Just a quick note to say that I finished the Scott Cullen novella "Devil in the Detail" today.  Starting to redraft it, which shouldn't take too long, as it's only 22k.  Very pleased with it; it's an idea I've kicked around for a couple of years and finally managed to get nailed.  It's been an exercise in baddies, action and plotting; I've got a new plot method now, which seems to work for me.  There's no more getting lost in Excel spreadsheets for days, it's a bare bones .txt file.

I'm next going to redraft "Ghost in the Machine" for resubmission to some other agents.  It's a very slow business, seems to take longer than forever.  Writing "Devil" has given me some more ideas, and it's always good to look stuff over again after a period of time.

Final point - I'm conscious of the fact that my site is a bit under-contented, so I'm going to add some of my writing samples up here.  I did a similar doofus thing with music about ten years ago - website with no tunes - so it's no surprise.  Three chapters for "Ghost" v4 once it's done and dusted.

Then it's on with "Beast in the Shadow"...

Just a quick update...  I'm actively working on Devil in the Detail, which will probably be a novella length thing.  I'm using it as an exercise in getting a really tight plot; I've spent a lot of time focusing on style recently in the two other projects I've got going - a literary/Irvine Welsh thing, and a sci-fi thing - so this is a chance to step back.  It's very easy to DO, i.e. write, but it's easier to change a 600 word txt file than a 90,000 word novel, so get your PLAN sorted first.  It can be slightly fluid, after all, that's the fun in writing, but your story needs to be nailed on, at least for twisty-turny crime fiction anyway.

I update my twitter account a lot, so look at that for updates.

Oh, finally, I'm not the other James Thompson crime writer that's American and lives in Finland now.

No major news to report, still a lot stuff in stasis.

I'm ploughing on with Ricochet which is the new title for Catharsis.  It's great writing something unplanned.  When I say unplanned, I mean that Ghost in the Machine had such a high level of intricate planning and this is a story with an end state I need to manoeuvre towards and can seed stuff as I go and pick up later without having to worry too much about the detail.  It makes the writing fun, in a very different way to the fun I have with the planned stuff.  I've got ideas of how to take stuff forward and it'll hopefully influence later writing - over the course of writing and copiously editing Ghost in the Machine, my style came on immeasurably, so it's a chance to let that sort of thing be the focal point.

I'm also writing it on my mobile phone, a Nokia E63 with QWERTY keyboard and Word-compatible word processor (QuickOffice), so it kills time on the train every day and means I'm not a slave to the laptop every night.

One of the big things I've discovered about stress is, as my manager at work told me just before he left, that it comes from within - stress is entirely your own making and is just an inability to deal with a situation.  There are obviously types of stress that are externally-driven, e.g. poverty, etc, but work-related stress is about getting perspective on things.  I've had two bouts of dreadful illness this year and both relate to periods when I've pushed the writing too hard along with the day-to-day rubbish I deal with at work, so I'm trying to use this writing as non-pressure stuff, a chance to get stuff out of my system and maintain a passion for it, unlike the pressure that killed my enjoyment of making music for so long.

Anyway, enough of a rant, would be great to have some news to report.  I think I need to refresh the website layout a bit.

Excellent interview of James Ellroy by David Peace, easily two of my favourite writers:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/09/james-ellroy-david-peace-conversation

It's fascinating reading about Ellroy's working method:

DP You alternate narratives from chapter to chapter. When you are writing the book, do you go from chapter to chapter; chapter one, two, three? Or do you follow one narrator all the way through and then go back?

JE No, I have a 400-page outline of the book: chapter one, two, three; viewpoint, viewpoint, viewpoint; Holly, Crutchfield, Tedrow. Holly, Crutchfield, Tedrow.

DP So even the outline is broken down into the separate chapters?

JE I start out where I have the research notes. I have pages of notes on character. Historical events. Soon things start coming together. And then I do a shorthand version of the entire story and then I flesh it out into a big outline. And the outline is just, Chapter one: Pete Bondurant / Beverley Hills Hotel / Watching Howard Hughes shoot dope / Following leads / Following information / Boom, boom, boom.