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.

Audio file for 'Chapter 14 - A visit from Timothy Arnold'

You can access the audio file for chapter 14 by clicking here.

Chapter 14 - A visit from Timothy Arnold

Covent Garden - piazza

 Originally I intended to use material from the short story  'Colonel Ivan Kaiec' (on the right under 'Good stuff') for this chapter. However, I have the feeling that the action is going too slowly so I decided not to use it but to jump ahead to the point where Timothy gets in touch with Celia again for the first time since Ned's funeral.

Plot developments also meant that I've had to make some slight changes to previous chapters. For example I had to backfit a surname and job details to the journalist, Bernard, who spoke to Celia in chapter 2. We're going to see more of him in chapter 15. And I changed the information that Celia gave to Tomi in chapter 12 'The investigation begins'. She asks Tomi to look for people who knew Ned when he was in Zagreb in 1995, rather than people who've seen him recently.

These sort of adjustments are difficult to keep track of as the amount of material swells and I'm afraid I'm not correcting the chapters on the blog, nor am I re-recording the audio files. That won't happen until the whole book is finished.

The story so far...
The art restoration expert Celia Thomas is working on a chapel belonging to the sinister Colonel Kaiec. Celia reveals to the Colonel that she is looking for people who knew her brother Ned, a journalist who was in Zagreb in 1995. The Colonel also knew Ned, but is not at all pleased to find out that Celia is his sister. When he hears that Celia has asked a local journalist - Tomislav Lederer -  to do some research for her, he arranges for Tomi to be beaten up and then asks some old contacts of his to visit Celia who is at a conference in London...

This chapter can now be found on the right under 'Good Stuff'

Chapter 13 – Celia makes a mistake

Moorish philosopher, Venice

Finally! The next chapter is ready for you to read. It seems like ages since I was able to do this project properly and it's nice to be back. The audio recording of this chapter and all the others can be found on the right under 'Good stuff', Audio files 1-9 or 10+.

The story so far:
Dr Celia Thomas, an art historian based in Munich, has been asked to restore a 16th century chapel in Istria. It's owner, Colonal Kaiec is hoping that she will uncover a 16th century religious masterpiece which will help his political aspirations in Croatia. Apart from working on the chapel, Celia is also trying to find out if her brother Ned, believed to have been killed in 1995 in Bosnia Herzegovina, is in fact alive. Helping her is Tomislav Lederer, a journalist based in Zagreb...

This chapter can now be found on the right under 'Good Stuff'