F.R. Jameson's Blog, page 25

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie

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I was pondering, whilst reading ‘Hercule Poirot’s Christmas’, which quality must exist to make Dame Agatha’s books – for all her weaknesses as an author – so readable. And I’ve come to the conclusion that that quality is probably ‘consistency’.  I was pondering, whilst reading ‘Hercule Poirot’s Christmas’, which quality must exist to make Dame Agatha’s books – for all her weaknesses as an author – so readable. And I’ve come to the conclusion that that quality is probably ‘consistency’.

In another writer’s work – say, for example, Raymond Chandler’s – a scant description, a thin characterisation or a stretch of dialogue which bears virtually no resemblance to any conversation ever had between human beings, would immediately strike a duff note. He’s such a strong writer, that a grand misjudgement of that kind would take the reader out of the book and shatter the illusion of his world. But because Christie makes these same mistakes again and again, they become part of her world. The reader enters a strange fantasy land, where no locale is anything more than vague, characters are little better than ill-developed stock types and everyone speaks in the most artificial manner ever put into print. And because Dame Agatha never corrects these mistakes, she manages to create her own world where all of this makes sense and is – because it is so consistent – actually convincing.

For example, the opening chapters of this book feature various husbands telling their life stories to their wives, even though it’s perfectly clear that the wives already know their husband’s life stories and are, indeed, chipping in with valuable pieces of information. Dame Agatha has decided that this is the best way to get vital plot points over to her reader, and as such we have character after character explaining things they each already know to each other, in a way which would raise eyebrows in the real world. And although the reader might sneer the first time he or she is confronted with these odd marital scenes, the fact that they happen again and again means that they just end up going along with it. The reader has left the real world and gone to Christie-land, where these types of conversation take place and a murder will happen soon to distract us from the thinness of the characters.

If I had to raise one grudge against this festive read, it’s that it isn’t very Christmassy. Indeed December the 25th manages to pass with scant mention of the occasion, and it’s only on the 27th that two of the characters discover the decorations for what should have been a typical English Christmas. The story is thus: a cruel old millionaire invites his family to join him at Christmas, threatens to change his will and is promptly bumped off. Luckily Hercule Poirot is on hand to investigate. One has to admire the mechanics of it all, and the way in which Dame Agatha – for all her other flaws – manages to keep the central guessing game going right until the end.

 

Fancy reading my (not very seasonal) new novella, DEATH AT THE SEASIDE, ahead of everyone else? Sign up to receive an ARC edition here.

Me, Finishing Up Writing in 2017

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It’s amazing the strange psychological effect the end of the year has. Even though I know it’s a man-made construct, that really it doesn’t mean anything, there’s still the desire to get as much done and completed as possible. Actually, I’ve needed to do this before Christmas, as over the festive period myself, Mrs Jameson and Baby Jameson will be away and there’ll be limited opportunities to get work done. So, this week, I’ve been charging through and getting as much stuff in the ticked ‘done’ box as possible.

This week then:

I’ve plotted out the first section of my new novel, so I’m ready to charge on with that on the first day of January.
I’ve finished typing up the first draft of a novella for 2017. One that will be part of a series with a recurring character.
I’ve also finished hand-writing the rough draft of another novella with the same character.
And I’ve finished going through the copy-edits for next month’s DEATH AT THE SEASIDE, so it’s off to Mrs Jameson now for some proof-reading. All on course with that one at the moment, it should be ready in plenty of time for the launch at the end of January.

I’ve been sweating through them all, getting them done and I know it’s crazy. If I were to finish all this stuff on the 4th of January, it wouldn’t actually make so much of a difference; just as if I stayed up all night and finished everything currently on my roster, it will all be for nought if I don’t keep writing in the new year, keep learning about marketing and keep trying to be the best I possibly can.

It’s such an artificial construct and I know that, but you know what? I still feel most proud of myself!

Have you guys been charging towards some made up end date as well?

Fancy reading DEATH AT THE SEASIDE ahead of everyone else? Just follow this link.

Doctor Who Reviews (Extra) – Doom Coalition 2

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Oddly, the story I was most looking forward to in DOOM COALITION 2 (This Time It’s Personal) is the one I enjoyed the least. Yes, it’s the return of River Song. Alex Kingston does attack her role with her normal gusto in a way which makes the story burst with energy. Unfortunately, it seems to end up with almost too much energy. Maybe that is fitting for a tale about a planet exploding, but the result is chaotic. A loud, shouty, boom-boom tale which is more of a chore (and an endurance test to the ears) than a pleasure.

(I did wonder how Big Finish was going to get around TV’s Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead being very clearly signed as the first time The Doctor met River. How were they going to have earlier incarnations interact with her without messing up all we’ve seen? The answer is to not actually have them meet at all, which I can understand, but still feels like a cheat).

The others stories here, being a self-consciously Pertwee-esque alien invasion story; a gothic tale of space grotesques (with shades of The Doctor’s Wife) and a historical, were much more to my liking. All in all I think I enjoyed this volume more than the first, I just wish it hadn’t ended with such an assault on my eardrums.

There are flaws certainly, the primary one being that I’m still not sure what Helen Sinclair brings to the table as a companion. Liv Chenka I’m all on board with and I like her survivalist cynicism, but unless Helen’s arc is going somewhere, she will just be a companion who existed rather than one I engaged with for either good or bad.

Roll on, volume 3! I see River is on the cover again, so fingers crossed that Helen is given something to do and that Professor Song finds a way to speak to The Doctor. Both are needed.

Although obviously the next time I discuss DOCTOR WHO on this blog it will be in just under a week’s time to say goodbye to this man – who let’s not forget was actually asked to audition for the role of The Eighth Doctor.

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I really am looking forward to the episode, and the arrival of Jodie Whittaker, but don’t want to say goodbye to P-Cap. It’s the very definition of a bittersweet feeling.

 

Fancy reading my new novella, DEATH AT THE SEASIDE, ahead of everyone else? If so, just follow this link.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

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There’s a load of great anecdotes in OUTLIERS. The kind to make me nudge Mrs Jameson in the ribs and tell her about them in great detail. But as much as I enjoyed reading the book – and the detail of the various stories within it – I’m not sure it really added up to much.

The thesis is that basically it takes a village. That people who become successful require a large amount of luck as well as innate skill.

And as interesting as all the examples are, I can’t help wondering, is that really news?

Yes, hard work and ability can lead to success, but a person needs the right timing as well, he and she needs to come from a background which gives them the right tools and the right support.

Honestly, there’s really not much more to the argument than that. And as a result, the book does feel like a lot of interesting anecdotes strung together in an interesting fashion, yet somehow being less than the sum of their parts.

 

Fancy reading my new novella, DEATH AT THE SEASIDE. before anyone else? Advance review copies are available here.

Me, (again) thinking about character, in 2017

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This week I’ve been again thinking of character, but this time my own.

I’m an introvert basically. A man who just wants to end the day by closing the front door and being with my wife and baby.

The last thing I am is a social animal.

Okay, I do have a friends and I have a wife and baby, but I fear that whatever sociability I had has disappeared over time. That I’ve lost what ability I had to make new friends, new connections.

I’m really conscious though that both of these flaws may harm me in my attempt to make it as an indie author. As to gain readers it’s necessary for me to make connections with new people through twitter or Facebook. Each of which I feel I lack the sociability gene to do properly.

It’s called social media, after all.

So, I’ve been thinking of my character and whether it’s the kind of character which makes a successful indie author. And in my best moments I gee myself up; and in my worst I crush myself down with self-doubt.

All I can hope is that if I keep working on this blog and on Facebook and Twitter, that I can find a way to connect with others like me. (As in a world of 7 billion there must be people like me, surely). That I can find a way to connect with the people who want to read my work and – despite my lack of social skills – somehow push through and succeed at not only a publishing career but making new friends.

Fancy reading my new novella, Death at the Seaside, ahead of the pack? Just follow this link.

Sherlock Holmes – The Thinking Engine by James Lovegrove

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It’s Sherlock Holmes versus the internet!

Well, that’s not quite accurate. But it is Sherlock Holmes pitted against an incredible crime solving machine which its inventor hopes one day will link up to other machines in police stations and newspaper rooms all around the country. So yeah, it’s Sherlock Holmes taking on the internet.

It’s a book which manages the interesting trick of feeling both Victorian and incredibly modern at the same time. I don’t have any way of knowing if it might be the case, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out that Lovegrove was a big fan of the Basil Rathbone version of Sherlock. With its derring-do version of the character, a big grand adventure with melodramatic moments, THE THINKING ENGINE has the same kind of feel as those 1940’s movies. (Although our Watson here is far more competent than the Nigel Bruce version.) As such it may not be quite in sync with Conan-Doyle, but it’s still a damned entertaining read.

 

Fancy reading my next novella, Death at the Seaside, early? An ARC version is available here.

Coming January – Death at the Seaside by F.R. Jameson

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If you’ve read my writing diary in recent weeks, you’ll have noted me chattering on about forthcoming projects in a way that was vague and probably deeply irritating.

Well, I’m being vague no more, my friends. The first one is out of the traps and it’s my new novella, Death at the Seaside.

Here’s the synopsis:

Nothing was going to ruin Castle’s holiday.

Except for the mocking laughter of the dead.

Castle was anticipating a lovely break at the seaside. His glamorous film star mistress was even joining him.

However, an unexpected encounter leaves Castle reeling. There’s a chance that someone knows his darkest secret and no matter what, he’s going to have to deal with it.

All his life, Castle has been the luckiest bloke he knew.

That luck might be about to run out…

Free preview copies will be available, and I will also send you a digital copy for your Kindle when it’s published. All I ask in return is for you to give it an honest review when you have chance.

Reviews are a lifeblood of an indie author, and so if you like the kind of stuff I write, please do click the below link and share your thoughts when the time comes.

I would be most grateful.

Just click here and I will make sure you receive a free preview copy at the start of January.

Many thanks.

Me, tearing plans up, in 2017

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It’s important to have a plan.

As an indie author, it’s important to know what lies ahead, what you want to achieve, and what you need to do to get there.

At the start of the week I had a plan for how the next year would look, what I would write, what I would publish, what I had to do.

Tuesday, I tore it up and started again.

That sounds a bit drastic, doesn’t it?

Mad, even.

Well no, not really. I’ve been calm this week, I’ve felt good about my writing.

This isn’t a kneejerk panic about having too much on. No, this is me realising that my original plan didn’t make sense.

I have to get some momentum going, and so realised that publishing a short novel in March which could form part of a series, but at the moment doesn’t, is actually insane.

It’s a good book, I’m really proud of it, and so I don’t want it to sit there as – for now – a one off. I want people to read it, I want it to sell.

To help it, there needs to be a follow-though, it will get more attention if its part of something rather than just left to itself.

So, before the end of the year, I’m going to start writing the follow up. I already have the plot in mind, I already know the central character, so I’m going to go for it.

All being well, I aim to publish in June.

With another book in September.

And maybe a novella as well.

It will be a lot of work, but I’m relishing the prospect.

The important thing is that I’m learning.

This time last year the notion of myself as a writer was like some forgotten half-memory, but now I’m embracing it. And part of that is learning about the indie world and what works. It’s a steep curve, but I’m getting there.

 

Writers, how far in advance do you plan? How flexible do you allow yourself to be?

 

Fancy a free FRJ short story? There’s one available here.

The Scars of Dracula 1970

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Let me just start by getting the dodgy stuff out of the way.

The model shot of Dracula’s castle which opens the film is so unconvincing a viewer could believe its panto season., It has the least convincing vampire bats this side of an Ed Wood film. Dennis Waterman is badly miscast, and as much as I adored Patrick Troughton in this, I wasn’t quite convinced by his character’s motivations. (Are you on Dracula’s side or not? Make up your mind, Klove!) While the ultimate demise of The Count lacks a certain dramatic irony

All that being said, THE SCARS OF DRACULA is bloody fantastic!

My word, it’s refreshing to see a Hammer Dracula film where he isn’t just a figure skirting around at the periphery, freshly revived and having to make do with whatever is in front of him. No, this is a Dracula with an infrastructure, with servants, with creatures of the night who obey his will. This is a Dracula with power and he isn’t afraid to use it. The massacre in the church for example – even we only see the aftermath – is one of the finest set-pieces Hammer ever produced.

Frankly, it’s great to have a Dracula film where Christopher Lee is given something to do.

The plot concerns various people becoming trapped in Dracula’s castle, which thanks to the frightened acquiescence of the locals, he is allowed to run unimpeded. But the plot isn’t important, what’s important is the terror Dracula can inflict when given free reign.

Most of these films I saw when I was very young, so it’s been hard for me to keep track with what I have and haven’t seen. This one I know I’ve never seen before. Absolutely, as a DOCTOR WHO fan and a HAMMER fan, I’d have remembered the Dracula movie with The Second Doctor in it. I mean, look at the eyebrows, who could forget those?

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When this was made we were only a couple of years away from THE TEAXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and THE EXORCIST. A point when this whole film – this whole style of films – would suddenly be made to look incredibly dated. But even though it’s starchy costume period Hammer, even though the next decade would change horror completely, this remains an incredibly entertaining treat.

This is almost certainly the last Hammer Dracula I get to see afresh, and I think I might have saved the best to last.

 

Fancy a free FRJ short story? There’s one availble here.

The Blue Hammer by Ross MacDonald

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In many ways this last of Ross MacDonald’s Archer novels feels like a culmination of all that went before.

Here, MacDonald has refined his normal trick – a case which has echoes back to the past and reveals a covered up crime from decades before – and taken it to the point of tragedy. Tragic is how this story feels by the end, that we’re in the midst of some almost Shakespearean calamity. And even though the plot mechanics are a little obvious and the average mystery loving reader will guess where a lot of it is going, such is the empathy MacDonald manages to create and his understanding of the complex flaws of people, the ending still feels emotionally like a kick in the stomach.

Although not for Archer himself. There’s almost a happy ending for him, with a new girlfriend on the horizon. That’s interesting in itself as Archer is the instigator, the one who pulls everything apart. But with so much sadness going around, Archer seems to avoid his share of it. He’s a dour jester who might finally be getting his reward.

(It’s curious how the two lonely hard-boiled detectives of California, Lew Archer and Philip Marlowe, both end their final novels in an embryonic relationship. Although MacDonald makes a much better fist of it than Chandler did).

The book does hamper itself by starting with Archer being hired to find a missing painting before, in that first meeting with the client, taking it immediately upon himself to look for a missing person instead. Much to his client’s objections. Any way you try to spin it, that seems an odd way of running a business. But once you’ve got over MacDonald’s clumsiness in crow-barring his detective into this mystery, there’s a hell of a lot here to admire.

 

Fancy a free FRJ short story? There’s one available here.