F.G. Cottam's Blog, page 2
May 12, 2018
The Lucifer Chord
The best short story I've ever read is Ernest Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River. It perfectly demonstrates his Iceberg Theory, which is that if the author knows their characters' history, he/she can leave seven-eighths of it under the surface and the reader will still get what's going on.
In the story, first published in 1925, protagonist Nick Adams goes on a camping and fishing trip, in the wilderness, alone. Reading it, you come quickly to realise that he is profoundly traumatised. The Great War is the trauma, though it's never mentioned at all in the story, which I've always regarded as an immensely subtle, understated masterpiece.
I've always been intrigued by Iceberg Theory and to some extent, inspired by it too. I employed it in The House of Lost Souls. I've done it again in The Lucifer Chord. The novel re-unites Ruthie Gillespie with Michael Aldridge, almost three years after they first met in my novella The Going and the Rise. And the novel is set a few weeks after the conclusion of my Colony trilogy closer Harvest of Scorn, in which Ruthie featured heavily, and which left her at the very least, emotionally bruised.
The Lucifer Chord is a stand-alone. No reader needs to be aware of the specifics of anyone's back-story to get what's going on. It's obvious Ruthie and Michael have a history that's left them unfinished business - at least in the mind and heart of one of them. And it's obvious Ruthie is emotionally wounded.
But if I can be an Iceberg Theory heretic for a moment, I honestly think you'd enjoy this novel more if you'd previously read The Going and the Rise. That's 25, 000 words, set on Wight, narrated in the first-person by Michael Aldridge and is Ruthie's fictive debut. And it can still be downloaded digitally entirely free from fgcottam.com or bought as an audiobook for under £2, which read by the matchless David Rintoul, isn't an outrageous price for almost three hours of scary escapism.
There. That's me having it both ways. Enjoy. Which let's be honest, is the whole point. Or at least seven-eighths of it.
In the story, first published in 1925, protagonist Nick Adams goes on a camping and fishing trip, in the wilderness, alone. Reading it, you come quickly to realise that he is profoundly traumatised. The Great War is the trauma, though it's never mentioned at all in the story, which I've always regarded as an immensely subtle, understated masterpiece.
I've always been intrigued by Iceberg Theory and to some extent, inspired by it too. I employed it in The House of Lost Souls. I've done it again in The Lucifer Chord. The novel re-unites Ruthie Gillespie with Michael Aldridge, almost three years after they first met in my novella The Going and the Rise. And the novel is set a few weeks after the conclusion of my Colony trilogy closer Harvest of Scorn, in which Ruthie featured heavily, and which left her at the very least, emotionally bruised.
The Lucifer Chord is a stand-alone. No reader needs to be aware of the specifics of anyone's back-story to get what's going on. It's obvious Ruthie and Michael have a history that's left them unfinished business - at least in the mind and heart of one of them. And it's obvious Ruthie is emotionally wounded.
But if I can be an Iceberg Theory heretic for a moment, I honestly think you'd enjoy this novel more if you'd previously read The Going and the Rise. That's 25, 000 words, set on Wight, narrated in the first-person by Michael Aldridge and is Ruthie's fictive debut. And it can still be downloaded digitally entirely free from fgcottam.com or bought as an audiobook for under £2, which read by the matchless David Rintoul, isn't an outrageous price for almost three hours of scary escapism.
There. That's me having it both ways. Enjoy. Which let's be honest, is the whole point. Or at least seven-eighths of it.
January 11, 2018
A Killing in Camden Town
Over halfway through my Patsy Lassiter prequel and will have to average 2000 words a day to complete it by my self-imposed deadline of January 30. I've never struggled in the past with that level of output and this one is coming very easily. That's partly because I'm so familiar with the nature of the central character, but mostly I think because revisiting the summer of 1983 has been such an enjoyable creative experience. The memories of period and specific places grow more vivid by the day and because I've written this one quite quickly, the story itself is economically told with plenty of momentum. I'm particularly pleased with my two female leads - Patsy's 30 year-old boss DI Angela Hurst and 26 year-old material witness in the case he's handling, Suzy Jackson. There were women DI's in the early '80s, I know because I was a crime reporter and encountered one personally. But the glass ceiling was lower back then and you had to be a flier to reach that rank at her age. DC Lassiter and DI Hurst recount this one in the first-person in alternating chapters. A new approach stylistically for me. Angela knows all about the glass ceiling incidentally - and that isn't an anachronism. The phrase was first coined in in America in 1979.
November 28, 2017
Next...
Two bits of news I'm happy to share. The first is that The Lucifer Chord has been sold to a very reputable publisher, bought by an editor I've worked with productively in the past. I don't know when it's scheduled for release, but will inform those of you interested both here and on my F. G. Cottam Facebook page just as soon as I do.
This novel is the first stand-alone title featuring my character Ruthie Gillespie as its main protagonist. Chronologically it takes place almost three years after the events recounted in The Going and the Rise and reunites her with the architect Michael Aldridge, who featured prominently in that story. It is set predominantly in London a few weeks after Ruthie's ordeal on New Hope Island recounted in Harvest of Scorn. It isn't necessary to have read any of my fiction to appreciate what's going on in the pages of this one, it's just that my characters can't exist in some sort of fictive vacuum. They have lives and back-stories and I believe strongly in continuity and naturalistic scenarios. Thus I take note of chronology.
The other news is that I've begun a prequel, set in 1983 and concerning my Colony trilogy Met Police veteran Commander Patrick Lassiter. Except of course he isn't a veteran here. He's a sharp-minded and ambitious young Detective-Constable based in Camden Town, where over a sultry summer month, he investigates a suspicious death. The victim is a spirit medium, apparently a harmless eccentric with no known enemies. But nothing, let's be honest, is ever quite as it seems.
In the period in which the novel is set, I was a local reporter writing mostly about crime in the borough of Camden. Operating out of an office on Kentish Town Road, I'd pay twice-weekly visits to the police stations in Kentish Town and Holborn, where they'd open up the crime books and take me through any serious investigations requiring the public be warned - or asked for help. So no research necessary for this one and the memories have come flooding back. Bananarama on the transistor radio, when it wasn't Culture Club. Aiming to finish this full-length novel by my birthday at the end of January. Birthdays bring only a sort of reflective gloom at my age, so as a gift from me to me, the new book will be a sort of consolation prize.
This novel is the first stand-alone title featuring my character Ruthie Gillespie as its main protagonist. Chronologically it takes place almost three years after the events recounted in The Going and the Rise and reunites her with the architect Michael Aldridge, who featured prominently in that story. It is set predominantly in London a few weeks after Ruthie's ordeal on New Hope Island recounted in Harvest of Scorn. It isn't necessary to have read any of my fiction to appreciate what's going on in the pages of this one, it's just that my characters can't exist in some sort of fictive vacuum. They have lives and back-stories and I believe strongly in continuity and naturalistic scenarios. Thus I take note of chronology.
The other news is that I've begun a prequel, set in 1983 and concerning my Colony trilogy Met Police veteran Commander Patrick Lassiter. Except of course he isn't a veteran here. He's a sharp-minded and ambitious young Detective-Constable based in Camden Town, where over a sultry summer month, he investigates a suspicious death. The victim is a spirit medium, apparently a harmless eccentric with no known enemies. But nothing, let's be honest, is ever quite as it seems.
In the period in which the novel is set, I was a local reporter writing mostly about crime in the borough of Camden. Operating out of an office on Kentish Town Road, I'd pay twice-weekly visits to the police stations in Kentish Town and Holborn, where they'd open up the crime books and take me through any serious investigations requiring the public be warned - or asked for help. So no research necessary for this one and the memories have come flooding back. Bananarama on the transistor radio, when it wasn't Culture Club. Aiming to finish this full-length novel by my birthday at the end of January. Birthdays bring only a sort of reflective gloom at my age, so as a gift from me to me, the new book will be a sort of consolation prize.
September 30, 2017
The Lucifer Chord
Exactly 40 days ago I picked up the 29, 000 words of The Lucifer Chord written in 2013 and then put to one side to enable more pressing writing projects.
40 days on and this morning I wrote the final sentence of a novel now standing at 85, 000 of the most unsettling words I've ever penned (or actually tapped out with two fingers - but you know what I mean).
It was a bit dead on the page four years ago. But making my character Ruthie Gillespie its main protagonist has enlivened the story no end. She's doing a London-based research job to get away from her Ventnor home and its immediate associations. Her subject is rock legend Martin Mear, who died at the height of his band's considerable pomp in 1973.
Or did he? This one features The Jericho Society, Klaus Fischer's derelict mansion on Wight and Michael Aldridge from The Going and the Rise, who was always unfinished business for me. And though themes, locations and characters from past fiction appear, the novel is a total stand-alone. If it's the first book of mine you'll read, it will make perfect sense as a narrative.
I'm not claiming it's a perfect story. But I can't remember enjoying a writing experience as much and I'm really thrilled with the result. As always, though, the only verdict that matters, is yours.
40 days on and this morning I wrote the final sentence of a novel now standing at 85, 000 of the most unsettling words I've ever penned (or actually tapped out with two fingers - but you know what I mean).
It was a bit dead on the page four years ago. But making my character Ruthie Gillespie its main protagonist has enlivened the story no end. She's doing a London-based research job to get away from her Ventnor home and its immediate associations. Her subject is rock legend Martin Mear, who died at the height of his band's considerable pomp in 1973.
Or did he? This one features The Jericho Society, Klaus Fischer's derelict mansion on Wight and Michael Aldridge from The Going and the Rise, who was always unfinished business for me. And though themes, locations and characters from past fiction appear, the novel is a total stand-alone. If it's the first book of mine you'll read, it will make perfect sense as a narrative.
I'm not claiming it's a perfect story. But I can't remember enjoying a writing experience as much and I'm really thrilled with the result. As always, though, the only verdict that matters, is yours.
March 22, 2017
The Unrestful Dead
That's the working title of the story I'm currently writing. It may not go the distance, though. I like the cadence of it and think that it sounds sufficiently sinister for the subject matter, but worry that people will assume it's about zombies when I don't really do zombie fiction.
Mostly my theme is places contaminated by the evil deeds done there in a way that makes the evil contagious enough still to infect people. The sins of the past visited on the present, if you will. It's true of the Wight mansion in The House of Lost Souls, the boat in Dark Echo, the derelict church in Brodmaw Bay, the Waiting Room of that book's title and the Forest of Mourning in The Memory of Trees.
Places have atmospheres. I've experienced them and believe we all have, whether we believe in ghosts or we don't. It's that thing that makes a cat stop dead and then carefully tread a detour around some invisible obstacle.
The story given the title at the top of this blog post is one of my 25, 000 word Jericho Society linked efforts. It is set in a semi-derelict pub a young landlord new to the trade is intent on restoring to its early 20th century pomp. I've joked elsewhere that I've been researching this one for 40 years. Write about what you know, those who profess to be experts are always saying. But I say, where's the fun in that? By all means choose a familiar setting. But then invest that place with what you hardly dare imagine. That's surely the fun part.
Mostly my theme is places contaminated by the evil deeds done there in a way that makes the evil contagious enough still to infect people. The sins of the past visited on the present, if you will. It's true of the Wight mansion in The House of Lost Souls, the boat in Dark Echo, the derelict church in Brodmaw Bay, the Waiting Room of that book's title and the Forest of Mourning in The Memory of Trees.
Places have atmospheres. I've experienced them and believe we all have, whether we believe in ghosts or we don't. It's that thing that makes a cat stop dead and then carefully tread a detour around some invisible obstacle.
The story given the title at the top of this blog post is one of my 25, 000 word Jericho Society linked efforts. It is set in a semi-derelict pub a young landlord new to the trade is intent on restoring to its early 20th century pomp. I've joked elsewhere that I've been researching this one for 40 years. Write about what you know, those who profess to be experts are always saying. But I say, where's the fun in that? By all means choose a familiar setting. But then invest that place with what you hardly dare imagine. That's surely the fun part.
August 14, 2016
Harvest of Scorn
That's the title of the third novel in my Colony trilogy, finally finished and now at last ready for formatting for reader devices and awaiting a cover design I hope will be the equal of its two predecessors.
In the fullness of time - and in common with those earlier novels in the series - it will also be published as a physical book.
You learn a lot more in this one about the nature and mythology of the creature confronted on New Hope Island at the conclusion of the first Colony novel, including the facts that it has a long natural lifespan, is born carrying its own offspring and is extremely difficult to destroy.
Anyone who has read The Colony and Dark Resurrection will encounter some familiar characters in this new story; where the cast ranges from the obviously sympathetic to the gruesomely disconcerting. One consistent comment I've had from readers is that little Rachel Ballantyne can provoke a sleepless night or two. I've actually grown very fond of her over the years. She certainly plays an important part in this story.
And there's an appearance in the here and now of Colony founder Seamus Ballantyne I didn't think the series would really be complete without. I think there's a nice symmetry altogether to this concluding installment, though my opinion's immaterial, because the only rightful judges of any book are its readers.
The scale of this one is more spectacular than was the case with Dark Resurrection; though there are fewer characters in a narrative almost 15, 000 words (or a couple of chapters) longer than that was. Does it have a happy ending? Well, it very definitely doesn't end happily for everyone involved. I think my regular readers would be disappointed if it did.
In the fullness of time - and in common with those earlier novels in the series - it will also be published as a physical book.
You learn a lot more in this one about the nature and mythology of the creature confronted on New Hope Island at the conclusion of the first Colony novel, including the facts that it has a long natural lifespan, is born carrying its own offspring and is extremely difficult to destroy.
Anyone who has read The Colony and Dark Resurrection will encounter some familiar characters in this new story; where the cast ranges from the obviously sympathetic to the gruesomely disconcerting. One consistent comment I've had from readers is that little Rachel Ballantyne can provoke a sleepless night or two. I've actually grown very fond of her over the years. She certainly plays an important part in this story.
And there's an appearance in the here and now of Colony founder Seamus Ballantyne I didn't think the series would really be complete without. I think there's a nice symmetry altogether to this concluding installment, though my opinion's immaterial, because the only rightful judges of any book are its readers.
The scale of this one is more spectacular than was the case with Dark Resurrection; though there are fewer characters in a narrative almost 15, 000 words (or a couple of chapters) longer than that was. Does it have a happy ending? Well, it very definitely doesn't end happily for everyone involved. I think my regular readers would be disappointed if it did.
December 10, 2015
Out and About
My Colony trilogy kicked off this week with the original novel published under a new cover. And the cover isn't the only thing that's been brushed-up. The story has been revamped, revised, rebooted - so if you haven't, read it! Details here http://www.fgcottam.com/titles/the-co...
The first of the two sequels, Dark Resurrection, is out in a couple of weeks.
My first two Jericho Society novellas also came out this week. They're An Absence of Natural Light and The Going and the Rise and they're pretty substantial reads as 25, 000 words apiece. If they're well-received I'll do more of these because they're so enjoyable to write.
Not that Dark Resurrection wasn't fun to write. It was great to revisit some fondly remembered characters and even if they didn't - and they really didn't - I enjoyed returning to New Hope Island. That's an authors' privilege. You know what's going to happen (most of the time) but can keep your characters in the dark. And the dark is sometimes frightening...
The first of the two sequels, Dark Resurrection, is out in a couple of weeks.
My first two Jericho Society novellas also came out this week. They're An Absence of Natural Light and The Going and the Rise and they're pretty substantial reads as 25, 000 words apiece. If they're well-received I'll do more of these because they're so enjoyable to write.
Not that Dark Resurrection wasn't fun to write. It was great to revisit some fondly remembered characters and even if they didn't - and they really didn't - I enjoyed returning to New Hope Island. That's an authors' privilege. You know what's going to happen (most of the time) but can keep your characters in the dark. And the dark is sometimes frightening...
November 14, 2015
Island Life
This has been the most productive year of my writing life. I've revised The Colony and written two sequels to create a Colony trilogy.
I've also written two 25,000 word novellas of four I plan in total, thematically linked by the Jericho Society, a sinister organization I first wrote about in my novel Dark Echo and have ever since thought deserving of more attention from me.
At the prompting of my agent, I have also come up with a character who will feature in my fiction going forward. She's a 33 year old woman named Ruthie Gillespie and lives in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. She makes her debut when she comes to the aid of the main protagonist of the second of the novellas when he decides to build his dream home on an island plot with a dubious history.
Ruthie also features heavily in both of the Colony follow-ups. I say she'll appear in my future fiction - that actually depends on how readers react to her, but I'd like to spend more time in her endearingly fallible company. And who doesn't like a bit of glamour in their life?
The first of the novellas is An Absence of Natural Light, published by Bloomsbury Reader on December 10. It's a paranormal tale with plenty of chills and a twist at the conclusion. It has a hero who deserves a happy ending - but whether he gets one or not is something you'll have to find out for yourself.
My agency have launched a digital publishing arm named Ipso - and they'll be bringing out the second novella and the revamped Colony and its sequels. They've got everything, so it's just a case of waiting for the final edits to be formatted and covers designed.
I've written almost 200, 000 words of fiction this year and not a single sentence of it has yet appeared in the public domain. At times that's been incredibly frustrating and has seemed pretty thankless as a task too, if I'm totally honest.
Not much longer to wait now. The people at Bloomsbury and Ipso have been very complimentary about these stories. Soon I'll get the only verdict that really matters, that of the readers...
I've also written two 25,000 word novellas of four I plan in total, thematically linked by the Jericho Society, a sinister organization I first wrote about in my novel Dark Echo and have ever since thought deserving of more attention from me.
At the prompting of my agent, I have also come up with a character who will feature in my fiction going forward. She's a 33 year old woman named Ruthie Gillespie and lives in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. She makes her debut when she comes to the aid of the main protagonist of the second of the novellas when he decides to build his dream home on an island plot with a dubious history.
Ruthie also features heavily in both of the Colony follow-ups. I say she'll appear in my future fiction - that actually depends on how readers react to her, but I'd like to spend more time in her endearingly fallible company. And who doesn't like a bit of glamour in their life?
The first of the novellas is An Absence of Natural Light, published by Bloomsbury Reader on December 10. It's a paranormal tale with plenty of chills and a twist at the conclusion. It has a hero who deserves a happy ending - but whether he gets one or not is something you'll have to find out for yourself.
My agency have launched a digital publishing arm named Ipso - and they'll be bringing out the second novella and the revamped Colony and its sequels. They've got everything, so it's just a case of waiting for the final edits to be formatted and covers designed.
I've written almost 200, 000 words of fiction this year and not a single sentence of it has yet appeared in the public domain. At times that's been incredibly frustrating and has seemed pretty thankless as a task too, if I'm totally honest.
Not much longer to wait now. The people at Bloomsbury and Ipso have been very complimentary about these stories. Soon I'll get the only verdict that really matters, that of the readers...
July 6, 2015
Going back to New Hope Island
At the beginning of this month I began writing another novel about New Hope Island. This could be seen as a sequel to The Colony and some of the surviving characters from that story will appear in this one. But it will be a stand-alone in the sense that it won't be necessary to have read The Colony to get (and hopefully enjoy) what's going on in the new book.
Why am I doing this? Because the series of 25, 000 word stories I'm currently completing leave me with plenty of freshness and creative energy.
And because I want to put right what I got wrong with The Colony. It was my first (and last) attempt at self-publishing and it was not well formatted or well edited. It was too long and there was too much telling and not enough showing in the way the plot unfolded.
Ironically, given these rather serious deficiencies, it sold right from the start more strongly than any of my other titles on digital platforms. It's a steal to buy now, but wasn't when first published so it obviously struck a chord with readers I thought were a bit short-changed by those formatting and proofing flaws.
12, 000 words in and this novel is already shaping up to be a big improvement on its predecessor. There were things I thought I did well in The Colony, but I'm doing them better here. And going back to characters such as Patrick Lassiter, Phil Fortescue and Alice Lang is proving to be enormous fun.
I wrote The Colony in Shaftesbury. The only problem with going back there now is the intense nostalgia I feel for that place and time. But as some of my characters are going to discover to their cost, loss is part of life.
My working title is New Hope Island. I'm pretty confident I'll finish this one early in August, for September publication on Kindle and the rest.By then I'm also hoping to have something more enticing to call it.
Why am I doing this? Because the series of 25, 000 word stories I'm currently completing leave me with plenty of freshness and creative energy.
And because I want to put right what I got wrong with The Colony. It was my first (and last) attempt at self-publishing and it was not well formatted or well edited. It was too long and there was too much telling and not enough showing in the way the plot unfolded.
Ironically, given these rather serious deficiencies, it sold right from the start more strongly than any of my other titles on digital platforms. It's a steal to buy now, but wasn't when first published so it obviously struck a chord with readers I thought were a bit short-changed by those formatting and proofing flaws.
12, 000 words in and this novel is already shaping up to be a big improvement on its predecessor. There were things I thought I did well in The Colony, but I'm doing them better here. And going back to characters such as Patrick Lassiter, Phil Fortescue and Alice Lang is proving to be enormous fun.
I wrote The Colony in Shaftesbury. The only problem with going back there now is the intense nostalgia I feel for that place and time. But as some of my characters are going to discover to their cost, loss is part of life.
My working title is New Hope Island. I'm pretty confident I'll finish this one early in August, for September publication on Kindle and the rest.By then I'm also hoping to have something more enticing to call it.
June 6, 2015
Busy!
On the third and final part of my new short story, set on Wight. This is the second of four I plan to write (and have published digitally), thematically linked by The Jericho Society, which some of you might remember from Dark Echo. It was the satanic cult to which Harry Spalding's family had belonged in that novel and I've long thought it an invention worth re-visiting.
The stories are all going to be 25, 000 words in length, which would be about three chapters if I were writing a novel. When all four are completed, they'll be bundled together as a meatier read; though I think 25, 000 words quite a decent length for a short story. There's certainly room there for convincing characterisation, action, atmosphere and a growing sense of claustrophobic dread.
I find Wight a really inspirational place in which to set stories. Obviously it was the location for the Fischer House in THOLS. I also gave Martin Stride's children a grim time there in The Waiting Room. I first visited the island as a teenager in the summer of '76. I totally fell in love with it and have loved it ever since. I think Ventnor the most beautiful and happiest town I've ever stayed in. Why it should inspire such dark fiction in me is a bit of a mystery.
I'd never have written a short story without the invention of reader devices. Kindle and the rest have made the short story form not just viable but fashionable again. Since I really like writing to this sort of length (I've never enjoyed it more than I'm doing now), I'm immensely grateful.It's also proven to me that contrary to popular prejudice, an old dog can learn new tricks. Though you readers will be the ultimate judges of whether that's actually true.
The stories are all going to be 25, 000 words in length, which would be about three chapters if I were writing a novel. When all four are completed, they'll be bundled together as a meatier read; though I think 25, 000 words quite a decent length for a short story. There's certainly room there for convincing characterisation, action, atmosphere and a growing sense of claustrophobic dread.
I find Wight a really inspirational place in which to set stories. Obviously it was the location for the Fischer House in THOLS. I also gave Martin Stride's children a grim time there in The Waiting Room. I first visited the island as a teenager in the summer of '76. I totally fell in love with it and have loved it ever since. I think Ventnor the most beautiful and happiest town I've ever stayed in. Why it should inspire such dark fiction in me is a bit of a mystery.
I'd never have written a short story without the invention of reader devices. Kindle and the rest have made the short story form not just viable but fashionable again. Since I really like writing to this sort of length (I've never enjoyed it more than I'm doing now), I'm immensely grateful.It's also proven to me that contrary to popular prejudice, an old dog can learn new tricks. Though you readers will be the ultimate judges of whether that's actually true.
