If you call Bessi, then I'll be your long lost pal

Inside Ed's Head 2022-11-28

Music this week courtesy of Paul Simon:

Chevy Chase features heavily in that video. He was massively popular in the 80s, but by the 2010s had a bit of a reputation. There’s a theory that he suffered a lot of blows to the head that he’s suffered concussion injuries, akin to a footballer heading the ball constantly. Keep that head of yours safe!

Anyway, the reason I chose that song this week is for this:

If you'll be my bodyguard

I can be your long lost pal

I can call you Bessi

And Bessi, when you call me, you can call me Al

Meet Al:

I got him on Friday. Bit of a whirlwind – he gets on really well with Bessi, as you can see in the background, so I decided I’d give him a home. Two months ago, he was winning a race in Nottingham but today he’s living in my house. Four years old and a big soft bugger like me. Bessi loves him, he loves her. All’s good! And the cheeky sod is lying on my bed as I type this.

I lost Misty and Rosie last year to old age and having two dogs is the best number. They keep each other company and form a wee pack. And the big jump is from none to one.

Last week

I warned you.

This is going to be boring for the next few weeks. I’m currently working my way through the first draft of WHERE THE BODIES LIE and… I’m loving it. Which is very unsettling. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last eighteen months defining Marshall, Shunty and the whole universe of cops in my fictional Borders, so meeting up with them again in the new novel feels quite like meeting up with friends, albeit friends you might not all get on with.

Managed to put down 26,000 words in the last seven days, and that was with travelling to and from London, then my day trip to Brighton – I was bitterly disappointed to find neither mods nor rockers, though I did play every pinball table between Soho and Brighton, i.e. none – so I’m taking that as a win. The prologue is about 14,000 words of that, which is going some for a prologue so think of it as a part one set ten years ago. I really like the three new characters I’ve introduced and the chapter I wrote today before I walked Al and Bessi up the hill was really fun to do.

It’s quite interesting how much more time I’ve spent on the outline of this and how it’s twisted it into another kind of story. Or at least part of it has. The core “plot” is the same, just a few changes to the motivation.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this last week (one of the rules I have is to not check what I’ve sent out before so I don’t tangle myself up in things like that) but I read recently some advice Neil Druckman (director of the Last Of Us game) gave Cory Barlog (director of the God of War game) about narratives – “simple plots with complex characters”. I’ve often over-stuffed my plots and that’s the bit people don’t really care about. It should be secondary to interesting characters – Bain, for instance, or where I took Cullen. The bit I think people like is the interaction between them, as well as the overriding mystery element, but that’s an intellectual exercise rather than an emotional one. Keeping the story straight is key. Not to say that a book without plot is what you want either. It all needs to be in harmony. Something simple and clear and elegant with great characters.

Easier said than done!

This week

It’ll be getting my head down and chomping through the words. Head of steam up, done more than a quarter of it, including editing as I go but it’s adding 20% as I go, which is fair enough. I think it’s like doing the relay where I’m passing the baton between my chapters each time I write, so it’s pretty effective in keeping voice and character consistent.

Got the launch of F9 on Wednesday night at 7pm GMT on Facebook Live (non-FB users can watch too and I’ll be uploading it to my neglected YouTube channel after, if I can). Hope you join me!

Oh, and I accidentally unsubscribed EVERYONE from my mailing list last night. That’s 2,500+ people. So last night I spent four hours going through and fixing it, resubscribing them one-by-one and got halfway. Go to subscribers, select unsubscribed, sort by date, click on the last one, go into their record and click subscribe – rinse and repeat. I got through the last five hours of England’s Dreaming by Jon Savage, the definitive account of the Sex Pistols, and a good chunk of Pete Doherty’s autobiography – can’t stand him or his music (Can’t Stand Me Now, pun aside, is a genuine classic though), but it evokes a really interesting time in the late 90s early 00s, especially in that London which I write about.

Anyway, have a great week!

See you later,
Ed