Harry & Olive's ID

Who are Harry & Olive?

(And who the heck is Lewd Dick?)

In my last blog posting I mentioned I'm once again working on my Harry & Olive project. I think I last mentioned Harry & Olive in the spring of 2007, when I ran a little blurb.

The blurb went something like this: Tim's next big project will be an online episodic fictional series.
Harry & Olive: Their True Adventures.
Featuring their best friend Lewd Dick.
The American Dream turns into a nightmare.

In early spring of 2007, I got an idea for a novel. (Let's just call the novel ``GDO" for now. We'll learn more about GDO later, because Harry will eventually try to write GDO.) I had hoped GDO would be a lot like Neil Simon, but after I had worked, and reworked, the plot for GDO, it seemed more like a bad Disney comedy.

I decided I didn't want to write a novel that came across like a bad Disney comedy, so I went back and totally trashed the plot of GDO, but kept the three major characters, and what I came away with was Harry, Olive and Lewd Dick. The basic idea is simple. Three childhood friends from the old neighborhood. Two are married. The third lives apart, then shows up late in life, and helps cause havoc with the life of the other two.

So who is Harry? Harry takes after me in many ways. Harry is a middle class guy about my age (I'm 61). He's also white from a WASP background, just like me. Harry's pretty boring, right? His life is totally laid-back. Harry likes it that way, but things change as the story unfolds.

Lewd Dick comes back into Harry's life, and the effect on Harry's life couldn't be much worse than having a sh*tload of cluster bombs dropped on his head.

Olive doesn't help keep the peace.

But more about Olive later (and more about Lewd Dick later, later).

Comments

[Karen Quah]

"The American dream turns into a nightmare." Like the sound of that. Look forward to the title of your novel. GDO sounds like some sort of economic summit, lol.

[Tim Null]

Thanks, Karen. I appreciate your encouraging words. And I appreciate you're taking time from your writing contest to comment on my little blog... that's really sweet. (I don't know how you do so much! Between washing the dishing, and baby sitting the Chihuahua, I can hardly keep track of the day! ;)

"GDO"? Yeah, it does sound like an economic term!!! Wait 'til you hear what you hear what it really stands for! :)))