tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52226551596945794842024-03-07T19:11:18.472-08:00FruitionOfficial blog and serialisation of the four-part epic novel by Steve LawSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.comBlogger181125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-69379609718591605872014-04-28T09:10:00.001-07:002014-04-28T09:10:25.194-07:00The End?
Well that's it folks.
I don't know if anyone has been following this but if you have I'd love to hear from you. I'm not sure what to do next - get it properly formatted and uploaded on Lulu and Kindle I guess, then it's all about PR and I haven't a clue about that. Don't people pay people to handle that sort of thing for them?
Steve X
Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-59998133713511933252014-04-28T08:54:00.001-07:002014-04-28T08:58:09.701-07:00Journey XV – In Paradisum
I think I’m going to leave it at that. It must be a year since that evening with Kevin after we’d been down on the beach all day, making sure everything was battened down, ready for the storm, and it’s been a good year for me – working in the fields two or three days each week, going out with Kevin on his boat, bringing home tuna and shark, lobster and abalone. A friend of his, Mari, has taughtSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-85760022620316110312014-04-28T08:42:00.000-07:002014-04-28T08:44:38.905-07:00Voyage XV – Love life
As the afternoon progresses the weather brightens and the guitarists (it turns out there are two of them) materialise and give us some flamenco, laced with a little Senegalese spirit. At one point they ask if anyone can play percussion and Wen drags me up by the armpit and shouts ‘Here, here. He can.’
They’ve got some of those little tin Arab drums from somewhere and I rather self-consciously Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-42538546587796600052014-04-11T08:17:00.000-07:002014-04-11T08:17:08.674-07:00Alison XVII – The Long and Winding Road
‘What happened to your sisters in the end?’ begins Alison the next and final time we meet.
‘Oh that was interesting’ I say, relieved to be able to change the subject. ‘Justine ended up a lesbian, or at least, I think she was bi but she found men just too unreliable.’
I can still see her that last time I was with her at the hospital, with her wife there (it still seems strange to call Stacy thatSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-56217799147296326852014-04-11T07:49:00.000-07:002014-04-11T07:49:37.659-07:00Voyage XIV – Utopian
Two more days to go, at the most. There are thickly forested hills to port and innumerable craggy islands to starboard, wider at the top than at the base and much taller than we are, like the titanic prows of fossilised aircraft carriers run aground in the shallow tropical waters, each with its own improbable topknot of jungle spilling over the sides. Huge flocks of sea birds swirl about among Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-43142382551774491852014-04-11T07:30:00.000-07:002014-04-11T07:30:01.136-07:00Journey XIV – Women
I remember the disembarkation quite well. It had rained solidly for two days and the guides told us they couldn’t wait any longer so we collected our few belongings and the kit that had been supplied for us and dropped into the little boats ready to take us ashore. The guy manning the tiny buzzing out-board smiled but said nothing and after a quick ride up past a headland we came into a wide Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-48345803280317584022014-03-28T11:31:00.000-07:002014-04-11T04:04:39.498-07:00Alison XVI – Vikki
I knew Vikki as soon as I saw her. Actually I recognised the nipples first – much too big and pink for her little up-turned boobs.
I’d just got back from a trip away with Andrea, to Morocco in fact. It was the first session of the new academic year but to be honest, I wasn’t really in the mood. I like to make out that my time with Andrea was just good dirty fun – commitment free, easy-going, no Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-24806564381781153422014-03-28T08:58:00.000-07:002014-03-28T08:58:45.213-07:00Journey XIII – Brother Peter
I was out in the fields, up to my pits in manure when Sonia appeared. I was aware of her presence even without looking up. I wasn’t ignoring her. I just wanted her to say something first. I carried on with the potatoes, earthing them up with stuff so rich and sweet you could make Christmas cakes out of it.
‘Hi Gabriel’ she said at last. I stood up and looked at her. I must have given her one Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-30603394026995017842014-03-28T08:25:00.000-07:002014-03-28T08:38:02.531-07:00Voyage XIII – The Good Life
‘Sometimes’ says Lisa, gripping her mug of coffee ‘I just can’t believe how much I didn’t know about the world, about what was going on, how much I missed.’ I take her hand and smile. Tell myself I'm just being a good friend but we both know there's more to it than that. We’re up in the bar for breakfast again, Lisa and I, as is becoming a habit. Anybody’d think we were sleeping together. She’sSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-13270023492706697912014-02-21T03:46:00.000-08:002014-02-21T03:46:29.458-08:00Alison XV – My Second Summer of Love
Andrea was a major part of my life for a long time after that. All through the late eighties and nineties we were together... more or less. Mind you, I don’t think you can ever say you can truly 'have' a woman like Andrea. She was one of the most self-possessed people I ever met. We travelled quite a bit together though, through the Middle East and East Africa. Or else we were at festivals - Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-34907556542061610342014-02-21T03:37:00.000-08:002014-02-21T03:37:16.086-08:00Voyage XII – Snake Oil and Wood Spirit
‘No, tell me’ says Raz ‘I’m genuinely interested.’
We’re in the sauna again, the four of us, inseparable. It’s the middle of the night, no one else is about and anyway, since the weather has improved outside it’s been quiet down here and we feel like it’s our space again. I don’t know why it feels so comfortable for me to be here, in a dark little wooden room, naked, with three naked women, Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-34671430626869466962014-02-21T03:12:00.000-08:002014-02-21T03:12:38.384-08:00Journey XII – Mother Mountain
A few days later Ross appeared in the early morning and without saying anything much, handed me some work boots and some leather gloves and walked with me for about half an hour along dusty lanes and through the fields to a place where they were getting the ground ready for planting. The fields were quite sizeable but divided up into strips about six feet wide with raised paths dividing them, Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-59536672688511456632014-01-01T04:06:00.000-08:002014-01-01T04:06:48.809-08:00Alison XIV – Fame and Fortune
‘So how did you do at college? Your results I mean.’ asks Alison the next time I see her. It’s raining out and we’re back in our little room again.
‘I did ok – a good 2.1. They said I was “technically very proficient and had a good eye.” I think that was their way of telling me I didn’t have much originality but there you go. Back then a lot of what was going on was about framing each other’s Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-1596997388405560052014-01-01T03:54:00.000-08:002014-01-01T03:54:32.563-08:00Voyage XI – Post viral
Lisa has met someone. It shouldn’t bother me but he seems so insipid, so weak. I think she could do better. He’s been hanging out with us up on deck, very self-consciously, being very friendly, evidently expecting me to ‘bond’ with him in some way. I haven’t been very welcoming so far I must admit. I note with relief that she stays up with us as usual when he turns in for the night. I smile andSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-82412640966071112372014-01-01T03:28:00.000-08:002014-01-01T03:28:08.126-08:00Journey XI – Sanctuary
I spend the next few days out on my own, coming home just to sleep and check the house is still there. I leave a note for Kevin or whoever so they won’t worry. Each evening I go out into the garden to find someone’s been watering my seedlings. On the fourth day I find flowers in a vase from Sonia but I still don’t think I can face her. Shouldn’t I be the one sending flowers anyway?
I decide toSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-65050372390019472682013-12-16T09:24:00.000-08:002013-12-16T09:24:26.433-08:00Alison XIII – Art
Alison makes an impatient expression and says ‘Gabriel, you might think that the rest of your story is unimportant but we have the other versions filed away somewhere and maybe someday someone will want to see what happened next and it won’t be there.’
I sit for a while and look at my hands, wondering where to start. She’s right. I can’t just leave it there like that, although I’d like to.
‘ItSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-39962128826866992972013-12-16T09:09:00.000-08:002013-12-16T09:09:41.330-08:00Voyage X – Ruthless
The day things came to a head with Ruth was a bit of a shock to all of us I think. It turned out Wen had been saving something up for her. It came out when, inevitably, the subject of all the men who’d failed to appreciate her comes around and Ruth concludes that they simply couldn’t cope with a rich, successful, and what’s more, beautiful woman (her words, not mine). Lisa nods sympathetically.Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-73063810624425763282013-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:002013-12-16T08:58:03.074-08:00Journey X – Sightseeing
Over the next few days we go back into town again, to eat, drink, see that band play, look at the sights, and generally wander around. The tall terraced buildings and the narrow stone streets winding among them, the tall windows with their shutters and curlicued railings and dangling geraniums, the little squares with their awnings and pot plants, the shade trees, the people sitting out on Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-7768288913195174982013-12-09T04:34:00.000-08:002013-12-09T04:34:26.515-08:00Alison XII – My Summer of Love
The next few months went very well, even if I say so myself. I felt intensely young and powerful, like adults say a teenager should but so rarely does. Besides all the hedonism, I even found myself for the first time in my life staying up late to finish assignments, spending hours in the library and even going to the university library for more. I didn’t do this for all the assignments, only Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-62567884947074648722013-12-09T04:14:00.000-08:002013-12-09T04:14:05.446-08:00Voyage IX – Market forces
Wen, Lisa and I are dozing in the sun up on deck. It’s busier up here but since Ruth told the rugby team about the sauna it’s rarely quiet down there any more. We sometimes go down in the middle of the night when it’s deserted but otherwise we’ve taken to staying up here. Raz and Ruth seem to be having a good time anyway. Which is not to say we aren’t. We’re just more subtle about it.
‘I don’t Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-86830145294647006082013-12-09T03:52:00.000-08:002013-12-09T03:52:07.352-08:00Journey IX – Kevin
Kevin reappears the next day. I’d begun to think he might have been a figment of my imagination but this time he brings fish, which seem real enough – big, glistening blue fish with long streamers on the pectoral fins.
‘Thought we could have a barbeque later’ he says. ‘How’ve you been?’
‘Good’ I say. ‘We went to look at the sea yesterday. I didn’t realise it was so close...’
‘Beautiful isn’t itSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-13286711833644821262013-12-02T08:48:00.001-08:002013-12-02T08:48:24.330-08:00Alison XI – The Big V
‘I’ve been thinking about your question about the jumbo jets’ says Alison as I make myself comfortable for our next session.
‘What?’
‘747s. Why don’t we just fly you all in?’
‘Oh. Ok. What did you come up with?’
‘I asked around...’ she takes a sip of her mint tea. ‘Nobody knows for certain but actually I think the answer’s obvious, given the way things work here.’
‘Or don’t work.’
‘Quite. I Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-41907995855188279402013-12-02T08:35:00.001-08:002013-12-02T08:35:30.160-08:00Voyage VIII – Politics
Later on we venture up onto deck and find loungers to watch the sunset from. It’s the first really good weather we’ve had although still threatening to rain. The sky is a beautiful turquoise colour in the west and sooty black behind us in the east. We sip our wine and sprawl about. Lisa has her book with her but it lies spread face down on her thighs. Those thighs...
Raz says ‘So Gabriel. I Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-45814172700270195022013-12-02T08:21:00.001-08:002013-12-02T08:21:08.606-08:00Journey VIII – Memories
I write it all down, what I know. Sonia arrives early in the morning to find me in the garden in the hammock, with a book and a jug of juice – juice I’ve squeezed fresh from the various fruits growing in my own back yard (and one or two that were hanging over from the orchard next door). I observe her nonchalantly as she looks for me. I’ve not been able to get into the hammock without help up Steve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5222655159694579484.post-19768190687473654672013-11-22T02:39:00.000-08:002013-11-22T02:39:51.692-08:00Alison X – Making plans for Gabriel
It was a direct result of my idea about hitching to Spain. It came out that Easter while a bunch of us were sitting in a circle on the filthy floor at James’ friends’ place, passing a joint round. I didn’t want it especially but I liked being in the circle so I took my turn. Gareth was there and Cathy and one or two of the others I knew from school, and they were talking about where they’d likeSteve Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04939837731535127700noreply@blogger.com0