Jack Brighton's Blog, page 3

SKIRK

http://jackbrighton.weebly.com/index.html  Skirk (that's the Norwegian name), or as we know it better in English as... The Scream - an icon of Modern Art, a Mona Lisa of our time (or so says Arthur Lubow according to Wikipedia).
Might not be to everyone's taste, but I'm a huge fan of Edvard Munch's work. Not a painting - The Scream is actually a composition of four individual paintings, with the proper title 'The Scream of Nature'.
I think of it as an old friend, and it embodies another old friend I encountered again yesterday - anxiety. Being a writer, I tried to put it into words when it struck me. Being a Biologist (or I was for a time having gained a degree in the subject) I tried to analyse it from a biochemical point of view. But being a great artist, Munch does it so much better... a picture tells a thousand words, and The Scream screams of an anxiety attack to me.
I didn't have an attack, but just felt very anxious for many hours. Silly really - all we were doing was taking the cat to the airport to get weighed for his cargo trip on Friday. He was actually very good, didn't make too much of a fuss on his first journey of more than five minutes in the car. But I felt anxious throughout, and it's been a while since I felt like that. Usually my most anxious moments nowadays are when my laptop gets sick, like it did first thing this morning, pop ups appearing everywhere making it impossible to do anything on the internet. But a quick restore sorts that out, so hardly a big deal. Real anxiety is working in the City of London, company directors on your back 24/7 demanding more and more profits, setting unrealistic targets that somehow you manage to meet. It's standing in front of a group of high-flying bankers, trying to convince them to invest in whatever, knowing that if you do it will earn you a fifty grand, and more importantly the respect of your peers. It's travelling on the Northern Line at eight in the morning, crushed by bodies that aren't at all attractive, having spend the previous hour commuting from Brighton. Anxiety - I remember it, and I don't miss it. Although I know it will be back come Friday for the cat's flight to London.
He'll be fine.
It's me who will be anxious until I get him home.
Sounds like a parent who's son has gone to battle... or even just gone to school.

Jack 

A SPARKY FOR CHRISTMAS?

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That's my Sparky there - the original muse, although I have him a bit beefier in the book. With an odd week ahead and lots to do getting ready for my return to Brighton, I'll find some time to try him out on the book cover. I like the current one though, so may still opt for that. I'll create another and compare - it's always fun playing around with a man like that!
A bigger decision is when to release the book. Obviously with my last release - 'Christmas at The Wild Side' I wanted the book out well in time for Christmas, but with this one I need to think carefully about whether to wait until early next year. My concern is that by the time it is actually ready, it will be getting too close to Christmas itself. 
But is that wrong?
I'm assuming that effort to promote the book around Christmas would be wasted - that there is too much else going on and that the book will fall by the wayside. But maybe not. One of the smaller retailers I deal with told me that Christmas is a slow period for them and things pick up after New Year, so that would suggest it is better to wait. Not easy for me to do that though. I have invested so much effort lately into 'The Alpha Sparky', and it is an unusual piece for me, I want to see the reaction. But I know I have to wait at least a week, so why not a month?
 Will think about it, and do some research. Suggestions always welcome.... about timing, about the sparky cover, about any darn thing.

Jack

FOCUS

http://nakedhero.weebly.com/ It's not that I've been lazy over the past couple of days by not posting a blog - I just needed to keep focus and get my book finished. Blogging can be taxing, especially if nothing springs immediately to mind, and it can eat into the productive writing time for me. Fine when the work isn't too taxing, but I was struggling to end the book and needed every little grey cell focused on that.
But it's done!
I'll go over the last half again today, give it a final read through, but I'm pretty happy with it as it stands.
So now the final touches need to be applied - proof reading, and putting the blurb together.
I'm still not certain about the title: 'two fags for Gus... The Alpha Sparky' Personally I really like it, but it might not sell itself, so it may get cut to a simpler: 'The Alpha Sparky'
The book cover needs to be looked at as well. There has been positive feedback on the existing version so I might run with it. Problem is that the guy on the cover is not my muse for Gus. Some playing around over the next few days is needed.
Anyway, I have achieved the objective of getting this sorted before returning to the UK next week, so can relax a little, and blog some more.

Jack 

A SPLASH OF COLOUR

http://jackbrighton.weebly.com/index.html   I've been feeling a bit jaded of late. The Alpha Sparky is proving to be a lot more taxing than I had ever expected. After making a lot of progress over the weekend, by Monday morning I was mentally exhausted. With so much focus on that book at present, life was getting monochrome, so a splash of colour is needed.
I'll get plenty of that when I go to Brighton in ten days time, but yesterday I needed some time off... No Alpha Sparky, no blogs, no Jack.
It was great. I feel my head has cleared and I'm looking forward to getting back to my Sparky.
A little splash of colour every now and then brightens up even the most jaded of Brighton's.

Jack

LESS SEX PLEASE - THEY'RE BRITISH AFTER ALL

  http://jackbrighton.weebly.com/index.html Enough of the sex!
That's what I decided. A very radical approach to a Jack Brighton/Tom Farrell book, but sorry, I've made up my mind.
Fortunately there is already plenty of sex in it, the decision was to NOT have another scene. To be honest, it was dragging on a bit, and the reality is, even with sex, sometimes you have to say enough is enough.
I think that's the case though with erotica. Just having the sex scene for the sake of a good romp is great, but if you want something deeper, more meaningful, and all that sort of stuff, then you need characterisation, and in this book that happens when the lads are having a pint after work, not when they are servicing The Alpha Sparky. So I'm drawing a line under the sex. The book has enough, it just needs polishing now... serious polishing as the final three chapters are only drafts, but it's pretty much all there.
Off to write it now.

Jack

PS - sorry for posting yesterday. I had a hangover, and quite frankly couldn't be arsed.

TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS

http://jackbrighton.weebly.com/index.html   Cute isn't he!
Well I think so. His name is Chad Wick apparently. What he's doing in a pool with clothes partly on I have no idea, but it makes for an interesting image, and I certainly wouldn't mind if he was in my pool at the moment with that 'Come Fuck Me' expression on his face.
Not a good idea though. For one thing there is a thunder storm going on, and it's pretty cold - the pool is a mess and the water is very chilly. Poor Chad would freeze to death. It would also be another huge distraction and I've got enough of those at the moment. I'm getting excited about returning to Brighton and plans have to be made. The cat hates the weather and is constantly bugging me, practically sitting on the keyboard so he can get some attention. Yesterday we had workmen here, sorting out solar stuff for the roof. They made a huge racket, and one of them was rather hunky, so another bloody distraction. With a clear date in mind, travelling in two weeks time, I need to finish The Alpha Sparky before I go, because Brighton will be a massive distraction and Christmas is round the corner. So enough distractions, it's time to knuckle down. Be gone Chad Wick and your sexy chest. And bugger off Danny (that's the cat). I need to work! The book is getting longer and longer, and I still have a lot more to write. But given the weather... Wow, that lightening flash was close! ...Given the weather, there's not much else to do.... As long as there are no more distractions like gorgeous men in my pool.

Jack

BRIGHTON

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  It looks a bit like the Taj Mahal!
And with that nice blue sky there in the background and the sunshine making a mirror of the pond, you might think this was India if you didn't know better.
But it's not.
That is the Brighton Pavilion, built as a pleasure palace by the Prince Regent at the end of the 18th Century. He was a bit of a naughty boy, so it's no surprise he took to Brighton and made it a playground for his friends and his mistresses. The pavilion sits there right in the heart of Brighton, loud and proud like so much else around. It's so out of place and so perfectly right for what I consider as my home town, and where I will be going back to in just over a fortnight.
Brighton!
With its pier and its beach and miles of prom. The place is totally unique. It's 'London by the Sea' but not London thank God - although the capital is only an hour's train ride away. But why bother when there's so much on offer in Brighton? It has a vibrant Arts scene, countless bars and restaurants from all over the world. That's The North Laines pictured there, which is a very trendy spot now. The city is proudly cosmopolitan, embracing a diversity of cultures. And of course it has a big gay population - probably the highest percentage of any city in Britain.
See look! Even the coppers march proudly in Brighton when we have our annual parade!
It's a wonderful city, and you might ask the question... Why have I been away for so long?
Well there is an answer to that one, but you'll have to catch me in a very revealing mood to go anywhere near it. Lets just say I had my reasons.
I wasn't Jack Brighton when I lived there before. I was a different person - a high flier in the Finance sector commuting every day to London. Now I'm going back as...

Jack  

MAKING A BRIDGE

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  Is Tower Bridge the most famous bridge in the world? I suppose being British I'm biased, but I can't think of a more iconic one, so it'll do for me.
Today I need to consider a bridge and hopefully make the darn thing. I have my ending to 'The Alpha Sparky' clear in my head, and yesterday I revamped the main body of the story - a very long day at the keyboard, but I think I've cracked it. But now I need to link the two, which I think of as a bridge chapter. I drafted it yesterday evening, but it needs a lot of polishing. I find these sort of chapters challenging as for me they have to work. I can't just turn up at the end of the book and have my big scene if I haven't laid the right foundations. That has been done in the revamp, but as we near the end of a story like this, the pace has to pick up, so no going on and on and on. The bridge has to be sharp and take you to the other side quickly, so it has to be written well. I'm sure it won't be as spectacular as Tower Bridge, but hopefully it will do its job and not be a blot on the Sparky landscape.

Jack

KEEP CALM

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  It's a weird feeling. You get near the end of a story, there are over 20,000 words and most are pretty good, then it's time for the big finale... and it just won't come. A walk to clear the head sometimes helps. And it does in this case - I realise that the structure is wrong and that I have to go back and revamp the whole lot.
Bugger!
Annoyance is the first thing.
Then comes denial. No! It's fine! A few tweaks here and there will sort it out. Just write the sex scene - you can do those in your sleep - and don't worry if it doesn't totally gel.
Then there is acceptance and an odd sense of relief because you know that in the long run this is the right thing to do.
A stiff drink before dinner and calmness comes. As does the new structure. I sit in the kitchen and watch the food get prepared (lucky old me to have someone who can cook!) and I scribble it all down in a note pad.
There it's finished!
Or at least the new structure is complete with my characters clearly defined on paper and in my head. Now all I have to do is type the thing out. Thank goodness we live in an age that has the wonders of Word Processing, otherwise this could have been a real pain in the butt.
It means the book will be out later than planned, but don't worry.
Keep calm, and say 'Thank You, Jack!'
Thank you for making the effort to turn it around, and not churn out a load of old tosh!
My pleasure...

Jack

THE ALLURE OF YOUTH

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  I didn't realise until yesterday when the topic cropped up, but I obviously have a thing for young men!
Okay, so I'm probably not alone. But oddly enough it's not the obvious thing... I'm much more attracted to the more mature butch types - Paddy McGuire being my idea of the perfect man, not his cute toy Dylan Sinclair. But I do write about young men quite a lot, and was shocked when I did a quick run through the Tom Farrell books, that almost all are written from the perspective of the young lad in the story. The only exception being 'Beware Macduff' which is seen through the eyes of a revenging father.
Of course I'm at it again with 'The Sparky Alpha'. I'm writing it in the first person, and the narrator is an eighteen year old lad. And it's not just a feature of Tom Farrell - it's pretty much the same with Fergie Boy books - most are narrated by a teenager. It is only when I write as Jack Brighton that I grow up a bit and see life through more mature eyes.
So do I need to see a shrink? Am I trying to relive my youth and be a teenager again. Is that what it's all about? Or do I think that's what the public want - to relive their youth - and I feed it to them.
It's one to think about.
Doing a blog can be scary at times - you drag up all sorts of stuff that might be best left in a box. Oh well. Not to worry. There must be worse things in life than wanting to be eighteen again, if that's what's going on.

Jack