I promised and here I am -- delivering!
How on Earth is it October? How?
Hope that storm didn’t hit you too hard over the weekend.
#Last week
Okay, well — here goes. I managed to finish the conversion draft of No Time To Grieve on the train down to London on Friday, but I had some big lingering doubts about the story. The main villain’s backstory felt a bit too contrived so I’ve simplified that, but of course that’s not a simple task — I’ve got to go through and make the changes, then make sure I’ve made them all. I sat and worked through it whilst eating a burrito (cheers, Fenchy) and I think I’ve got something strong now. It’s weird to see how that aspect of my writing has changed in seven years — I’m much more focused on villain motivation and backstory nowadays, with a few tricks to make sure it’s robust and satisfying.
In other news, the location change from Seattle to Edinburgh has worked really well, even with this. There’s a handgun, but that’s kind of plausible given the people, but the Armed Response Unit provide some gun cover. There’s a lot of work needed to be done to characterise things, but this is a solid story draft and I’m pleased with where it’s got to.
And Chiltern Kills festival was great, if exhausting. Appeared on a panel, chaired one and ran the karaoke with Mark Edwards. Great to hang out with so many old mates and also have new chats with John Niven (one of my very favourite authors) and Jeremy Vine (him off the telly and radio). Highly recommend you attend it next year...
Professional shot of Neil Lancaster chairing our Scotch panel of Scotch authors, with Craig Robertson being wrong about Glasgow, Gavin Bell/Mason Cross/Alex Knight not having a jacket, Russel McLean talking and me looking on.
Professional shot after my second panel outside in the freezing cold (Fiona Cummins, Helen Fields, me, Mark Edwards, Amanda Jennings):
They say never meet your heroes, so I was doubly unlucky to not meet Robert Smith from the Cure or Morrissey out of the Smiths (and not Elvis or bloody Proclaimer). Ahem:
And yes, we know who we’re going to be next year, Matthew.
#Next week
Hopefully I can this effing editing finished with enough time to do a good edit of the pair of the books this week (which will slip into next, let’s be honest). I’ve got the copy edit of Marshall 9 sitting there, but I want to get these nailed down to see if there’s anything I need to amend in that about Winter’s backstory. And there’s something concrete I do need to fix.
See you next week!
Cheers,
Ed