You can find the first half of the Prologue here for free! It's right on the post so you don't have to download anything. Have a read!
Having finished Part One of this two part thriller I thought I'd throw out a snippet before sending it off to the publishers and go over some of the history and concepts without giving away too much too soon.
I have always been a huge fan of spy novels, especially those by John LeCarré and Ian Fleming. Other favourites include period dramas by Bernard Cornwell, C.S Forester and my favourite author of all time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
There are few, contemporary writers out there today that I can say would actually match up to this handful of names.
I suppose I am somewhat of a classicist, or perhaps just an old soul but what strikes me as great literature is the dedication that comes off a page, attention to detail, that 'one thing' a writer is aiming to convey.
Among this particular genre, spies and spying, I've found myself re-reading all my favourites over and over again so I thought I'd put this free research to use and write one of my own, maybe even a whole series if I feel the characters and story lines have gelled by the end.
One thing I did not want to do was produce something old.
It sounds blasé but the genre has understandably waned since the end of the Cold War. Exceptions such as Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy are full of great ideas and written to fill that gap in every way possible but as I said, I wanted something set a part to fill a space between the old guard and the new.
A Year And A Half Later
I'd been toying with ideas around science fiction for a while and from one of the more curious ideas for a book, I realised it could make a great basis for a present day spy thriller. That's essentially where it all came from and I started making notes immediately.
18 months later, here I find myself ready to publish. The number of drafts and notebooks I poured into this amount to easily more than a dozen, full sized novels in their own right for a finished product; a modest 60 thousand words.
There is also Part Two to come and while finished, still has to be edited and will account for another 70 to 75 thousand as well.
I decided to self publish for several reasons but primarily (and rather insanely, I even did the cover myself) had to insist upon full creative control for a first book. This was not without an element of irony.
While I knew what I wanted to write and have my own odd way of putting down prose I still reached out to any and all I knew for help in those areas I was lacking. It simply didn't happen.
In the overleaf you will see that the accreditations are non existent. Either no one actually believed I was serious or my process was too fractured for any legitimate involvement.
Having said that, any time I asked someone to look over a piece or provide some feedback all I heard was either 'I want to read more' or 'Give it to me when it's finished'.
Whatever the reason, it made me stay true to my goal and finish from beginning to end, all on my lonesome.
Whatever happens now, I only have myself to blame!
A Game Of Two Halves
The book itself began as one full novel at about 90 thousand words. It was only around Christmas '13 I decided to cut it in two, not because it was too big or I thought the story would read any better. I was half way through editing the whole thing and realised, I simply wanted to get it published sooner.
The story itself is set in 2010. Now 2014, I figured I would have to wait until the summer for it to be published and that wouldn't line up with a certain, element, in the story. (You'll have to read it to find out what it is!)
I had no aspirations for how long the book would take to write, no deadlines for editors or publishers, another reason I chose to self publish.
I did however have a particular time frame in mind and so, I put the second half on the back burner, wrote 'Part One' and started polishing, formatting and readying it for the shelf.
In retrospect, I think I've done quite well having taken on all of the other roles necessary for production inside three months. As for the story, who knows!
There were many stringent rules I set myself to build around. One was that of chapter formation.
Both parts contain ten chapters each and I have stuck rigidly to a format of size and number. Thrillers are said to be told best with fast, punchy sentences and short paragraphs and so I arranged the chapters along a similar process so that the narrative remains as evenly balanced as I could possibly make it.
Some of the more artistic will despise such a military arrangement but, military it is, and hopefully doesn't detract from the underlying essence.
There is only one prologue and Part Two will pick up right where Part One leaves off. I can easily imagine that any editor will have cut the first twenty pages, including the prologue but I still believe that it, and the beginning is where the story must start.
Without it, the book may indeed come across as something more traditionally conceived but tradition is not something I was looking for here.
In Parting
I will add more posts to this blog as The Post Office get published in the coming weeks and more after. For now, I will leave you with another snippet to wet the appetite. Watch this space!
'Convincing
a human being of the truth is a particular difficulty, especially
when they've already heard the contrary from a third party, any third
party, no matter who they are. First come first served, wouldn’t
you agree?' he said with sympathetic air.
'The
rear car was, of course, meant to box you in. There was no IED. Bad
intelligence on their side.' I wanted to interrupt him, my mouth hung
open to speak, stopping short of uttering the first syllable. No
matter what report he had seen, there was nothing in it about which
car was hit first. Only I knew these details.
'A
leak, someone in the camp with a big mouth. Either way. Confirming
any route is SOP and you heard rumours floating around. Rich
contractors going through Fallujah, without an escort. You could
quash the rumours, start some of your own, suggest extra precautions,
planned a different route but no, what do you do I wonder? Little
more than plan for failure.
Talked
up the escort to the local commander on a hope and a prayer it would
be passed down the chain of command, make it’s way to the
insurgents and have them think twice. The commander, he knew what was
going to happen. He’s no dimwit. He wasn't going to help you in a
month of Sundays and you knew it. You convinced yourself of it and
refused to try. He could have given you names, addresses,
locations
instead, there is quibble about gossip, arguments over protocol. As
if that’s getting you anywhere. Even if he did pass it on, a large,
well trained, well armed escort, the cell would have taken their
rumours over your memo any day of the week.
These
are desperate men. Naturally they didn't expect anyone to start
firing back and gave up pretty quick. So, we’re back to my first
question. You either thought they’d lose their bottle, let you
through thanks to your by the book confirmation or you just guessed
no one would be stupid enough to attack a convoy of that size. Hm?'
His gaze settled on me. I wanted to set him straight and taking a
moment to weigh the pros and cons, I really shouldn’t have been
admitting to this. This, that wasn’t even in the file, the report
or the discharge.
All
rights reserved. Copyright Roger Colins © 2014
#ThePostOffice #RogerColins #spythriller
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