Charlie's latest newsletter
Aug. 31st, 2019 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charlie_cochraneAm feeling very chipper as I was expecting both the England men’s rugby team and cricket team to lose last weekend and they both had spectacular wins. If you’re from outside the UK and want to impress any of us, say how well Ben Stokes served his country. And if you want to knock our socks off, say that Jack Leach played the best one run innings in the history of the universe. It’ll make sense to us…
News
I know it’s still August – just – but I’ve started on my Christmas freebie story. This features Alasdair and Toby, the two full time film actors and part time amateur sleuths who feature in An Act of Detection. They appear to have got themselves inveigled into appearing in a pantomime, although not – to their relief – in drag.
Both e-book and print versions of Lessons in Playing a Murderous Tune are out now and yes, I managed to make the release date for both.
Bargain of the week is Lessons for Suspicious Minds. I shouldn’t say it, really, but all the Endeavour reprints come round on special offer so it’s worth holding out for them. Unless you’re impatient for the next, of course!
The excerpt today is from my novella Second Helpings.
Stuart Collins’s life might as well have ended a year ago when his partner died in a car crash. Even Stuart’s widowed father has found new love with an old friend, Isabel Franklin, so why can’t Stuart be bothered to try?
Then he gets a phone call from Isabel’s son, Paul, who wants to check out whether or not Mr. Collins is good enough for his mother. During dinner together, though, they end up checking out each other. Trouble is, Paul’s got a boyfriend—or maybe he doesn’t, since the boyfriend’s supposedly giving Paul the push by ignoring him. Or maybe Paul just wants to have his cake and eat it too.
Honesty with each other is the only way to move forward. But maybe honesty with themselves is what they really need.
Excerpt:
Some accident of the light, illumination from the pub garden streaming through a window and catching Paul’s hair, produced a halo. The effect was frightening. That’s just how Mark had appeared when Stuart had first seen him—in a pub of all places, sitting in a stream of sunlight, motes of dust dancing about his head like pinhead angels. He hadn’t thought of that first meeting in an age, deliberately shutting off those memories of happier times.
“I asked whether your dad and my mum were an item once.” Paul gently tapped the table top.
“Sorry.” Stuart winced, as though that hand had struck him. “I was miles away. Almost like I saw a ghost.”
Paul studied him for a moment, then looked away. He produced a rueful smile, one which softened the angles of his face. “I thought I’d said something I shouldn’t.”
“No, you’re okay. It’s just...” Stuart pulled his beer towards him then pushed it away again. He wasn’t sure he wanted it any more. “My partner died last year. Sometimes it still feels like yesterday.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry. I had no idea.” Paul grimaced. He’d grown pale, as pale as some of the victims Stuart had come across at work, deep in shock and wondering why the hell this was happening to them. “Mum didn’t warn me.”
“Perhaps she doesn’t know. Dad doesn’t particularly like discussing it.” Stuart looked at the table, like a chess player weighing up the next move among the beer mats and glasses. “He’s taken a hell of a long time to get over Mum dying. Mark’s death brought it all back and he’s only just finding his feet again.”
“Mark?”
“My partner.” Well, there was a decisive move. Paul would know he was gay.
“Mark was your partner?”
“Yes. Got a problem with that?” Stuart wondered if he’d drawn the homophobe in the pack.
“No.” Paul shook his head. “Would it help to talk about him?”
Stuart’s tide of anger came like Paul’s offer: sudden, unexpected and uncomfortable. He didn’t even know what he was cross about. “Why? So you can vet me, too?”
“No. God, no. I’m gay as well. I had no idea you were.”
“Oh, sorry, didn’t I make it clear as I came in? Should have worn my pink scarf and mascara. Then we could have joined the great queer conspiracy together.” It should have made it easier, the common nature: it didn’t. And, with a sudden clarity of thought he’d not felt in ages, Stuart realised the attraction he felt—and felt so guilty about—was putting a barrier between them.
And finally – given the recent commemorations of D-day, this seemed appropriate. A wall not five miles from where I live, graffiti from the American troops waiting to embark for France.
Charlie
News
I know it’s still August – just – but I’ve started on my Christmas freebie story. This features Alasdair and Toby, the two full time film actors and part time amateur sleuths who feature in An Act of Detection. They appear to have got themselves inveigled into appearing in a pantomime, although not – to their relief – in drag.
Both e-book and print versions of Lessons in Playing a Murderous Tune are out now and yes, I managed to make the release date for both.
Bargain of the week is Lessons for Suspicious Minds. I shouldn’t say it, really, but all the Endeavour reprints come round on special offer so it’s worth holding out for them. Unless you’re impatient for the next, of course!
The excerpt today is from my novella Second Helpings.
Stuart Collins’s life might as well have ended a year ago when his partner died in a car crash. Even Stuart’s widowed father has found new love with an old friend, Isabel Franklin, so why can’t Stuart be bothered to try?
Then he gets a phone call from Isabel’s son, Paul, who wants to check out whether or not Mr. Collins is good enough for his mother. During dinner together, though, they end up checking out each other. Trouble is, Paul’s got a boyfriend—or maybe he doesn’t, since the boyfriend’s supposedly giving Paul the push by ignoring him. Or maybe Paul just wants to have his cake and eat it too.
Honesty with each other is the only way to move forward. But maybe honesty with themselves is what they really need.
Excerpt:
Some accident of the light, illumination from the pub garden streaming through a window and catching Paul’s hair, produced a halo. The effect was frightening. That’s just how Mark had appeared when Stuart had first seen him—in a pub of all places, sitting in a stream of sunlight, motes of dust dancing about his head like pinhead angels. He hadn’t thought of that first meeting in an age, deliberately shutting off those memories of happier times.
“I asked whether your dad and my mum were an item once.” Paul gently tapped the table top.
“Sorry.” Stuart winced, as though that hand had struck him. “I was miles away. Almost like I saw a ghost.”
Paul studied him for a moment, then looked away. He produced a rueful smile, one which softened the angles of his face. “I thought I’d said something I shouldn’t.”
“No, you’re okay. It’s just...” Stuart pulled his beer towards him then pushed it away again. He wasn’t sure he wanted it any more. “My partner died last year. Sometimes it still feels like yesterday.”
“Oh, God, I’m sorry. I had no idea.” Paul grimaced. He’d grown pale, as pale as some of the victims Stuart had come across at work, deep in shock and wondering why the hell this was happening to them. “Mum didn’t warn me.”
“Perhaps she doesn’t know. Dad doesn’t particularly like discussing it.” Stuart looked at the table, like a chess player weighing up the next move among the beer mats and glasses. “He’s taken a hell of a long time to get over Mum dying. Mark’s death brought it all back and he’s only just finding his feet again.”
“Mark?”
“My partner.” Well, there was a decisive move. Paul would know he was gay.
“Mark was your partner?”
“Yes. Got a problem with that?” Stuart wondered if he’d drawn the homophobe in the pack.
“No.” Paul shook his head. “Would it help to talk about him?”
Stuart’s tide of anger came like Paul’s offer: sudden, unexpected and uncomfortable. He didn’t even know what he was cross about. “Why? So you can vet me, too?”
“No. God, no. I’m gay as well. I had no idea you were.”
“Oh, sorry, didn’t I make it clear as I came in? Should have worn my pink scarf and mascara. Then we could have joined the great queer conspiracy together.” It should have made it easier, the common nature: it didn’t. And, with a sudden clarity of thought he’d not felt in ages, Stuart realised the attraction he felt—and felt so guilty about—was putting a barrier between them.
And finally – given the recent commemorations of D-day, this seemed appropriate. A wall not five miles from where I live, graffiti from the American troops waiting to embark for France.
Charlie
