Monday, May 28, 2007

We've All Got Choices

Written by Thomas Hamburger Jnr from Harry McFry Investigates

If anyone ever told Harry McFry he could make choices in life, then he’s forgotten. Sometimes, he feels like he’s just drifting through life. That’s why, at the age of 46, Harry finds himself confronting his former lover in a bar in Madrid, having met her for the first time in five years. There’s a lot going on that Harry doesn’t seem to understand … it’s all just, well… a bit beyond him. He’s out of his depth, swimming against a tide of history he’s never fully acknowledged. Which is strange, for a former historian.

But that’s Harry for you. He likes to think he’s ‘sorted’, even though there’s a string of people (mainly women) who would gladly take to the dock to attest differently.

Just now, he’s working on a case that’s looking like the kind of mystery you wouldn’t want the responsibility of solving. It’s family stuff – hidden secrets, jealousies, fears and even a bit of hatred all mashed up together. And it all started with a phone call from young Laurel McFry (no relation) who had ‘lost’ her family. Except it wasn’t quite as simple as that…

Now, he finds himself confronting some uncomfortable things from his own family past. A brother who’s managed (somehow) not to mention to Harry that he’s taken up with his ex-girlfriend’s sister. What kind of brother does a thing like that?

Meanwhile, there’s a 102 year old woman in Shropshire, England, who holds the key to the mystery of Laurel’s missing family. She won’t be around much longer (that’s an actuarial certainty), and Harry McFry knows it.

Things might have all been very different if, five years ago, he hadn’t walked out on Ana. She’s got her own secrets (of course) and her own reasons for keeping them from Harry. She’d be the first to say that Harry had a choice when he left her, even if, to him, it hadn’t seemed like a choice at all. Any objective reader of Harry’s story would conclude that the path he took was the wrong one. In fact, (if truth be known) he’s beginning to think that, himself. So there’s hope yet, for Harry…

Sometimes it takes the mess of someone else’s family to make you realize these things. That’s family history for you. If you think you can help Harry solve the mystery of the missing family, then you’re welcome to join him. He might just need a push, if he’s to find the right path.

Thomas Hamburger Jnr has been writing Harry McFry Investigates since the end of January 2007. Variously described as ‘derivative drivel’ and ‘inspired’, the story is about to reach what just may be an exciting conclusion. This is Thomas Hamburger Jnr’s first attempt at fiction, and he has chosen to write it via a blog because (as he says) ‘blogs are the enemy of procrastination’.

Labels: ,

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You tease! This is the first I've heard of your work, and I am already dying to know what happens..Now I have to go subscribe and find out! LOL..Well done!

May 28, 2007 at 7:03 AM
Maude Lynn said...

Very cool. After the very hot post I read the other day, I'm trying to catch up on Harry's story!

May 28, 2007 at 9:08 AM
Not From Lapland said...

Mama Zen, I feel you there. I need to find a day where I can just go through all the past posts and get up to date with Harry McFry rather than just keep reading the recent ones but not knowing the back story.

However, I think I would have to invent some sort of time standing still machine to manage that at the moment!

May 28, 2007 at 9:23 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh dear, you're suckering me in, too!

May 28, 2007 at 5:17 PM
Bill Blunt said...

Thank you for your kind comments. Rocky is the road to writing a novel on a blog... it's nice to know someone's reading it!

I have averagely-broad shoulders, so please don't hold back on any criticisms - so many readers have helped me tweak the story over the last couple of months, that it makes me see the advantage of the blog.

May 29, 2007 at 2:41 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Featured Post and Blog of the Week



You Are Here
by Amie from MammaLoves...

You did well in school to get into college. You tried to get by well enough in college to be attractive to an employer or graduate program, and along the way you may have opened your heart a time or two. Maybe you even found true love.

With a foot in the door, the first years of work were the time to
prove your mettle once again. Promotions, raises all with the goal to secure your future will allow you to settle down, buy a house, travel, commit to a relationship, have kids or not. In what feels like a blink of an eye, your future is here.

And now what?

Read the full post...

Chance Favors Only Those Who Court Her

by Debbie from Missives from Suburbia


After a less-than-friendly divorce, I was on the market again. Seizing the opportunity, my friends scoured their address books and Palm Pilots for single men and set me up on blind date after blind date. My reaction to most of those dates was, "I call these people my FRIENDS?" One of my real friends suggested Match.com, and given how much I love the Internet, I gave it a go.

A couple months of e-dating passed by in a blink. It was fun, but so far nothing meaningful had hit my radar, and my match inventory was starting to run low. You see, Match.com "matches" you to people based on a list of your requirements, and I'd pretty much run through all my existing matches who didn't seem psycho or stoned, based on their profiles.

Then, one day, I got an email from a guy who was not a match by my standards...

Read the full post...

A Lost Opportunity

by John from Altjiranga Mitjina


Trying to break in as a writer in the comic book industry can be a bit like the one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Every step forward you make means you land on your butt after your kick forward. Comic books are a visual medium. An artist can bring a portfolio to an editor at a convention and said editor can sit there and look at it within minutes and decide if this artist is worthy of working on the newest issue of Stupendous Man or not. Trying being a hopeful writer handing over a script to this same editor at a busy comic convention. You’ll be lucky if the editor agrees to take the script and promise that they’ll look at it later. Most times the hopeful writer is told to send for their submission guidelines and mail in their proposal.

The best way for a writer is to find an aspiring artist and hook up...

Read the full post...

Jesus Toothpaste!

by Karen Rayne from Adolescent Sexuality Today with Karen Rayne, Ph.D.


This weekend I went out of town, leaving my family to fend for themselves. On Saturday, my darling husband took my two darling daughters – 6 and 3 years old – to what he heard was a fun new toy store in town. Great, right?

They walk in the door, and the 6-year-old pipes up with “Look, Daddy! Jesus toothpaste!” He takes one look, puts one hand on each girl’s shoulder, and does a 180 out of the store. It may be a fun new toy store, but it’s intended clientele does not include the under-13 set.

When I got home on Sunday, the first thing the 6-year-old says to me was, “Guess what! We saw Jesus toothpaste!” I blinked, figuring I hadn’t heard her correctly. Regrettably, I had...

Read the full post...

A biker, a green thumb, a cracked hand, and a Queen.

by Megan from Velveteen Mind, originally guest posted at Queen of Spain


A random biker on a Harley-Davidson took my picture last week. What I wanted to do was take his picture, but I hesitated. Now, instead of a photo of some random biker holding an i am bossy.com bumper sticker, all I have is a lame photo of me holding the bumper sticker and the mental picture of him riding off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Okay, it wasn’t as romantic or dramatic as that. It was nine in the morning and there was no sunset.

This is not the first time that I have hesitated to seize an opportunity. I don’t expect it will be the last. However, I hope with each lost chance for something intriguing, I will lose a shade of that hesitation for next time...

Read the full post...