Charlie's Newsletter
Feb. 2nd, 2018 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneIt is the best of times it is the worst of times. By which I mean the Six Nations rugby tournaments – men’s, women’s and under-20s – starts this weekend. So I have the bliss of wall-to-wall rugby and the agony of wondering if England can win overall in any of the three categories. “Swing low, sweet chariot…”
News
Top story this week is that I’ve signed with Williams and Whiting who’ll be releasing “Pack up your Troubles”, which is three older stories repackaged (and in one case reworked) together for the first time. “This Ground which was Secured at Great Expense”, “Music in the Midst of Desolation” and “Hallowed Ground” all have a WWI theme. More news of dates, etc, when I have it but it won’t be for a while. (You should see my “to be edited/finished” pile.)
Other big news is that the roll out of the early Cambridge Fellows Mystery titles by Endeavour is coming round Tattenham Corner and about to enter the finishing straight. (Which will mean nothing to people who don’t follow English horse racing.) Lessons in Trust is the latest release – in ebook only at present but with print to follow. It’s so nice to have my old warhorses back in the shafts (to continue the equine analogies).
Now for something unusual. A group of us – Clare London, Liam Livings, Derek Farrell and yours truly – will be having a book cover themed display at the Harbour Lights cinema (in their exhibition area) in Southampton in May of this year. The theme is “Cover? Art!” and it’ll be free to visit during cinema opening hours. More news on that later, too.
Excerpt
This time, the snippet comes from another WWI story, Promises Made Under Fire, which is available in both e-book and audio.
"Is it that bad?" Foden's voice sounded over my shoulder.
"Do you mean the tea or the day? You'll find out soon enough about the first and maybe sooner than we want about the second."
"The perennial ray of sunshine." He laughed. Only Frank Foden could find something to laugh about on mornings like these, when the damp towel of mist swaddled us.
"Try as I might, I can't quite summon up the enthusiasm to be a music-hall turn at this unearthly hour." I tried another mouthful of tea but even that didn't seem to be hitting the spot.
"If you're going to be all doom and gloom, can you hide the fact for a while? The colonel's coming today. He'll want to see 'everything jolly.'" The impersonation of Colonel Johnson's haughty, and slightly ridiculous, tones was uncanny. Trust Foden to hit the voice, spot on, even though his normal, chirpy London accent was nothing like Johnson's cut-glass drawl.
"Oh, he'll see it. So long as he doesn't arrive before I've had breakfast."
Foden slapped my back. "That's the ticket. Don't shatter the old man's illusions." He smiled, that smile potentially the only bright spot in a cold grey day. In a cold grey life. Frank kept me going, even on days when the casualty count or the cold or the wet made nothing seem worth living for anymore.
"How the hell can you always be so cheerful?"
"Because the alternative isn't worth thinking about. Why make things more miserable when there's a joke to crack?"
And finally, from the Rugby for Heroes calendar, a few years back. How to combine two of my great loves…
>
News
Top story this week is that I’ve signed with Williams and Whiting who’ll be releasing “Pack up your Troubles”, which is three older stories repackaged (and in one case reworked) together for the first time. “This Ground which was Secured at Great Expense”, “Music in the Midst of Desolation” and “Hallowed Ground” all have a WWI theme. More news of dates, etc, when I have it but it won’t be for a while. (You should see my “to be edited/finished” pile.)
Other big news is that the roll out of the early Cambridge Fellows Mystery titles by Endeavour is coming round Tattenham Corner and about to enter the finishing straight. (Which will mean nothing to people who don’t follow English horse racing.) Lessons in Trust is the latest release – in ebook only at present but with print to follow. It’s so nice to have my old warhorses back in the shafts (to continue the equine analogies).
Now for something unusual. A group of us – Clare London, Liam Livings, Derek Farrell and yours truly – will be having a book cover themed display at the Harbour Lights cinema (in their exhibition area) in Southampton in May of this year. The theme is “Cover? Art!” and it’ll be free to visit during cinema opening hours. More news on that later, too.
Excerpt
This time, the snippet comes from another WWI story, Promises Made Under Fire, which is available in both e-book and audio.
"Is it that bad?" Foden's voice sounded over my shoulder.
"Do you mean the tea or the day? You'll find out soon enough about the first and maybe sooner than we want about the second."
"The perennial ray of sunshine." He laughed. Only Frank Foden could find something to laugh about on mornings like these, when the damp towel of mist swaddled us.
"Try as I might, I can't quite summon up the enthusiasm to be a music-hall turn at this unearthly hour." I tried another mouthful of tea but even that didn't seem to be hitting the spot.
"If you're going to be all doom and gloom, can you hide the fact for a while? The colonel's coming today. He'll want to see 'everything jolly.'" The impersonation of Colonel Johnson's haughty, and slightly ridiculous, tones was uncanny. Trust Foden to hit the voice, spot on, even though his normal, chirpy London accent was nothing like Johnson's cut-glass drawl.
"Oh, he'll see it. So long as he doesn't arrive before I've had breakfast."
Foden slapped my back. "That's the ticket. Don't shatter the old man's illusions." He smiled, that smile potentially the only bright spot in a cold grey day. In a cold grey life. Frank kept me going, even on days when the casualty count or the cold or the wet made nothing seem worth living for anymore.
"How the hell can you always be so cheerful?"
"Because the alternative isn't worth thinking about. Why make things more miserable when there's a joke to crack?"
And finally, from the Rugby for Heroes calendar, a few years back. How to combine two of my great loves…
>
