Once more my friends...

Yes, Yes...why haven't I written, why haven't I called....

I'll use the tried and try "researching" as my excuse and point out that all good things come to those who wait...whatever that may mean.

But it's true, I hane been researching, both for my writing and for my own resaons. For the writing, I've been doing the hard spade work on Who killed Reggie Plowski? The original idea was simple enough - a man celebrating his birthday remembers the death of a school friend twenty five years before and begins to dwell on it. It was only meant to be a snippett, a momentary indulgence but 500 words became 1000, became 200 and suddenly I realised that I did not know what the story was about or why I was writing it. Of course, looking at it from a distance I understood it was a strangely twisted 'mid-life-crisis' story.

They do say you should write what you know....

So now it's becoming a full length story, and fortuately for me, out of the blue, the whole story came to me and made sense in a pleasenly surprising/disturbing manner. Apart from one 'ugly' scene it has very little blood, gore or splatter, but it's one of those chills-in-the-bones, hug-someone-you-love type of story.

Fear puts alot into perspective.

In other news, The Cat called Follow Me - my all time favorite short story - has proven itself once more. It's been picked up by the wonderful guys at Sex and Murder in the USA and appears in the current edition, Volume 1, Isuue 20, October 2011. If you've missed it before, give it a read this time because it's now been published 4 times, on both sides of the Pacific, and it might just be it's last outing (for a while).

On the personal reseach, I've been doing my family's history for a while now, you know that 'Where do I come from?' routine that's popular and have just found the elusive missing link. ( I'm 90% sure anyway). Now, I know it's not that exciting to hear about other people's families, but stay with me. I'll keep it short and there really is a point.

I found a newspaper article from the 1950's which states my ancestors had, at that stage, been farming the same farm for 445 YEARS!!

Short of trying to trace myself back to Rome, I think I have fairly well found where I came from.

And yet I don't feel 'complete'...I don't feel the journey is over. I don't feel satisfied.

And that's my point. Who we are may have been influenced by alot of things from the past, but really, who we are is also about who we are now and who we will be.

The journey continues.

By the way, my cousin, Craig Greenhill, the photographer, has been again nominated for both the WALKLEY and NEWS Awards. Check out his site, Saltwaterimages, to see some of his brillant work, or just catch him in The Daily Telegraph.

Well, as all good thing come in small packages ( whatever that means) I'll get going...

And I haven't forgotten those hanging on the edge of their seats for another life lesson through the magic art of debt collecting. I'll do another post soon on perhaps some of the most important lessons I learnt.

Cheers
Anyway,