Personally for me it’s something that’s there and often the urge to write even if I’m not sure what is strong.  Thats how Drifting came into being.  I have a book of jottings where I write down ideas and this was one of them.

In the past I have written about people and their lives Stanley for example.  His story was one of crime, sex and how he and his mother survived during and after WW2.  Then there was Jason. Now his story woven into the British Navy of the 1700/1800’s was different. This was historically challenging, not the naval side but the social side of life then, which makes these books Adult books.

Then came young persons books Clearing in the Forest, Peaceful Land and I am currently working on the third book. These were from ideas written down in my little book.

But Drifting was something different, something with no social comment, or historical reference just a plain straight forward story, of happenings and the supernatural.  I entered a strange world of possibilities and did it or didn’t it happen, was it real or just imagination and the ending well….

So I have decided to write some short stories along these lines, where it will lead I don’t know, but there is one thing I am sure of I will not be delving into this realm.  The stories will come from all over woven around an idea, yes some will have a historical nature but they will be based on factual events, only the story will be fictional because you cannot ask the characters exactly how they came to be where they were.  My research into history and stories from the west country have given me a few ideas along this line.

So there is an awful lot to do and keep me busy for a long time. Such is writing.

 

(c) Jason D’ebre – author

 

 

 

 

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Remarks about Clearing

Kath Spreadbury I’m hooked now I will have to get it.

Linda Coombes Love this book such a great read 💖💖💖💖💖

CLEARING  IN  THE  FOREST  by JASON D’EBRE  –   Authors remarks:-

I wrote these books with the younger generation in mind, in the vain hope they would like reading about events in history whilst wrapped up in magic, witches, villains and good v evil.  Now a days everything seems to either whoosh bang wallop or killing, bloodshed, total destruction with NO proper story behind it.  Comic book films seem to be all directors can do these days.  Now I like certain films, the penguins, scooby doo, (the original films) and so forth. They are fun, relaxing and THEY HAVE A STORY RUNNING THROUGH THEM even tom and jerry have but they entertain and have more words than hey lookout etc.,

Writing is hard and those who pay others for ideas, or to ghost write for them are NOT real authors.  Stories come from within a person’s head, they feel part of the story as if the characters were telling them what came next, at least that’s how I fell about all my stories.  Sometimes I cannot sleep because there is a character in my head nagging me about something that either needs to be written or I have got it wrong and need to get it right before I forget. So then it’s up and laptop on writing, and usually the character is right.   I am not the only person who writes and experiences this so I am sure there are many of you who do.

Over the past few months when I have been busy repairing and installing security stuff in and house, I have not been writing.  So when at last everything was done and I finally sat down to write again, imagine how I felt the other night when I had this voice saying you should get this down now this is what happened, not whats written get it put right now before the others have a chance to interfere….. So there I was at diddly squat hours pounding away on the laptop and do you know that character was right.  Once I had typed everything then read it corrected, refined, checked research then read again it all made sense.  I have tried having a pen and paper by the bed but I find if I wake I am sitting there for hours writing so it’s just as easy to sit at my laptop.  I have a plug for charging and a lap cushion for the laptop, but it is easier to sit at my desk….

(c) Jason D’ebre – author

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Drifting – A Ghost Story??? or……

Drifting a short story by Jason D’ebre

I often have lots of ideas running around my head which end up in my note book for future reference or on my laptop in note form.

So with my short story Drifting it was the same. Al  (the sheriff) would not let me rest until I had written it. As he would say “once I’ve told you the story and you have written it down then I will leave you in peace”, so after a few restless nights sleep I got writing.

Now this book is different in that This is a western with a twist no shoot em, kill em blood and gore stuff like some, but a story with a theme running through it. Yes there is action, yes people get killed and the sheriff is Al but it’s what happens to him and a boy’s family that makes this very different from other cowboy stories.

The desert is a place where things either live or die or…….

 

(c) Jason D’ebre  Author

 

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Ghost Story and Wild Boar

My New Book 

This is my new book Drifting. It’s a cowboy short story which ventures into the unknown. Often things come to me when I am researching or reading other things this was such a time. It is not my normal style or subject, plus ghost stories are quite difficult to write and this was no exception.  As usual you start with an idea then build on it only now you have to remember the ghost, how it came to be and in some cases not reveal this until later in the book, whilst all the time including it in there.  Write and re-write came into this, as I would sometimes forget this rule, but I got there in the end and it has had some good responses – albeit the cover I first put out was the wrong one. As usual it’s on Kindle and Create Space as well as Books2Read.

The Wallow Hole

 

Remember these jokers? They who dug up my bulbs and ate all my saffron bulbs in the process. Well they have decided to make a wallow hole on the lower terrace.  Finding a good place for the camera was a little difficult as the tree has been pruned and the good branches for positioning the cameras have gone.  So I called Spurs into action but the position of the dish was wrong however the pump is just right and providing they don’t come poking around the photos are not bad.

After a windy night I have had to find another position for the camera but at least I have these shots of the little so and so’s. First is the wallow hole in daylight to give you an idea of its position. They have made this originally it was a small – very small – little trench which provided run-off water for two fig trees. We should have known better as the boar decided to use they as rubbing sticks and eventually killed them off.  Then this appeared.

 

So to the pictures of  the little gits having a bath and generally enjoying themselves.

 

(c) Michael Douglas Bosc – Author

 

 

 

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News From The Forest 29

Then It Rained!!!!

Right now most of you who read the blogs will know, we have been bemoaning the fact that there has been very little rain this year, in fact as a local pointed out if the river wasn’t there this part of Cataluña would be a desert.   Well Monday it rained, yes it did  and how. It began in the morning with the sort of thing we have got used to, a sort of drizzle that can’t decide whether to go full on or bog off somewhere else.

We had been into town to get the shopping when it  began to get wet and windy, very windy. The drive home was interesting loads of twigs, leaves, rocks and stones on the road plus the odd tree by the river blown down.  When we got back we unloaded the car then parked it and we just had time to grab a few logs and get the generator going before it hit.  First the rain came down sideways as the wind was so strong, this led to a puddle on the bedroom floor under the closed (I might add) window it was that fierce.  Next it began to come in under the front door so the mop was in action, then Michael looked out the back. We are glad he did but at the time I wished he hadn’t, it was just like a river  flowing. It was so strong that it was literally flowing over the sumps of the cisterna, all that water gushing away then the generator began to splutter.  So with umbrellas up jackets on we were out as action was needed and quickly.

 

Firstly Michael had to sort out the flow channels to get rid of the huge puddle that had formed in front of the house and was in the process of washing the sand away and had made its way into the generator shed where water was steadily rising.   I held the umbrella whilst he pulled the weeds up that had grown in the  channel and also blocked the runoff drain. Once this was done a deluge of water began to either rush down the slope towards the track where it continued its down hill run towards the river.  The water that came out of the pipe onto the lower level would not have disgraced the effect of a water pump had we used one.

Next we tackled the shed. This was simple knock a hole in the back wall and the water came out with a little help from me and a broom.  Whilst I was getting the generator shed sorted Michael went and sorted out the sumps to the large cisterna.  Now this went on for around an hour and a half during which time the water from the roofs, gullies etc.,  filled the 5000ltr small cisterna, one of the 1000ltr cubes and 3/4’s of the large cisterna not to mention the wheelbarrow, buckets and sundry that were outside.  There aren’t any pictures as we were to busy getting rid of the water, but this morning the first saffron crocus appeared in the saffron patch in the garden, the ones in the field have also begun to arrive, says everything really.

This is not how the track looks now, it’s full of gullies where the water dug it out rocks and stones everywhere, what was once a fairly smooth track now exists.  The road into town was strewn with rocks and mini slides which had come down but these were the usual suspects,  the really worrying bit is on a bend where there are two trees with roots exposed and they are leaning a bit. We have no idea what the top end of the track is like but the town hall has been out having a look at things so must be bad.

(c) Michael Douglas Bosc

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News From The Forest 28

Introducing the Boys

Do not go ahhh they are not as sweet as they look but we love them.   I suppose I’d better start at the beginning.  There is a market in one of the little towns every Wednesday, and at the top of it is the pet stall.  Every time we went there Michael would stand and look at the birds. This time he went and looked at Bluebottle a couple of times muttering I really do like him, so I said if you want him buy him, which is how we came to go home with Bluebottle sitting in his cage in the front seat while Michael drove and I sat in the back.

At home he had the coffee table to sit on but as the week progressed he became quiet and a little uppity. So the next Wednesday we went back and bought Eccles – that’s right Bluebottle and Eccles!  Now as I have previously said, nothing we do goes exactly to plan and Eccles was no exception.  He was placed in a cardboard box with air holes quite secure so you can imagine how we felt when driving home he suddenly starts flying round the car – little devil had chewed his way out – so Michael pulled over and Eccles landed on his knee then sat on the dash-board which was how Michael was able to catch him. Once back in the box with my hand covering the hole he behaved, so the drive home was fairly quiet.  When we arrived home all we had to do was put him in the cage, easy….don’t you believe it.  Michael opened one of the cage doors held the box up against it and waited, and waited and well you get the picture and I know you’ve heard it before.

We are slowly learning about them and they are very different individuals. Bluebottle is both noisy and cuddly whereas Eccles is fairly quiet but also cuddly.  If one sits on a swing the other one sits on the same swing, so we got them one each waste of time they still sit on the same one.  They chase one another away from the seed trays, but when they think we are not watching they cuddle up together.   Night time is regulated by light, it gets dark they want to go to sleep, gets light and they want to get up and go outside.  We cover them with a blanket but I have to admit they love sport they will sit cuddled up on their mineral block and watch the tv. Michael thought they wanted to sleep and covered them over you should have heard them so that’s how we know they like tv.

During the day they are either outside hanging from the olive tree or in the fly free zone depending on the weather and wind.  The wild birds are interested in them and we have a Black Redstart that sits in the tree and shouts back.  You will probably hear a lot more about them as we go on, a trip to the Jardi Land is on the cards with ladders, bells etc., on the shopping list.

Talking of which must get the boys in as the winds getting up and they are swinging, stand by for shouting and squawking.  If either of them ever talk first words will be  SHUT UP!!!!

 

(c)  Michael Douglas Bosc

 

 

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Mis Libres En Espanol or Translating My Books

Tranquility

The above picture has nothing to do with my writing or translation of my books,  it is just a picture of somewhere I would love to be when the translating gets tough. Since the beginning of the year I have been busy translating my books into Spanish, not easy I can assure you. I have a professional translator package but bless its cotton socks it does not understand nor like London slang.  It therefore throws a wobbly and either ignores things – which is no problem – or completely changes everything.  Grrrrr!  But I have persevered with it and now have a few people who read the results and let me know where it does not make sense – and at first there was a fair bit of that.  Then its back to the machine notes in hand and off we go again.   It is at times like these that I am glad I have gone back to school to study Spanish plus my Professor gets a little light reading.

The Books

The first book I translated was An East-End Boy – Un Nino de Final Este. This was where the translator first got upset and changed things around. As it was pointed out to me it had taken a woman’s name and in translation altered it, thus turning her into a rapist, hey ho.   So it was back to the beginning and start again.  This time carefully checking things like Mr and Mrs making sure they were correct. It was amazing, ‘Trans’ would leave them unchanged then later in the book change them into the Spanish.  So it was read, check then read check again. Ask one of my readers to check it over then back to the beginning again. However, after all this it was done and is now out on Kindle.

My latest book for translation is A Perilous Future – Un Futuro Peligroso.  This was not too difficult as like most things after the first time you begin to get the hang of it. ‘Trans’ still threw a wobbly now and then but I was ready for most of them.  It didn’t stop me from wishing from time to time I was in that picture though, especially late at night.  Gradually we have come to an agreement, ‘Trans’ does the job I installed him to do, then I go through and correct everything I can, which in the last book was not much before passing to a reader. We then make any corrections necessary and finally we have a book for publication.  By the time you read this Un Futuro Peligroso will be out on Kindle.

I have since learnt to treat this programme with patience and understanding much as you would a child learning to read.  All in the hope that my next book will go even better.

(c)  Michael Douglas Bosc

 

 

 

 

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