What a Difference 25 Years Makes

Death and Faxes may be the first novel I've published, but it's not the first I've written. Way back in the late 1980s and early 90s I wrote a whole lot of stuff - five complete novels, a novella; two or three half-completed novels and a whole bunch of short stories.

I did nothing with them for a number of reasons, including: subject matter (Superheroes) was not so fashionable at the time; self-publishing with CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle didn't exist, and that same lack of confidence and fear of rejection that caused Death and Faxes to remain under wraps for so long.

Perhaps now that I'm a proper published author, I thought, maybe it's time to dust all these old stories off again and see if, with a bit of editing/updating, they might still work. Superheroes are fashionable again thanks to the Marvel film adaptations, and it occurred to me that the characters in these stories are not so different to Tabitha, the protagonist of Death and Faxes - they are all coping with being able to do things that most people cannot do.

After a quick read-through I re-acquainted myself with the stories, and decided I do still love them, but making them relevant for a modern audience is going to be no mean task.

Some of the 80s/90s references I came across were not just dated but actually rather amusing:

• Telephones, for a start. There were several references to out of date area codes, like 021 for Birmingham; people "dialling" numbers, leaving phones "off the hook"; and the most distressing thing for one character about having his wallet stolen being the fact that his phone-card is inside.
• The next most distressing thing for the same character is that his cheque-book is also in there.
• People watch videos, and Open University programmes on TV, take 'O' Levels and describe a potential love interest as "a perfect 10".
• A character, one of the good guys, too, lights up a cigarette in the reception area of a big hotel. And nobody cares.
• One group of characters are seriously worried about another because "she hasn't taken her milk in." Does anybody get milk delivered any more?
• While we're at it, does anybody nowadays use CB radio, attend "milk rounds" (in which companies send representatives into universities to recruit their next batch of graduate trainees), refer to police cars as "panda cars" or defect from Russia to the West?
• Nobody does anything online. An estate agent, charged with selling the flats that an old house has been converted into, sets about her task. She puts a card in the estate agent's window, an ad in the local paper and photocopies details to send out to potentially interested clients by snail mail. And that's the job done. Another character who is looking for a job in London looks at the Situations Vacant columns in The Evening Standard and Time Out, and that exhausts all her options.
• Music - Frank Sinatra is still alive, teenage thieves will break into a car to steal cassette tapes, and a music playing device that plays an endless selection of music so that the hosts of a party don't have to "keep going and changing the tapes all the time" could only have been invented by an electronics wizardess super-heroine with genius-level intelligence.
• Likewise, it takes the same electronics wizardess super-heroine with genius-level intelligence to come up with a small, portable device which allows members of a team to communicate with each other when they are out and about!
• And then there is the character who agrees to do a favour for a friend which involves carrying several bottles of an unidentified liquid onto a plane in his hand luggage!

Seems it might be easier to leave the stories as being set in that time period, a sort of retro thing, so that all the 80s references I miss won't come back to haunt me. Some revision will still be required, though, so that the young people of today will be able to understand what the characters are talking about!

Perhaps it's only now that I am ready to publish them. In the years since I wrote these tales, I have grown as a writer and honed my craft somewhat. I've done a few writing courses and workshops, read countless blogs about novel writing, submitted Death and Faxes for a professional edit and learned what some of my bad habits and weaknesses are.

With rather more time and rather more skill, I'm confident that I could spruce up quite a lot of my old writing, and there is certainly something appealing about having them in the format of a proper, compact little paperbacks which can sit neatly on my shelf alongside Death and Faxes instead of all those A4 clip binders!

So I picked up one of these old novels and applied some of the writing lessons I've learned in the intervening years to its first page, to see how much I could improve on it.

My conclusion: Quite a lot, actually.

Summary of the 80s version:

Bloke gets off a plane. Sees his old friend on the tarmac. Remembers his last visit when they were both students and his friend came running up and hugged him. Now they just shake hands as they have important, grown up jobs, now.

It's because of the old friendship that he'd got a telegram - I need your help come quick.

He'd felt irritated at the delivery boy's knock, disrupting his routine.

Memories of the telegram his mother got during the war and how much it had changed his life for the worse.

Relieved that this telegram was not announcing a death. He's puzzled as to why his friend needs his help but it's never in any doubt that he will respond and go to his friend's aid.

Shocked at how haggard and old his friend looks.

His friend says it's good to see him and asks after his journey.

The friend then ushers him through the airport and out to a black limo waiting outside.

Summary of the 2015 version:

Bloke gets off plane. Wrinkles nose at smell of aviation fuel. Watches other passengers scurry to the terminal building; notices the colour of the sky and mountains. Feels the cold wind through his overcoat. (Bringing in all the senses to show what the place he has arrived at is like.) Compares the weather where he is now with the weather in England.

Sees his old friend on the tarmac. The years melt away.

Remembers his last visit. They were both students; it was summer then; they'd cycled, hiked and visited taverns.

Bloke grips his overnight bag and walks down the steps.

Restrained greeting this time as they have important grown up jobs now. Two security guards as hulking as the mountains look on as they greet each other.

At close range, shock at how the friend has aged - he wears glasses now, has wrinkles and a stoop. But our hero knows he looks different too with white hair and a paunch. (In the 1980s version there's no clue as to what this guy looks like at all.)

The two men have corresponded regularly even though they had not met in person since then. Because of their old friendship, there was the telegram. I need your help, come quick.

He'd felt irritated at the delivery boy's knock because it interrupted his routine of not speaking to anyone until he'd done the Times crossword. (So you get more of an idea what sort of guy he is - intelligent, but set in his ways.)

Memories of the telegram his mother got during the war and how much it had changed his life for the worse. Dreaded that this one too would turn his world upside down, but there is no hint of that in the words. He is wrong about that, of course. (Hint of drama to come. Hopefully so the reader wants to keep reading and find out just why and how the guy's life is going to change this time.)

He's puzzled as to why his friend needs his help but it's never in any doubt that he will respond.

He bursts in on his housekeeper (who did exist in the 1980s version but isn't mentioned there until the guy returns home, when he has reason to be especially grateful that she's there) and disrupts her routine of reading Woman's Weekly while he does the crossword. The efficient and organised housekeeper helps get his bag packed for the trip before the car arrives to take him to the airport.

That was five hours ago. (So you get an idea of where in the world he might have flown to, given that the full version does mention that the guy is based in London.)

His friend says it's good to see him and asks after his journey.

The friend then ushers him through the airport and out to a black limo waiting outside.

I think it's an improvement - but if that trend continues throughout, it's going to be as long as War and Peace and I'll have to decide which of the sub-plots I can do without (or turn into a complete new novel)!

By the way, just in case you were wondering, this isn't the guy who takes unidentified liquids onto a plane, nor is anyone defecting from Russia in this particular tale.

Anyway, this could take some time, but at least you have Death and Faxes to read in the mean time (its heroine, Tabitha, may not be a superhero but she does have a "superpower" ie talking to dead people) and the sequel, Glastonbury Swan, which is almost ready to burst out into the world.

Paperback available from CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Follow this link to look inside and read the first few pages).

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