I'm...
Always the first person on the dance floor, or close enough, and notorious for disappearing when everyone else wants to leave. My life drastically changed when I moved to rural France to renovate a house, have kids, and help start up a business. No more clubbing, no more raves, no more festis.
Torture.
I retreated into myself somewhat. In order to fill the void of self expression that living in a new country and learning a new language had created , I began writing fiction. And I love it.
Little will replace the special times I shared with my good friends during the nineties and early naughties, a period of immense positive energy and creativity. It was a privilege. But through my writing I have been able to relive some of my wilder days, and create new ones through an array of colourful characters in Loved UP.
In reconciliation of my old life and my new, I have started this blog to share what I do for kicks in this remote landscape now that I am technically a responsible adult. *Pause while I RAOFL.*
Music, entertainment, how the two different cultures relate to those areas, and what it’s like living as a stranger on foreign soil, are likely the main topics I’ll be touching on, though who knows -- let's just see where the road takes us shall we? And not least of all, to share the progress of my two novels, The Deadliest of Errors and Loved UP, and other writing-related tangents.
I hope you will join in and help me lose the plot, find the plot, make up the bloody plot! And not give up on it.
...Writing About?
Currently under submission:
The Deadliest of Errors Seven backpackers; one guided tour. After a moment of midnight madness, only six come back. Prejudice, school yard spite, and intense rivalry dissolved what should have been a fun, adventurous trip into a vicious war for love and hierarchy. The local rangers have suspicions; was the disappearance a foolish accident, or did something more sinister occur?
Next project:
Loved UP (novel) — Peddling drugs to pay off the debts of her addicted boyfriend, runaway Stella hopes to break away from her small-time dealing racket, get a decent job and make something of her life. Maybe then she could go back home and win the long coveted respect of her father. But in the midst of the 1990s' recession, and with not a GCSE in sight, it's proving harder than she thought. When disaster strikes, Stella flees to London, taking her friend Kirsten with her. Thrust into the city's underground rave scene, she soon realises that the best way to keep on top of the rent and pay off her ruthless suppliers — of whom she is in no doubt will come to hunt her down — is to become a party organiser herself. But big raves require copious ecstasy, and Stella knows that if she wants to run a legitimate business she first has to establish herself any which way she can. As the 1990s rave scene increasingly unifies the nation's youth and divides them from 'normal' society, the uproar attracts the wrong kind of attention and Stella finds herself caught up with organised crime. Her sights of a legitimate career seem to slip farther away as she is dragged deeper into Britain's chemical romance and London's gangland. Can she steer herself back on course or will her ambition drive her down paths she never imagined she would take?
Loved UP seeks to explore the ongoing debate between legalisation and prohibition, and our recreational relationship with intoxicating substances.
Think you can help? If you were involved in the scene in the early nineties and can help with the details, please get in touch. Particularly if you worked in areas of the law, had any involvement in the demonstrations against the CJA of 1994, or have knowledge of police practices in that era relating to the subject.
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