At work, the one that pays the bills, I have a pile of notebooks. Some are very much ‘work’ notebooks full of notes for work. Others are note pads full of, well not work related notes, writers notes. Note’s I have taken when escorting contactors, or at my desk on a lunch time, or hanging on conference calls waiting to be asked to go and do technical things, and knowing no one is going to ask me for a couple of hours. Generally is its just ‘non-work’ the note books will eventually find there way back home to the note pad pile on the bookcase near my home desk.

Some notebooks are full of both work and writers notes, and so have to stay at work and get forgotten about . Often they are just small scenes I have half written in because an idea came to me. Often these were written several years ago, and I am not 100% sure what they were about. Other time I start to remember as I read them. Like the small dialogue below between a physiotherapist and his patient, the origins of which I remember…

This dialogue was written to take place after a the patient describes, in some detail the events that take place at dusk on the 3rd day of a battle. I know this because I have a mind map a couple of pages before this piece describing that whole scene in not form. Basically small descriptions of events to take place over a full chapter of with arrows and lines linking them up in some kind of order, only half of which makes much sense. Some of which is not entirely legible as my hand writing is ecliptic at best.

This doesn’t matter overly as I know the scene being described, which is Battle of Roncevaux Pass at which reputedly the most famous of Charlemagne’s Paladin knights met his end. It was supposed to be a long scene written with a dream like quality to it. A recollection, rather than observation, of the events at Roncevaux Pass. Which was to be followed, in the half thrown together idea of a story or a novel that may or may not ever be written , by this dialogue. Written out long hand on the page of a note book , then forgotten about for a couple of years or more till I came across it today.

“So Roland…”

“Orlando!”

“Orlando them if you prefer. What do you think all that means?”

“Is that not what you are suppose to tell me?”

“Well sure, sure. But I do not interpret dreams as such.”

“They are not dreams.”

“Are they not? Well let me ask you this. What year did the battle you describe take place?”

“the year of our Lord seven ninety three.”

“And todays date is?”

Grunted laughter… “it matters not.”

“It matters not? We are in the third decade of third millennium, yet you speak of observing a battle in the first. By my reconning some fourteen hundred years ago.”

“it is still no dream.”

“What is it then, if not a dream?”

“A memory…”

There are more notes. Another couple of conversations though less defined than this one. There is a note that says in the battle scene Roland refuses to fight, though this is contradicted later there is also this little aside

“let no man claim to be the best on life, least his vanity doth prove his undoing!”

“Yet you believe yourself so?”

“Of course, least tis between myself and Roland…”

I am not entirely sure who is speaking, though I suspect it is Renaud, Roland’s rival in many things. I have a lot of notes, I clearly had a lot of ideas when I wrote them and I know who sent me down this path in the first place, (looking at you Jessica Law). But I had other things to write and stories to tell so this whole Roland/Orlando novel idea was confined to a note book at work and for a time forgotten, till I read through my notes today.

I have many note books that tell similar tales, and more stories never written than you could ever imagine. I may one day get back to this one, or some other no doubt. My advise to any writer is to write things down, in note pads , in files on your computer, voice notes , what ever, but when you have ideas tame them. That is how novels get started. The Lucifer Mandrake novel began as I have said before form a small dialogue lost in notes I stumbled back over years later.

Speaking of which there were other unrelated notes in that note book including this one which I suspect was a passing note for Lucifer, one of them at any rate…

In the beginning there was darkness, and then the lord said “let there be light!”

Have you ever wondered who he said that to?

I mentioned this on Bluesky the other day and a friend there (summer oaks) pointed out he could of course have just been talking to himself, but then asked the somewhat pertinant question.

Who wrote down what he said?

I have not yet formulated an answer to that one. But I like to think it was a small cherub called Mildred. For more joyfully important conversations you can find me on blue sky under my actual name, which makes a nice change for social media @markhayes.bsky.social