So the good news, I suppose, is that everything's okay. I just got very distracted by life stuff. I worked with refugees in Jordan, I moved to Germany.
Stuff.
I also finished Levels 5, as well as an alternate Levels 2, and a ton of other things.
More good news, possibly, I'm blogging again.
The bad news is that its not about books, or YA, not, at least, for now. That could come. Never say never. But for now the focus is elsewhere.
What's going on in Ukraine is horrible. I feel it, because Ukraine is close to my heart. I lived there for three years. Three of the best years of my life. It's a beautiful country, filled with beautiful people, and when I was there it seemed to be edging its way out of hard times.
Now its right back amongst them, worse than ever.
It was so good that I wrote a book about it. A book that's set in the ex-patriate community of Kiev, asa well as small town England. It's mainly about the kind of people that cross these boundaries, and about the kind of people, and adventures, they find when they do so. There's also a bit of steroid addition, some EFL, and a lot of anxiety.
Unsurprisingly I used a pseudonym. It's not for children. Be warned.
Tomorrow, February 15th, and the day after it's free on Amazon.
I saw this movie. It's about an amazing genius, who contracts a paralysing illness, which kills everybody it touches.
Except him.
For no reason that anybody can understand, he survives, and goes on to become the most famous huge genius in the world, and publishes a book that more or less lays bare the deepest secrets of the universe, and time. Things that are pretty close to God, or magic.
And it's a true story!
The other one, starring the gorgeous Benebatch Cumberdict, is about a huge genius who joins the forces of good, against the forces of evil. He invents something thats even more magic than the ideas of the first guy. It's so magic that it lets him see into the minds of the bad guys and learn all their secrets (Gandalf, anyone?)
He saves the world, though nobody knows it (Harry Potter anyone?) then in the ultimate tragedy he is cast aside by society.
This one's true as well.
And the thing is, these stories - as well as being as close to magic and the fundamental battle of good and evil as anything I've ever seen - NEED to be told. These are your history. You should know this stuff. They're amazing movies, too, with amazing performances. Eddy Redmayne deserves an Oscar.
So, where does this leave me with my own, made up stories about magic and myth? I'm not sure. The way that in this blog I repeatedly come back to how, in the world, fact is stranger than fiction, (examples HERE, and HERE) cannot be a coincidence. I'm lucky enough to have travelled a lot, too have seen a lot of amazing things, and it frustrates me a bit that I don't write about that, instead of making up amazing things.
My get out clause is that the King Arthur stories that I take advantage of, these are an important part of our heritage, too, and it makes me happy that I'm giving them a bit of exposure. Still, when I finish them I probably won't make anything else up. There are two many real stories to tell.
Of course I say 'when I finish them' as if its happening soon, when actually its years and years away.
A divided city is one split between two countries, like Berlin used to be between East and West Germany, for example.
The answer (give or take a Jerusalem) is Nicosia, the capital of both the Cyprus's. I'm reading about it now, in the gorgeous technicolour prose of Lawrence Durrell and I was there last summer, celebrating my birthday. I flew into the Greek side, and spent most of my time there, near Larnaca. Nicosia is a must-see, though. I arrived on the Greek side, on the bus, and wandered around until I came to blocked streets, like this,
and ironic shop names, like this.
The area around is a no mans land of empty houses, and boarded, up, old buildings, that haven't been used, or lived in since the residents fled when the city was split up. It's an odd contrast to the rest of the island which often looks like this:
Or this, which is the view from the mosque in Larnaca
Or this, which is an ancient church, built by the Byzantines, about fifty yards away from the mosque.
Nicosia has its highlights, though, this is an ancient inn, which now serves as a restaurant and tourist centre. There are beautiful old streets, squares, and churches, everything built of this same, butter-coloured stone.
You cross the border, though, and everything is very different. The crossing sits in the middle of the main street, which is a bit odd. You get your passport stamped, and you pass into a place that has no official recognition in the world, except by Turkey. You walk through it a while, realising something is weird, but unable to put your finger on it until...
There are no western brands at all. Nothing. The Greek side is full of Starbucks, and Adidas, and McDonalds. The north side is a bit faded, the prices change from Euros to Turkish Lira, and not a single name is recognisable. The north of Cyprus doesn't exist, so nobody can do business there
The definitive book about Cyprus is this:
Lawrence Durrell wrote one of my favourite books of all time: The Alexandria Quartet. This is different, autobiographical, more real and more rushed. Mainly it tells me how much of Cyprus I missed. It describes it so beautifully, mountains from the distance, looking like tumbledown, ivy-covered walls, and haunted mosques hanging over the silken sea. It is an enchanted island. I shall go back, and get a car, and explore the villages and quiet coves.
I ate properly, squid and octopus on the sea front in Larnaka, and loukanikou and sheftalia on the terrace of a village bar. The main furniture of the terrace was a big, round table, where old men of the village played cards and shouted at one another. They all spoke English, learned in Kebab shops in Birmingham or Portsmouth. Still, Durrell tells me that I didn't eat enough, and I didn't try enough of the wine.
The last thing that Bitter Lemons tells me is the story of how the break happened. A blissful island sleepwalking towards disaster. Now, to go from one end of the High Street to the other you need one of these:
A visa. Because when is an island not an island? When it's two islands. Read the book, visit the island. Recommended. I'll be getting another visa.
I read a book because I came across the author on the Kindleboards Writer's Cafe and she seemed fairly awesome.
The author is Dalya Moon, who is much better known as Mimi Strong, author of grown up romance stories. The book I read is called 'Smart Mouth Waitress.' It has a couple of elements that I love, characters that are authentically realised in every direction, even ones that have nothing to do with the plot, and realistic (or real) locations that I can completely see and would completely go to.
The lead is Perry, the waitress of the title, and the setting is Saltwater City - a stand in for Vancouver. One of my favourite series ever is Tales of the City, which explored the same characters for book after book and year after year, just as much as the amazing city they lived in (San Francisco).
Smart Mouth Waitress in the second Salt Water City Book. Sadly I think it could also be the last, and there's no chance of 'Tales of Salt Water City.' These days Mimi Strong seems to be attracting a lot more attention than Dalya Moon.
So, standing alone, Perry is very cool. She's unconventional, speaks her mind, and has a lot to learn. Her story is kind of a coming of age. She's 18, but the story covers her first exploits with boys, plus day-to-day life at the I-wish-it-was-real cafe where she works and with her family and friends.
The only downside to this story, and it is very slight, is that we don't actually see enough of it. The author has a bit of a habit of letting Perry tell us about what happens after it has happened, rather than letting the characters show us events as they go along. This extends to most of the most important events in Perry's life, which happened before the story began, and the fact that at the end her life moves on a bit less than I expected.
That might just be me, though. It could well move on just as much as you expect. Give it a try. For sure the characterisation and dialogue are top-notch enough to make me properly jealous of Dalya's talent.
In my 'Christmas Post' I hinted at the stories I'm going to be releasing in 2015. Here's a bit more news.
The next four stories I'm going to publish will be for 8-12 year olds. The first three will be about the Bongo family, each one short, telling a story about one of the children. First out of the blocks - probably - will be the 4th child, Digger. Here he is, courtesy of artist Damien Hazell - who is designing the cover art for all four of the children's stories.
The fourth book is a full length children's novel, featuring entirely different characters, and kind of reflecting stories like the Famous Five, which I adored when I was small. It stars four very different children, who live on the same street in a small, very generic town in the UK. The book is about friendship, and mystery, and what happens when the most exciting parts of stories cross over into real life.
When that is released I'm going to turn my attention back to the Levels series. Each one of the existing four books will be relaunched, newly edited and with a new cover. There will be two more books, one that follows Song to Wake to, and one that follows 'Lullaby of Lies' and 'Reason to be Shy.' This last is the longest, most complicated story I've ever written and when I finish this post I'm going to get right back to it, editing for what feels like the twentieth time, in response to the genius comments of the brilliant Ruth Steven.
In the meantime, though, get ready to meet the irrepressible Digger Bongo and the bonkers Bongo family...
The legend is that this first line popped fully formed into the mind of Professor JRR Tolkien. From it he built one of the most successful, most loved books of all time, like finding a beautiful, shiny doorknob, and basing a whole (hole) house around it. You can even get the t-shirt.
The same thing happened to me. It was quite surprising. It formed the origin of the next story I'm going to publish.
The line is 'There's only one Digger Bongo.' Go figure. Where did it come from? I have no idea. The line popped into my head while I was walking to work one morning. It stayed there for the entire day, and by the time I went home Digger Bongo had built himself up a character, an obsession, and a background.
Digger is a character in a children's story, that was quickly obvious. I haven't published stories for younger children before, and I know that you think of me as a YA writer, but I hope you'll have a look at Digger when he appears, or point younger friends and relatives in his direction. The first novel I ever wrote is for kids. In lots of ways I think its still my best, and hopefully Digger and his adventures will be the first step along the way to getting that first ever novel out and on Amazon.
It didn't take much longer for me to realise Digger has a lot to do with digging holes. His family took a bit more time to assemble, until I remembered this...
The Family from One End Street, by Eve Garnett, that I loved when I was a little boy. We never owned it, but I borrowed it repeatedly from the library. It's about the Ruggles family, Mum, Dad, and seven children. Every child is a unique little character, and though their lives are ordinary, with that many people in the house there is always something going on.
Unsurprisingly Digger has 6 siblings, and every one is very, very different. I'll write a bit more about him, and them, in a couple of days. I'm on vacation now, so there's more time for blogging, I promise.
In the meantime, this is where I am. Very cool, don't you think?
