Ray Daley's Blog, page 59

A free (unfinished) story; Welcome To Three Mile Island

The (unfinished) story that follows was hand written as an exercise to get me writing more often. It was started with no real idea in mind, no structure and no clue where it was going or how it was getting there. It was just an exercise in freeforming. I eventually abandoned it.

I’ve talked about ideas I’ve given up on before, I think this is the first time I’ve put one online for people to read.

I think the general idea was to have a person crash on the island and actually find part of it was okay to live on, possibly somewhere underground. People would be surprised when this person effected self-rescue having lived and survived on the island for over 6 months.

I never managed to finish it, but here it is for what it’s worth.

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Welcome To Three Mile Island

21/7/13

By Ray Daley

(Abandoned, eventually)

No-one ever went there. At least not deliberately.

Three Mile Island. So called for many reasons.

Like its historical namesake it too was stained with nuclear waste. Every power, super or otherwise had performed nuclear tests there. Sanctioned or not, they happened, almost daily at the height of its infamy. The rest of the world was helpless to prevent it.

How could you throw stones when you already lived inside a glass house?

Instead, people looked the other way. Mainly because it’s a really bad idea to look directly at a nuclear detonation.

That kind of things tends to burn out the retina.

Three Mile Island was also a literal name. Three miles was its exact circumference. It was that big for a reason, Mother Nature had played no part there. Three Mile Island was man-made. And ruined by the same men. Three miles also happened to be the distance to the next closest landmass which thanks to the decades of various nuclear yields was now also completely uninhabitable.

No-one claimed ownership of Three Mile Island. No-one wanted it. Nations would have fought wars to be rid of it. It was worse than unwanted. It was the Red-headed Stepchild of islands. It was THAT unpopular.

No boats landed there. Aircraft avoided it for good reason. It literally glowed in the dark. It was better than any lighthouse.

People had crashed on it before. Or been shipwrecked on its shores. And died there.

Radiation poisoning is an unpleasant way to die but the residual rad count was that high that people died very quickly.

But not quickly enough for them to avoid any unnecessary suffering.

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And that was as far as I ever got.

Have a poem!

Mike The Bike

By Ray Daley

1/1/14

Mike The Bike has a bell I quite like,

And his handlebars are rather shiny.

We’d go for a peddle except for that saddle,

Which rides right up the crack of my hiney.

Alas my bike Mike is sadly no more,

After pissing his oil all over the floor.

Believe it or not, my mum had him shot!

Writing Update

Finished typing up a story I hand wrote on Feb 16th, 952 words after some polishing whilst typing up.

Had a real bad case of the Don’t wanna!‘s typing that up which is why it took so long.

I think writing that Simpsons episode earlier got me out of a rut.

I still have to complete the story I’ve been working on for the last three days now, that might take a while longer. I am going to remove myself from it and work on other stuff that is outstanding that I haven’t looked at for at least a few weeks or more.

Currently this seems to be the best method of finishing a story when I get stuck on it.

Last time I did that I completed either 2 or 3 stories in that day alone.

At least stuff is getting done, I have been writing down ideas and frameworks so I may not be finishing stuff but I am writing stuff. Sometimes the best way out of a hole is to stop digging.

Simpsons Idea

Four Funerals and a Wedding.

Before you get started & tell me “This was an Itchy & Scratchy episode title!”, yes, I already known that. I Googled it.

***

At the nuclear plant Mr Burns is talking to Smithers about a new aquisition he had made that is supposed to make him live longer. The archeologist who went to get it was infected with a sleeping sickness that manifests itself as having appeared to have killed the victim when they are in fact only sleeping & paralysed. It also slows the heart down.

The archeologist arrives in Mr Burns’ office as Burns is castigating Lenny, Carl and Homer for goofing off during work. She shakes hands with Lenny, Carl and finally Homer thinking each one is Mr Burns until Smithers arrives and points to Mr Burns who finally shakes her hand.

She gives the item (an urn) to Burns but it crumbles away to dust once it is put in direct sunlight. Burns starts to get angry and insists that Smithers throws things at the archeologist, Lenny, Carl & Homer until they all leave.

***

That night at the Simpson house Bart tries to persuade Homer to let him stay up in order to watch a zombie movie, as Homer says yes Marge overhears them and tells Homer if he’s going to let Bart watch the movie he has to stay up and watch it too.

Both of them stay up, Bart esculates the situation by insisting they watch with all the lights off asking if Homer is scared or a chicken. Homer agreeds but is petrified, Bart is equally as scared and had hoped Homer would over-rule him and say no and insist the lights stay on which Bart also wanted.

Outside the house there is a thunder & lightning storm, mirroring the scene they are watching in the movie. It shows a previously established dead body starting to sit up, rising from the dead. On the tv, there is thunder, lightning then you see the zombie start to walk. Seconds later an overhead power cable next to the Simpson house is hit by lightning, leaving Bart & Homer in complete darkness.

They both remain at opposite ends of the sofa for the rest of the night in pitch black, each refusing to move or come to the other in fear it might be a zombie. In the morning they are shown both wide awake, neither having been able to sleep.

The following day Bart gets up and goes to school, on the tv you hear Kent Brockman reporting about the “death” of the archeologist and they cut to an interview with Dr Nick Riviera who confirms she is dead.

Cut to Burns & Smithers hearing end of the same news item, Burns sees the archeologists face on the tv and has some kind of desire infliction and regrets her death. He tells Smither how secretly he thought she was quite beautiful and that he could have easily “married a woman like that”.

***

Cut to the next day in Moes Tavern where Homer, Lenny, Barney & Moe are sitting together. Eventually after several drinks and conversation they realise Lenny isn’t there. So they go to his apartment (Carl has a key) and find him “dead” on the couch. An ambulance is called and again Dr Nick declares Lenny dead.

According to the terms of Lennys will he asks that Homer and Carl spend a 24 hour period with his body in order to ensure he doesn’t get buried alive, something he has a morbid fear of. Homer turns up at the set time but Carl is a no-show, Homer tries to telephone him but gets no answer. Lenny is already sitting in an open casket and during the stormy night (again like the zombie movie) he sits up and scares Homer who thinks he is a zombie.

Homer runs off to try and find Carl.

At Carls apartment Homer lets himself in (key under a flowerpot by the door) only to find Carl “dead” on the couch. He calls Dr Nick who again declares Carl “dead” and tells Homer to wait as the ambulance men are on strike. Just as the sun is starting to rise, Carl revives, appearing to wake from the dead. Once more Homer runs off, this time going back to the Simpson house.

***

Back at the Simpson house it’s morning and Marge comes down to find Homer seemingly asleep with his eyes open on the couch. She tries to wake him and can’t, she fears the worst and discovers he is “dead”. Bart & Lisa come in, Lisa is told to go and call for the Doctor. Again, she calls Dr Nick.

Not wanting to upset the kids too much about their fathers death she sends Bart & Lisa to their rooms but Bart is fascinated by the idea that there is a dead body in his home. He goes down the stairs to hear Dr Nick declare Homer officially “dead”, Dr Nick then leaves.

Marge is in the kitchen crying and Bart is messing about with Homer, putting his “corpse” into all kinds of weird positions saying how Homer is a cool zombie. Homer then sits up and Bart faints.

***

Back at the hospital the archeologist is being given a final check over by Dr Hibbert and she revives, explaining the sleeping sickness. He realises her symptoms are the same as what Lenny & Carl had so calls the tv station. Kent Brockman announces about the sleeping sickness so Homer realises Lenny & Carl weren’t zombies.

Bart is told Homer wasn’t a zombie by Lisa when he comes round.

Burns & Smithers go to the hospital to visit the archeologist where Burns realises he really has fallen in love with her and asks her to marry him, she agrees knowing how rich and old he is.

***

At the wedding Homer teases Bart by constantly pretending to be a zombie. As Reverend Lovejoy gets to the “do you take this woman” part, they suddenly realise Mr Burns has died. Smithers says perhaps it’s the sleeping sickness. Dr Hibbert is there and says no, he’s dead. The wedding suddenly becomes a funeral.

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And that’s as much as I had. I think it’d make a good episode, especially if Fox want to kill off another big character and don’t want to tip their hand too early.

Slightly Annoyed (Mainly At Myself) Writing Update

I’ve typed up the notes I scribbled down for my story in progress that has been going for a few days now.

I totally wasn’t feeling the writing of it today. Or yesterday. The notes are down, it’s a framework to tell me/show me the direction I think I need to take to get from where I am to where I would like to be.

Note usage of “like to be“, not “want to be“. It’s a tough road to travel to get there and make sure the pay-off is worth the investment.

I’d swear quite a lot at this point normally but the swears are so sweary I just can’t swear hard enough.

They haven’t invented the swear I would need to say to clear my feeling at this moment.

Swear, sweary swearington.

If things get much tougher you’ll be seeing the incomplete story being posted here as an official “I have given the hell up on this”.

Happy Saint Davids Day!

Well, I am half Welsh so it needed to be said.

I’ve had my 1st review for Missing Pieces, it got 3.5 stars which was good.

I’m struggling to finish the story I started a few days ago, I know where it should end but am struggling to make where it is actually meet up to the ending I want. I don’t want to write too much because it might get boring (to read).

And this is why I’ll probably never write a novel.

New ebook now available! (Yes, it’s early)

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/413714 or http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/33384/missing-pieces\

My #free March #ebook release is 3 hours early because my monitor is misbehaving so I wanted to make sure you got this months release online all okay.

If you like it, drop me a tweet @RayDaleyWriter

Update

After more food and several drinks I have written quite a lot more on the new story today, it’s now 2534 words and showing no signs of gettng close to finished yet. There’s been a fair amount of set-up so I have to make sure the pay-off is worth all that investment for the reader.

I still have a headache, I just worked through it. And no, I didn’t sleep even though I wanted to.

I’ll probably go to bed early tonight though.

At least I managed to be productive for about an hour or so. Better than nothing.

Be thankful for the small things, sometimes that’s all you’ll get.

Good intentions, or not

Started this afternoon thinking I might try to finish the story I started late yesterday.

Now have a case of NFI (Not F***ing Interested). Headache isn’t helping.

I thought I’d feel more inclined towards writing once I had some hot food inside me.

That’s a no.

I’m going to make myself some Bovril (British hot beef flavoured drink) and then see how I feel about writing some more.

Frankly right now, all I want to do is sleep.

If I closed my eyes right now I’d be gone, bang, out in seconds.

Ray Bradbury Challenge, Week 9.

This weeks story just finished, 770 words off an image I found posted on reddit.

At least I think it was on reddit.

It was cool enough for me to think ‘That’ll make a good story‘.

And it did.

Well done, past me. Nice going.

I would have been happier if I’d written more than 1000 words but you can’t have everything, can you?

Anyway, I’m done for the week.

I’ll chill out for a bit now I’ve eaten lunch.