Chapter Six – Nick trespasses

Nick presses on with his camera at hand to snap landscapes and wildlife. He gets carried away by the availability of wonderful photography and he barely notices as the sky whitens and then snow starts to fall. He feels that he is losing his geographical bearings....and he comes face-to-face with a gamekeeper (Herman and his dog Blackie) with attitude and a gun.

Nick is told in stark terms that he is trespassing and he is directed home along the barrel of a shotgun. Nick trudges home as the snow begins to settle and fall more heavily.

As he reaches home, snowcovered and bedraggled, Nick meets Hughesy the postman who reveals the identity of Herman – gamekeeper to Marcus Moriarty, the local bigwig!

4 pages : 1070 words

A cast of characters

After last week’s efforts and with the young Refugees back at school, today is the beginning of the second stage of the novel.

A leisurely day it turned out - I looked again at my 7 sides of concertina paper – much scrawled in pencil and red pen – and felt good about what I’ve done so far. Then, I started using my new Murphy-headed Exercise Book. On the first page I wrote out the 15 Chapter headings. Page 2 has a list of characters and 2-line sketches of each of them: the list includes a retired reverend, a know-it-all family, an elderly widow with cats, an emotional vet(!?), a goth postman, a local squire/landowner and 3 generations of a family of farmers....none of which may finally end up on the page.

Now, for a fresh sheaf of concertina paper and the REAL plotting will begin.