I Remember

The initial idea for this novel came from a workshop I did with Rod Duncan http://www.rodduncan.co.uk/ (there's a video on the site somewhere of our group).
One of his exercises involved us 'remembering'.

I wrote at the time: I remember the first time I saw him it wasn’t the tattoos I saw but his piercing blue eyes. I remember the smell as we walked into the house for the first time. I remember when Michael disappeared from the back seat of the car. I remember the large field and the trampled corn behind the house on the ridge. I remember the pool so blue and so still in the early morning before anyone else had woken up. I remember wearing a white blouse with a black pattern on for the funeral. I remember meeting his wife and knowing it wouldn’t last. I remember Caroline when she was three stone heavier and laughed more…..

Rod then passed round a number of items and told to sniff! We were then asked to write a piece based on our feelings / memories. I wrote: When I was nearly 15 I had a friend who told me that the juice of a lemon bleached your hair. She also told me that it would be all right if we stayed out all night down the riverbank with some boys. I had believed her then as well.

This exercise set off a thousand ideas and memories, and forms the basis of the novel I hope to write in the next month.