Blue, blue, electric blue

Inside Ed's Head: 2022-12-05

Music this week is Bowie’s SOUND AND VISION. I’ve loved this for as long as I can remember. It’s got such a bizarre structure – it’s like they accidentally had the lead vocal fader down and remembered to push it up halfway through the first chorus. The album it’s from, LOW, is also bizarre. Long away from the glam rock stuff that he finally broke through on, but only a bit of the funk from YOUNG AMERICANS remains. It’s got a solid groove (and in this performance from god knows what show but I’d say it’s about 1998/99 judging by the band, that drummer absolutely rocks) but also has a crazy mystery to it that the second half of the album picks up on. The first side is more traditional songs, ALWAYS CRASHING IN THE SAME CAR and BE MY WIFE are as good as SOUND AND VISION, but the second side is very experimental. Tone pieces. This came out around the start of punk and the only “old” artist who remained cool was Bowie because he zagged while others zigged, and produced his best work.

Last Week

Okay, so I’m over halfway in WHERE THE BODIES LIE. My spreadsheet tells me I’ve hit 54,000 words, which I’m pretty pleased with. This is the bit of the book I hate the most, I have to say – I’m far enough away from the early excitement of cutting words on it, but equally far away from the excitement of the ending.

There’s a phrase – the saggy middle – in books and I always try to avoid it, but probably always fall into it. I think in a lot of books, the middle is the bit people don’t want to end. That’s where the characters are doing their stuff. Getting on with things. Where the engagement is. But done badly, it’s where the wheels are spinning in the mud, waiting to churn a few more words until the, say, 60k mark because that’s where the ending starts to happen. The best books have the wasted space cut away, or introduce something new.

I’ve got three story threads running in this. Despite these books being the DI Rob Marshall ones, there are multiple POVs, though I’ve got 15 or so chapters in a row from his perspective before I cut into this new pattern, which I know I’ll break later. These books are me trying different stuff out, which I hope works.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how this is going. I managed to write about 5k yesterday, which today’s edit took to over 7. That doesn’t usually happen at this stage in a book – I’m starting to worry if there’s going to be too much in this one!

Despite managing to cut quite a lot of words, I felt like I had a lot of stuff to do last week. Crap stuff. Like puncturing my tyre - managed to get it half replaced, i.e. jacking it up and taking it off, but the jack collapsed and I had to get Green Flag out to fix it. Bollocks! Oh, and I went to get my hair cut a day early. Not a great week for me on that score!

Fenchurch 9 came out and I did my first video launch. A bit nerve-wracking as I didn’t expect anyone to show (I had about 30-32 online at any one time) and I had some technical issues before. I’d scheduled it for 19.30 GMT, which is when it expects you to go online. I trialled my set up in a video call with my beautiful assistant Neil Broadfoot and then when I tried to go live on Facebook, it didn’t recognise my camera. So I improvised and used my phone, which actually worked pretty well. I did a live prize giveaway, which is going to cost me a fortune to send. If you didn’t see it, you can rewatch it here:

https://fb.watch/h9qF_qcwmI/

I also did my prep for the panel I’m chairing at Newcastle Noir this weekend. That’s as in -upon-Tyne not -under-Lyme. I read three excellent novels by Mari Hannah, Simon McCleave and Tim Sullivan. Anyone looking for a good new series to get stuck into should pick any of their book ones up, especially as Hannah and McCleave have multiple ones. Anyway, I hope it’ll be a good afternoon’s chat. If you’re in the area, it’s 13.30 on Saturday at the central library. Not sure how much the tickets are – have a look at https://newcastlenoir.co.uk

This Week

Just a case of head down and do it. A few days of hard work, then off to Newcastle on Friday afternoon. Back on Sunday. I love the city, it’s very unique and, whisper it, feels quite Scottish but has huge northern England vibes to it. A bit of BODIES is set there, so I’ll do a wonder over and scout locations. Photos next week, if I remember. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to about 70-75k this week, then hopefully I can finish the book off next week and have some time off over Xmas (though I’ll probably do something stupid like write a Cullen novella). I’ve got a few social things planned for once and I’m looking forward to having no immediate pressure. A few things needing sorted out, so a chance to do that too.

Al and Bessi are getting on well together. They were playing chasies in the garden this morning and neither bit the other, which is always good.

Anyway, that’s all from me. Have a great week.

Cheers,
Ed