Toby Farrier - Update.

I have been going over the draft of my first manuscript and fixing many of the punctuation and plot errors before I look at attempting a structural edit. I should have this second draft completed by the end of the week and I am looking fro five volunteers to offer an opinion on the story.

I have aimed the story at the same age group who read Harry Potter. This is a contemporary story set in modern Melbourne. Middle school kids are on a quest to unravel the mysteries hidden in documents Toby has found in an old desk. An evil professor stands between them and the key to the mystery. Will Toby and his friends prevail, or will the evil professor toss them into the lost underground strongroom.

If you are interested please leave me a message or comment. Thank you.

Fascio Scapulo Humeral Muscular Dystrophy

F.S.H.D. 

I have a little illness

And it knocks me about you see

I find it just a bit harder now

That I have this F.S.H.D.

Four little letters to tell me why

My shoulders droop

My calves are sore

And my smile is all awry

Purse you lips she said to me

And I tried the best I could

Now can you whistle

I puffed my cheeks

And pursed my lips

And blew quite hard you see

There you go your symptoms show

You have F.S.H.M.D.

A diagnosis I had at last

But, it sounded like a whistle to me

I love the sound those letters make

And I often wonder why

Of this grand lottery that I would win

When cash seems to me a better prize

My legs feel like lead all day

My neck and shoulders too

It took a while to diagnose

It grinds away my energy

And saps at my strength too

It’s fair to say that F.S.H.M.D.

Is not a gift I’d want for you.

Today you’ll see me leaning on a stick

Soon a walker for my need

And then a chair with two big wheels

Cause I’ll need them for speed

Till then I have to some things to say

While my mind’s still strong

I’ll share with you a story or a song

I have a little illness

And it knocks me about you see

I find it just a bit harder now

That I have this F.S.H.M.D.

https://www.facebook.com/musculardystrophyUK/videos/10153835179423692/

WHAT A MESS

During one of our Wordsmiths of Melton, workshops. Our facilitator, Beverley Eikli asked us to write up to ten lines beginning with, what a mess. It didn't have to be a poem or anything specific but the words just sang to me and I heard a rhythm to them.

 

This is my effort. 

 

What a mess I’ve made of life

Gone my home, my kids, my wife

At twenty three I found the booze

So much to win I could not lose

Came the cards and pokies too

I put an end to me and you

Oh what a mess I’ve made of life

No house no car no loving wife

My kids they have no time for me

I stand here now, old at forty three

I know that I could lick the booze

There is nothing left for me to lose

Banned from clubs for counting cards

I ache to here our children in the yard

Oh what a mess I’ve made of life

No home no kids no loving wife

 

I wander to my squat alone

Nobody here to share my home

I brought this sadness down on me

A foolish man who would not see

The damage selfish acts would do

It brought an end to me and you

 

Oh what a mess I’ve made of life

No hope no home no loving wife.

Minnie

Andy has a picture, right there on her phone

A dog sits in a pusher, with her muzzle going grey

And in the morning sun it warms her

She wriggles round and wants the pain to go away

Minnie has a bit of trouble; it’s arthritis in her hip

So Pop and Nan her owners, spent ten dollars

And got a pusher from the tip

Now when they go walking, Minnie’s riding up the front

She’s looking at the traffic watching people in their cars

And town kids stop to pat her and their mothers like to chat

Minnie she just sits there, like she’s waiting for the stars 

Sometimes when she’s sleeping she’ll bark

Chasing rabbits in her dream, working sheep or moving cattle

Down the paddock cross the road and through the stream

Pop drops down his hand, and rubs her head

They watch a bit of footy, and he takes her out to bed 

She’s been a close companion right down through her years

Listened to their troubles listened to their fears.

Minnie has a bit of strife now; it’s arthritis in her hip

So Rod and Gwen her owners, spent ten dollars

And bought her a pusher from the Swan Hill tip

Terry L Probert: Stories in progress

Terry L Probert: Stories in progress: It is halfway through May already and I need to take stock of the things I am working on at the moment. Like a lot of writers if I'm hav...

Stories in progress

It is halfway through May already and I need to take stock of the things I am working on at the moment. Like a lot of writers if I'm having trouble getting past a problem with one story, I begin writing another. It may start with the question, why am I blocked and then develop into another short story or a poem. Therefore my hard drive is full of unfinished work. I have made a list below as a reminder to me to  'ged-on-wid-it'.

Take a look at these and feel free to crack the whip on me to finish the ones you like the sound of. Anything I have given a percentage to is in second draft or more.

Novels:

• Toby Farrier:
• Manuscript completed and requires editing.
• Find a mainstream publisher
• Les Gillespie's Gold (2nd book in Kundela series)
• 30% written need to get past the couples engagement dilemma
• get Joe and Laura to England and into conflict.
• Rhino Horne
• Story concept complete
• Chapter outlines 20% complete
• Cast of characters 20% complete
• Character Profiles to do
• Wurrugi the Warrior Without Ears:
• Requires complete rewrite and dividing into a series of childrens' stories.

Memoirs:

• Letters to my Children
• Four chapters drafted
• Set out book segments
• Select photos to begin each story/chapter

Anthology of Short Stories and Poems:

This will be a book to show the development of my story ideas and a project to support my novel writing. I work on improving these stories whenever my mind is away from the novel I am writing.

• The canoe:
• 90 % complete
• Banib the Bunyip: (Runner up in the 2013 City of Melton Short Story Competition)
• Rewrite to tighten it for the reader.
• Honey Hush:
• 50% complete
• Feral Utes and Borrowed Boots:
• 90% complete, requires a final edit.
• Al Zheimer's Christmas:
• Good little story for the memoirs, but requires more editing.
• Heading Home:
• 60% Needs a rewrite.
• The American
• First draft of a Kundela themed short story.
• Zombies
• Almost ready for printing, needs a final edit.
• Stinky Jones
• In first draft form. Children's story
• How Zach made a difference
• Almost ready for printing, needs a final edit.

Anthology:

• Stories of Australia's Agricultural Sales and Service People.
• Begin collecting photos to support info on the AgList Blog.
• More stories required, may have to do personal interviews to get enough data.

Self Help Books:

• So You Want to Sell Tractors
• Training manual needs converting into a readable format directed at sales people.
• Business Planning Workbook
• Rewrite and formatting required.

Peaches Pengelly - Super Hero

Having finished one children’s manuscript it is now time to plan another. For Toby Farrier I used a bus to get my story started. In this case I’ll use the food court of a shopping centre. I’ll pretend to conduct interviews with likely characters and cast them into the plot.

This story will be a crime mystery and the protagonist I need is a girl who is about fourteen. I am working on a few names but I like, Peaches Pengelly. Frumpy in her appearance and shy, even with the people she knows. Peaches is invisible. She is awkward around boys. Now I need a title, and a plot.

I read Elizabeth George’s book about writing recently and became captured by the method she uses to develop her characters. Subscribing to often quoted phrase that character builds plot, I will construct a setting in which I meet and interview Peaches for the role.

I like my character’s name now having typed and said it aloud a few times, so stay tuned as I develop her story. I am not big into fantasy or historical sagas, so in the planning stage the story will be contemporary and set in an industrial city ravaged by crime.

The things I need in the plot:

·         A crime/murder/kidnapping or all of them that only Peaches can solve.

·         A sidekick every hero needs a sidekick and this one should be reluctant. Possibly a boy with issues.

·         An arch enemy or apocalyptic event. Either will work for me.

·         Her superpowers come from her ability to think and problem solve.

Well there is a start.

I will begin my character interviews in the food court of a shopping centre near you soon.