I’m very pleased to announce that the first re-write of Cold Press is now complete, meaning it’s still on schedule for a March 17th release. And on that day the full finished version will be available as a free Kindle download to all of my Facebook friends. Send me a request if you haven’t already!
The original text was written in 1993. Around 45,000 new words have been added and lots of old things removed. There are lots of new characters, lots of new twists, and a completely new ending.
The first re-write was about structure and content. The second is beautification – removing adverbs, tightening dialogue, polishing descriptions and adding atmosphere and drama. Then the editing and proof-reeding begins.
It’s been amazingly therapeutic to revisit the themes and locations of the original book and a lot of fun to add new ones. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the brilliance of the developer of Scrivener. It’s a fabulous piece of software and makes writing even more of a joy. More very soon.
David Bradwell
Coincidences and ghosts of nightclubs from the past
At the moment I’m re-working Cold Press – a novel I first wrote in 1993 when I was living in Sunderland and a journalist on the Sunderland Echo. The new version is hopefully a lot more compelling (at the time I was just pleased to write something of novel length, but I knew it wasn’t good enough for publication).
Part of the novel is set in Sunderland, part in London. Back in 1993 I didn’t know London very well, even though I’d spent three years there as a student in the ’80s. So I went down for a day to walk around, scout locations, and make copious notes that formed big chunks of the background to scenes set in Camden, Fleet Street and Paddington. The Sunderland bits were much easier. I just had to look out of the window.
Now, 23 years later the reverse is true. I left Sunderland in 1994 and have only been back for football day trips and the odd weekend since. And so, in the process of the re-write I’ve been doing lots of research and checking via the occasional trip north and – of course – the Internet.
The novel is still set in 1993 and I’ve been keen to maintain the authenticity of the era – and ensure that the new parts don’t look out of place. In 1993 mobile phones were a rarity and dot matrix printers were much more common in the home than inkjets and lasers. But in the process of doing the research I came across a real ghost of the past.
In 1993 one of my main jobs at the Sunderland Echo was to write the monthly Nightstyle entertainment magazine, and this involved regular trips to nightclubs to shoot pictures of clubgoers having a blast. A scene in the book is based on this, set in a nightclub called Bentleys.
Bentleys has long gone now, but I wanted to check to see how much of my original writing was accurate, how much was artistic licence, and which areas could be improved upon. So I typed Bentleys Nightclub Sunderland into Google and found a couple of interesting features published in the Sunderland Echo in 2015.
One shows pictures of the interior from 1993 and this proved incredibly useful. However another article from June called Remembering Sunderland clubbing in the 1990s was particlarly evocative. The pictures in the article were ones I’d actually taken, all those years ago.
The Burglar – a new short film project for 2017
I’ve completed the first draft of a new screenplay that will be made into a short film during 2017. Provisionally titled The Burglar it follows a couple who return home after a romantic meal, full of fun. But in the middle of the night a mysterious man breaks in… and, well, you’ll have to wait for the rest.
I do love writing screenplays. On Boxing Day last year I wote The Package (there’s a theme running here with the working titles, haha) about two people who meet on Blackfriars Bridge in London for the exchange of a mysterious brown envelope, Shady characters galore mean that when it reaches its final destination, someone is in for a big surprise. The Package was filmed in autumn 2016 under the new title of Calibre, and will be released early next year.
Of course, writing the screenplay means I can write a role for myself. In The Burglar I’m Otto, the taxi driver. It was the first time I’ve used Scrivener for a screenplay, and would like to offer thanks to character name generator for solving all the usual naming conundrums.
Blast from the past… Aria Sorbonne interview, 1989
Haha, look what I just found… this picture comes from 1989 with me in the front and the great Jon Lilley in the background, back in the days when we were intent on setting the charts alight…
We were in a band called Aria Sorbonne and played live around Cambridge and had a blast.
The picture is from a magazine called Scene And Heard, December 1989 edition. and there’s an interview on page 8 if you want to see what might have been. Happy days… The full magazine is now online at http://www.peevedrecords.co.uk/pdf/sandh_issue20.pdf
Work in progress… the new Cold Press cover design
Work is still underway editing Cold Press. The name could yet change. Everything could change. But in the meantime here’s a sneak preview of the current cover… available in print and as an ebook in March 2017. If I get a move on…
The book was first written in 1993 but has now been heavily re-written. It’s still set in 1993 though… the authentic period details were too appealing to remove.
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