Early Works Part 10 -- The Poisoned Coast

The Cambridge Computer Z88 I wrote The Poisoned Coast on.

I'll make this post about my young adult adventure novel the last entry in this series. This was written sometime in the late 1980's or early 1990's on a Z88 computer and printed using a dot matrix printer. The built-in word processor on the Z88 did not have a spell checker, so it was only a half step up from the electric typewriter that had replaced my manual typewriter. I purchased one of those Franklin digital dictionaries to help me spell check, but you have to know you don't know how to spell a word correctly to use it, which made it of limited value to me, who has no eye for spelling. Why, if I look at any word, no matter how short or common, for more than few seconds. it will not look right, and if every word looks wrong, you either don't write, or say the heck with it...  The heck with it.

Anyway, on to the Poisoned Coast. I don't actually remember why I wrote a YA novel. I can only assume that it was for commercial purposes. I know that I used to have one of those thick "Writers' Market" (or some such title) books around that listed all the market you could send off whatever it was you were writing to. No doubt it appeared that there was a market for YA books that I decided to take a crack at. More likely it was a Chuck Litka from a parallel universe, because this one can't imagine writing a YA novel, and yet I ended up with the manuscript... Weird.  Reading the first couple of pages, it appears to be more of a Hardy Boys level of story than a modern YA novel, but maybe things pick up later. Who knows? I'm not about to find out.

The story, as I recall, centered on two brothers going off to Scotland to take a survey of the Golden Eagles of Scotland along with a group of other young people -- a sort of science/camping/educational experience. They discover, and eventually thwart, someone dumping toxic waste into an isolated loch that were killing eagles. A Summer in Amber would appear to be my second book set in Scotland -- a country I spent a month or so kicking around in my youth. 

This is the first draft. I  had started what I thought was a much improved 2nd draft, before the computer froze at some point in the rewrite and after a reset, I found that I'd lost that version, and never started it again.

And so, without further ado, The Poisoned Coast...

The Poisoned Coast

Chapter One – March 23^rd

'Read this,' snapped Cory, bursting into my room.

He slapped a sheet of paper down on the solar power panel I was working on.

'I’m a little busy at the moment, in case you hadn’t notice,' I said, glancing up.

‘Just read it. It won’t take long,’ he replied, pacing my room.

It was a letter from Roy Royth, a friend of ours who lives in Scotland. In the middle was a small brown spot with some smoke rising from it where it was resting on the hot tip of my soldering iron.

‘I hope you have this letter memorized, Cory, ‘cause it’s about to go up in flames,’ I said casually.

Cory spun around and stared at the scorch mark and plume of smoke. He lunged and snapped the letter away.

‘Idiot!’ he exclaimed as he smothered the glowing embers.

‘Hey, I couldn’t help it. I was in the middle of a tricky bit of soldering when you shoved the stupid thing at me,’ I replied with a shrug and returned to my work.

Cory was all set to let me have it, but with a mighty effort, stopped and paced my room several times. He gave a pile of my dirty clothes several vicious kicks, sending pants, shirts and underwear skidding across the floor. But when he turned back, he was smiling and said, ‘Never mind, I’ll read it to you while you work.’

I was on my guard. Cory was up to something. Still, watching his letter go up in smoke had put me in a good mood, so, with a wave of my hand, I said, ‘Read on, dear brother. Read on.’

‘Did you see that this is a letter from Roy,’ he began. ‘Well, he begins; “Dear Cory and Sparks, How are you chaps? I’m fine...” Well, you can read all that. I’ll skip down to the important part.

‘”The expedition is on! I talked to the governor (what he calls his dad) again today about having you chaps over to take part in his Eagle Count this year and guess what! He said that he had just written your governor about it, so it’s official! All you have to do is convince your parents to let you come! That should be a snap, as I have a feeling that this has been in the works for year. So pack your knapsacks! We’ll have a grand time! You know, I’m practically in charge of the expedition this year, so we will have a vast scope for adventure!”’ Cory looked up. ‘Sounds great, hey?’ he said excitedly.

‘Ah, ya,’ was my cautious reply.

‘What do you mean, Ah-ing and ya-ing?’ Cory replied. ‘We’re talking about three weeks of camping in the highlands of Scotland, hiking, mountain climbing, and working on a real scientific expedition. What more could you want?’

‘Sounds great, Cory,’ I said, soothingly. ‘I’m sure dad will let you go. I’ll miss you, of course, but I’ll just have to struggle along alone for a month...’

‘But you’re going too!’ he exclaimed, waving the letter at me. ‘Roy included you too. Here, let me read it...’

‘Don’t bother. It’s very nice of him, but well, I do have football practice during the summer...’

‘This is in June. Football doesn’t start until August!’

‘Well, I might have other plans. There are projects I want to do. Maybe line up a summer job...’

‘I can’t believe this! Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to go to Scotland and see Roy, plus go camping and be part of an important scientific study… What gives?”

Well, counting eagles is not the kind of science that really interests me. And though I like camping, we’re talking three straight weeks of it, aren’t we? Right. I’m no greenhorn, Cory. Three wees of life in a tent amongst the Scottish highlands is going to be no picnic. It will be cold, and wet, and well, I’m not so crazy about mountain climbing either.’

‘But that’s just the point. It’s going to be a challenge, a real challenge. We won’t have Dad around to back us up. We’ll be on our own. You’re not afraid, are you, Sparks?’ he demanded.

‘Are you afraid to go alone?’ I countered.

‘No. Of course not. I’d go in a minute without you… But...’

‘But?’ I taunted him a little.

‘Well, you know...’

‘Yes?’

‘You know how Mom feels...’

‘You mean that she thinks you’re a half-witted goof...’

‘I mean that for some reason she seems to think that I’m still not to be trusted just because I’ve don a few stupid things when I was a kid. At the same time she has it in her head that you’re so sensible or something.’

‘You are a goof, sometimes, and I am more sensible,’ I relied smugly.

‘More boring, I’d say,’ he replied, glaring at me. ‘But whether I am actually less sensible than you is not the point. What is, is that she thinks you are and she things that Roy is a bigger goof than me...’ he added more or less to himself.

‘He just might be,’ I remarked.

‘Well, Sparks. I though I could count on you,’ Cory said bitterly, throwing up his hands. ‘He, I’d like you along. We’ve always gone on Dad’s expeditions together. We make a good team. But if you don’t want to come along this time, well, I guess there isn’t much I can do about it. I’ll have to go alone. And I will, too, whatever Mom thinks of me. I’ve matured a lot this year… Laugh if you like, but...’

I felt sorry for the guy. It was kinda pitiful the way he was trying every trick in the book to get me to go along. Oh well, I though, he is my brother. And I guess I would hate to miss the chance to see Roy and Scotland, even if it meant a little roughing it in the field.

‘Oh, quit your winning. I never said absolutely I wouldn’t go. I just said I wasn’t as crazy about the idea as you are. I have a better memory of the hardships of the trail than you have.’

‘I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Sparks!’ he exclaimed, cheering up in a flash. ‘Think of the great condition you’ll be in at the start of football practice after four weeks of tramping the highlands. You’ll be able to go through double practice without working up a sweat!’

‘Great...” I muttered, thinking of how bad things could be…

‘But I can count on you, right Sparks?’

‘Yah, I guess so, Cor...’ As I said that, I suddenly realized that it also meant four weeks without pizzas, shakes, french fries… ‘But you owe me a pizza on this,’ I added.