Chapter 7 - The Chapel in Istria

Chapter 7 goes live at last!

It was supposed to be longer but I realised I was trying to squeeze too much activity into too small a space, so I stopped at a natural break and the next chapter will  be a continuation of Celia's adventures in Zagreb.

The story so far for newcomers:

Dr Celia Thomas is an art restorer who works in Munich. She has been commissioned to investigate the walls of a 15th century chapel in Croatia, belonging to Ivan Kaiec, a wealthy Croatian businessman. He believes there could be paintings hidden behind plaster dating back to the 15th or 16th century. But is he right?

Chapter 7 can now be found under 'Good Stuff' on the right

Fresco research

 Chapter 7 is on the way but has necessitated a lot of research in advance. The funny thing is that most of this research will never actually appear in the final material, but I feel I need to know some of this stuff in order to make the actions of the characters believable.

So what have I been looking at and why?

Mostly I've been trying to find out more about the work of a restorer, as that is what Celia - the book's central character - will be doing in this chapter. I wanted to find out in particular about frescoes and how you would find out if underneath a layer of plaster there might be something interesting. This led me to some interesting places. First of all Famagusta in Cyprus, where the University of Nanyang in Singapore has been funding the restoration of some frescoes: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-snm3kWK4tk 

I then wanted information about the kind of equipment that might be useful for analysis purposes. Ever heard of a 'Laser scanning vibrometer'? I hadn't either and I have to say it sounds vaguely rude. However the google ads that pop up have not become any more unsuitable than they were before, so their algorithms see nothing wrong with it. 

http://www.ndt.net/article/v04n12/tomasini/tomasini.htm 

Finally, I wanted to learn how I could take plaster off a wall. I'm not sure that Celia would think this the best way, but I love this YouTube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KroAfHVx4zo 

Anyway, as I said, chapter 7 is on its way, but is currently only half finished. It should be ready on Friday. Come and have a look then.

Chapter 5 - The visitor from Croatia

Danse Macabre -

St Mary of the Rock, Beram

 Here, finally, is chapter 5. I apologise for the amount of time this took but for some reason I found it hard. I had to do quite a lot of research about the work of picture restorers and try to establish what could be a realistic object for Celia to have to work on. 

However, with this chapter the plot is slowly starting to gain contour. So far there has been a lot of scene setting but here we are beginning to  approach the heart of the story which is quite exciting. This means that my next chapter will be chapter 7, where Celia will be in Croatia for the first time and starts to think that her brother may be alive after all. Hmmh!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy chapter 5 and please send me comments. I look forward to them.
For new readers - the story so far:
Celia Thomas works as a fine art restorer in Munich. Sixteen years previously her brother Ned Atkinson - a journalist - was killed during the fighting in Bosnia Herzegovina. Celia has no reason to believe that this was anything other than a dreadful accident but there is in fact more to his death than meets the eye. 
In this chapter Celia is asked by her boss to meet a wealthy Croatian businessman who wants her help.

Chapter 5  can now be found in 'Good Stuff' on the right.

Chapter 5 shipwreck - bye bye Madeleine, hello Celia!

Chapter 5 has been causing a lot of problems over the last few days. And it's still unwritten, although the content is quite clear, it's the chapter where we get to meet the villain of the piece, Colonel Ivan Kaiec for the first time.
This shouldn't be a problem, I've already written about him in one of my short stories ('Good Stuff - Colonel Ivan Kaiec') so I know what he's like.

But the difficulty has been that logically this chapter should have been told in the first person and I suddenly realised that I was increasingly uncomfortable about mixing first person narrative (chapter 1 and 2) with 3rd person narrative (the rest).

So,  finally I decided to go for everything being 3rd person narrative. This means that I decided to rework the first two chapters so that they are consistent with the other chapters. You may like to look at them again to see what you think.

Oh yes! And I hope nobody is going to be upset about this, but after various discussions with creative associates I've changed Madeleine's name to Celia. Slightly regretfully, I must admit, but it avoids slightly annoying abbreviations like  'Maddie' and - overall - I think the new name will lead to a successful conclusion of this project. 

Anyway, all these changes have necessitated a lot of housework on the blog to make sure anybody reading the chapters didn't become hopelessly confused. But tomorrow I believe I can finally start on Chapter 5 with a greater chance of success. Keep your fingers crossed.

Chapter 3 – The Department for British Export Development

Agh! My chapter numbers are going wrong. After I finished chapter 2 I realised I needed to add some information about Timothy Arnold, who is going to have a significant role later in the book. So I have also had to change some of the chapter numbers under 'Good Stuff'.
I hope you like Timothy, I'm quite fond of him, even though he's hardly a role model for anybody. But I've always had sympathy for people who get themselves into a difficult situation through their inherent flaws.
The story so far: 
After the funeral of her brother Ned, a journalist killed in the civil war in Bosnia Herzegovina, Madeleine Atkinson goes to a reception organised by her brother Paul. Here she talks to a number of people who worked with Ned: Bernard a seedy TV journalist, Jeremy Fisk, a colleague of Ned's who was the last person to see him alive and Timothy Arnold, a solicitor attached to the British Embassy in Zagreb with excellent local contacts who arranged for Ned's body to be transported back to London. But is there something more to Timothy than meets the eye?

Please send feedback and comments when you can. I enjoy reading them.

Chapter 3 – The Department for British Export Development is now under 'Good Stuff'.

Chapter 2 - After the funeral

For those of you new to the blog, the story so far:

Madeleine Atkinson lives and studies in Munich. She comes over to England for the funeral of her brother Ned, a journalist killed in Bosnia Herzegovina. The atmosphere between her and her elder brothers Paul and Colin is very frosty. After the funeral she is about to go back up to London when Jeremy Fisk, the last person to see Ned alive, introduces himself to her…

What is interesting about this chapter is that one minor character, Bernard, originally started off as all bad. Then he complained* about this and pointed out that I was being very unfair to journalists, they can’t all be that awful.

I’m not entirely sure about that, but I had to finally give in to Bernard. He will be allowed to be a good guy. So, say hello to him in this chapter. When he reappears he’s going to have a horrible death. It’s always the fate of the minor good guys in a story I’m afraid. Plus he’s a journalist.

Anyway, here is Chapter 2, I hope you enjoy it. And please send your comments as always. They make a big difference.

*In my head.

Chapter 2 is now under 'Good Stuff'.

Full Moon on video!

 Http://www.simpleenglishvideos.com/full-moon/

Click on the link above and you can see a short story I wrote a few years ago  for Business Spotlight , brought to life by the combined story-telling skills of Vicki Hollett and Jay Silber. 
I think they've done a great job and something I particularly like is the way that you can point at any part of the text and listen to it on the video. If you want to work on your English listening skills or your pronunciation, then this site is very helpful - and a lot of fun!
Full Moon itself was inspired by The Twilight series - which goes to show that EL James (author of Fifty shades of Gray) was not the only person to be inspired by Stephanie Meyers's tales of wolves and vampires. But - in all modesty - my version is a lot funnier...