Our undying rituals, long games, a book is ready, a good hiding, Mat Osman, Margarita Montimore, write your lockdown book

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Hello! Welcome to my newsletter for April/May 2020. In this issue:

Long games
Work in progress
Ce n'est pas un piano
The biggest adventure yet
A good hiding
Out and about
I've just become a fan of...
On the blog
How to write your lockdown book
A little horse

Come what May

Sneaked out of bed at 5.45am. Woke the computer. Magdalen College Oxford, which for 500 years has marked the start of May with a concert from the tower at dawn, was keeping the tradition 2020 style, on YouTube.
5.58am, the sound connected. A black screen, birdsong. We're awake. We're all here. We're coming. Sit tight.

6am, the tower appeared, then the choir, clicking in from their bedrooms wearing headsets. A breath from the conductor and they all began singing, in their separate homes, in exquisite synchrony, as if they were side by side.
I'm so glad I saw it. I was in awe of the musicians, who were flawless even though they weren't together. And the tech people who figured out how to do this in real time, with no second takes. As anyone who's tried to follow a dance class on Zoom will understand.

Watching it live, in the dawn, it seemed like witnessing a special secret celebration of the human spirit. Ten minutes of sublime mastery, in skills ancient and modern. No matter what, the words will be said, the songs will be sung. May will be properly begun.
Then I sneaked back upstairs, where the Morris who actually studied at Magdalen, a certain Dave, was still firmly asleep.
Happy Beltane.

Long games

In locked-down London, this month is about long games. If you believe Facebook, we're all watching sourdough rise. And hair roots rise. (Certainly, the latter is true here.)
Dave and I are well and sane. Working. Watching for the next change.
Meanwhile, I've reached the end of my own long game.
Ever Rest is ready for beta readers.

Work in progress

Editing and mentoring... This month I worked my usual shifts on the medical magazine (remotely, of course). Those days are always a reality check, virus or not. When you work with news from the frontline NHS, it cuts the angsts of writing and publishing right down to size. Never more than now.
Is it trivial to be diligently carrying on with creative work when the world is running on empty? Well, as Fiona Apple and Austin Kleon said a week ago, you have to do what you know how to do. So I've worked on more chapters of the Dorothy Thompson biography. I've put together some teaching materials (details later). I'm lining up a date to help an author with her memoir (and am looking forward to it - hello Alison!)
Noveling... Draft 18 - the big read-through - turned up a few kinks I was glad to fix. There has been a further big read - Draft 19. I also double-checked the timeline - a habit from the days when I ghost-wrote thrillers. The action in Ever Rest is split between Nepal and London, so I'm now sure of every flight duration, sunset and sunrise, where everyone is, and whether it's daylight or darkness. I just read a novel that got all this in a right pickle - a reminder that you always miss something.

Ce n'est pas un piano

Another niggling detail. In one scene, a musician is interviewed on BBC Radio London. In the studio is an upright piano, which is important.
I was proud that I knew there was an upright piano in the studio. When an editor asks if I'm sure it's there, I can mention, so casually, that I've sat beside it while being interviewed.
But I was not smart enough to, so casually, notice the name on the piano lid.
And my musician character would notice. A piano isn't a piano. It's a Steinway or a Nord.
Could I find a pic of this piano on Google? No. Plenty that showed it being tickled by Paul Carrack, Reuben James, Michael Whittaker, with a grinning presenter (usually Robert Elms). Not a glimpse of the manufacturer's label.
I went to Twitter.

I tagged Robert Elms, expecting his producer might see it. At that moment, Actual Robert Elms was on air. And to my delight, Actual Robert Elms replied, and instantly.

Now the last i is dotted, the last tail of detail hunted down.
Ever Rest is ready for...

The biggest adventure yet

I've not shown this book to anyone. Or even discussed it, except in fragments when researching technical details. What happens when someone dies abroad? How do royalties work for musicians? Can you get mobile phone reception on Everest? How do you climb it anyway?
I've revealed rough sections to check terminology and assumptions.

I hate revealing anything rough. I still blush.

I gathered all that information without telling anyone what I would do with it. I feared it would sound deranged. Or dull.
Most artworks are a conversation you have with yourself. They're like a dream, full of mystery and meaning for you, obscure and uninteresting to anyone else.
That's the work you're doing. Make the dream happen for the reader too.
That's what you hope.

Nailbiting times are ahead.

I think I've left my beta readers in no doubt about this.

Here's the scribbling copy I've made for Dave, who is going to read the new version with a red pen. It's just arrived from Lulu and is now waiting out a few days in quarantine, which is what we do with all our post at the moment. Long games everywhere.

What to do until feedback is ready?
I agonised to a writer friend.
Patience, he said. Cook this.

Perhaps I will make sourdough after all.

A good hiding

As you know, I like to celebrate my talented friends. One has been teaching himself to make leather hats and bags. (You've met him already, if you've read Not Quite Lost. It's Ian from the earthquake story.) He's never made clothing or bags before. I think they're awesome, and I covet the hat.

Then he made this.

Just about the strangest thing I've ever seen. Even the statue can't look.

Out and about

Surprisingly, I have a few events to report!
I'm teaching a writing webinar at Jane Friedman's site. The title is Past mastery: How to reveal back story so it drives your book forwards. Date and booking details TBA. Jane also hosts my ghostwriting course.
24 May - I'm back in the hot seat at Litopia's Pop-Up Submissions, critiquing manuscripts with literary agent Peter Cox.
12-14 June - I was due to be a mentor for Writers Retreat UK, providing one-to-one sessions online. I'm waiting to hear what their plans are now.
8 August - At the Jericho Writers Summer of Writing online festival, I'm presenting a mini-course in professional self-publishing. It's a huge programme, running from June to September, with a wide range of events for writers - more here.

I've just become a fan of...

Mat Osman's debut novel The Ruins. A noirish story about a rock musician and his reclusive twin, this is full of bizarre beauty and breathtaking writing.
Let me tempt you with this description of a band rehearsing, wearing headphones, observed by someone who can't hear the music: 'I strained to hear the ghost of the song through the thin sounds of plectrum on strings, Kimi's mumbling and the soft beat of feet'. Find my full review on Goodreads here,

I also caught up on other reviewing. I rather liked The House in Norham Gardens by Penelope Lively. Odd Girl Out by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Daisy Jones And The Six by Taylor Jenkins Read.

On the blog

On the blog this month I had a post about how to un-self-publish. A contact on Linked In asked me about it and I realised I'd never seen it covered. So if you self-published a book and now want to remove it, perhaps to rewrite, rethink or present to a publisher, here are the steps.

I also interviewed author Margarita Montimore, who I think you'll like because she writes fiction of the strange, reality with slightly different rules. Her debut novel, Oona Out Of Order, is about a woman who experiences her life in non-chronological sequence. Here we are talking about how We'll make you believe the unbelievable.

How to write your lockdown book

I'm continuing to post the So You Want To Be A Writer radio series, which I made in 2014-2016 with independent bookseller Peter Snell. Find them on my blog here.
I'm also loading some episodes on YouTube if you prefer to listen that way. It'll take me a while because I have to edit out the music and convert the soundfiles into a video with a static image, a tortuous, tortoise process. And I don't have all the episodes! Equally, I also have some episodes that were missed off the radio station website, so this will be a way I can get them to you. The YouTube versions are here.

If a book is itching in your attic, try my Nail Your Novel series, which includes titles on process, characters, plot... and a workbook that ties it all together.

A little horse

Our lockdown regime is going well. I'm schooling Val three times a week. Last month I had high hopes that we'd use this quiet period to find deeper harmony, but I had one big doubt I didn't confess. How would I manage without my instructor?
Look at YouTube, she said. There's loads of great dressage stuff that picks up the work we've been doing.
Frankly, I thought I'd find them confusing. But I've lucked out.

I'm following a programme called Art2Ride and I'm enjoying schooling more than I've ever done. We ride patient, flowing shapes, designed to redevelop the horse to move in balance without tension.
To an onlooker, our sessions don't appear impressive. Just a horse and rider trotting around an arena, sometimes arched and elegant, usually not. And this rider is learning as much as the horse. As Val discovers better ways to move, I'm discovering better ways to ask him for them.

Val's attitude amazes me. Some horses get bored if all they do is school, but he doesn't mind that we're not out hacking. He tunes into my concentration. If I'm focused and absorbed, he feels directed and safe. Though that's easier when everywhere is so quiet. Lord knows what will happen when the world wakes up.
Long games of lockdown, with unexpected wins. I hope you're also finding some blessings, and that you're well.

Til next time
R xxx

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