VinceT

If it’s Tuesday, then I must be very happy to be interviewed by Lindsay over at Everyday Is An Adventure, my latest stop on the Family Rules Virtual Book Tour. Lindsay will be reviewing the novel soon, so stay tuned.

“… I see writing a novel as like running a marathon, and learned early that it’s easy to start out too fast, use up all my energy and find myself out of steam halfway through. Like marathon running, getting to the finish line is all about putting the training miles in. I’ve written eight novels, well over half-a-million words – which freaks me out sometimes – but I now know how to pace myself, and how to keep the well-spring rejuvenated.

I do run into writer’s block every so often, but don’t let myself get too hung up on that, I just keep writing…”

Family Rules Virtual Book Tour – guest blogging at Literary R&R:

“… First up, I should really make very, very clear that Family Rules isn’t my story. I’ve been fascinated by the response of readers, who often ask me whether it’s about me. It’s not, definitely not; it’s a fictional memoir.

I think this comes from the main character, Kenny, who is pretty compelling. I’d be lying if I said I knew who he was when I started the novel…”

Hi, all - I’m interviewed today at PumpUpYourBook.com, as part of the Family Rules Virtual Book Tour.

“… The book cover and author photo is the same thing – it’s a picture of my Dad and I on vacation when I was about 4 years old. I could make a pretty convincing pitch on that picture, so I’ll go with that.

About a year before I published Family Rules, it was my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary and we went back to the UK for a big party. It was great being in the heart of family and friends and seeing the love between and for my parents writ large. During the party, there was a slide-loop of pictures, many of which I had never seen.

As I was chatting with my brother, suddenly this picture appears, of my Dad and I sitting on a beach breakwater. Dad’s got his arm around me, smoking a cigarette, a smiling Jack-the-lad, and I’m staring out at the camera with a scowl – I’m either cold or unhappy about something. I was transfixed; had never seen this picture, didn’t remember the moment…”

Interview today at Review From Here.

“… Really, I think it’s Kenny.

To write someone whose reality is so distorted, and yet with whom we could feel kinship was a fine balancing act. I needed him to make a decision that anyone in their “right-mind” wouldn’t make – yet, I needed that to be based upon his upbringing and not a mental illness.

As this is revealed non-linearly across the novel, we grow “into” Kenny’s character, rather than reading “about” Kenny’s character. By the time he makes the critical decisions, we know him and why he’s doing it, so we’re willing to go on the journey with him…”

Read more at Review From Here

Oh, have I been away a while or what?

It’s been a furiously busy year.

What more can I say?

It started with the publication of Family Rules and, alongside that, a poetry collection, Garbled Glittering Glamours .

Then, by February, I’d finished my first original screenplay, Team Building – which has subsequently been through 7 revisions and is very, very close to its final spec version – now the shopping starts.

I ended up in March without a story in mind and had a little panic – it’s a long time since I was empty like that.

But I needn’t have worried.

I put my faith in the universe and, sure enough on April 10th, heard a story in the local press which immediately set my synapses on fire. On April 11th, I wrote the first word of Escalation and four months later, completed the novel. I have never written a book so quickly and with so little need for revision – and I have seldom had such an easy, fun-filled time writing; practicing my craft. Escalation will be published in December and, if all goes to plan, will sport a cover by none other than the outstanding Robert Edmonds of Vancouver, Canada – he’s the mad, bad dude painting up a storm in the video for Sex With Strangers song, We Want The Fire.

At the same time, I collaborated with James Patric Moran and Timothy Quinlan to adapt Family Rules for film. The resulting screenplay for Inventing Kenny is really, really good

[even allowing for my biased opinion]

and I’m ridiculously optimistic that Kenny will find a home. He’s out being shopped in Hollywood at the moment, and a couple of weeks ago, I was in New York at a pitch-fest aimed at getting an option on the book and screenplay – still waiting to hear back on both routes.

And, for the record, I HATE waiting.

Still, the revisions to Team Building have kept me busy.

And the new story, Dare Ya, is beginning to pick up steam – screenplay or novel, I don’t know yet, though I’m leaning towards a novel which I’ll then adapt with the boys.

Oh, and of course, there’s Escalation to adapt as well.

And the 4-part series that I’m adapting from Karaoke Criminals .

So, all in all, it’s been a year of stories – perhaps the most important one of all being that of my own story – I am a commitment to making a life of story-telling.

Join me here

[over on the right… Look! A button!]

or on Facebook as Vincent Tuckwood – Story-Teller

[over on the right… Scroll down… Look! A Facebook Like box!]

This commitment is only going to amplify.

Peace, and thank you for reading. You have my love.

It’s a strange grief to finish a work of art and know that you’ve set it free to stand on its own two feet. This conception, this gestation, this nurturing, all leading to this day when it’s done.

Vincet.net has been quiet these past weeks as I’ve written, rewritten and polished a new, unexpected novel – Escalation. This story truly was a gift, written from idea to completion between April 11th and August 26th. My typical multi-year novel-writing span condensed to 4 months; the rewriting, previously laborious and turgid (with way too much attention to detail), now like polishing a few rough edges. The writing has focus, an intensity that I relish and, most of all, characters that think, decide, act and speak as real people.

These people I’ve lived with for months. These people I’ve loved, hated, nurtured, constrained. These people.

And now they’re going to live with other people.

Leaving me with that strange mix of happiness, pride and remorse.

And the ever nagging critic that says other people just won’t ‘get’ them.

Like any parent whose kid has left home, it’s up to me to redesign life without them. And those of you who know me even a little, know that I’m already there.

Escalation will be my fourth published novel and, in the near future, I’ll be taking it into screenplay adaptation – it’ll make a fast, absorbing film.

Team Building (an original screenplay – think ‘Lord of the Flies’ meets ‘The Social Network’) is rewritten and finalized for shopping – that long process will begin soon, a new mountain for me to climb.

Inventing Kenny (a screenplay adaptation of my novel, Family Rules) is already out for review with agents in LA.

Dare Ya (an original screenplay) is underway, structured and mapped, and about a third fully written. It’s a fun story, ‘Kickass’ meets ‘Good Will Hunting’.

Karaoke Criminals (a screenplay adaptation of my novel) is structured for a 4-part series. I’ll start writing the script for that soon. It’ll remain a UK-production (it needs the London!) and, in my wildest dreams, the BBC will grab it with both hands!

And then there’s music: the band, Monkey68, are in fine fettle, booking our Fall/Winter/Spring shows at the moment, and on October 1st, I’m playing New London’s Bean & Leaf Café as part of the acoustic Sinners Circle series – show starts at 7.30pm!

So, am I grieving Escalation? Of course. I’m human.

But I know from all my previous work, that the happiness and pride will long outlast the remorse and sadness. Novels, songs, stories, they all take on their own existence just as soon as they are shared. They become something meaningful to someone else, and that meaning may have little, if anything, to do with my original intent. And that’s fine. That’s art.

But I’ll take this moment of sadness. Just for me. Just for a moment.

Be well, Escalation, make your way in the world. Everything’s going to be fine. I love you.

Things have been a little quiet here at VinceT.net of late.

Being on vacation has something to do with that (:o) but also, the good news I guess, is that I’m half-way through a new novel. Tentatively titled ‘Escalation’

[though I know that my last novel, Family Rules, went through three titles before I arrived at that, so I wouldn't hold any hope for the new one to appear under Escalation!]

the story took me completely by surprise. I’d started the year feeling a little lost because, for the first time in a long time, a creative venture wasn’t pushing to find release – I’d just published Family Rules and Garbled Glittering Glamours, a veritable buzz of activity which left me tired but fulfilled. I was filling my time looking at screen-writing techniques, movie structure, etc. Partly because I was bringing my first script, Team Building, to a finish, partly because Family Rules was entering process for a screenplay adaptation

[pre-emptive thanks here to Timmy Quinlan and James Patric Moran]

but mostly because when it comes to creative process I’m a learning monster! So, with my head full of acts, sequences, heroes and archetypes, when I caught a local news story in passing I was amazed at how quickly the skeleton of the new novel blossomed out. I’m about 45,000 words into Escalation at the moment and the writing is very enjoyable.

And yet.

And yet, I’m feeling… What is it?

Down? Sad? Demoralized? Melancholy?

A bit of all of those, I guess. But it’s darker and pulsing.

I write to be read. When I don’t receive feedback I very quickly fill the void with a story of “no-one’s reading” – I know this isn’t true but the written medium places distance between artist and audience.

It’s different to my other abiding creative route, music, where the act of playing, alone or with a band, is shared energetically with an audience – sometimes dancing, sometimes listening, sometimes talking throughout the whole show (:o) they’re at least living and breathing there with me – and changing something in my energy can cause a tangible change in the flow between us. Writing is solitary, I have to pre-empt that energy long, long before it’s going to happen.

We write for ourselves; to reinforce something in, and to, ourselves.

Of my published novels, two were written from a deeply intuitive place – Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies? and Family Rules – in the process of writing them, like the best songs I’ve written, I was only partially aware of what I was creating, flowing in and among the threads of the story, discovering the characters, events, and even unseen parts of myself. Karaoke Criminals, and now Escalation, are more structured, a conscious act of story-telling. This doesn’t make them lesser art, just a different experience. Reading my collected poetry of the past couple of years, Garbled Glittering Glamours, I’m able to remember times, places, and emotions that filled each of those writing moments.

I love writing. I love discovering the story as it threads its way through and around me.

But right now, I’m finding myself questioning whether anyone is reading. It’s a mixture of anger, resentment, sadness, frustration.

[none of it linked to money, sales, royalties or material success, aside from that they are indicators of the reading - we artists long ago gave away dreams of sustenance through art]

I write to be read.

And when I think no-one’s reading, it’s all too easy to fall down the rabbit hole. Particularly when that no-one is a friend.

I always buy CDs by friend’s bands, I always do whatever I can to encourage their process. I try to get to their gigs. I’d buy their book, if they were writing. I do it because I love them and love the fact that they’re doing what they can to make the world a better place.

But I know how many people have read my books.

And, but for a small number – you know who you are and have my complete, utter, and endless love – my friends don’t appear to be reciprocating.

Which is where the sadness comes from.

If you write, paint, sing or create in any media, you know how lonely it is; you know the vulnerability of the act. When a little voice whispers in your ear that even your friends don’t care to support you, it’s an awful, demoralizing vacuum in which to try to create.

[if you make music and have ever played to a near-empty room, take that feeling and multiply it by many, many, many times and you won't even get close to writing when demoralized]

But create we do.

We will.

Or let me personalize that.

But create I do.

I will.

Because I can’t not do it.

And, my friends, would that you were as generous in your feedback as Lorain, who commented on Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies? I’m honoured and humbled by her gift to me. In the meantime, I’ll keep on doing good by you, I’ll keep encouraging you to be vulnerable and to make the world a better place. But I won’t be waiting for you to do the same for me.

And now, I guess, I’ll see how many of you have read this far.

Excuse my
outburst
It’s done
It’s over
I’m balancing
love
with hope
for my future
I’ll see you
tomorrow
on pages
and silicon
thank you
for reading
you have
my love

If you read, please let me know; writing is a lonely place, made better by even the shortest of visits.

When we moved to New York from the UK in 2003, we found ourselves in a (relatively) sprawling semi-basement apartment in what was claimed to be the oldest brownstone on the upper west-side. It would be our base for around a year before we relocated here to Connecticut.

I was working on a project split between Manhattan and New Jersey, so spent most weekdays traveling out of the city – counter to the traffic flow – and getting home in the late-evening. Effectively, while Jane and Elise had the city all week long, I really had it for the weekends and, if lucky, a couple of days during the week.

Not that I was complaining; I’m the luckiest man in the world, blessed with a lucky career that allowed me to use my strengths much of the time, and that brought me across the pond to live slap, bang in the centre of the most exciting city on earth.

On the drive out to Jersey, I would listen to ‘Teach Yourself Spanish’ CDs, or formulate more ideas for my nascent novel, Family Rules

[which wouldn't see full light for a further 7 years]

while also thinking through the final stages of Karaoke Criminals, which I was still working on. Later that year, I would take the decision to publish Do Sparrows Eat Butterflies?

It was a fertile year – my stressful corporate life feeding energy into my creative pursuits, all over-amped by the ‘on-ness’ of living in Manhattan.

Of all the lucky things I experienced, when I look back on that year in NYC, I think about the books.

You see, the apartment we were in was lined with bookcases, and everyone who’d lived there had left behind books. All genres, all periods. I only wish we’d been there longer and I could have soaked up so many more stories and perspectives of the world.

One previous inhabitant had been interested in black history and literature, as a whole section of the bookcase were given over to books that I, a Brit steeped in contemporary fiction, hadn’t ever had on radar. Two books I remember particularly are:

• Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
• Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

These beautifully crafted stories of proud people confronted by change were beautiful. And I never would have had them without the luck of being in that apartment.

Living in the apartment was like an ongoing American history lesson, taught by novels that I knew of, but had never read:

• The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
• To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• The Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
• On The Road – Jack Kerouac

All of these stories grounding me in the history of 20th century America. Had I been there longer, I might have chosen any other period and dived in – there was a Mario Puzo section, Mark Twain, Herman Melville. Many, many others.

Oh, and Hemingway, of course – The Old Man and the Sea is one of my Dad’s touchstones

[more from the movie than the book, I think, but I've been known to be wrong!]

so when I found the book on the shelf, it got read )

In the years since, I’ve tried to build on my luck – and the gift those previous tenants gave me – by consciously going ‘off pattern’ and buying books I normally wouldn’t read – most recently, at the suggestion of some friends, stepping into Charles Bukowski; William Burroughs a while back.

There’s no grand point or learning from this reflection, just my acknowledgement of the luck I’ve experienced and the gift that unknown people gave me without even knowing they were giving it.

Stories are precious, they transmit our collective wisdom, they are told to be told again. Please, if you’ve read a book, pass it to someone who hasn’t; or at least leave it on a shelf where someone might find it years later.

Please make someone else as lucky as I’ve had the chance to be.

I love using the tools at Wordle.net to scan pieces of text – it’s a very quick and fun way to assess the overall content and, sometimes, surprising patterns jump out

[in my corporate life, I've used it to scan strategic documents, which quite often bring the true culture to the fore]

so, today, I ran the whole of my latest novel, Family Rules, as a wordle and it looks like this:

A time of quiet for me recently, while I’ve been deep in learning a new web-scripting language – I’m making headway, but unlearning hard-learned lessons is really, unexpectedly tough. I think it’s because when I learnt PHP/MySQL to code all of my sites, I had to unhinge the structure of my natural thought and reform it to make things work. Now I’m having to do the same all over again. It’s left me ‘grrrr-ing’ plenty of the time over the past weeks.

But at last I’m emerging.

And that’s a good thing, because while I use the web to develop and share ideas, I’m a story-teller first and foremost and not a programmer. It’s a relief to be returning to stories again. So, some developments:

I started work on a stage-play (‘In Consequence”‘) which is out of the gates nicely – structure is done, I just need to write the thing!

I’m partnering with some folk to bring ‘Family Rules‘ to the screen – more on that as it develops, but the treatment (an early synopsis of the screenplay) is really, really good

I got great feedback on my first original screenplay, ‘Team Building’, and so I’m going in for a rewrite. Swapping out one of the lead character’s motivation and arc – that’s so much easier in script format than in a full-prose novel (though I must confess to a lack of motivation, I hate going back over things – like redrafting prior to publication… ugh!)

I’ve started work on a new novel, three chapters in – an interesting story inspired by some local news – I won’t jinx myself by sharing more, but stay tuned here (or on Facebook) for updates on how that’s going

Musically, I’m writing new songs and recording some older tunes that never got committed to silicon. Moving back in a classic RnB/Soul direction – an interesting and comfortable thread for me to follow (much like when we played as Roadrunner in theUK). And, after spending a few months tweaking and building out my guitars, pedals and amps, I’m really, really enjoying the sound that’s coming out now – playing is great fun. The band is going great, with Tony a natural fit on the drums. We’re playing the New London food stroll on May 11th (I think we’ll be on Bank Street outside the Fire Station) – 5.30-8.30pm – hope to see some of you there.

And there’s other stuff, of course (particularly in business where I’m pitching for some pretty interesting contracts) but talking about that isn’t really what I use this site for, so I won’t bore you.

Anyway, I’ve still got more re-programming to do before I’m done learning. And the sooner I get done with that, the sooner I step back into my story-telling self!

In the meantime, Love-Peace-Trust.

V