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This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. It follows on from the old one, which is now full. An index of topics from old and new can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. And to suggest topics! |
| Novel #29 Yes, time for the next novel. This one was quite a departure for me. It has absolutely no spec fic themes at all. Whereas even Relick, which was a comedy adventure yarn, had religious fantasy elements about it, this one is nothing of the sort. Spandex Dreams clocks in at 51000 words, and is a comedy story. Straight forward comedy. It details the adventures of Tristan, a footballer kicked out of the game for being, basically, a moron, and who decides that professional wrestling is the best way for him to maintain fitness and keep in the public eye. Over the course of the book his attitude towards many things changes, and I like to think I have finally succeeded in showing a character grow in some way. Most wrestling books and stories focus on one of three things: * How great wrestling is if you’re at the top of the game; * How depressing it is for has-been wrestlers (and the film The Wrestler is probably the best example of this, with a story so well written and acted I think it was seriously robbed at the Academy Awards); * Or wrestling used as the back-drop for some tacky martial arts story (see Hulk Hogan’s deplorable No Holds Barred… or don’t. In fact, don’t. It’s crap). I like to think that Spandex Dreams tells of the lower end independent wrestling promotions in an affectionate manner. And while the book is written as a humorous one, I don’t think I put the wrestling down. And, for what it’s worth, I am really happy with this story. I like the characterisations, I like the action, I like the way the story unfolds. I think I didn’t do a bad job with this one. I like it. It has been rejected 8 times so far. And I think this needs a genuine beta reader, not the two wrestlers who read it when it was first written. Excerpt: opening scene A brain fart. That’s what I had – a complete and utter brain fart. It was a brain fart on a grand scale. One minute I’m running for the ball, the next I’ve thrown an opponent over my head and dropped a knee on his chest. I think he said something about my sister, a member of parliament and maybe a hamster, but I don’t remember. All that mattered was he said something that I, strangely, found offensive enough to physically assault him. And the stupid thing is I don’t even have a sister, just a brother. And his relationships with members of parliament and hamsters is unfortunately well known. Still, there’s no denying it caused a brain fart, pure and simple. I guess if it had stopped there, I might have gotten away with a few weeks’ suspension, a hefty fine and maybe some community service. The football overlords are big on their community service – coaching underprivileged kids, giving lectures about not being silly to underprivileged kids, telling overprivileged kids to stop being arseholes towards underprivileged kids – as I have discovered more than once in the past when other minor, shall we say, indiscretions had occurred. It makes their money-hungry ignoring of the grass roots of their sport seem not so bad. But the problem was, it didn’t stop there. I have this email quote on why Spandex Dreams was rejected at least one of the times: “it would be too difficult and would ruin the integrity of the story to eliminate the Australianisms throughout.” Still, I think this is a good book, an affectionate look at pro wrestling at the level I was involved with. In fact, one character is most definitely based on me. And the football player Tristan who narrates was based on a wrestler I trained with… and who went on to be in the WWE. I do think this one could well be a fun book for a publisher to take a risk on, and the Netflix series would be awesome (if I was allowed to do the casting). |
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