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    Six Ideas: Which Never Became Novels
    Unavailable
    Six Ideas: Which Never Became Novels
    Unavailable
    Six Ideas: Which Never Became Novels
    Ebook64 pages52 minutes

    Six Ideas: Which Never Became Novels

    By John Barrett Rose

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Writing fiction is a funny trade.
    One works alone for hours on end, wrapped into another time and place, only to re-emerge once more into the real world wondering for the briefest moment which world is real.
    Ideas abound.
    Writing them down is another matter.
    Files after files show an idea, a few notes, perhaps a few paragraphs, sometimes fifty thousand words of a novel you know will never be finished, because the subject, or one of the characters has died on you and cannot be resurrected, or, at least cannot be resurrected in the short time one has left.
    Now, my eightieth birthday past I know, sadly, that I should have stuck to writing fiction from my youth. Instead I was persuaded to take a ‘proper’ job and earn an honest living.
    What a waste of a lifetime.
    These six tales - some stretching back forty years - were originally considered as plots for novels.
    I offer them to you as partly developed ideas.
    If nothing else, they demonstrate the strange worlds which a writer visits, and sometimes lives in for a year or more.
    I do hope you enjoy reading them.
    I certainly enjoyed writing them.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Barrett Rose
    Release dateJan 15, 2016
    ISBN9781311689887
    Unavailable
    Six Ideas: Which Never Became Novels
    Author

    John Barrett Rose

    I have for many years loathed the authors of boy’s stories, and non more so than G.A. Henty who wrote the most glorious nonsense about adventurous young men and the apparently splendid adventures they got up to. So it was, when I reached the ripe age of thirteen and my parents asked me what I intended to do with my life, even I realised that the Wild West and a Colt cap-and-ball revolver were both past their expiry dates, and plumped instead for a life at sea. I wonder how many other lads found themselves by reason of boyhood reading in a profession which was neither romantic nor exciting other than when matters went awry, and entirely unsuited to a young fellow with a romantic imagination and no common sense whatsoever? Er, yes, I do refer to myself. I went into a nautical training college, the General Botha, and after graduating joined a British Shipping Company as an apprentice; subsequently obtaining a Second Mate's ticket in London in 1955. I then helped deliver a ship to New Zealand and remained ten years on the NZ Coast where I learned some mighty useful practical seamanship in somewhat primitive conditions, and passed examinations for a Foreign Going Mate's certificate with a Home Trade Master's endorsement. The necessary foreign-going sea time to qualify for a Master ticket was very hard to come by in NZ, so I went out to the China Coast in 1965, and had some adventurous if not always pleasant times in tramp ships where the seamanship learned in NZ proved a blessing. After gaining my FG Master's ticket I remained in Hong Kong for ten years, working at first for local shipping firms, then for the Marine Department, later working five years as a Marine Surveyor. Much of the remainder of my time was less exciting. I was ashore in Bushire handling cargo for the nuclear power plant site when the Iranian revolution broke out in late '78. I was ambushed and stoned during the kerfuffle but escaped if not with much dignity, at least with my life and a busted head. Presently retired and writing fiction, something I should have done from the beginning. It does take we fools a while to sort out our priorities. Moral of all this is, if you wish to write, go to university, where, with luck, you might find somebody wise enough to teach you how to do this. Adventures may provide the material, but not the skill to set it down in writing.

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