2 BOOKS!!!!

 As I have reported here already, I have another book coming out in March/April 2024. But I have just signed a contract for yet another book coming out in Spring 2025!!! 2 different publishers!!! Very exciting for me!!! More about these projects will follow!!! xxxx

BUSY

 I am a little busy just now - well, as busy as it gets for me these days. I am busy with edits for the new book that should come out in the Spring of 2024 - such thorough feedback from the publisher, which I love. And I have just been perusing the cover designs - great designer working on these... more on this later.

And just heard back from another publisher who liked another novella I submitted and wants to talk about it with me early next week... which is exciting.

Yes, so that feels a little like being busy. Also the logs have just been delivered and I need to shift them from the drive to the side of the house (by wheelbarrow) and then stack them so they are ready for use this winter (now!!!).

And I have yoga class this afternoon.

Lots to do so I'd better go!!!!!!

TAPROOT

 More news - here's the link to the page of The Bookseller with news of my next book - to be published in March/April of 2024 by the exciting Taproot Press.

https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/taproot-press-lands-inventive-novel-from-bruton

HERE IT IS....

So the news that is so overwhelming: Below is a little of how I am feeling inside... cos someone just took out an option on one of my novels, an option to make it into a TV/Film thingy... someone's already writing a script and there are industry professionals involved and talk of who might appear in the TV/Film thingy!!!! Still at the early stage so am trying to keep things cool and calm on the outside... but on the inside that's me below!!!

OVERWHELMED!!!!

I have some brilliant news - but it has to be kept under my hat for now. It is something incredible - well for me it is. A beyond-belief thing. I can hardly stop myself from spilling the beans.

I hope for the books that I write to be read and maybe sometimes to be liked. To date some people have said some fantastic things about my books - and of course the books have been on lists for good prizes. Then today I was told a book I wrote is beautiful and wonderful and this person has bought a dozen copies to give to their friends and there's even more to it than this... but I have to wait before sharing.

It may in the end come to nothing, but even for it (this thing, the news) to be thought about by someone other than myself is an incredible thing. Watch this space... though it may be I can't disclose anything till later in the year.

NEW BOOK NEXT YEAR!!!

Just been sent a new contract for another book to be published sometime next year. Very excited about this. Looking forward to working with this new publisher. Will spill more beans when they have put out their press release - the title and the publisher and more!!!

BOOK-TALKING!!! xxxx

A writer writes to be read. So, to be published is always a great thrill and the chance to be read by a wider audience than just one's friends. Found out recently that I was being read in Canada... which feels like a long way away from my home in the Scottish Borders. Not just being read in Canada but being talked about too... and the talk recorded and put up for all to see. Thanks to Shawn (of Shawn The Book Maniac) and Lindy (of Lindy's Magpie Reads) for taking the time to sit down together online to discuss my wee book 'With or Without Angels'. So overwhelmed by this.

A very insightful and intelligent discussion of the book if you want to see...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVgF2kBcSW8&t=109s

IRBA

 The International Rubery Book Award - gave me a shortlisting for 'With or Without Angels' - got to be happy with that. Congratulations to all of the category winners and to the Rubery Book of the Year winner.

That's it - short but sweet! 

So here's something...

I read quite widely and in recent years have been drawn to work that is dubbed 'experimental' - new ways of telling stories. Sometimes these works eshew narrative and story completely and to be honest that does not appeal to me (I was never a fan of Andre Breton and the surrealist writers). I am interested in writing in this new way but I am also interested in telling stories. Experimental should not (I think) be hard, just new and fresh and interesting.

My novella 'Blue Postcards' is an experiment in storytelling and so, I hope, is 'With or Without Angels' - hopefully writing in a way that is new or fresh and yet still writing that is populated with characters who want to impart their stories. I am also looking to write well.

A new writer I like is Amalie Smith - a Danish writer and artist. Only two of her books have been translated into English so far, 'Marble' and 'Thread Ripper', but they are clever and interesting and they are good reads (particularly enjoyed 'Marble'). 

And recently I read a fabulous work called 'Go On' by Tania Hershman and I can't understand why there is not more fuss being made about it. It is so good, so new and so interesting. It does things that no other book does (ok the talking to the dead was also done by George Saunders in 'Lincoln in the Bardo', but the rest of what Hershman does in this book is hers - the voice, the structure and the story). I wrote a review of it on Amazon and Goodreads and expected dozens of other reviews to follow but this has not happened... why not. Go out and get a copy and see for yourself... it is so so interesting.

Here's my review which is really a call out for the book:

'OMG!!! This book is Fucking Brilliant! It is! It is brilliant and wonderful and new. Here is a voice that is quiet and loud both at the same time. A voice that gets in your head and (like the Narrator) a voice you don't want to leave behind when it is finished. This is a wonderful experiment in form and it is quite simply (and complexly) fantastic. I fell in love with the Narrator and with the Author - because I am a Falling-In-Love-Person - but here is a new and very real person and this book helps you to understand that and to accept that. This book is a triumph - for Broken Sleep Books (the publisher) and for Tania Hershman. I want to press copies into the hands of all serious readers - for they will be delighted by it too. You HAVE to read this - it is a ten star read!'

Yes, so go read this book and Amelie Smith too.

PHEW!!!!

 So, since writing the two big projects while my wife was away travelling in March/April, I haven't really been needing to write. Went to Amsterdam for my Birthday and to see the once-in-a-lifetime Vermeer exhibition - which was crazy wonderful; and did some work in the garden and just kicked back. Didn't even do any reading for the third project I have set myself to complete by the end of the year. Then...

Back from Amsterdam and I woke up in the middle of the night - as men of my age often do - and there was an idea in my head which sounded truly brilliant (all ideas sound brilliant at that time of the night!!!) and so I made a mental note to myself to write up the idea in the morning. But then I thought how ideas sometimes get lost in sleep and never can be found again, so I put the bedside light on, grabbbed for my notebook and pen and set to writing it up there and then.

Turned the light off and 'she' wouldn't leave me alone but kept talking to me, adding more and more to the idea. Had to put the light on again and again and again till 12 notebook pages had been written. I didn't knowher name then; that came later, but now I know and her name is Lieke.

Did some research reading after that - light research which is the only kind of research I really like... I am always too impatient to be writing.

Then my wife takes a trip with our daughter to Dusseldorf for a long weekend's getaway and I have four days to myself. Well, what else am I going to do? I started writing this new thing. Wrote 10,000 good words on the first day!!!! Then finished it on the second at around 20,000 in total. A wee novella. Two days to write a wee novella!!!!! That's bloody crazy. 

Took the third day off and then on the fourth I 'polished up' the project. Sent it off (toot sweet) to a publisher and now have my fingers crossed.

And is the way of these things, I woke up this morning and she is not in my head anymore and I miss Lieke now.

HOPE

 So my 'Hope' book will be published a year from now. I have still to get the actual contract but I got an email last night with the offer made official. I have been told who the publisher hopes will design the cover and it is someone whose work I have admired - I have a couple of her covers on my bookshelf. If I am being a bit mysterious and withholding details that is only because I still have to get the contract. Will post more once this has happened. But I was so super excited last night when the email came through that I could not sleep... literally... I am like a half shut knife today (which is something people say, but putting in down in writing I realise I am not altogether sure what that means, except I could sleep right now just by putting my head down!).

FAVOURITE SANDWICH

I've never really had a favourite sandwich before but I do now! Was in Amsterdam for a long weekend and had lunch in a small cafe. The place didn't look anything special and there were only three tables at the back of the shop... I think they did the bulk of their business with a carry-out clientele. Footsore and more than a little peckish I had my heart set on sitting down with a cup of tea and a piece of dutch apple cake. But first a sandwich. (And in the end it was so wonderful that I could not even be disappointed when it was announced that the shop had sold its last piece of apple cake.)

Have recreated the sandwich now I am home and it's easy enough to put together and the special rating it rearned in Amsterdam remains. And so I am here declaring that I now have a favourite sandwich. And here is what it is:

Nice bread (cos nice bread only adds to the sandwich)... you can toast it a little before putting things together. It had been crisped in Amsterdam but I had it uncrisped at home. Then a wee bit of rocket to form a bed for the rest. Then slices of brie (don't be mean with the brie) and some walnut halves to cover the brie. And then a generouse dribble of honey over the walnuts and brie. Then a slice of bread to form the lid. That's it! So simple, but so bloody tasty. Try it. xxx

ON A ROLL

So, in my last post I said I had one more project in my head - the last of three. It will need a wee bit more research before I feel ready to embark on it, but meantime another wee project has popped into my head and I have started writing this... 6000 words in already!!!!

But then I am interrupted today by an email from a publisher. This publisher, hearing I had just finished two projects had asked if they might see them. So I sent them off. And today an email back from them to say they adored 'Hope Never Knew Horizon' and would be 'thrilled' to make me an offer and they were still reading 'Hand On My Heart' but expected they might make me a two-book deal offer!!!

'Hope Never Knew Horizon' - the writing was begun on April 1st; completed on April 7th; sent to a publisher on April 9th and here we are with a possible offer on April 12th!!!

Gobsmackinglyunbloominbelievable!!!

I am understandably a little breathless.

A MONTH TO MYSELF

So, I have had a complete month at home and to myself as my wife has been travelling in India. And what have I done with that month? Good Question. 

Well, firstly I did two great book events for the launching of WITH OR WITHOUT ANGELS - one at The Golden Hare Bookshop in Edinburgh and one at Night Owl Books in East Linton... lovely shops, lovely people, lovely audiences, and lovely chat about what I do and how I do it (beats me how I do it but it's good to talk about it). I have another launch event in the planning for nearer to where I live, but more of that when details are firmed up.

And the rest of the month? - Well, I had a writing project already started and parked at 15,000 words so I got on with that and completed it at just under 60,000 words. The working title for that is 'HAND ON MY HEART' and it's something that has been in my head for some years and is built around a personal experience, though the experience is really a springboard into the fiction. Then I still had plenty of time left so another project that has been rattling about in my head for a wee while came to the surface and I got on with that. Just finished today (Easter Friday) and my wife is back on Sunday, so that's pretty neat timing. This second project is just over 40,000 and is called 'HOPE NEVER KNEW HORIZON' and is something hopeful and full of voices. Had lots of fun just spread out in the house and writing like a dervish (if ever dervishes were to write).

I have one more project to get to and that will hopefully be done by the end of this year - I am just now averaging three of these projects a year so I am well on track for this year.

Now a wee rest, I think.

(I find when I am writing that I really do feel like a writer, but if the rest periods stretch beyond a couple of months then I feel like I am not a writer again and I get antsy.)

An Evening at The Golden Hare, Edinburgh

On Wednesday 22nd March I did a book launch event for 'With or Without Angels' at the lovely Golden Hare Bookshop. I love doing these sorts of events. And I love the Golden Hare Bookshop. My job, as I see it, is to entertain the audience and to gently persuade them to buy a book or two (or three or four) and preferably one or two, or three or four, of my books.

'With or Without Angels' is quite a short book - a novella really, and so I did not want to say too much about what the book was about. So I sort of talked round the book and also did a 'plug' for my other books. I also did a couple of 'teaser' readings. The audience laughed and clapped and asked questions, so that felt like the first part of the job had been done. Then I was busy signing books and when I at last put my pen down and looked up the shop was empty and they were closing up. Lots of books sold - both 'With or Without Angels' and 'Blue Postcards' so that, I think, completed the job.

Plus I had a great time. 

Another book event to do on Monday 27th March. I really should do more of these events... think I have said that before!!!!

Thank you to the lovely ladies at The Golden Hare Bookshop - they do such a great job and made me feel so very welcome.

Someone called Annie...

Someone called Annie just reviewed 'With or Without Angels' on Goodreads. Here's her review, brief and really quite wonderful!!!

"Art, air, age, angels. Beautiful writing.:

And here's another thing I am doing in March to promote my wee book!!! Yay!!!

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Home › In Conversation with Douglas Bruton - 27th March

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In Conversation with Douglas Bruton - 27th March

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Join us at Night Owl Books on Monday, 27th March at 7.30pm, when we'll be joined by author Douglas Bruton.

Purchase a copy of his new book, With or Without Angels (described by The Scotsman as a "work of seriousness, empathy and beauty") and receive a free ticket to our event - while spaces last!

Douglas will be joining us for a Q&A, followed by a book signing.

Select 'local collection' to pick up your copy from Night Owl. Alternatively please select a Royal Mail option, and I'll arrange for a copy to be shipped straight to you. 

About the book:

‘A work of spare and brittle loveliness. With or Without Angels is a deeply moving depiction of art and the people who make it, at once visceral and restrained. I admired it enormously.’ — Nell Stevens, author of Briefly, A Delicious Life

The thought in my head does not yet have shape or form, only direction, one picture leading into another.

An ageing artist, faced with his own mortality, embarks on one final artwork. As he battles to complete the project, working with an enigmatic young photographer, he finds his past and present blurring. Through the act of creation and the memories it excavates, the artist comes to a realisation about what matters most, and what he will leave behind when he is gone.

This hybrid and innovative short novel responds through fiction to The New World, the final artwork by the late artist Alan Smith – which is in turn a response to an eighteenth-century fresco, Giandomenico Tiepolo’s Il Mondo Nuovo. With sparkling, dreamlike prose, Bruton weaves a story around these artworks, arriving at both a profound exploration of the creative process and a timeless love story told in a new way.

About the author:

Douglas Bruton is the author of Walter Scott Prize-longlisted Blue Postcards, a Fairlight Moderns novella published on 8 July 2021, and With or Without Angels, a short novel published on 16 February 2023.

Born in Edinburgh, Douglas spent most of his working life as an English and guidance teacher. Now retired, Douglas continues to reside in Scotland where he writes in his spare time. His writing has been published in various publications including Northwords Now, New Writing Scotland, Aestetica and The Irish Literary Review. His short stories have won competitions including Fish and The Neil Gunn Prize and he has had two novels published, The Chess Piece Magician and Mrs Winchester’s Gun Club.

Softcover, 112 pages, published 2023.

- Where will we be meeting?

The event will be held at Night Owl Books, 1 Bridge Street, East Linton, EH40 3AG.

- We'd like to attend as a couple and share a copy of the book - is that possible?

Of course! You can also purchase a ticket-only option (fully redeemable against book purchases on the night) here.

A note on Covid precautions: if you can, please take a lateral before attending, and if you feel unwell on the day, please err on the side of caution.

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TICKET ONLY - In Conversation with Douglas Bruton - 27th March

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East Linton
EH40 3AG

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