Somewhere Never Travelled (NOVELLA)

[Moejoe]

My latest (I have to keep writing while I'm editing the novels). Should be available next Friday/Saturday (already a third completed, but as ever I have a cover)

Somewhere Never Travelled or Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind a Novella by PJ Lyon.

Time and distance seperated them, but when Tom Gill's dying grandfather goes missing on Christmas Eve, no time or distance can keep him from returning. Now a search for a sick old man will reveal the secrets of a town and a Grandfather Tom thought he knew, but is only now discovering.

Prologue

The old man huddled against the dying light of his cigarette and pulled a face that had delighted generations of his children and grandchildren alike.

“So, what’ll it be on this night?” he said.

“Another story, Billy,” his first grandson said, for even though Billy had the grand title, everyone knew him as Billy.

“Which story?” Billy said.

“The one about India and the hot curry-no!-the one about New York and how you-”

Billy held a boxer’s mit of a hand into the air and from that raw and powerful fist he extended a finger, until, under the flickering light of the almost-but-not-quite dead cigarette, he conjured a gun.

A gun that he fired off into the imagined past and there to the docks of New York where a boat slept in the muddy waters of the Hudson and the salt-lashed and far-from-home men were very much awake.

From the gun, a bullet—

"Bang!" Billy said.

The rapt grandchild, eyes wide waited for the next and the favourite lines of all.

But the gun dry clicked as Billy opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.

"What happened next, Billy?" the grandchild said.

Billy, a faraway look in his eyes, shook his head.

"A different story tonight, I think," he said as he holstered his firing hand. "Yes, a story I haven't told before."

The grandchild, pulled in by the voice, scooted forward.
"A new one? Is it true?"

"Aren't they all?" Billy said, a wink in his smile. "But this one even more so. This one is the greateststory ever to be told."

"Better than the boxing one?"

"Aye, a million times better."

"And the one about the singing man?"

"Chalk and cheese."

Jumping mad from excitement, the grandchild said; "Tell me! Tell me!"

Billy leaned forward, the promise of some faraway and exotic adventure in his eyes, the rest of the night waiting to begin on his breath.

"Are you sure you want to hear this one?" he said, toying.

"Yes! Yes!"

"Absolutely sure?"

"Yes! Yes!

"Okay then, our story begins on a night not unlike this one. A Christmas Eve in a town like this, not so far from a city, and a long long way away from any kind of good weather." Billy painted the imagined world with his fingers, casting shadows under the nictoine-dying light from his cigarette. And now his fingers danced snowflake patterns. "And in this town, not so far from a city and way to far away from the good weather, it began to snow. Big snow, mind you. Thick, each flake as big as a man's head."

The grandchild saw the snow and the town and for a moment he was all wrapped arms to keep hismelf from the chill.

"And under that big as a man's head snow, there was a man. Let's call him..." Billy thought the question out with a shift of his eyes, waiting for the response that always came.

"Call him Tom, please, Billy, please call him—"

Billy stabbed the suggestion mid-air and held it up on his finger. "Yes, Tom's as good a name as any, I suppose. Okay then, Tom it is. And Tom, a grown man of course, not a little boy or nothing, he arrives in town looking for someone, for some thing..."

"What, who was he looking for?" Tom said, imagining himself a man under the snow in a town not unlike theirs, not so far from a city and very far away from the sun.

Before Billy could answer the question, the front door opened and in came an avalanche of family, shaking themselves of snow and cold and into laughs and warm seats on the couch.

Billy leaned with conspiracy in mind and beckoned Tom close with a cupped hand.

Close to Tom's ear he spoke warm words, enough to take away the chill of any snow from any story.

"One day I'll tell you the rest of that story, I promise," he said.

One day...

...twenty years of days passed before Tom knew the story and the man who stood there under that snow, not so far from a city and a long way from good weather.

~



Coming soon to FEEDBOOKS.

[zelda_pinwheel]

ooh, this looks great ! with any luck you'll be writing faster than i can read (i've not finished the mr oddities yet. although i have started it, and i love it so far !).

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

ooh, this looks great ! with any luck you'll be writing faster than i can read (i've not finished the mr oddities yet. although i have started it, and i love it so far !).

LOL I couldn't sleep last night and this idea has sort of been there in my head for a long time. It's in honour of my grandfather, a kind of thankyou as much as anything else that I'm not sure I ever made while he was alive (although I hope I did). With him passing on recently the story just kept asking to be written.

So I started writing. Got about 10,000 words done before I fell asleep

Oh, and the title is taken from two sources; this wonderful stanza from an e.e. cummings poem

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

and a work of Shakespeare that, when my Uncle died and I was with my Grandfather on the long night's afterward, he used to recite:

BLOW, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh ho! sing, heigh ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh ho! sing, heigh ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then heigh ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.

[zelda_pinwheel]

excellent way to beat insomnia. i usually do that by reading, so if you keep writing, you can beat insomnia for two people.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

excellent way to beat insomnia. i usually do that by reading, so if you keep writing, you can beat insomnia for two people.

Make that THREE

I haven't had the chance to read "Suggested Oddities" yet and, you are almost ready to release another.

Moejoe, you are, you are, you are... darn, just no words for it (see, that's why you are the "writer" and, I am the "reader")

I'm looking forward to this one also. YEA!!

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by dreams

Make that THREE

I haven't had the chance to read "Suggested Oddities" yet and, you are almost ready to release another.

Moejoe, you are, you are, you are... darn, just no words for it (see, that's why you are the "writer" and, I am the "reader")

I'm looking forward to this one also. YEA!!

That's what's great about shorter works, you can dip in and out whenever you feel like it...I've got a particular collection by John Collier (if you haven't read him, grab some of his work, it's quirky and fun) and I've had it for, must be two or three years. Took me two years to read all the stories in there I'd just dip in now and then when I felt in the mood.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

That's what's great about shorter works, you can dip in and out whenever you feel like it...I've got a particular collection by John Collier (if you haven't read him, grab some of his work, it's quirky and fun) and I've had it for, must be two or three years. Took me two years to read all the stories in there I'd just dip in now and then when I felt in the mood.

Would this book be, "Fancies and Goodnights"? I searched and seem to only find it in dead tree version.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by dreams

Would this book be, "Fancies and Goodnights"? I searched and seem to only find it in dead tree version.

The exact same one, I have the pbook (one of my remaining few) but it's not available in ebook. Worth a read though, even in pbook, because it's crammed full of amazing little tales and odd stories. I wish I could find the rest of his work in ebook format, but alas, not even the pirates seem to be able to help me on that score

[dreams]

I still have credit at a used book store so, I will have stop in when I go in to work next week. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be on a shelf. Thanks for the suggestion.

[GeoffC]

:sighsloudly:

must read faster ..............

[Moejoe]

Added a prologue, seeing as I won't be able to upload until Sunday night

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

SNIP SNIP

...twenty years of days passed before Tom knew the story and the man who stood there under that snow, not so far from a city and a long way from good weather.

Whoa! I was drawn into the magic of the storyteller and then... pop! real world again

Now, we have to wait for the rest of the story after being teased by this little bit...

How exciting to put the "story" on paper. Will it stay true or will you embellish for storytelling purposes?

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by dreams

Whoa! I was drawn into the magic of the storyteller and then... pop! real world again

Now, we have to wait for the rest of the story after being teased by this little bit...

How exciting to put the "story" on paper. Will it stay true or will you embellish for storytelling purposes?

It's an ode to my grandfather, in essence, about the stories he gave me (the prologue is only slightly different than what happened in reality). It's split into four parts:

Midnight Stories
The Cold and Lonely
Blow blow, thou winter wind
Dona eis requiem

And it is embellished, for fictional purposes of course. I won't say anymore, because it might ruin it Also, it's quite a sad tale, so fair warning ahead of time.

[zelda_pinwheel]

well that prologue is certainly promising.

[Moejoe]

Okay, I've been a bit rushed at the end with this one, so I'm going to let it cool for a week and upload when I get back from London.

Sorry for the delay, and see you all in a week