Dinner Date At Mt Isa

by Ken Blowers

CHAPTER 3

  THE THIEVING EXPERIENCE

  James Paisley's writing style could be best described as realistic.

  He was proud of that and to maintain a high standard of realism in his stories, he would go to extraordinary lengths to research his novels. He was always ready and willing to interview people of certain and sometimes unusual, occupations that featured in his novels. Especially where he felt this might help him feel his way into the mind of his key characters and to better understand and express their view of life. He was very much revered within the profession, for his contribution to this aspect of novel writing. He loved and was always ready, to advocate to his fellow writers, followers and friends his pet theory that good writing went well beyond what he called ‘the bare mechanics’.

  To be a really successful novelist, he said, one needed something more than just the skilled hand and mind of a writer. One had to know the heart, the soul and the feelings of each character, just as good actors strive to do - if a writer is to be any damn good!

  So far, in his endeavour to attain absolute realism, he had stayed well within the boundaries of the law. Though if questioned closely on the subject, he just might concede in strict confidence of course, the possibility that he had perhaps prodded the envelope of respectability, here and there, a little bit; but that was all. No serious deviations from normal moral or ethical standards had he ever allowed himself.

  Currently he was engaged in writing a novel in which his pivotal character was abandoned as a child and forced to steal food and other items to survive. Research was proving somewhat difficult. One cannot simply stop a child in the street and ask 'Have you ever stolen anything? Or when did you first steal something? What was that experience really like?' Sadly, his writing had ground to a standstill as he wrestled with this problem. His wastepaper bin was full of thousands and thousands of wasted words. Simply nothing he had written on the feelings of the child had really worked for him. James, for all his lauded stature as a great writer, found himself hard up against the dreaded writer's block.

  This situation was difficult for him to live with on a personal level and completely unacceptable in a professional sense. The impasse had to be overcome, or the work abandoned and he’d never abandoned a plot line yet! Finally, with great reluctance, he realised that if he couldn't imagine the feel, the thrill, the fear of the thieving experience, or have it described to him by one who had, then there really was only one course of action left. He must experience it for himself! He would have to steal something, anything, in the interest of research absolutely essential to the completion of a great literary work.

  James sat in his favourite recliner chair in his office, one he greatly favoured for sitting quietly and completely relaxed and to think over and develop a plot in his mind. He visualised the local shopping centre and all the