Tuesday 31 March 2009

An experiment in madness

I have decided to do something not many authors are willing to do and am to publish my new novel, online, as when it is written - typos, grammatical errors, the lot.

Liverpool is a bit of a departure for me. All my novels so far have been set post WW2 and have been written in the 3rd person. Liverpool is written in the first person so is told from just one view point. It starts in 1912 and tells the story of Sarah Levy, a young woman who moves with her family to Liverpool. Her father is a professor at the university and her mother is a social climber. Sarah is expected to find a wealthy husband but instead falls in love with a young lecturer who is heavily involved in the Labour movement. She also becomes enchanted with a young poor girl called Nellie who is a talented singer and goes on to become famous. The three people's lives will intertwine and of course the first world war will feature, which means lots and lots of research. But I know if people are reading it, I will feel more inclined to keep on with it.
Following in the footsteps of writers such as Dickens, Bronte and Hardy, I am publishing it in weekly instalments (online of course, this is the 21st century!) with each chapter being removed each Friday. I'm hoping to garner lots of comments and suggestions from people as this is the book I am going to try and find an agent with.

Chapter 1 of Liverpool can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/lunchtimereaders It will be removed at 9pm Friday 3rd April and replaced by Chapter 2.

Thank you to everyone who has bought a copy of Two Become One. I will be forwarding the profits to the Teenage Cancer Trust shortly. To anyone else who is interested in buying Two Become One, it will be available via all major online booksellers from next month. In the meantime, if you wish to buy a copy, email me at zeiasonline@googlemail.com
ciao for now

Friday 27 March 2009

When Hollywood Gets It Wrong

Anyone who knows me well knows I love Ben Stiller. Zoolander, There's Something About Mary and Dodgeball are amongst my favourite films EVER. So it was with heavy heart that I was forced to miss going to see Tropic Thunder last year (can't remember why but I'm guessing illness had something to do with it) and so when it arrived in the post via Lovefilm I was excited about watching it. Well, I'm glad I didn't waste my entrance fee as I think I would have demanded a refund.

Tropic Thunder rates amongst the worst films I've ever seen. If you're not familiar with the story it's about a band of actors (Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black and a couple of other guys) who are filming a Vietnam movie in the jungle. Their acting is so appalling that the guy who wrote the book the film is based on suggests they're placed in the real jungle amongst the rebels who are still fighting and are forced to act for real. That's at least what I think it was about. The story was so muddled that I lost track half way through. The rest of the film concentrates on their attempts to find a way out (I think).

Everyone raves about Tom Cruise as the balding, overweight Les Grossman, the producer of the film, but to me the only shining star was Robert Downey Jr as Kirk Lazarus. Lazarus is an amalgum of Russell Crowe and Daniel Day Lewis; those actors who take their roles so seriously they immerse themselves in the character and even remain in it off set until the movie is finished. Lazarus is playing a black guy and has even had his face pigmented to make it more authentic. I know blacking up isn't PC but Downey Jr is so bloody convincing that all the way through I had to keep reminding myself that he was a white guy playing a black guy. Without him, I think I would have given up half way through.

Another odd performance comes from Matthew McConaughey who was brought in at the last minute to replace Owen Wilson after his suicide attempt. And all McConaughey does is ape Wilson as though he's channelling him through his body. Not sure why he couldn't just play it as himself. I have to say it's a shame Wilson couldn't do it because he cracks me up and I think he would have also brought a bit of light to this somehow dire film.

It is literally like everyone has thrown ideas into a hat, pulled some out at random and just filmed a bunch of scenes and lumped them together. The ending is rushed and without giving it away, I'm not quite sure why Stiller's character wins an Oscar.

Tropic Thunder just smacks of back slapping amongst a bunch of Hollywood luvvies who thought it would be good to parody the industry and all it ends up being is one great big in-joke that doesn't work.

But I still love you Ben.

On another note. I have started the early drafts on my new novel Liverpool. It's a bit of a departure for me, set in the early part of the twentieth century and at the moment it tells the tale of a young middle class woman who comes to live in Liverpool with her parents and while her mother is trying to get her to marry a wealthy man, she becomes involved in helping the people living in the slums and en route becomes friends with a young girl who goes on to become a movie star. That's the shell of it at the moment, but knowing me I will add bits in or change my mind completely. One thing I do know is that this one is going to an agent before I even consider Self Publishing. I'm so tired of doing my own promotion and concede that I need a bit of help.

Finally check out my interview with Kelly Moran at http://authorkellymoran.blogspot.com for a chance to win a copy of Two Become One.

Have a great weekend y'all

Thursday 19 March 2009

Heaven Knows I’m (not) Miserable Now

Today I was paid a very high compliment. A friend picked up a copy of Two Become One and was flicking through it and told me it was heavy going. In three pages he’d spotted stuff about cancer and AIDS sufferers. He then asked me if there was any happiness in it. I’ve been asked this before about my books and while some people would be losing sleep, worried that they’re being perceived as a ‘miserabalist’; to me it is an honour because I am in good company.

I worship at the alter of Morrissey. He is probably the only living ‘hero’ I’ve got, to use a cheesy word. I first fell in love with The Smiths when I bought a compilation album called Tune Into the Tube just because it had Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood on and I heard This Charming Man and I just thought it was the best thing ever. Even as a twelve year old I could tell the lyrics were rather subversive and of course, that appealed to me (look at the song that was my original motivation for buying the album!). From then on I was hooked.

Mozza is a controversial figure painted as miserable and lacking in humour, his songs dark and sad. Anyone who listens closely to either The Smiths or his solo work will find the opposite is true. The songs are filled with tongue in cheek humour, painting vignettes of Northern life, quite similar to a show like Phoenix Nights or even Coronation Street. Maybe I’m a Southerner with a Northerner’s head but I love the wry humour of Victoria Wood and Alan Bennet. To me there’s nothing funnier than laughing at every day occurrences and creating characters from people I observe around me.

Even though I’m fourth generation Irish catholic, I was still bought up to feel guilty about everything I did and as a child, my nan was always regaling me with stories of death and people’s funerals alongside news of babies being born. When you’re raised like that you come to see life as filled with death, misery and joy. It was only the other day that I realised that in all three of my main books the main characters are Catholics – in Summerset the religious divisions are one of the biggest storylines. In Mad About the Boy, Lizzie is a lapsed catholic who suffers a spell of insanity after feeling guilty for her actions, and now in Two Become One, Toni converts to the Faith. None of this is ever conscious, it’s just how I write; but maybe I can just relate to that feeling that all bad things that happen to me do so because I’ve done something bad and at some point in my books my characters will feel the same way.

Back to Morrissey – yes he is controversial and he has said and done some rather silly things but surely performing draped in a Union Jack was no worse than David Bowie driving into Victoria Station in the 1970s giving the Sieg Heil sign, or Eric Clapton agreeing with Enoch Powell? Neither of them have been vilified for the rest of their careers.

Like many thirty and fortysomethings, I find listening to Morrissey and The Smiths comforting. It reminds me of a time when I felt isolated and like no one understood me. I come from an era where pop stars were people like Duran Duran, flashing their money and good looks. Suddenly Morrissey appeared – shy, awkward and singing about all those mixed up, lonely feelings all teenagers experience at some point and it struck a chord. Not everything in life was rosy and peachy and glamorous, some of us didn’t have many friends and always fancied people who don’t fancy us (that doesn’t change). It was good to hear our angst vocalised for once. Although I have to say that now looking back at old Smiths videos, I do think Morrissey realised he was rather good looking and played up to it and wasn’t as introverted as he liked us to think.

So, maybe my books are miserable. Maybe when you’re a celibate, animal loving, vegetarian artist with a Catholic guilt complex you do write miserable songs and stories. But to me my books – like Morrissey’s songs – just tell it like it is. Life is crap sometimes, other times it’s great and a lot of the time it’s just plain dull. I refuse to write chick lit, where everything is hunky dory and fluffy and all a girl has to worry about is what branch of Prada to shop in and if that rich guy in accounts is looking at her.

Give me Saturday Night and Sunday Morning over Sex and the City any day!

Ciao for now

kx

PS: On a serious note I’d just also like to express my sadness at the death of Natasha Richardson. I can’t help but think ‘There but for the Grace of God go I’. Back in 1994 I had a horrible fall whilst ice skating, falling headfirst onto the ice and banging the back of my head – apparently the crack was so loud it could be heard all around the rink. All I got was cracked ribs and concussion and I can’t help but think how lucky I am compared to this poor woman who had a fairly innocuous fall whilst skiing. It’s so sad and just serves to remind us that none of us know what’s around the corner.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Not Good

I'm beginning to get a little paranoid that my books are cursed.

I feel really bad that I'm releasing Two Become One at the same time poor Jade Goody is dying of cancer. One of the main characters Antonia also has long, protracted death from cancer, all lived out in the public eye. This was all written long before Jade was even diagnosed and the only thing I have in my favour is that I managed to capture the zeitgiest pretty accurately - how when such a public figure is dying that the press almost run a countdown to it and everyone waits with baited breath for 'the death' - as morbid as it seems. The difference being of course that Antonia Smedley is a fictional character and Jade is a real person and I wish her well in these dark days.

I've now discovered that Farrah Fawcett is also dying of cancer. A big deal is made in the book about Farrah being named after the ex-Charlie's Angel. So once again, death is stalking my work.

To try and absolve my guilt I've decided to donate 10% of all the profits I make from sales of Two Become One until 1st April, to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/

Next on the list is Winner Takes All, the sequel to Summerset. I've been reading the draft copy I ordered via Lulu and have been really pleased with it. One of the storylines involves Sheridans being accused of being IRA sympathisers and there are long passages about how the Troubles are now over etc etc. Now what happens, rogue IRA cells are killing people in Northern Ireland and trouble is starting to rear its ugly head again.

Maybe someone somewhere is trying to tell me something. Perhaps I should start writing science fiction about fantastical things that will never happen.

Assuming I'm not some sort of witch and it's all coincidence, I have decided after completing the script for Summerset, I am going to tart up Teenage Kicks (reverting it back to its original name of Starmaker) and I'm going to give Createspace a go. See what they're like. Starmaker will be released under my pen name of K L Thompson because it's a crime novel and different from my usual stuff. A short passage from it (named as Teenage Kicks) can be found on lunchtime readers.

http://sites.google.com/site/lunchtimereaders/

Sunday 1 March 2009

The Ego is Dented

Once again apologies for being so slack at blogging. I really should be more efficient given I’ve a book to plug, but so many things have been going on, my mind’s been in a funny place.

I’ve finally passed my driving test and have joined the New Driver’s Club by denting and scratching my poor car. I had to manoeuvre a particularly tricky supermarket car park and ended up ripping off the trims from one of my rear doors and putting a particularly nasty dent in. So in a trip to Halfords (fast becoming my regular haunt!) I’ve had to stock up on the relevant materials to bodge up my door until I can afford to repair it properly. After nursing a wounded ego I can now see the funny side to it and thankfully no one was hurt and the damage was purely cosmetic. Thankfully VW Golfs are built like tanks and can withstand quite a lot.

I’m still putting the final touches to Two Become One but I think it should be good to go within the next couple of weeks. I feel really bad about it being so late, but 2009 has started as a complete emotional rollercoaster for me littered with ill health and driving tests but I’m hoping things will calm down now a bit.

Reading through Two Become One, I’ve noticed that sometimes to describe a character I’ll say they reminded someone of a famous person and I’m wondering if this is just lazy writing. I couldn’t see Barbara Taylor Bradford describing a character by saying they looked like Rosanne Barr. Is this lazy or am I just reflecting the thoughts of my protagonist? After all, we all meet people and think they remind us of famous people.

Anyway, I’d better go back to editing and stop being slack. Will be back asap.

Ciao for now x

PS: By the way, even my friend Rob mentioned the other day that he thought he was watching me when he saw Libby on Eastenders!