Hi!

It’s me, Ed James. You know who I am, but for the avoidance of doubt, you’re reading this because you signed up to read the scribblings of a mad Scotsmans who writes crime novels about mad Scotsmen, Scotswomen and others, like English people and Americans.

Anyway, now that’s settled…

#Music

Been spending a lot of time flipping the LP of Spiderland by Slint over while I work this weekend. An incredible record that still sounds fresh 30 years on (gulp).

I saw them in 2004-ish in Glasgow when they reformed to do some shows. This album is pretty much perfect but I can’t get on with the other record or the EP. I had a similar thing with Brian McMahan’s other band, The For Carnation, whose self-titled LP is similarly perfect (actually, both have a less than perfect fifth track and a lower key third track), where I can’t stand the other album. Weird.

#Last Week

Last week was just ploughing through my expansion of Blood & Guts, ahead of Angus recording the definitive version later this year. It’s good to get some closure and finality to those books.

It’s been a lot of fun meeting Vicky and her team again. The book was a bit undercooked, I have to say. I think I did this as a free novella thing for the mailing list and it grew arms and legs as I wrote it, but it clearly didn’t get enough focus, as it was a bit rough around the edges. Anyway, I’ve gone from 34k to over 57k, mostly by drawing out the drama in chapters, dramatising the summarised (and there was a LOT of that), then adding in a few plot lines to thicken the mystery, stuff which was alluded to in the previous book but not given justice. And a whole eight-chapter sequence added which picks up on some threads and knits them all together (SPOILER: it’s got Cullen in it now). It’ll be ready to release in June, I think, with the audio coming later this year. Anyone who’s bought the ebook will get the new version free – sadly I can’t do the same for paperback, but I think there’s only a handful, at best.

#This Week

This week’s focus is getting back into Marshall and opening up the notes for book 6 to expand out into a detailed outline. As it’s very loosely based on The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, I’ll be re-reading that too and the foreword, which is longer than the book! It’s only loosely based on it, but a few locations or grace notes and easter eggs might not go amiss.

I’ve got a synopsis and some character notes I need to thread together, then I need to decide on the format of the book – who gets time as POV character over and above Marshall. Hmmm. And obviously, who dies in this one. Might be Shunty’s time...

#Stuff

Nothing much to add, but I started watching FALLOUT on Amazon Prime and it was so good I watched the second episode immediately after. It nicely balances the grimdarkness of a post-apocalyptic setting with genuine humour and warmth. Hopefully it’ll maintain that level of quality. I loved the first hour of Fallout 4, but couldn’t get on with it after that – not really a fan of those clunky open world Bethesda games like Elder Scrolls.

Anyway, have a great week!

Cheers,
Ed