Ladies and gentleman...the Rolling Stones!

Evening gang,

For fifty years the world's greatest rock and roll band has been announced using the title of this post. I was watching a bit of their latest effort, the concerts they did in Hyde Park in the summer, following their triumph at Glastonbury, and after all the build up, the music, the lights, everything stops. And then...Ladies and gentleman...

Then Keith Richards appears, batters a riff and away they go.

In essence what I'm talking about here is legacy. Theirs is set. Millions of albums sold, some of the most famous songs ever written, still touring even though they should be well past being able. People will know their name a lifetime from now. People will still listen to their songs. As they will with The Beatles, Elvis etc. Just as people will still read Shakespeare, Bronte and, maybe, JK Rowling.

I'd quite like that to happen to me. That's one of the reasons I write books. I want to leave evidence that I existed. When I'm dead I like the idea that around the world people (the number yet to be determined) will have read my books and my name will be on their book shelf whether that be digital or wooden.

With that in mind I've become somewhat energised these last couple of days. I think rationalising my job issues has helped. I get paid a lot at the moment, it allows me freedom to do certain things. I even quite enjoy the job. But it's a false position, and it won't last. I've been thinking too much about what might happen afterwards and it's been getting in the way of the important stuff. Writing!

As such, with 11 short weeks to go on my contract I've decided it simply doesn't matter. My wife is in a similar position. A job has come up which, if she applies, she will likely get. The pay is pretty vast. I would only need to work part time at best and we'd still be well off. But she's not applying. Doesn't fancy the job, or the hassle and we don't need the money. So sod it! I'd rather be happy than fretting. If a job comes up in the next 11 weeks, great. If not, I'll go back to my old job, take a pay cut and spend my days writing books while keeping half an eye on the staff to make sure nothing's on fire.

So, editing on the final draft of the Jazz Café sequel is progressing well. But slowly. However, and here's the exciting bit, I have also started - last night in fact - reworking my third ever novel. I wrote it back in 2003. It's called Fear and was very, very nearly published by Transworld. Regular readers will know this because I've talked about my flirtations with big time publication before on this blog.

How did this happen? I started reading Doctor Sleep, the new Stephen King novel. On the first page he refers to FEAR in the following terms - Fuck Everything and Run. That made me think of my 2003 novel because every chapter was an acronym of the word fear, which was a challenge in itself.

So, I made a few notes last night (it may have been 3AM) and tonight I started to read the book. I've already added my notes from last night to the book and it's looking good. The plan is to edit a few pages then publish them right here on the blog, as well as to my Wattpad account which is sorely underused. Then, once complete, I'll publish the finished book in the usual way for purchase.

It's wildly exciting, to the point where I really could stay up all night doing this and happily not go to work tomorrow. Chances are I'll stay up anyway and drag myself through tomorrow. Ho hum.

In other news I've submitted my tax info to Amazon so they don't remove all my books from sale next week. I have also, finally, submitted my entry to the Telegraph Crime Competition. The website is crap so I've emailed it to them and asked them to confirm they've got it. Closing date is next month some time if you fancy it. I've submitted 5000 words of the Jazz Café. Each entry has to have an international element of some sort. Mine is the global Jazz music which forms the soundtrack to the book. Will I win? Unlikely. But one has to at least try.

The big, non work, non book news is that I transferred the money for my house fees tonight, in excess of 8 grand in the click of a button. The proposed date for completion is this Wednesday which means I will be an official property investor/speculator. Plans are already afoot for Easter when we are aiming to buy another. Surprising how motivated I become when there's the chance to make money without going to work every day.

And that's it. Dog's huge, Liverpool are doing well and I'm already planning the wife's Christmas presents. Right, I'm off, I've got books to write.

What did you do today?

Evening folks,

Regular readers will know I often wander off topic so tonight I'm going to start right on topic and see where we end up.

Today I got up at 11:30AM. I ambled downstairs, flicked on the kettle, made a brew and then switched on the laptop. I cracked on with the editing on my book, working title The Trust, and it went really rather well.

Just as an aside (here we go, off topic alert!) I'm almost halfway through the second draft and still hopeful the book will be available before Christmas. You might recall it's a book from my back catalogue (2006 or there abouts). I'd anticipated tidying it up and publishing it before returning to my main project which was editing the newly written follow up to The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. But The Trust has developed into much more than I'd imagined. The plot is strong and the themes are still very topical, to the extent that I was reading a relevant piece in todays edition of the i newspaper.

So, in short, I'm taking my time on the editing until it's just right. If this means publishing after Christmas then so be it. It's a winner though and I'll start revealing plot details in coming weeks.

Anyway, let's return to the topic. After an hour or so of editing the phone rings. It's the wife. She's out and about doing stuff and wants to know if I want to go out for lunch. Neeldess to say I do. So she picks me up and we mooch into town, have a very pleasant lunch at Sun Street Cafe (where I perused the i newspaper mentioned earlier). After this we picked up her oldest niece and went to watch Silver Linings Playbook at the local cinema.

I was expecting very little, although I like Bradley Cooper a lot. But the film is actually very good, well cast, pretty well written and both Cooper and the female lead Jennifer Lawrence are very good in their portryals of folk with mental issues. Sadly the cost for three of us with one popcorn was £27!!! Madness.

My evening consisted of roast chicken for tea, an episode of The Hour and now I'm blogging about it all.

Now to meander off topic again. The Stones gig on Thurday night was epic! Wildly expensive but they really know how to put on a show. That said, Bruce Springsteen has announced UK dates next year. He is known for playing at least three hours, has a stellar back catalogue. Ticket price £55-68. The Stones? £250. Hmm.

Tomorrow's plan? More editing before the drudgery of the day job on Monday. There was something else I was going to mention but I've lost my thread.

Last of all, I'm not getting any joy reader wise from Wattpad. I might well stick something else on there but to be honest I think I might let it go. We shall see.

Until then...

What do you do when the wife's away?

Evening folks,

I'll start on a positive. I've just this minute finished the first draft of a book from my back catalogue. Originally written in 2006 it has been sitting quietly waiting for me to pick it up again. So far all I've done is a read through and then a sweep of obvious typo errors, changed a few names and tweaked some layout stuff, as well as confirming there's enough there to work on with a view to publishing it.

As things stand I now have two books at this stage, the other being the sequel to The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. I haven't decided which to work on first but it's a great position to find myself in. Also great was the unexpected entry of my short story The Storyteller into the top 10 in it's category on Amazon UK this week. I rarely promote this story and yet it continues to sell. Thanks to those who bought it.

As you might have guessed the above partly answers the post title. The wife has been away since Thursday so I've had plenty of time to write. I've also been staying up late, drinking beer, watching films, football and playing on the Xbox. So essentially, the answer to the question in my case seems to be: I revert to behaving like a teenager.

Incidentally the film I watched last night is called Will. It's about a kid who loses both parents so he hitchhikes to Istanbul to watch Liverpool in the Champions League final because he's a huge fan. It was pretty awful to be honest and I was expecting a lot since Damian Lewis is in it and I'm a big Liverpool fan. Lewis dies early on, it's really a bit part. The story is lightweight and unbelievable and I only sat through it in case they showed any of the final itself. They didn't.

By the way, I may or may not have mentioned that I've got tickets to see The Rolling Stones next month as the O2. We're all very excited but I was a little concerned at the footage released of the Stones warm up gig in Paris. Admittedly the clip was very short but the sound was poor and the tempo slow. Fingers crossed they pull it out of the bag on the night.

And that's the news. Two books nearing publication, Barcelona on the tele and winning 4-0 and the merseyside derby on tomorrow lunchtime before the return of the wife later on.

As ever, thanks for buying, reading and hopefully enjoying my books. When the new stuff is ready to go I'll announce it here first.

Beer time I think.

It was always going to end in rejection

Evening gang,

I'm going to open with a positive. I've written just over 20,000 words of the new Mitch and Rupert novel! This week I've managed to tap out a few words at work because I've been in a different, very quiet, office. It took a bit of effort to get back into the story but it's all good now. I've added a prologue to kick start the action. As ever I'm writing in a pretty visual way for when the series is picked up to be a film or on tele (let me dream!!!) and the opening scene is pretty shocking, not so much because it's a bit violent, but because of the way the violence happens. You'll learn more when it's finished!

And now the negative. Regular readers will recall I sent a submission to Simon Trewin in the middle of June. I was pretty cross with myself for doing it as I know that rejection is the most likely outcome. So it was no surprise when I received an email from Mr Trewin's office politely declining my efforts. I won't bore you with the details, a no is a no however you dress it up. I was miffed at first but then realised I had lost nothing and I've been there before.

And now more positives to finish. I've got 1200 Twitter followers, thanks to all of them (a few more retweets of my promo stuff would be nice) and over 300 FB friends so my network is growing nicely. I've also sold a few copies of my Christmas short story which I find amazing given that it's July (much appreciated though). Finally, it's the 50th anniversary of the worlds greatest rock and band. If you need me to point out who, then really, what have you been doing all this time? There's talk of a tour next year and I might, just might, have a sniff of a box seat to see them at Madison Sqaure Garden in the Big Apple.

Night...

Making the most of Morecambe

Evening folks,

Just a quickie tonight. The wife's out so I'm going to indulge in some big screen film/xbox tom-foolery. But I will be recording Turn Back Time on BBC 1 as it's set in Morecambe and features several places featured in my books.

Speaking of which, I have recently acquired the Winter Gardens in Morecambe as a follower on Twitter. If you've got a spare million or ten, send them a donation. If they crack on and get it refurbished they could have The Rolling Stones do their 50th anniversary gigs there next year. Now wouldn't that be something to aim for!

Dreaming aside, here's a bit of Morecambe based book promo. You'll like this, it's clever.

The photo above is the entrance to Happy Mount Park in Morecambe. Alfie, the central character in my book, All the fun of the Fair, is park keeper here. Also, the vile Lee Etchman runs the cafe and has an ice cream van in there too. He is obsessed with his young assistant Tania Streatham.

The park also features in my book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. The body of a schoolgirl is found at the back of the park by a dog walker.

So you see, while the work is fiction, the places featured in the books are quite real. You could even come to visit, perhaps use my books as a kind of guide to places of interest.