BRAVO Chapter Two - (post seven)

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BRAVO Chapter Two - (post seven)

Ratz, thinks about what the Major is saying and deep down he recognises that the logic being expressed by his colleague is fairly much the same thing that he’s been trying to tell them for the last twenty years. He brings both hands up to his face and drags his fingers in a clawing motion down his cheeks. He stares straight ahead, stiffening his whole body. Finally he relaxes and turns towards the Major. “Major!” He shouts. “You Genius, You Genius! We will control the world by fear, the fear of the alien threat.” He smiles, a broad toothy grin and turning to his right he addresses Karloff. “And you? What do you think?” he asks his trusted aide.
“I agree with you, General.” Karloff replies.
“You agree with me?” General Ratz spits out the question. “I don’t want you to agree with me, I want to know what you think about The Major’s plan. I don’t want you to tell me, you fool! I want you to tell him.”
Karloff shuffles back an inch or two and regains his composure. He looks away from Ratz and speaks to the Major. “Yes Major,” he begins. “You are a genius!” He says, and touching the General on the sleeve to include him in his praise, he adds. “And General, together we will dominate the world.”

The three men are now seated at the big table. Ratz is sitting at the head and Karloff is to his left. The Major sits opposite Karloff. The Vodka is long finished and tall jugs of freshly drawn spring water with slices of lemon now dominate the highly polished surface of the giant oak table. Ratz looks refreshed and his straightened tie and buttoned jacket bear testimony to this. The General picks up the neat stack of papers that are in front of him and gently shuffles them, banging them lightly on the table. “So, you suggest we call off the attack Major, and have the aliens on display as a threat?” He looks at the Major as he speaks and stares deep into his eyes, almost forcing the Major to tell him the truth.
“Yes General” Replies the Major.
The General turns away and reapplies the stare towards Karloff. “And you! What do you say Karloff? Karloff shivers for a moment, it’s not cold in the oak panelled room but the General’s stare is freezing and he can feel it. “I agree with The Major.” He answers.
Read on..

Look out for my next posting before next Wednesday..

BRAVO Chapter Two - (post 6)

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BRAVO Chapter Two - (post 6)

Karloff sits down, “I rest my case…” he whispers to the major, who is struggling to carve himself a slice of cold pork from a platter on the gigantic oak table.

The major looks up at the aide, he knows that Karloff is right. Who needs another war? He thinks to himself. It’s difficult enough these days to slice a piece of meat off the bone, let alone engage the enemy on the battlefield, none of us are getting any younger, and yet…
He looks at Karloff again and stuffs a handful of pink flesh between two roughly cut slices of black bread. “Leave the General to me!” he says quietly.

General Ratz is not asleep, but he is making a snoring kind of noise, his breathing is deep and loud, his head is leaning forward and his chin is resting on the stack of medals that are pinned to the chest of his uniform jacket. He is breathing through a partially blocked nose and his head rises and falls with every breath.
The Major decides it is the right time for his little input to the meeting. He beckons for Karloff to come close and the two men join Ratz on the leather sofa in front of the great fire.

“General, I think that Karloff is right, nobody wants just another conventional war, the great plans we made all those years ago will all come to nothing.” The Major stops for a moment and takes a bite from his crude sandwich, plum sauce oozes out from between the slices of bread and dribble down onto his white shirt. “We will be exposed, not only to our enemies, who will fight back, but also to our own people.” He continues. “We must be very careful about the way we proceed.”

“Bah!” exclaims Ratz, shaking his head frantically from left to right. “Am I surrounded by idiots?” He screams, waving his fists in the air. “Karloff, you say that the Major is right and Major, you say that Karloff is right! So, who is wrong? Me? Are you saying that everybody else is right and I am wrong?

“Of course not General,” replies The Major. “However, if we can convince the enemy that a super Super power, an alien power from outer space with a superior intelligence and weapon capability has their gun sights set on them and on us, then we can pull the strings!”

Read on...

Zblog #6

Zblog #6
REALISTIC
Okay, I'm going to have to get realistic about the amount of posts I can make in a week to Space Invaders! Because every time I get enthusiastic about this novel, something else comes up that demands my time. I would love to find an hour a day to indulge myself, but I need to get real and let you know that from now on this page WILL be updated every Wednesday!
IDEAS
The ideas for this story come at the most unpredictable of times, I'll just be dropping off to sleep and bingo! I can see how such and such a scenario will take place. I know that you know that I already have a play script for Space Invaders! and that all the ideas were formulated more than two decades ago, but don't you know? There's always something new!
NATASHA
One of the new characters that I have dreamed up is a woman called Natasha. When I first thought of her, she was only going to have a small part in the play and in the end I never used her at all but I did write a page of dialogue for her (that I now can't find). So anyway, now that I'm writing the Novel version, I intend to find a way to incorporate her into the plot. Of course one character or thread leads to another and when you stitch 'em all together you should have a new garment. In the case of Natasha, she has led me on to discover several other new people, plots and sub-plots, conflict and subterfuge..
NEW READERS
Hi there, thanks for clinking-the-links to Space Invaders! I hope you enjoy your time here. I must apologise once again, to all of my readers for not updating this page as often as I have previously said that I would. Sorry! Anyhow, new readers and old readers alike can leave a comment on any post. You don't have to belong to any organisation or pay any kind of fee, all you need to do is clink-the-comment-button and type a message! Of course if you need/want to contact me personally/privately you can e-mail me from the clinkable-link in my full profile...

BRAVO Chapter Two - (post 5)

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BRAVO Chapter Two - (post 5)

Karloff listens intently to what the Major and General Ratz have been discussing. In his own mind, Karloff thinks that he knows more about the aliens than the other two put together. After all, he muses, I am the one who controls the film footage of the young men. He waits for the right moment to say his piece.

Ratz falls to the floor and quickly picks himself up, dusting down his huge frame and finishing the neat vodka with a slurp and a gulp. “Psychological warfare!” He screams towards the fireplace and throws his now empty glass into the flames. “Bah, we have waited so long to take our revenge, all this time we have waited to show the world…” He stumbles backwards again and lands in one of the leather seats. He screws up his face and ignores the other men’s stares.

Karloff seizes the moment, he takes up a new position, leaning on the arm of General Ratz’s chair. Quietly but clearly, he starts his pitch. “General,” he begins. “The Major may be right!”

Ratz stares at Karloff but doesn’t speak. He’s starting to think that the Major and Karloff just might have something to contribute. He used to trust them in the days of the glorious revolution; in fact they were his right and left hand men. So, perhaps they still have a trick or two up their sleeves, he concedes. He can see that Karloff has something to say and he sits back, sinking further into the lush leather seat.

“General,” Karloff begins yet again. “General, The Major may be right! If we attack our enemies with weapons they can see, alien or not in appearance to them, they will fight back and after a period of time our plans will fail – just another conventional war."

Read on ...

Zblog #5

Zblog #5
WHERE ARE YOU?
Where am I? Well, I'm back and I'm sorry if you missed me...
I won't tell you about my little trip to the Caribbean...
'cos that won't really help matters, will it?
Perhaps I could tell you that I've been working every hour god sends on this project or that... But you won't believe me will you?
So, what's my excuse?
DREAMING
Well, I've been dreaming, I thought that it would be easy to find the time to write an hour a day and to post a little something new to this story every evening. However, the reality of the situation is that I get so tired, that I fall asleep and the only thing I'm actually able to do is dream! I don't want to just dream though, I want to dream something up when I fall asleep. So, maybe, just maybe... I'm actually working on my script when you think I'm asleep and dreaming.
VISITORS
Anyway, thank you for visiting this page even though there isn't anything new for you to read. I will try (again) to update daily or at least regularly, so please don't give up on me just yet. Thanks for reading, and please do come back soon!

BRAVO Chapter Two - (post 4)

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BRAVO Chapter Two - (post 4)
The Major stands up and starts to pace back and forth. He inhales the thick cigar smoke and breathes it back into the room in a blue cloud. He pours himself a large glass of the neat spirit and drinks it down in one gulp. Karloff and Ratz watch him, waiting for him to speak. Eventually he stubs out the cigar butt in a silver ashtray and turns towards the others. “Comrades,” he begins, almost shouting. “Do you think it is wise for the aliens to attack in this way?” He asks the question with his arms doing as much of the talking as his mouth.

General Ratz, shrugs his shoulders and opens his hands answering the question with another question. “What other way is there Major?” He enquires, and then quickly adds. “Have you lost your thirst for power? He spits on the rug in front of the open fire and rubs the phlegm in to the pile with the heel of his boot. He turns his back on the Major and stares into the flames.

None of us are getting any younger, thinks the Major to himself. Sometimes, using thought instead of force might be the best plan. He consoles himself. Already though, he can hear General Ratz, shouting and bawling like a madman, just a few feet away from him.

“Well?” Shouts Ratz. “Have you lost your thirst for power? Do you not remember how good it feels to be in control?”

“No General, of course I haven’t lost my thirst for power, I remember as well as you do, how good it was to be in control. I was only suggesting that as we hold all the aces, we could use them as a bargaining power.”

“A bargaining power! A bargaining power? Have you heard yourself Major? Screams the General, turning round to face the other man. “Bah! A psychological warfare! NO BLOOD! Have you gone crazy Major?” The General spits onto the highly polished table and wipes the mess with the cuff of his sleeve. “Have you gone crazy Major?” He screams again, his big brown eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. He slams his fist onto the table again and again. “Have you forgotten our glorious revolution?” He barks, starting to go blue in the face and then he sits down reaching for the very nearly empty bottle of Vodka.
Now read on ...

Zblog #4

Zblog #4
CHAPTERS
Okay, now I've started to post chapter two. You'll notice the different characters and the new setting. I call the different scenes or sections of this work chapters, only for want of a better word or description. It may well be that later on I change the way the 'chapters' are laid out or even do away with them entirely as seems to be the modern trend. One of the books I'm reading at the moment is presented this way, and it works very well. So, who knows?
FOOTFALL
Part of the problem with blogging in general is getting people to read your work. I suppose in that respect it is not much different than any other form of publishing. On the one hand you don't want to force people to read your manuscript but on the other hand you don't want them to ignore you either. There must be a happy medium somewhere, but I guess the key is to keep on writing, regardless.
ZBLOGGING!
What's the Zblog! or the Zblogging all about then? Well, at the risk of confusing you and complicating matters even further... Go on then, I'll tell yer! It's an alphabetical thing, that's what it is. You see in blogger, on blogspot, well on this template anyway, I can create an alphabetical list, a list as posted or an alphabetical list reversed. So, to call the blog bit, blog one, blog two etc. would simply mess up the chapter listings. So instead of blog read Zblog! Which also means that there will be less than twenty six chapters in total.