Subplots 2: Book club, book launches, books that won't do as they're told

What I've been up to this week...

Subplots is my weekly snapshot of where I am in life, what I’ve been up to, what’s been preoccupying me etc. The life of a writer is pretty varied, and though much of my time is spent alone at the desk chatting to imaginary people, not all of it by any means. So here’s (some of) the rest…

Tuesday July 2nd 2024

Sitting on the train on the way up to London, for A Very Important Meeting That I Can’t Really Talk About. Subplots 1 went live this morning, and when I saw it in my own inbox I found myself plagued with all the usual insecurities. All variations of, What makes me think anyone else will find it interesting?

But a couple of people have commented already, and in particular asked about the queer book club I mentioned in one of the photo captions. Particularly good timing as I went to the second meeting last night.

It’s a little unlike any book group I’ve been to before. No alcohol, for a start. And rather than meeting once a month to discuss an entire book, we meet weekly and discuss a couple of chapters. It’s a very pleasant way of doing it; it feels like we’re reading the book together. And we’re also sharing our own experiences, rather than just talking about the book.

We’re reading Matthew Todd’s Straight Jacket: Overcoming Society’s Legacy of Gay Shame. I’ve read it before, years ago, and again find it an important yet gruelling read. Matthew and I are about the same age, and we both came to sexual maturity around the same time as the AIDS crisis hit, meaning we grew up bombarded, almost literally, with newspaper headlines describing gay people as vermin, perverts living in a cess-pit of our own making, with having to listen to the national debate being about whether gay people should be shot or gassed, whether we should be forced to live on an island, in a hospital or in a camp. When you’re struggling with coming to terms with your own sexuality, that kind of discourse lays a foundation of shame that it can take a lifetime to shake off.

So the group shared their own experiences. There’s a range of ages, and it was fascinating, and illuminating, to hear how the events of the early-mid eighties affected those both older and a bit younger than me. Some real moments of connection, which shows how powerful things can be when a group of people just come together to share and to listen to each other in a supportive and safe environment.

Three more chapters to read before next Monday. But for now, I’m going to go back to the novel I’m writing and see if I can’t bang out a few words before Charing Cross.

Wednesday July 3rd 2024

I’m stuck. I banged out a few words on the train, but not many. I feel like I’m going in circles, slightly. My three characters have been in the same room, looking at the same screen, arguing about one decision for what feels like thousands and thousands of words, now.

So, sitting at my desk on what is supposed to be a summer morning but is in fact doing a convincing impression of early autumn, I’ve realised that the important work I need to do now is not to push forward, but step back, and figure out what the block is.

Monday July 8th

I think I figured out the block, and maybe what to do about it. I’m not sure I ought to be writing this book. I’ve been here before, in fact this is a place I visit pretty much with every book, so the thought doesn’t scare me any more. And in many ways I knew this was coming. This book was supposed to be a novella, and I was imaging it coming in at about 35-40k words. But I’m up to 47k already and about half-way through the story. So, it’s a novel.

You might say, What‘s the problem? well, the problem, I guess, is that this was supposed to be a quick project before I started work on the next novel idea I’ve had waiting patiently by the side of the runway. But now this has unceremoniously jumped the queue, and so the question becomes, Do I send it back to wait its turn, or do I give it the attention it seems to be craving?

Or, do I turn it into a screenplay?

Anyway, last week I also went to a couple of launch parties. Dead Mile, by Jo Furniss and A J West’s on Wednesday, and I didn’t take many photos, but here are one or two.

The books that were launched...