It seems like an everlasting task to me – finishing my latest and possibly last Radwinter novel. Actually, it is finished but now I am editing it and so surely the end must be in sight. I struggled writing it to begin with for various reasons (including shingles) and then I had a major technological meltdown and am only now getting to grips with cutting out all the over-writing, tightening it up, slimming it down, and pulling it into a publishable shape. I can’t completely blame shingles and technology, for some reason I seem to have lost my oomph. However, as I said, the end is in sight.
Thomas is a solicitor, but also investigates clients’ family trees, and has been tasked with solving other peculiar seemingly innocent little mysteries. In this story, possibly called ‘Spindrift’, he is pleased to have reached a point where he can employ a clerical (and other) assistant, Simon, who is a wheelchair user.Here is an excerpt.
“Good morning Thomas, I’ve been through the post and e-mails, one or two things for you to look at.”
As usual Simon also had a pot of coffee ready, which after the hectic start in our household I much appreciated.
He’s a thin willowy chap with very black hair. He has what you might call a mobile face, very expressive eyebrows which give him a comical look. He can also look quite bland, which is useful with some of my clients who can say the most extraordinary and eccentric things. I want to guffaw sometimes but of course I am completely professional and Simon and I only crack open the guffaws when they have gone. We make sure our visitors are completely out of the front door, as once an old biddy – or should I say a valued client, bobbed back in as we were mid hysterical meltdown. Simon wheeled swiftly into the kitchen, cups and saucers he was carrying jingling as he swallowed his giggles and I whipped out a hankie and pretended I had the sneezes.
“A lady with a very attractive voice rang to speak to you,” Simon announced, “but wouldn’t say what it was about. I think she rang on Friday afternoon when she was even more brief.”
This anonymous, attractively voiced woman must have made an impact for him to mention it since there was no other information.
We had a coffee and what I suppose might be called a briefing between two people. It‘s often dull and I don’t always pay proper attention; when Simon notices I’m drifting, he speaks in the voice of someone else, usually someone famous but sometimes someone we know. I once leapt up because I thought Paul had come silently into the room, but no, it was Simon! We had a good laugh but it taught me a lesson in concentration. Simon never wants to waste time so I get through more work because I don’t wander off in my own thoughts. I told him he keeps me on my mental toes and we had a good giggle about mental toes.
If you haven’t yet read any of Thomas Radwinter’s adventures, you can find them on Amazon and here is a link to the first in the series:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Radwinter-LOIS-ELSDEN/dp/B08KTRNZ8Z
Lois Elsden 