Forgetting Directions

May 2010

Forgetful Directions
by Don Booker

The Writing Life & Other Absurdities

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Forgetting Directions

May 2010

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................... 03 And So The End Is Near...................................................................................................... 04 Directions...............................................................................................................................06 Don's World...........................................................................................................................07 Alzheimers............................................................................................................................09 Journey to Publication......................................................................................................... 10 AFTERWARD...........................................................................................................................12 Links to downloads...................................................................................................................13

Booker finishes his book and begins the search for a 3-book deal

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May 2010

Introduction
Don Booker is a fictional character created in the Summer of 2009 by Irish writer, Noel Farrell. The character was created to show the side of Irish society under enormous pressure due to the political, social and economical mess in Ireland. These are month on month musings from that time which featured on the blog The Writing Life & Other Absurdities The blog character deals with social issues relevant to Ireland in real-time as seen through Don Booker's eyes. May 2010

Who's Don Booker?

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May 2010

And So The End Is Near May 6, 2010 Regular readers of the blog will notice that extracts have now been taken down from the blog. Though many have also been left they are more from the viewpoint of Don Booker and do not make up material from the Booker's World. I'm a few days away from tying up the ending. During the time it takes to wait for responses from agents and publishers I will continue to chip away at it and make it all it can be. Every story has a beginning. This started ten months ago. As with many of my endeavors, I find it all to easy to give up, but somehow I managed to write something everyday and found great encouragement from readers who were extremely complimentary of some of the writing. At every juncture when it felt like I'd never find a way forward I got more encouraging words from people who were complete strangers to me. They know who they are as we have conversed at times.

Out of the tunnel soon... Image Cindy Seigel Creative Commons License The book has now been through eight drafts and I don't think I have ever worked as hard in all my life. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed every minute of it. There were nights it felt like it was time to pack it in. The way it has turned out I have learned the proper meaning of the word perseverance. Hopefully I'll get to write a proper acknowledgement page someday. Whether I do or not is never really going to matter. What matters to me is that's one off the bucket list. A few more to go yet. Who ever knows whats around the next corner for us all? I'm sure Booker will be keeping up with things here for quite the while yet. He's been missing his rants of late. This growing up is a little hard to do.

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May 2010

Directions May 16, 2009 I finally typed the words 'The End' late last week. Finally finishing a piece of work that took many many hours over a long period of time to complete. Booker's World. To be truthful when you start writing something as a positive move forward to a stagnant life, but begin it as an angry ranter with borderline negativity syndrome, one certainly did questions ones will at points. But bore from that is a completed fiction novel totally 110,000 words, and I finally managed to plot a structure and say what I needed to say in a way that did not call other people to arms over the sorry state the nations leaders have led us into. That was Don Booker's achievement. Of course as most are aware Don is a work of fiction and I've been asked if the character will now be discontinued seen as the book is finished. I don't think I could do that to him in all honesty but although he will be still willing to out injustices as he sees fit, he'll also be off in another direction over the coming while which hopefully will make some semblance of a difference somewhere over the months ahead.

'We shot ten minutes of the movie, and now we're looking for completion funds.' Ed Wood Film Director 1924-1978

With regard the book I'm glad it's finished and I managed to unravel the story in a way that has proved pleasing to those I have trusted for an opinion. They give me the confidence now to seek out a publisher for it. So although it feels like a load of work has now been completed, I get the feeling it may only be starting so Don's new direction will also be a welcome distraction to that process. Having dealt with submissions on a script level before I kinda know what the future holds but I'm happy enough to say I will find a route into publishing even if that is as an Independent entity which is something I already admire hugely in my other area of interest in film making. But I've come to the conclusion that life's a journey and so fragile, that one really cannot be affording the wasting of time and must carry on regardless. Bold new beginnings or the rantings of a delusional? Only time will tell, but it's going to be a lot of fun heading into the coming weeks and months. When you realize you're really on your own you tend to back yourself a little more. And it's there Booker has learnt the most. Lots of fun to come. Lots of things to do. Hopefully now that the novel is complete I'll try start a writers blog sometime in the future. Got a lot of help and support from fellow scribes along the way and I've learned recently that giving a little back usually comes back to me in many returns, most of which have been positive. Hopefully I won't be as neglectful as I have been around here lately.

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May 2010

Leon sure turns up in strange places sometimes. Image - Joesistah Creative Commons License

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May 2010

Don's World 21 May, 2010 I haven't wrote about what's been happening in my world, nor the world outside lately. Where my world lies in insignificance, today is about temperatures in the twenties and a little ramble through what's been going down in Booker's World of late. It's best to start at home, where the call from the top is Ireland is on its way out of recession and will turn the corner this year. Growth however will be slow. Don't aim to high there lads! Last week seen a protest turn into a mini-coup as protesters attempted to storm the Dil. Half a dozen Gardai managed to hold them off. In fairness to them it was an admirable defense of the seat of power. While one can not condone the use of batons, one can not also condone the storming of the nations Parliament. I definitely believe in free speech and the right to protest and accept any fall out from that, but trying to force change by use of force only puts people in that practice in the same light as those who have failed us in recent times. The protest numbered about 1500 people on average and one can only get the feeling that although Ireland's people feel hard done by, the will is not there right now to protest en-mass. I reckon the people of Ireland will make their feelings felt when it comes to the next election much as they did in the UK in recent weeks when Gordon Brown's tenure in 10 Downing Street came to an end. Dave Cameron is the new prime minister and has formed an unlikely coalition with the Liberals. Given that they side on different sides of political ideal it is hard to call where this will go. As Gordon Brown makes his way back to the highlands the Miliband brothers have pitted themselves against each other for the right to lead Labour forward. Who says politics is boring? I'm partial to the odd Jeffery Archer myself, and it's obviously why the area of politics fascinates him. Over in Thailand the government is forcing their might on the people again. Oil continues to pour into the sea off the US coast and my good pal Tommy Swank text me last night from Bogota where he reckons he's chilling out while the Immigration services sort out his Stateside residency issues. Hadn't heard from Tommy in nearly a month. I was getting a little worried. Though, I'm pretty sure he's pitching me nonsense for the book. He's the mind of a writer. He just hasn't realised it yet. There seems to be moves in recent times toward a better world with the reductions in Nuclear stockpiles, health care from America's vulnerable and new measures to curtail Wall Street on their unmerciful march to stock pile all the worlds money in one bank at some stage in the future. Angela Merkel also enforced some constraints on speculators yesterday and word on the street is there is more to come. Perhaps governments are coming to the realisation it's time to show the greedy who really is in charge. Make their old 'cruiser fund' harder to grow. It's just a shame it took until now and one feels they are only token gestures and that little will change until better ways forward in governance are established. If governance continues in its present state then governance will become insignificant and it will be there mankind will stand at its peril. We only have to look around to see the rise in lawlessness across the world and it's a rapid growing phenomenon regardless of what world you are classified as.

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May 2010

Dcor Rcession Image Stefan Ray Creative Commons License

Unfortunately when people realize that they are on their own, they can act in irrational ways. Surely time has proved that to be the case. What are the government doing to reverse this? In August I'll be two years unemployed. I've applied for many jobs. Most don't even reply. But that's OK. I'm sure there busy trying to save their own skins and business.' That alone feeling is not exclusive to those with nothing much to do with their days, but try to get through it. So begins the search to find what will actually exists out there, and what support is available to those who want to make a small difference. I'm tired of the divide and rule tactics that are employed here. It seems to work though. But I'm of the belief that we Irish are at our best when we come together and unite. Making people see that and then trying to make it come about is our next great challenge as a nation. Or at the very least, it should be.

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Alzheimers May 24, 2010 During the writing of Booker's World, I dealt in part in the area of caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is the progressive nature in which memory disappears from the sufferer and as time progresses they become incapacitated and eventually require 24 hour care. Tonight, on RTE Prime Time Investigates did an expose on the disease on care levels in the country. It was an eye-opener. My own experience was drawn from my Grandfather, a published poet and an exhibited artist who got the disease in his sixties. Because I was pretty young at the time my memories were of visits to him at his home where family members and his good wife took care of him, as he slowly succumbed to the disease. It was a time when I witnessed first hand his slow decline from someone who constantly worked on his artistic endeavors, his love of music, all of which slowly left him. As did most things. There were times when it was quite humorous especially when his mind went way back, sometimes to his childhood and regaled stories of his youth and of people past. They were nice times despite the condition. He spent his final months in the care of a home where he died after six months, an event i witnessed personally and certainly removed any fear of death I may have had up to that point. It was incredibly serene and peaceful. Tonight's expose was again an eye-opener and it seems the condition is now hitting people as young as people in their forties. We were shown the struggle of families trying to cope with it and the problems they face when it comes to liaising with the HSE, the health service so often subject to ridicule in this country mainly due to the stewardship of Mary Harney, who in my opinion is just one of many ministers incapable of doing the job they are so well paid to do. That is the failure of the political classes of our time. People suffering terribly as their own existences grind to a halt in an effort to care for their loved ones as they loved ones decline. Some get a few hours assistance during the week. Many don't. Some have been quoted prices for home care in excess of 5,000 a month for private care. Another example of greed over people and despite all this nation of ours has been through in recent years, a capitalistic approach is still the one the government pursue. Capitalism without no social conscious. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, brain and spinal cord disorders, diabetes, cancer, at least 58 diseases could potentially be cured through stem cell research, diseases that touch every family in America and in the world. Rosa DeLauro Our health system is based on what money who have in your bank account as opposed to what people suffer from. It's free if you wait. Of course, third world countries have worse. With the wastage of tax payers money in this country over the past 15 years not to mention the corruption which largely goes ignored, it's a sickening show-up on policies in this country and truly shameful. So as families suffer long term without care and those who sit on trollies in hospital tonight, the government continue to cut beds in our hospitals. It's a shameful and sickening state of affairs and one which any member who implements these things should be truly ashamed of. Sadly in the country we live in, they really don't seem to care. Shame on them.

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Journey Towards Publication May 26, 2010 Booker wouldn't be Booker unless he said something about the weather. In fact he wouldn't be Irish if he didn't either! It's been sweltering here since the early part of last weekend with the odd exception of a nice breeze which serves to brown up the skin on its delighted, if somewhat miffed subject matter. I've been taking a short rest bite these past few days attempting to build up a little energy reserve for the battles ahead. I've been trying to buzz up a little enthusiasm for a little venture i want to explore on the side to possibly get me off the dole queue and contributing positively. It's been filling my time and as always one who wants to rush forward, the need to lift this thing off the ground is not happening fast enough. But it will I'm sure. Just gotta keep plugging way. I hope the will exists amongst others. I'm really hopeful of getting away from the bitter version of Don that existed just 10 short months ago. The book I wrote served to fix the mind set on some goals. Trying to take action in a stagnate place was never going to be easy. Then again, when did Booker ever do anything easy. The route to find a publisher/agent has begun. Researching submission guidelines is an ordeal especially when add in a broadband speed that runs faster than Heather Hills. No offense, Heather. I am surprised that there are many agents now willing to accept queries via e mails. My own here at home don't seem to give a hoot. I found this to be very true with screenplays in the past and the lack of response is a little disheartening, though expected. I'm glad to say others from the States and the UK take a far more professional and prompt approach, and a few offers to read opening chapters have been accepted, so one is pretty pleased with that. Whether there is enough therein to attract them to read the rest remains to be seen. It was nice to drop off submissions into letterboxes these past few days.

Waiting Image - Cindy Seigle Creative Commons License

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Forgetting Directions

May 2010

I have a proofreader working hard on things I may have missed. This will be invaluable should i eventually decide to go it alone. I want to keep this blog chirpy for a while with the odd exception of venting some anger by the way of those people that are currently running the country. Nothing much to say at the moment, but the country continues to leak jobs and the Dublin Dockland authority are to be investigated over the sale of some bottling plant for an astronomical amount of money. The Dockland Authority are currently paying 5 million euro interest a YEAR on their side of the deal and the whole things smells of the state adding to its property portfolio at the expense of the tax payer sometime soon. Corruption cost ex-Justice Minister Ray Burke a whole 6 months of his life in years gone by. So let's be honest, the only people profiting from all this will be those heading up 'committee's' and solicitors. But then that's how we work in this country. Plenty of coffer bulging opportunities for a few while the rest pick up the tab. The country is going absolutely no-where and it's sad to see. But hopefully one can get out and make a pitch to make a difference.

Cowboys and Bankers Image Gravity X9 Creative Commons License

So I hope to keep a better eye on the blog in the coming days and weeks ahead of my multidollar three book deal from Barnes & Nobel. It's best to keep busy and most of all, grounded. Though I reckon there's about as much chance of that happening as good ol' Eire taking home the World Cup in July. Still, it's always good to dream...

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Afterward
This series is a comment on issues in Ireland. They are covered in real-time against the backdrop of what is really happening in Ireland at the time.

The series covers events as they happen through the eyes of the fictional Don Booker, an unemployed recluse as he attempts to write himself through his personal woes and an Ireland in decline.

The novel, Booker's World is separate from this series of ebooks, though both worlds collide at certain juncture as the months go by. An ebook version of the novel will be available in Spring, 2012. For those following the ebook month-on-month story, Booker's World will fill in all the gaps. All ebooks in this series may be used for reference and may be distributed freely once adhering to this Creative Commons License. Please credit the author.

Why Free?
Subject matter such as suicide, alcoholism, civil liberties, politics, religion, amongst others, are covered throughout the series. A talking society is a healthy society. Please support Suicide Prevention Services and Depression and Addiction Services whenever possible. Continuing negative statistics in the areas of Suicide, Depression & Addiction at a time of national austerity means that every single donation counts in the fight against all three.

Images licensed under various Creative Commons License's Links to artists under relevant images

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May 2010

Also by the writer

In this series... in order 5 Days in September Deathly Quotes November Nightmares Absurdities Purjurious Times

Novel by Noel Farrell

Booker's World Novella Sonny Strange

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Forgetting Directions

May 2010

Publicaton

JaSE

2010
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