Where do I begin?

Well, I thought the title was catchy at least. The tag line above could well fit for both this blog, and my first novel. That first line may not be a catchy thought provoking phrase, like Dickens,' 'It was the best of days..... etc,' but still, we all want to grab our readers attention, and I know that I spent quite some time on U-boat 931, AoA , and it's first line or two. I wanted to swiftly take the reader to the North Atlantic, in spring, in wartime, aboard a German submarine, in order to grab their attention, hopefully it worked.

I started writing the book, way back when, possibly ten or more years ago, while I was still working at Airbus UK, at its site near Chester, England. But I never really committed to it, what with work, family, hobbies etc, that was until my friend Dave Prince encouraged me to finish it. The fact that he was a main character in the novel, had nothing to do with it, honest.

Truth be told, it may still be unfinished to this day, if it were not for COVID. During the first lock down, here in the UK, I couldn't play golf, (my big passion) or do anything at all outside, really, so I sat down in front of the lap top, each day at 9.00 am, coffee by my side, radio tuned into Classic FM, and started typing. I had the story, safely tucked away in the grey matter, it was just converting it from memory and ideas onto a page or two, or so I thought, it's not quite that simple.

For example, you describe a character as driving from A to B, simple, yes, not quite. My story is set in the 1940's, so I had to find a car that was around then. What about the roads? Could he drive from such and such to London? Did a road exist on that route? How fast could the chosen car go? If he drove at 30mph, how long might it take him? Can you see what I'm getting at?

It's similar to the 'butterfly effect,' one action can lead to many more, and all that goes with it.

Another thing that I’d never considered, was names. You start out with a couple of names, I looked some up as they were German, and I wanted to have names from the period, not modern sounding names. But then I had the idea of writing in my family and friends, I could use their names, plus it would immortalise them in a way.

The thing is, that idea morphed into another, and I wasn’t just using the names, but the looks and sometimes the very character of that person. As an example, I used the names of my parents, who had passed away over forty years ago. I altered the names slightly, (to protect the innocent, as they say), but in the story, they are working together and I felt it was a nice touch to have them both there, taking part in my novel.

I also used the name and description of my wife's late brother, whom we sadly lost to cancer, just a few short years ago. I made him into a dashing fighter pilot, ironic in some ways, as I felt that he looked just like a typical sort, from the RAF that is, back in the ‘40s. My daughter wasn’t too impressed with the use of her name though, it’s painted on the side of a Lancaster bomber.

TO BE CONTINUED.