A Day by the Sea

A few short weeks ago, the lovely "Louise from marketing", Miles "he can do anything with Final Cut" and I took a day out by the sea, to film a short video piece to promote White Crow.

After days of sunshine, the weather was not promising. White Crow is set in a hot, hot summer (this very hot summer of 2010, in fact, so please feel free to come to me with your weather forecast requirements from now on...) and so it was a tad disappointing to see the clouds, and yes, even (gasp) drizzle coming down on the Suffolk coast.

In order to get around this, we made two quick decisions. First, we concluded that since White Crow is a Gothic novel, a trailer filmed on a murky, rainy day would be much the best thing anyway. Second Louise and I went to the 'caff' for tea in polystyrene mugs and Mars bars. This is when I realised why Louise is lovely :-) Miles toughed it out on the beach, filming pebbles.

In the caff we were suddenly entertained by three things. One, the lad behind the counter trying to rig up a totally old TV set in order to watch the World Cup. Second, the lad behind the counter telling us all about the film crew that had been there the day before, and asking were we part of it, and impressing us with how many vans and crew they had. And third, the lad from the behind the counter asking if we knew who anyone who could film his really good band for him. 

At this point, Miles staggered in, looking in need of tea and a Mars bar. We gave him both, and a really promising lead for some filming we were sure he'd love to do. "He can do anything with Final Cut, you know" we assured the lad from behind the counter, sauntering back out into the drizzle.

Anyway, the filming day was enormous fun, and just as we left the coast behind, the sun came out, scorching hot once more. Shucks.

The results of the filming are now up: click here to view. My thanks to Miles and Louise.

White Crow flies the nest

Today is publication day for White Crow, so it flaps off over the horizon and into the great beyond. Kind of literally in this case, as the whole damn point with this book is one of the biggies: vad finns efter döden? ie What is there after death..?

Personally I'm hoping for a chance to put your feet up with a nice cup of tea and nice chat about this and that. You know the sort of thing, all those big questions you always wanted to ask. Like Why did You invent evil? Why do Bad Things happen to Good People? And Where do you get those crazy sandals from?

That aside, I would like to say I'm really happy with how the book turned out, looks wise, and I wish it well. So how am I spending publication day? Big do? Bottle of champagne? Nope, off to the jetty at the end of the island I'm living on, where I'm told a thing called the ölbåt is arriving later to bring merriment to the dancing Swedes. That's 'beerboat' by the way, if you're working in old money.

Ha det så bra, vi ses...

White Crow

White Crow will be out in a couple of weeks time in the UK (next Spring in the US).

It's my attempt to write a modern gothic story, and in that vein, it features a couple of tragic heroines. One of them, Ferelith, likes her music :-)

This is what's on her iPod (all Spotify links if you're a user...)

These song titles also happen to be the titles of chapters narrated by her.

Blue Roses – Rebecca
P!nk – I'm Not Dead
Evanescence – Bring Me To Life
London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) – Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a (from Peter Grimes) (1976 Digital Remaster): I. Dawn (Lento e tranquillo)
London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) – Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a (from Peter Grimes) (1976 Digital Remaster): II. Sunday Morning (Allegro spiritoso)
Andre Previn – Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a (from Peter Grimes) (1976 Digital Remaster): III. Moonlight (Andante comodo e rubato)
Andre Previn – Four Sea Interludes Op. 33a (from Peter Grimes) (1976 Digital Remaster): IV. Storm (Presto con fuoco)
Adam & The Ants – Catholic Day
Kylesa – The Warning
Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder: Nun Will Die Sonn' So Hell Aufgeh'n
Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder: Nun Seh' Ich Wohl, Warum So Dunkle Flammen
Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder: Wenn Dein Mutterlein
Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder: Oft Denk' Ich, Sie Sind Nur Ausgegangen
Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder: In Diesem Wetter
Julie London – Cry Me A River
My Chemical Romance – This Is How I Disappear
Gillan – Dead Of Night
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – What Must Be Done
Bauhaus – The Passion Of Lovers
Sonic Youth – Pattern Recognition
Skinny Puppy – Candle
Porcupine Tree – Kneel and Disconnect
Sonic Youth – 'Cross The Breeze

Obelisk

Nope, not a fat Gaul but the new arrival in my garden; thanks to the help of three hefty neighbours and some swearing, I now have a small menhir standing outside my writing shed.

This is good because it makes me ludicrously happy for some silly reason, but bad because it's one more thing to distract me when I should be writing :-(

However, the good news is that despite the arrival of the obelisk, I've (at last) started writing my new book. Four thousand words in, and so far we have three deaths and a funeral.

Business as usual then for Sedgwick? Maybe, but this one feels a bit different from recent books, I think more in the style of The Book of Dead Days, but as Ron Manager would say, it's early doors yet, game of two halves, anything could happen.

Which reminds me, it's only ten days till that greatest distraction from writing of all. The World Cup! Thank God it only comes every four years....

One book, four covers

Well from the left we have the UK hardback, UK paperback, US hardback and German editions of REVOLVER.

I love seeing the way one book gets a different look in each country it's published in. The big debate we had in the UK was whether to put a gun on the cover of the original HB. All sorts of issues to be considered, of course.

The final decision was no, but for the PB the answer has been yes, and the new look is pretty lovely. Interesting that both the US and German editions include a human element, even though you have to look fairly hard to see it.

Bologna book fair

I've just about had enough sleep since getting back from the Bologna children's book fair...

In one morning I happened to meet eight of my publishers from overseas, which is great in itself, but also slightly blows your mind.

Why? Well, there you are, in your shed, writing a book, and struggling with that, and for not one tiny moment does it cross your tiny brain that you might make sure your book will have 'international sales appeal'.

Maybe it does try to cross your mind, and maybe you just blot it out, because if you started to think like that, you'd go doo-lally pretty sharpish.

Anyway, the pasta's great in Bologna, that's the main thing :-)

Is this the 1960s...?

So I'm on campus at Bath Spa University, the sun is shining, there's some guy with an acoustic guitar singing songs about how Jesus is going to invade or something, and I feel like I'm living the 1960s education dream...

So far today, that education has taken the form of tutorials with MA students, and it's been interesting how the same issues can crop up. This evening, I'm taking part in a debate on how far, as a creative type, you should think about the realities of the commercial world. How much should it guide what you do and so on. Is it selling your soul to write something because you think it might have a greater chance of selling more copies...?

Personally I think you have to practice the art of holding a paradox in your head - on the one hand to ignore the real world totally, write just what you love, and do it just how you want it, and on the other hand, and at the same time, to have a part of your mind focusing on what is realistic, commercial and viable. And if Alice can believe in six impossible things before breakfast, then a paradox a day should be well within our reach.