I found a brief period one evening last week to sit down and do some writing on The Silent Goodbye. It felt good, sure, but it made me realise just how long it had been since I had worked on the novel. It's kind of frightening, really.

The story took on a life of its own as I was writing and I ended up with a very interesting confrontation between Gold and his nemesis, Pim. It was at that point, of course, that I came to the realisation that I don't write fight scenes very well. Never having been much of a fighter myself (I once got jumped from behind by a kid from my school and, instead of trying to fight him, I just carried him on my back for a block or two until he gave up and ran away), I don't have a good grasp of the physical movements that make up a fight, nor how to describe them.

I told myself to be satisfied just to get the basics down and then schedule some time to work it through, step by step, movement by movement. I think it's a good scene and it adds some physical oomph to a part of the novel that has been getting caught up in all the talking at the criminal trial. It also allows me to put Gold and Pim face to face for a moment, to make that threat real again both for the reader and for Gold.

I'm pleased to report that Gold holds his own in the battle, though, of course, he enjoys the advantage of surprise and the battle is brief. Still, good on you, Phil!

Work and life are so busy right now that I may not get back to it for a little while. I still hope to take a couple of weeks off leading up to Christmas to be a homebody and rest so maybe I'll be able to focus on it then.

In the meantime, now that I've finished all the Peanuts books I have (including the two new volumes Patti gave me as an early Christmas present), I've moved on to reading Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and Winston Churchill's series of books on the Second World War. Light reading, to be sure!

Tags: Phillip Gold