Strangled up in blue - BBF#40

Stockholm’s Triangle Bar, on the eve of the Baltic Triangle, a yacht race to Helsinki via Riga run in never-ending daylight.

Surveying the crowd Georgia Simmond knew this year’s event contained more than the usual number of triangles, but not that it would end in tragedy.   Her affair with Erlend Olofson had begun in the dark depths of winter, after learning of her errant spouse’s affair with her one-time best friend Ingrid Borgsdottir.   Ingrid’s motives had been ulterior, her intention being to distract and thus sabotage Toby’s chances, but her husband’s affair with the wife of Finnish champion Per Alstrand divided her loyalties.

When, at Riga, midway through the race, the nubile body of Anita, Per’s teenage daughter was discovered, strangled, in an alley, at the same time as members from the British, the American and the Danish crews disappeared, questions were asked about more than basic navigation. 

[189 words]

Week #40’s response to Lisa Ricard Claro’s Book Blurb Friday challenge which, having provided the photograph and having finished NaNo (though not the book) I could not resist.  But for evidence that I could not have started this year’s NaNo without BBF see my blogpost from last Wednesady.

Each week Lisa posts a photograph which represents a book cover.   Participants are challenged to “Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book”  

Book Blurb Friday - truly inspirational!

I made no secret of the fact that my NaNo novel was kick-started by a response to Lisa Ricard Claro's Book Blurb Friday over on Writing in the Buff but I have just checked and as well as #16 ('Not wanted on voyage') I have included characters from #4 ('Thickness of thieves' where Luke Darbyshere and Francesca Lloyd made their first appearance), #5 ('Smile now darling, just for me' which has photographer Davey and the shivering model Fay) and #9 ('Seeing double', Rose Madigan's first appearance).   BBF #13 ('Angels fall') has more Luke and Francesca and there is also a nod back to #15 ('Parts others cannot reach').
I can thoroughly recommend the challenge as an inspiration for plots - and I shall be making an effort with this week's because Lisa is using one of my photos.
And congratulations to Lisa who has reached her NaNo total, despite having been 20,000 words behind schedule at one point.

Day 29 NaNo - 77713 - and verified

In panic mode I have put in all the notes I have made re the endings and the whole thing into one document, and hastily written a final paragraph which tells the ending completely without elegance or subtlety.  And this is the total for NaNo purposes.   But it is a LONG way from finished.   And NaNo have marked my total up by a bit too.

Day 28 NaNo - 72067

Not so much new stuff created today as already-written snippets slotted into place thus enabling them to be counted.

Day 27 NaNo - 70797

Working towards the finale ... and tidying up the anomalies!

Day 26 NaNo - 69698

850 words from today's total were the sort that makes writing so satisfactory:  having had a note in my text, saying "sort confrontation with Peter Walpole" for over a week, which I had found impossible to make progress on, suddenly this morning it all came good and ideas tumbled out.   That and a less-than-enthralling arrest mean that nearly all the loose ends should be tied by next Wednesday ... fingers crossed.

Day 25 NaNo - 67179

Another solid day's typing and a couple of satisfactory long passages which make more sense of the rest.   Thus I believe I will have the bare bones of the story in place by the end of the month while knowing that they are inadequately fleshed.   A mixed sort of satisfaction, partly because I have done better than I expected at putting some of the plot elements in place - at concealing and then revealing, and at explaining - but as so often happens, having reached one rung up the next beckons.   My hope is that I can maintain momentum to get the thing finished properly.

Day 24 NaNo - 64157

Pessimism and the art of patchwork novel writing
I began with lots of brand new, brightly patterned and totally separate oddments of characters, and gaily stitched them all together.   Quite soon I found that they were mis-matched for size, some paired into a nice tidy square and were complete, while others needed a whole new piece or two before they were a section.
And then I found that although while separate they were OK, all the pieces could not be simply stitched together, just as they were, to make a pleasingly-patterned whole, they needed to be cut and cut again and reassembled so that equal weight was more or less assigned to all.   And in between each one I needed to insert a piece of plain to sometimes add contrast but also to unite.
And now it's sort of almost done, except that I have omitted almost one whole column and two halves of other rows, and the contrast/uniting pieces are inadequate, in places.    And today I wondered whether or not I really wanted such a mish-mash of a piece at all?

Day 23 NaNo - 62209

It's been a head down slogging sort of day, progress made, reasonably happily but rarely singing.   Time for that on the next draft I think.
Last year I finished on the 22nd with 61917 words, this year there is lot more to do yet.