So the publisher said "No". Very kindly, very politely, but "No". He also said, "I still like the courtroom scenes, but I’m still not overwhelmed by the rest."

I'm trying to figure out how I'm reacting. I'm still quite overwhelmed by how much time and energy this publisher afforded me and my book and I continue to be grateful for that. I can wish for a different outcome. I can feel disappointed to have come this far only to fail once again to reach my goal. But I can't complain that I wasn't given a fair chance by this publisher.

I can also understand why he would say "no" and yet still not take it as an assault on my skills and talents as a writer. Call it ego but I believe my book is well-written enough to be published. I just don't think the publisher felt the subject matter would sell. I've understood for a long time that a very well written book is not going to succeed if it doesn't offer a "sexy" plot, subject, or hook that will make readers want to buy it.

The Silent Goodbye doesn't seem to have those things. It's a good story. It's well told. But it doesn't stand out. It's a fairly homey novel about a small-time lawyer who finds himself in big-time trouble.

So it would seem that The Silent Goodbye isn't going to be published any time soon. And I'm left wondering where to turn next. I had been working on the next Phillip Gold mystery novel, The Final Curtain, and I might just keep going with that. I'd do so, however, not with the belief that this new novel stands a better chance of being published (it's too much in the same vein, the same flavour as The Silent Goodbye for me to believe that) but on the basis that I'm enjoying writing it, it's fairly well along and I think my nieces would still enjoy seeing their idea turned into a full-length (though unpublished) novel.

I'm toying with some other ideas as well, at this point. The one thing I'm not doing is considering giving up writing. I had feared, after sending the revised version of The Silent Goodbye to the publisher, that my reaction to a possible rejection might be such deep disappointment that I would discard my netbook and move on to some other pasttime. But I'm having no such reaction now.

Okay, I may die without ever having a novel published. Fine. But I draw too much enjoyment from the act of writing to give it up entirely.

Tags: Novels, Mystery, Phillip Gold, publishing, Writing, The Silent Goodbye

With The Silent Goodbye now off in the world, I'm able to focus again on The Final Curtain, my next Phillip Gold novel. As you might recall, I started writing this new book last fall after I had set aside the completed second draft of TSG for a cooling off period before doing final revisions.

The first step is to review what I've already written of the new book. And, to my surprise, it's close to 12,000 words. I had not realised I had already written so much.

So far, so good, I think. This novel begins in the courtroom, with Kevin Dallanger in the witness box and Phillip Gold, his lawyer and our hero, completely frustrated. It's a good scene, from what I can see: it seems to crackle with tension and energy.

Like TSG, this novel will have two complementary plots: a courtroom drama and an action/mystery story. I've been told that my courtroom scenes are especially strong and I want to continue to play to that strength, while still keeping some elements of the mystery in there as well.

The challenge I have set for myself, however, is that the courtroom plot for this new book is to be drawn from an earlier, unpublished novel I wrote several years ago under the title, All That Glisters. And, in that iteration, it wasn't a courtroom drama at all; it was a plain old mystery novel. That means I have to take a story that is already so vividly alive for me in one format and transpose it into a completely different format.

I think it will work, if I'm careful and creative and not too afraid to change a story of which I'm already very fond. I'm certainly pleased with that first courtroom scene: it's just a matter of making sure the rest of the story vibrates with the same energy.

The second plot, the action plot, will tell the tale of the murder of a young movie star, which occurs just when the Dallanger trial swings into high gear. Gold gets involved because an old school chum of his, Liam MacKenzie, turns out to be the prime suspect in the murder. So, once again, Gold will be balancing the exhausting drama of a pitched courtroom battle with a physically taxing, continually dangerous effort to deal with events as they unfold in the outside world.

I think it's a really good sign that, even as The Silent Goodbye wafts out there in the world of hopes and dreams, I'm still excited to move on to the next project. And the next project, it seems, will be even more challenging and more complex than the last.

Tags: Writing, Novels, Mystery, Phillip Gold, publishing

I just pressed "Send".

My heart is still pounding. My breath is short. My fully revised manuscript for The Silent Goodbye, my Phillip Gold mystery novel, is now on its way to the publisher for consideration. In fact, it's probably already there.

Patti finished her detailed review of the new version just before we left for Montreal last weekend. I managed to implement some of her suggestions before we boarded the plane and the remainder this morning. She had a lot of great comments and questions, as I had expected she would, and I think they have made the book even stronger.

I'm nervous right now, to be frank. But I'm also completely satisfied. No, the book is likely not perfect but I think it's damned good. Best thing I've ever written. I don't think I've ever worked so hard on anything in my life nor cared so much about any piece of writing.

I have been very fortunate to have received fabulous input from my several readers and from the publisher himself. I think you have to have some pretty strong confidence in your writing to try to write and publish a novel but you also have to have the humility to accept quality criticism when it comes. I can honestly say that the manuscript is a significantly better work of fiction now that I've incorporated the many suggestions I have received.

Will it be good enough? I don't know. That's for the publisher to decide. I also know that there are dozens of other reasons (other than that the book isn't good enough) that might cause him to pass on publishing this novel. But I can honestly say that this is a manuscript of which I am very proud.

So now I wait. Nervous, excited, expectant. I'll try to work on The Final Curtain, maybe get some reading done, watch a movie or two to pass the time. But in reality it will simply be a period of waiting. And hoping.

I've waited forty-five years so far. What's another couple of weeks? Or even months?

Tags: Phillip Gold, Mystery, Novels, Writing, publishing

Patti is still working her way through The Silent Goodbye, her editing pen at the ready. I've asked her to try to have her review done by the end of January and she's promised to make it a priority. Still, I am well aware that Patti takes time but produces real quality so I am quite content to wait for her comments.

That being said, she did have a number of kind words for the manuscript this week. She said she finds it "fast moving", "interesting" and "really good". That's a satisfying little snack of compliments, I must admit.

She had several suggestions that I will have to mull over, though I am already planning to implement at least a couple of them. When you write a novel, you always have scenes or moments that you're not quite comfortable with but you wonder if a reader would respond the same way. In at least one instance, Patti's comment to me captured exactly what I myself had been thinking about that particular scene so I am already working on a resolution to the problem.

It's hard to sit back and watch her read it. I always want to interrupt her to ask her if she likes it, where she is in the story, what she thinks will happen next. I can't imagine what would happen to me if the book were actually to be published. Imagine me sitting in a coffee shop somewhere and spotting a complete stranger reading The Silent Goodbye by Mark Walma! I think I'd freak out.

I had an experience like that on a smaller scale when I was still in school. I was covering the university's football team for the student weekly and one day, while I was walking in downtown Hamilton, I saw someone reading the student newspaper on a park bench. Curious, I wandered over. To my surprise, he was reading my own article on the latest football game. I felt a warm, slightly scared feeling in my stomach. It was like being happy and nauseous at the same time.

I walked very quickly away before he could ruin the moment by scowling, spitting on the paper or, worse, scrunching it up and throwing it in the garbage in disgust.

I guess that's a risk you have to take if you want to be a published author.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Writing, Mystery

The manuscript for The Silent Goodbye is currently on standby as I wait for Patti to finish her careful review. I am hopeful that she will complete her task by the end of January so that I can send it off to the publisher for consideration in February.

While I wait, I have turned my attention to starting work on my next Phillip Gold mystery, tentatively titled The Final Curtain. The court plot will be an adaptation of the Kevin-Dallanger story that appears in my earlier effort, All That Glisters, while the action plot will involve characters and story lines suggested to me by my nieces, Alex and Katie, this summer. The result is an interesting combination of stories that will revolve around the fates of three young girls.

I'm pleased with the plan and I think the combination of the two stories should provide some good drama and suspense. I discovered this morning, however, that as the two plots were being developed independently I had created three female characters who were just too similar to each other for clarity: blonde, around 14 years of age and bearing names that begin with the letter "M" (Melissa, Mary Kate and Mitsy).

That's gotta change. Since Mitsy is the only name that is non-negotiable, it looks like Melissa will have to become something like Allison and Mary Kate will have to be simplified to Kate.

I don't think my nieces will mind having characters in the novel bearing forms of their names.

Since turning my attentions to this new novel, I've managed to write more than 7,000 words, beginning with what I hope is a very dramatic court scene involving Kevin Dallanger and Phillip Gold. It's been fun to write, blending an existing plot with a new one. I hope to continue to make good progress over the winter.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Novels, Mystery, publishing, Writing

I have gotten the new year off right, I think, with a nice combination of reading, writing and TV watching, plus time spent with friends and family. I go back to work tomorrow but, so far, it's been a great start to 2011.

Patti is working her way methodically through the revised manuscript for The Silent Goodbye, my Phillip Gold mystery, court-room drama novel. Patti is one of the most detail-oriented people I've ever met and she combines that valuable characteristic with a keen understanding of the writing process so I'm looking forward to reading her comments. She tells me she's enjoying the novel in its revised version, so that's good, and has said that it seems to move much quicker now. Another real positive.

Meanwhile, I've been doing my Christmas reading. First up was Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, a collection of some of his best New Yorker articles called What the Dog Saw. These are fascinating pieces, filled with interesting information and surprising insights. I like Gladwell's style and admire his ability to take academic/scientific research and make it accessible. I am also impressed with his ability to make compelling connections between seemingly disparate topics (like mammograms and pin-point bombing) in a useful, readable way.

I think, however, that I read the book too quickly: by the time I was two-thirds of the way through, I was beginning to tire of the author's tone and formula for these articles. I should have read one, then set the book aside for a week or so before moving onto the next article. Still, an interesting read.

We've also been catching up on our television watching, after finding DVD sets from the Big Bang Theory, Corner Gas and Fringe under the tree. Big Bang and Corner Gas are tried and true favourites but Fringe is new to me: an updated version of X Files, Fringe was created by J.J. Abrams and offers a stylish, creepy anthology of science fiction/horror plots with what seems to be a neat set of continuing characters. We've only watched the pilot so far but it certainly was strong enough to convince us to watch more.

On the writing side of things, I've converted my former golf blog into a picture-a-day challenge, where I will try to publish to the blog a new photograph every day for a year. I'm pleased with the results so far: check them out at http://wordsbywalma.blogspot.com/.

And, of course, I'm starting to plan the next Phillip Gold novel, which I think will again feature a mystery plot alongside a court-room story. I'll be getting to work on it soon and will keep you posted.

Tags: Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, Malcolm Gladwell, What The Dog Saw, Writing, Mystery, Novels, publishing, Big Bang Theory, Corner Gas, Fringe

Ten days off means a nice break from work and the pressures it brings.

Patti and I decided to stay in Fredericton again this Christmas and play host to our good friend Stephanie, who has come from Halifax the past two years to join us for the holidays. Steph is one of those easy guests who fits right in, is comfortable from the first moment and enjoys a laid back, jammie-wearing lifestyle like we do.

I had a lovely Christmas, with Normand joining Patti, Steph and me for dinner on Christmas Eve, lots of time to talk to friends and family on Christmas itself and a couple of enjoyable evenings with our friends James and Patty (and family) here in Freddie. The weather has been playing games, of course, keeping Christmas green, then dumping about a foot of snow on us today (the 27th) to make life interesting.

The snow certainly made Boxing Day shopping a breeze, since it made sure few people could get out to the stores at opening time on Monday. Steph and I trekked in through the deep snow to find Zellers a ghost-town and the Future Shop just starting to pick up. We bought the second season of Big Bang Theory at Zellers for a great price (the first season was a Christmas gift from Marlee to Patti on Christmas itself) as well as a couple of movies. Then it was on to the Future Shop where I succumbed to temptation and purchased a basic Sony Blue-Ray-Disc/DVD player for next to nothing.

And, of course, to test out the Blue-Ray high-def capability, we bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for $10, then came directly home to enjoy it. I had doubted the high-def would make that much of a difference but, even with a 720p TV, it was really quite amazing. I will try to control myself with regard to replacing DVDs I already own with the Blue-Ray version but I will keep my eye out for high-def discs of interesting movies we don't already own in the future.

And I got some great reading materials for Christmas as well. Malcolm Gladwell's latest, What the Dog Saw, was under the tree for me as was The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy (Hogwarts for Muggles) and an interesting novel: NIcholas Dickner's Apocalypse for Beginners. I've already launched into the Gladwell and expect to enjoy all three books over the next couple of weeks.

Somewhere in there I'll have to find time to complete the revisions on The Silent Goodbye, my Philllip Gold mystery manuscript, with a view to submitting it to a publisher in January.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Rowling, Harry Potter, Philosopher's Stone, Weather, Mystery, Writing, Novels, Big Bang Theory, Gladwell

With Christmas upon us and my first review of The Silent Goodbye now completed, I'm contemplating next steps. I can't actually enter the revisions into my manuscript until Patti has completed her review so I have some time to move on to other things.

My friend Clare has been e-mailing me about The Way Forward, my Rowling-World novel that follows the lives of three minor characters from the Harry Potter series (which, by the way, is available on this website for your reading pleasure). Clare is a marvellously perceptive reader and an avid fan of Harry Potter so I find her e-mails very inspiring. She is adamant that the Muggle character, Kate, should have a continuing role so I'm asking her to help me plan the hows, whens, wheres and whys of Kate's re-emergence.

I am also starting to turn my mind to the next Phillip Gold novel. As I have mentioned before, I have two completed earlier novels (A Fleck of Gold and All That Glisters) but anyone who has read the first chapters of either or both of them (also available on this website) will be able to tell you that they will need a great deal of work to get them to a professional standard. I think they have good plots and interesting characters: it's just the writing that's substandard.

The question I face is this: are those novels strong enough to make the work needed to bring them up to snuff worthwhile? Or should I just set them aside as necessary practice in preparation for later Gold mysteries?

If I decide on the latter course of action, then I could get back to work on The Final Curtain, a new Gold novel that I have started planning in consultation with my nieces, Alex and Katie. I think this one has an exceptional plot in the works and would be fun to write. I feel like I'm leaning toward this novel as my next major Phillip-Gold project, though I have to admit I have been running revisions to All That Glisters around in my brain for a while.

Complicated. Maybe I should just work on all three at the same time, moving from book to book when I either run out of steam on one or have an inspiration for another. The Final Curtain involves all new writing for Phillip Gold. All That Glisters would require massive revisions based on an existing structure. The Way Forward is very different, working with established characters in a fantasy world, and is being written somewhat in free form.

It may just be that having that kind of variety available to me will help to inspire and keep me working!

Tags: Harry Potter, Rowling, The Silent Goodbye, Phillip Gold, Mystery, Novels, Writing, Aberforth, Weasley

It's nine in the evening on Tuesday, December 21 and I have just completed my first read-through of my manuscript, The Silent Goodbye. I had one copy of the novel printed off, double-spaced, for review and revision purposes and I'm glad I did.

I found this first read a real pleasure, both because I got to sit at my dining room table with the book a physical presence in front of me and because, to be honest, I really enjoyed the novel.

I had taken three weeks away from it after completing a major restructuring of the plot, hoping to gain a little distance, some perspective, some objectivity for this last polishing exercise. I think it worked. I enjoyed reading the book and, though I knew what would happen next every step of the way, I no longer could recall every sentence, every phrase, every word I had written.

There is a lot to do to make this manuscript a polished, finished product, ready to submit to the publisher. I found dozens of typos, corrected numerous continuity errors and recognised that I have to change the tone of several scenes to make them work. I'm sure that, when my partner, Patti, finishes her careful read of the book, I'll have even more to do.

But I am happy to say that I came away from this latest review immensely satisfied with the novel. I think it works well now: it flows at a ripping pace and the characters are stronger, more varied, more interesting. I tried to stick to the suggestions made by the publisher at the end of the summer and I'm happy I did: it's clear from the strength of this new draft that he was right on all counts.

I'm sitting here at the computer feeling completely content with the work that I've done, with the novel I've written. It's a nice feeling. I've poured my guts into this book and I'm ecstatic that the result is so utterly satisfying.

That doesn't mean, of course, that it will ever get published. But I can now honestly say that I did some good work in The Silent Goodbye. And that' gives me a fantastic feeling of accomplishment.

Tags: Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, publishing, Novels, Mystery, Writing

Twenty days have passed since I put the final touches on the revised draft of my mystery manuscript, The Silent Goodbye. During that time, though I have often thought about the book, I have not once actually gone back and looked at it.

I wanted to take some time away from it before going back for revisions and polishing. Time to gain a little distance, some objectivity, some perspective, so that I will be better able to see its flaws and its strengths when I begin to work on it again.

With a goal of having a polished manuscript completed by the end of the year, however, it is now time to take my editing pencil in hand and get to work.

How am I feeling? To be honest, I have a strange mixture of excitement and fear roiling around in my stomach. Interesting. Excitement, I expected. I've enjoyed the process of reworking the novel that I began at the end of the summer so it should be no surprise that I am excited to get back to it.

But fear?

Hmmm....

Editing and polishing the manuscript is going to be a big job, for sure. And it's going to require me to find solid blocks of time for the task, time when I can concentrate without distractions. Not easy at Christmas time. But I have to be able to focus well enough to recognise inconsistencies, to keep track of the colour of each character's eyes, the shape of their face, the sound of their laugh. One of the things I'm worst at is remembering from one page to another how I've described certain people or places and part of the polishing job is to make sure that those things are consistent and convincing.

And I'm going to have to make hard choices, to the point perhaps of having to edit out scenes that I've laboured over, loved even, simply because they don't work.

Yeah. So maybe the little tinge of fear I'm feeling is justified. The job of polishing the book involves all those little things that I don't do naturally.

So I've got my file cards ready. I'll make note of how I've described each person and place on a separate card, then check the card every time that same character or place appears.

Writing is, apparently, more than just capturing on paper (or screen) the free flow of your creativity. Sometimes it's hard work.

No, check that. It is always hard work. Fun, exciting, sometimes thrilling, no doubt. But hard work nonetheless.

Tags: Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, Mystery, Writing, Novels, publishing

Two positive things to report today.

First, I went to my neighbourhood Staples outlet and had my revised manuscript, The Silent Goodbye, printed for review purposes. Double-spaced but double-sided, the novel fills 390 sides of paper and now sits happily in a black binder, waiting for Patti's attentions and then mine. As I have said, I hope to have it revised and polished by the end of 2010 to be ready for submission to the publisher in January. I think it's a reachable goal and it's a nice feeling to see the whole thing so neatly presented.

One of the reasons for printing it out at this point is because Patti prefers to have a physical document in her hands when she reads and to be able to make comments and corrections right on the page. Another reason is the fact that I composed the novel entirely on-screen on computer: when I come to review it, I am hopeful that the new format (black print on a white page) will help me to gain some distance and perspective on the manuscript.

The second positive development is the fact that I have posted a revised and extended version of The Way Forward, my in-progress Rowling-world novel featuring characters from the Harry Potter series of books. For those of you who have already read the original four chapters, you'll find new material at the end of chapter four and in chapter five. I should mention, of course, that I have corrected and polished all four of the original chapters, even adding in several new scenes along the way. So, if you have the time and inclination, you may wish to re-read from the beginning.

I very much enjoying writing this novel, probably because I feel I know the characters so well from Rowling's books. I just throw them into new situations and see how they respond. I'll probably continue to write new material for The Way Forward for a while yet, at least until I dive back into the Phillip Gold manuscript for the final polish.

I don't really have a final plot plan for The Way Forward so we'll just have to see what develops for Minerva, Aberforth and George.

Tags: Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, Mystery, Writing, Rowling, Harry Potter, Aberforth, Minerva

On Friday morning, before going to work, I made some final small revisions and then saved the final chapter of my new draft of The Silent Goodbye to the hard drive of my netbook. I then opened a new file, copied the text from each of my chapter files into this new file, and saved the entire manuscript as a single entity.

Done. Wow.

The writing adventure that I began on September 8 has come to a close (at least temporarily). As you might recall, I sent my mystery novel submission package to a publisher in early September, expecting to wait for weeks if not months to receive the inevitable rejection. Instead, I found an e-mail in my inbox two days later, asking for the complete manuscript to be sent by return e-mail. I sent it and, again expecting a long wait, I was amazed to find not an outright rejection but a very helpful set of suggestions from the publisher just four days after I had sent the full manuscript.

That was Sunday, September 8.

My original draft had two major plot lines: the action plot, where Gold is hunted by a trained killer after witnessing the assassination of a police officer; and the trial plot, where Gold represents a street-gang leader on trial for sexual assault. In that first draft, I had arranged these two plots consecutively. In other words, most the action plot took place in the first half of the novel while the trial took up most of the second half of the book. The two then came together at the end.

The publisher had some nice things to say about the writing of the trial plot and advised me to restructure the novel to have the trial begin at the opening of the book. This would require me to do a complete rewrite, in effect to have the plots run concurrently, trial by day, action plot by night. It made a lot of sense and, as soon as I began the rather difficult task of reordering the scenes, I found it brought a new pace, a new life to the entire book.

The publisher also made some clear character-related suggestions, which resulted in my writing one fairly prominent minor character out of the book completely, reducing the role of a second, and transforming a third into an entirely new person. Once again, however, I found that, as I was doing the work, the novel was getting stronger and stronger.

Back on September 8, I had set myself a target of completing the revision before the end of the year and submitting the revised manuscript, properly polished, to the publisher early in the new year.

I'm still on track. I think the work I've done to date has been good and I believe the novel is the better for it. I have more work ahead of me in the correcting, editing and polishing process but, for now, I have to put the current manuscript on the shelf for a couple of weeks. I need to get a little distance from it, so that when I go to do that final polish, I'm a little more objective, more able to see what needs to be done.

Still, it's a great feeling to have gotten this far. And to be as happy as I am with the outcome.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Mystery, Novels, Writing, The Silent Goodbye

I haven't been writing much lately about writing. The main reason for that is that my work on the revisions of The Silent Goodbye are coming along really well and I didn't want to interrupt that by writing a blog about it.

I have been working in regular concentrated sessions on the revisions and have been making excellent progress. In fact, I have now begun work on the final day of the novel. That is very, very exciting for me. What's more exciting is how pleased I'm feeling about the revised manuscript to date.

In accordance with the suggestions of the publisher, I have started the trial right at the beginning of the book and then intertwined the courtroom scenes with the scenes of Phillip Gold's duel with the trained killer. It's working well. A nice balance, in fact. And it keeps the pace moving at a heck of a rate.

I plan to finish this draft by the weekend. Wow. I can't believe I actually typed that sentence. I plan to finish this draft by the weekend. Then it will go on the shelf for a couple of weeks before I return to it in mid-December with a fresh eye.

The hope is to have a polished manuscript to send out by the end of the year.

So far, so good. I'm enjoying the writing and happy with the results. The Silent Goodbye may just make some noise yet!

Tags: Phillip Gold, The Silent Goodbye, Writing, Novels, Mystery, publishing

It's been a good week, writing wise. I've been able to carve out an hour almost every day to do the work of revising my Phillip Gold novel.

And I've made some excellent progress. I think I've finally gotten the tone right for the scene between my major character and the police inspector, wherein Gold tells the story of his violent past. I'm pleased with it, though I plan to make several more passes through the scene to make sure it is really sharp.

And I think the trial scenes are continuing to develop well. I have one more day of court to write/revise and then the climactic scenes of both plots. Great stuff. The final draft should come out at about 75,000 words, which isn't bad. It's a bit shorter than the first draft but I don't think that's a problem. As long as it is substantial, has an interesting plot and moves well.

I have to force myself to keep up the momentum. It's not always easy, with all the other challenges and demands in my life. But it would be great to get this draft done by the end of November, then to have a chance to let it sit for a couple of weeks before coming back to it for a final review and revision before the end of the year.

That's the goal, anyway. Happiness truly is making good, solid progress towards the completion of a goal.

Tags: Mystery, Novels, Writing, Phillip Gold

Just back from a quick trip back to visit friends and family in Ontario. A really nice visit, not too frenetic, not too tiring.

While hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law, I actually found time to do some revision work on my Phillip Gold novel. It's coming along well. Most of what I did was cutting and pasting to reflect the new plot-order but it's progress. I really like the way it's turning out.

I also got the chance while in Toronto to see the original movie version (taken from Swedish TV) of Stieg Larsson's first thriller, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I was very impressed. The casting was perfect, with real-life (rather than Hollywood-perfect) people in the various roles, and I felt they got the two main characters spot on. The direction and editing were also excellent, with a lot of nice artistic touches that added to the excellently paced mystery.

What impressed me most, however, was how they dealt with the challenge of reducing a long, involved novel into a 150-minute film. Instead of dwelling on the sexual violence that permeates the book (and convinced me not to read the second novel in the series), they actually focused on Larsson's complex, rivetting mystery: the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. Great choice and it made for a fantastic film.

I actually believe that this is one of the few times that the movie is better than the book.

Meantime, I was continuing to read the fourth Rowling novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I am absolutely loving it. It was great to be among friends who really appreciate the Rowling novels too: I had several very enjoyable chats with Emily and Clare on Potter-related topics while in Hamilton, which always adds to my enjoyment of my visits.

So now I'm back in Freddie and back into real life. I hope to be able to find some time to focus on Phillip Gold over the next couple of days to keep the momentum going. And I'll have to think about looking up the second Swedish film adaptation of Larsson's book. Maybe I'll just watch the movie and not even read the book!

Tags: Harry Potter, Rowling, Goblet of Fire, Writing, Mystery, Phillip Gold, publishing, Stieg Larsson

I finished the re-read of The Silent Goodbye yesterday. I'm pleased to say I'm pleased. Very pleased. It reads well and has good pacing. The changes I've made have worked well, I think, and the result is a tighter, more interesting story.

Now I go back to the writing again. I've got Gold heading into an action scene and the publisher who reviewed the earlier draft of the novel was not very complimentary about my action scenes so I've really got to focus to get it right. I'll try to write a draft tomorrow, sit on it for a while, then come back to it to polish it up.

So I'm happy. And I'm still on a pretty good time-line, which means I should get the next draft done by the end of the year.

My re-read of the Harry Potter series is also well underway. I whizzed through The Philosopher's Stone in 24 hours (well, after all, it is a 200-page book for pre-teens so it's a quick read!) and am now into The Chamber of Secrets. As always, I'm impressed with the writing, caught up in the action and amazed at the number of little details that emerge in the early books and then become major factors in later novels.

And this kind of process also helps to remind me how much better the novels are than the movies. I do watch the films from time to time because the action scenes are pretty awesome and I like the actors but the cut-down versions of the stories drive me nuts. The novels are so rich, full and deep; it's too bad that richness can't be translated to the screen. Makes me a little bit worried about the next movie. I love The Deathly Hallows and am scared that the film versions will be as big a disappointment as was the screen adaptation of The Half-Blood Prince.

The trailers I've seen on-line, however, look great so I am approaching the next movie with cautious optimism. Okay, cautious optimism and a great deal of excitement!

Tags: Rowling, Harry Potter, Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Mystery, Novels, publishing, Phillip Gold

It has been about a week since I've had a chance to work on the revisions for my Phillip Gold mystery novel, The Silent Goodbye. Life has been so busy that I haven't had a chance to sit down for any reasonable period of time to work on it. I have managed to read some of Douglas Adams' Mostly Harmless here and there in the five and ten-minute breaks in life but the writing project has been unreachable.

It's very frustrating. I had been making excellent progress and had really found a groove. Now I'm out of it and trying to find a way back in.

So yesterday I decided that step one would be to re-read what I've already completed. Remember, I'm currently attempting to re-weave the two plots of my novel into a differently coherent whole. Though there is quite a bit of writing involved, there is also a great deal of blocking, copying, revising and editing to make it hang properly. It's a tough job, tougher than I had expected.

I am about a third of the way through and I think it's working well. I re-read the first three sections and enjoyed them. I had to do some fine-tuning, however, to catch minor inconsistencies that have cropped up due to the re-ordering of scenes and the reduction in the roles of several characters. For example, in the first courtroom scene, as Gold is giving his opening address to the Jury, I had forgotten to edit out his reference to his old friend and mentor, Bob Smythe. The reason: Smythe has not yet appeared in the novel at that point in the revised version.

Little things like that keep cropping up: scenes that were moved from evening to morning needed polishing to remove references to the "thickening darkness" and stuff like that; I'm finding that I missed the odd reference to a character by her old name; or I find that a character will refer to something that hasn't yet happened.

That's why the re-read is so important. I had the old plot structure very clear in my mind. I have to replace it, now, with the new structure so that I can make sure the novel flows in a clear, consistent fashion.

So now, in order to write, I have to read. There are worse fates, I guess.

Tags: Phillip Gold, publishing, Writing, Mystery, Novels, The Silent Goodbye, Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

Life has been a bit busy of late. I still cannot believe, however, that it's been 16 days since my last post. Wow.

Outside of work, family and personal commitments, I've been pulled in two different directions lately: continuing the revisions on my Phillip Gold mystery novel, The Silent Goodbye, and reading Douglas Adams' five-part trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Work on my novel has been going well but I am plagued by the inability to find decent blocks of time in which to work. I have found recently that, once I get the chance to bury my imagination in the task, I can go for hours without looking up. That's a good sign. But it means I have to set aside longer periods in which to work. My last writing session was unsatisfactory, mostly because I felt rushed (I was trying to grab an hour between commitments) so I worry the writing is stiff and unimaginative. I'm about to add a scene or two where Gold actually attempts to track down and confront his enemy and I think I'm going to need to be really focused to make it work.

On the reading front, I am enjoying Adams' work quite a bit but it is not as fun nor as funny as I remember it to be. There are still laugh-out-loud moments in it but the general frivolity is starting to grate on my nerves. I've just finished the third book so I just have two to go.

Next on my list: Harry Potter, in preparation for the release of the film version of the first part of The Deathly Hallows. I've seen the trailers on the web and I am pumped for this film. Of course, that probably means I'll be disappointed. Oh well.

I have also seen the Oprah interview with J.K. Rowling, which I thought was just great. It must be hard for Oprah and J.K. to find people to talk to with whom they can relate. Both are intelligent, talented women who, by hard work and a world of luck, have become phenomena in the entertainment business. They are rich beyond their wildest dreams but also appear to care very deeply for their craft and for the dedicated millions who love their work. I found the interview fascinating for that reason: they seemed to feel at home together, to recognise in each other a fellow traveller, a person with similar extraordinary experiences, feelings, fears. And every time I see J.K., my respect for her increases.

I have to admit, I'm actually impatient to get through Adams and back to Rowling's magical world.

Tags: Hitchhiker's Guide, Douglas Adams, Phillip Gold, Writing, Novels, Mystery

My romp through the novels of Dick Francis is at an end. I closed the cover on his final novel, Shattered, last night. Yes, at least one more novel has since been published with Dick listed as a co-author with his son Felix but I don't consider that to be pure Dick Francis so any such books don't count.

I enjoyed Shattered quite a bit but I don't think it can compete with Francis' best. First of all, there's not much horse racing in it and, second of all, the villain is too cartoonish to be truly believable. The novel works, however, thanks to a strong main character, a decent love subplot and a dose of fascinating information about glass-blowing and glass-making in general.

This completes my re-reading of Dick Francis' novels. I continue to be impressed with his consistent production and quality. Yes, some novels stand out while others are clearly weaker (Second Wind would take my vote as his worst by far) but, when you figure the man basically wrote a novel a year for more than 40 years, you can't help but be impressed.

My next reading project will likely be Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (with additional novels), followed no doubt by another visit to the world of J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. I know I should be more adventurous and read something completely new but... These are old friends I just have to see again.

And I may add in The World According To Garp, John Irving's classic. We just watched the wonderful film version of the book starring a very young Robin Williams and equally young Glenn Close. It certainly made me wish to re-read the novel I so enjoyed when I was younger.

Tags: Dick Francis, Mystery, Novels, Shattered, Douglas Adams, Garp, John Irving, Robin Williams, Glenn Close

The excitement of revising my novel hasn't worn off. The only thing that is holding me back is time. Life is so busy right now, it's hard to find time to write.

I spent two hours in the middle of the night the other day stitching together two scenes into one. It's an interesting process and one which, for the first time, produced slight frustration with the limitations of the netbook computer I currently use for all writing work. On our "big" computer, I could have opened up both scenes and set them side by side on my screen, making it easy to move between them and knit them together. On the netbook, with its tiny screen, no such luck. I had to block and copy the two scenes one after the other into the same file, then scroll up and down.

Still, the work went well and I think I've created a much more vibrant, fast-paced single scene.

I have a great deal of work yet to do. The trial scenes will need to be expanded somewhat without losing any of their energy. The biggest job, however, will be to wind the two plots into each other: in the original version, the hunt plot more or less takes up the first half of the novel and the trial plot the second half, before coming together finally at the end. My goal is to create increased tension, consistent pace and significantly higher levels of suspense by flowing seamlessly between them. I want them to develop together, to rise towards their climaxes in a balanced way, to complement each other as they grow.

And that will involve a great deal of careful work. Most of all, however, it will require the commitment of time, large blocks of uninterrupted time.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Novels, Mystery, publishing

I feel like I'm stripping down an engine. I know some parts are running very well and don't need any work. I know some other parts are okay but could do with a little oil and polish. And then there are the parts that just aren't working at all: those I have to rip right out and replace with new ones.

And, to get the engine running even better than it was before, I have to add superchargers and other nifty new bits.

It's not a bad metaphor for the process of taking a completed manuscript and doing a complete revision in accordance with feedback received. And it's what I'm doing right now with The Silent Goodbye, my latest Phillip Gold mystery.

The most amazing fact is, I'm enjoying the process immensely. I feel very free and invigorated. I'm recognising that no section, no scene, no character is sacred and, if it will improve the novel, I'll change anything.

I've been trying to figure out why this process has become so fun rather than a chore. I'm also trying to figure out where the freedom has come from. I've spoke with other writers and we've agreed that, when you're writing an extended piece, you become enchanted by your own work, you lose objectivity for certain scenes and characters, you have such a strong sense of how much energy and passion you've invested in certain bits and pieces that you just can't see that, as the piece of writing has evolved, they simply don't work any more.

Two things have happened to me. First, since I finished the first rough draft of the novel many months ago, I think I've gained some of that precious objectivity about my own work. Not enough to allow me to see, on my own, where the problems lie but just enough for me to start seeing and accepting the wisdom of my third-party readers.

Second, there are the comments I've received from the publisher. If the goal is to write a great book and get published, he is the one who is best placed to help me to accomplish the former and to allow me to accomplish the latter. This publisher was kind enough to be absolutely clear about what was working and what was not, what pieces of the engine needed refurbishment or replacement and what pieces should be maintained and even enhanced.

So I feel free. I have a clear idea of where I'm going with the revision and I have some confidence in the belief that the work I am doing now is truly going to make the novel a better piece of fiction.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Novels, publishing, Mystery

I have purposely not been blogging about my novel submission since I sent it to the publisher last Monday. I don't know if it was some kind of superstition that stopped me from doing so, or perhaps fear that I might blog something that would come back to haunt me.

I'm pleased to say that the experience, for all my anxiety and self-doubt, was a thoroughly rewarding one. No, I don't have a publishing contract in my hands. That was always the longest of long shots and, though it's nice to dream, most successful authors tell stories of dozens of rejections, rewrites and further rejections before they got their first novel published.

But no, I also did not receive a blunt, bald rejection either.

I sent the submission package for The Silent Goodbye by Priority Post last Monday. I then sat back, expecting to wait a long time for a response.

I got an e-mail back from the publisher early Wednesday afternoon, asking me to send the complete manuscript via e-mail. Wednesday! Most books I've read on the submission process suggest that weeks, even months will pass before you hear anything. This publisher got back to me the same day he received my package. I don't want to overuse the underline function here but I find that absolutely amazing.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to be invited to send the entire novel. I reviewed it carefully again and then e-mailed it, with the same mix of excitement and anxiety I had felt about the original submission package.

I figured there were three basic kinds of responses I could get: outright rejection, a one line e-mail saying, in essence, "Thanks but no thanks"; supportive rejection, a paragraph or two setting out some strengths and some weaknesses in the book; or acceptance, the long shot, the dream.

Sunday afternoon (Sunday afternoon! Just three days after I sent along the entire manuscript) I got my answer. But it was so much more than I had expected.

First, the publisher had read the entire novel. That in itself was a real positive. I can imagine how much reading he has to do in his work so, for him to read my entire manuscript like that, I'm taking that as a good sign.

Second, he actually took the time to read some of this blog. Quite a bit of it, it seems, since he commented about something from an April entry in his e-mail to me.

Third, he did me the honour of sending an extended note on my novel. When I printed it for easier review, it came out to a full page, single spaced.

Yes, the note included some fairly blunt criticism of my writing. And yes, that was hard to read. Most importantly, he told me I need to toughen up my main character, Phillip Gold, to make him more proactive and effective. He said he felt my action scenes were weak and lacking in credibility (ouch). He told me to cut out most of the first part of the novel and get to the trial scenes more quickly.

But the publisher was generous enough to identify some real strengths as well. He felt the trial scenes were well written, for example, and he liked the more shadowy characters like Alexandre Pim and his nemesis, Natasha. He also pointed out certain other scenes that he said were very effective and, as a nice touch, indicated that he liked the fact that Gold didn't charge the widow any fees in the end.

Following a disclaimer that, even if I did make all the changes and improvements he was suggesting, there was no guarantee that he would agree to publish the revised version, he gave me clear advice on how to make the novel stronger.

It was a very fair, honest e-mail. After the first moment of sadness at the realization that I won't be immediately published, I recognised the opportunity I have been given. I now know what an actual publisher thinks of my work. I have a clear idea of what stands between my manuscript and possible publication, what needs to be changed, edited out, rewritten to make it better.

So I have now committed myself to a serious rewrite, in line with the comments he's made. I will enhance the aspects that he felt were strong and address the deficiencies he's identified. I know that doing this is no guarantee that I will be published but I would be a fool not to follow up on this unique opportunity.

In fact, I've already started. And I think the novel is already better.

All in all, this has been an amazing, energizing experience. Now it's on me. I know what I need to do. And it will be the quality of the writing I do over the next little while that will decide whether or not The Silent Goodbye ever makes its way onto the shelves of your local bookstore.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Novels, Writing, Mystery, publishing

I finished printing the elements of my novel submission last night. All that's left is to address the envelope, affix the stamps and mail it.

I feel a great sense of accomplishment, with a wash of fear lending interesting highlights.

It's an interesting process. The website for the publisher gives you instructions on what they expect you to send. You read books and articles that help you to understand what the website actually means. And friends who have done it before offer their insights as well.

The first step is the cover letter. In that, you include the name of the novel, its length in words, a brief, jacket-blurb-style description, the tiniest bit of information about yourself (to convince the publisher that you are the right person to write the book) and a dignified request that the publisher take your book on for publication. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It's one of the toughest things you'll ever have to write. You feel like all your hopes for that novel rest on that single page.

Then you have to write a longer synopsis of the novel. But how long? The guides say one page of synopsis for every 25 pages of novel. But the whispers say no publisher wants it that long. Make it short, make it snappy. So you sweat over every word and die a small death every time your word processor moves onto a new page. You want to keep it short but you worry that you have to make it as thorough a summary of the events in the novel as possible. So you suffer.

And last but not least, there's the sample of writing: in this case, 15 to 25 pages from the novel. Some publishers want the first 25 pages of the book, which might be easier. All you'd have to do then is work and rework every word in those 25 pages, recognising that you have to grab this particular reader and convince him or her that your novel will sell better than any other. In my case, however, the website does not ask for the first 25 pages: it asks for any section of the novel, so long as it's between 15 and 25 pages.

That makes it, in my opinion, much, much tougher. The question is: which 25 pages? Do I simply go with the first 25? Do I look for the section that I feel is best written? most exciting? most indicative of my style and approach? What if I choose the wrong section? What if I choose action and the publisher really wants to see character development? What if I choose a section in which I've tried something inventive and the publisher wants to see plain ol' solid writing?

Two different people told me the trial scenes in The Silent Goodbye are excellent and advised me to use one of those. So I quickly narrowed it down to two different parts of the trial. But which one to use? I weighed the pros and cons, carefully reviewed and revised each. Sweated the decision. I went so far as cutting and pasting each into its own file and then formatting both, just to see how they looked. I had hoped that I would find one to be too long or too short and the decision would be made for me. No such luck. They both turned out to be around 20 pages. Perfect.

So I let my gut choose. I picked the one with the stronger opening. Get the publisher interested early. The decision as to whether he or she wants to see more will be made in the first couple of pages, I thought. So, I went with my gut, printed the section and got the rest of the submission package ready.

Today I mail it. Then wait. Worried. Hopeful at times, fearful at others. For how long, I don't know. We'll see.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Novels, publishing, Mystery, The Silent Goodbye

A busy week for me, with work heating up and the sudden but welcomed exertion of pressure on me to complete my manuscript submission package for The Silent Goodbye and send it to the publisher. I am now absolutely determined to have it on its way to the publisher by the end of the day Sunday.

First, a word on Dick Francis. I finished reading Come to Grief yesterday and very much enjoyed it. After the brief dip in the quality of writing in Wild Horses, Come to Grief represents Francis at somewhere close to his best. It seems Sid Halley demands as high standards of his writer as he does of himself as investigator.

What is really special about Come to Grief, however, is that you get the feeling that, in a way he's never done before, Francis is writing about himself, at least that part of him that was a champion jockey. Come to Grief pits Halley, a former champion as a professional, against Ellis Quint, his arch-rival, the champion amateur jockey against whom Halley rode aggressively and often. Despite the fact that they are on opposite sides of a vicious crime, there is a mutual respect between the characters and Francis draws back the curtain on some of the raw, primitive drives that make a jockey a champion. It's quite amazing to read.

Now I'v taken up To The Hilt, a late 1990s book featuring an artist as the protagonist. The nice things about these later books is that I've only read them once or twice over the last fifteen years, meaning I can come at them almost new. I remember very little about them, even less than I do about the earlier books that I have read any number of times.

As for my own deadline, my friend Ross has informed me that he has spoken to his publisher and told him to expect my submission. This is a massively huge favour and one for which I am extremely grateful. Publishers receive thousands of unsolicited submissions each year (many from agents, which is already an advantage I do not enjoy) and it is a minor miracle for such a submission to make it off the slush pile for serious consideration. Ross has provided me at least a step toward that miracle. I will now be an unsolicited manuscript from an unknown writer that might actually be lifted from the pile and given a good read.

No guarantees, of course. The odds are against me. But at least now it's the quality of the writing that will make or break me, not the stuff of miracles. Thanks Ross. I hope to do you proud.

Tags: Dick Francis, Phillip Gold, Novels, Mystery, Come to Grief, To The Hilt

It was on the microwave, behind a thank-you card. Hidden, sure, but not lost forever. Hooray.

I am amazed at just how relieved and happy I felt when I finally spotted my copy of Dick Francis' Wild Horses late yesterday afternoon, after having missed it for almost a week. I am nearing the end of a journey through Francis and I felt totally at sea when the 1994 novel went missing.

I even went to a used book store and a campus book store, looking to buy a replacement. I'm so used to having something to read (and for the last three months that something has been Dick Francis) that I was entirely thrown off by not having the book around. And I didn't feel like I could move on to Francis' next novel: I'm committed to reading them all in order and I was NOT going to break the string, no matter how desperate I felt.

The only problem is, Wild Horses is not a great novel. I have now arrived at the stage of Francis' career where, in my opinion at least, he started to wind it down. The ideas grew stale, the writing more lazy and stilted, the characters flatter and less interesting.

Oh well, I think Wild Horses is number 33 in his collected works so I guess I should cut him some slack. It's not awful. It's just not great.

But I found it! I'm going to glory in the delight of that moment for a while.

Tags: Dick Francis, Wild Horses, Novels, Mystery

Friday night and we've just come back from walking the dog. We're debating cancelling our satellite TV subscription since we are currently paying about $45 per month for practically nothing. I watched for four hours the other night and couldn't find one show I wanted to watch. So I open up Safari and find out both the PGA golf championship and tonight's CFL football game between Winnipeg and Hamilton are available live on-line for free.

Hmmm... What are we paying $45 a month for anyway?

But that's not what I was planning to write about today. I was planning to write about writing.

Why? Because, after a long drought, I can feel the creative juices start to flow again.

Why? Several reasons: first, because my conversations with my nieces got me started on what seems to be a fantastic new Phillip Gold novel, one that is constantly running across my mind, even as I spend a day trimming tree branches; second, because a friend at work mentioned, out of the blue, that she had come across my website some time ago and had really enjoyed reading my new Rowling-world novel, The Way Forward ("It's like the seventh book never ended," she said); and third, because my chat with that same friend, which touched on our mutual love for the old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, reminded me of my own Abigail Massey stories and I feel like I want to get back to them as well.

It helps as well that I finally got around to starting the much-abbreviated synopsis of The Silent Goodbye in preparation for my submission of that novel to a publisher.

So things are percolating on the writing side.

On the reading side, things are not so good. I started Dick Francis' Wild Horses on the weekend, only to lose the darn thing. I'm worried that someone accidentally packed the book up and took it back to Ontario with them when my in-laws left on Monday. I might have to go and buy another copy, since losing my original copy stalls my reading plans completely.

And if I could just manage to catch my sister on Skype, life would be even better!

Tags: Dick Francis, Phillip Gold, Abigail Massey, Novels, Writing, Mystery, CFL, Tiger Cats

It took me more than a week to read Dick Francis' Driving Force. It took me less than a day to read Dick Francis' Decider. The speed of the read gives a clear indication of how much I enjoyed each novel.

In my humble opinion, Driving Force is a mess. It is quite possibly (quite probably) Francis' worst book. It lacks excitement and its main character, Freddie Croft, is a real dud. My best guess is that Francis got wind of a cunning crime, then tried to build a story around it. Unfortunately, the crime, importing a horse illness from France on rabbits and then infecting certain race horses with it so as to make particular races more winnable, does not lend itself to the building of suspense, the creation of interesting characters, or the development of a useful plot. That's not to say Francis doesn't try hard to make it work but even the addition of a faintly sketched romance and a new family twist can't save this one.

Wow, is this a bad book!

That makes Decider even more of a surprise. Written immediately following Driving Force, Decider is a wonderful book, with a winning main character and a heart-stopping story. Picking up on the theme of the extended family so well drawn in Hot Money, Decider follows Lee Morris, architect, builder and father of six young boys, as he finds himself drawn unwillingly into the murderous Stratton family, which is being torn apart after the death of its patriarch.

Where Driving Force plods, Decider sprints. Francis handles the large cast with impressive finesse and brings Morris' five older sons to vivid, memorable life. It's hard to make small children central to the plot of any mystery but Francis does it beautifully.

In reading all of his novels in order, I am attempting to understand how Francis developed and grew as a writer. I'm still not sure how to deal with the failure that is Driving Force, especially when Decider, the next book in the series, is so good. My working theory is that Francis loved the crime so much he thought he could weave the novel around it. Maybe he actually believed, after penning more than thirty successful books, he was capable of this miracle.

And maybe he learned his lesson and went back to his proven strengths in Decider. I'm not completely convinced but at least it's a theory.

Tags: Dick Francis, Decider, Novels, Mystery

Okay, okay. So I'm not living up to my promises. In my last post, I said I planned to "push through" and get my novel submission ready and sent off to the publisher. I really intended to as well but life just got in the way.

First, work heated up something fierce. Crazy busy. So busy that, even though I am off on vacation this coming week, I had to book both Monday and Wednesday mornings with meetings. Tuesday I'm going whale watching at St. Andrews by the Sea with family and friends -- a lovely break, to be sure.

Second, golf jumped to the fore with a day in Moncton playing the revered Fox Creek course last Friday (I shot a 124, a miracle in my mind considering the course) and, if the rain stops, Kingswood this morning.

And third, bi-focals. Arrived last Thursday. A real improvement for my vision but, man, do they ever take getting used to!!! I spent yesterday battling bouts of dizziness from the in-and-out focus of these things. I mean, they're great and I'm sure I'll adjust but right now it's hard. I already gave up on the bi-focal contact lenses, which made me dizzy, gave me headaches and hurt my eyes.

I'll get to the novel submission soon. Phillip Gold must see the light of day! In the meantime, life will have to be dealt with before I can do anything of the sort.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Novels, Mystery, publishing, bifocals, Fox Creek, Moncton, Kingswood

I know myself well enough to recognise that, when I don't do something that's important, there's some reason hidden in my psyche. So the fact that I haven't finished up and sent off my novel submission to the publishers tells me there's more going on than just a busy life, with guests and travels and work and other stuff.

I fear that it's fear. I'm concerned that I am not putting the finishing touches on my submission because, once I do, I will have no choice but to send it off and then no choice but to accept the very distinct possibility that it will be rejected once again. They can't reject me, I figure, if I don't send it in. I'll reject myself, in other words.

Scary.

So I spent part of last night formatting the first twenty-five pages of the novel for my package, then went through the synopsis again, trimming here and editing there. All that's left is my biographical note and the printing. I am trying to keep on course and get it done.

You have to face down your fears, I figure. As Joey says, "If you're afraid of bugs, get a bug."

Tags: Writing, Phillip Gold, Mystery, publishing, Novels

Heat wave in NB. Hot, humid, air-conditioner-less province. UGH. Couldn't get much done other than surviving and keeping as cool as possible.

I did manage to take another look at the synopsis for my novel, The Silent Goodbye, and do a little polishing. Hoorah for me.

I also spent an afternoon in a local pub, with a huge, sweaty crowd, cheering on the brave Dutch soccer team in the World Cup semi-final against Uruguay. Fun times. After they surprised Brazil, it was good to see the Netherlands didn't have a let down against lower-ranked Uruguay. A little scary at the end but still great. Hup Holland! Beat Spain!

And on the reading front, I have finished the 1980s in my journey through Dick Francis. The latter part of that decade produced some great novels, including the matched pair involving Kit Fielding as the protagonist (Break In and Bolt) as well as another of my personal favourites, Hot Money, and the only one of Francis' novels set in Canada, The Edge. The decade ends with Straight, the intriguing story of a jump jockey who finds himself thrust into the shoes of his recently deceased older brother as he tries to resolve the estate and the mysteries it hides.

Break In, Hot Money and Straight are all interesting because they involve Francis exploring family relationships in a new way: Break In deals with a pair of fraternal twins, still sorting out a long-standing feud with another family; in Hot Money, the outcast son of a prolific multi-millionaire takes on the task of figuring out which one of the patriarch's three living ex-wives and numerous off-spring is trying to kill the old man; and Straight offers a soulful exploration of what it means to be brothers.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is golfing, then cheering on the Oranje in the final against Spain. Hup Holland.

Tags: Holland, World Cup, Dick Francis, Phillip Gold, Writing, Mystery

A brief entry this morning to announce that I've posted two new videos on the "Video" page of this website: Marlee playing at East Point, PEI and Marlee playing at Basin Head, PEI. They may not sound that exciting but they're both kind of fun. And they're short too.

On the writing front, my friend Ross asked me to send him my draft cover letter and the first 25 pages of the novel to review for me. I'm happy to oblige as Ross is a good guy, an excellent writer and a helpful editor/reviewer. What I didn't realise, however, is that I had lost track of which computer file was the latest version of The Silent Goodbye. This is a huge problem when a writer does numerous revisions, sometimes on several computers (as I do). So I ended up formatting and sending one version of the opening to Ross, then realising it was missing a couple of fairly significant revisions. So I had to search around to find the latest one; it turned out to be on another computer altogether.

Lesson learned: be very careful about how you save files. Keep all drafts on one computer but make sure to move older drafts into a separate folder called "Drafts", while keeping the latest version separate. I am trying to name the files according to the date they were last revised, which is good, unless you have files on two or three computers!

Oh well. I figured it out and sent the right file finally. It just took a while and involved more tension than necessary.

Tags: PEI, Prince Edward Island, East Point, Basin Head, Novels, Writing, Mystery, Phillip Gold

I have completed drafts of my synopsis and cover letter. I can easily print off the first 25 pages of the novel in proper format. The bio should be no problem at all, since I write brief bios all the time for workshops and conference papers I present. So what's holding me up?

Could it be fear? The concern that The Silent Goodbye is the best thing I've ever written and it still might not be good enough?

I've had poetry and short stories published. I am the author of one and co-author of two other published legal texts. Why does it feel so important to get a novel published?

I hereby commit myself to revising the documents and getting them in the mail to the publisher by Friday. The only way to deal with fear is to stare it in the face. So I have to force myself to stare and to take my lumps if that's what I'm in for.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Writing, Novels, Mystery

My trip to Ottawa is now a part of the past. I spent five busy days in our nation's capital and, while it was a good trip, I found it completely exhausting. It's nice to be home.

I didn't get the chance to write the cover letter for my submission while I was away. If I am ever going to get my new Phillip Gold novel, The Silent Goodbye, out on the market, I am going to have to get my submission package completed. The draft synopsis is done but I am having problems getting myself to sit down and write the cover letter. Yes, I've been busy. Very busy. But I am also starting to feel like this simple letter is something of a monumental task.

The challenge is to accomplish so much in so small a space, all the while making it seem effortless, easy. I figure the letter should be no more than a page long but should pack a punch. It has to convince the publisher that the novel is marketable. It has to convince the publisher that I am marketable. It has to convince the publisher to take a chance on me and my work.

And when you think that about a thousand other people are currently writing letters hoping to convince the same publisher that their books are better and more marketable than mine, it becomes kind of scary. I plan to get a draft of this scary letter done by the end of this week. With luck. And guts.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Writing, Mystery, Novels, publishing

Who would have thought that something as simple as a blood test would knock me so much for a loop? My doctor set me up to have some blood tests done and, 15 phials of the red stuff later, I was a sagging bag of pooh. For the entire day. I fell asleep in a meeting, fell asleep at my desk and had to cancel a golf date for the evening. Amazing.

I'm better now, thank goodness, and ready to turn my attention to the cover letter for my novel submission to a publisher. With the draft synopsis fermenting in my brain (and on the hard drive of my trusty net book), I have to compose a friendly, one-page invitation to convince someone that my work is worth publishing and will, in fact, sell. This might be as tough a task as the synopsis. But, if Phillip Gold is ever going to see the public light of day, I have to do this and do it effectively.

The blood-test-induced lethargy did, on the other hand, put me in a nice position to spend some more time with Dick Francis. I'm now reading Proof, a novel from the mid-1980s, that seems to me to mark the beginning of a new stage in Francis' writing. Proof is a much more philosophical novel with a main character, wine-merchant Tony Beach, who is still dealing with the recent death of his beloved wife and, on a perhaps deeper level, with his long-term feelings of failure and inadequacy. He is, perhaps, the deepest, most complex of the protagonists to this point in Francis' library.

Further, this book explores masculine friendship much more than it does male-female romance, as Beach experiences the birth of relationships with three male characters: a sharp but friendly corporate sleuth, a crusty police inspector and his crafty and determined Chief Inspector. In fact, for the first time in a Francis novel, there is no blossoming male-female romance in this one.

Francis also makes much better use of suspense in this book: early on, a minor character is murdered in an extremely grotesque way; this forms a terrifying backdrop for all of the confrontations between Beach and the villain, as the timid wine merchant sweats through the thought of being similarly treated. It's quietly effective and very interesting.

I note as well that the back cover of the book features a quote from Kingsley Amis, the noted English author, rather than a series of slogans gleaned from the popular press. As Proof hit the market, Francis was finally being taken seriously not just as a mystery writer but as a capital "A" Author, respected, admired, and the Amis quote is clear evidence of his ascension.

I'm very much enjoying Proof. And I'm impressed with the continued development of Dick Francis as a writer that it represents.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Mystery, Novels, Blood tests, Dick Francis

I find myself still daunted by the prospect of trying to write the synopsis for The Final Goodbye. I've never been good at writing these things and I'm not feeling much more confident now.

My research has told me that my synopsis can be up to 16 pages long, which is a really good thing to know. That fact alone makes the task seem less frightening: until recently, I had thought the synopsis to be only four pages long and still a full and complete summary of the events in the story. And I've even now made a start at writing it. I'm three paragraphs in and feeling fairly good about what I've produced.

In the meantime, I'm continuing my journey through the novels of Dick Francis. I'm now into the 1980s and the books are becoming longer and more complex. I've read all of them before, at least once, so I often pick up a new novel with some sense of what it's about. What amazes me is how unconsciously resistant I am to continue reading the ones that have particularly violent or nasty plots.

I had to force myself to read Banker, the first novel with what I would consider a truly monstrous villain. In Banker, Francis displays a hard edge, a willingness to kill off characters, even very innocent ones, for the sake of the plot, an interest in moving beyond your regular kinds of mayhem into pure nastiness and evil. Calder Jackson, the villain, is actually willing to poison pregnant brood mares to ensure badly deformed babies and destroy the reputation and value of the stud, a magnificent horse named Sandcastle.

Francis pulls no punches in this book and it is gut-wrenchingly effective.

He is also branching out when it comes to the nature of the romantic interest in the novel. In Banker, the protagonist is in love with the wife of his aging boss, feelings she apparently returns. But both keep their emotions under wraps throughout the book, finding small comfort in stolen moments and social niceties. It's a surprising sign of how far Francis is willing to go at this point in his career, however, when he not only writes of the illicit relationship with approbation throughout the novel but also goes so far as to bring news of the aging boss's death in the last paragraph, promising future happiness for the star-crossed lovers.

Nothing I'm saying here should suggest that Banker is anything but a highly effective, thoroughly entertaining novel. It's truly great. It's just interesting to see Francis pushing so boldly the boundaries of his own successful blueprint.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Dick Francis, Writing, Mystery

After receiving some lovely, very positive feedback on The Silent Goodbye from a good friend back in Hamilton, I'm feeling inspired now to begin the process of attempting to find a publisher for the novel. Of course, that means more writing: a cover letter, a biographical note on myself as well as a synopsis of the entire book.

I don't mind doing the cover letter, and the biographical note is no big deal, but the synopsis is something of a nightmare. From what I understand, editors and agents want you to give a detailed summary of the entire book, in present tense, in a way that conveys both the excitement of the story and every major incident that takes place. It's no easy task. I've tried to write synopses in the past and have always hated them.

But it's something I have to do if I want to get this novel in front of a publisher so I have to accept that writing a synopsis of The Silent Goodbye is my next writing task.

In the meantime, I'm starting to turn my mind (and my typing fingers) to the job of integrating my short story "Violet" into the original novel, All That Glisters, at the same time as changing both into third-person narration and bringing the writing style more in line with The Silent Goodbye. No easy task. But one I think I'll enjoy, once I get into it.

I am also considering changing the name of the resulting novel. What do you think of The Smell of Blood or The Scent of Blood or A Taste for Blood? My original plan was for all the novels to have titles with the word "Gold" either in them or implied by them (like A Fleck of Gold and All That Glisters [Is Not Gold]). I'm not sure I'm so fond of that idea any more.

From what I've seen, of course, if I ever find a publisher for these books, she'll probably want to change the titles anyway! And, if she wants to publish my novels, quite frankly she can name them whatever she wants.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Mystery, Writing

I continue to make consistent progress on The Silent Goodbye. This is somewhat remarkable considering how much has been going on in my life of late but, if you can commit time and energy every day to writing, you can actually create some momentum.

The story continues to unfold according to my plan, with some interesting and unexpected twists arising during the process of writing. I always find it very exciting when, as I write a scene, the characters themselves start to take charge and direct the action. In this case, the scene I was writing involved Gold, his favourite cop and an attractive assassin sitting down to compare notes. Through the course of their conversation, an entirely new possibility for the story announced itself, an exciting interlude that will increase tension and create another opportunity for action.

I had not planned it to happen but suddenly the assassin started talking and out came this marvellous new idea. It was natural to the character, to the conversation and to the situation. So I went with it.

Of course, this new idea requires me now to go back and do a little bit of revision of the earlier parts of the scene but that's okay. And, as I do the rewrite, I have to do some hard thinking about how these three characters would put this particular plan into action.

That's the fun part of the job: the mental work of taking a good idea and making it work, for the characters and for the novel.

Tags: Phillip Gold, Writing, Novels, Mystery