Fiction

I’ve started experimenting writing fiction stories based on travel experiences I’ve had and observations I have made. ‘Bailey’, which can be found under the fiction button, is based on experiences in Vanuatu, the Yukon and the River Orwell near Ipswich. 

Henry is based on a person I noticed when I visited a pub. His air of self-absorption seemed beautifully mirrored by the gathering gloom over the river so I put the two together. Most of the interesting characters there have a dog. Henry didn’t so I decided to give him one. Who was he, why was he melancholy? I transferred the fire he was sitting by to his own home. The log on the grate brought to mind a visit to a volcano. I was going to incorporate personal memories so tried to incorporate Vanuatu. I struggled to find a story line but then Maria appeared. She has remained very much a mystery ghost figure so I described the boat as ghostly to reflect her character. I decided to use flashbacks to tell the story making the actual time span of the writing little more than half an hour, the action starting very much towards the end of the story.

 

Henry’s trip to the wilderness is based on a personal journey. I read about Sheslay Mike before I went to the Yukon and we stumbled across the shack with his initials in by accident. As Sheslay Mike had gradually declined into paranoia I felt this could really happen. For more information for anyone interested in learning more about the Shelsay Mike story see  http://primarysources.newsvine.com/-news/2007/10/08/1009507-manhunt-in-the-north-on-the-tril-of-a-cop-killer