Always on my mind.

A little under a week and Tourniquet will be released to the big bad, mad world. It’s the weirdest feeling. It feels like centuries ago and yet, at the same time, only yesterday that the dark lord and I were enjoying a gin and tonic and JD and coke in Nottingham’s rock bar, the Tap and Tumbler, and musing about a gothic wonderland where we would truly feel at home. Fast forward a few years and Renegade City, albeit in the guise of my novel, Tourniquet, has finally been fleshed out, edited, proof read and given its release date.

So 21st of May it is. Recent weeks have been one long hard slog of web sites updates, marketing research and incidental odds and ends of writing, with the odd convention thankfully sprinkled in-between.

Derby Alt Fiction was a blast. A great excuse to catch up with old friends, go to the odd panel and drink copious amounts of the hard stuff. Graham Joyce’s workshop on dialogue was one of the highlights, although I’m not sure I hold seventies British TV show, The Liver Birds, in such holy reverence as the great man himself.

But to get back to the topic that is forever on my mind, I am delighted that Tourniquet will feature some incredible cover art from Lucas Swann, keyboardist with Uninvited Guest and alt. DJ, and cover model, lead singer Dean Hathway. Thanks to Lucas, Roses has been brought back from the dead in his full dark, messianic glory. Now all that’s left to do is spread the word…

The Publishing Game…

Ah, no electricity, no Internet, which gives me a damn good excuse to start up my blog again. Very long time, no talk. This lull has, for the most part, been due to my getting a contract with Storm Constantine’s Immanion Press.

In 2007, Immanion will be publishing Tourniquet, the first novel in my Tales from Renegade City series.
It has been a very exciting year! I met Storm at Derby Alt Fiction in April and we hit it off. Strom very kindly said she’d take a look at Tourniquet. A few days later, I got the call that I had been dreaming about for the greater part of my life. Storm liked the book! A few weeks later, I signed the contract, and have been working steadily on the edits with my gorgeous and surprisingly kind editor, Donna, ever since.

So how have I found the publication process so far? Well, it’s a weird thing, full of delirium, ecstatic highs and emotional lows (all self-induced when the inevitable demon of Self Doubt has reared its ugly head). I’ve been overwhelmed by the gentle process by which Donna has enabled me to put across exactly what I was trying to say without rewriting any part of the novel for me. I’ve also learnt I’m an absolute dunce when it comes to grammar, but no news there.
Aside from editing Tourniquet, I’ve also embarked on the delightful circuit of literary conventions. Del and I have made some amazing friends; artists, writers, thespians, editors, and many more from across the artistic spectrum. We’ve also been drunk at stupid o’clock in the morning more often than I would dare to hazard a guess at!

Consequently, if I could give one concrete piece of advice to any aspiring writer then, it would be to get yourself out there. Conventions are wonderfully weird events, blending every hue of geek, greb, fan, academic, arsehole and pisshead in a great psychotropic melting pot. A truly trippy experience!

So, as 2006 draws to a close, I find myself musing on a revelation of a year, one in which dreams have started to solidify into a hell of a scary, out there reality, and in which I’ve finally realised that the power to make them come true is down to a good slurp of Dutch courage, bloody-minded tenacity, and an ability to talk shit into the small hours.

Have a good one!
xxx

Say what you see?

Ever the hypocrite, I’ve been thinking today about the way I should be doing things, as opposed to the things I actually do do.

For instance – Say What You See. I expect its a worthy truism for the wannabe writer, but personally the phrase just reminds me of the insidious TV quiz host, Roy Walker, and his ‘hilarious’ show, Catchphrase….which always takes me on to the out-take when puzzle pieces were removed in a more than unfortunate order and Mr Chips, the animated performer of said catchphrase charades, was revealed in a compromising right-hand shake…I digress.

What I’m really talking about here is how to capture a scene effectively.

Take today, for example. I’ve been trying to sum up what the inside of the dome looks like, through the eyes of one of my main characters, Jezebel. Over and over and over again, I’ve scribbled down variations of the same few sentences, refusing in a donkey-like, if feminine,fashion, to move on until I got it. Yeah, so its a major problem of mine, my consolation being that I read Jeanette Winterson saying something about how she worries over every single word in her books. So I guess its all down to whether you, as a writer, feel the poetry of words is just as significant as the plot – a flowery approach, perhaps, that gives some readers real hard satisfaction and makes other vomit (personally I’ll take my chances with the none-regurgitating variety, thanks.)

So, point. Here’s the mantra. Remove yourself from the pc, writing pad, typewriter or slate. Close your eyes. Imagine the scene. And say what you see.

Or, alternatively, you could just do what I ended up doing instead. Drink wine. Get pissed and suddenly everything just flows.

c ya xxx

The Art of Blogging…

OK, I really ought to get this started. Prob is, to rephrase a writer friend with a passion for her blog, never let the website take over from the actual writing. But since things are all a little hectic at the mo – lots of extra-circular activities like actually trying to earn a buck taking over for instance – I’m kind of knackered. So I figure I’ll give myself a break and write some of the fun stuff.

For some reason, the chapters are dragging again. This is pretty dull really, considering I was going great guns throughout the summer. I reckon the prob is as I’m reaching the end of the book, I’m trying to write better to save time on the rewrite! Great in theory, lousy in practice, since it means I get nowhere fast (back to being the great procrastinator – see Bio). But hey ho, we all have crazy times and this is one of mine.

That said, read over some odds or ends of other chapters today – to make sure I was maintaining consistency with characters’ appearances, not just mess about – and I quite like some bits. Queenie, for example, makes me laugh and, believe me, that’s quite a feat!

Bloody hell, so used to capitalising Belief and Believe that I even do it in real life now. Just had to go back and sort my last sentence out. Weird. I’m losing sight of that fickle edged reality…best drink more wine…’cept the bottle’s empty. Curse that dratted husband!

In the words of another friend, snigger, snigger. And now I must to bed…