Of the various projects hereabouts, the oldest started twenty years ago when I was drinking at the Grand View , engaging in extensive whimsical character assassination in the company, among others, of the late John Lester. As a diversion from more serious topics of conversation, the discussion frequently turned to the consequences should Lester achieve his long-held ambition to take out the Lotto. Being of a speculative nature, I began to suggest various likely scenarios, some of which found their way into Dirty Work At The Crossroads. While there isn’t that much actual Dirty Work at the old Crossroads Motel per se, the title gives the possibility of sequels about Desperate Days, Dire Deeds or Damnable Degeneracy.
Readers amiliar with the various individuals who frequented that establishment at the time may notice similarities between some of those individuals and characters in this little work of fiction. The most notable of those was, of course, the late Lester. Unlike Gordon Jeffrey, Lester went to his grave with his lifelong ambition of winning the Lotto entirely unfulfilled.
Unlike David Herston, I have also failed in that quest. Neither have I ever purchased a motel with a view of converting it into a place of residence.
All the characters and events in the story are tailored to fit the requirements of the plot line and should in no way be regarded as having any basis in actual reality. Issues surrounding characterisation are discussed at length here.
As far as the story itself is concerned, you probably don’t want to get the whole thing in its whole close-to-four hundred-page splendour, but if you do, you can download The Whole Novel. That file exists because in that framework I can do a global change should I decide to change a recurring detail. It’s also available as an iPad/tablet-friendly ePub. You need to be using the web browser on your tablet to get the file to work the way it should. When prompted, ‘Open in iBooks’ (or whatever ePub friendly app you have installed on the tablet). This does not seem to include Amazon’s proprietary Kindle app.
Given an improbable plot line and Hughesy’s long-windedness you may not want to read the whole thing in all its gory detail. With the whole thing weighing in at over 200,000 words and three hundred A4 pages, potential readers probably don’t want to download the whole box and dice, but the possibility is there should you feel so inclined. A slightly less bulky alternative involves a section by section option, with four fairly self explanatory choices.
Orientation
The introductory bit stretching from David Herston’s arrival in the coastal North Queensland town of Denison to the point in the story where he and his partner in crime succeed in taking out the big one in a Saturday night Lotto draw.
Development
Takes the story from the point where Herston and Jeffrey have collected their fortune to their return from an overseas jaunt.
Complication
Carries on from the point where Herston and Jeffrey return from an overseas jaunt to the stage where complicated matters are in desperate need of resolution.
Resolution
Is, predictably, where the issues that developed over the preceding sections find themselves more or less sorted out.
The four sections are lengthy documents, and when I’ve finished any revisions readers will be able to download and read Chapter By Chapter, but that may not happen for a while.
All files are PDFs.
