Strong-hearted stories, dark & funny

63.WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

REVIEW:-  Everything is beautiful and Nothing Bad can ever Happen Here, a novella by Michael Wehunt.

The subject-matter of the novella, ‘Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Bad can ever Happen Here,’ written elegantly and with perception by Michael Wehunt, is not something many writers would attempt to engage with these days. The story centres around Bea Holcombe, a quietly-spoken Christian woman living in the small town of Fontaine Falls, who embarks upon a terrible journey of discovery, assisted by a band of gruesome, yet somehow pathetic phantoms. What Bea finds out, leaves her conflicted as the horrors she can both physically see and those she comes to understand, unfold before her.

The crucial scenes take place on the other side of the fence dividing the Holcombe property from the next-door neighbour, and Bea, in her quest to understand, is frequently drawn to that fence. As a consequence, she comes to grasp the reality of what one aspect of the small and pleasant town is really like, and she is compelled to look closely at the lives of those around her, and in the end, at her very own. As the darkness in Fontaine Falls is revealed, she attempts to do the right thing, but seems scarcely to know what that really is, and in that context, the phrase, ‘I’m sure she’s here as part of the concerned community,’ stands out vividly from the page.

A final shock awaits her, and what is revealed is something she tries in vain to fight against. At the same time, she must accept the idea that she is also complicit in the darkness, and she hopes that her children’s eyes will be ‘… open and looking at the world.’ The ending to this grim, yet rather tender and sad tale — while many readers might wish it had been different— is brave in its attempt at realism.

 

 

WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA DIARY ENTRIES.

This is my last entry for the journal I kept over the time in 2017 that I was writing the first draft of this novel which I am hoping will be published by the end of this year.

April 22nd 2017
Huzzah! I finished the first draft of the novel this morning. I wrote the horrific scene in a rush, but it was a rush of feeling, and I didn’t read it back again. Sometimes, I find, in fact quite often in writing this kind of material, that it’s best not to edit the first writing of those chilling moments because they have a jagged freshness and spontaneity about them, the style of which itself lends horror to scene. I do have a second ending in mind, if it looks to be necessary in a further draft, but where I ended it today was my first choice of ending. Now I can read, research stuff that I should know, not do anymore writing for a while and remember that the rest of the world exists.

62. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

April 21st 2017:- I have reached the big scene in the book, but felt as if I couldn’t write it this morning. I don’t know if I have to be in a particular mood to do it, or if I’m just scared of it and don’t want to start yet. I’ve got to though, this wholeContinue Reading

61. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

April 20th 2017; I had to go back and slip in a section that was consequence of one of the conversations between my main male character and his friend… I’d forgotten about it and left it hanging, and then remembered it in the night last night. I’m up to chapter 27, and I’m working atContinue Reading

60. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

April 19th 2017: I have 73, 650 words and I’m very close to the end now, there is really one almighty scene left to unfold, and yet it might not be quite the right ending, might leave the reader high and dry and kind of frustrated, so I have thought of another ending which isContinue Reading

59 WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

April 18th, 2017:- So, I’m writing again. I got over the difficult part, but I don’t know whether it was difficult because I had become tired, or it was difficult and so making me tired. One thing I have noticed over this project that while I know what I’m doing and where the story isContinue Reading

58. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

I’ve been putting these diary notes up here for some long time now, so it’s time I said that THE CHILD CEPHALINA will be published at the end of this year, and you can be sure that I’ll flash it up here when it is. In the meanwhile, the following is what I wrote aboutContinue Reading

57. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

11th and 12th April 2017:- I opened the manuscript yesterday, and started to write one of the most important scenes and certainly the second most difficult, and within one half hour, I couldn’t go on with it. Usually, I would persist though some inner rebellion of this kind. This time I didn’t, I really feltContinue Reading

56. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

April 10th 2017:- Still going and still writing about 1,000 words a day. The word count is now up to 68 thousand. I feel tired though and sense that I’ll be embellishing these last few days’ work quite a bit when I start on the second draft. In my tiredness, I have a lot lessContinue Reading

55. WRITING THE CHILD CEPHALINA

April 8th 2017:- On thinking about the novel last night, it suddenly occurred to me that in order to be able to use the new idea I had yesterday I was going to have to go back and change certain things to make it fit. It wasn’t a huge amount of work, but did wonderContinue Reading

Writer Rebecca Lloyd