Early reviews of 'With or Without Angels'

 So, some advance copies of my new book (not released until February 2023) 'WITH OR WITHOUT ANGELS' have gone out and there's a couple of five-star reviews up on Net Galley. Here's one:

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2022/11/with-or-without-angels-by-douglas-bruton.html?fbclid=IwAR1YeMXNteeWzKgZQdcAMmpoyPNJVgDIviRFbZb938M0pM-kWJ2cyBAcY9I

ON THE RADIO!

In the summer I travelled up to Aberdeen to record a radio show. This was part of the celebration of 'PUSHING OUT THE BOAT' a really fine literary magazine that is published out of Aberdeen. As someone who has had stories published in several editions of the magazine, Shmu radio wanted to record readings of two of my stories, some chat with me about my writing, a plug for my current book and something about what's coming up next. 

Loraine Mudie, the host of the show, was just lovely and I hope the atmosphere created is relaxed and easy - that's certainly how I felt. I was also thrilled to do it. A whole hour (or as near as dammit) of me and my writing.

If you are interested the show will air on 17th November 2022 at 1pm.

To listen go to the SHMU website at shmu.org.uk and select listen live.

Thanks.

AND JUST MAYBE...

 Might have another wee novella out soon. It was accepted by a publisher some time ago and now has a publication date (all being well) and I should be working on the edits before the end of this month. Will say more when I am more certain of where we are with this, but I have already been sent publicity blurb so it looks more and more likely that this will happen... and before Christmas too!

 

And ‘WITH OR WITHOUT ANGELS’ is now with the printer with all its lovely endorsements from very lovely writers. 

Watch this space for more news in the next few weeks!

Annual HNS Conference

 On 3rd September I travelled down to Durham to be a part of the Historical Novel Society's Annual Conference. I was on their programme and after Emma Darwin's keynote opening speech, I delivered a talk to a a very warm wee audience. The talk  covered my two novels, 'Mrs Winchester's Gun Club' and 'Blue Postcards' and seems to have been very well received. One of the organisers sat in on my talk and described it afterwards as 'immersive' and 'inspirational' and 'brilliant'. Members of the audience also spoke positively of the talk afterwards - so that is a clue that I should be doing more of these events... and I will do more as part of the promotion of 'With or Without Angels' which is still on track to be published in Ferbruary 2023.

TO BE GOOD...

Do you think we all want to be good? And to do good? Is it something to do with being liked? Or loved? I’m really not sure. 

I remember wanting to please my parents, especially my mother. They lived in different times, a time when it was normal to leave children alone in the house. And they gave me strict instructions on what to do and what not to do. I had to look after my younger brother. I recall one evening they went out and me and my brother were just finishing our tea. I did all the dishes afterwards and dried them and put them all away. Then I pulled all the pots and pans out of the cupboard and cleaned everything so it was sparkling and new. Was I being good? I certainly thought so.

 

Then you get into your teens and it is maybe harder to be completely good, not just because life is more complex but there’s the influence of your peers to contend with. I remember I tried smoking and lied to my parents about it; I stole a book from a shop once; I skipped school once – but only once.

 

Then I studied philosophy at university. I thought it might have something to do with being good. I was already kind and not just to people close to me. I swore but only a little, not liking the taste of those words in my mouth. I thought the best of people and thought they could not be intentionally bad, but saw their hard or hurtful actions as the result of some pain they were dealing with. I tried to understand people and to be compassionate towards their undisclosed pain. I don’t think I learned that from studying philosophy.

 

And as a teacher that was always useful, to hold all your pupils in equal regard and to see any misbehaviour as communication and nothing more malicious than that. Recently I read something online – it was a bit trite and a bit cute; it was how when we are old we are still the child inside – it was an encouragement to see old people with a specific sensitivity. I don’t know if I quite believe that, I don’t know; but I do think adults are not so very different from children. We hope they are smarter and more in tune with who they are and more inclined towards goodness, but that may not always be the case and where it isn’t then if we look a little closer we will, I think, find a reason for the way they are and in that understanding there might be kindness.

 

Is being kind something to do with goodness? Is wanting to do good enough? Is trying to be always good what being good is – and having always tried it no longer feels like trying but just is second nature? And what about when that goodness is tested and it breaks a little? Are we then no longer good?

 

I sometimes worry about the hurt others suffer in this world. Things said to them, about them; things done to them. That is why I am careful (try to be) in avoiding the infliction of such hurt. People are sometime fragile or near the edge and the smallest hurt can tip them over. And you never can tell what a hard word will do. At school thinking like this made you ‘soft’ but if it is part of who you are you just have to deal with that. Kind, thoughtful, sensitive, damaged – that is what I am and yet the impulse is still to be good.

 

And when I see that in another person I recognise the need and I am lit up and want to do a specially good deed for that person. Maybe that’s why I cleaned the pot cupboard, top to bottom – because my mother was unhappy that day. On her return, when she saw what I had done she called me good and she was smiling all the next day. Being good is, I think, about making the world better for other people and if we do that then we make the pain they have easier to bear. I think that is there in my writing if you look.

Back to the business of New Book

So, the news is out... online... here's the cover!!!! I love it! Thank you Giandomenico Tiepolo! And the book will have French flaps (didn't even know that was what they were called!) and colour pictures inside! This will be a quality book to hold in the hands. And the prose is described as 'sparkling' and 'dreamlike' which sounds good to me!

And also where you can find information about the book!

https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/fairlight-books-picks-up-dreamlike-novel-from-bruton

Article on Plagiarism (The Guardian)

 This article says a lot of what I have said elsewhere on my blog. Worth a read, I think.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/17/plagiarism-books-intellectual-property-mccrum

Which, I believe, makes the defintition of plagiarism something to do with direct reproduction of another's words or phrasing and passing them off as your own. 

Ideas are often, an honest writer would admit, borrowed and this is so much a part of creativity that it cannot and should not be prevented.

The book Life of Pi: the idea or premise of the book came from a book published by a Brazillian writer. That idea broadly is a teenager adrift in a boat after a shipwreck and in the company of a big cat - for Pi it is a tiger and in the Brazillian book it is a panther. It is not clear that Martel read the Brazillian book but he claims he read a review of it and thought the idea was solid gold. He then wrote his book... it was a sensation and made a lot of money. Then the charge of plagiarism was levelled at the book. I read this has now been investigated and it has been declared that this is not an example of plagiarism.

"He who receives an idea from me," wrote Thomas Jefferson, "receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

People who throw around the charge of plagiarism need to educate themselves in what is and is not plagiarism. I am constantly reading on the subject so I that I do not fall foul of the law. All writers should perhaps do this too.

Short story competitions

 Just to say I have not entered any short story competitions since 2017/18... I was for a while entering comps using a pseudonym (Lindsay Fisher)...  I did this to test the story without any baggage being attached to it. If I could have entered the stories anonymously I would have. Recently one of these stories that did well in a couple of comps was published online with my real name attached. This prompted someone to write to one of the comps and to cry 'plagiarism'. The comp admin person contacted me (as Lindsay Fisher) to ask what action they wanted me to take. I pointed out that the judge of their comp at the time of my entering their comp was informed at the time that I was the real writer and that L Fisher was a pseudonym... I have the email papertrail for this. Their records were checked and this was all given the ok by the comp admin person.

I can see how my using a pseudonym like this has caused this problem. I apologise for that.

I read today that someone else has spotted this anomally and is crying 'theft' all over again... on twitter. I do not know if this theft-crying person comes here anymore... they used to come here to accuse me of theft more than ten years ago... I am not a thief and this most recent example is not what this person thinks it is. Just thought I should post this here.

PS I have sent emails to this theft-crying person but I do not think she will respond or let her twitter friends know of the error.

PPS I stand corrected. The person has just now corrected their twitter account. Says they are happy to put that straight; just that. Nothing about the vitriol in their twitter posts or about jumping to the wrong conclusion; 'so easy to check'.. that's what was said in their post, but clearly they did not check sufficiently. And nothing about the vitriol in the comments responding to their posts. I am pleased that at least the twitter thread has been corrected and they were happy to do that - whatever that means.

So the new book....

 The new book will be called 'WITH OR WITHOUT ANGELS'. I have seen the cover design. It will have French flaps and colour pictures inside printed on quality paper. The publisher has said the book will have a 'prestige' feel to it. It looks so good. And I have read the blurb... I want to read this book it sounds so good! I can't wait to begin really pushing this book with some live events... but it will be February 2023 before this happens. I will share more when I can. x

IT'S FUNNY - FUNNY-STRANGE, NOT FUNNY HAHAHA!

 Been keeping this blog going for years now - maybe too many years. And I recently spotted that I have a follower who came here a week or so ago and I know this person does not like me! That feels funny - funny-strange, not funny-hahaha. Just quietly popped in, read a few posts then quietly left. That's allowed on the internet. I maybe do it myself a bit from time to time... 

Now I think about it, I am not really sure why I keep this blog going... it's not habit cos I don't come here often enough for that. It can't be for attention cos nobody ever comments. It might be a place for me to park things or a place to let the quiet people know that I am not dead or idle. I just don't know.

It's like putting a message in a bottle and tossing it into the sea... something hopeful, maybe. The hope though gets smaller and smaller with each passing year. Who knows, I might just take a rest from this place for a long while. Who knows.

Edits done... and something else!!!!!

Just updating news on the new book out in February next year... have completed all the edits to the publisher's satisfaction (that means the advance is winging its way to the old bank account!). Proof reading will be the next task... sometime soon maybe.

Have got permission to use photogrpahs of all the artworks for the book.

Title has been approved.

Waiting for news of a cover.

(Oh, and this week I wrote something new - another wee book, but it is something that has been nagging at me for more than a year... nearer eighteen months... and I have thought about it and made notes on it and then parked it, not feeling quite ready... did this several times actually. Then, this week, when I should have been doing other things, it spilled out. I don't usually do drafts but this feels like a first drafted piece and I know there is still some research I need to do to tie it all up... but at least the whole thing has been thrown down on paper and can't be lost now.... that was four days well spent and I suddenly feel like a writer again.)

More to follow!!!

NEW BOOK in a year!

 I have just signed a contract for the publication of my next book. Feels pretty great... only wrote this in October 2021 so this is the fastest anything I have written has moved from my computer screen. 

Will share more news when I am able, but it looks like this book will have pictures!!! 

And of all my titles so far it has the title I love the best... I was struggling for the right title and went for a long walk far away from people and computers and phones. Lost in my own thoughts - which is sometimes an absence of all thought - it came to me, like a hawk dropping out of the sky... and I knew it was perfect. I had to keep saying it over and over - out loud and in my head - so I did not lose it before I got home (that can happen!!!).

My BIG BIG BIG News!!!

 My wee book is on a big list! Announced today is the 13 strong longlist of books for the very prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022 – Hilary Mantel won it last year! It is that big. And my book, Blue Postcards, has found its way onto the list. Look at the other books and the other writers on the list, every one of them… this is great company to be in! And these other books are pretty amazing… go read them.

Hopefully this listing will put my book in front of a lot more readers, which after all is what you want for a book!

https://www.walterscottprize.co.uk/2022-longlist-revealed/

2022 longlist revealed

7th February, 2022

The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has announced its 2022 longlist.

Thirteen novels are in contention for the £25,000 prize, with settings spanning from the 8th century BC up to the 1960s, and from all four nations of the United Kingdom to Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the West Indies and the Punjab.

The longlist is: 

BLUE POSTCARDS Douglas Bruton (Fairlight Books)

SNOW COUNTRY Sebastian Faulks (Hutchinson Heinemann)

ROSE NICHOLSON Andrew Greig (Riverrun)

MRS ENGLAND Stacey Halls (Manilla Press)

THE BALLAD OF LORD EDWARD AND CITIZEN SMALL Neil Jordan (Lilliput Press)

THE SUNKEN ROAD Ciaràn McMenamin (Harvill Secker)

THE FORTUNE MEN Nadifa Mohamed (Viking)

NEWS OF THE DEAD James Robertson (Hamish Hamilton)

CHINA ROOM Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker)

FORTUNE Amanda Smyth (Peepal Tree Press)

LEARWIFE J.R Thorp (Canongate)

THE MAGICIAN Colm Tóibín (Viking)

STILL LIFE Sarah Winman (Fourth Estate)

So, I Can Say This...

 I have two bits of news under my hat - one I cannot let out until next week, but the other I can say something about. I subbed a new work to a publisher a month ago and this afternoon we talked over the phone and they would like to publish the work in 2023... It was something I wrote quite quickly... over a period of 6-10 days. I wrote it for the joy and because it was an idea that would not leave me alone. I did not intend it for publication - I do not think I did - and, although I was encourgaed to send it out there, I did not really expect it to find a home; now, it seems, it has. That's it. That's all I can let out for now. Hat firmly back on my head. The other news, the big news, comes next week sometime. Thanks.

Good things come in threes?

I still cannot let the cat out of the bag just yet - that is, I cannot divulge the good news I am holding like a winning hard at cards, holding very close to my chest. But less than a week to go and I will let it all out, I promise.

And today I may have just received some more good news... I might know more tomorrow. Phone calls to publishers to discuss the project... eek! However, at this stage I can say that I am pretty blown away by the news and can't wait to share this also.

They say that good things comes in threes... can't think what the third piece of good news will be but I will keep an eye out for it.

Tahnks for reading and thanks for your patience. x

SPEAK, SILENCE

(I am not ignoring the news that I have announced will appear here soon - I just am not yet allowed to announce it... but very soon!)

I got for Christmas 'Speak, Silence,' a biography of W G Sebald by Carole Angier. It was hugely interesting. Angier is a fan - actually she declares that she loves Sebald's work - 'Vertigo', 'The Emigrants', 'Rings of Saturn' and his masterpiece (judged so by Angier and by many) 'Austerlitz'. I also love Sebald's work, love his voice and his eye for detail and the wide reach of his learning.

But apparently there was some controversy over his last book, 'Austerlitz'. The central story was apparently taken from someone else's book. The writer of this other book was made aware and so she read 'Austerlitz' and was herself angered by what she read. Later she was at best conflicted - in admiration of the book and the writing but still deeply upset that her life-story had been taken from her.

Angier sees that there is a difficulty here and that anyone who loves Sebald's work has to come to their own view on the matter and to balance that with their view of his work.

This use of someone else's writing is not an isolated incident in Sebald. Sometimes he even uses the actual words of the writer he takes from. Yet, undoubtedly his writing is brilliant. So how do we square all this up? Do we reject Sebald and call him a common (or uncommon) thief or do we just forgive him because he wrote so well (a loveable thief)? 

Or do we look again at art and acknowledge that all writing is theft of this kind (see Jonathan Lethem)? Sebald did not see that he had done wrong - even after it was pointed out to him how much his borrowing for 'Austerlitz' had hurt the writer he had taken from.

I do not have an answer to this problem. It is not an easy matter to solve this. That's why lawyers get involved, though I do not know if that is a satisfactory solution to the matter.

I know of one writer who has declared that 'Austerlitz' is their favourite book; the same writer calls out the kind of borrowing Sebald does, calls it criminal and their anger verily boils over. Perhaps this writer did not know of Sebald's writing methods when they fell for 'Austerlitz'; perhaps if they found out now they would not hold 'Austerlitz' so high; perhaps this writer might modify their view of this kind of borrowing. I would be interested to know.

Personally, I still think 'Austerlitz' is an amazing read and it has not been shifted from its place on my top ten list by this knowledge. For me Art does not exist in a vacuum and is the product of a writer's experience and that includes their reading. I accept there is a need to protect Intellectual Property at some level... but stories and ideas, once put out there... well, don't they then belong to us all because we cannot afterwards unexperience them? And artists require to be able to respond to their experiences... it is, I think, something to do with freedom in art. 

FAB NEWS - SOON!

 Just to say I have some fab news about Blue Postcards and will be allowed to release it soon! Eeeeek! Watch this space... 

Thanks to FAIRLIGHT for giving an old story of mine an airing!!!

 This story was written many years ago now... belongs to a more innocent writing time. I hope it is fun and quirky and worth a read. Thanks to Fairlight for putting it out there.

https://www.fairlightbooks.co.uk/short_stories/the-bus-stop-scheherazade/