For a long time, I’ve been thinking about adapting some of my plays into short stories and novels and I’ve finally decided to stop thinking about it and do it. Yes, I’m following the age-old advice of Nike – Just do it! There can be wisdom in marketing.
And so I’ve decided to spend more time in Langford to start with and to see what characters I’ll meet and what stories they’ll tell. At least that was the plan, but things have changed and now I’m taking a bit of a break from writing. There are other priorities that require my attention, and so I’ll be concentrating on those.
But you never know when inspiration might strike and I find myself writing another chapter or two for this or some other project. And besides I still have a drawer full of unfinished plays including an adaptation of Treasure Island and several other original plays including The Hemingway Solution, Wild Rose Radio, and Second Chances that are quietly waiting for me. Perhaps one day I’ll finish them. Whether I do or not I doubt makes much of a difference to the universe. I just appreciate the chance to have written some plays and shared them with the world. If I finish nothing else at least I finished those and I’m proud of the work I’ve done.
Stories from Langford – Every town has its secrets
From the blistering heat of summer to the arctic chill of winter a motley group of citizens from Langford tell stories from their lives: stories about jealousy, revenge, love, and forgiveness.
There’s Mitch a failed novelist who finds himself stuck ghostwriting self-help books such as How to Make a Million Bucks In Real Estate by Working Five Hours a Week instead of finishing the novel he started years ago. Frustrated with his life he’s planning on getting drunk with his friends, roasting marshmallows, and burning every copy of The Story of Langford: A Century of Progress, the book he was commissioned to write by the mayor.
Then there’s Simone who’s busy getting things ready for her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary while she tells us about Debbie Fisher and how much they hated each other and how one day she took advantage of an opportunity for revenge.
And then there’s Trent Bowers busy adding a coat of yellow paint to his fence who tells us about that first summer he and his wife Tammy moved into the old neighbourhood and how every Sunday morning they’d wake up and find a dandelion bouquet wrapped in a white ribbon on the bottom step of their front porch. Turns out an old man by the name of Joshua Harcourt Dean was responsible for leaving those dandelions and one hot night in the middle of summer he exchanges a story about love for a glass of lemonade.
Those are just three of the many characters and stories you’ll encounter in Langford. Because we all love stories and according to our frustrated novelist Mitch “Stories are always about the struggle – the struggle to go after what you want or to figure out what it means to be alive or what’s worth fighting for or what we should do when we’re feeling hopeless. It’s about searching for answers and getting knocked on our ass and still having the guts to get back up again. Because it’s not about giving up. It’s about living. It’s about living with the consequences of our actions and learning from our mistakes, right? That’s what it’s about. It’s about not giving up.”
Stories from Langford is currently a work in progress and was initially a full-length play which is available for download on my plays page. The novel is an expansion of that world and the city of Langford through the addition of stories and characters.
