So yes, with all my talk of making sure you write every day, this month has been a bit of a touch go so far. I blame this on the combination of doing stuff for the house and trying to get the curling season up and running. So clearly I need to try and refocus on the important things, like this blog.
It is also with a touch of irony that I note that this is also National Novel Writing Month, so I guess it's a good thing I'm not trying to sit down and write a novel right now. I didn't really have an idea for one anyway, at least until this morning. That's when I casually mentioned on Facebook my desire to start killing people at the curling club (the urge passed. It's safe to come out this evening). That's when Clare suggested a murder mystery set in a curling club.
I honestly don't know if it's been done before, but it's such a brilliant idea that I want to kick myself in the head several times (the victim is found lying in the house, with his head bashed in with a curling stone). It didn't help much when Clare also added a line of dialogue - "Get out, the call is coming from inside the house. Hurry! Hurry hard!"
I came up with the title "Murder on Ice", but that's exceptional lame. I'm sure given enough time I could come up with a much better curling related murder mystery title. If not for the fact that I know nothing about murder mysteries and could probably count the number of them I've read on one hand, it sounds like it could be fun. In fact, I think my favourite is a novella by Neil Gaiman called "Murder Mysteries", about a murder in heaven before the Fall. It's quite clever.
However, I'm not allowed to do that until the first, long suffering novel is taken care of. And a step is being taken this month...it's being sent off to publishers. Most say they only want the first four chapters sent to them, so fine, I'm sending the first four chapters off to a bunch of Newfoundland publishers. So then we'll see what happens.
Honestly, it's all I can do at this point. The ability to deal with the book rationally is gone right out the window. It's time for some outside guidance if it's going to go anywhere. And with a great deal of luck, perhaps someone will be willing to talk to me about it when I'm back in St. John's over Christmas.
In the meantime, maybe I should start sketching out some details for the curling club mystery....
Last Five
1. Waiting for the world to change - John Mayer
2. Earth died screaming - Tom Waits*
3. Everyone's at it - Lily Allen
4. Slow hands - Interpol
5. I'm so lonesome I could cry - Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies
3 comments:
A random title for your curling mystery...
A Stones Throw..
Paul
A contribution to the opening line in your new book:
It was dark, a curling night; the opponents would fall in torrents, except at occasional intervals when the Skip was checked by a burned stone while sweeping on the sheet(for it is in a curling rink that our scene lies), rattling along to the house and fiercely agitating with a scanty broom that struggled against the pebbles.
No need to thank me.
Regards,
etc.
I think it was Geoff who suggested the mystery (as a screenplay), although I'll take credit for the lines.
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