In the Midst
I have several conflicting ideas for plots and have been strugglig to separate them and continue with some rational lines of thought. Some I have been struggling with for a few years and onthers are more recent. For those who know that I have written several books about a retired homicide detective from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I have two plots I am struggling with. One plot is complicated like a bowl of spaghetti and I can’t untangle it. The other is more written for Tommy Minerd’s wife Cora and I need more study on self defense for women before I get too deep into it.
There is another plot character named Luigi Garibaldi, a gambler on the run from a cuckolded casino boss. I used him to complete a story in a book with several other writers as a money raiser. This story was loosely based on a missionary trip driving from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania through the northeast into Canada and the trip by ship from Newfoundland and up the coast of Labrador. The book-in-the- making uses Luigi as the center character finding out about a shceme of two brothers who are collecting roadkill and pets to sell in their butcher shop and restaurant. Another story in the works with him that is almost finished is about stolen religious items: a Torah, an Iconic Mother and Christ Child painting, an early printing of a Bible, and two Native American ceremonial masks.
I also have a book that I’ve written and need to polish it. The plot centers is the same story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible, but being told by the person who was beaten and left for dead. The twist is that the thief hanging on the cross beside Jesus was the robber who assaulted him. The plot weaves around meeting Jesus and seeing Jesus forgive the thief that had left him for dead.
I have several short nostalgic stories that tell poignant fictional tales of yesteryear that I want to put together in an album. Some are make-a-person-feel-good stories while several of the others tug at the reader’s heartstrings.I may need several more to bind enough to make a thin book.
The latest attempt I am writing is about a fictional trapper named Curtis and a big brute of a dog named Maude. It relays their adventures in the mountain wilderness and their struggles to survive the harsh winter weather. In a way it is like the book Robinson Caruso in that Curtis finds a Native American near death and helps him back to health to become a helpmate and friend.
I wonder how many if any I will be able to finish.