It's a no!

I heard back from the editor who was going to give me feedback on Crash Tactic. Basically the feedback was ‘write something else’. Apparently the characterisation is thin and the plot far fetched - (as opposed to those deeply layered characters wandering through sensible plots in all the other comedy action adventures). 

Reading her email I got that old familiar stinging sensation in the ears - the one you used to get at school after your homework got marked and the teacher didn’t like it. That’s the one thing about writing - you’re continually getting your homework marked: reliving those feelings and trying to make sure that no-one is looks over your shoulder at all the red ink on the page. Still it was useful feedback which a few deep breaths later I appreciated.

This doesn’t mean the book isn’t publishable or another publisher won’t want it. The editor at Hachette did want to. I guess I should call the agent and persue that angle. I don’t know, maybe I’ve moved on already.

It’s coming!

The one thing the email did make me do was write, It was strangely inspiring so I’ve made a good start on Little Green Pills, the next kids book. The next adult one is also coming. I’m thinking about it at 2 am which means the proverbial pen will be hitting the paper soon. It’s like some large messy creature emerging from the depth - bits and pieces float up here and there heralding that the rest of its sporadic body is about to pop up. It’s an exciting stage to know that the writing is on its way.

In the meantime: The Unauthorised Version

Burn your prayer books, I’m reading a book that makes me want to read The Bible! The Unauthorised Version: truth and fiction in the Bible by Robin Lane Fox is as dry a historical work as I can stomach but is fascinating nevertheless. To say that it explores what is and isn’t true in the Bible is an understatement of its depth and complexity. Fox examines the historical evidence of who wrote what, what works their writing was based on and if there is any other historical evidence to back it up. What’s great about the book is that it isn’t an anti-religion polemic, it simply explores where the Bible came from, who its authors were and what were their sources. Fox delights in developing the character of people who probably wrote various books in the old testament, peeling back layer upon layer of the sources in an attempt to discover what the early Hebrews might have actually believed: texts based on earlier texts based on stories. He is like an archeologist digging down through the layers of the words. His exploration of the prophets and the conundrum of success are a delight. Is a prophet successful if he predicts disaster and it happens or does his success lie in preventing it from happening? Fox draws interesting parallels with global warming advocates. Of course there’s an awful lot of revisionism from the writers writing about the prophets long after their demise trying to prove them right. Interestingly the New Testament is just as challenging in terms of the characters and the true identity of the writers. 

What Fox does obliterate, without ever having to say it, is the ridiculous notion of it all being true. It’s so utterly contradictory that it becomes hard to accept that anyone who believes it all absolutely has actually read it.