Bodyguard Apologises to Rushdie.
August 26, 2008
“The statements admitted to be false included:
- That Sir Salman was locked in a room by protection officers because of his objectionable attitude towards them.
- That protection officers who asked Sir Salman if they could buy alcohol from him were charged for the drinks.
- That Sir Salman sought to profit from the fatwa inviting Muslims to kill him for insulting the prophet Muhammad.
- That he sought and was advised by the Intelligence Services not to publish a book about his experiences.
- That safe houses were provided for Sir Salman at government expense, rather than having to provide them himself at great personal expense.
- That the relationship between Sir Salman and his protection teams was unprofessional, hostile and unfriendly.
- That Sir Salman was unhygienic and suicidal and was being supervised or examined by a police psychiatrist.
- That Elizabeth West became his girlfriend and then his wife because of Sir Salman’s wealth.”
So, basically, there probably isn’t all that much of the book left to buy. I certainly won’t be spending any money on it, that’s for sure.
Where I Am.
August 26, 2008
This Tuesday morning finds me typically behind on emails, working on an outline for the new new novel, Through the Stormy Shades, which I now really want to write, and still rather surprised that people like those at The Pakistani Spectator and, now, Andrew at Small Business Tech want me to write articles for them.
It’s always nice when people enjoy what you do, but it’s especially nice when they like it so much that, as Andrew did recently, they invite you to produce articles for them. Granted, we all benefit from sharing our various abilities in this way, but I still consider it a huge compliment.
Take a look at Small Business Tech when you have a moment. My first article for them (admittedly a repost from this site) is now online.
I’ve also been trying to get a feel for Through the Stormy Shades. It’s set predominantly in the Freeman Hospital in 1981/1982 and yet again (even though I said I didn’t want to do this for a while) it’s semiautobiographical.
Whilst researching the other day I came across a photograph of the kind of bed I spent about nine weeks on whilst I was the Freeman Hospital the first time. I just thought I’d share it with you.
It was as comfortable as it looks!
Man in the Dark.
August 24, 2008
I have a love-hate relationship with the work of Paul Auster. Books like Oracle Night, The Book of Illusions and, most recently, The Brooklyn Follies — as patchy as they in places were — worked on a number of levels for me, pulling me into worlds that were at once crisply real and yet postmodern to the point of surrealism.
His most famous piece, however, The New York Trilogy, simply left me cold — as did In the Country of Last Things.
Reading this review in The Times Online website of his latest novel Man in the Dark, it struck me that this latest work might actually be worth taking a look at. Yes, he treads familiar ground — but that’s what Auster does. He is the master of metafiction and whilst I don’t in any way want to emulate that (been there, done it…), this review did help me see where I need to be going as a writer.
I want to play with form. I want to take the world as I know it — as I have known it — and reshape it, present it in a different light. I want to focus on the character driven, where my strength lies, but I want to skew the angles, present unusual juxtapositions in order to challenge preconceived notions.
In short, I probably want to do what Auster himself hasn’t really done in a long while. I want to tax myself. It isn’t enough to simply follow a familiar path. That was why the outline for We Are Watching/The Yesterday Tree didn’t work for me. I’d been there before, even though I didn’t realise it at the time. I need to write a novel that keeps me on my toes, something rooted in personal experience, like Children of the Resolution, but also something which presents it in a unique, previously unknown form.
Man in the Dark. If Auster hadn’t already used it, it might have been the perfect title for the novel I now have planned. For the time being, let’s simply call it…
Looking Back…
August 23, 2008
It seems I’m pulling in quite a few new readers at the moment. My daily page hit count has been around 184 over the past week or so, jumping up to 233 on one occasion. Not exactly in the same league as some out there, but a definite improvement and rather gratifying nonetheless.
So, I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for helping my blog to grow. Your comments are always welcome (in fact, if you’re a new reader, please feel free to treat this as an opportunity to say hello — pimp your own blog, even, if you wish!)
Because so many new people are dropping by I thought it might be fun to look back at some of my earlier articles. I’ve picked five of my personal favourites. If you’re a regular reader and there’s an older article of mine that you like which I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to shout up!
Five of the Best.
- Drawing the Line. February 25, 2008. I like this piece because it gives an insight into how I write and, in particular, how I wrote Children of the Resolution. It was good for me to read it again. Especially at this “between-projects” time.
- Disability in Fiction. February 16, 2008. Another writing-related piece concerning expectation in writing.
- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. November 26, 2007. The Richard Feynman Horizon interview — with a short introduction by me.
- You Can’t Say That. June 23, 2008. A rant on our ridiculous fear of causing offence. In part a tribute to the late George Carlin.
- Elvis, Marty Lacker… and Me. August 3, 2008. This is one of my all-time favourites because it provided me, quite unexpectedly, with the opportunity to exchange emails with one of Elvis Presley’s closest friends, Memphis Mafia member Marty Lacker. I may have a further update on this story in the not too distant future.
Well, I think that’s all for now. Take a look when you have time and enjoy. These five post probably epitomise pretty well just what I am about — or what my blog is about, at least!
Biting the Bullet.
August 21, 2008
Today I finally got round to admitting to myself that the outline for The Yesterday Tree isn’t firing me up as much as I would have hoped. I’ve tiptoed up to the edge of this a number of times over the past few weeks, but today — whilst it was developing quite nicely, with many elements that I like — I had to bite the bullet and accept that it just isn’t what I want to write. The truth is, it’s becoming rather too genre for my liking (there’s nothing wrong with genre fiction per se — I actually really enjoy good genre fiction — but I do find it extremely restricting as a writer.) There are certain themes and ideas I want to explore, and the plot was becoming far more dominant than I would have liked. I can’t see a way of fixing this without it becoming a different novel altogether and so it’s now officially on the backburner. I may return to it, but my past record suggests that I probably won’t.
It also didn’t help that I couldn’t quite see it as a follow-up to Children of the Resolution. I’m fairly sure that should Children be accepted I would face opposition to The Yesterday Tree. It’s just too different, and from a marketing perspective it could have quite possibly been a nonstarter.
It isn’t as depressing as it might sound, however. In fact, it’s a very common situation for me and actually quite liberating. I find ideas need to be thoroughly tested and in order to weed out the good ones a few must inevitably fail. I have something else up my sleeve — a couple of possible projects — but that’s where they’re staying for the moment!
Writing Advice for the Day: Always give a project a chance. Do not abandon a novel simply because you’re having a bad day. But do not be afraid of abandoning it if it continually leaves you feeling half-hearted and uninspired. You must feel passionate about the project. Without that it’s very likely to be a complete waste of time.
Rainbows and Outlines.
August 19, 2008
Rainbows.
As I sit at my desk, looking out of the window and trying to think of something to blog about, the sun comes out on this otherwise quite miserable and rainy day and quite suddenly I see it. A rainbow. And I am reminded once again of the uniqueness of every viewed rainbow — the fact that if you and I were side-by-side looking at it together you would be seeing a different rainbow to the one I would see. In fact, my left eye sees a different rainbow to the one that my right eye sees. The explanation is fairly simple, but I don’t really want to comment on that. Instead, I want to share a quotation with you that this phenomenon brought to mind — a quotation that admirably expresses how I feel about science and life in general.
“The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.”
– Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow.
I think Dawkins hits the nail on the head with this passage and I would seriously recommend this particular volume to anyone out there who hasn’t already read it.
The Yesterday Tree.
The chapter outlines for the next novel are still progressing steadily. I have about ten chapters outlined in, for me, great detail. It is opening out in a slightly different way than I would have expected, but at heart it’s still the kind of novel I want it to be — psychologically intense, dark, Kafkaesque, character driven but with a pacey, thriller-style plot. I will be glad to get the outline out of the way, however. It’s a pretty labourious process at times — write a bit, check a few facts, write a bit more, research police murder procedure, write a bit more… you get the picture — but it will make the whole process of writing the novel far less stressful. I’ll be able to concentrate much more on the language, on creating the feel I want.
It’s all in the preparation — isn’t that what they say?
Burning Love.
August 15, 2008
The novel I’m currently trying to place, Children of the Resolution, has a scene of which I’m fairly fond. My protagonist, Carl, is still only about six years old and one of his classmates had just died (it’s a “special” school for kids with physical disabilities, set in the early 1970s.) One line in particular — because it was just the kind of thing I would have thought or said the time — I especially like.
Given that it’s Elvis Week, and that the man himself (or his music, at least) has been a part of my life for many, many years, now seems a good time to share the extract with you.
“If it made her feel bad to tell us about how Emiline had died and everything, she shouldn’t have to do it. Someone else should have done it for her. Mr. Dixon in assembly should have said, instead of making us sing Give Me Oil in My Lamp (although, I had to admit it was a good song — not exactly up there with Burning Love, but good nonetheless.) It wasn’t fair and I wanted to make it better for her but didn’t know how.”
A Week Is a Long Time.
August 10, 2008
It’s been an interesting week in the blogosphere for me. My stats are steadily climbing and this week has seen me reach (with one day left) another weekly high. The comments I’m receiving are, as always, extremely helpful and encouraging (not to mention entertaining!)
This aside, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was interviewed this week by The Pakistani Spectator — a large, multi-author Pakistani blog that aims to “foster peace, progress and harmony with passion.” The interview was a fascinating and enjoyable experience. Nowhere near as daunting as I had expected (it was my first interview of this kind.) I replied to their questions and thought that would be that.
How wrong can you be?
I heard back from them fairly quickly asking me if I would be interested in writing for them. I considered this a huge compliment but I wasn’t quite sure how my work would fit in on a site where the articles were rather Pakistan-centric. I therefore asked a few questions before committing and got the answers I would have hoped for. I was assured I could write “with liberty” and so gladly accepted the kind invitation.
I’m now, officially, a writer for The Pakistani Spectator. In order to ease myself into it and test the water, my first piece was a repost of my Where the Buck Stops post from earlier in the week. So far, on The Pakistani Spectator, it’s had 3,838 views and is receiving very encouraging comments.
Time will of course tell, but I think it’s going to be an extremely interesting and educational experience.
Location, Location, Location.
August 4, 2008
I always like to have a strong sense of place when writing a novel. I wouldn’t consider myself the kind of writer who labours over detailed, lyrical description of landscape and surroundings — far from it. My primary concern is always what’s going on in my principle character’s head. Nonetheless, without the capacity to visualise in detail where he/she is I quite often find myself struggling with the other aspects of the novel. Environment is an extremely important part of understanding who my characters are, even if I share only a little of the detail with my readers.
Wherever possible, I like the places I use to be real towns, cities, villages etc — or to at least be based upon them. In the early stages of planning a novel I will quite often consciously look for new places I haven’t used before, places that will reflect my character in the right way and provide the necessary possibilities I will need. The Yesterday Tree (the new name for We Are Watching) was no exception. I knew early on I wanted the North York Moors to feature. In winter it is a stark and awe-inspiring place, the sky seemingly going on forever. I knew virtually from day one that I would set some major scenes out there. There would be a dead man. A suicide. Probably more — much, much more.
But where was my protagonist going to live? He wasn’t a city or town man, that much I already knew. So it had to be a village — or at least a market town.
Last Wednesday, I found the perfect place. Thornton-le-Dale.
Nothing bad could ever happen there, right?
We’ll see about that!
