Want to be in my gang, sorry Crowd?

July already! Where does the time go? Time for my monthly blog. It’s rare for me to blog more often for two reasons. One I don’t want to be a pain in the neck – bombarding you with rubbish like, I had to take the cat to the vet yesterday to have a boil on its head lanced – and two, sometimes it’s difficult to write about something relevant to my writing. Writing a novel is a slow process. Well today there is some news, and it involves you too.

Crowd Funding.

I’ve ummed-and-arred about this for months. Should I, shouldn’t I? I decided to do it – thousands do, so why not me? So to cut to the chase, here’s the link http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/123677?a=710539 for my campaign to raise funding to enable my debut novel professionally edited and have a graphic-artist design the eBook and print covers. If you know anyone who can do these, please let me know.

My target also includes the cost of printing a limited edition of hard and paper-back books for my supporters.

I’ll not take up any more of your time, so hop over to the Indiegogo page to see how, if you wish, you can help.

Or take a peek at the latest version of Chapter One from my debut novel Why? Why – Chapter One  Yes the working title has changed again. You might have known it as Crosier’s Progress, or Searching for Closure. But I listen to those who make constructive comments, so now it’s Why?

Thanks in advance,

Edwin

Crowd Funding

Hello Everyone,

Well, the title of this blog is a well-used term, but it is wrong surely? I’m not donating money to a crowd. I’m hoping a crowd, most complete strangers to me and each other, will fund some of the costs of getting my debut novel published.

I’ll let you know in the next few days when you can become a member of this elite crowd.

You’ll get something for your $$$s too: Perks. No, not Perks-Must-Be-About-It as in the Railway Children, played wonderfully by Bernard Cribbins – not forgetting the delightful Jennifer Agutter … oh my. Do you remember that scene towards the end of the 1970 film?  – you know, the one where the mist and steam gradually clear to reveal Bobby’s father.

There’s mist and steam right at the start of Chapter One in my novel. Except my train doesn’t slowly disappear; just the opposite. It comes dashing like a mad-thing from the mist to kill, scores. But I digress.

Consider your $$$s as advance orders. And just what Perks you can have, I’ll tell you about very soon.

Thanks for your time,

Edwin

Jubilees and Coronations

1952: Britain was still recovering from the second world war. Some foods were still on ration – it would be another year before sugar came off – though interestingly, fish and chips never were.

So imagine the grief felt by most of the nation when King George VI died. If that wasn’t enough, Britain’s worst peacetime rail disaster occurred  before the year was out.

I’d be almost four, when the first of these events took place;

• Accession of Elizabeth II: 6th February 1952,
• England’s worst train crash: 8th October 1952,
• Coronation of Elizabeth II: on 2nd June 1953, which I just about remember watching on a tiny black and white television in some rich-person’s front room. I also remember the curb-stones being crayoned red, white and blue; I suppose I was much closer to them then. But I digress.

Now I don’t really believe in coincidences – yet, I’m managing to write a few into my crime novel – but isn’t it curious that the crash falls, almost to the day, exactly between the two royal events?

No, it’s not curious at all. It’s just how things worked out. But what is curious is that no one, no august body of crash investigators could say exactly why the crash occurred. True, the Ministry of Transport Report, released just 10 days after the Coronation, found the Perth train-crew were at fault, but could only surmise as to why: both the driver and fireman died.

Want some more coincidences? Three trains were involved in the crash of 60 years ago. The Perth sleeper service was hauled by a Coronation class locomotive, which ran into a stationary local service, and the third train was headed by a Jubilee class locomotive.  Stranger and stranger, eh?  And the other express locomotive involved: that was a Princess Royal Class named Princess Anne. Of course, all of these were designed and built long before the occasion of Elizabeth’s Jubilee being celebrated this week.

So what’s all this got to do with me? I’ll tell you.

My crime novel – working title Searching for Closure – tells a tale of mystery and murder, the inciting incident of which is the Harrow and Wealdstone disaster. Lorna, who loses relatives in the disaster, needs to know why it happened and seven years later discovers that D I Crosier had investigated what might have gone wrong.  Crosier is at a loss, just as everyone else was at the time, to answer her enquiry. But events spiral out of control and  …

Well that would be telling wouldn’t it, so you’d better get on the mailing list for updates.

Thanks for reading,

Edwin