Cretaceous Canyon: A Prehistoric Thriller by Deborah Sheldon

Author:Deborah Sheldon [Sheldon, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2023-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

8

Mark Moretti contemplated his memoir. Where to begin?

The obvious choice was in medias res: Base Camp, when they first heard Ryan’s terrible cries. Wow, what an explosive opening chapter! But wait, that meant he would have to stop the action to feed in the back story. No getting around that, since how the hiking team had come to this canyon in the first place was essential information. Merda. That would make the medias res chapter feel disconnected because of its faster pacing. Unless it was a prologue? Yes, that might be an option… The only problem being that the reader, his or her interest whetted by the opening action scene, could get impatient and pissed off by the slower exposition that followed until the back story caught up to events described in the prologue.

No go. Structurally, using Base Camp as the first chapter wouldn’t work.

Besides, Moretti had a professional mantra that had served him well over the many years of his chequered journalistic career: always tell the story in chronological order unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise.

All right. Chapter One would be Alastair Campbell’s first contact with Moretti via email.

No, no, too static. An email? Pfft, how shit-boring would that be?

Okay then, Chapter One would be…the meeting on the 84th floor of Devi Industries.

Moretti nodded to himself and smiled as he felt the familiar rush of a writing idea taking shape. An important consideration: he would need time to establish the players, otherwise the reader would get confused by the different names and job titles. How many characters? Actually, too many. Himself writing in first person point-of-view, then Alastair, Ryan, Sophie, James, Gloria, Vivienne. That’s seven in total. Come to think of it, he’d have to include Raj Devi, the catalyst for this whole enterprise. No, this whole fuck-up, Moretti reminded himself, as if coming awake.

What the hell was he even thinking? A memoir? Jesus, he’d be lucky to get out of this jam in one piece. Moretti touched his clammy, sweating forehead. Nearby was the campfire, James and Sophie making spears, Vivienne leaning her back against a gum tree. Around them, the call of prehistoric animals. Forget the memoir. He’d plan it out once he got back home. If he got back home. Right now, he had to focus on their current predicament, which was pretty fucking dire.

At least his mind had cleared.

Vivienne had accused him of having a heart attack, but no, it’d been over-exertion, that’s all, from the strain of the river crossing. He was fine. His ticker was just fine and dandy. Moretti ran his hand through his greying hair and was disconcerted at the amount of sweat on his scalp, considering the cool spring weather.

No, he was not having a heart attack.

His father, aged 52, had dropped dead of cardiac arrest at the family-owned barber shop, yes, but Mark Junior was not Marco Senior, even though Mark at 54 was now the older man. Age didn’t matter when it came to heart

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