IT ended about a mile away from where it started distance-wise, but in mood, structure and time it travelled everywhere.
Sitting by a pool just outside Sorrento, sipping a beer, thinking about what other people were reading and how it related to their normal lives and those of the people who actually lived there, I started typing in the ‘Notes’ app on my iPad.
I’ve still got the first words and the germ of the idea that eventually became The Choreography of Ghosts.
That was 12 years ago and I came home and let it go, my daily commitment to reality, work, watching football, listening to music and having a drink or two barging my dedication to writing to the back of the to do queue.
A couple of years later and a trespass into a dilapidated mansion house in Greece sparked the story once again and I got on with it. Then stopped again.
It was about six years before I went back to that place outside Sorrento, did some proper research, cracked on with the story, completed a couple of courses with Curtis Brown Creative and Michael Heppel and started to believe I could do this.
Eighty thousand words! Bingo. Er, not quite. Where’s the flow? The structure? The dialogue? The characters? The jeopardy?
Up a snake and down 35,000 ladders. Well, down 35,000 words to 45,000, back up to 80,000, down again, a new first chapter, chapter one is moved to five, ten becomes one becomes nine and 19 moves to the front, meaning more timeline checking, re-writing and a new ending.
Now what to do? My friend Andy’s son Brad Cartledge designs a website for me and I start promoting my writing, only there’s nothing really to push except my random thoughts. I enjoy it though.
Then enter Matt Bird whose design and technical wizardry get me over the line to publication with IngramSpark, Amazon and Waterstones – it’s also available from The Maker’s Emporium in Rotherham and The Stripey Badger Bookshop, Coffee Shop & Kitchen in Grassington if you fancy supporting independent shops. You can download it on Kindle too and read it on your phone, tablet, laptop or whatever your preference may be.
Finally, this week copies are posted out and people are receiving them. I know. I’ve seen the pictures. Unless people have Photoshopped them (it’s AI now, isn’t it? It was Photoshop back when I started the bloody thing!).
It feels like I have sold quite a few but in reality I know I haven’t. It’s hard. It’s costly time and money-wise, but I do feel some sense of achievement, though I’m not sure what sense that is.
There are many questions to answer. Was it worth it? Why did I do it? How? What’s the point of it? Who will read it? Will I do another one? Does any of that matter?
I really don’t know, but it’s here… The Choreography of Ghosts (one bloke said I had used the old Hollywood trick of jumbling up non-connected words to make up a nonsense title!).
Is it any good? That’s for you to decide.
I think it’s better than many, not as good as some and definitely has more value than some of those celebrity books that always make it into the prime positions in the big stores these days. But then I’m biased.
If you are thinking of buying it (it’s got Christmas, new year, Easter, love, loss, life, death, England, Italy, a cat, food, drink and football - what more could you want?) please do. If you have, then thank you so much.
And if you like it, please leave a review on Amazon or wherever. Again, thank you.
