Dangerous Ride

Dangerous Ride (1989) Post 289

Dangerous Ride is one of three longer novelisations I did

in the 1980s-90s. (The other two were Skippy and the Bird Smugglers and The Adventures of Blinky Bill. This is a story excerpted from some episodes of Home and Away. I was contracted to do the job, and given a fortnight to do it. I also had a word-count to handle... I think it was 40,000 words. In those days, I could quite easily write that fast, so I agreed happily enough. Then the scripts arrived. Not A script, but a PILE of them. I had to follow the plot thread through these scripts and pull out the story. Okay. Problem one. I had never seen Home and Away. It wasn't shown in Tasmania at that time, and videos of existing programs weren't really about either. This fact meant I kept needing to know who various people were and how they related to one another. Problem two. One of the scripts was missing, so I had to create a major pivotal scene from imagination. Needless to say, I got it wrong, as I had no idea what had happened or what the character looked like.  I have a feeling the final script was couriered to me the day I was meant to hand in the novelisation. Okay, I rewrote the scene. I probably sent it by overnight courier... anyway, I did the job and got paid, and eventually, some time later, I did see some episodes of Home and Away and finally knew who these people were. It was an interesting job and (I think) my first novelisation job. I used the pen name Sally Darroll because the characters and plot weren't mine. 

Should you be interested in Home and Away novelisations, including mine, check out http://www.backtothebay.net/merchandise/books.shtml

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Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service.