Get off the damn phone

So A Graveyard Visible doesn't have a phone in it. 

I've only just realised this. In amongst everything that happens, nobody's gone anywhere near a mobile. It was such an odd thought that I had to stop and go back through the story and double-check. 

As it turns out, AGV is told in a fairly tight space (not in terms of Time, though - we've got a bit of drift there, back and forwards). There are a few sets, all relatively close to each other. Graveyard, garage roof, playground, Gramps' house, and that strange old Manor at the end of the road and round the corner.

It happens that the story is such that the presence of a mobile phone would not affect the outcome in any way. Have I created this situation on purpose? No. But yes.

Mobile phones are a part of life. I need to shove them in. How do I fix this then? I pondered moving the whole lot back in time, to the 80's. No mobile phones there. In fact, the original idea was to base the story in the era of my childhood. A part of me really wanted to talk about being a boy back then, with the technology we had. This turned out to be the reason why A Graveyard Visible took so long to take off. I wanted to talk about things that did not fit with the story that needed to be told.

I realised that the characters had the answer. Caleb, you see, he doesn't really have anyone he'd call. Father is barely present, Gramps is going a smidge loopy and wouldn't be able to work the dang thing, and Mum... well, she's not with us any longer. Misha? She spends as much time as possible as far away from people as she can, so why would she want to be contactable on a phone?

The AVG universe, quite simply, does not have mobiles. And that's fine.

Real life does. It's utterly unavoidable. Leave the house, have a very short walk, go to the shop, and you absolutely will see someone on a mobile at some point doing something. On the bus to work, you use it to listen to music and read a book at the same time (if you're like me). Waiting in the doctors, there's always time for a quick flick through your Instagram feed. Whenever you get a second, you're checking for an email about that publishing contract (maybe, maybe...).

But the thing is, I'm not in the middle of an adventure wherein graveyards are expanding and strange men are lurking in the rain. Would I be phoning people up to say that I've just measured a fence and it's about two metres longer than it was yesterday? Unlikely, because it's far too weird. Would I be calling the police to tell them I've seen some people looking vaguely suspicious in suits around a grave? Doubt it, because what's so suspicious about them anyway? And no-one's going to believe anything about paranormal stuff because that stuff's not real so who would believe it?

I don't really need to add in scenes where Caleb takes a minute to muck about with Snapchat filters while he waits for the revenant to turn up. It won't bring anything to the story if I have him scouring the internet for information on strange old Manors. I think I'd be wasting everyone's time if I chucked in a bit where Crosswell tries and fails to get Google Maps to work while he's out hunting for murderous things. (Actually, I quite like that last one. Back off, I've bagsied it.)

So, here's the thing. Did I choose not to write the latest smartphone tech into my story, or did my story make that decision for me? I guess we writers have to see what's good for the story, what keeps it going, and allow those decisions to happen. The story will drive itself on, and our job is to throw as few obstacles in its way as possible. Any author knows that they themselves are an obstacle to the telling - the poor story has to go through us to get out into the world.

Laters

The best tv isn't on tv

By which I mean traditional tv.

See, I'd given up on the box in the corner of the room. I've been after a new telly series for a while, and we have all kinds of channels, but there's simply not a lot on them. I don't have much inclination to carry on with Game of Thrones (got to halfway through season 5, and that'll do), or The Walking Dead (think we watched the second episode of season 7, can't really remember, not that bothered either way).

Now, I knew Netflix had been creating their own original content for some time, but the truth is that I was being a bit of a snob about the whole situation. I didn't really believe that the standard of their shows could possibly be very high. I thought it would all look cheap, be clichéd, and poorly acted.

(Before we go any further, I know most of us watch Netflix on tv, so that makes my title a load of old nonsense, but it's a streaming service, not a channel. Although actually it is on a channel on Virgin Media, channel 204, so I've just ruined my own argument again. Shut up.)

E knows how much I love Lemony Snicket, and she got me to watch the first episode of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It didn't quite grab me (think I love the film too much and I'm desperately sad that there'll never be a sequel), but it's VERY well made, and I can see why it's getting a lot of positive reviews.

It got me wondering what Netflix's other series are actually like.
I've been missing out.
And I'll tell you what, it's all about the time travel at the minute (or the last minute, or the next minute).

Travelers



I'm terrible for having stupid reasons to avoid trying new things. This show stars the guy out of Will and Grace. That put me off. I'm not a fan of that show. It seemed to be endlessly loud and squeaky. It was like being attacked with comedy.
Turns out he's pretty great in a cast full of stand-out performances.

So, in this one, the future has gone bad. Surprise, surprise, we humans screwed it all up.  It's gone so horribly wrong that an AI consciousness is sending individuals back into our time, where they take over the bodies of people who are seconds from dying. They need to continue these people's lives whilst fulfilling missions that will help to put the future right. This means the Travelers have to deal with whatever issues those bodies have. Most famously right now is the guy with heroin addiction (and it's quite surprising how they deal with that one), but there's also the woman with a learning disability and a support worker who's in for a surprise, and him off of Will and Grace is a detective with a wife - unfortunate his lover from the future has also come back with him. Lots of fun.

It's not a show to over-think - I suspect that there's plot-holes ahoy. However, when I'm enjoying the storytelling, I'm not too bothered if it's all stitched together perfectly.

Frequency

This, again, sounded like it might be a bit dumb (see what I mean about how quickly I judge stuff?), and if you've seen the movie this is based on, then you'll know what I mean. In 2016, Raimy has a quick dabble on her late father's ham radio, and manages to talk to him on it... back in 1996, before he is killed undercover. She, of course, helps him avoid dying.

Now this is my idea of fast-paced story development. I thought it might feed out info and revelations quite slowly, a little bit per episode. Wrong! By the end of the second episode the lead character's life is completely upside-down and inside-out. There's a couple of jaw-droppers that result from changes made to the past, changes that resonate in her present.
In fact, this turns into a CSI-style police procedural with sci-fantasy overtones, with father and daughter trying to solve the over-arching serial killer case from separate points in time. That's a bit of a new one on me, and I'm a bit of a sucker for a new angle on an old story archetype. Once again, though, it's the writing and performances that sell this. The characters are not quite as stereotypical as you might expect, and the leads do a good job of investing the viewer in their relationship. I'm half way through this series, and so far no drop in quality.

Binge watching series like this is perfect for the writer in me. This is my ideal way to write - some people like silence, I like some music at the very least, or a couple of films or a good series in the background. Something about other stories makes me want to write my own.

I've got more stuff queued up on my Netflix list - The Expanse, The O A, Glitch. Plenty to look forward to. I will keep you updated on my continuing research.

TV is dead. Long live TV.

Laters

Why does the second book deal feel better than the first?

A second horrible child is on the way. And I couldn't be happier.

(By the way, this episode is all about me. Deal with it.)

A Graveyard Visible has done what I thought was impossible. It has landed a publishing contract. All going well, it will tear itself loose around October/November 2017.

Currently I have the pleasure of choosing images to inspire the designer of my new front cover. I used to dream of such days... I can't tell you how much fun I'm having, imagining what the final product will look like in my hands. Another real actual book, sitting next to Mac Pliers on the shelf!

This is pretty cool - it's got the hill, craggy old tree,

headstones dotted about. A bit grey, but mood is about right.

This is a wow. Love love love.

I'd read a book with this cover in a heartbeat.

Wowzer, right?

Too zombie-ish for my novel, but still...

I could always stick a zombie in.

That's about a quarter of one percent of the amount of stuff I've actually looked at (and in truth none of these has actually been chosen to pass along for inspiration, and - for the record - I don't own any of them, okay? So no-one freak out).

I've written a hell of a lot since I started tapping away on my knacky electronic typewriter 20-some years ago. I'm about to finish my tenth full length novel. (There's various scripts and attempts at short stories on top of that. Even a poem or two. We all try stuff out. Some sticks, some... bad times.) So, until I got the incredible news about A Graveyard Visible, I had a single novel and 3 short stories published over the course of those 2 decades. One novel. 20 years. Mac Pliers looked like a fluke.

People always say this - it took J K Rowling x amount of attempts before she got published, you know. It's usually Rowling they refer to. And the amount of attempts varies from 20 to 30 submissions to publishing houses. I wish I had that kind of average! We're talking in the hundreds for submissions here. Not hundred. Hundreds.

There was only one conclusion: either my targeting was way off, or I simply can't write, and Mac Pliers was an accident bound to happen when one has committed so many strings of words to paper.

A discouraging thought, I'm sure you'll agree.

So, as happens every few months (for I am a stroppy writer, don't you know), I decided that my most recent submissions would be my last. I was wasting my time, other people's time who had to read my queries, and all in all that seemed to be a lot of time going up the spout. Best to get on living, and keep my scribbles to myself.

I meant it this time.

I really did.

I sent it, gave up on it, and we had a busy Christmas in which everything but food, drink and cats up trees was forgotten, and then in the first week of the new year an offer of a contract came. I'm pretty certain I cleared the high jump world record. 2nd time really is the charm, folks. It's much harder even for stroppy writery me to believe in a double fluke. I might actually be good at this. In fact, I'm actually doing it, I'm being a writer. Plus, another novel of mine received 2 very positive bits of feedback in the very same week. Not an acceptance, but positive feedback. 2017 has been very nice so far.

No hidden morals in this story. I mean seriously everyone, if I can keep going after THIS LONG and finally get to where I want to be, then there's hope for every single one of you. It simply needed a teeny tiny touch more patience than originally anticipated.

Perhaps I'll stick with this novel game a while longer. Only this time, I need to get a good grasp on promotion.

This time.

Don't forget - this guy gets re-released at the end of Jan 2017

Laters