APRIL MASH-UP

It’s a bit of a ‘tatty’ post this month because, looking back over April, I’ve been flitting from one thing to another like a proverbial buzzy/busy bee.

It began with me playing an April fool on my best writing pal. This deserves some context. We pretty much natter via email most days and live close enough to meet up for coffee. She’s a writer (different genre) and also a freelance editor so we share a lot in common, not least we ho-ho-ho at the same stuff.   However we rarely contact each other over the weekend. Saturdays and Sundays, she’s involved with her family and so am I. But, as April 1st fell on a Sunday, I thought I’d put our mutual email silence to the test.   I wrote two words in the Subject Column: ‘Film Deal’.   She came back within five febrile seconds!   Of course, I came clean.

The late, great Elmore Leonard was a writer for whom film deals deservedly came aplenty. A couple of weeks ago, I turned to a novel I’ve had on my bookshelf for ages but never read: ‘Killshot.’ First published in 1989, it doesn’t date one bit. The strap line says something along the lines of when Leonard writes, pure gold pops out. I couldn’t agree more and I could definitely see how he influenced that other fabulous writer, Stephen King. Leonard’s characterisation of a couple of stone cold killers is to (pun intended) ‘die for.’ Fabulously, he pits them against a quite ordinary (and yet extraordinary, as it turns out) married couple. A proper big guys against little guys. I’ll leave you to guess who comes out on top.

Anyone who read my last post will know that I have been hard at the writerly coalface. ‘Delete’ has become my favourite button, ‘cut and paste’ my favourite manoeuvre. It’s fair to say I have hacked, scythed and shredded in the name of pace and tension. As brutal as it is to cut material, I feel happier with the result. Just hoping my agent feels the same. More anon …

And before I forget, there are lots of new books popping up, with some exciting debuts. Unashamedly, I’m flying the flag for DHH Literary Agency and Dome Press. With so many authors making a splash, I urge you to go and check them out. What’s really nice, I’ve acquired some new mates on Twitter whom I hope will soon be friends in the ‘real world!’