Adding A Glossary To The Books?
Posted: May 18, 2013 Filed under: Amsterdam, blindness, disabled, Publishing, Reading, review, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing, writing skills | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, dictionary, Dutch, German, glossary, Japanese, lexicon, series, Spanish Leave a comment »For reasons of authenticity, many non-English locales, phrases, and names in the Amsterdam Assassin Series are written in their original language. Instead of breaking the words down into Dutch/Japanese/German/Arabic/Jamaican, I merely list these words alphabetically, adding explanations where warranted. If you spot other words that require translation or elaboration, please send me an email so I can include them in this glossary.
Alstublieft (Dutch) – shortened form of ‘Als het u belieft’ meaning, ‘If it pleases you’. Most often used as ‘please’. Informal, asjeblieft. Abbreviated, mostly on signs, AUB.
Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud – (French) Lift to the Scaffold, a movie by Louis Malle with music improvised by Miles Davis.
Atari – (Japanese) Go term, meaning a stone is under attack or immediate threat.
Bien merci – (French) That’s right, thanks. Or, ‘I’m fine, thanks’.
BKA – (German) The Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office) is a national investigative police agency in Germany and falls directly under the Federal Ministry of the Interior. As law enforcement in Germany is vested in the states, the BKA only becomes involved in cases of international organised crime or when requested by the respective federal state authorities or the federal minister of the interior. The federal prosecutor can also direct it to investigate cases of special public interest.
Cartucho, El – (Spanish) The Bullet, a neighbourhood in Bogotá, Colombia, which was destroyed and replaced by a park. At its time, one of the poorest and most dangerous areas in the world during its time, it is now a new part of downtown Bogotá filled with drug addicts and the poverty stricken.
Ça va? – (French) How are you? Response ‘Ça va bien’, it goes well or I’m good.
Chaud – (French) Hot. Trop Chaud = Too Hot.
Chèrie – (French) darling (only used to women). Chèr means ‘expensive’, and if expressed by a man to another man ‘mon chèr’ means ‘my good man’.
Chotto matte kudasai – (Japanese) Please wait a second, also used as ‘hold the line for a moment’.
Cochon – (French) pig.
Dank u wel – (Dutch) thank you very much. Often dankuwel, thankyouverymuch.
DEA – (US) Abbreviation of Drug Enforcement Administration, a federal body mostly specializing in the enforcement of drug laws and persecuting drug crime.
Diu! – (Cantonese) Vulgar expression of dissatisfaction or shock.
Diu nei! – (Cantonese) More vulgar expression of dissatisfaction or shock
Diu nei lou mou! – (Cantonese) Incredibly vulgar expression of dissatisfaction or shock.
Eikel (Dutch slang) – Jerk. Literal translation ‘acorn’.
Engelbewaarder (Dutch) – Guardian angel. Name of a jazz cafe on the Kloveniersburgwal.
Fuseki – (Japanese) Go term, the opening moves before the first clashes.
Gaijin/Gaikokujin – (Japanese) Gaijin means ‘strange person’, but is commonly used for ’stranger’ or ‘foreigner’, i.e. any non-Japanese person. The polite word for ‘foreigner’ or non-Japanese person is ‘gaikokujin’.
Gau! – (Cantonese) Vulgar expression of disappointment.
Geld – (Dutch) money
Godverdomme – (Dutch) Goddamn
Graag gedaan – (Dutch) literal ‘Happy to have done it’, similar to ‘You’re welcome’.
Gracht – (Dutch) originally a gracht is the moat around a castle or city, but it’s mostly translated as canal, which can cause confusion as Dutch also has the word ‘kanaal’ which means a (man-made) waterway that’s mainly straight as a ruler. Other waterways are ‘sloot’, a shallow waterway often used to separate meadows from the road and each other, ‘poel’, a natural pool, ‘meer’, a lake, and ‘rivier’, river. Grachten are flanked by ‘kades’ or quays, which are named after the waterway. So riding along the Prinsengracht would consist of riding down the quay flanking the Prince’s Canal. As the quays flanking the grachten are narrow, they’re mostly one-way, with the inner ring heading east to west, and the outer ring west to east. If you need to be at a certain address in the middle of a block, you might have to drive past it on the inner ring, cross the canal by the first bridge and drive back along the other quay to reach your destination. In some cases, the gracht has been filled to make a road, which process is called ‘dempen’, so a ‘gedempte gracht’ is a former canal, now filled up. A ‘burgwal’ is a moat that used to be part of the defense works of Amsterdam. The most famous ‘burgwallen’ are those of the Red Light District: Oudezijds Voorburgwal (Old Side Front Defense Quay), Oudezijds Achterburgwal (Old Side Rear Defense Quay), and the Kloveniersburgwal, which is pretty much untranslatable (the ‘kloveniers’ were part of the ‘schutterij’ (militia), who used a rifle called a ‘klovenier’).
Hai – (Japanese) ‘yes’ or ‘affirmative’ or ‘please’.
Henna – coloured powder, mixed into a paste. Used to colour hair or adorn the skin. From Arabic ḥinnā.
(Dienst) IPOL – (Dutch) A division within the Koninklijke Landelijke Politie Diensten (KLPD) concerned with gathering information for law enforcement purposes, anti-terrorism coordination and liaising with foreign law enforcement. Similar to MI-5 or Homeland Security’s ICE division.
Joseki – (Japanese) Go term, meaning ‘set pattern’.
Kanji – (Japanese) Japanese script, drawn with brush strokes. Katakana are symbols used to transcribe foreign sounds/names, for instance ma-ru-te-y-n for Martyn. Hiragana and Hentaigana are more intricate and used for Japanese sounds, names and concepts.
Kampai – (Japanese) drinking toast, akin to ‘your (good) health’.
Kankyuto – (Japanese) “sword to pierce head”, small double edged blade used to prop up severed heads for formal viewing. They can occasionally be found in the saya (sheath) in place of a kozuka (utility knife).
Katagi – (Japanese) Useful person, contributing to society. See ‘Yakuza’.
Katana – (Japanese) curved Japanese sword.
Kimono – (Japanese) Kimono (literary ‘thing to wear’) are T-shaped, straight-lined robes worn so that the hem falls to the ankle, with attached collars and long, wide sleeves. Kimono are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right (except when dressing the dead for burial), and secured by a sash called an obi, which is tied at the back. Kimono are generally worn with traditional footwear (zori or geta) and split-toe socks called tabi.
Madame – (French) Mrs. A married woman.
Mademoiselle – (French) Ms. An unmarried woman or girl.
Mehndi – temporary tattoos made with henna, from Sanskrit mendhikā Mehndi is a ceremonial art form which originated in ancient India. Intricate patterns of mehndi are typically applied to brides before the wedding ceremonies.
Mi Vida Loca – (Spanish) My Crazy Life. Often denoted by three tattoed dots in the web between the thumb and the index finger, meaning someone is in the criminal life.
Mou lei tau – (Cantonese) makes no sense, non-sensical, crap.
Naggacha – (Arab) also spelled Nakacha. A (female) artist specialising in mehndi or henna tattoos, mostly for bridal purposes.
Nani? – (Japanese) Informal phrase meaning ‘What?’. Although it sounds rude, it’s the most common phrase people say when answering the phone or intercom, but also to express confusion ‘I beg your pardon?’.
Ohayo – (Japanese) Informal phrase meaning ‘hey’ or ‘hello’.
Oshibori – (Japanese) a hot damp rolled-up towel to clean your hands and face prior to a meal.
Oyabun – (Japanese) Literally, ‘Father’, the Oyabun is the head of a Yakuza family, similar to a Mafia Don.
Peccadillo – (Latin) a minor sin or character flaw.
Petit – (French) Little or little one. Feminine form Petite.
Quintain – (archaic) Medieval jousting training equipment, consisting of a revolving cross figure on a stick, with a shield on one arm of the crosspiece and a bag of sand swinging from the other. The goal was to strike the shield accurately to avoid being hit by the heavy bag of sand when the quintain would revolve around the stick.
Reprobate – (Latin) an unrepented sinner, a morally unprincipled person.
Seppuku – (Japanese) Ritual suicide by slicing open the abdomen with a wakizashi or katana. Often ignorantly called ‘hara-kiri’ (cutting the belly), seppuku is the deepest apology a male samurai can make to his lord for failure. Since the samurai’s life belongs to his lord, the right to commit seppuku has to be granted by the lord. The lord can also prefer for the samurai to atone in another way, like yubitsume.
Shiatsu – (Japanese) Acupressure massage. A form of massage therapy where points on the body are pressed with the thumbs, fingers and elbows. In Japan many blind people become shiatsu therapists because touch is much more important than vision in the practice.
Sodemieter op! – (Dutch slang) similar to ‘fuck off’.
Steeg – (Dutch) an alley, often quite narrow. Other roads are ‘snelweg’, motorway or highway, ‘weg’, roads intended for vehicles, ‘straat’, streets intended for traffic to the houses flanking it, ‘dwarsstraat’ is a sidestreet often perpendicular on the main street, and ‘laan’ or lane, which are mostly straight and flanked by trees. Steeg, while already narrow, has a diminishing version, ‘steegje’, meaning small alley. Stegen and steegjes are found most often in the old city quarters built for pedestrian traffic.
Sumimasen – (Japanese) A formal apology to a superior.
Tabi – (Japanese) A cross between a sock and a slipper, often blue or white with a thick cotton or thin leather sole. The big toe is separated from the other toes to allow the tabi to be worn in Japanese wooden clogs called geta or wooden slippers called zori.
Trut – (Dutch slang) means frigid bitch. A ‘Teef’ is a female dog or ‘bitch’, and also used as a curse word.
Wakizashi – (Japanese) a short sword, part of a set of two swords, one long ‘katana’ and a short ‘wakizashi’. A wakizashi is longer than a knife ‘tanto’, but not as long and cumbersome in wielding has the katana. Katana are generally wielded two-handed, a wakizashi is handled with one hand. Inside domiciles and narrow spaces, a wakizashi is preferable to the katana. Both katana and wakizashi are sheathed in a scabbard of lacquered wood called saya, and have guards between the handle and the blade called tsuba, although the tsuba of the wakizashi are proportionally smaller. A tanto, or knife, has a saya, but no tsuba.
Waribashi – (Japanese) wooden chopsticks, often for single use.
Yakuza – (Japanese) Japanese gangster. The name derives from ya-ku-za or 8-9-3, the losing hand in oicho-kabu, a Japanese game similar to blackjack. Yakuza consider themselves ‘useless’ and they prey on the katagi or ‘useful’ members of society.
Yubitsume – (Japanese) the ritual ‘finger-cutting’ for atonement. Once a ritual specifically for samurai to atone for failure or sins without the right to commit ritual suicide or seppuku, cutting off the little finger of the right hand actually makes wielding a sword more difficult, because the sword is mainly gripped with the little fingers. The practice was adopted by the Yakuza, who are mainly associated with the practice. Some yakuza display their shortened fingers proudly, others wear prosthetics in public.
Yukata – (Japanese) unlined casual summer kimono.
Why Bother?
Posted: February 13, 2013 Filed under: Amsterdam, blindness, cinema, disabled, Publishing, Reading, Writing, writing skills | Tags: accolades, amsterdam, assassin, bestsellers, brutal, cover, decade, e-reader, expenses, killing, novel, outlet, publish, quit, reader, reviews, series, skills, story, storytelling, writing 1 Comment »Writing is an outlet for me. I’ve always enjoyed telling stories, but there’s not always someone around who has the time and patience to listen, so I write my stories down, just to have something tangible. My first novel had been pretty much ready for a decade, before I published it last year.
The people who can be bothered to read my work are glad they did, and encourage me to write more books. Not that I need their encouragement, as I would write my stories even if I wouldn’t be able to publish them, just to have them in material form, instead of telling them to myself in my head. Still, I enjoy receiving accolades from reviewers and beta readers.
My sales are not impressive, but I’m not that interested in bestsellers and being a flavour of the week. I’m in the storytelling game for the long haul. By all accounts, my characters remain present in the minds of my readers after they close the books, which is exactly what I wanted. Before I published the Amsterdam Assassin Series, people would see me writing and ask me what I wrote about. Now, I can just send them a link to my blog, from where they can sample or buy my books. So, I guess I will keep publishing my books, and writing more books.
I know there are 350,000 books published annually, and getting noticed is hard, so it might take until the third or fourth book is published before my sales go into the triple digits, but I honestly don’t care too much about that aspect of being a writer. I’d be doing this anyway. My only expense is hiring a graphic artist to make the covers, since I suck at that. And I found a student who can make my covers look reasonably professional without breaking the bank.
Do I ever have moments that I’d quit? I’ve had slumps and I found I became harder to live with when I stopped writing, for whatever reason. So quitting isn’t an option if I want to stay reasonably sane. Or, at least, not get any weirder than I’m now. And writing also gives me excuses to indulge in research, which is great fun. At least, if you enjoy looking at corpses getting eviscerated, destroying a leather punching bag with a Bic Crystal ballpoint pen, following a tameshigiri seminar to learn how to decapitate a body in one cut of a Japanese sword, or slaughtering a pig with a tactical folding knife to check if it can really handle the abuse of a brutal killing.
So, I guess I’d be writing and publishing far into the foreseeable future. And I hope you join me.
Movie Adaptations of Novels and Short Stories.
Posted: December 27, 2012 Filed under: Amsterdam, cinema, movie adaptations, movies, Publishing, Reading, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, blade, Christopher Walken, Clockwork, cuckoo, McMurphy, Milos Forman, Nicholson, papillon, Philip K. Dick, Pope, runner, shawshank, Shining, Stephen King, Total Recall Leave a comment »As someone asked me about my attitude towards movie adaptations of the Amsterdam Assassin Series, I thought about movie adaptations in general, the ones who were superior to the novels, the ones who were equal, and the disappointments.
I’m a huge Philip K. Dick fan, but I do prefer Blade Runner to Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. I read Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, but the Milos Forman movie adaption cemented Jack Nicholson’s maniacal McMurphy in my mind. I love Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange just as much as the Kubrick movie. The movie The Dead Zone is an improvement on the Stephen King novel, with an excellent Christopher Walken, just as Kubrick’s The Shining is superior to the King novel, but, while the movie is excellent, Shawshank Redemption is slightly less moving than the King novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. Kick-Ass the movie is slightly more fun than the graphic novel. The Pope of Greenwich Village was much better than the novel by Vincent Patrick. Papillon the movie impressed me more than Papillon the novel. Perfume the movie was pretty good at conveying smell in visual images, but the novel’s prose is superior. Shogun the miniseries is flawed but impressive, but the novel is excellent (although Clavell’s King Rat is a superior novel, with an also excellent movie adaption.
Disappointing to me, as a Philip K. Dick fan, are the movie adaptions of We Can Remember It For You Wholesale [Total Recall] and Paycheck. A Scanner Darkly was pretty good, but not as good as Dick’s story. And Minority Report [movie], while visually impressive, seems only to have tentative connections to the excellent short story by Dick.
Personally, I think that a movie adaption of the Amsterdam Assassin Series would skate over the multi-layered storyline and would become an action/adventure vehicle that would be too superficial to appeal to the readers who love the series intricacies. Plus, I think Katla’s chameleon-like abilities to be eminently forgettable and melt into the background would suffer from being associated with the image of any actress, who prefer to be anything but forgettable.
Comments welcome!
Sample Sunday: Fragment from Peccadillo, second novel in Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Posted: December 23, 2012 Filed under: Amsterdam, Publishing, Reading, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, container, crane, forklift, games, harbour, Katla, Mortal Kombat, Nicky, Peccadillo, red pole, series, triad, work in progress. Leave a comment »This is a fragment from Peccadillo – A Katla Novel, the second novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series, available on Amazon, Kobo and iTunes. See the ABOUT page.
Chang lay spent on the bed, enjoying the best feature of his hotel room. From the bed, he could look through a window pane straight into the bathroom, where Jacqueline was lounging in the bath. She’d been energetic, almost aggressive in her lovemaking, but the heroin had dulled his libido and he’d taken ages to climax, which seemed to have pleased her.
She tapped the window and gestured for him to join her in the bath. He shook his head, gestured that he liked looking at her and blew her a kiss. She arched back in the soapy water and started giving him a show of what he was missing, caressing herself with her eyes closed and her mouth half open, showing her cute little overbite as she panted with excitement.
While he’d waited for her to arrive for dinner, he’d borrowed a book from the concierge on the history of the building. He’d been aware that the building had been erected for the Burgerziekenhuis and had been designed by the same architect as the famous Concertgebouw, but the book had been informative.
Last time Chang had been in Amsterdam, the graceful Burgerziekenhuis building had become an office for the City Council, which always struck Chang as a disgrace for a historical building, where Queen Wilhelmina and her daughter Princess Juliana had stayed, when Juliana’s husband Bernhard was recuperating from a serious accident in 1937, and soccer genius Johan Cruyff was born ten years later.
When the Burgerziekenhuis opened in 1891, the hospital had been a technical as well as an esthetic marvel, with a huge main building and a spacious garden with separate pavilions, electric illumination, central heating and water-powered elevators. Economic recession and the Second World War depleted the budget and the Burgerziekenhuis hovered on the brink of closing in the post-war years, but in the 1960s the building was renovated and regained its position as a modern hospital until it became superfluous when the Academic Medical Center and the VU Medical Center were built in the 1980s. One month before its Centennial, the Burgerziekenhuis closed its doors and moved to Almere.
The hospital pavilions, situated behind the main building, were converted into offices and housing, but the beautiful main building needed to be rescued. With minor renovations that left most of the old building intact, the decentralized City Council used the building in 1992 to house Stadsdeel Oost, the local council for the East borough. When the East borough merged with Watergraafsmeer, the need for more office space caused the Stadsdeel to move out again in 2008. For almost four years the former Burgerziekenhuis temporarily housed a police station, until it came into the hands of the Eden hotel chain, who turned it into their latest four star hotel, the Manor. When Chang became aware of the chance to book a room in the famous building, he didn’t hesitate at all. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about tripping over Rolling Stone fans camping out on the steps, like he had the last time he stayed at the Amstel Hotel.
Jacqueline was climaxing in the bath and slipped down under the soapy surface. She reappeared a moment later, her blond hair plastered around her face and her eyes shining. Chang smiled as she pranced wet and naked into the room.
“Would you like to chase the dragon?” he asked and showed her the heroin. Her eyes twinkled and she kneeled by the bed, resting her head on his thigh and blowing kisses at his penis while he warmed the heroin with the butane lighter and handed her the silver pipe.
If you like this fragment of Peccadillo, check my ‘About’ page for a link to the Amsterdam Assassin Series. You can download a sample with the first few chapters for free from Amazon, or the whole novel (105,000 words or 420 pages) for only $4.99. The first book in the Amsterdam Assassin Series, has been temporarily reduced in price, from 4.99 to 2.99 USD, until January 4th, 2013.
If you follow my blog, you will be notified about publication date, more fragments and snippets, and articles on Katla’s Amsterdam. If you’d like to become a beta reader for the Amsterdam Assassin Series, email Martyn V. Halm at katlasieltjes@yahoo.com and put ‘beta reader’ in the subject line. Thanks for your support.
Sample Sunday: Fragment from Peccadillo, second novel in Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Posted: December 16, 2012 Filed under: Amsterdam, Publishing, Reading, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, container, crane, forklift, games, harbour, Katla, Mortal Kombat, Nicky, Peccadillo, red pole, series, triad, work in progress. Leave a comment »This is a fragment from Peccadillo – A Katla Novel, the second novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series, available on Amazon, Kobo and iTunes. See the ABOUT page.
Nicky Wang missed riding the hills around Kowloon, but the Galaxy enduro motorcycle he’d left behind in China was no comparison to his current ride. He raced down the Herengracht to the Brouwersgracht, and noticed at a glance that the pedestrian bridge across the canal was empty, so he pulled the KTM 690 in a controlled skid and rode up the steps. The bridge itself was wide enough, but the posts on the steps were little wider than his handlebars. Nicky popped a wheelie and braked slowly at the end of the Melkmeisjesbrug, keeping his front wheel aloft as he rode between the posts down the steps back to the road. As soon as the front wheel hit the road he went full on the front brake, lifting the rear and tilting it sideways. Compared to the Galaxy, the KTM was a heavy brute, but it handled exquisitely. His rear wheel landed on the bricks again and he balanced for a moment, then rode off down the Brouwersgracht in the direction of the Haarlemmerdijk.
He slowed down as he spotted a couple of motorcycle cops on enduro motorcycle. Not that he was afraid that he couldn’t outrun them, but he couldn’t outrun their radios, so he limited his urban enduro escapades to avoid attracting too much attention.
His dashboard clock told him he had ten minutes before he had to meet Lau at the restaurant. He rode the KTM in the direction of Centraal Station, unable to suppress his inner hooligan as he took the bicycle path across the Singel, turned left and sidled past the waiting cars, hooked a right onto the Prins Hendrikkade and raced between cars to get to the front of the queues at the traffic lights. A few minutes later he parked his KTM in front of Prins Heerlijk Snacks, next to the Ducati Monster from the blonde behind the counter. He waved at her as he strode onto the Zeedijk, knowing she’d keep an eye on his prized possession until he returned.
Pulling a ball cap down low over his eyes to make sure the police cameras didn’t get a straight shot of his face, Nicky moved like a shadow down the Zeedijk and entered the restaurant. He walked all the way to the back where a table was reserved for the Red Poles. As he passed one of the waitresses she asked him if he wanted tea, but he told her to bring tea when Lau joined him. Sitting with his back against the wall next to the stairwell that led up to Zhang’s office, he could survey the whole restaurant in a single glance.
Nicky disliked having to report in, running the risk of being filmed by the police cameras, when most of the times the orders he received could just as well be relayed through burner phones. Lau didn’t like to use cell phones, though, and being the senior Red Pole, he could pretty much do as he wanted.
Lau appeared in the stairwell, and Nicky rose from his seat to give his senior the corner seat. Before he sat back down the waitress came running and placed a pot of tea on the table. Nicky served Lau first before he poured himself a cup.
Lau was the first to break the silence. “You checked out the crane, Sai-Lo?”
In Triad hierarchy, even among equals in rank, there is always the Dai-Lo, Elder Brother, and Sai-Lo, Younger Brother, relationship.
“Yes, Elder Brother. The controls are in a different order, but that’s not a problem.”
“You will be responsible for the perimeter, Nicky. I’ll take Chen and Wu into the office with the accountant.”
“Can Chen help me arrange the funnel?”
Lau lit a cigarette, drawing some irritated glances from customers nearby, but they didn’t dare meet his gaze. “Chen has to be on quay when Sieltjes arrives. I want him to escort her inside. Until then you can do as you see fit.”
Nicky rose from the table. “See you later, Elder Brother.”
He pulled his ball cap down low over his eyes and left the restaurant.
If you like this fragment of Peccadillo, check my ‘About’ page for a link to the Amsterdam Assassin Series. You can download a sample with the first few chapters for free from Amazon, or the whole novel (105,000 words or 420 pages) for only $4.99. The first book in the Amsterdam Assassin Series, has been temporarily reduced in price, from 4.99 to 2.99 USD, until January 4th, 2013.
If you follow my blog, you will be notified about publication date, more fragments and snippets, and articles on Katla’s Amsterdam. If you’d like to become a beta reader for the Amsterdam Assassin Series, email Martyn V. Halm at katlasieltjes@yahoo.com and put ‘beta reader’ in the subject line. Thanks for your support.
Peccadillo now available and Reprobate reduced in price!
Posted: December 16, 2012 Filed under: Amsterdam, Publishing, Reading, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, ebook, ePub, mobi, new release, Peccadillo, price, reduced, reprobate, series Leave a comment »Now available, the second book in the Amsterdam Assassin Series, Peccadillo – A Katla Novel, for 4.99 USD:
And Reprobate is reduced in price from 4.99 USD to 3.99 USD:
For epub versions, see the About page for Kobo and iTunes.
Microchip Murder – A Katla KillFile available for free download…
Posted: December 10, 2012 Filed under: Amsterdam, Publishing, Reading, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, competition, download, employer, exacting revenge, fired, forensic, forensic scientists, free, homicide, Katla, killfile, killfiles, landmark, lethal, Locked Room, microchip, murder, our of order, penthouse, penthouse apartment, physician, recover, research, series, short story, suspense, target, wary Leave a comment »Microchip Murder – A Katla KillFile is available for free download.
The Microchip Murder KillFile (8,500 words) follows Katla Sieltjes as she has to kill a woman recently fired by her employer, and recover the microchip and research materials stolen by the ex-employee. Meanwhile, the target is wary and looking for a way to sell the microchip to the competition.
The Katla KillFile short stories chronologically precede the novels in the Amsterdam Assassin Series. Each KillFile features Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, executing one of her contracts. While not mandatory reading, each KillFile provides insight both in Katla’s work methods and skill, and additional background information in her character and personal history. The KillFiles can be read out of order, as the contracts are random samples from her past. Each KillFile also contains a teaser from the novels in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Microchip Murder – A Katla KillFile
Sample Sunday: Fragment from Peccadillo, work in progress, second novel in Amsterdam Assassin Series.
Posted: December 9, 2012 Filed under: Amsterdam, Publishing, Reading, Tourism, Uncategorized, Writing | Tags: amsterdam, assassin, container, crane, forklift, games, harbour, Katla, Mortal Kombat, Nicky, Peccadillo, red pole, series, triad, work in progress. Leave a comment »This is a fragment from Peccadillo – A Katla Novel, the second novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series, to be published before the 2012 Holiday Season.
The crane rolled along the quay, the empty twenty-foot container hanging from the hook looking like a morsel in the long beak of a heron.
Chen leant over Nicky’s shoulder. “Pity about the rain, Sai-Lo.”
Nicky glanced at his face. “What for, Younger Brother?”
“It’s a nice view.”
Even for an industrial landscape the Amsterdam harbour didn’t qualify as a nice view. Drab buildings on a drab quay with grey water darkened by oil sludge. Saturday evening and the harbour was deserted except for their crew, huddled in dark windbreakers, trying to shield from the stinging rain.
“Maybe for a Joy Division fan,” Nicky replied, halting the crane near the bow of the ocean freighter berthed at the quay. “On the verge of following the singer into suicidal bliss.”
“Joy Division?”
“Harbingers of New Wave. Stale music in factory halls.”
“I know what you mean,” Chen replied. “Didn’t know you were a fan.”
“I’m not. That’s why I don’t think much of this view.”
In the parking lot in front of the two-story office building the small crew watched the container swing over the warehouses. The opening rotated towards the quay and Nicky slowed the hook’s rotation to prevent the four chains from twisting together. When the container was suspended over the alley between the warehouses and the office building, he pushed the lever to turn the hook again. The container rotated slowly, but when he tried to lower the metal husk to the ground, it kept rotating and grazed the top of the warehouses. He drew the container up again, sticky sweat coating his armpits as it kept rotating, and he cursed silently.
Chen shook his head. “The opening has to be—“
Nicky held up his hand to motion him into silence, waited until the container stopped its rotation and drew another lever to turn the hook the other direction. As the container drew parallel with the small alley between the offices and the warehouses, he lowered it a little too abruptly, the empty metal husk hitting the concrete with a dull clang.
“It should hug the wall.” Chen pointed down. “The open doors shouldn’t protrude past the warehouses.”
“This crane is not equipped for transporting containers, Chen. And I’m not a professional crane driver. I need some help to move the thing.”
“Can’t you drag it along the ground?”
“No, I can’t. I told you before, the best way to put that container there would be by forklift truck, not by crane. Except the space doesn’t allow for the forklift truck to back out, unless you move those stacks.“
“Okay. How do we work this?”
“Get four men to turn the container into position. Make sure no-one steps between the container and the wall, or it’ll crush him.”
Chen grabbed the two-way radio, but Nicky halted him. “Go down there and explain what needs to be done.”
Chen nodded and lifted the hatch in the floor of the cabin. Nicky watched him clamber down the iron rungs to the quay. He closed the hatch, lit up a cigarette, and gazed out over the harbour.
From this height, the forklift truck riding around the dark terrain between the warehouses looked like a tiny Huayi miniature, the bright lights illuminating its way. Stacks of timber blocked the terrain, except for a path down the middle. A funnel, straight to the container, where flashlight beams moved like fingers over the ground.
Through his binoculars Nicky watched a couple of men tie ropes through the four lower corners so they could rotate the container without getting too close.
The two-way radio crackled. “Lift.”
He drew back the middle handle and the container shuddered on the cable.
“Stop,” Chen spoke through the two-way radio. “Forward, slow.”
With four men hanging onto the ropes to keep the container in position, moving the metal husk next to the wall was a piece of cake. Holding the binoculars in his free hand Nicky watched them open the doors and check the distance. The forklift truck backed into a slot opposite the open container and turned off its lights, ready to shove Sieltjes’ car into the container.
Nicky opened a window, pitched his cigarette into the darkness and followed its descent to the quay. No sparks, the quay was too wet. He tilted the face of his watch to the moon shining into the cabin.
Eight forty-seven.
At least an hour to go, but Lau would want him to stay in the cabin. He poured himself a mug of coffee from his thermos and fingered the paperback novel. The moon illuminated the cabin well enough to allow him to see the controls, not enough to read by. And turning on the cabin light would be like a beacon to the harbour patrol.
Digging deeper, Nicky fished out his PSP game console and checked the battery. Maybe it’d last long enough to pass the hour. With his feet up on the console and the coffee balanced in his crotch he played Mortal Kombat, waiting for the call from the quay.
If you like this fragment from my work in progress, check my ‘About’ page for a link to Reprobate – A Katla Novel, the first novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series. You can download a sample with the first few chapters for free from Amazon, or the whole novel (113,000 words or 380 pages) for only $4.99. If you follow my blog, you will be notified about the exact publication date of Peccadillo – A Katla Novel. And, of course, be able to read more fragments and snippets from the work in progress. If you’d like to become a beta reader for the Amsterdam Assassin Series, email Martyn V. Halm at katlasieltjes@yahoo.com and put ‘beta reader’ in the subject line. Thanks for your support.
