Hello NESP. I have been working on a novel for the past 5 years and wondered if you all would be interested in reading a few pages? I have no idea how to begin to find a publisher. I am not sure the way to go. If anyone has some ideas...or would like to read the rest of the story I have it on CD and I could send you a copy. I am using a pen name, which is actually my first and my father's first name as my last name always gets butchered. Let me know if you want me to put more pages here...or PM if you'd like a free copy of my "book of CD" Yes, the tittle is taken from one of my favorite 1970's song by Bread.
next up the first 5 pages...
Everything I Own…
Chapter One 1
The story of Tatiana Nicolas Walker from the outside looking in…may appear to some as a small ordinary life. A woman just turning thirty-eight…no longer the wide-eyed girl she once was…the small wrinkles now appearing on the corner of her eyes…are the tell tale signs of laughing at life. Tiana Walker is off to be reunited with her cousin Jane Hampshire in the land they both love as much as “the amber waves of grain” where they were born.
Tiana loves the thrill and adventure of traveling…even now with the tight security. She made a promise to her beloved grandfather Papa John Calvin Smith…to share the stories she watched take place right before her eyes. To most Tiana is the middle daughter of three sisters raised just outside New York City overlooking Long Island Sound. From the day she was born, she was surrounded in everything British. Her clothes came from the Scotch House, Marks & Spencer’s, and of course Harrods. The stories read to her by her Papa Calvin and Mama Sophie came from Beatrix Potter, JM Barrie, and the like.
Even her grandparent’s home was a replica of the farm her grandfather grew up in. Her Mama Sophie’s constantly reminded Tiana, her older sister Kate and baby sister Anastasia “don’t open the door to strangers…but if Prince Charles should come to the door…make him a cup of tea and tell him…you grandmother will be home any minute.”
Mama Sophie and Nana Anna had hoped Jane would marry Prince Charles, Tiana would marry Prince Andrew…Stacy would marry Prince Edward “and we’ll all live together with the Queen at Windsor Castle!” They even instructed all their grandchildren learn how to bow, curtsy and wave…all in the royal manner “to be prepared for the unexpected.”
Tiana enjoys watching people of all lands and nations make their way through the vast complex known as Miami International Airport. A place that is almost home…her mother Aubrey Smith Nicolas was a stewardess for Sunshine Airlines…in the days just after World War II…when flying was an elegant new way to travel.
Aubrey literally walked from New York to Miami on down to Havana Cuba and back again. It was the way she and Roger Nicolas kept their courtship alive and well…in the golden age of airline travel…when Havana was the place to be in the late 1940’s early 50’s.
The airport shuttle takes Tiana past the old section of the airport where as children she and her sisters…use to fly in on the sleek 707’s. She recalled the whiff of tropical breezes as the stewardess’, as they were called back then, would open the cabin doors. They would walk down the stairs to the waiting arms of her Mama Sophie and Papa Calvin Smith…as they made their way to their winter home on Miami Beach...in the 1960’s and later their permanent home in Fort Lauderdale.
Everything I Own… 2
Now as Tiana makes her way through the two hour security check points…nearly every inch of her checked…for explosives…then to the so called people mover as it slowly moves people and their positions past the rainbow window that plays tranquil sounds as you pass…and then onto the lounge.
Having made many crossings over the past twenty years…she is able to wait in the executive lounge…where she lets the young desk clerk know…”since I am flying solo… if you need to move my seat in order to accommodate a couple or a family…I have no objections.”
The young steward returns; ”Mrs. Walker, since you were so kind to offer up your seat…you will now be seating in business class as we have had a last minute cancellation.” Taking her new ticket from the clerk… Tiana finds a quiet corner to work on her journal. A practice she has been keeping since a small girl…she has one for each new trip she takes:
“I always start off with a fresh blank leather bound book…To some a blank page can seem like an endless blizzard…but for me it is very much like a piece of marble waiting to be chipped away…revealing a life that was once trapped inside.”
As she begins to write…a gentleman in his early fifties with hair the color of her grandmothers white fox fur…piercing blue eyes and the voice of a highland dance…smiles and introduces himself…”Cameron Andrews is my name…I’ve just finished up some business here and I’m headin’ home.”
She smiled, “Tiana Walker is my name…and I am on my way to visit my family. My cousin Jane and her family in the South of England in Dorset…then I intend to stay at a cottage in Devon…I found it through an old friend…I am in need of a place to work on my next book.”
Cameron smiled, “So you’re a writer…anything I might have read?” As he puts his things down…and grabs something to drink.
Tiana smiles back, “I write under my maiden name Tatiana Nicolas, I’ve had two books published…based upon my own family history and those of the friends I have met along the way…but it has been a five year break since my last attempt at storytelling.”
Cameron and Tiana chatted for quite sometime…very nearly missing their flight…he grabs her things and they are whisked to the gate by one of those crazy vehicles you always see trying to push you out of the way. Later in her journal she wrote:
“We made it to the gate and to our respective seats…his was across on the other side of the wide bodied 747-400. The flight attendant was quite rude…which surprised me…as usually the British are so polite. She scolded me like a five year old before yanking my coat out of my arms and shoving it in the over head compartment. Someone was also sitting in the aisle seat that I was suppose to be sitting in…and he was not about to move. Suddenly out of no where Cameron came to my rescue…’the seat next to me is free, lassie.’ In seconds he had taken my lap top and small travel case and was stowing them in the overhead compartment above his very roomy bulk head seat…"
Everything I Own… 3
“I was grateful to him ‘Thank you for coming to my rescue…it is such a shame what flying has turned into…it was once such an elegant way to travel…my mother was a stewardess in the glory days of flying…she was even on the safety board that wrote the speeches we all ignore.’”
Cameron let Tiana have his aisle seat and he took the window seat…as they began to pass the old airplane hangers and carcasses of propeller planes frozen in time.
She shared with him; “My mother use to fly in one of those fixed wing prop-jobs as they use to call them…and my father was a pilot for Pan Am he first flew Clipper Ships from Coconut Grove…then from New York to London before switching to jets…they would meet up in New York, Miami or Havana and go to all kinds of places as back then it was so easy to live…they moved to the west coast where he flew for TWA”
In no time the wide bodied jumbo jet with 300 plus passengers was in the air flying over Miami Beach and the places Tiana spent much of her childhood enjoying.
Tiana and Cameron chatted away as if they had always known each other. Cam worked for General Electric and what do you know…he’s an engineer. Tiana confided to him ”I have such a weakness for men who can turn facts and figures into skyscrapers, ships or planes…I come from a long line of men who worked miracles disguised as architects, graphic designers and mechanical engineers…some how that gene missed me.”
As they talked Cameron said he was a widower…he had lost his dear wife Sheila to cancer…just five years ago…he pulled out the faded black and white photo of a young Royal Naval officer and his red headed pixie of a wife…”I met my little Sheila at a party when I was stationed in Plymouth…we lads were the guest of honor in the magical seaside town of Salcombe on the Devonshire coastline…I took one look into her Irish emerald green eyes…and never loved another woman again…I miss her more than words can ever be written.”
Tiana wrote later, “My heart broke for this stranger who had become an instant friend…I listened as he shared more of his story of being at sea and his sweet little Sheila being home with their ever growing family”
Cameron continued, “I made it home enough for us to have four strapping lads!” To which he pulled out another photo this one taken in the late 60’s with four red headed lads, his red headed pixie wife…and Cameron whose hair had just begun to turn the silver-white it is now…”Four boys will make any mans hair go white…that it if he’s still blessed to have hair at all!”
They talked for hours…never bothering to watch the movie or listen to the various audio selections for their listening pleasure. Tiana shared with Cameron the story of her own loss of her husband, also five years ago. “Trey and I grew up next door to each other, he died suddenly of a brain aneurysm, and I too miss him more every day.” Cameron looked at the photo of the young blonde American aviator and his dark haired bride dressed in a vintage gown from the 1920’s.
Everything I Own……4
Cameron asked her what her new book was to be about, and she smiled…”the story of my Trey and the stories of other service men…and continue research for a future book based on my maternal grandparents. It is one I will never get tired of hearing or telling…my great uncle John Wesley Nelson and my grandfather John Calvin Smith…both passed away a few years ago…and like your dear wife…I miss them also beyond words.” Tiana pulls out her favorite photo of the two handsome English devils and their Italian-American vixens; taken on board RMS Olympic in 1920.
With the voice of a narrator of old Tiana shared the Story of John Wesley Nelson and John Calvin Smith two of the luckiest Brits ever to live:
“In September of 1920 my Grandmother and her sisters; who were second generation Italian-American, my Great Grand Uncle Alberto and his wife Anna Maria, had our family name changed from Morrisetti to the more respectable Bert and Mary Morris. They were just finishing up a grand tour of the old country where my dowager Great Grand Aunt Mary spent the entire time trying to marry off my Mama Sophia and her sisters my Nana Giovanna, and Nana Marina. To the disappointment of my Great Aunt…my Great Uncle spoiled his girls. He bought them each fur coats…a white fox for Sophie, a red fox for Marina and a silver fox for Anna. They were in Southampton waiting to board the White Star Lines first gigantic ship the Olympic…the older sister of the ill fated sister Titanic. Marina, Annie and Sophie had their hair bobbed to chin length. Annie had stick straight jet black hair…to Sophie’s naturally wavy hair that matched her hour glass frame…and personality. Marina was a natural red head, with the fiery temperament to match. Marina, Annie and Sophie were waiting by the pier for their uncle when Annie spotted John Wesley Nelson; he was a young navigational officer who had just signed on after five years in the Royal Navy. His hair was deep auburn and slicked back in place with the most heavenly after shave of witch hazel and lime. My Nana Annie had to hold onto my Mama Sophie as she took one look at Wes Nelson, as he was called then…in his uniform…and a smile a mile wide…she told me when I use to lie awake at nights at their house…’I knew at that moment…I would enjoy the ten days crossing the Atlantic…just knowing Wes was on board. Cal Smith, as he was called then, also just finished serving in the Royal Navy…he was a young man on his way for a new life in the new world. Sailing as a young maritime engineer to work for his uncle Prescott Walker Smith who had done well in America…and was eager to help his young nephew have a chance he never would have in the old world. As the fourth son, John Calvin Smith stood to inherit nothing…from his father’s estate…Cal Smith took one look at Sophie with her white fox, cropped hair and lips as red as a cherry…he forgot to look where he was going…and tripped over seven steamer trunks. He use to say…’I would have done it a millions times just to hear the sound of Sophie life giving laugh…she made my heart sing as never before.’
....
Everything I Own…5
“My Nana Marina spotted a gum chewing, wise cracker of a man, who was on a crew team from Cambridge. Jack Jackson had jet black hair, beautiful chocolate brown eyes and filled out his college summer wear as none other on his team. Marina was the wild eldest daughter…with Annie as the quiet middle daughter and Sophie was the bubbly baby.”
Tiana finished her verbal snap shots of her family story, “I hope to visit some of the places where my grandfather and my great uncle lived, they were both from the South of England…and both also served in the Royal Navy during World War I.”
To his credit Cameron listened to her tell the story of their time on board the incredible ocean liner. Tiana paused for air, “I have photos and souvenirs from their many crossings…even after they had married and eventually had many children…they continued their love affair with the sea; annually on less grand cruise liners.”
After listening to Tiana babble for quite sometime…it was her turn to learn about Cameron McAfferty Andrews…a Scots through and through:
“Even though I was based originally in Plymouth and Portsmouth…my family clan lived on a small community off Glasgow on the Isle of Butte. We chose to raise the boys there…in the fresh air and near my family…as I would be away so much. it was good for Sheila to have my mum and sisters to lean on while I was away…as a submariner at the hight of the Cold War, you never know when you may not come back…and we’d head over to her large family in Dublin on holidays. Things were tough in the 70’s when the economy was so poor and being in the service was a sure way to get your car bombed. Havin’ my family for protection…they were quite sheltered from the dangers many service families faced. Also you Yanks had Fastlane; your submarine base that was not supposed to exist…nearby…it was a grand time…as both our Navies were focused on submarine warfare. I had a double life…the one for my mates on board the subs and another when I was blessed to be home again. I left the submarine service just after the First Persian Gulf War…with all the cutbacks and the not so cold war….mates and jobs were being cut left and right. I did not want that to happen to me. On one occasion when I traveled to Florida on HMS Trenchant…when we were doing exercises in the trenches off Fort Lauderdale…I met a retired RN submariner who had a grand job with company helping to build the next generation of nuclear submarines on both sides of the Atlantic.
He made me an offer too wonderful to pass up…now I travel every six months back and forth…and still get to keep an eye on the lads at sea. All of my lads are in the service. Ian is on board a destroyer based in Plymouth. Neil flies Harriers for one of the carriers based in Portsmouth and the twins Kevin and Keith are both in the Scots Guards.”
author's note...that's the first 5 pages...if you would like me to post more...please let me know. I dont want to take up too much space on you servers. I have to go back to my day job and most likely wont be back until the evening...until then this is you NESP Storyteller bidding you a Taylorized day! SOULPATROL....whooooo, hooooo
If you would like a copy of this "still a work in progress" book or its three siblings...I'd be happy to send you a copy on CD. Just PM you snail mail...and someday maybe these stories will find their way to a book store near you. Two of the book were written two years before Taylor came into our lives...and yet it was as if my soul knew his soul would be coming into orbit...as it is uncanny how a few of the characters could Taylor in a different time and space. My only defense for this is...the english side of his family. I have many dear freinds you have a similar nature to Taylor in various aspects. Or else my angels have been working with his angels. Peace & Love...Barbie