Chapter 18 audio file

Chapter 18 audio file is now available here. 

Chapter 18 - Natalia Kaiec

Chapter 18 took a long time to write, not because it was particularly difficult but because I had too many other distractions. I find if there are too many other things going on, then I can't give the story the necessary concentration. Let's see how many chapters I can get out over the Christmas period.

The story so far: Celia Thomas has been commissioned to do some restoration work on a 16th century chapel in Croatia belonging to the ambitious up-and-coming politician Colonel Kaiec. While in Zagreb Celia comes across evidence that her brother Ned, whom she believed had been killed in Bosnia Herzegovina in 1995 is in fact alive. Her investigations uncover disturbing facts about his apparent death and this causes trouble for a freelance-journalist, Tomi Lederer, who tries to help her. In London she meets various former associates of her brother, one of whom - Timothy Arnold - claims that her brother was part of an arms smuggling ring. Two others, Jeremy Fisk and Bernard Creasey, deny this, but Bernard is shortly afterwards run over by a van. Could Celia be heading for trouble when she returns to Zagreb?

Chapter 18 – Can now be found on the right under 'Good Stuff'

Chapter 17 audio file available

Chapter 17 is now available for download here.

Chapter 17 - Sunday plans

Cigarettes kill

 I've made some organisational changes to the layout of 'Good stuff'. I've put together blocks of four chapters which makes the website easier to navigate. These blocks incorporate all the changes to chapters that I've made recently but haven't previously uploaded to the blog,  including a change to poor Bernard's sticky end at the end of chapter 16.

Here is chapter 17: it's Sunday and time for Celia and other characters to spend a bit of quality time with their families. But will they enjoy it?

Chapter 17 – Can now be found on the right under 'Good Stuff'.

Chapter 16 - Finding an ally

A lot of talking for the last few chapters, time to get some action again. And it's not just the tea and cakes in Fortnum & Mason's.

The story so far: Celia gets an appointment to see Jeremy Fisk (see chapter 2 for his first appearance), now the director of communications at Report International, a media conglomerate. She hopes that he might be able to tell her what  Ned was doing in Zagreb shortly before his apparent death. The answer comes as a considerable surprise...

Chapter 16 – can now be found on the right under 'Good stuff'.

Chapter 15 audio file now available

You can now download the audio file of Chapter 15 -  'The honest pornographer' here.

Chapter 15 - The honest pornographer

Thomas Rowlandson - A kiss in the kitchen

Time to revive a character from chapter 2, Bernard Creasey who is no longer a news camera man. 
For some reason, this chapter seemed quite easy to write and I finished it in one day. I think it's because I like Bernard, though he's a bit disreputable in some ways. But not half as bad as the villains elsewhere in the book.

In the chapter there's a reference to Thomas Rowlandson, an 18th to early 19th century caricaturist. He was an interesting artist who managed to spend all of a fortune that he inherited on gambling and licentious living in only about seven years. He subsequently had to support himself with his art which he did quite successfully and certainly his years of 'fun' provided him with a wealth of material which you can see here. Be warned, the pictures are mildly pornographic but with a dose of humour which makes them not as tawdry as his modern day equivalents. Note for example in the picture on the left how the dog is stealing food from the table while the cat drinks the cream as the couple on the chair do their thing.  

The story so far... After Timothy Arnold's suggestion that her brother Ned was involved in arms smuggling into Croatia in '95, Celia goes to see a former colleague of Ned's, Bernard Creasey, owner of Paradise Erotic Productions Ltd.

Chapter 15 can now be found under 'Good stuff' on the right.