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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

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Writing and the wisdom of Huey Lewis

In Uncategorized, Writing on May 6, 2013 at 9:07 am

Well, I shipped off the manuscript for my latest book a couple of days ago. My home office looks like a tornado ripped through it: research documents, books, and crumpled manuscript pages scattered everywhere. My first order of business will be to clean the mess up this week. Second order of business will be to enjoy a break from the keyboard this summer and ponder my next project.

The Case That Foiled Fabian will be my seventh book. A lot of people assume that once you publish a book, you become instantly wealthy and can quit your day job. Alas, this is not the case. I have an office job I report to each morning. One, of course, can always hope—but as the years have worn on, and I’ve become more knowledgeable of how publishing works, I’ve sort of abandoned the dream of having a major bestseller—but I have not surrendered the idea of someday being able to write books fulltime.

I’m a long-time fan of Huey Lewis and the News. I recently watched an online interview with Lewis in which he said something that struck a chord. Talking about the music industry, he said a lot of people get into it for the fame and glory. Eventually, however, the passion for what you’re doing overcomes everything and what you end up wanting most is just a decent career doing what you love while remaining true to yourself.

Years ago, I pined for a bestseller—and while I’d still love to score one someday, what I really want more than anything is to just be able to write fulltime and make enough to provide for my family. Of course, the odds of achieving such a thing are rare. Slowly, I’m learning to appreciate the fact I’m simply lucky enough to be published, as there are many great writers out there who never get the chance to enjoy that thrill.

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Doubt: It’s every writer’s companion

In Writing on April 26, 2013 at 8:51 am

It’s something every writer deals with while banging away at the keyboard: doubt. We’re our own worst critics. It’s a terrible moment to read something you’ve put down on paper only to realize there’s nothing but a mess on the page. Of course, it’s not always as bad as you think—it’s just doubt mercilessly kicking your self-confidence in the groin. The next time you worry something you’ve written is not up to your usual high standards, consider this letter penned by a first-time author to a friend:

I had the idea that one could write a thriller with half one’s mind, and I simply wrote 2,000 words a day to show myself that I could. I didn’t read it through as I wrote it, and when I returned to England and did so I really was appalled.

The dialogue, a lot of the descriptions and the main characters are dreadfully banal and three-quarters of the writing is informed with what I can only describe as vulgarity. Such good action moments as there are in the story have been more or less thrown away and so far as I can see the element of suspense is completely absent.

After riffling through this muck you will probably never speak to me again, but I have got to take that chance. For God’s sake don’t mention this dreadful oafish opus to anyone else, and for heaven’s sake believe, as I am sure you will after you have read a few pages, that this is not mock humility.

The author, opining on his first manuscript, goes on for another couple of paragraphs and rips his work to shreds. Long story short, the manuscript wound up in the hands of UK publisher Jonathan Cape, who thought highly of the story and the writing. And on April 13, 1953, Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, was published.

See? Even the best writers harshly judge their own abilities.

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Doing what was once unthinkable . . .

In books on April 19, 2013 at 9:22 am

Time—as we all know—is a precious commodity, what with deadlines, family commitments, long commutes, and other things life throws one’s way. Hence, when you have an hour to kill, you want to make sure it doesn’t go to waste. This line of thinking recently prompted me to do something I’ve always tried to avoid. I gave up on a book.

The other night, having finished my round of manuscript edits for the evening, I thought I’d try and catch up on some recreational reading. I poured myself a drink, picked up a book, and crashed on the sofa. Now, this particular book is one I’ve been trying to get through since January. It’s a recent history on the Mutiny of the Bounty, a subject I’ve always found fascinating.

The book’s opening chapters were brilliant and had me hooked—but halfway through the tome, the narrative became unbelievably sluggish. The author is a good writer and a brilliant researcher, who obviously felt compelled to unload every fact she uncovered into the book. The result was an information overload of seemingly irrelevant details. It got to the point where I just couldn’t keep track of things anymore—and I consider myself a pretty sharp reader.

I officially gave up on page 264 but had been struggling since the 150-page mark (the book has 410 pages). With a massive stack of books on my bedside table, I admitted defeat and tossed the book in a pile that’s destined for the local used bookstore. In the past, I would have hated doing such a thing—but now, I don’t have time to waste on a read I find dull.

Alas, I hope the next book I sit down with meets a kinder fate.

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It’s been a while . . .

In Writing on April 17, 2013 at 10:15 pm

Coffee

Well, I’ve been lagging somewhat in the blogging department. Bookwork has been keeping me busy. I have a May 1 deadline with my British publisher, so I’ve been frantically trying to finish the manuscript for The Case That Foiled Fabian: Murder and Witchcraft in the Heart of England. It’s involved downing a lot of coffee. The writing is actually done; I’m now in proofreading mode and hope to have all final edits complete by this weekend.

I’ve written my last three books back-to-back, so I plan on taking a break when I’m done with this current project. This will be the first summer in about five years I haven’t been under some sort of publishing deadline. It’s a welcome thought—but one that’s slightly scary. As an author, you can’t help but wonder where your next writing contract is coming from.

That said, I have what I consider to be two strong book ideas and have promised my agent to get him proposals on each in the not-too-distant future. In other publishing news, my book Dark City, which came out in the UK three years ago, will be released as an audio book later this year, which is exciting. Also of note: I had another run-in with the entertainment world that once again went nowhere. A major British production company contacted my film agent, saying they wanted to option Human Game for a multi-part miniseries and a multi-part documentary. Long story short, they never followed through with the offer and never clued us in as to why. Nice. I’ll never understand how that industry works.

My top priority this summer will be to catch up on my recreational reading. So far, I plan to tackle:

    The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas (one of my favorite mystery writers)

    River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

    The Collected Stories of John Cheever

    The Woman Lit by Fireflies and The Farmer’s Daughter by Jim Harrison

    Skeletons of the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King

    A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan

    True Grit by Charles Portis

There are more books on my list, but I figure this is a pretty good start. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get through these—but I’m going to give it my best shot. Anyone out there have books they’re looking forward to reading poolside?

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You can never have too many books

In books on February 5, 2013 at 9:14 am

library

“You ordered more books?”

So asked my wife when the package from Amazon hit the doorstep on Saturday. My response: “Indeed, I did.” In the box were three titles I’m very much looking forward to reading once I’m done with my current manuscript: Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard, and A Daughter’s Tale: The Memoir of Winston Churchill’s Youngest Child by Mary Soames.

Admittedly, I do have more than a few books in my library I purchased a while back and have not yet read—but that doesn’t stop me from ordering other books I want. My wife, bless her, doesn’t understand this. Surely, she muses, I should read every book I have before adding to my already considerable collection. “Nonsense,” I say.

I love being surrounded by books. I love pulling a random title from one of my bookshelves and flipping through its pages. I love the weight of a book in my hand and the sound of a page turning—none of which you can enjoy on your Kindle or Nook. Old books have a certain scent—a blending of dust and age—that I find strangely pleasing.

This evening, I pulled a copy of Winston Churchill’s Thoughts and Adventures from my shelf. It’s a 1949 reprint that belonged to my grandfather. The book is a collection of newspaper and magazine articles Churchill published between 1924 and 1931. One essay, titled “Hobbies,” tackles the very subject of having more books than one can possibly read. I feel obliged to share Mr. Churchill’s take on the matter with you now:

‘What shall I do with all my books?’ was the question; and the answer, ‘Read them,’ sobered the questioner. But if you cannot read them, at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking sounds of unchartered seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.

Churchill acknowledges we will never read all the books we want to:

Think of all the wonderful tales that have been told, and well told, which you will never know. Think of all the searching inquiries into matters of great consequence which you will never pursue. Think of all the delighting or disturbing ideas that you will never share. Think of the mighty labours which have been accomplished for your service, but of which you will never reap the harvest. But from this melancholy there also comes a calm. The bitter sweets of a pious despair melt into an agreeable sense of compulsory resignation from which we return with renewed zest to the light vanities of life.

And so forgive me for being a book hoarder.

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Another Hollywood tale

In books, Random thoughts on January 31, 2013 at 2:39 pm

Inglourious_Basterds_poster

Since the publication of my first book in 2005, I’ve had several run-ins with Hollywood that I suppose one could call “interesting”—or, perhaps more truthfully, “frustrating.” You can read about one such Tinsel Town adventure here. Today, something happened I feel compelled to share. My film agent is currently pitching my latest book, Human Game: The True Story of the ‘Great Escape’ Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen. Regular visitors to this site know the book picks up where the 1963 Steve McQueen film “The Great Escape” ends. It details the British manhunt for a Gestapo murder squad in post-war Germany.

The story is dark, tragic, and—of course—true. Today, however, a Hollywood producer turned the book down because he felt the subject of hunting Nazi war criminals had been adequately covered in the Quentin Tarentino flick “Inglourious Basterds.” Seriously. Now, I realize producers are under tremendous pressure to produce hits—and I realize the odds of having a book turned into a film are slim . . . but “Inglourious Basterds”?!

The film, in short, highlights the adventures of a team of Nazi hunters who scalp their prey. I enjoyed the movie—but I find it odd one would think it seriously addresses the issue of retribution for Nazi war atrocities! As far as I can tell, the similarities between Human Game and Tarantino’s film are:

• Both take place in Europe.
• Both are set against the backdrop of World War II.
• Both feature Nazis as bad guys.
• Both feature Hitler.
• Both involve good guys hunting aforementioned Nazi bad guys.

That’s about it. In all honesty, I’m not bitter about the producer’s rejection—I just find his reasoning to be strange. Oh, well . . .

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More book news

In publishing, Writing on January 8, 2013 at 8:26 am

FountainPen

With the new year under way, I find myself fully entrenched in my latest book project, The Case that Foiled Fabian: Murder and Witchcraft in Rural England. The manuscript is due on the publisher’s desk May 1. I noticed last night the book is already listed on the UK Amazon site, even though it won’t be out until June 2014. The product description reads:

On Wednesday 14 February 1945, the body of Charles Walton was discovered in the sleepy Warwickshire village of Lower Quinton, his torso pinned to the ground by a pitchfork that had been viciously driven through him. Walton, a life-long resident of Lower Quinton and a retired labourer, was believed by many to be a clairvoyant who could talk to birds and exercise control over animals. Indeed, with the vast majority of villagers believing that Walton’s death was carried out according to ritual witchcraft, such was his unusual past, the most famous police officer in Britain, Robert Fabian (Fabian of the Yard), was promptly dispatched by Scotland Yard to help solve this increasingly peculiar and foreboding mystery. Fabian was not a man prone to superstition and who had dealt with some of the most notorious killers of his time. However, there was something in the Walton murder that proved to be unnerving. Moreover, with all the clues continuing to point towards ritual witchcraft as the modus operandi and faced by a wall of silence from the villagers, Fabian faced, for the first time in his glittering career, the daunting prospect of failure. Renowned crime historian Simon Read will piece together the now-infamous events at Lower Quinton in an effort to provide an answer to the unrequited question: who killed Charles Walton, the victim of the last ritual witchcraft murder in Britain?

I’ll say it: I like being referred to as a “renowned crime historian.”

I should have the first draft done in another 10,000 words or so. I spent the holiday season in Britain, researching and taking photographs, and am quite happy with the way things are progressing. I have a feeling this will be my last book for quite a while, as—for the first time since I became a published author—I have no idea what I want to work on next. While I have a few ideas rattling around in the back of my head, none of them genuinely excite me. It’s a rather nerve-wracking thing to be bereft of ideas, for a writer can’t really write without them! That said, a break will do me good. Since 2005, I’ve written seven books (including the one I’m working on now) back-to-back. My brain and my carpal-tunneled fingers need a rest.

Turning the book in by the beginning of May means I won’t have to worry about writing over the summer. In addition to banging out books, I work a day job (unless you’re a major bestselling author, tapping at the keys doesn’t earn you enough to feed a family and pay the mortgage). This means I work on the books in the evenings after my wife and son have gone to bed. I’m actually looking forward to having time to crash on the sofa and watch movies—and, of course, catch up on my reading.

In other books news, there is now less than two months to go until the British publication of Human Game. I’m very happy to announce that Live Magazine, which is published in the Mail on Sunday (one of Britain’s major national newspapers) will be publishing a 2,500-word excerpt of the book just prior to the March 7 release. As frequent visitors to this site may already know, Human Game details the brutal, non-fiction aftermath of the events depicted in the classic film “The Great Escape.” The movie has always been popular in the UK and—until recently—always aired on television on Christmas day. I’m hoping this bodes well for the book’s UK performance.

My New Year’s resolution is to try and be more disciplined when it comes to the blog. My writing duties have cut into my blogging time, but I hope to be posting more regularly in the weeks ahead!

Until next time . . .

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What I’m working on now . . .

In Writing on November 5, 2012 at 9:33 am

On the morning of February 14, 1945, a seventy-four-year-old farm laborer named Charles Walton left his thatched-roof cottage in the English village of Lower Quinton and went to work in the nearby fields, cutting hedges for a local farmer. When he didn’t return home by sunset, his niece—Edith—got worried and went searching for him. It was a cold, misty night. Accompanied by a neighbor and the farmer who employed Walton, Edith went looking in the fields where her uncle worked. In the far corner of one meadow, the light from their torches fell on a horrible site. There lay poor Charles, pinned to the ground with his pitchfork, which had been plunged through his face. The slashing hook he used to trim the hedges was buried in his throat.

The local constabulary was ill-equipped to handle a case of such magnitude and requested assistance from Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad. The Yard sent their most famous manhunter, Detective-Superintendent Robert Fabian—known nationally through his policing exploits as “Fabian of the Yard.” In 1940s Britain, Fabian was almost a celebrity, having cracked some of the country’s most high-profile cases. How hard would it be to track down a killer in a village of 493 people?

In the event, the Lower Quinton murder would prove to be one case Fabian couldn’t solve. The crime remains an open homicide in the files of the Warwickshire Constabulary. The murder is considered by many to be the last ritual witchcraft killing in Britain. It’s claimed by some that Walton was a witch slain because of various activities tied to black magic. Others believe he was simply the unfortunate victim of an exceedingly brutal killer. The book I’m currently working, The Case That Foiled Fabian, to be released in 2014 by UK publisher The History Press, will examine Walton’s murder and the various theories that continue to swirl around it. I’m 45,000 words in and hope to have the first draft done by the end of January. It’s due at the publisher on May 1.

I’ve been so busy with researching and writing, I’ve had little time to update my blog. My apologies—but at least I have a somewhat decent reason for my lazy blogging habits as of late. As I move closer to the finish line, I’ll post more details on the book. I’ll be in England over Christmas and will be venturing to Lower Quinton to conduct a bit more research (I did some there this past February). Through Scotland Yard case files and an old photograph I found, I’ve located the actual field and the spot where Walton died, so I plan on snapping a few pictures.

Apparently, the villagers are awfully sensitive when it comes to the crime. I have to be honest and say I don’t know why. If it was a recent event, I’d certainly understand—but it happened nearly sixty years ago. You don’t see people in London’s East End still bent out of shape over Jack the Ripper—nor do you see San Francisco residents still up in arms over the Zodiac killer. Oh, well. Stay tuned for more details!

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Kirkus Reviews gives thumbs-up to Human Game

In books on September 3, 2012 at 8:43 am

Happy to report Kirkus Reviews has given Human Game a good write-up. The review, which I’ve included below, will appear on the Kirkus website September 3; it will run in the Kirkus print edition September 12. I consider the following review a nice complement, considering the slogan for Kirkus Reviews is “The World’s Toughest Book Critics Since 1933.”

Human Game: The True Story of the ‘Great Escape’ Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen

The truth about the murders of 50 airmen who escaped from a top-security World War II prison camp and how the Third Reich’s killers were brought to justice.

Read (War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder, 2009, etc.) draws heavily on the British Royal Air Force Special Investigation Bureau (SIB) case files to put together the story of what happened after the events portrayed in the 1963 movie The Great Escape. Supposedly escape-proof in design and construction, Stalag Luft III became the holding pen for a multinational contingent of repeat escapees. Six hundred were involved in organizing the plot intended to free 250 from confinement. Read shows how the escape shocked Hitler and the Nazi security services high command, resulting in a nationwide manhunt for the escapees. The men were summarily executed upon capture and cremated anonymously. The SIB detailed a task force of 21 investigators and 16 translators to track down the killers. They identified 72 members of the Gestapo, SS and Kripo chains of command who played an active part in the murders; of them, 21 were sentenced to death by hanging, 17 to prison terms. (Others had died during the war or committed suicide.) The guilty included fanatics like Wilhelm Scharpwinkel, head of the Breslau Gestapo, and Johannes Post, the deputy Gestapo chief and executioner in Kiel.

Read provides an admirable record of the meticulous police work involved in accumulating proof sufficient for prosecution and conviction. The RAF detail started from scratch and had to use many different methods to reconstruct personnel and their units and to identify the 72 found responsible. A fast-paced, clearly written account of how justice was served in a difficult wartime case.

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Writing and dark magic

In Writing on August 23, 2012 at 11:08 am

As the publication date for Human Game approaches, I’m keeping my mind distracted by working on my next project. I’m roughly 20,000 words in and hoping to hit the 30,000-word mark by the end of September. I don’t write as fast as I used to. With a 17-month-old son, it’s also harder for me to stay at my computer for long periods of time. He’s at the age where he enjoys being chased around the house, which is a lot of fun for me—and helps me burn a few calories in the process.

I told myself going into this current project that I wasn’t going to be a stickler with the writing schedule. Thus far, writing only when I feel like it has made the process all the more enjoyable. I don’t feel obligated to produce and don’t feel disappointed if I have an unproductive day. On days when the words are flowing, I limit myself to a 500-word maximum. It’s always better to finish a day’s writing when you know what you want to put down on the page the next day.

There’s another reason for my more relaxed approach. I enjoy knowing that I have a project to work on. Whenever I finish a book, there is—naturally—a great sense of relief, but that soon gives way to fear that no new ideas will materialize. By taking my time, I can draw out the writing process and delay the inevitable panic that will set in when I’m done. All that said, this current book is proving a joy to write. It entails some strange research on my part. Among the books I’ve had to consult thus far are:

    The Devil’s Dominion: The Complete Story of Hell and Satanism in the Modern World

    Man, Myth, and Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural: Volumes 1 and 2

    At the Heart of Darkness: Witchcraft, Black Magic and Satanism Today

    The Occult: A History.

Anyone who walks into my home office and sees such reading material spread about might think I’m trying to master the dark arts. My interest in such a subject is purely professional—but if I learn how to put curses on those who annoy me, then I’ll consider that an added benefit!

In the meantime, I was recently contacted by a fact checker at Wired for the write up they’re doing on Human Game in the October issue. I have no idea the length of the article, but judging from the number of questions I was asked and the depth of detail they wanted, I’m hoping the article is rather substantial—and kind towards the book! I’m very thankful for the publicity!

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