Argh!
I did briefly think of a person boarding in a house but then I thought PIRATES! Argh!
Synopsis
Geoffrey is a retired banker and happily married man. He has retired at an early age of fifty three and with his forty year old wife, he sets out to sail to Australia. But as they round the ivory coast they are kidnapped by pirates, but not the old fashioned pirates you see in the movies. These men are in it for the money. They travel around the African coast, moving Geoffrey and his wife around, sometimes separately and milking them for all the money they can get. Finally they are able to escape but what follows is a flight across a desert landscape with the pirates close on their tail.
Logline
An adventure is what Geoffrey had promised her but when his wife finds herself in a modern day pirate adventure all she can hope is that she will come out of it alive.
Stakeout is the title of a favorite movie in our house. But that doesn’t help for a logline… If I change it around… I’m thinking as I type here so how about this:
Synopsis:
It started with a rose on Valentines day. Lucy came home to find it sitting on her porch. She assumed that a friend had left it and that she had forgotten to lock the porch door. The next day there were two roses and it continued until she was being left a dozen at a time. Flattered at first the feeling turned to horror when she came home to find a white rose on her bed. The next day another white rose, except this one had been dipped in blood.
The police, already aware of her problem, said there was nothing that could be done unless the person threatened her. They couldn’t even trace her stalker. So Lucy took matters into her own hands and staked out her own house. She is shocked when the man who stops at her house is the same she says hello to and buys her paper from. She then follows him, turning the tables on her stalker as she goes from prey to predator in order to get her safety back.
Logline:
Lucy walks to work everyday and buys a paper at the local street seller. When roses start to appear at her house she has no idea that she is about to take a journey that will lead her into danger as well as empowering her.
I did my research for this. What is a chalice? It can be a goblet, mug, cup… anything that holds something. In ‘Indiana Jones and the last Crusade’ is was wood (the gold and silver ones being the ‘bad’ chalices), and in the ‘Da Vinci Code’ it is was a woman (sorry if you haven’t read it and oops – spoiler).
But the chalices I am interested in are old – really old, archaeological old. I went to Ireland with my university when I was studying for my BA (in archaeology) and I got to see the ‘treasures of Ireland’. Amazing. I have never seen as much gold in one place – ever. So this is a story of a chalice:
Ardagh Chalice, c. 800-899 AD, silver, silver gilt, enamel..
Found in 1847 by a small boy digging for potatoes
Synopsis
In Ardagh, county Limerick two boys, Jim Quinn and Paddy Flanagan, find a stone while digging for potatoes. It is flat and looks like the kind that tops stone walls of the big estate. They lift it and underneath glints metal. Slowly they pull out a chalice and realise their dreams could come true. But as the word spreads about the discovery the boys see the gold getting further away from their hands and their families. Perhaps the treasure comes with a curse, one that Jim and Paddy think they might experience.
Logline
Jim and Paddy are digging in a field to find potatoes when they see a stone and when they lift it they see a flash of gold. They pull the treasure from the ground and believe their dreams are about to come true but there is a curse attached and that might lead to a nightmare.
Biking… Well there are many different types; mountain, racing, trick and then of course there is the motorbike which I could stretch the word to include. But I think I’ll stick to the mountain bike…
Synopsis
Michael is sixteen and his birthday gift is a bike. You would have thought this a funny gift for a child who ought to have been riding a bike for years, but he has never had his own. One of eight kids he is the youngest and the last, so when he is given a brand new mountain bike he immediately gets on it and cycles off. He never thinks that he won’t see his family again, he just throws a wave and is gone.
He cycles for a couple of miles and is about to turn back when he loses consciousness. Everyone loses consciousness. In the town people just drop. Airplanes fall from the sky and cars drive off the road. On the grass verge Michael lies unmoving as a car comes within inches of running him over.
When he finally comes round he finds that most people are dead, either from a fire or accident or something else. The bodies have no marks yet they are dead. Micheal goes back home to find out what has happened but as he cycles in he finds himself the only one left. Now he must find out what has happened and if it has affected the whole world or just his home.
Logline
Michael’s sixteenth birthday arrives and he gets a new bike, but when he cycles away he says goodbye to his family for the last time. He survives the disaster but now must survive the aftermath and find out if anyone else is still alive.
I write in two different ways and I am confused as to whether to pursue one or the other, or both. This blog is my serious side but I also write for children and am in the process of being published. I am also thinking of a series of middle grade books based in Wales.
But there is also the work I do for university which is where my horror / crime side comes out.
I have been advised to pick a genre and write about it exclusively for about three to four years… Except that I want to write both. I thought about using a different name…
But I like my own and I don’t want to confuse anyone.
So there is now way round it – I’m going to have to write both at the same time. Still I am concerned and a little confused about it. All I can do is what come naturally and try to write what I want.
So this means that there is now a horror / thriller / crime novel on the go…
And a child’s middle grade book.
Wish me luck – I have a feeling that I’m going to be busy…!
Difficult. I thought maybe a “Black Marble” with cats but in the end I decided to make up this one. It is the true(ish) story that I put together after a kitten was dumped in our veg patch.
Synopsis
The people all stand and look down at the cat. She has a collection of kittens. All of them are perfect little red Bengal kittens, except one. On this kitten the black tip to the tail is missing, instead it is white.
“You know we took a risk,” one says.
The other sneers and plucks the tiny four week old kitten from the mother. The mother cat watches it go, knowing she will never see the baby again. The owners of the breeding cattery have bred their pedigree cat with a ginger tom in order to get the unusual red colour but this cat is not needed. Handing it to the newest employee, a young man of seventeen, the owner says, “Get rid of it.”
“How?” asks the young man.
The owner just drags a grime ridden finger across his throat. The young man looks at the kitten, it appears to be a normal ginger tom, and then goes to his car. He pops the kitten inside.
On the way home he throws the kitten out.
Logline
Pi, a four week old ginger kitten, doesn’t understand but he is taken from his mother and thrown from a speeding car. He must find a home before he becomes a meal for a fox. If only he could trust people.
This is an idea I have been playing around with for a child / young adult book, so…
Synopsis
Francine was born into a silent world. She is completely deaf but unlike others she is never fitted with any hearing device. She lives in a house where she is hidden away, her parents ashamed of their deformed daughter. Not only is she deaf but she has no ears at all. Francine knows she is different and she knows that her ears are not there, so she grows her hair long. By the time social services find her she is ten and her hair sweeps the floor and is so blonde it looks white. Slowly they introduce her to sound through vibration but they are shocked when she first sings. Francine has perfect pitch and by ‘listening’ to the vibrations through her bare feet she can sing notes. Now she must learn to speak and understand what is being said to her. In the home she meets two friends, together they help Francine, but her parents are out to recapture their child and the prospect that she might become a well-known singer fills them with dread.
Francine must keep ahead of her parents and cope with her new life. Throughout it all she sings and those that here her find themselves entranced.
Logline
Francine is born deaf and hidden away, escaping she hears her first music by feeling vibrations. Copying them she sings and suddenly she is thrust into fame, but her parents are determined to find her and silence her.
