Hey you!

#Music

New Partner by Palace Music, an alt. country gem:

This is a live version of the song, performed by Will Oldham, under his Bonnie Prince Billy name. The original verision is superior but doesn’t have a video:

A beautiful song, isn’t it?

#Last Week

So I finished the pitch for the sequel, which I’m pretty pleased with it. What I try to capture at this stage is the villain’s plan and motivation. There’s a crime or crimes – who’s done it and why? Everything flows from that. The mystery should be in tandem with the suspense from their actions. That’s what I’ve learnt anyway – getting that nailed down makes the book worth writing.

There are two schools of writing, plotting and pantsing. Those who plot, like me, like to get everything down before they start and make sure the book is worth writing. Those who pants, i.e. write by the seat of your pants, like to discover the book from the writing. I’ve heard of a few writers in the latter camp who have no idea who did it until they get there, which makes me come out in hives. Even heard of someone changing the killer between drafts, which makes those hives spread all over my body.

This pitch is a decent exercise – it’s not about plot, it’s about character. Only character. Who did what, why and to whom. Then the others come in. Where, when and how all come in later, but should be consistent with the main idea. If that’s cast iron, then the rest of it can take place and be okay. And certainly worth writing. It takes a few twists of the knife to make sure the motivation is fresh enough and interesting. This one, for instance, started out as an idea I’ve tried and failed a few times. Something I loved but couldn’t execute on. I removed a few aspects and let it flow into other areas I hadn’t considered. Then it starts to take on a life of its own and becomes something else entirely.

It’s a similar thing to what a recording engineer said to me way back in the late 90s. If you write a song based on an acoustic guitar part strumming out chords, sometimes the song works better if you take that original part out, because the other parts (lead guitar, bass, drums) have taken on the rhythmic and harmonic aspects and it’s now redundant and crowding the mix.

Anyway, that’s now done and filed away.

I did some work on a secret one that’s shaping up well but is a bit tricky. Finished it on Thursday. Meant I could turn my brain off for the weekend.

So I started editing the first Vicky Dodds book.

Why the hell?

Well, Angus King will be narrating all five for new audiobook editions later in the year and this is my chance to finalise that book. It sort of grew arms and legs as I did it three years ago, developing out of a nugget from somewhere else and evolving. But it was pretty short, 34k, and could be stronger. So I’ve been editing through it over the weekend between bouts of gardening, i.e. when it was pissing down.

So far I’ve expanded the first 14 chapters to 25 (some new, most just splitting at apposite points), totalling 27,700 words. With ten to go, which is 14,300 of the old draft. I’m at the point where I want to punch in some new material, a whole new subplot which will thicken the broth nicely and make it a much more satisfying book. It’s pretty quick work while I wait on edits back and feels very productive. And quite soothing, actually. I’m aiming to make it roughly 60k, which is plenty long enough and will be a much stronger version. (Anyone who’s bought the Kindle edition will get this free as an update.)

#This Week

Just a case of ploughing on with revising Vicky Dodds, probably both editing the final 14k into something like 20k and adding about 10k of new material punched in. Also, probably shifting the story back a week from Christmas Eve to Hogmanay, as it feels a lot more like a Hogmanay book than a Christmas one.

And I need to start doing some prep around the launch of Marshall 5 and maybe do some work on Marshall 6.

I’ve got a few appearances coming up in May:

2nd May – Wedale Books at the Station House in Stow
Tickets: https://wedalebooks.scot/events

22nd May – Heron & Willow Books in Jedburgh
Tickets: http://heronandwillow.scot/product/may-22nd-ed-james

31st May – Capital Crime “Finding a Balance” panel with Vaseem Khan and Kellye Garrett
Ticket: https://www.capitalcrime.org/product-page/finding-the-balance (you can buy all-day and all-weekend passes too)

Be great to see you at any of them. Both bookshops got stocked up with signed editions last week too.

#Stuff

I’ve become one of those guys who’s getting back into vinyl. Dug out my dad’s old turntable, a Trio KD-2055 known by audiophiles as THE ROCK, and treated myself to a Cambridge phono stage/pre-amp to get it to line level to go into my amp. Took me a few goes to get the sound right as it was distorting badly on certain LPs, but it’s all working nicely now. There’s something to be said about the ceremony of turning records over when a side’s finished and all that, keeps the head fresh. It’s been nice getting reacquainted with some music I love, include Viva Last Blues, the Palace Music album New Partner comes from. I’d become pretty jaded with music, to be honest with you, and having literally every album ever available to you can become exhausting.

Anyway, enough from me. I need to get out with the dogs before it rains again.

Cheers,
Ed