As I was saying ...

Two months? Has it really been two months?


I have had my head down - doing a rewrite. The Messenger intentionally crossed set genres (thriller and supernatural) and it was suggested that it could pose a selling challenge to an interested agent. So, I decided to see how the story may fare from being purely a thriller without its 'other world' subplot. The exercise has been fascinating. Whilst the concept of the original story - (are war dead free from the pain of death?), poses a threat (the more we kill, the more likely we are to kill ourselves) and brings a message (those who profit from war will destroy us - so believe nothing - question everything) when the supernatural subplot is removed it creates a totally new focus. Iran and the Middle East dilemma are still the object of the story, as is the US invasion, but the 'new' story (for which there is no working title as yet) drops the wordage from 144,000 to 115,000 and reduces the characters. The pace, however, is increased and becomes more story led than character led. Both allow me to provide a sequel. So, there we have it - that's where I have been for two months.

Oh, yes, and I met up with Camilla Bolton (Darley Anderson) at the Crimefest event in Bristol and she has requested the first ten chapters of the revised story when it is finished (in around two weeks).