Severn House Publishers - How to find that elusive tome

I've been getting some e-mails from people who are finding it difficult to get hold of THE MIDNIGHT MAN. It should be available through book-sellers on the web but if it's still proving elusive you should be able to obtain copies direct from the publisher, Severn House here:
Severn House Publishers

Until next time,

Simon Clark

THE MIDNIGHT MAN - DELETED SCENES

Murder your darlings! That’s the advice often given to new writers. Along with: ‘it’s not what you put in but what you leave out.’ When I’m writing a book I invariably find one of the scenes that I think is one of the best has to be axed. It maybe because I’ve duplicated part of the story or it deviates too much from the plot, or it’s redundant in some way. Of course, that’s a painful moment when my finger hovers over the delete button. I find myself bargaining with the part of me that knows it’s for the good of the novel to chop out that unnecessary page. Maybe I can slip the scene into another chapter? Or maybe, after all, it’s best just where it is?

But no. If you’re going to be a professional writer you have to edit your work. And if that means some scene that you cherish has to go onto the cutting-room floor, so be it. Bite the bullet. Hit delete.

The following piece had to go. I was pleased how it flowed when I wrote it. And it seemed a good idea to include a fictional letter written by Van Gogh. After all, much of what we know about the man comes from his letters, so, logically, it would add veracity to The Midnight Man to include some of the artist’s correspondence (even if the letters were ones that I’d composed after carefully studying Van Gogh’s writing style). So, this letter moves the plot forward nicely, and I worked hard to give it a ring of authenticity. However… however… on re-reading earlier chapters I saw I’d already given the relevant information to the reader. So, the missive, I realized sadly, was redundant. And there is that advice to writers: ’Murder your darlings.’ After some soul-searching I wielded the electronic scalpel. The letter was gone.

However, as an example to anyone aspiring to write fiction out there I thought I’d share this with you. In the great scheme of things deleting a page from a work in progress doesn’t register a jot in real human suffering. Even so, after more than ten years as a professional writer when I hit the delete button there’s still a little voice in the back of head that squeaks: ‘OUCH.’

Dear Gauguin, {Arles, July, 1888}

Once I have the house then you will come. Do I have your hand on that? And say no more about my dreams of the red room. I was working when the day light permitted, which meant almost eighteen hours a day in the middle of June. The strain became too much and led to disordered sleep, and the red room dream became a ghost to haunt my head. It is gone now. So I’ll say no more of it.

Did I tell you about Ty? A slight girl, doll-like, with large brown eyes and black hair that descends below her waist. She works at one of the Zouave’s brothels and sleeps at the night café because the landlord’s wife had her thrown out onto the street. I plan to paint her and call the portrait ‘Sacrifice’. Ty is educated and has such delicacy of manners but she has a brother and sister who are barely out of infancy. So she works at the brothel in order to pay for their lodgings so they won’t be taken by the orphanage. The cost of this deprives her of any surplus money for her own roof or food. Lately, I’ve begun to give her a few coins when I can spare them. You will see from the sketch at the bottom of this page my plan for Ty’s portrait. I see her painted in shades of blue before a background of sunflower yellow…

* * *
Until next time, keep murdering your darlings ;--)
Simon Clark

Van Gogh - self portraits animation

It's going to happen one day: there will be a big budget CGI film made that uses Van Gogh's paintings, no doubt with the artist himself being brought to life on screen. Then a little way down the line there'll be 3D hologram projections, where we can enter the world of Van Gogh, perhaps in the Arles of 1888, and interact with the artist and the townspeople. And, who knows, maybe even have our own portrait painted in the man's vividly explosive style. Until that does happen, however, here's a short film using a morphing computer program to animate Van Gogh's self portraits.
Van Gogh

My previous book to THE MIDNIGHT MAN is LUCIFER'S ARK, a horror-thriller set aboard a ship that carries psychopathic criminals to a foreign jail. Writer's work hard to create an entertaining story, but we only know whether we've succeeded when people read the book, we get feed-back, or we see the reviews. A writer's heart always beats that bit faster when we begin to read the review; will it be butchery job or will it praise. Recently, I got this one from BookList, and it is one to warm the cockles of an author's heart!


The trade paperback of LUCIFER'S ARK is released this summer.

Until next time,

Simon

Crows - Scorsese as Van Gogh

Here's a direct link to the film excerpt that features Scorsese as Van Gogh. For more detail scroll down to the Salt Lake City blog.
Crows

YouTube - Van Gogh's London

Today I'm tidying some of the links to videos to save you having to copy and paste to the browser bar. The following link is the raw footage I took while researching THE MIDNIGHT MAN. These are shots of the Whitechapel area of London, famous for the Jack the Ripper murders, of course, and a place Van Gogh visited. The poverty of the area had a profound effect on him and did much to shape his character.

YouTube - Van Gogh's London

If you're looking for the virtual tour of the Yellow House scroll down through the blogs.

Salt Lake City and Scorsese as Van Gogh

Hi, I'm back from Salt Lake City where I was toastmaster for WHC 2008. The people at the convention were so incredibly hospitable and friendly that it was a wrench to leave at the end of the four days. Many attendees were in awe of the mountains that seem to cradle the city in their arms. More than one person admitted to 'being drawn to the mountains.' Now those snow-covered summits were surely the subject for a great painting. But lacking any ability whatsoever with a paintbrush here's a photograph from my hotel room window.

I promised films I'd found on the internet when I was researching The Midnight Man. Here's one: 'Crows' by Akira Kurosawa, which is an extract from a longer work, 'Dreams.' A visitor to an art gallery finds himself drawn through a painting into Van Gogh's world. He meets the artist in a cornfield where he speaks to him. After that, he hurries through a landscape that turns into Van Gogh paintings. Although there isn't a great deal in the way of plot it is visually interesting as reality melts into Van Gogh's vivid art.

For the film, follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=VG6ddwi9ABg&feature=email

If the link doesn't take you there directly copy and paste it into your browswer bar.