Day Ten - A Golden Apple

I have been cruising for the last couple of days, and wanted a temporary book cover, so am using a photo of an enigmatic door that Mick and I found in Seville all those years ago. We came across it at night, but never managed to find it again, so considered it a door to another world - something about that daunting mediaeval door, and the mystery of the missing door knocker (assuming there once was a pair).

It's still not the snappiest of titles (the generic title for this kind of conspiracy thriller has the shape "The Mozart Conspiracy", "The Aristotle Puzzle", "The Atlantis Dilemma", etc.)

Still, I might be able to weave in the theme of Eris, the Golden Apple, temptation, vanity and greed; also the fruit of immortality...

I have noticed, though the plot seems to be emerging, that I didn't choose to give my hero those skills that these type of heroes usually have - ex-SAS, or whatever.

In fact, I started with a tough female protagonist with a male sidekick, which was slightly ignoring the template, so perhaps I change her nationality, and give her a background in (say) the Israeli Army, or something.

Dunno.

Maybe just a hobby of martial arts.  I think it is important that the goodies have some nasty skills too - just like in wrestling - the goodies try to fight fairly, but the baddies keep cheating, so eventually the goodie snaps, fights dirty even better, and the crowd are on their feet.

A bit like life really.  Have you noticed how the goodies in war zones always blame the escalation on the others?  In asymmetrical warfare the rules go out the window, and suddenly we are torturing and maiming and all in the cause of peace.  Even Obama wants to "fight for peace" (sigh).

Anyway, forgetting real life, in this context it is crucial that the goodies finally outwit the baddies...but we're a long way from that at the moment.

In the old writing adage "Get your hero up a tree, throw rocks at him, get him down again" I have only just my heroes up a tree, and will begin throwing rocks right now.  That leads to chases, hide-and-seek, and all that.