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It Begins.etl

Marin Petronas was born, raised and educated well. He feuded with his elder sister, Adele, though his childhood and he became as law-abiding as most people of his age. He chose journalism as a career because it seemed to offer many possibilities for travel and making a lot of money.
   He achieved success according to his early definition of that elusive concept. He made money, he acquired goods and he traded up successfully in the housing market, making a healthy profit on each move. He manoeuvred himself into a job on a national newspaper and he seemed to be going places. And then the rot set in.
   At this stage of his life, the writer's non-journalistic writing was being noticed. Editors were buying his short stories instead of accepting them in exchange for a free copy of their publication. His first novel had sold steadily rather than spectacularly and the level of demand had remained such that the publisher had reprinted it and sold out the second edition before his nerve had gone. The writer had not been completely pleased by this turn of events as he had been counting on being able to buy up remainders cheaply. But such is life.
   Another book, two years later, had sold out a larger first edition but the publisher had been too chicken-hearted to risk another edition. Shortly after receiving the news that he was out of print until his next novel hit the bookshops, the writer decided to simplify his life.

The writer moved out to the provinces after finding a job on a large local newspaper - the printed media component of the Sentinel organization, which also included a local television service as well as business and public-access video units and a 'documentation' unit, the role of which was largely undefined at that time.
   The Chedney area could offer property prices which were stunningly lower than those of inner London and the writer's workload was lighter - but it commanded a significantly reduced salary. On the plus side, the writer had more than enough money coming in for his needs and more time to spend on his non-journalistic writing. He was also able to devote more time to maintaining his personal website.
   His initial reception at the Sentinel & Advertiser - by other newsroom staff of a similar age - contained an element of suspicion. Why was a young man of about 30 moving down instead of up? Had he been forced to leave London one jump ahead of a drug dealer after letting a capital city cocaine habit get out of control? Or was his reason for leaving even more sinister?
   The writer aided his own settling-in process by joining in the speculation and the free-wheeling competition to come up with the wildest reason why London had become too hot for him. He became part of the scenery eventually and he was acknowledged as a useful member of the newsroom staff. He gained that important quality of any of life's roles - acceptance.
   And so it begins ...

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