Sunday 13 November 2011

If....



If... is one of those films I watch through my hands at times.  Although it is exaggerated and is set 10 years before I entered such an institution, aspects of it are very recognisable. "Fagging", the Cadets Corps, the endless lusting after females, the emphasis on sport and the age and decrepitude of the buildings and staff.



My public school had a technocrat headmaster.  He did not understand the boys.  But the other teachers were very recognisable, the dim failed housemaster, the young teacher, the eccentrics, the mad chaplain.  We had one English teacher who left suddenly due to "illness" halfway through term.  "Illness" being a euphemism for taking one of the borders up to town for a night out.

The scene where Travis and Johnny take off for the afternoon, steal a motorbike and head off to a truck stop to be served coffee by the pneumatic Christine Noonan really summed up that sudden desire for freedom that probably existed in many boys.  The music that accompanies this scene is one that resonates with me to this day.



The other scene that I did not get first time round aged 13 was the very charged one set in the gym when Johnny preens himself in front of the precocious Bobby Phillips, one of the fags, who then ever so slowly pulled on his jumper, tidies his hair and reluctantly leaves the manly Johnny to continue doing gymnastics.



Now I do understand that scene all too well.

As for the ending?  Well that is/was probably every school boy's fantasy.



If... is available on DVD.  Go for the Criterion version as it has lots of extras.  I also recommend Oh Lucky Man for the further increasingly surreal adventures of Travis ("Chocolate Sandwich" and the instant obituaries to name two scenes that amused me).


Thursday 3 November 2011

...is on the market

With a new cover and some slight edits (reflected in the on-line version as well) at lulu.  It will also be appearing on amazon (most markets) in six to eight weeks they tell me.

I have my own copy, which is now on my bookshelf.  I wonder who will notice?

The Paperback version at lulu.com

Sunday 30 October 2011

And now the paperback version.....

Finally, after a bit of tinkering with covers etc, here is the paperback version.

Currently this is just available from Lulu, but shortly it will be available from amazon as well.

Unfortunately I have no control over the price, the minimum is set by Lulu, so that is what I have left it at.

I will be checking this out myself shortly.

Note the download still remains free at Smashwords for the moment so you can take a look at the entire book so this is a no risk deal.

Going Nuclear - redux IV

Well finally, the news I had been hoping to hear.  "Scholarship" is now in the premium catalogue of smashwords so is now available through "the usual outlets".

When they say available, I believe it can take up to two months to get through to the various lists and catalogues.

That is also true of the paperback version which is just undergoing some minor formatting etc tweaks as we speak.

Friday 28 October 2011

Scholarship French style

I mentioned in a previous post that there are two French films which have some echoes of "Scholarship".  These are 1964's "Les amitiés particulières", a film about two boys who form a "special friendship" in a French style boarding school.  This affair is complicated by the "interest" of one of the priests in the younger boys, so he breaks up the friendship.  This is based on a well known book of the same title, written by Roger Peyrefitte.


The second film is 1997's "La ville dont le prince est un enfant" based on the book "The Boys" and the play "The Fire that Consumes" by Henry de Montherlant.  The plot is identical to "Les amitiés particulières"for the first two thirds of the film before veering off into a Catholic guilt trip of stupendous length and boredom.  However the first two thirds is very watchable as the sadness is palpable almost all the way through, summed up in a stunning scene where "hope" or "happiness" is imagined as a paper plane thrown by the younger boy (Souplier) and ends up crushed in the hands of the jealous priest.  It is one of the most powerful scenes in a film I know, yet few know it.  The authors knew each other, this explains the similarities.


The films are available from amazon.fr (tip if you have an amazon account elsewhere you can sign in for 1 click and get it sent to you from France) Les amitiés particulières and La Ville dont Prince est enfant (at an eye watering price).  They may be available elsewhere but that is one for google.








I recommend both films, they really do resonate with Scholarship (and inspired me to think "hey, I had something like this happen to me" and decide to write a fictionalised account).

Tuesday 25 October 2011

And with a dull thud

The shiny new preview copy of the paperback version lands on my doorstop.

The weight is impressive if nothing else.

I have already spotted one/two  minor tweaks that needs to be made to the cover (the publishing logo is fractionally off centre and I am going to experiment with different colour verbiage).  Update, see result below.  I was sorry to lose the purple, but the white stands out more front to back.

I also realise now that both front and back covers work really well, the front is a boy alone, the back is two boys together, which sort of sums up the plot.  Combined I think it says a lot.  A chance frame as it happens.

Now I am really, really pleased with how the cover has come out.  It gives a clue to what lies within, which was my main aim, and I hope it stands out.  That is a tough challenge in today's crowded e-store, but I am trying

I hope there are not too many more corrections to be made but I aim to scrutinise once more before unleashing this copy  in due course.  Friends, you know what my Christmas prezzie might be this year!

Sunday 23 October 2011

Blazer Fables

This book has been sitting at my bedside for a few weeks now.

A collection of interlinked short stories set in the stifling confines of a 1960s tradition obsessed Public School.  The boys are mildly rebellious, the masters daydreaming, both mostly oblivious to the world outside.

Buck Theorem has written each story in a slightly different style but over the course of the book you end up with a feel for the school and some of its inmates (yes, public school felt like prison to me).

The best is saved to last "Now that we are here" has a gentle build up to a powerful ending with a sublime description of an afternoon spent doing mostly nothing.  Really I wanted more of this one

If you liked some of the hinted stories around the edge of "If..." then this is for you.  But be warned, no machine guns at the end, but something else....

Blazer Fables - paperback

Blazer Fables e-book

New Cover for the paperback version of Scholarship

I have been busy going under the hood and hope to announce very shortly a paperback version of "Scholarship".

This version is the same (well apart from changing one sentence) to the e-pub version but you do get this nice shiny cover to look at!  I am rather please with it.  The picture is actually from a scene in a rather obscure Scandinavian film.

It will be available from amazon and also from lulu.  I will give links in due course.

I hope you enjoy.





Saturday 15 October 2011

Going nuclear - redux III

Well finally, the upload went through and the conversion process also sailed through in about an hour.  Smashwords could really do with a progress bar to let people know something is actually happening.

Anyway, it appears to have passed the vetting process and so now I await the manual vet and hopefully a premium listing. I will let you know, the clock is ticking.

That is the good news.  The unhappy bit to relate is that I really dislike the appearance of the epub version, but maybe that is because it is formatted for e-publishing and I am a bit of a traditionalist, I like paper books.

That will mean that I will shortly release a paperback version on lulu.  One is almost tempted to make it a redux version, putting in some extra text that I had previously edited out.  I am just thinking out aloud here.

Going nuclear -redux II

Back at base after a nice break from work.  I had thought I would get some writing done, but in the end very little happened on that front.

Anyway, having finally had some feedback from Smashwords on what needed to be changed to get on to the premium catalogue, I made the corrections.  Books come in two basic formats, block paragraphs for non-fiction which have a trailing space after each paragraph or first line indent, normally used for fiction, which do not have a trailing space.  That is fine, my problem was that I mixed both styles using a first line indent with a small trailing space.  Unfortunately, it is only at the manual review stage you get told this is the problem.  Until then you are left mystified.  Anyway, I have now removed all trailing spaces so fingers crossed it will work.

The only thing is, at the moment, Smashwords just will not accept any uploads from me (been trying at various times of day and night) for the last 24 hours.  All that happens is that you go to re-upload, select file, hit the button and then wait.... an eternity is seems. The first couple of seconds there is a lot of up/down traffic as you would expect, then it goes to zero... and stays zero.  You have no reassuring message saying percent uploaded or anything just a 0b/0b message.  If I am doing nothing else, Safari sometimes comes back with the "line dropped" message.

I have been looking around to see what other's say.  So far nothing like this from others.

All a bit frustrating when I think I am close to having the formatting right.  Sod's law in fact.

Monday 10 October 2011

Going nuclear - redux

Finally some feedback from smashwords on what hoops I have to leap through to get into the commercial market, it is partly a matter of trailing paragraph spaces (they don't like them if you have an initial indent).  That is easily fixed.

The other "problem" is the infamous "paragraph 7a" issue of incompatible headers.  I am going to have to wrap a towel around my head for that one.

But we will get there, honest.

Meanwhile, I am having some further thoughts about what comes next.  I will let you know when I know myself.

Sunday 2 October 2011

The Character Jonathan

Jonathan is important to the plot of Scholarship, he was a close friend of Pip.  However, in real life Jonathan did not exist, he is actually a composite of three boys.

Mostly Jonathan is R.  R had a great nickname, he was one of a large number of brothers from a Catholic family, so shared some of the guilt that Catholicism seems to thrive on.  That he trained to be a priest did not surprise me, nor that he decided that priesthood was not really for him, also did not surprise me.  I see he now works abroad, no doubt supported by his faith.

Jonathan also has a chunk of S in him.  S was up for anything.  He was the naughtiest boy in the school but only because that is what people thought he was.  He never did anything terrible, just a bit of a mischief but his name was often called out at assembly, and that meant big trouble for him.  Even then, S was good looking with short very blonde hair and a permanent suntan.  I saw him some years later, walking down the other side of the street.  I wish I had plucked up the courage to speak to him, but he was with another boy from school, so I did not as they looked like they might be an item.

Jonathan also had a bit of C in him.  C was another natural mischief, very high spirited and adventurous, often in trouble.  His father was a famous expert and used to appear on TV ever so often.  I thought C would go on to do something similar, but there is no sign of him since we went to different schools.

Sunday 25 September 2011

The Custard Boys

One of the reasons I wrote "Scholarship" was that I could not recall a book on the same subject, ie love and loss in a prep school.  That sentence is of course an invitation for many to send me numerous titles covering exactly the same ground!

The nearest in feel is "The Custard Boys" by John Rae (former headmaster of Westminster School).


The Custard Boys is not set in a prep school, but it does hint at a relationship between two boys in their early teens set during WWII.  The Custard Boys starts out as if it is some sort of gung ho adventure story.  You soon realise it is not.  Indeed it ends up being a powerful anti-war story.

Now I have awakened your interest, I gently have to break the news that it is out of print.  However, I picked up a version second hand via amazon marketplace.

I found out about the book having seen an amateur film of the book shown on Channel 4 one Christmas.  If you search for "The Custard Boys" on line, you will see various sites offering it for download in various forms.    However, I urge you to support the original maker the Children's Film Unit by buying a copy from them http://www.btinternet.com/~cfu/prods.htm.  Be warned, the quality is not the greatest.

Further research revealed that there was a previous version of the film called "Reach for Glory" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056397/ starring the iron jawed Harry Andrews as our young hero's father.  This version is my favourite version if only because it maintains the hint of a relationship between the two boys.  Looking on IMDb, I read that the satellite channel "Simply Movies" has shown it in the UK.  Otherwise, http://www.ioffer.com/i/reach-for-glory-1962-dvd-harry-andrews-kay-walsh-145626037  offers copies for sale.  I cannot vouch for the status of this copy and have not used the site.  I would also warn that the cover below is a very inventive re-imagining of the plot, this takes place in Norfolk, not some bombed out inner city!


There are also a couple of classic French novels covering similar ground but these I will come back to at a later date.

Saturday 24 September 2011

Going Nuclear

This is really a specific smashwords post.  the aim in life with an ebook is to get it onto many lists as possible including fusspots apple.  So do that, you have to pass through their autovetting process which is a complete style fascist.  Well for good reasons, bad formatting does look dire.

The problem is you think your formatting is perfect, the machinery does not.  So you are in a "you used a leading paragraph return together with an indented first line" purgatory.

Sigh, I always use a block paragraph at work but decided to conform with the indented first line paragraph style used for fiction.

Back to the drawing board!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Location, Location, Location

When writing Scholarship, I knew I had to relocate the school, nowhere near where I went to school but instead somewhere I knew.

In the end, that became an easy choice.  I have connections with Cornwall, and used to holiday there each summer as a kid.  In later life I would often drive along the north coast between Sennen and St Ives.  En route, between Zennor and St Ives is a spectacularly lonely stretch of road where there is a very small hamlet with a house on a high promontory over looking the sea.  It is here that I imagined the school to be. In fact all there is, is a farm and some farm buildings.  The design of the school is based on my old school which indeed was a converted farm and a large house built around a quadrangle.  Our gym and dining hall were both in converted barns and the changing room was a dark labyrinth underneath another barn.

Anyway, late last year I braved the six mile Zennor to St Ives walk twice, once along the coast and once along "The Coffin Path" (it does exist).  Six miles and four hours of solid slog.


This stream probably originates on Trendrine hill which lies the other side of the road.



If anywhere is chapel cove, this is it!  In reality, Chapel Cove was based on a cove near Swanage in Dorset.

Wicca does exist as a place, that is closest to the location I chose.  



If you have not already worked out, lots of weirdness takes place in Cornwall.  I was there during the eclipse in 1999, we saw nothing, it was thick black cloud and raining, when the sky darkened, it was the proverbial end of the world to look at.  Didn't stop the local farmer from ploughing though!

Tuesday 20 September 2011

About "Scholarship"

Okay, "Scholarship" is that precious thing, the first novel.   Apparently, so one of my friends tell me, I have been talking and writing this for "quite some time".  Deep breath....

Scholarship is fiction, the school called "The Rocks", does not exist.  Let's get this out of the way first.

However, Scholarship is very much drawn from a series of events that happened in my life when I was at Prep School in England in the 1960s.  This is the British sort of prep school, educating boys aged 8-13.  In the novel, it is an all boarders single sex establishment.  That environment alone is enough to generate lots of material as it is an artificial environment, women and girls are virtually absent, emotions repressed and no escape.

I actually rather enjoyed my prep school, we had a great time, the food was good and I liked most of my teachers.  But in this environment, I found out I was gay.  My body found out sooner than my brain.  I was a bit confused, especially when I fell for a boy (called Sacha in the book) when I was 12.  Sacha was six months younger than me but as soon as I saw him, I realised there was something special there.

That is the basis of Scholarship.  If you read the end notes, you will see that I tell you that many of the incidents that make up the story are true (even the dialogue is based on my memory of things said almost 40 years ago).  Also based on reality are most of the characters, teachers and boys. Names have been changed.  The dates I give are also slightly out.

More to follow.