Slow Winter Days
Added on 29 November 2010
Slow days at Long Midnight Publishing. We’ve long discussed the possibility of a Russian football-esque winter break, and it looks like we might be bringing it for next winter. We will start in the middle of November and resume work in early May. Shackleton is arguing that we oughtn’t to take a break, just open up a permanent winter HQ in Singapore. Had a pretty indolent couple of weeks there. A few ideas to work on, couldn’t decide which, and so I rather did nothing. Long days sitting looking at the computer. Wasn’t really writer’s block, more writer’s indecision. Managed, on Friday, to give myself a giant kick up the backside and started writing a novel. A crime novel. A new, unrelated to Barney Thomson, crime novel. At the moment it’s called We Are The Hanged Man, although that might change. When I’m done I’ll send it to my agent and see what happens. Since she’s not actually a literary agent, but a screen agent, that will be nothing, but it’s a starting point. No doubt, it will likely end up morphing into a Barney Thomson novel at some point. Ah, you’re thinking, thought you were done with Barney Thomson. (Apart from the Kindle version, and the daily Tweets and the online novels...) Well, I’ve been thinking... Something which I will continue to do. Having decided that daily 140 character things needed a regular villain, today I introduced Durrant. The weather outside was frightful; and since he’d no place to go, Durrant stayed at home boiling up the severed head of his latest victim. Originally I wrote that he stayed at home caressing the severed head, but that creeped me out so I changed it. The fact that it even creeped me out probably means that it was a better line, but I changed it all the same. Wasn’t in the mood to be creeped. Having assumed that Sandy Lyle was done for the year, and having stopped updating the Sandy Lyle page, turns out he had tournaments the last two weeks. The first two tournaments - such is this mixed up crazy world - of the European Senior Tour 2011 season, one of which was in Australia, the other in Japan. (You don’t suppose money might have something to do with that?) So, having followed Sandy religiously through the year, which has been utterly dreadful and probably the worst in his golfing puff, one takes one’s eye off the ball and he finishes second and fifth in his two tournaments and currently leads the Senior Tour 2011, even before we reach 2011. There is a lesson to be learned. Although I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps if I immediately stop writing We Are The Hanged Man, it will write itself.