A vanishing way of life high among the hills

A vanishing world: Katharine Stewart's celebrated
A Croft in the Hills is contained in A Life in the Hills,
an omnibus edition featuring four of her books

In A Croft in the Hills, Katharine Stewart chronicles the years that she, her husband Jim and their daughter Helen lived high in the hills bordering Loch Ness.

The memoir begins with an account of what led to the family waving goodbye to suburban life and embarking on a shared vision and passion to eke out a living in a remote place. It is the story of how they pursued that desire for a self-sustaining livelihood "on the edge".

The Stewarts chose a location that was susceptible to fearsomely harsh weather and to soaring wonderment and beauty. It is the 1950s, and the young couple and their daughter learn the ways of the land and how to run a smallholding. It involves sacrifices, impoverishment and the unconditional support of neighbours.

At times, everything seems perfect with good fortune shining and life going their way, but there are also setbacks, adjustments and reassessments of what is possible.

First published in 1960, an additional end piece to the book was added by the author in a 1979 update.

Stewart captures a world and way of life that, even as she and her family embarked upon it, was coming to an end. Some of the characters mentioned were already local legends, and many were soon to be gone.

In joining the Stewarts, the reader experiences the turning of the seasons and glimpses a life built on a small, tight-knit community familiar with sparse and enduring hardships, but ready and willing to help one another without quibble or question.

I found this book's greatest joy in the moments where the author shares more deeply her thoughts on what it means to have taken this direction in life, and the fulfillment from simple pleasures far from the city lights.

A Croft in the Hills is regarded as an important record of a time, now 70 years distant, and the indomitable spirit of the Stewarts and those they knew on the hillsides high in the Highlands of Scotland.

I read the book in A Life in the Hills, The Katharine Stewart omnibus published posthumously in 2018, which also contains Stewart's books from the 1990s, A Garden in the Hills, A School in the Hills, and A Post in the Hills.

The combined edition, A Life in the Hills, is published by Berlinn Ltd.

Song discovery that was 'outta time'

Coincidental surprise: a scene from the video of Oasis' I'm Outta Time

It was something I wasn't expecting - an Oasis song and video from 11 years ago that I'd never encountered.

And the surprise had a layer of coincidence as the song's title, I'm Outta Time, is remarkably close to the title of my novel in progress, Alice Out Of Time.

The song is an outlier for Oasis,  if anything in their catalogue can be described as such. It was the band's penultimate single, and only their debut release peaked at a lower position in the UK charts. It is also one of only two Oasis hits penned by Liam Gallagher, rather than his brother Noel. Liam features in the video, alone.

It is a touching, almost heartbreaking ballad, that in hindsight foreshadows the final days of the band. A year after its release in 2008, Oasis were no more.

When I say I had not previously encountered the song or video, there is a caveat. It is true I'd never seen the video before, but it turns out I must have heard the song at least once. That was at Madison Square Gardens, in December 2008, at what was the seventh and last occasion I saw Oasis in concert.

I'd followed the band's career since their first success in 1994, going to concerts - including the Maine Road and Knebworth extravaganzas of 1996. When I left the UK in 2005, I owned five of their six studio albums. It was at this point I lost touch with their new music. I was no longer plugged in to mainstream TV and radio, and remained mostly unaware of the new songs that made up what was to be their final album, Dig Out Your Soul.

However, when they toured to promote that album in late 2008, I headed out on a cold, wintery evening in New York to hear again the great songs I knew from their back catalogue.

Work in progress: the Alice novel is now at the 'white cover working edition' stage

Last weekend, on discovering the video of I'm Outta Time, and wondering how such a gem had escaped my notice for 11 years, I did an online check of the setlist for that night in New York and discovered the song had been played, sandwiched between two of Oasis' bigger hits, The Importance of Being Idle, and Wonderwall.

It had been placed in the final quarter of the set, surrounded by the searing anthems that defined Oasis' success. As such, it had been lost to me on first hearing. But now, in isolation, the beauty of its understated nature was striking, as was the dreamy imagery of the video, with nature to the fore, including a signature motif from  Alice Out Of Time. As I continue work on the novel, which is at the "printed white cover edition" stage, I feel the song makes a fitting accompaniment.

Also, listen carefully and you will spot a sprinkling of micro-musical homages to The Beatles and John Lennon. There is a final surprise at the end. The video concludes with a record playing on a turntable, and the voice of Lennon. Asked if he missed England, having lived in New York for almost a decade, Lennon says: "As Churchill said, it's an Englishman's inalienable right to live where the hell he likes ... I said, what do you think, it's going to vanish? It's not going to be there when I get back?"
It is a poignant recording; two days later Lennon was shot outside his Manhattan apartment.

• The official video to Oasis' I'm Outta Time:

Evocative writing style from another era

Wordsmith: The late George Mackay Brown.

I'm currently reading George Mackay Brown's Northern Lights. It is a collection of writing that was put together many years after his passing in 1996.

Mackay Brown was a storyteller, journalist, dramatist and perhaps most of all a poet. His visually rich language so readily found in his poems, is also a hallmark of his prose. There is a depth of description and thought, a capturing of place, atmosphere and feeling that is so dense and powerful - like an exceedingly rich cake - that it must only be consumed in small doses if it is to be properly savoured and enjoyed.

His prose burns brightly and hails from a different era; an era before today's increasingly simplistic forms of expression and communication that are ever more watered down, unfulfilling and bereft of characteristics. It seems the overwhelming need now is to cater for shortening attention spans and social media "shortcuts" that render words into woefully butchered versions of their original, even into single characters, pictograms or emojis.

When I read a piece of descriptive work by Mackay Brown, I feel uplifted. My mind is emboldened and inspired to search for its own greater artistic expression.

I am left to wonder if the style and depth of writing that Mackay Brown so magnificently mastered, and that is fading to a twilight ember in the face of today's throwaway blandness, might be revived. Could we see a reversal of the trend and with it a lifting of our spirit - a sensory renewal, through the written word, of the world around us?
I hope so.

Scene setting for a novel

The ragged flag in the centre of a small town that provided
inspiration for a key location in Alice Out Of Time.

A writer can create a wonderful story that is filled with dynamic characters, but if a setting doesn't ring true or is badly described it seriously distracts from all else.

The information needed to construct a believable setting can be researched through books and other literature, and from online searches.

However, there is nothing quite as rewarding as visiting a location that closely matches an imagined setting; that way the writer gets to walk the sidewalks, see the buildings, the people, the traffic - soaking up the experience and "mood" of the place.

I did this during a brief visit to a town in the US. It wasn't a big place; the hub of the town was where the main street intersected with three other streets. There was a parade of stores, all past their glory days, on either side of the quiet street. What particularly caught my eye was a large Stars and Stripes fluttering in the heart of the town. The over-sized Amercian flag, something almost ubiquitous in towns and cities across the US, had also seen better days. It flew proudly, but its ripped and ragged trailing edge prompted a feeling that this community was not overly prosperous and had yet to find the funds to replace its worn flag.

The essence of the town matched that of a place that features in Alice Out Of Time. The novel is now in the third draft stage, undergoing plot tightening and fine-tuning of descriptive passages. Therefore, it was a welcome opportunity to stroll the streets of a small town that closely resembles a key setting in novel, and imagine the characters from Alice doing the same.

'Alice' novel: the first draft

Raw story: at a rate of 500 words per day, it took just under
three months to complete the first draft of Alice Out Of Time.

The first draft of Alice Out Of Time is complete, stretching to approximately 52,000 words.

Since the beginning of June I've written 500 words each morning until the story I envisaged was fully captured.

There are probably as many different writing process as there are people in the world. I'm using this update to document my writing regime.

With Alice, the end goal is to have a final draft of 80,000 words, which is pretty much the standard-size for a novel. At this stage I'm confident that will be achieved. The first draft is the story in skeleton form - the basic scaffolding around which the deeper details will be placed.

In this raw and basic form the story pacing is super-fast. Keeping the momentum flowing through every scene is important. Other than two or three key characters, everyone else is referred to simply as "man" or "woman" or (spoiler alert) "woman in the coffee shop". Buildings are largely described as "building" and some of the towns and places have yet to be named. All those things get filled in during subsequent re-writes.

The first run-through is all about the core story and finding out if it works and delivers. I wrote every morning when I got up, straight out of bed. There was no stopping for breakfast or internet news. The first priority was to fulfill the 500 words for the day. Which usually took between 30 and 45 minutes.

And yes, it was every single day. Keeping the momentum up helped with the flow, and meant my mind was always engaged in the story and thinking of ways to express the next development. There was no stopping to correct grammar or spelling. And sometimes I would change the direction of a scene mid-stream, or write it fresh from a different angle the next day (but not deleting the first attempt - just writing the new version straight beneath).

I wrote the story out of sequence, opting to follow a single main character to the end, and then doing the same for the next main character. The exception to this rule was when it was necessary to have chief characters interacting in the same scenes.

There was no writing done on a computer. Instead, I wrote on a Neo2, a small, battery-powered word processor, which you can see in the background of the photograph. This removed distractions. The Neo2 is purely a word processor. It has no internet capabilities, so there was no temptation to check e-mails, social media, etc.

Secondly, the Neo2 screen shows only four lines of text. So that did away with the temptation of scrolling back through writing from previous days to tidy up spellings, grammar or elements of the story.

Of course, I did not start each day with no idea where the story was going. Because while the first draft was written in less than three months, it took close to eight months to work through the story idea, plot, and character arcs. Only once I was certain most of it would fit together did I begin. That provided a guide to show where the story was meant to be going each day. There was flexibility to add in ideas, providing they meshed with the end goal, and that happened. There was enough ambiguity in the penciled framework to allow for new moments of inspiration to fill the gaps as they appeared.

But the 11 months of pre-planning and writing is not the whole journey to date. Even before the lengthy framework building, the genesis of Alice and the mentally piecing together of the jigsaw puzzle to make the story work - or at least feasible enough to attempt - goes back a few years.

Alice has now crossed the first milestone. The second draft is about to get underway with a similar writing regime to the first. I will post future progress updates.

Ultimate writer's distraction - keyboard cleaning

Dismantling and cleaning your keyboard - the ultimate distraction for a writer

Sometimes writing is not easy. And when the words aren't flowing, and it is too painful to look anymore at the empty screen or blank piece of paper, writers are known to find inventive ways to distract themselves.

A tidy up of the desk, a bit of housework, cleaning the windows. You name it, any mundane task will do. Well, dismantling your computer keyboard and giving it a mighty spring clean is one of the more elaborate "get out" distractions. But it has tangible benefits, is quite relaxing and feels therapeutic.

And so I did. Not with my home computer keyboard, which I am happy to say is kept in fairly good condition. But instead the task at hand was my workplace keyboard. Now, it's fairly well-looked after compared to some I've seen in near proximity, but I knew it needed a little attention, and so I set to work and soon discovered that "needed a little attention" was an understatement. Please don't judge me.

Here are six easy steps to guide you (with photos) should you decide to do your own keyboard spring clean.

1. Unplug the keyboard from the computer. Take a photograph of the keyboard before you start. A close up, but showing all the keys. You'll need this as a reference at the end when you put all the keys back in place.

2. Prise off the keys one by one, using a blade, such as a screwdriver head, or rounded butter knife. Slide the blade under a side or corner of the key and lever up.

3. When all the keys are off you'll see how much debris has gathered beneath. You can remove much of this with a small brush. Then use a damp cloth or disinfecting wipes to give the area a thorough clean. Use Q-tips, or ear buds, to get into all the corners (and hey, the verdict is in ... don't push these things deep into your ears. Who knew?)

4. Clean each of the dismantled keys with a wet cloth or wipes. But don't use a cleaning agent, such as alcohol, that could strip the lettering from the keys.

5. Snap the keys back into place. Note you may find some keys have a thin piece of metal underneath. I found two, one was the space bar and the other was a "shift" key. It should be obvious how to align these so they keep that distinctive responsive feel when pressed. Put these keys back in place first as it will make it easier, then replace the other keys (using your original photo as a guide).

6. Tada! Your keyboard looks brand new, is hygienically safe, and you can at last get down to writing that magnificent novel with no further excuses.

Oh wait, the bottom of the oven looks like it needs a scrub. I'll be back shortly.

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

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.

An update on Dolphin Girl

A new cover will be revealed soon

I haven't said anything about Dolphin Girl for a while, so here is an update. The novel is currently undergoing a second draft run-through. I've been making small changes, re-ordering chapters and scenes to achieve a more chronologically linear story, and generally ironing out typos and clunky grammar.

This has been progressing step-by-step for some time, although not as quickly as I had hoped. The reason for that is due to the demands of my day job, which at times have been daunting. As a consequence there has been little time or energy left some weeks to work through more than a page or two of Dolphin Girl.

The good news is a brighter dawn appears to have arrived and I'm now getting more opportunity to sit down and give the novel the focus and attention it deserves.

As part of the drafting process I’m fleshing out parts of the narrative that were previously on the fringe, but which I now recognise as a worthy part of the overall story arc. Doing so creates its own challenges as scenes are either expanded, or new ones added.

Presently, the second draft process is somewhere just beyond the halfway point, and Dolphin Girl is now likely to appear early in 2015.

A cover has been designed by a professional artist, which will be unveiled in the near future. For the moment my own basic working cover, created many moons ago, remains on show.

Stay tuned for news on Dolphin Girl in the coming months.

Storms wreck 'contemplation bench'

Above is the current state of the makeshift bench at Coney Island, the one I dubbed 'the secret bench' back in the summer of 2008 when I wrote about it in a Microdot Island newsletter.

Back then it was one of my favourite spots to go for some quiet time to sit and watch the ocean and contemplate ideas and life in general. It was there that I did a lot of my planning for Eating Clouds - including taking a photograph as I lay on my back on the bench (which is an old railway sleeper). The photograph was of clouds drifting across the blue sky directly above.
At that point I'd already decided on Eating Clouds as the title for the book and I needed an image for the cover. The photo I took that day was used on one early proof-only copy of the book, but was later replaced by Lucy Hollis' stunning panorama shot from John Smith's Bay.

I can still remember the wonderful, whispering sound of the breeze through the thin needle-like leaves of the tall casuarina tree that overlooked the bench, and to which the bench was secured by a rope.

In July 2008, this is how I described the spot: Living on a compact little island of 21 square miles means it isn’t the easiest thing to find some peace and quiet away from it all….unless you know the secret of Coney Island. This little dead-end hideaway, linked to the main island by a small bridge, is little more than a nature reserve in all but name. Here, tucked away behind some trees, is an old railway sleeper that doubles up as a bench on which a morning coffee, banana bread and the newspaper can be savoured while stretching out and gazing at unbroken views of the blue ocean, or lying on my back on the sleeper to watch clouds float by high above the branches of the casaurina tree that whistle softly against the breeze.

A picture of the bench as it looked in 2008, with my take-away coffee, banana bread and morning newspaper resting on top, can be seen at the bottom of this blog post.

For many years it was my place of choice to go for my morning coffee and relaxation, but I frequented it less in recent years in favour of another spot - a hillock that overlooked the ocean - closer to where I used to stay. Nevertheless, I still paid occasional visits to 'contemplation bench' when I wanted a little change of scenery, or to reconnect with the place.

Sadly, the storms that struck Bermuda this month have all but destroyed the bench. Tropical Storm Fay, which was a direct hit on the island (and many believe was as destructive as a fully-formed hurricane), toppled the casaurina tree to which the bench was attached. The bench looked pretty much finished at that point, but a few days later Hurricane Gonzalo also made a direct hit on the island and threw the toppled tree back up and over so it now faces the opposite direction. That additional damage further wrenched the earth from around the bench.

What will become of the bench? Nature may take its course and claw it back into the undergrowth; a parks department crew may tidy up and remove the fallen casaurina, or the toppled tree may be left where it fell and possibly become a new, natural bench over time.

Yesterday I visited the bench. As I sat there on the wreckage I hoped that the secret spot would recover and, in some shape or form, continue to be a secluded place where curious wanderers might stumble upon it and find they can comfortably sit and contemplate the world, as I did so many years ago.

Below: The bench in July 2008 (with coffee, banana bread and newspaper)

Book review: Indie Authors Naked

For a number of years the literary scene has been changing, thanks to the increasing ease with which writers can put their endeavours on the market and by-pass the traditional publishing route.

Now, there's a whole debate about whether this is a good or a bad thing. By-passing the middleman can also mean by-passing the filters of editors, proofreaders, agents and consultants who have traditionally acted as gatekeepers to the world of publishing.

And true enough there are indie authors who, before putting their work on the market, choose to purchase the services of freelance editors, etc, to bolster the quality of their work or help with marketing. But for all intents and purposes the burgeoning author-publisher scene is one where individuals can write and publish instantly through e-book avenues such as e-readers like Amazon's Kindle, print-on-demand publishing, or both.

There is a correlation between what is happening now in the world of publishing and what happened in the late 1970s when, during the punk and new wave era, independent music exploded in the UK. Back then numerous music artists who were unable to attract the interest of the major record label secured their own creative outlet, either through small, cottage industry-style independent record labels (The Police released their debut Fall Out on Illegal Records) or by totally self-financing their first recordings, such as Thomas Leer with Private Plane.

Today, we are witnessing an even more fundamental democratising of publishing, a process that has gathered substantial momentum in recent years. Authors are taking control of their output to a hitherto unheard of degree.

As for quality control, well yes, when you take out editors, proofreaders and such like, quality will fluctuate and reflect the writer's technical skills. But readers can quickly gauge things with pre-purchase 'look inside' sneak previews or, increasingly, limit their risk by opting for a free or cheap (99c) taster introduction to a new author-publisher.

If you want to find out what makes these author-publishers tick,Indie Authors Naked has some answers. It is a collection of essays and interviews with prominent and emerging talent within the self-publishing scene. It is important to note this book is not a 'how to be a successful indie author-publisher' manuel, although there are plenty of insights and tips worth mining within its 172 pages. It's an eclectic collection of interviews with writers across a broad spectrum of genres and disciplines, including authors of romance, science fiction, contemporary literature and erotica, to poets and even an independent bookstore operating an expresso indie book publishing machine.

The book's format is interesting. Each interview is prefaced with an introduction essay written by another writer, in some cases a traditionally published author, who either knows or has a connection with the interviewee. The interviews, conducted by editor Loren Kleinman, are presented in a highly readable question-and-answer style.

One of the featured writers is Orna Ross, who also wrote the foreword. She had two books published by Penguin in the mid-2000s, but was dismayed by the way her vision for the books as "page-turning fiction" with educated, inspired language, was viewed differently by the publishing house which, she says, squeezed and altered the work to fit a 'chick lit/love angle' interpretation. "Where I thought reader, they thought retailer," says Ross. When her first book came out, complete with pink cover, she said, "I hardly recognised it as mine."

The books were bestsellers, nevertheless Ross felt they did not reflect her intention. Then, a number of years later, and with the widespread availability of digital publishing, she re-acquired the rights to her books and republished them in the style she originally intended. Shortly afterwards she founded the Alliance of Independent Authors.

The interviews and essays in Indie Authors Naked highlight some of the best new indie writers, states author Amy Holman Edelman in the introduction. "Their books resonate with readers who really couldn't give a damn if they came through the hallowed halls of a traditional publisher or just via their e-readers."

While reading this book I found myself almost constantly checking out the new names I was coming across with internet searches of their work and successes. None more so than Hugh Howey, whose meteoric rise from a one-time bookstore employee earning an hourly-wage to star of indie publishing looks set to eclipse even the remarkable story of multi-millionaire indie author Amanda Hocking.

The essay introducing Howey is written by David Gatewood, who now helps edit Howey's work after sending him (at the time a complete stranger) a blunt e-mail with the subject line '163 errors in Wool', which referred to Howey's hit indie science-fiction novel Wool. The runaway success of the Wool series brought Howey to the attention of publishers Simon & Schuster, to whom he contracted the print-only distribution rights for a six-figure sum (keeping hold of the lucrative digital rights himself). Film-maker Ridley Scott has a film option on the series, and a graphic novel of the book has also been released.

In the three years since he self-published the original Wool story, Howey has become a New York Times, USA Today and Amazon bestseller. If the only thing I gleaned from Indie Authors Naked was an insight into the story of Howey, I would have been more than satisfied. However, there was a lot more.

One interview that particularly caught my attention was with Ted Heller, who could be described as a somewhat reluctant author-publisher. The son of Catch 22 author Joseph Heller, he has had three books released through a big US publishing house, garnering critical praise from the likes of the New York Times and Vanity Fair. But when sales failed to match the glowing reviews, the publisher passed on his next offering, and so Heller found himself taking the self-publishing route for his newest release West of Babylon.

It has been a humbling and frustrating experience for Heller. Kleinman asks him, "You're the son of novelist Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22. Blessing or a curse?" To which he replies, "I'll say it's been somewhat of a blurse."

Heller is bluntly honest. He refers to self-publishing as "Hell on Earth" and speaks of how it felt to stand in a post office sending out books to newspapers that might not even review books anymore, or ordering copies of his own book from Amazon UK to send to British newspapers in the hope of a review.

If you have the slightest curiosity or interest in the reshaping of the publishing landscape and the shift from old school to new world publishing, then I'd recommend Indie Authors Naked as a great starting place. The fairly short chapters, and the question and answer format, make it an easy read to pick up and put down when you have a spare moment. The book's genesis was a series of blog interviews from the IndieReader website. What you get in addition are insightful essay introductions, and the discovery of fresh up-and-coming voices in a brave new literary landscape.

Finally, New York Times bestselling memoirist and novelist Joni Rodgers, one of the essayists writing about the shift between old and new world publishing, had this to say. "The 'must read' books coming out of New York were becoming more homogenised and less satisfying, heavily influenced by a narrow ilk of editors who were shackled by the values system of a dying business model. I realised I wanted to read the work of writers: broad, fearless risk-takers dedicated to craft and beholden to no one."

Indie Authors Naked is published by IndieReader Publishing.

A useful writing tip

A writer can often become so closely involved in their work that they forgot to step back and take in the bigger picture. An analogy would be a painter or artist engrossed in the details of their latest piece failing to take a few backward steps from the canvas to view the totality of their endeavour.

A writer who doesn't take those metaphorical backward steps to view the bigger picture is missing out on an element of the creative process worth its weight in gold.

I'm currently putting the finishing touches to an expanded version of Dolphin Girl, including an ending that continues beyond that of the original short novel featured in 2008's Eating Clouds.

At the same time I've come up with a blurb to feature on the back of the book. A blurb is the few paragraphs on the back cover that effectively 'sell' the story to a reader. An effective blurb entices and intrigues a potential reader, but equally importantly accurately reflects what the book, and its story, offer.

A reader will soon become disgruntled if they don't find what they expected to find as a result of the blurb. Worse case scenario, a colossal asteroid slams into the Earth. Second worse case scenario, the reader feels conned by the misleading blurb and in future avoids your books.

Dolphin Girl was included at the back of the original Lulu version of Eating Clouds and so never had it own blurb. Now that it is to be a stand-alone novel, it does. That has entailed some contemplation of what exactly the story is about. And as I have gone through this process, and it can take quite a few hours, it has brought clarity into my mind about what the story sets out to portray. In doing so, it has prompted ideas on how to streamline and better highlight the overarching themes.

As I go through the book, tweaking and reordering a few things and adding some new scenes, the process has been made easier knowing exactly what needs to be achieved through the characters and events.

A well-crafted blurb can be a hugely useful blueprint or roadmap to guide a writer through the story arc they are creating.

I've come to the blurb very close to the end of the story-writing process for Dolphin Girl, but I can certainly see the value in having such a guide earlier in the day, perhaps even at the outset.

And, if you want to supercharge the whole thing, pull yourself away from the story-writing and compose both a blurb and a half-page synopsis. A synopsis is a more structured and detailed blueprint of the story.

With a blurb and a synopsis in hand a writer can confidently set forth to tell a tale and avoid getting snagged, and perhaps even lost, in the undergrowth that hides in the woods and forest of the imagination.

'The Magic Lake' from 26 years ago

Although I have to pinch myself to fully believe so much time has elapsed, it is 26 years since this small excerpt from a planned novel I was working on found its way into a small science fiction and fantasy fanzine in West Australia.

At the time I was breaking loose and exploring the world - or more accurately the vast island continent of Australia - as a backpacking 21-year-old. It was early 1988 and the previous year I had put together the short-run paperback Inspired, featuring a selection of five writers and poets of which I was one.

As I travelled through West Australia I'd planned to complete a fantasy novel and in the first few months did some work towards that goal. When I came across a small fanzine called WAFTAM, with a unicorn on the cover, I recognised a moment of serendipity as my work-in-progress novel was centered around unicorns. I sent a short contribution to the publication.

The fanzine editor duly published my work in the next edition of the fanzine, which was also renamed WOFTAM. Although this writing project never fully matured, here for posterity is a snapshot of my writing from 26 years ago, as published in issue one of the WOFTAM fanzine, in Perth, West Australia in March 1988:

THE MAGIC LAKE

Jarrad looked up to see the rain clouds had parted and a full moon was shining brightly in the night sky. However, what was even stranger were the horses. He noticed they were all outside the cave, standing perfectly still and silent. Their gaze seemed to be fixed distantly on the lake, as was Melinda's. The strange harp-like music, although still distant, was much more noticeable.

"What is it?" he asked, bewildered.

"Look at the lake," Melinda pointed. "Do you see the moon's reflection?"

"Yes, what about it ... Hey! It's moving, and it's changing shape," Jarrad checked himself and looked back up at the moon. Indeed, the moon had not changed. It was still the same uniform circle of brightness, unobscured by any night clouds.

That being so, thought Jarrad, then the reflection on the lake should also be a clear, circular patch of light. He looked back at the lake. It wasn't.

Jarrad was thinking up his next question when Breeze, the king's fair-haired daughter answered it.

"A unicorn," she spoke in a hushed tone. "It's a unicorn."

Jarrad blinked, looking once more at the blurry ball of light which seemed to be skating across the lake's surface. Indeed, now that he came to think about it, it did resemble a unicorn.

"A real unicorn?" he blurted out. Melinda turned, a dreamy contentment etched on her face.

"The horses believe it to be real. That is why they stand so silently, with such reverence. The night owls are silent now. All the other nocturnal animals are quiet. They can all hear the music, and all see the unicorn on the lake," she said. She smiled at Jarrad, then turned again to the lake. "But it is not a real unicorn, unfortunately. It is merely an illusion created by the magic lake. The magic which tonight's full moon has activated."

Book writing with index cards

Index cards are a feature of my daily routine at the moment. Each day I fill out two more with writing for my next book. In theory, once I have many hundreds of these index cards completed they can be shuffled and arranged and put to use as the blueprint to allow an unbroken 'run' at the first draft.

On the cards I write a basic sketch of a scene, or a section of dialogue, a character description, or occasionally a condensed precise of the overall story. There is a great freedom from this approach as I can write ideas and mini scenes and not get caught up with internal doubts or debates about whether or not this is the right place for this piece of action, or if it is even worth including, etc.

The sifting comes later. At the end of the index carding process all the component parts can be reassessed and then moved around - or discarded - to form a cohesive and natural rhythm to the story.

Another great beauty of this approach is making each card 'eventful' and having an identifiable part to play in moving the story forward. They are like mini episodes of action. Having these at my fingertips when I reach the point of slotting all the pieces together in the first draft should ensure a flowing storyline without much (or any) drag.

For now it is a couple of index cards each day. The 'done' pile is still relatively small, but as I warm up the speed at which I can fill out the cards should increase. The aim is to end up with between 500 and 1,000 good cards (having sifted out the naff ones) before heading into the first draft. In the picture above is my current pile and, for reference, an unopened pack of 100 index cards. There is a fair bit of work still ahead.

UK newspaper mentions 'Lennon Bermuda'

Review: mentioned in The Mail on Sunday (UK)

This is an image from the April 28 edition of the 'Mail on Sunday' newspaper in the UK, giving a promotional mention of the Lennon Bermuda box set. Tomorrow was due to be the UK launch, however this has been pushed back a little to May 20.

However, there has been a bit of coverage of the box set and CD on two UK radio stations (Express FM in Portsmouth, courtesy of the Geoff and Andy Show, and also a track played on Bob Harris' BBC Radio Two show), and there was a passing mention of the book in the United Arab Emirates-based English newspaper 'The National', which all helps to spread the word. Tony Brannon has been doing a sterling job working to promote the book, CD and the next Peace Day Concert in Bermuda - which as last year is on September 21.

In the meantime, I have embarked upon a new writing project, which is still being formulated with the help of a piece of electronic software which I have been intrigued by. Whether it helps or not remains to be seen. But I shall write more on this new project in the coming months. It is my intention to make this a much speedier writing endeavour once all the groundwork is laid. Having said that, I got a taste of speedy writing doing Lennon Bermuda book in around three weeks. Which is proof, if ever I needed it, that a task with a pointblank deadline focuses the writer's mind like nothing else.

'Inspired' the book - 26 years on

Back in 1987, as a 21-year-old, I made my first foray into the world of book writing with Inspired. It was a paperback collection of short stories and poems by five young writers. I initiated the independent venture and brought together the writers, who submitted their work. My brother Gordon illustrated the front cover, and 100 copies of the book were printed and distributed (a few made it into the local public library).

More than a quarter of a century later it was but a distant memory and then I caught sight of a photograph of the front and back cover, reproduced here, and it reminded me of life's journey from way back then to where I am today.

Inspired was an outlet for my creative writing, as it was for the other contributers. Within its pages I was able to pour out a lot of the ideas and imagination that filled my late teenage years. Included in the collection was the short poem 'Faeries of Green Lochan', which went on to become firstly a song that I played regularly at open mic nights, and then a stage play performed by myself and a fellow drama student, Yvonne, at the Bournemouth Centre for Community Arts, in England, in 2003. That stage play, together with the song (the poem, put to guitar music and sung) evolved into the short live-action/animation film 'Faeries of Green Lochan', featuring myself and Heather, that was created between 2010 and 2011 and premiered at the First Bermuda Bakatown Film Festival in January 2012 - some 25 years after the original poem had first appeared within the pages of Inspired. The film can be viewed on YouTube.

Inspired was never likely to make money, but it did provide a creative outlet for a group of young writers. For me it is now also a historical record of where I was as a young writer and something I can compare to my later collection Eating Clouds (2008).

One message that early book represents is that, no matter if no one else is going to give you a break in the world of literature, you can always find a way to share your work with others - even if only to 100 potential book buyers. It also acts as a measure of your belief in yourself as a writer and your desire to work towards your writing dreams.

I'm particularly pleased that I was able to take one of my early works, 'Faeries of Green Lochan', which was actually written in early 1985, and develop it in a number of artistic forms. And there is another strange coincidence. As my most recent work Lennon Bermuda prepares to be given a worldwide launch in the UK later this month, I note that Inspired opened with a quotation from John Lennon's Aunt Mimi, her words to a 17-year-old Lennon that "Playing the guitar is all right as a hobby John, but you'll never make a living at it". I wrote to Mimi Smith for permission to use her quote, which she granted in her letter of reply. A loop that stretches 26 years can therefore be traced between Inspired and Lennon Bermuda.

A new short play

Although I haven't been blogging regularly of late, I have been productive elsewhere. Namely writing a new short play titled FAE.

The short work has been entered in Bermuda's annual 'Famous For Fifteen Minutes' competition, where six plays will be chosen from the entries to be staged during a mini-festival with one of those six ultimately being judged the winner.

It has been some time since I have written a creative piece to a deadline. I had around one month to come up with the idea and get it down in a stage play format.

For me, the preferred way of writing is to do a draft in story format, I just write out my short story as a piece of prose. Once that is complete I go back and type it out in stage play format.

The criteria stipulated that it had to be a simplified play (a 'box set') with no more than four characters and 'NO helicopters!'

Well, it was hard, but I managed to keep helicopters out of the story line.

FAE is set in a remote cottage in the mountains, with a husband and wife and their poorly teenage daughter. The fourth character is a rather mysterious woman who is taken into the shelter of the cottage one stormy night.

Without going into further detail at this point, I would say that FAE could well be a companion story to my previous short stage play Faeries of Green Lochan, which was turned into an animation-live action short film a few years ago, and can be viewed on YouTube. In time I may end up with a small compendium of faerie story vignettes - who knows. The magic of the faery world of celtic tradition tugs at my imagination from time to time.

The disciplined task of writing again, to deadline and within the constraints of a 15-minute maximum play with a limited number of players, was a fun workout. It has given me an added impetus to wrap up the almost complete final chapter of Dolphin Girl.

New Lennon book

The 'Lennon Bermuda' book I wrote earlier this year went on sale this week.

It was a labour of love to write about John Lennon and his two-month stay in Bermuda during the summer of 1980.

Although, as the author, it probably isn't my place to say so, I do feel the 120-page book is the definitive account of Lennon's sailing trip to the island and his subsequent encounters with people in Bermuda where he enjoyed relative anonymity during his stay.

Writing the book was an experience too, as I was brought into the project at a late stage, which meant speed interviewing and writing everything in a 20-day window. That was a formidable challenge because I was also doing my regular full-time job (there was no time to schedule any vacation days).

However, I didn't mind the pressure. Writing about one of my musical favourites, and getting to speak to so many of the cast of characters that encountered the singer-songwriter during those sunny months of 1980, was quite uplifting. By the time I'd finished I had spoken with twelve people who had direct contact with Lennon during his Bermuda sojourn. It felt as though I'd lived through the whole event, albeit concertinaed into such a tight time-frame.

The proofs of the book I've seen, but not yet the finished product. That I look forward to next Friday at the John Lennon tribute concert in the Botanical Gardens when it is officially launched.

Readers can purchase it online, where postage for US customers is only $5. That's reasonable, unlike the rest of the world postage which weighs in at $45 (more than the book itself). Hopefully that changes when the book is made available through more mainstream channels. For now, if you're in the US and you're interested in John Lennon - or my writing - I'd recommend checking it out. It contains stories and pictures that have not been heard or seen before.

Buy the book online HERE

A spotted eagle ray

There's a tropical storm on the horizon, which in all likelihood will be a hurricane by the time it visits Bermuda this coming weekend. The storm is called 'Leslie', and while that name did not strike terror in anyone when it was assigned to this weather system, the storm is too big to ignore. The winds reach out some 200 miles from its centre and it might be a Category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches Bermuda.

Hurricanes are rated 1 to 5, with Cat 1 being the weakest and Cat 5 the most powerful. A Cat 2 will be the highest rated to have reached Bermuda since I came to live on the island.

While that remains in the background for the time being, the weather here is benign and calm. Perfect conditions, in fact, for viewing the many types of fish that abound in the semi-tropical ocean around the shore.

Two days ago, while I sat admiring the view from my favourite spot in the shade cast by a small olivewood tree on a grassy hillside by the ocean, I spied a spotted eagle ray jump out of the water. It rose maybe two feet then flopped back into the sea. It was probably hunting small fry fish - an abundant food source at this time of year. It is only the second time I've seen a ray leap from the ocean, so it was a privilege and a tad lucky on my part to have been there at the right moment early on a Saturday morning.

This weekend I sat down twice to compose three pages of the final chapter of Dolphin Girl. I'm pleased with how it is shaping up. At this stage it is all about getting ideas, story and dialogue down onto the paper. I can improve on it once it is in rough form. Doing it this way also avoids self-censorship, where I might be put off and beat myself up thinking what I've written isn't good enough. It's far easier to improve something that exists than it is to improve a blank piece of paper.

Should Tropical Storm Leslie, or should I say Hurricane Leslie, visit these shores, there will no doubt be more golden time to write away.

The missing chapter

As I set to work on the final chapter of Dolphin Girl I noticed something about the story. When I wrote it for the original edition of Eating Clouds in 2008 I chose to tell in the present tense.

Having read parts of it again to refresh myself before creating the 'missing' last chapter, I was struck that the tense was unusual and almost jarring. It would be perfect for a film screenplay treatment, but in a book the more natural choice past tense.

Now, as I begin the writing of the last chapter (of which 250 words today), I am using the past tense and will rework the rest of the novel accordingly. Reworking also gives me an opportunity to sharpen things up.

The initial reaction I received to Dolphin Girl in 2008 and 2009 was favourable - more than I had hoped - which gives me added faith in the story and the way it is written. The abrupt ending always seemed a bit of a cop-out. The new ending will tie things together, and that is what has been taxing my mind for the past few months as I've juggled scenarios.

Once written and re-worked I shall approach suitable agencies, while also keeping an eye on the possibility of making it a trial e-book release, having read much about the success of a number of others who have blazed that particular trail.

Returning to Dolphin Girl some four years after it was completed is an interesting experience, and one where I have had to revive my knowledge of the characters and their mannerisms - in actions and words.

Two hundred and fifty words done, and there is a long weekend stretching ahead to add to that total.