WRITINGS
At the beginning of 2002 I started writing a novel, at the moment entitled Human Company, which I hope to finish by the middle of the year. At some point I might post an extract from it here. There again I might not. It is about contemporary London, the Sixties and Seventies, the meaning of life and the meaning of meaning, experimental theatre, drink, drugs, chaos, art, money, protest, the city, computing, transport, free will, weather, dissent and conspiracy theory in the post-credibility world.
Later that same year...
It is now August. Although I am 43,000 words in to the book 'finishing by the end of the year' seems very optimistic. However the reaction from those who have seen parts of it is very encouraging. Even I quite like it. I won't, however, post an extract on this site as that seems a little too much like walking round the streets naked, and it's far too cold a summer for that.
If you were really interested you could email me and ask to see a bit of it.
November...
63,500. It's getting longer, but still a long way to go. I think, however, the book is good.
November 2003...
Err... what happened in the last year? Let us say quite a lot. The book is now about 103,000 words, most of them different, but it still is not quite finished. But it's getting there, it really is.
Before the end of the year. I promise.
June 2004
The book is finished. Finally. 113,000 words, 61 chapters and into its second revision. Now searching round town for an agent.
January 2005
What has happened in the last six months? Well, I suppose I discovered the book is not finished. Or if it is finished, it is the wrong book. After knocking on a few literary doors and much heartache I have come to two significant conclusions -
i) The consenus is that it needs a stronger central characters and a more immediately engagable plot. (In other words, the structure needs to be a little more coventional.
ii) It set out to be a 'zeitgeist' novel, but since I started it the zeitgeist has suffered a seismic shift. It now appears to be more of a historical novel. But it ain't supposed to be.
So I am now getting down to a heavy rewrite. One or two of the five sets of interacting characters will go and the tone will become darker. It will be a different book, and a much better one. My deadline is the summer of this year.
June 2005
Rewrite is well underway. It is turning into a stronger, simpler, darker book. Just need the world to stand still for a little while to allow me to finish it.
Also respect to the Advanced Fiction courses at Birkbeck. Thank you Christina and Mary.
July 2008
Err... yes three years on. BUT the book is now called The Beach Beneath The Pavement. The opening chapters made it into the Top Ten and hence the Best Sellers list of the Arts Council-funded writers' website YouWriteOn, where you may read the opening chapters. Only about 20% of the original book remains. The characters and story has changed too. It's more like a proper book now.
January 2009
Check out The Beach Beneath The Pavement website.