Hello there!
Firstly, I know we’re well past needing to say ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year’ and all the rest, but we’ve not communicated since December, so all I’ll say is: I hope you managed to eat good food, enjoy yourself and relax over the festive period. I managed all of that. Too much indulgence, to be brutally honest. So much so that, since the turn of the year, I’ve eliminated booze from my diet, having substituted beer for ginger cordial with soda water. (If you haven’t tried it, I recommend you do. My Dad first drank it when he wasn’t well, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since).
What I’ve been reading
Last month, I mentioned I had started reading Earth Abides by George R. Stewart, and I promised to share my thoughts:
It’s no surprise this book was the first ever winner of of the International Fantasy Award. It wonderfully explores what civilisation would be like in the aftermath of the almost-complete destruction of the human race through disease. It’s clear that so many subsequent post-apocalyptic novels have been heavily influenced by this work (Stephen King has stated his epic story The Stand was partly inspired by it).
I enjoyed the book. It was written in the late 1940s, and that’s very obvious in places, both through the style of writing and in some of the more difficult-to-accept views on the differences between men and women, and towards mental illness. If you can keep in mind that some of the language used meant something different back then, you should be able to enjoy it.
After reading Earth Abides, I read some more books by Blake Crouch.Â
Dark Matter kept cropping up as one of his most popular, so I checked it out. It’s pretty scientific (which I love) and explores the multi-universe theory from the point of view of a college physics professor who finds himself traversing multiple realities after being thrust into a mysterious black box by an unknown assailant.
I also finished Blake Crouch’s Wayward Pines trilogy (Wayward and The Last Town, in addition to Pines which I mentioned last month). I loved it. Right from the beginning, I knew I was reading something that I was going to find a bit special. There was none of the plodding through, sticking with it until it gets good stuff that happens even in books from some of the biggest authors in the world. With these, I was gripped right from the get-go and it never released me.
What I’ve been writing
Just this morning, I penned (well, typed…) the last words of my next novel, the sequel to With Time to Kill which will be called The Dying of the Light. Here’s the title and colour scheme I’m thinking of going with. Would love to hear your thoughts!Â
Taking place roughly a year after we left John Waters and Garry Plumb, sitting on that bench, it begins with a missing person. As the story unfolds, we’ll spend a bit more time getting to know DCI John Waters, who’s going through a tough time, personally.
Garry, on the other hand, is living his best life – just as we saw at the end of With Time to Kill. But good things don’t always last, and eventually, something comes along that means he needs to dust of his funny-looking device…
I loved writing this first draft and I can’t wait to share it with you. It’ll sit and stew for a wee while, then I’ll rewrite it. Once that’s done, I’ll be looking for other sets of eyes to go through it and provide feedback, so if you fancy having a look at it, let me know. The final step will be having the manuscript professionally edited before I publish. I expect The Dying of the Light to be available sometime in the Spring.
On the subject of With Time to Kill Amazon are running a promo on it meaning the ebook will be 99p from Monday 3rd Feb to Saturday 8th Feb, so if you know someone who’d enjoy it, let them know it’s discounted for a short while!
Other news
Ralph enjoyed the snow we had, and I have made zero progress on the patio since my last newsletter… send help.
All the very best,
Frank
www.frankferrari.com
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