Charles Heath's writing blog

I'm back home and this story has been sitting on the back burner for a few months, waiting for some more to be written. The trouble is, there are also other stories to write, and I'm not very good at prioritizing. But, here we are, a few minutes opened up and it didn't take long to get back into the groove. Chasing leads, maybe ... I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t what I signed up for.  It was.  I wanted something to do that was not mundane.  It might have been veering that way when I started, but with the turn of events, I now wanted to prove I could see it through. Just those few minutes at Quigley’s had revived Jennifer’s enthusiasm too.  There was something about death threats and gunplay that got her nerves tingling. Aside from the obvious motivation, to dish out a little payback to the two men who had sucked us into a phony operation to further their own ends. “What’s our next play?  It seems like we’re searching for needles in haystacks.” “”I have a dir...

A picture paints ... well, as many words as you like.  For instance: And, then, the words: ... So, not to sound like I was a snotty loser when Cecile had first told me about Jake, the man I assumed was her new boyfriend, I said he was too good to be true. He’d been sent to Australia to work in a branch of his father’s company as a learning experience on the way to bigger and better things.  He was just the sort of man she thought she wanted, not the slow and steady wins the race type, but someone who would, and literally did, sweep her off her feet. In our last conversation, when she told me I was not the man of her dreams, she didn’t exactly identify him, but I knew who she was talking about.  She had fobbed me off several times, so I followed her and lo and behold, there was the man himself. All she had to do was tell me we were done, but she didn’t, and exactly why she hadn’t remained a mystery. That he had led her down a very dangerous path, well, I might have ca...

I'm back home and this story has been sitting on the back burner for a few months, waiting for some more to be written. The trouble is, there are also other stories to write, and I'm not very good at prioritizing. But, here we are, a few minutes opened up and it didn't take long to get back into the groove. Chasing leads, maybe ... I leaned back in the chair and shuddered.  It was not so much the cold as the stark realization before me, well, before all of us really. The USB was gone. But it was going to be impossible to convince any or all of Severin, Maury, and Nobbin.  Or for that matter Monica.  None of them were going to believe the explosion in the café was a deliberate act.   But it did raise a question. “How did whoever placed the bomb in the café know you and your contact were going to be there, and, for that matter, that either of you might have the USB?” O’Connell seemed lost in thought.  After prodding him, I asked the question again.  His ...

Here’s the thing... Every time I close my eyes, I see something different. I’d like to think the cinema of my dreams is playing a double feature but it’s a bit like a comedy cartoon night on Fox. But these dreams are nothing to laugh about. Once again there's a new installment of an old feature, and we’re back on the treasure hunt. ... After a night with Nadia Was it a revelation to discover there was a side to Nadia that I would never have suspected?  All those years of being terrified of her, and her brother, had hidden it, from me and probably a lot of others. Perhaps she hadn’t known any better, and that time away from her parents and family had opened her eyes to another world, one where you didn’t have to be the scariest person in the room. I was going to wait until she went to sleep, but she asked me to join her on the top of the bed and then snuggled into my back.  At first, I was terrified, of what, I was not sure, but after a while, realizing I was not going to get a...