Characters

It all starts with a character - sometimes an ordinary character who finds themselves in extraordinary circumstances, sometimes an extraodinary character in mundane circumstances.  This time is was two characters - Troy Thompson and Simon Johnson.  While the idea for the novel was brewing, they had an obsession for board games - one which led them to charity shops to buy ones they'd never heard of - then they had an obsession for the dobbers in the games (it's the only word I know for dobber, the counter you move around that tells everyone else that it's you - not them).  Then I thought they could have their dobber collection stolen and act as two PI's tracking down the dobbers as they're left in mysterious places, a treasure hunt with a hidden message...

Then I went and had a hot cup of Mocha (or is that just 'a hot mocha?' not sure) and all that stopped being interesting apart from the two guys obsessed with board games.  Their past, their present and their future.  Past - holidaying together at some sad old caravan park just up the road.  Present - rooming together in their late twenties.  It all still sounded very unspectacular until I focussed on that caravan park bit. 

When you were at school, did you ever stand in the cloakroom alone?  Remember the silence, the smell, the odd feeling of being surrounded by parkas?  Then looking out of the window into an empty playground - hearing a sort of ethereal childrens' shouting and laughter in your head?  The caravan park felt like that - a place that had seen so much happiness, laughter, good times, memories, ghosts, still winds, an empty present, shadows, things that were, broken glass, boarded up windows... the seeds were there!

Simon never left when he holidayed there as a teenager - but why?  How does he know Troy? Why has the park turned from a laughter filled holiday hot spot into a ghost-town-like rusted tin village?  Is it haunted? Why is it haunted?

I think I know!  Must get scribbling.