From Moleskin to Microchips, getting started again

Would you read a story that started with

I was just finishing up a case I was working on, the case was scotch and I'd just about gotten to the bottom of it...

After spending time looking over all of my old notebooks filled with fragments of stories and getting frustrated with where I am with my serial killer story I have decided to take some time to move
Richard Babcock and the Case of the Hollywood Starlet
from moleskin to microchips.  I'm kind of excited too.  I forgot how far I had actually gotten with this story.  I only wrote it when I needed something to lighten the mood when I was doing darker stuff.

Synopsis:
Richard Babcock is a stereo-typical Hollywood detective, drunk, down on his luck and broke.  He's a throwback to the 1940s but 20 years too late and 1960s Hollywood is not the same place for a Film Noir reject.  A famous Hollywood Starlet stumbles across his path and solicits his help in trying to find out who is trying to kill her and why.

Something told me it was a good time to head back to 1175 Vermont, walk into my office and tell Miss Movie-star where to put her ten grand, that was the part of me that was almost a new paint job on my old ford.  But who was I kidding?  My life wasn't worth ten grand, she got a bargain.

At some point this Hollywood Princess ends up having to stay at Babcocks office.

"Mr. Babcock!" She furiously pulled the coat around her shoulders.  I noticed her dress folded neatly on top of a small white suitcase.  "Do you not have any respect for a Ladies Privacy?"

"With all due respect, lady, this is my office and that's my bed your sleeping on."

Complete with car chases even, wow!

I helped her stuff the few things she had in her bag then grabbed a few odds and ends (scotch) of my own.  We ran out the back and tossed the stuff in her trunk.  I heard a car brake hard and looked.  It was the same Lincoln that followed me from the Roosevelt.

"Get in!" I ordered and yanked the driver's door open got in, started the car and threw it into reverse in one fluid motion.  She was seated but hadn't even gotten her door closed.  "Hold on!" I barked and raced backwards towards the offending car.

Anyway, hope this was a tease and not a bore!

Later
D.

Keeping Focus, Smoking and Stuff I've Started and Never Finished.

My wife thinks that I may suffer from ADHD, she's an elementary school teacher so she knows it when she sees it.  I have been thinking the same thing over the past several months.  I especially have been seeing it since I quit smoking.

I started smoking when I was 14.  It was like a "Where have you been all my life?"  Most people coughed and hacked and nearly died with their first cigarette, I wish that had been me, I tend to not do things that make me feel terrible more than once (like eating Lentil soup).

More than 20 years and several attempts later I think I have kicked the habit.  Not sure how long it will take me to give up the gummy ---insert animal here--- addiction will take to kick but that is a problem for another time.

Anyway, I digress (which really should be tattooed on my forehead)

Cigarettes gave me a break, a chance to focus on one thing, smoking, glorious wonderful opening the blood vessels slowing the heart rate smoking.  When I smoked my mind was able to wander freely which then allowed me to focus when I returned to my task.  My mind now wanders freely whenever the hell it feels like it.  Perhaps I was self medicating with cigarettes, a diagnosis I was given for a related disorder I suffer from, depression which, incidentally enough is also a symptom of ADHD!

So as I am not going to start smoking again perhaps I should talk to my doctor.  I think if I was able to focus I would be a much better writer, perhaps even an author, and not just a starter.

which is a segway into the next part.  Stuff I started and never finished:

To Beat the Band
A story about a small town band that gets discovered years after they gave up making music and went their own ways.
-About 200 typed pages completed
-I kind of got to the meaty part of the story then the ending popped into my head, I wrote it down and that seemed to end my interest in the story.

Untitled Group of Related Stories
I just wanted to write a number of stories about very sick people from their points of view.  I used the Ten Commandments and Seven Deadly Sins as a rough concept of what people could and would do but did not focus on these.  I started several stories as well as the underlying theme, characters and setting which was a beautiful and secluded spot I spent a few weeks in north of Pheonix.
-About 50 pages

Framed: The Story of Henry James Smith (A Killer)
Terrible Title but I'm sure something better will arise.
A story of a serial framer.  He goes around killing people so he can watch others be blamed and prosecuted for their deaths.
-About 100 pages written
-I'm having issues with POV and the character that is required to pull the whole thing together I just can't relate to.  The murder scenes are wicked fun to write and I have a whole vault of them written I just need to tie them all together with a stronger story.

Too Dumb To Dance - (A Blogged Story)
The world of Mens Pairs Competitive Throw Dancing
-Three postings.  I have a bunch more written in some notebook somewhere.

Richard Babcock and the Case of the Disappearing Startlette
A Hollywood Film Noir type book
-Written inside a couple of notebooks somewhere
.....
-------
My ADHD his kicked in again

I found my notebooks!  I really need to spend some time digitizing them.  I have some stuff in there that I forgot I even wrote!

I won't bore you readers with anymore of what I have started and perhaps just say that I'm going to add some pages someday of short stories.  I need motivating and I think looking over something I have worked on previously will keep me from starting on a new idea almost everyday.

D.