Four stars out of five for new Star Wars

The poster for the new Star Wars film

With the new Star Wars film only days into its general release, I shall steer clear of revealing anything of the plot in this post. What I will say is, yes go and see it.

I give it four stars out of five. It's fun, it's a great adventure story, and it has fantastic effects. New stars Daisy Ridley and John Boyega are captivating, and the film is steeped in the essence of the original three films in the saga. The emotional jolt at the end is brilliant and timed to perfection.

I'd loved to have given the film five stars, and perhaps when the next two (and final?) episodes are in place The Force Awakens will be elevated as a result. But for the moment it must stand on its own, albeit with its many nods back to the preceding films in the series.

Director JJ Abrams has done a fine job bringing the Star Wars franchise into the 21st century, but he has played it somewhat safe with The Force Awakens. As spectacular and enjoyable as the film is, there is a little too much reliance on the "tried and tested" recipe of the past, and not enough pushing beyond the established boundaries of the Star Wars universe. Having grown up with a high regard for the original trilogy, I was hoping for a larger dose of uniqueness in this new adventure.

Abrams has constructed a remarkable film that stands up well next to the original three Star Wars movies. But I'm left wondering if perhaps a brake was applied to more ambitious ideas on account of this being a Disney film and also a huge "first spin of the dice" gamble for the studio after it paid George Lucas $4 billion to secure the franchise.

I went to a charity, late-night showing of the film the day before it went on general release. As I rode my moped towards town ahead of the 11pm screening, I was remembering the night in 1978 when I saw the original Star Wars. I was 11 years old. The nearest cinema was in a town five miles away, and at the time we did not have a family car. However, a friendly teacher and his wife, who had a car, took me and my older brother to see the film.

In an age when it was still a novelty to see a colour television, I was blown away by the film. It was a tour de force with special effects not seen before on a big screen. The story, structured on the hero's journey, drew me in completely. The loss of Ben Kenobi was an emotional moment that stayed with me for a long time. During the car ride home I gazed out of the window at the starry night and imagined that somewhere out there this great adventure might indeed have taken place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Now, just over 37 years later, it was another starry night and I was heading to a cinema to see the continuation of the saga from where it had left off after 1983's The Return of the Jedi. In a way that’s what makes Star Wars quite unique for many people, the fact that it has been a constant in their life from a very young age.

I watched The Force Awakens, and when I left the cinema I contemplated the night sky and remembered how the younger me had done the same in 1978. Walking away from the cinema, I had a similar feeling of fulfilment and wonder. Seeing so many of the original Star Wars characters in this new film was more than a sentimental kick. They, like me, had outwardly aged in the intervening three decades; we had journeyed through our lives to reach this point, which felt like a reuniting of old friends.

In the wake of The Force Awakens, the Star Wars saga appears to be back on track after the less than fulfilling prequels of the late 1990s and early 2000s. My hope is there will be a greater amount of risk-taking in the next film, regarding new plot lines, villains, and those emotional jolts that stay with the audience long after they have departed the theatre.

Well done to Abrams for The Force Awakens. May the Force be with the next director, Rian Johnson, who now picks up the saga where it has been so tantalisingly placed by Abrams.

Tips for promoting an e-book

Dolphin Girl at No.9 in the literary fiction (British & Irish) sub category
 of the Amazon.com Kindle Store on September 28, 2015

One morning in September Dolphin Girl reached the top 6,000 bestsellers in Amazon.com's Kindle Store. At its peak it was briefly No.9 in the British & Irish literary fiction sub category, alongside novels by Salman Rushdie and Mark Haddon.

To date the book has collected eight reviews across the various Amazon sites, ranging from five-star to one-star. Presented here is a short road map describing what I did to initially promote Dolphin Girl. I hope these details might act as a partial resource guide for others who are looking to expand the audience for their books.

As Dolphin Girl was my first venture into the world of e-books, it took me some time to get going with promotion and marketing. I was learning all the way and soon discovered that a key requirement was to attract some reviews on Amazon.

Readers are less likely to buy a book that has no reviews. Reviews generally add a degree of legitimacy and reassurance about the quality and authenticity of a book. However, getting reviews in the first place presents a Catch-22 situation, because if people are unlikely to purchase a book with no reviews, how are you supposed to sell any copies in the hope of generating a few reviews?

If you are fortunate, one or two reviews might come through friends and acquaintances, which is a good start. Beyond that, the avenue I took was to make Dolphin Girl briefly available for download on the Story Cartel website. This is a great, free resource for authors and readers. An e-book is promoted for 21 days, allowing readers to download it for free. The only request is that the reader leave an honest review in return (on Amazon or Goodreads, etc). The review request is simply that, a request. There is no binding obligation. As a result, you might end up with only a fraction of readers following through with a review.

At the same time I ran a small, targeted ad campaign on Facebook, encouraging readers to check out Dolphin Girl on Story Cartel. This generated further downloads from potential reviewers.

Once I had five reviews on the Amazon.com website I was able to move on to paid promotional slots at a number of websites and newsletters. Most required a minimum of five Amazon reviews before they would consider listing a book in a one-day reduced price promotion. The effectiveness of these services varies, and a book's genre also plays a part in how much interest it attracts. I used a number of sites and ran a few "price pulse" promotions, spreading them across different days rather than in one big hit. By doing so I could monitor the effectiveness of the competing sites more accurately.

Most of these promotional outlets charge a fee, varying from $5 to $50. There are some that are free. The results vary from good to barely noticeable. From my experience the best were ENT & FK Books and Tips, Book Gorilla, and Book Butterfly. Others worth considering are Book Sends (with eReaderIQ) and Genre Pulse.

I should mention the "granddaddy" of these sites is BookBub. It has a colossal reach and charges hundred of dollars for a promo slot - and that's if you are lucky enough to be accepted. The current word among authors is that if you don't have at least 50 decent reviews already, you're probably going to be turned down. What BookBub also has going for it is the virtually guaranteed "positive return on investment" for an author, so the number of books they sell covers the cost of the promotional slot with a chunk of profit on top. Dolphin Girl, alas, was not featured on BookBub.

As a further aside, these sites and newsletters do a roaring trade in promoting free e-books. This was not something I did, but the theory behind making your book free, either for a limited time or permanently, is to generate more interest, more readers and more feedback.

On its promotional spotlight days, when priced at $0.99 or 99p, Dolphin Girl moved higher in both the British & Irish literary fiction and the fantasy/magical realism sub categories of Amazon's Kindle Store. It reached the top 50 in these sub categories on a number of occasions, and briefly peaked at No. 9 in the British & Irish category on September 28.

Dolphin Girl peaked in the Amazon.com Kindle Store rankings on September 28, 2015

When the book returned to its normal retail price it occasionally picked up residual sales. This was probably due to its higher sales profile during the previous promotional days. As a further benefit, Dolphin Girl is now occasionally included in the "readers of this book also bought..." section that appears below books as they are browsed by customers on Amazon.

Along the way, the book attracted further reviews. Across all Amazon platforms, Dolphin Girl currently has a total of eight reviews, of which five are 5-star, one is 4-star and two are 1-star reviews. Some people loved it, while others found it unengaging.

Whether good, bad or indifferent, reviews are useful feedback and add to a book's credibility in the eyes of potential customers weighing up whether or not to make a purchase.

All-in-all, the experience of promoting my debut e-book novel was rewarding. Although Dolphin Girl is currently not part of a promotional campaign it continues to pick up occasional online sales.

Other authors have noted that being able to promote more than one book, and ideally having four, five or more available, builds greater sales momentum than can be achieved with a single book.

I'm still learning the ropes regarding promoting and marketing an e-book. I hope this summary will assist others embarking on the same journey.

Power of a hurricane

When Hurricane Joaquin brushed the island earlier this month, it brought winds gusting at 100 mph and slightly higher. They howled across Bermuda for more than 12 hours, reaching their peak after nightfall.

Joaquin was a Category 2 hurricane, just below 'major hurricane' ranking, but packing a powerful punch. The storm's winds became a significant factor as daylight bade a premature farewell, and grey clouds frantically raced above.

Alone in the centre of the garden the mature avocado tree was forced to dance to the tune of Joaquin. Shaken by the wind, with each new blast more forceful than the last, the branches were tossed back and forth almost to the point of breaking (see video).

A large branch hangs down from the
avocado tree after being snapped by
the fierce winds of Hurricane Joaquin

Nightfall arrived early, extinguishing the storm's day-long twilight. I was able to take a kitchen chair outside and sit under the small porch, near the back door, protected from the relentless southerly winds by the cottage's sturdy walls.

In that oasis of shelter in the midst of the hurricane's fury, I watched the avocado tree being mercilessly ravaged in the wind. At any moment it seemed it might buckle against the force of nature.

How small we are, I reflected; how transient are we, and our homes and surroundings in the face of nature's mightiest forces.

On cue, the lights went out. A transformer box on a nearby utility pole sparked in defiance, like a silent firecracker or a camera's popping flashbulb. Twice, three times, it fought back before submitting to the unrestrained hurricane forces sweeping the island.

With only candles and a flashlight for illumination, it was time to turn in for an early night. From my bed within the window-shuttered cottage, I drifted to sleep listening to the howling of the storm.

A bird box was left at an acute angle after being
pummeled by the winds of Hurricane Joaquin

In the grey light of morning the damage was surveyed. Two sizeable branches had snapped from the avocado trees, while lesser branches and twigs were strewn across the ground. A hefty flowerpot had been shifted and tilted, but on the whole none of the damage was on the scale of that done by Fay and Gonzalo, last year's two direct hit hurricanes.

The centre of Hurricane Joaquin stayed 60 nautical miles or more to the west, and so we were spared a much fiercer pounding. However, the storm was a timely reminder of the power of nature in the raw.

Wonders beneath the waves

From the surface the sea appears to be a vast empty expanse

From land it appears to be a vast expanse of water, and not much else. Stretching away in a uniform manner as far as the eye can see, the ocean is a seemingly unchanging palette - save for the texture of restless, wandering waves.

In harmony with the moods of the sky above, its blue radiance can alter day by day, but from above it portrays a glistening emptiness. Yet beneath the surface, in many places only inches below the waves, exists an otherworldly terrain filled with breathtaking seascapes.

It is neither the wind nor the sea breeze which causes the corals to sway in unison. They bow to the gentle currents and undertows that sweep through the submerged, sculptured rocks where curious fish move in and out.

Colourful corals create a rich, underwater garden scene

A sergeant major fish shows off his stripes, while a secretive squirrel fish dares to venture from a hiding place. The fish come in all shapes, sizes and colours, mingling without incident, content to share with their neighbours the aquatic wonderland.

Beneath the waves is a world that lives and breathes by its own rules, immersed in a peaceful silence. To see and appreciate its wonders is to have your soul uplifted.

As we snorkelled last weekend, Heather and I saw turtles and a golden spotted sea eel. Unfortunately the camera was not switched on for those encounters. It is not a GoPro, alas. This is "old school" filming using a standard camera in a watertight pouch. Even so, I hope the glimpses of the world beneath the waves in this short video will uplift your soul.

Dolphin Girl: e-book vs paperback

When Dolphin Girl was released in April it was my first foray into the world of e-books. Considering the explosion in the number of people now reading on devices such as Kindle, Kobo and other tablet apps, it made sense to bring out an e-book version alongside the paperback.

For readers and authors the cost of buying and selling e-books is far more economical in comparison with a physical book, quite apart from the instant availability and convenience of an e-book, which can be bought and downloaded in a matter of seconds from virtually anywhere in the world.

So, I decided to step into the brave new world of e-books with Dolphin Girl - albeit as a latecomer to the party.

To my surprise, all my initial sales were of physical copies of the book, even though the paperback cost three times more than the e-book. I began to wonder if I'd got the sums wrong and my readership simply preferred to have and hold a "book book".

Then, almost four months after Dolphin Girl was published it achieved its first e-book sales. It was a relief to see it finally being downloaded electronically. As a result, it briefly climbed into the top 400 in two sub-categories at the Amazon.com store twice in the space of a week. (Below is the e-book's ranking as it appeared on August 20)

It was pleasing to see Dolphin Girl attracting some attention, even though it has yet to be featured in any major advertising promotion. During the coming weeks and months I will apply some of the things I've learnt, and continue to learn, regarding e-book marketing.

A major factor to being accepted by some of the bigger book promotion outlets is the number of reviews or readers' ratings a book garners. It seems like a Catch-22 scenario - and in a way it is. But there are smaller steps that can be taken to help build momentum and with it the likelihood of a few reviews and ultimately a slot with a promotion outlet.

So I'm thankful for, and encouraged by, the words of the handful of early reviewers of Dolphin Girl.

The marketing and promotion process for Dolphin Girl is still at an early stage, although had I known what I know now it would be much further along the line. I hope to share future progress at a later date.

For now, I would like to thank all readers who have given Dolphin Girl a chance, whether as an e-book or "book book."

Dolphin Girl available here on Amazon, and also on Kobo

Bermuda Gold is a sparkling thriller

BOOK REVIEW: Bermuda Gold by Lee Slonimsky (Moonshine Cove Publishing)

When small-time private detective J E Rexroth agrees to investigate threatening calls made to the wife of a hedge fund manager it seemed like just another job that would bring in some income and help keep the wolf from the door of his downbeat office in Manhattan. But little did he know it was far from a regular case, and that the tentacles of evil reaching out for his new client were also bearing down on his world from another direction.

Rexroth is soon caught up in a murky world where big money, murders and a terrorist plot collide. As creeping paranoia takes hold, he discovers that all he values in life is on the line as he tries to unravel a sinister scheme before it is too late.

Bermuda Gold author Lee Slonimsky has drawn upon his real-life background as a New York hedge fund manager and former educator at a criminal justice college to create a compelling detective thriller that will have readers' nerves jangling as much as those of the characters caught in a web of fear, threats and deaths.

Slonimsky expertly weaves together seemingly unconnected threads as he builds suspense and ensures the reader is with Rexroth every step of the way, from New York to Bermuda and back again, as he tries to evade shadowy, menacing adversaries.

Using his knowledge of the hedge fund industry to carve out believable scenarios that could lurk in the secret world of big money investment deals, coupled with familiarity of police procedures informed from his time at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the author has created a fast-moving and compelling detective thriller.

The vulnerabilities of the characters are well observed, as are the descriptions of the streets of Manhattan, the splendor of the greater New York environs, and the beauty of the sun-kissed island of Bermuda.

Sprinkled throughout are evocative imagery and turns of phrase worthy of a poet's mind.

There are some books that you never quite get to the end of, while others so grip you set aside extra time to read them, eager to discover how they will end. Bermuda Gold falls squarely in the latter category. It is a rewarding and thrilling read.

Bermuda Gold (Moonshine Cove Publishing) is available from Amazon

Good Guy Warren

Warren, wearing the cap, with colleagues as the newspaper was 'put to bed'
at 2am on the night Barack Obama was elected US president in 2008

If you were to ask me how long ago this picture was taken, I'd say a year or two. Actually, it is seven years. It was a very late night on 5 November 2008, and the team at the newspaper were still working on putting the next day's edition together so that it could include the news of Barack Obama's election as the new US president.

Sat at his desk and wearing a baseball cap, as he always did, is Warren. He was the link man who transferred the completed newspaper pages from the newsroom to the print room where they would be loaded onto printing press plates to create thousands of copies of the newspaper. The process was all done electronically. However, Warren's job entailed far more than this crucial go-between step.

Last night was his final shift. He has now retired having worked at the newspaper since 1966 - an entire lifetime career at the same place of work.

For the best part of the last eight years I worked closely with Warren to produce the final pages each night, and for most of the past few years we sat side by side. He was an incredible work colleague, being reliable, calm, knowledgeable, methodical and precise. He would work until everything that needed to be done had been, even when it entailed continuing into the small hours of the morning (observe the tired eyes on the picture above).

You always felt comfortably reassured by his presence. I'm going to miss his observations on life and the news, and our conversations about music and films.

Beyond being a great work colleague, he was also a true friend willing to help out - and he did on a number of occasions when my scooter bike conked out in heavy rains and he would give me a lift to collect it after the rain had stopped. Once or twice he provided a lift home when I was without my bike and had missed the last bus due to the lateness of the hour.

Time flies by so quickly. One minute you are just getting to know someone and before you know it you've shared an intertwined daily work life for the best part of a decade.

Warren is a rarity in these times, having spent his whole working life with the same company. He is going to be a hard act to follow. And just as I miss Good Guy Eddie, I'm going to miss Good Guy Warren. It has been a joy and privilege to have worked so closely with him for so many years. I wish him well in his well deserved retirement.

All American High Revisited

Earlier this month I came across a touching documentary about the lives of young Americans growing up in the early 1980s.

It offered a glimpse back to a time and a place that no longer exists, but one that many would recognise either because they lived through that era, or have seen it portrayed in movies and TV shows.

When the original documentary All American High was made, there was no internet or social media, no cell phones, and no reality TV.

For one year, documentary-maker Keva Rosenfeld turned his camera on the Class of 1984 at the school, capturing the lives and times of young students at a typical US high school (in this instance Torrance High, in the southern reaches of Los Angeles).

Now, 30-odd years later All American High Revisited is the original documentary updated with some of the former students reflecting on the school experience and their adult lives.

There is nothing startling to be seen - no great or shocking revelations to be found, but it is precisely this ordinariness that gives the documentary its beauty. It is a time capsule showing how things used to be, in what now seems like a quaint and simpler era. We see students in the classroom discussing the pros and cons of nuclear deterrents, learning about home-making and married life, we see them preparing for the Home Coming Queen parade, dating, and attending keg parties. There are the punkers, metallers, preppies and cheerleaders, and even a social dancing event after-hours in a shopping mall.

Choosing exchange student Riikkamari Rauhala, from Finland, as the narrator was an inspired decision. She was attending the school for a year and we get to see much of the activities through her outsider eyes, with insights and perspectives that might not have been possible from a homegrown student already versed in the culture of being a young American in the 1980s.

Most of the documentary is footage from the original film, but the "revisited" segment comes towards the end when we meet Riikkamari as she is today, in her 50s, along with a few of the other students who are now grown up. Narrator Riikkamari had intended to go to the five-year reunion after leaving Torrance High in 1984, but didn't. Like many of us, she soon found herself pre-occupied with living her life. The schooldays and friends faded away.

All American High Revisited is fun. For Riikkamari and the others it was a chance to stop the clock for a moment and look back at where they once where, and where they are today. For viewers it is perhaps an opportunity to do the same, while also enjoying a reminder of the music, the hairstyles and the ambiance of the early-to-mid 1980s.

The documentary has been released digitally in the UK and a number of other countries. It can be viewed through digital download on popular sites (iTunes, Amazon, Virgin Media, etc).
All American High Revisited is due to be released in the US during September.

Hurricane tree is no more

The toppled tree after last year's two hurricanes, and the now empty site

A sprawling tree that once provided some cool shade at the corner of a road on the outskirts of Hamilton has gone. It had a dominating presence on St John's Road, where its rich foliage provided shelter from the sun and the rain.

I've no idea how old the tree was, but it had seen a good few decades and survived many storms before it was finally toppled by the two hurricanes that scored bull's eye hits on Bermuda last October.

The first, Fay, did the most damage, although the arrival six days later of the more powerful Hurricane Gonzalo worsened the situation for the grand tree.

Surprisingly, despite being all but uprooted, it continued to grow even at its post-storms acute angle. The red letter box that once sheltered beneath the mighty tree's boughs was displaced by the trauma of the hurricanes and in the interest of safety was removed soon afterwards. Dealing with the tree was a far bigger task, and for seven months it appeared the tree might remain as a living reminder of the force of nature wrought by Fay and Gonzalo. However, as I rode past on a recent journey home I noticed the corner plot had been cleared of all signs of the tree. The land looked naked and exposed without its once-towering sentinel.

Although I've never been a pedestrian strolling along the pavement beneath its shade-giving branches, the tree felt like an old friend on account of seeing it on a daily basis for almost 10 years while riding my scooter between home and work. And on a number of occasions I've run beneath the fringes of its shade during road races that skirted this distinctive corner.

What will become of the corner plot remains to be seen. But it would be fitting if another tree is given the chance to grow there and become an equally magnificent landmark.

Book signing event this month

For those who live in Bermuda and are interested in picking up a copy of Dolphin Girl or Lennon Bermuda (or both). I'll be signing copies outside the Bermuda National Library on Saturday June 27, from 11am until 3pm.

There will be a number of other Bermuda resident authors there also signing copies of their work. The event is being staged by the National Library as it launches its summer reading programme.

The book signing will be on the lower verandah, facing onto Queen Elizabeth Park (formerly Par-la-Ville Park).

Long and winding road we travel in life

An abridged audio of this blog post can be heard in the above vBlog, with additional images.

An old boot on a road near Karratha, Western Australia

Like fleeting images from a rearview mirror, the pictures here reflect a life travelled. Some show empty roads and vast landscapes that stretch away forever, while others capture people, fellow travellers along life's journey; a long and winding road on which we are all journeying.

Strange things happen when you travel far from home and explore the world independently, immersing yourself in and embracing all that comes your way, good or bad, and learning to deal with it regardless. When I did so at a young age it was particularly life-shaping. I strode out like a latter day Laurie Lee to make my own personal discoveries in a far away distant land. Whereas writer Lee went to Spain at the age 20, I went to the island continent of Australia at 21 and stayed for a year.

With travelling buddies in Narrogin, Western Australia, 1988

When you travel far from the safety net and familiarity of home, life changes forever. Assumptions, certainties and fears that once seemed deep grounded are challenged, reassessed or blown away.

You grow, you learn and you take some hits, but you get back up stronger, wiser and more resilient.

Yet it is only when you look in the rearview mirror after the years have become decades, and the decades have become multiple decades, that the true enormity of how these experiences have shaped your life becomes clear.

As I look at these pictures of distant times and places, the younger me and the people I fleetingly criss-crossed with on life's journey, I know some part of me will forever reside in those scattered far off places. But I also know that even if I travel there again and embrace nostalgia's wistful warmth, something will be missing. That something is the magical convergence of being in the right place, at the right moment and with the right people - and the happiness it brought.

A break while cycling through the vastness of the outback

We are all travellers on this strange and wondrous journey called life, so take the time to check that rearview mirror and appreciate those fellow travellers you've met along the way, the ones who travel with you today and the ones you have yet to meet.

Book cover artist coincidence

Kit Foster's cover art

Last summer I mentioned in a blog post a coincidence involving the artist who designed the cover for Dolphin Girl.

I said I'd return to the story once the book was published, so here goes. It begins in March 2013, when I wrote a short play entitled FAE. As the title indicates, it was a play with a faeries theme.

Four months later, unbeknown to me, a novel was published entitled Fae, by writers Colet and Jasmine Abedi (the sisters write under the single name CJ Abedi). It too has a faerie world setting.

By December, the Abedis' Fae had been optioned as a possible future movie by film director Ridley Scott.

I was still unaware of Fae the novel when, in the early summer of 2014, I sought out a professional book cover artist for Dolphin Girl. There was a good chance that the Forth Bridge would feature somewhere (it is the image on the back cover), so having an artist familiar with the iconic Scottish bridge was preferable. I found Scotland-based Kit Foster and he came up with a number of cover designs, including the one which was ultimately chosen.

It was only later that I discovered Kit had designed the cover for CJ Abedi's Fae - a book that by coincidence had an identical title to my play, was published a few months after I'd written FAE, and is now optioned by one of my top five favourite directors.

As John, Riva, Fay and Fae, the characters in the play FAE might surmise, a little faerie magic appears to have been at work.

A tale of two movie theatres

It was a strange experience - going to see two films, on separate occasions and at different cinemas, with one of the theatres empty and the other a sell out.
To add to the bizarreness, the film at the empty theatre was the brand new release, Chappie, while the movie with the packed audience was the 30 years old The Breakfast Club.

It was a case of "pick a seat, any seat" at the afternoon matinee showing of science-fiction movie Chappie, the latest offering from director Neill Blomkamp, who also made the acclaimed District 9 and Elysium (blog post here). Despite the popular location of the theatre in downtown Santa Monica, there was not another sole in the auditorium to see this entertaining, action-packed adventure featuring an armour-plated police robot with artificial intelligence.

The film had some roughness around the edges, but it was enjoyable and certainly deserving of more than an empty theatre. As Heather and I departed the cinema I did wonder if having the film poster accidentally back-to-front outside of the theatre might have harmed its audience-pulling potential.

And so to The Breakfast Club, which didn't even get to have a poster outside the shopping mall cinema where it was being shown.
So how did anyone know it was on? The trailer above helped to spread the word, as did a number of newspaper articles that tied in with the 30th anniversary of the film's release in 1985.

For two nights only the restored film was shown at 430 theatres across the US. I discovered there was a one-off 30th anniversary showing nearby when I read the newspaper that morning. The theatre was all but sold out for the re-run of John Hughes' classic teen film.

On entering the auditorium the affection that many people hold for The Breakfast Club was clear. The audience consisted of a wide cross section of people, some of whom had obviously returned to see a film they remembered watching first time around, when they too had been teenagers. And then there were audience members much younger who had probably not even been born when the film first hit the silver screen. They appeared to be the same age as the characters in the film, but a generation removed from the music and sensibilities of the 1980s.

Not that that mattered one jot, because The Breakfast Club has a timelessness, and it is graced with universal themes that resonate across the ages. It is the story of five very different high school students - the punk, the princess, the brain, the jock and the basketcase - who are thrown together to serve a Saturday detention in the school library.

I've long admired the films of the late writer-director John Hughes. He was gifted in his ability to make teen movies and coming-of-age films that showed empathy with the lives of young people, capturing truths through memorable moments.

Two of the film's stars, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, attended a re-showing of the film last month at the South by Southwest Film Festival, in Austin, Texas. Ringwald told USA Today that the Millenials generation "totally get it".  She said: "It hits on universal themes that resonate for each generation. Now The Breakfast Club is a touchstone, in the way JD Salinger books were for me growing up."

Watching the film on the big screen I was taken back to my younger days and recollections of seeing the film long ago, and also memories of being at school and recognising in others the archetypal character-types from the film. In truth, we probably all carry a portion of each within our identities.

It was wonderful to be in a full house watching such a touching classic. As the Simple Minds' song Don't You Forget About Me played out at the climatic end of the film it was time to go, but in the knowledge that I'll revisit this memorable film again as the years roll by.

Rainy day song in a bus shelter

A setlist from a Suzanne Vega concert in 2013, featuring her most famous hits Luka and Tom's Diner

Today wasn't a rainy day, but there have been plenty in the past month. On one of the wettest I found myself ducking in and out of bus shelters as I made my way to work, because with seven miles to cover on a moped scooter, trying to ride through torrential cloudbursts was not advisable.

When it rains in Bermuda it is common to see moped and bike riders seeking cover in roadside bus shelters, sometimes taking their bike with them, to get out of the worst of the weather and wait for a break before continuing their journey.

This day was an exceptionally unpleasant one, with unpredictable squalls sending pummeling rain sweeping across the island at almost five-minute intervals. If you were riding a bike it was nigh on impossible to get anywhere without being drenched.

And so it was that I found myself dashing to a stone-built bus shelter to sit out the next blast of rain, my banana-yellow rain suit dripping and my bike parked on the pavement next to the shelter. Moments later I was joined by another rider. He was heading in the opposite direction and was just as soggy.

We exchanged greetings and commented on how the rain was ensuring it would take three-times as long for us to get where we were going. We stood and watched the world around us being washed, then the other rider started to hum to himself. It was a tune I instantly recognised - Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner.

The song first appeared as an a cappella track on Vega's 1987 album Solitude Standing. Its catchy melody spanned the world after British dance music duo DNA remixed the track in 1990 and created a global smash hit.

Hearing the song being hummed unexpectedly on that rainy morning transported me back to the summer of 1987 when I first heard it and soon afterwards attended a performance by Vega at the small outdoor amphitheatre in London's Regent's Park.

In my younger days I listened to a fairly wide spectrum of music. Today, there are only four contemporary - and still active - musical artists that I follow closely. Suzanne Vega is one of them.

I've been fortunate to see her in concert at various stages of her career, and to have collected each of her albums as they have been released. My life has been enriched as a result.

Standing in a stone-walled bus shelter with rain clattering all around, it was uplifting to hear a stranger hum the refrain of Tom's Diner. Great tunes take on a life of their own, and you never know where you'll encounter a sweet musical memory.

The rain stopped and we got on our bikes and rode off in opposite directions. I now had Tom's Diner echoing in my mind as I headed for work where at least one of my colleague has the "do do do do" part of Tom's Diner set as a cell phone ringtone.

Below is a video of Suzanne Vega performing the original a cappella version of Tom's Diner. You can hear the more widely known DNA remix of the track, which starts with the 'do do do do' refrain, here

The Forth Bridge

On the back cover of the soon to be released Dolphin Girl novel is this artistic image of the Forth Bridge created by book cover artist Kit Foster.

Dolphin Girl is set almost entirely in and around Edinburgh, so it is perhaps not surprising that the nearby iconic landmark features throughout the novel. Indeed, there is a short chapter entitled Forth Bridge, a passage from which appears at the bottom of this blog post.

You don't need to have visited Edinburgh, or Scotland, to be familiar with the steel bridge that spans the Firth of Forth within sight of the capital city. The cantilever bridge is one of the most enduring and picturesque representations of the country; a tin of Scottish shortbread would not be complete without an image of the bridge's three great cantilever structures.

Having spent a number of childhood years in Edinburgh, I know how this imposing marvel of the Victorian age sears itself into the mind and conscience of anyone who has viewed it from near or afar. It is anchored like an steadfast old friend in my recollections of youth.

Built between 1882 and 1890, it is 1.6 miles long and is a rail-only crossing (the nearby Forth Road Bridge for motor vehicles opened in the 1970s).

When people talk about 'painting the Forth Bridge' they are using a phrase that is shorthand for any seemingly never-ending task. This is rooted in the belief that when the bridge is repainted it is such a major and lengthy undertaking that once complete a new repaint job must commence immediately. A myth, but a well-worn one.

In recent years, when flying to Glasgow I have scanned the horizon below to pick out the distant 'humps' of the bridge which are visible from the air even from a distance of 30 or 40 miles away. There is something reassuring and timeless about the bridge.

And so, just as it proved to be for me in my younger years, the Forth Bridge is a constant background presence in the lives of the characters in Dolphin Girl. The novel is currently undergoing final readings and adjustments and is scheduled for release in April.

As an advance taster, here is a brief section from the start of the Forth Bridge chapter.

Katrina lowered her eyes and contemplated the choppy waves a hundred feet below in the river that thought it was a sea. Even at such a distance the cold water reached up with invisible hands chilling her face. She looked away and up towards the soaring magnificence of the Forth Bridge, a marvel of the Victorian age. Its rugged splendor matched the wilderness it adorned. It belonged and it was hard to imagine a time before, or to come, when the railway bridge would not stand sentinel over the Forth’s murky waters.
Standing inside the belly of the three-humped red monster she was a lost ant buffeted by the incessant wind whistling and swirling through this steel behemoth.

A long strange golden road

Mike Scott/The Waterboys in Leicester, 1985

In the pictures above and right Mike Scott of The Waterboys looks out from the stage at Leicester Polytechnic, in the English Midlands. I took these photos one freezing night in November 1985. I was still a teenager and this was the first time I'd seen The Waterboys live.

Energy and passion emanated from the stage and contagiously filled the concert hall and I, like Dennis Hopper's hyper-active photographer in the movie Apocalypse Now, stood in the swirling, moving sea of the audience, sporadically lifting my second-hand Minolta camera above head height hoping to capture some of the magic.
In those pre-digital days there was a finite number of pictures that could be taken. The roll of film in the camera had 24 exposures and no more. Every click of the shutter had to count.

There was exceptionally fast film in the camera - 1600asa - allowing pictures to be taken without a flash in order to capture the ambient illumination of the stage lights, and fast enough to avoid too much blurring. It was an experiment that resulted in an interesting set of photos of The Waterboys on the cusp of becoming a recognised name in the music world. They had just released the single The Whole of The Moon, a beautiful career-defining anthem. However, it stalled at a lowly No.25 in the charts that month. It would be another six years before the song was re-released and hit the top three.

Emerging from the concert I was faced with a chilly winter's night and no prospect of getting home, which was 17 miles away, until early the next morning when the bus service resumed. With my camera stowed away under my coat I found shelter for the night, escaping from the biting wind chill by huddling inside a telephone box - the old red ones made from iron.

It seems crazy now, but back then sleeping rough all night in a telephone box in the middle of winter was, for me, part of the adventure of being young and carefree.

During the past three decades it has been a delight to follow the progress of Mike Scott and The Waterboys as he, and they, have created songs that have stood the test of time even as the band has remained largely out of the mainstream. Fisherman's Blues, another of their songs to barely dent the charts, is now almost as equally famed as The Whole Of The Moon. And a generation after it was written, a version of the band's ballad How Long Will I Love You featured in the film About Time and became a major hit for Ellie Goulding.

'Roughing it' to see The Waterboys is not confined to the dim and distant past. For as recently as 2009, Heather and I nodded off in a rental car near a field where the band were due to headline in a big top tent at the end of a one-day music festival. It was on the outskirts of Skibbereen, in southern Ireland. As night fell we made our way to the big top and were rewarded with the band finally taking to the stage, much delayed, at around the midnight hour (or just after). It was a memorable show, and it was a starry summer's night that greeted us as we wandered back from the tent at 2.30am.
In the bright moonlight some folk departing the big top still had energy to spare and headed for the children's playground to have a go on the swings.

It was at Skibbereen that I first heard The Waterboys perform a song about a "long strange golden road". I was familiar with almost everything they had recorded, but I'd never heard this song before. Its catchy chorus stayed with me for many months.

I wanted to hear the song again, but I would have to wait. For the next few years The Waterboys devoted their time to creating and promoting An Appointment With Mr Yeats, a mesmorising album of WB Yeats' poems turned into songs.

So it was a delight to discover that Long Strange Golden Road features on the band's just released album Modern Blues. And the vibrant, energetic song is one of their best. I look forward to catching the band live again, some 30 years after that freezing night in Leicester - but this time I intend to give the night out in the telephone box a miss!

Here is Long Strange Golden Road, as uploaded by the band.

A 50-year gap between books

The revised version of Dolphin Girl is now in the home stretch, and I anticipate a mid-March date for a final read-through before publishing.

It is at least 12 years since I started writing the novel. It first appeared in print in 2008 as an anchor to the Lulu edition of Eating Clouds. Revisiting the story, re-ordering some sections and adding a few additional scenes has taken longer than anticipated. As that process nears completion the novel now carries a ‘decade-plus’ gestation tag.

So it was with a smile a few days ago that I read a newspaper article about Harper Lee. The author of To Kill A Mockingbird is to become a two-book author. The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer will release her second book, Go Set A Watchman, this summer. It will mean there has been a gap of more than 50 years between the publishing of her first and second books. Against that timescale the delay in the arrival of the complete version of Dolphin Girl does not appear quite so tardy.

Of course, any comparison is merely cosmetic. Lee has not spent the past half century writing Go Set A Watchman, which is essentially a sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird. The new novel was actually written in the 1950s before Mockingbird. Lee’s editor at the time persuaded her to go back and write another novel based on the flashbacks of the character Scout in Watchman. She did, and the result was the renowned To Kill A Mockingbird.

The unpublished manuscript for Go Set A Watchman was put aside and only rediscovered last autumn. Lee, now 88, allowed a few trusted friends to read the story, and encouraged by the feedback she has signed a publishing deal. The book is due to go on sale in July.

As for Dolphin Girl, while I feel at times that 50 years have passed since the first lines were written, the complete version of the novel is on the horizon for a spring 2015 release.