Forgetful Directions

8/3/2019 Forgetful Directions

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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

Distribute freely usingCreative Commons License 2
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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 seenthrough

Don Booker's eyes.

May2010

Who's Don Booker?

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And So The End Is NearMay 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 allmy 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 upwith things here for quite the while yet. He's been missing his rants of late. This growing up is a

little hard to do.

http://volumes/Noels%20partition/And%20So%20The%20End%20Is%20Near...%20http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/3727278633/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://volumes/Noels%20partition/And%20So%20The%20End%20Is%20Near...%20http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/3727278633/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en_GB


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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'sachievement.

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 allhonesty 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 hasproved 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 thefeeling it may only be starting so Don's new direction will also be a welcome distraction to thatprocess.

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'vecome 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 alot 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 starta 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.

http://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/slight-change-of-direction.htmlhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/slight-change-of-direction.html


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Leon sure turns up instrange places sometimes.

Image - Joesistah


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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 adozen 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 andaccept 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 coalitionwith 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 pittedthemselves 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 fromBogota where he reckons he's chilling out while the Immigration services sort out his Statesideresidency 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 Nuclearstockpiles, 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 streetis 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 willchange 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.

http://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/world-according-to-don.htmlhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/world-according-to-don.html


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Dcor Rcession

Image Stefan RayCreative 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 ofvisits 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 slowlyleft 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 fearof 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 itand 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. Thatis 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 inrecent years, a capitalistic approach is still the one the government pursue. Capitalism without nosocial 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 thewastage 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.

http://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/alzheimers.htmlhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/alzheimers.html


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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 somewhatmiffed 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 asalways 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 versionof 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 theStates 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 intoletterboxes these past few days.

Waiting

Image - Cindy SeigleCreative Commons License

http://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/journey-toward-publication.htmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/109231996/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/05/journey-toward-publication.htmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/cindy47452/109231996/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en_GB


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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 theway 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. Solet'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 isgoing 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


So I hope to keep a better eye on the blog in the coming days and weeks ahead of my multi-

dollar 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 theWorld Cup in July. Still, it's always good to dream...

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AfterwardThis series is a comment on issues in Ireland. They are covered in real-time against the backdrop

of what is really happening inIreland 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 woesand 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'sLinks to artists under relevant images



13/14


Also by the writer

In this series...

in order

5 Days in September

Deathly QuotesNovember Nightmares

Absurdities

Purjurious Times

Novel by Noel Farrell

Booker's World

Novella

Sonny Strange

http://www.scribd.com/doc/75479957/5-Days-in-Septemberhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75507353/Deathly-Quoteshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75580732/November-Nightmareshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75615281/Absurditieshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75715660/Purjurious-Timeshttp://fbooker.blogspot.com/p/bookers-world-novel.htmlhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en_GBhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75479957/5-Days-in-Septemberhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75507353/Deathly-Quoteshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75580732/November-Nightmareshttp://fbooker.blogspot.com/p/bookers-world-novel.htmlhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75615281/Absurditieshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/75715660/Purjurious-Times


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AJaSEPublicaton

2010


Documents

Forgetful Directions