Tom Grove's Blog, page 2

Writing The Nor'easter

Welcome back!
Hello everyone - it's been a while since my last update, but thought it was worth breaking radio silence to let you know how things are going with the follow-up to The Pink Herring.


What took you so long?
Well, it's a long story... When I write, I keep a daily log of progress (click on the graph for a larger view) which produces these timeline charts - date along the bottom and words written on the side. You can see, just from the shape of the graph that it's been a hard mountain to climb, but just to let you know, the first draft of The Nor'easter is now finished.
How did it all begin?
If you start at the blue blob marked as #1,  I started writing The Nor'easter on the 17th of October 2016. This was straight after I finished the first draft of The Pink Herring, bashing out about 10,000 words. Then I received the editorial review of The Pink Herring - this is blue blob #2 - and work on the sequel stopped completely.
Why did you stop?
I spent the next five months re-writing The Pink Herring (for those who don't know, the ending changed completely) finally publishing on 27th March 2017. I wrote a little more of the Nor'easter taking us to blob #3 and 20,000 words, but then realised that I needed to significantly up my marketing game, which takes us to blob #4.
Looks like you got stuck in again?
Sales of the Pink Herring were doing nicely, which released me from marketing and back to writing. In just over a month I managed to reach 50,000 words, the story developing nicely, when I hit the 90 day hiatus on Amazon. This is the traditional time period where book sales dramatically drop off, calling for a re-think on the marketing front - welcome to blob #5.
This looks like a very rocky section?
From mid-July 2017 through to December, I tried to juggle marketing with writing. Initially, I focused on marketing work in the morning and writing in the afternoon, but I found it very distracting and non-productive - from a writing point of view. So, you can see that I ended up doing little stints of each, giving this ragged ascent of words, reaching 90,000 by Christmas and blob #6.
What happened after Christmas?
This is what is commonly known as "The difficult second album" period. From blob #6 to #7, a period of nearly two and half months, I managed to write just 10,000 words. This is where the desire to write a far superior book than the first, puts on so much pressure that the creative juices begin to dry up. I tried different techniques to retructure the book, editing as I went to try to deliver this better book, completely forgetting that I hadn't even finished the first draft - breaking the cardinal rule - don't mess with the book until it's finished. It was now a year after I'd published The Pink Herring and the added deadline pressure brought everytning to a grinding halt.
How did you get out of the pit?
You can see that the graph flatlines between blobs #7 and #8 - a period of three months. What I did was to take some advice - do something completely different for a while. So I took some holiday time to clear my head during which I came up with the story for the next book - The Eroded Soul - which I started writing on the side. The advice was excellent. After a short break from The Nor'easter, I returned to it refreshed, completing the first draft in under a month - a 40,000 word sprint.
So, where are you now?You will see a short, flat line to blob #9 - this was the final read through of the first draft - which brings us up to date. Small plotline inconsistencies, spelling and grammar have all been fixed and now it's over to my content editor for the final read through. It's my second time through this loop, so I'm hopeful to publish sometime in September 2018 - a full year over my original estimate.
What's next?
I'm heading back to the third book in the series, The Eroded Soul, which I'm overconfidently trying to get published for Christmas - yes Christmas 2018, you cheeky people! I'll also be working on the marketing for The Nor'easter which will be released in hardback and ebook through Amazon and as an ebook through B&N, Apple Books, Kobo, Kindle, Nook, 24S and Scribd. 
Thanks for reading and I'll keep you posted with more updates as I get them - leave me a message in the comments section below if you'd like to find out more...

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Competition Results

What competition?
Last month, I opened a competition to give away three copies of my book, The Pink Herring. It was a competition with a difference - the prize wasn't for the applicant, it was for them to give as a present for someone they thought would appreciate it.

How did it work?
The applicants had to tell me why the book should go to the person they had chosen in no more than 100 words. I would then choose the three most compelling entries and write a personalised message inside the paperback.

Who won?
Many thanks to all those that entered - here are the results:

Anna from Marietta, New York, USA for her daughter Amber;Joel from Cork, Ireland for his friend Sinéad;Charmaine from Birmingham, England for her friend Dominic
Well done everyone - the books are signed and in the post to you.
A Season's Greetings to you all...

A Free Festive Giveaway...

What's on offer?
As we head into the festive season and work on my second Shaun Young novel, The Nor'easter comes to a conclusion, I'd like to offer three people the opportunity of receiving a signed copy of my debut 5-star novel, The Pink Herring (reviews can be found here.) Because we are approaching the season of giving, this is your opportunity to win a free copy of the paperback inscribed on the title page with a personalised message - written and signed by me, the author.

What's the catch?

The book is not for you - it's a present for someone you know who would appreciate the latest in contemporary crime fiction. It's free to enter and the book will be delivered free to you to send on to that special someone you have in mind.
What's the plan?
It's simple:
Open an email to me at tom.grove.author@gmail.com with the subject line " The Pink Herring Competition";Tell me who you are, who you would like the book to go to and  (in no more than 100 words) why you think they should receive a copy of the paperback;All entries will be the judged by me, the three winners being taken from the most compelling requests, on which the personalised message will also be based;The competition opens today and closes on Friday December 1st, 2017;The results will be published on Friday December 8th, 2017 and the signed books will sent in the post the same day;Do not worry about spam email - your email address will be used for this competition and won't be shared with anyone else - you have my promise on that!

What's next?
That's it - good luck and I look forward to reading some worthy requests.
Pass it on...
Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below and also feel free to share this article with anyone who wants to spread the word about the best in contemporary crime fiction...

The Pink Herring is more widely available

For the first three months, I published The Pink Herring exclusively through Amazon's Kindle Unlimited scheme. It remains available through Kindle as an ebook, but it has now been published as an ebook on:


iBooksBarnes & Noble's nookKoboScribd24SInkteraThaliaAngus & Robertson!ndigoBuchBolMondadoriThis is the universal link to all digital stores - just click on the platform of your choice to download the book.
I am working on adding Google Play and will update this post when it is complete.
The paperback is still available through Amazon here.
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Paris, Texas

Tonight, I watched a film I have seen countless times and every time I do, I think it is one of the finest films ever made.
The wide open space and laid-back ambience of the southern states is the perfect backdrop for a forlorn tale of a family being torn apart, rebuilt on necessity, reunited by chance only to be ripped apart all over again, just when you expect a happy ending. 
What draws me back to this masterpiece time and time again is the authenticity of the acting and the direction of the same. It isn't slick. Often the dialogue appears ad hoc, but that's the beauty of it as it feels natural in the context it is set. Dean Stockwell's portrayal of the non-wayward brother to Harry Dean Stanton's wilderness-beaten sibling Travis, is the rock against which his brother can finally rest; if only momentarily. The unconditional love and care between them at the outset is clear but not over-acted, it sets the stall out for the rest of the film. 
It is rightly considered Wim Wenders' finest directorship built on the fabulously rich, but simple story-crafting of Sam Shepherd & Kit Carson. Robby Müeller's cinematography is as expansive as the landscapes he captured, working in harmony with Ry Cooder's haunting steel guitar soundtrack. It won awards in Cannes and the BAFTAs in 1984 and 1985 respectively. 
The film revolves around the chance return from four years in the wilderness of Travis Henderson along with the emerging story of his deeply obsessive and ultimately destructive love for Natasha Kinski's Jane, a genetic trait passed down from his father. 
Often typecast as a road movie, some of my favourite scenes happen during their travels:
The slow screeching thunk of the windscreen wipers as the battered rental Oldsmobile glides into the rain-drenched car park of a seedy downtown south Texas motel; orThe eery low wail of the seemingly endless freight trains as they Doppler-shift through the run-down dust-bowl towns; orThe panoramic bonnet shots taken back through the windscreen while the brothers re-bond through talk of older times ; orTravis and his young son Hunter hunkering down for the night in an all-night laundromat - the kind of place you wouldn't take a fancy lady; or perhaps my favouriteTravis's final heart-rending revelations to Jane through the intercom of a one-way mirror, a set masquerading as a hotel room in a cheap sex parlour.

It is a film where every element of production comes together seamlessly, delivering a work of art that transcends any lazy labelling of it as a cult film. I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if everyone involved in the making of Paris, Texas consider it their finest professional hour. They certainly get my vote. 

Tell me what you think...

I have an admission to make. As an avid reader all my life, up until year ago I very rarely left reviews.
Maybe this was because I generally bought paperbacks from bookstores and the process for leaving feedback wasn’t easy - a weak excuse admittedly. However, since publishing my first book, I now know just how important it is to receive feedback, good or bad. 

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” - Bill Gates

So now I rate and review everything I read, listen to or watch - better late than never. I’d love to know what you think about reviewing and what the barriers might be do doing it more often?

Please leave me your thoughts below...

Tell me what you think?

I have an admission to make. As an avid reader all my life, up until year ago I very rarely left reviews.
Maybe this was because I generally bought paperbacks from bookstores and the process for leaving feedback wasn’t easy - a weak excuse admittedly. However, since publishing my first book, I now know just how important it is to receive feedback, good or bad. 

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.” - Bill Gates

So now I rate and review everything I read, listen to or watch - better late than never. I’d love to know what you think about reviewing and what the barriers might be do doing it more often?

Please leave me your thoughts below...

6 Degrees of Separation - A True Story

Are we really just six steps away from contact with anyone in the world?  There have been many reports about it being true; science papers, Microsoft adding weight to it, not to mention a student game called The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where inebriated students try to link him to another actor through their co-stars in six steps or less.
In A Nut-Shell...
To qualify things slightly, it wasn’t quite the entire world, but a link that started in Milton Keynes, England went into the ether, was picked up by chance in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, transferred to a small English village in Cumbria where the cycle completed at a party I attended this weekend (no, it wasn't a Ray-Ban party, although it might as well have been).
There’s Always A Backstory...
Myself and the family were in Cumbria this weekend for the 40th birthday of a dear friend I’ve known for over four years now. Back then, I was working in Cumbria and staying at a lovely Inn during the week, The Blacksmiths Arms in Talkin. It is a very popular place to eat and drink and by chance one night I stuck up a conversation with Karen and Simon Dodd, who live and work in the area. We got on well from the start discovering a mutual love of gin - the pub must have ten or fifteen different varieties on their shelves. One night we sampled the lot and continued on back at their place after hours - not a frequent pastime I might add. In my time staying in Talkin I became good friends with Simon and Karen as I did with many other regulars in and around the pub. After a year, I finished my contract in Cumbria to take on a new role in Finsbury Square, London. Normally, that would be where the story ends, but such are the ties that I made with the place and the people, I have made time to visit every six months or so.
“Come on up, we are having a party…”
So to this weekend and the long anticipated party. We were staying at the house of some other friends I had made during my time in Cumbria, the equally lovely John and Hilary Holland - their house in Castle Carrock being just a ten minute drive away. On arrival at the party I was introduced to faces old and new, one of them Steve Clarke told me that his girlfriend, Corrin Butler had read my book. I was intrigued to know which one of my Cumbrian collective had made the recommendation. Corrin told me that she had been given the book by her brother, Edward Ruadh Butler, a journalist and author living in Northern Ireland (great book, by the way). Amazed, I asked how he found the book, to which she replied that it had been read by his bride-to-be Emma Barr. Emma shared a love of crime fiction with Corrin and so made sure that Edward passed it on to her. 
Hold on a minute…
How did Emma find it, I asked, becoming more amazed at this opening conversation with someone I’d met just minutes beforehand. Apparently, Emma had received the book as a present from her mother, Mary Barr who had found The Pink Herring online at Amazon and bought it on spec. Now I am gob-smacked, because Corrin tells me she has only lived in Talkin for the past two months, making friends with Karen and Simon as I had done, four years earlier. Simon and Karen had no idea that Corrin had read The Pink Herring, which is an amazing coincidence in itself, but added to the convoluted journey it had made to get to her, any doubts I may have harboured about the six degrees of separation theory were just blown clear out of the water. 
So, let’s spell that out…
Mary finds and buys The Pink Herring for her daughter Emma on Amazon in Northern Ireland;Emma reads the book, likes it and asks her fiancé, Edward to pass it on to his sister, Corrin in Cumbria;Corrin reads the book and talks about it to her boyfriend, Steve;The night before the party, Steve talks to Simon about who is invited;Simon mentions me, my background and the book - Steve puts two and two together;I am introduced to Steve and Corrin and the cycle is completed.
Finally, the big ask...
In the spirit of the six degrees, I am asking anyone who reads this blog to share the heck out it on their social networks to see if we can flush out any other similar stories to mine. Please don’t be shy, pass it on - go on, pick a button...

Is A Pink Herring Fake News?

Pink Herring ©  Simon Royer - Natural History in Art"I've heard of a red herring, but what the heck is a pink herring?" After setting the title of my book, The Pink Herring, I did some research on the use of the term. The results were sparse, but very surprising.

Charles E. Morris III, wrote an article entitled Pink Herring & The Fourth Persona: J. Edgar Hoover's Sex Crime Panic in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, in May 2002. He writes of a time following the Great Depression and just before the onset of the Cold War - a period of increasing secrecy and fear of the unknown. Morris contends that Hoover as head of the FBI, used the anxiety of this time to hide assumptions about his own sexuality by demonising homosexuals, a tactic Morris called a pink herring. Morris proposes that Hoover encouraged propaganda (today’s fake news) causing a nationwide panic by conflating a supposed surge in sex crimes to an increase in reported homosexual activity - a diversionary tactic to silence those that might uncover his own sexuality.

Surely not the Catholic Church?
Also in 2002, a student named Josue Cisneros wrote a paper entitled Shame and Scandal in the Family: Pink Herring, Moral Panic, and the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church. The paper was written on the back of the Boston Archdiocese sexual abuse scandal famously uncovered by the Boston Globe newspaper. Cisneros takes a similar view to that proposed by Morris in that the news media at the time focused their reporting on issues around stereotypes of homosexuality rather than focusing on the sexual abuse allegations, providing a pink herring diversion for the Archiocese in the early stages of the investigation.

A financial lure?
In financial law, a pink herring is the name for a preliminary prospectus put together for a securities offering. Hmmm, if like me this leaves you none the wiser, this is what I've gleaned from a bit of research. A securities offering is something that a business does to raise money to fund an expansion project. The business offers an equity share to investors in the form of stocks, shares or bonds. A pink herring is used to advertise the offering in the early stages, to whip up interest. Those that want to take things further - or took the bait - are then given the full prospectus which includes greater detail about pricing and the number of securities on offer - this is known as a red herring. So, in a legal context, a pink herring is a financial lure used to entice potential punters into an investment deal.

Not actually a species?
The cover image for this post, Pink Herring, comes courtesy of Simon Royer an artist who specialises in capturing natural history through his paintings in a interesting and compelling way. Simon told me that the herring is probably the most overlooked fish in the world. That simple fish that feeds millions, humans and other ocean creatures alike, deserves greater recognition in the circle of life. The fact that it is so common and abundant should raise it high above its bland categorisation as a mass-produced commodity. Simon summed up the magnificence of the species when he described the few wonderful moments when they are just out of the water, their skin reflecting all the dabbled colours under the rainbow, like jewels under the sun. That’s just the kind of imagery I like and I think he’s captured those sentiments with the fabulous vibrancy of the herring in this picture. To me though, the humble wordsmith, I see the imagery that suits my story: a lone herring separated from the masses, hiding, almost backing out of the surreal frame - the elusive Pink Herring.

A play on literary ploy?
I have been asked many times how I chose the name for my book. At the start, instead of a prologue, I use a quote from Shaun Young’s university thesis. It explains the origin of the pink herring (which of course is a figment of my imagination) used in the context of his dissertation on the psychology of altered states. The quote references a little-known curing process to produce subtly flavoured smoked herring, more expensive but far superior to the common kipper or red herring.  Young states that if the pink herring is used as a hunting lure, it is much harder to detect. Without giving away the story, I use this technique of ‘seeding’ pink herring clues in many strands of the plot and sub-plots, which only come to fruition at the end. From feedback I’ve had already, some of the pink herrings were missed by readers- a constructive use of fake news which pleases me immensely. 


Do you think you could find them? Try The Pink Herring here.

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Is a pink herring fake news?

Pink Herring ©  Simon Royer - Natural History in Art
I have been asked many times how I chose the name for my book, The Pink Herring. I had settled on the title before I started writing the book, having just read the complete works of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
These great stories are full of red herrings but as good as they are, once you see them coming, it is a matter of sorting the wheat from the chaff as you progress to the conclusion of each tale. For my book, I wanted something a little harder to detect, a more subtle red herring and so to my take on the pink herring - a clue which leads your subconscious mind somewhere it shouldn’t be going.

Before I published The Pink Herring, I ran a background check to see where the phrase had been used before - what I found amazed me. These are some of the most interesting examples I found:

Charles E. Morris III, wrote an article entitled Pink Herring & The Fourth Persona: J. Edgar Hoover's Sex Crime Panic in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, in May 2002. He writes of a time following the Great Depression and just before the onset of the Cold War - a period of increasing secrecy and fear of the unknown. Morris contends that Hoover as head of the FBI, used the anxiety of this time to hide assumptions about his own sexuality by demonising homosexuals, a tactic Morris called a pink herring. Morris proposes that Hoover encouraged propaganda (today’s fake news) causing a nationwide panic by conflating a supposed surge in sex crimes to an increase in reported homosexual activity - a diversionary tactic to silence those that might uncover his own sexuality.

Also in 2002, a student named Josue Cisneros wrote a paper entitled Shame and Scandal in the Family: Pink Herring, Moral Panic, and the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church.  The paper was written on the back of the Boston Archdiocese sexual abuse scandal famously uncovered by the Boston Globe newspaper. Cisneros takes a similar view to that proposed by Morris in that the news media at the time focused their reporting on issues around stereotypes of homosexuality rather than focusing on the sexual abuse allegations, providing a pink herring diversion for the Archiocese in the early stages of the investigation.

In financial law, a pink herring is the name for a preliminary prospectus put together for a securities offering. Hmmm, if like me this leaves you none the wiser, this is what I've gleaned from a bit of research. A securities offering is something that a business does to raise money to fund an expansion project. The business offers an equity share to investors in the form of stocks, shares or bonds. A pink herring is used to advertise the offering in the early stages, to whip up interest. Those that want to take things further - or took the bait - are then given the full prospectus which includes greater detail about pricing and the number of securities on offer - this is known as a red herring. So, in a legal context, a pink herring is a financial lure used to entice potential punters into an investment deal.

The cover image for this post, Pink Herring, comes courtesy of Simon Royer an artist who specialises in capturing natural history through his paintings in a interesting and compelling way. Simon told me that the herring is probably the most overlooked fish in the world. That simple fish that feeds millions, humans and other ocean creatures alike, deserves greater recognition in the circle of life. The fact that it is so common and abundant should raise it high above its bland categorisation as a mass-produced commodity. Simon summed up the magnificence of the species when he described the few wonderful moments when they are just out of the water, their skin reflecting all the dabbled colours under the rainbow, like jewels under the sun. That’s just the kind of imagery I like and I think he’s captured those sentiments with the fabulous vibrancy of the herring in this picture. To me though, the humble wordsmith, I see the imagery that suits my story: a lone herring separated from the masses, hiding, almost backing out of the surreal frame - the elusive Pink Herring.

At the start of my book, instead of a prologue, I use a quote from Shaun Young’s university thesis. It explains the origin of the pink herring (which of course is a figment of my imagination) used in the context of his dissertation on the psychology of altered states. The quote references a little-known curing process to produce subtly flavoured smoked herring, more expensive but far superior to the common kipper.  Young states that if the pink herring is used as a hunting lure, it is much harder to detect. Without giving away the story, I use this technique of ‘seeding’ pink herring clues in many strands of the plot and sub-plots, which only come to fruition at the end. From feedback I’ve had already, some of the pink herrings were missed by readers- a constructive use of fake news which pleases me immensely.


Please feel free to share this post - go on, hit the button of your choice...