Casinos are a great place to develop characters....

I had the pleasure to be in St.Louis last week and in my journey about town I came across a fantastic place to relax and work on the book.....a casino.It being my first time in Missouri,I had no clue that there were any casinos and such nice ones at that.Who would've thunk it?Well I settled in with my brand new shiny red casino card and found some delightful looking penny slots near the front....(I thought I heard Kenny Rogers singing in the background)...not really,I am not much of a gambler, but a casino has a certain kind of ambience that it is hard to not feel a certain excitement and buzz in the air akin to the Kenny Rogers song.Along with the ambience I recognized there was a host of interesting people gambling and frolicking about.As I settled into my chair and learned all the exciting lines and payouts to my machine I thought about how a recluse like me could just blend into the crowds of happy chattering people.The first thing I noticed as that a casino draws all walks of life to its doors.Grandma's and Pa's,brothers and sisters,friends and neighbors,and an occassional oddball author or two.There were more I could see at different tables and slot machines,some were having the times of their lives, others looked seriously like they were trying to read the cards,while others sat at the slot machines with a notebook and pen looking deep into haze of thought(that was yours truly).
Somewhere between a bonus spin and winning 340 pennies(!)I reached into the place in my mind that gets creative and started to work.Starting with the man who sat next to me.An older clean-cut gentleman who was enjoying his winning streak.He had a funny thing he did with his hands when he won.Hard to describe,but it was working,he had won over 33,000 pennies in the short time he sat next to me!I noticed on his jacket was an emblem representing the F.B.I.....I asked him was that a clothing company and he informed me that no,in fact,he was a retired F.B.I agent of 33 years....slots were a favorite pasttime of his these days.I thanked him for his service to our great country but wondered if he would be as friendly if he knew I were crime writer who writes stories where the good guy doesn't always win.....Either way this jarred my creative flow and sent me into a state of "Raconteur Nirvana".I started looking around to see if maybe he were being followed maybe by some deranged man whom he sent to prison decades before....or maybe the agent was sent to follow me to gain a better dossier for the Bureau.....they have a thing for authors you know......then I noticed a strange man over in the next island of machines...looking desperate and aloof...perhaps a gambling junkie who just gambled his rent money away for the second time this year...and the little old lady with the cherry hat on just down the aisle watching him...perhaps the regional president of Gamblers Anonymous watching him fail yet again...and the lady sweeping up cigarette butts?....her shoes were too expensive looking,perhaps C.I.A undercover working in conjunction with the A.T.F tailing a drug dealer from South America.....that Latino looking fellow at the roulette table in the 3-piece Armani suit.
Could my protagonist find himself doing a job here?You bet,with the noise and the organized choas about,he could be in and out of there in no time at all.Could he blend in,now you see him...or did anyone see him at all?.....More on him later.
As you can tell better by now,a writer is always working and dreaming up story lines and characters.It is a interesting lifestyle for sure.


In Atlanta on the internet,

Charley

P.S The Bottleneck Blues Bar will be hosting Davy Jones singing later this month...too bad I will miss that show.Gosh, how I love the oldies.......CT

NATO phonetic alphabet

a.k.a The international radiotelephony spelling alphabet.........

Alpha-Bravo-Charlie-Delta-Echo-Foxtrot-Golf-Hotel-India-Juliet-Kilo-Lima-Mike-November-Oscar-Papa-Quebec-Romeo-Sierra-Tango-Uniform-Victor-Whiskey-X-ray-Yankee-Zulu

For all of you that wanted to know.......C.T.

Lost in a phraseological quagmire........

I've spent the weekend with prepositions.It was bound to happen sooner or later.You can't write a book without them.Thomas W. Higginson said that," A good phrase may outweigh a poor library."He also said that,"Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes."......Good thought for a author for fresh eyes see things that tired eyes have missed.Originality is a raconteur's specialty....prepositional phrases tie it all together properly.Language truly is a temple.Besides my in-depth study of prepositions this weekend I have dabbled with conversational phrases,and significant phrases as well.A self-guided tutorial.Advil has been my friend this weekend as I have stayed off the recovering leg and dug into some really good grammar books.....lost in a phraseological quagmire.......

Advil dreams and Kit Kat wishes,

Charley Taylor

Research books for Chapter One

The Plattsburg Manual: A Handbook of Military Training

Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus

Roget's Super Thesaurus

DSM-III-R

How to be Invisible

How to Locate Anyone Who is or has been In The Military

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition

C.T.

My response to comments thus far....

Hi, I have 3 comments to respond too here so,to begin my blog may appear weird to some as I am still writing the book.I thought I would try a new approach with this.The tradecraft of writing is exciting and my motivation behind this is to share the journey with colleages and friends along the way.Alot of people probably do not realize the effort it takes to turn an idea into a story and all that goes along with it.I guess my blog is a story that talks about a story....
Next,no this is not a military story.It involves a mercenary type military operation in the first pages,but beyond that it is a story of a young man who learns alot in a short time from a military style trainer and uses those applications to complete the goals that burn deep inside his heart.The trainer of coarse will be a retired American soldier,as I believe our United States of America Armed Forces are the best soldiers on the planet.
Yes, the main protaganist of the story has been developed completely and has come alive on the pages,I will of coarse as time progresses, introduce him in parts to you.But for now I can say he is a kid of deep thought,an excellent learner and achiever,and enjoys an occassional Kit Kat.
I hope this answers the questions so far,please continue to contact me here or via email.



On the internet eating a Kit Kat,

Charley Taylor

4 pens,3 notebooks,2 highlighters

And a partridge in a peartree.......Thought I would list what I have used up the last 2 weeks on my litery quest.I am not much of a typist so I write my stories the old fashioned way with pen and paper.The pages are filling up fast with all kinds of information in regards to the story and the characters are developing rapidly also.I have quite a few of unsavory characters that the protagonist will have to deal with as the story unfolds...military types that are not what I would label as good patriotic Americans.That is where the story will begin with a squad of soldiers converging on the home of our protaganist and his very unsuspecting family.
The first sentence of the story is the hardest sentence to write I think.Interestingly enough I had to do some research on military time to get the first sentence the way I wanted it.I found out a couple of interestings things that I did not know.First it is called a 24-hour clock.That is the technical name for it.Second,it is also known as astronomical time.In some parts of the world it is known as railway time....if you are an Aussie chances are you call it army time.So there...some facts you may have been without.
Now having conquered my first sentence of the book,the pages are flowing.


From Atlanta on the internet,


CT

Wow...Never a good time to go to the hospital.......

Thank You to everyone at North Fulton Regional Hospital.....I simply cannot begin to show my gratitude enough for all of you there working the emergency room.Thanking for getting the poison out of my body before it spread anymore.My hat is off to all of you.

Be Well,

Charley Taylor

Hello.... I'm Charley Taylor

Hello, I'm Charley Taylor and I am a professional liar.No,I am not a politician or a poker player but a writer.A writer who is on his first big quest of telling a great story in the range of 100,000 words...a raconteur.Spinner of yarns,teller of tales.A seller of lies and treachery.Pretty cool huh?I think so too.I love a good story,whether reading or writing it and that's the bottom line with most people.Good plot and strong well defined characters moving at a comfortable pace.A friend once told me that when you find a great author,grab onto them and enjoy their stories.When the day comes and you think you have a better story to tell then they do,that's the day you go from being a reader to becoming a writer.
The book will be a complex story about a very young man and his dealings with growing up with the loss of his family who were murdered before his eyes and his transition into adulthood.The protagonist will indeed be a character you will clap for with his successes even in all of their evil nature...
For all of you who are on the edge of your seat,yes,the story will be written in third-person omniscient narration.I am considering omitting the use of adverbs.More on this later.
Why the blog before the book you may be asking...I am fascinated not only by the story as it grows and becomes almost real before me, but also at the intensity involved in laying out the story and the research it entails.Enough information to be a book about writing a book if you will....also a professional colleague of mine reminds me constantly that it is the 21st century and blogging is the new daily ritual of the of the storyteller....
"And away we go!" is how the late Jackie Gleason would start his show and that is exactly how I feel about this book and this blog so stay tuned as the story unfolds.........

Somewhere in Atlanta on the internet,

Charley Taylor