RBS: Rik's Blog Story

'Kay, here's the deal.

I've started writing a new story. It is a science fiction story. It has no title; it has no storyline or plot beyond a few slippery thoughts in my head. Characters are being made up on the fly.

This new story seems to be wanting to be written in short sections. The POV is resolutely 1st person present tense (which is an effing bugger to write in, I tell you). And because it is so wonderfully fluid and clueless - I have little idea what I'll be writing beyond the next section or two - it will probably end up being an unpublishable mess.

Which makes it perfect for posting to the blog.

So for the next couple of weeks I'll be posting a new section every day to this blog and, hopefully, I'll be able to keep writing additional sections so that by November we may - might - just have a finished first draft of an unpublishable, but enjoyable, book. Well, that's the goal, anyway, and it does no harm for Rik to have one of those goal thingies. Maybe even Gold Stars for any particularly good sections I feel proud about.

For convenience, I shall call this new Work-in-Progress The RBS Thing. And I shall post the first section forthwith.

Be warned: be happy!

Second Sin

Second Sin

He brings a harsh heat into the room;
stones among sand: "You see me?"

I nod, reach for the warm whiskey
as he crouches on the chair
with the snapped back, his almond mouth
bitter within its shallow beard.

He says: "I need a vengeance. My grave
has room for another, a brother
to lie in his furrow by my bones.
I can pay you in camels, or goats."

Behind me the sky in the broken window
bloods clouds, marks the fall of the sun.
In the street below, shouts; the bark
of a car. "Am I your brother's seeker?"

"These are good camels," he smiles,
"and Judgement Day draws close."

My Bloody Valentine

I tend to keep quiet about my various (rather sad) claims to fame. But sometimes they can come in useful. For instance last Friday we got a phone call from Debbie, my sister-in-law, saying she had got us tickets to go and see her band playing at the Roundhouse on Monday. I've never had the opportunity to see Debbie "at work", so of course we said yes:



Well it's taken a couple of days for my ears to recover, but thinking back on the event I have to admit that it was much, much more enjoyable than I (as a card carrying lover of all music "fluffy" and "poppy") thought it would be:



Debbie, being who she was and everything, got us tickets which we had to peel off and stick to our t-shirts - all platinum and black covered in triple-A ratings and stuff - which not only got us into the venue, but also got us into the dressing rooms backstage afterwards (with the free beers and wines and, for some unknown reason, two large boxes of Earl Grey Tea) where we got to meet the other family members and support folks associated with the band. We even went to the press party (with a paying bar) afterwards - a fascinating insight into a world that properly belongs to the beautiful-and-famous people, not window-stuck oiks like me!



So here's a big thank you to Debbie and Bilinda, Colm and Kevin for giving me the opportunity to experience one of the most mind-blowing, intense and interesting evenings of my life! And best wishes for the rest of the tour. Play loud! Party hard!