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Filming the Prologue to Niedermayer & Hart

29/1/2015

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The prologue to Niedermayer & Hart was originally a scene appearing thirty-seven pages into the book which introduced a new character. It was only through a series of trials, errors and pure luck that it actually found its way to start the book, but once I’d sussed it, I was never in any doubt that it was in the right place. I always do numerous drafts of any story and I’ve found there is absolutely no substitute for taking the odd ‘breather’ from the work; I believe it is absolutely vital to allow a piece of writing the opportunity to ‘leaven’. It never fails to astound me how perception can change so much after only a few days away from a project - insurmountable problems can suddenly seem altogether more manageable. 

The film of the prologue was shot over two nights by my son Tom, operating a borrowed camera; the lighting, white van (blue really) and location site we used were all generously donated gratis too. It was freezing in the van on the late November nights in question, and of course we had to turn the engine and heating off during takes. Our primary aim was to find a means and style of presentation that would enable us to convert a seven minute piece of book-text, written in the third-person, into something that not only grabbed the attention of a viewer but which might also prove quirky and (hopefully) unsettling - we basically wanted to produce a shop-window for the writing and mood of the book. We’d never done anything like it before, although I do of course have the advantage of being experienced before a camera. Even so, it was very much an experiment and not something we felt confident we could achieve. 

I did the film editing over a week on Adobe Premiere Elements and at times I admit I almost came close to despair, as I not only had to acquaint myself with previously unknown software, but needed to join together the different takes in what might otherwise have been a straightforward monologue. The trouble with attempting this, it seemed to us, was: that seven minutes is an awfully long time for things to go wrong; lines might easily be dropped or forgotten; a car or plane might suddenly whiz past; or someone might walk by giving a cheery wave to camera; it would also have been a completely static shot. However, I may well have risked this, as the sense of claustrophobia created by one unbroken shot might have been quite chilling - a homage to that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, perhaps? However, we were very lucky not to have chosen this one-take option, as I, in my naivety, had not yet discovered that the royalty payments that would be required on the three tiny snippets of song originally written and subsequently filmed in the prologue would cost far too much to be viable. The songs were cut from the text and had to be edited out of our film - this would have been impossible to do if we had gone for the one take idea. Phew! We got lucky! 

If you haven’t watched the prologue before, I hope you enjoy the experience. US readers will have to wait until the end of February to get a discount copy, however, UK readers can still download a Kindle copy of Niedermayer & Hart for just 99p for a short time. Here’s the link: Niedermayer & Hart on Kindle


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Ghostly Stuff

21/1/2015

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Readers of this blog (see previous post) may recall I recently fell prey to the forces of mystery and imagination - a nightmare, me, imagine! I guess I must be a little odd (my wife would maintain a lot odd!), because I not only found the experience amusing but would almost certainly have continued reading the offending book at my bedtime, that is if the wife hadn’t given me a bit of a drubbing down for being so daft. You see, she’s never understood this: I quite enjoy a good nightmare. Although I must confess I have had one or two over the years that I’d rather not have repeated!  

I consider my dreamscape a rich source of some of the strangest and most wonderful imagery, copyright free and ready to plunder (unless of course you’ve just dropped off and watched a re-run of Casablanca in your head). I had a teacher at RADA, a marvellous Polish lady, Maria Fedro, elderly then, but she had in her youth danced for the great impresario Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes. I recall she used to tell us how she had imagined and then taught herself some of her greatest dancing roles through dreams. I somehow always understood this; I have often taken many of my most perplexing problems and difficulties to bed with me - and it never fails to astound me how many times I’ve woken up secure in the knowledge that I’ve reached an understanding of a previously unresolved difficulty, or workable solution to a problem. I think I’ve already shared on this blog how the basic idea for Niedermayer & Hart came to me in a dream when I was a teenager in Wales. Admittedly, the final published work bears little resemblance to the original premise, but that tiny seed, sown in the imaginings of the night, remains the source of its story.  

And now onto the cause of my bad dream - Collected Ghost Stories by M R James. 

Montague Rhodes James (1862 - 1936) was a distinguished mediaevalist scholar who during his lifetime published many works of academic significance. However, two generations on, he is best remembered, and deservedly so, as the master of the ghost story. He started writing tales in this form as an entertainment for his friends and colleagues, beginning in 1893 with Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook. A tradition was subsequently acquired of reading a new ghostly tale to his chums each Christmas - the darkest period of the year seems to lend itself perfectly to such a practice. Imagine, after a shared festive meal, they adjourn to James’s candlelit study, and all but one of the candles having been extinguished, allowing James just enough light to read his handwritten manuscript, he begins.  It must have been such a thrilling experience to be one of the first to hear him read a classic like Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad (certainly one of my favourites!), which was delivered in this way to friends and colleagues in December 1903. 

Personally, I think the thing that makes James’s writing so memorable is what he doesn’t choose to tell us - he is economical with his descriptions and in this way he never ‘over-eggs the pudding’. His ghostly manifestations are almost invariably shrouded in a mist, half-seen imaginings, a spidery or tentacle-like arm, a hideously deformed face partly glimpsed through the corner of one eye, a pair of red eyes watching from the dense shadows of a cloister. James often narrates in the first person; however, he is generally telling us a story he was once ‘told’ by an acquaintance or is passing on something that once happened to a colleague. He adopts almost a documentary approach, and deliberately omits chunks of time that are not absolutely essential to the story he’s relating to us. I think this lack of embellishment in the storytelling is fundamental to the effectiveness of his style. We are never going to experience any passage written by James that sounds anything like this: “The ghoulish creature staggered out of the darkness, and where its eyes had once been there were now only gaping pits of raw flesh, oozing with greyish-green slime ...” He is much more likely to describe something along the lines of an impenetrably dense shadow that has inexplicably appeared beside a tomb from where his protagonist thinks he may have caught the tiniest movement or perhaps heard a small, dry, laugh. I know which of these two examples makes my hair go tingly! 

If you’re looking for a gory thrill-fest, then M R James is probably not for you. These are stories to curl up with on a winter’s evening beside a cosy fireside while the wind outside is rattling at the window panes. The language is of its time, of course, however, James isn’t given to verbosity, and his stories skip along at a thoroughly enjoyable pace. When I read these tales I felt that James was simply having a great deal of fun and that he wanted to communicate this pleasure with me, his reader. I can highly recommend them. 

Incidentally, another dark tale, my own story Niedermayer & Hart, is on a Kindle countdown deal at Amazon UK from Monday, 26 January, until Monday, 2 February. If you live in the UK you will be able to download a copy during this period for only £0.99. Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Niedermayer-Hart-M-J-Johnson-ebook/dp/B007BVA2AO

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Whimperings in the Dark!

16/1/2015

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I’d started reading The Long Valley by John Steinbeck shortly before Christmas and was proceeding happily in the company of the great author, before my son and daughter-in-law-to-be presented me with a volume of The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James. A bit like a character in a James tale, I found myself irrevocably drawn to them, and immersed myself in these dark pleasures at bedtime over the next few evenings. 

“You aren’t seriously going to read those before turning off the light and going to sleep are you?” 

“Why not?” I asked (perhaps somewhat dismissively). 

“Because you’ll have nightmares ... you are daft!” 

I smiled and may have gone as far as a scoffing sound. 

A few hours later: my wife was shaking me awake after I was found whimpering; whilst I, simultaneously, gripped firmly in the arms of Morpheus, was being confronted by a coarse-haired creature (no, not the wife! considerably more diabolical!), that was all too rapidly materialising before my eyes.  

Once awake, I was duly told off for foolishly entertaining ghost stories last thing at night. And, as if this wasn’t quite humbling enough, the next day  my son was informed about the incident by the aforementioned wife; yes, gentle reader, they could actually be heard sniggering! In fact, I couldn’t, it seems, have provided them with finer amusement, and for the next few days mockery and derision became my lot; I, who have (I admit to it!) sometimes (often?)  boasted about how untroubled I am by all things ghostly or which go bump in the night. So, understandably chastened by my experience, you’ll appreciate that I didn’t dare  run the risk of embarrassing myself again; M R James was confined to the hours of daylight whilst the Steinbeck became my book at bedtime. It’s proved a comfortable arrangement, and I’m pleased to announce there have been no more whinnies in the dark. 

So, the Steinbeck ... 

The Long Valley was published in 1938. The majority of its stories had previously appeared in various American magazines. The stories themselves, Saint Katy the Virgin being the exception - a strangely whimsical tale set in mediaeval France - are set in Steinbeck’s birthplace, the background for so much of his writing, the Salinas Valley in California. Apparently, Steinbeck demanded that Saint Katy the Virgin be included in the collection, and although I enjoyed it, I have to admit that it does seem a bit of a puzzle alongside the rest. In all the other stories, Steinbeck does what Steinbeck can do like no other: informs us about the human condition. He uses symbolism to good effect, and his descriptive imagery is admirably lean; sometimes a tale’s starkness certainly left this reader with a haunted, almost desperate feeling. However, I never feel that Steinbeck is ever being wantonly bleak. Above all, Steinbeck is telling us stories about human beings and of their relationships to others. He lets us make our own inferences. The scholars, critics and academics have it seems from the very start often been divided on their appraisal of these stories. I’m perfectly happy to let them go on arguing! This collection is eminently readable and worthwhile. 

I’m still reading my collected ghost stories - more to come on these ... if I survive the nights!


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First New Year Post

8/1/2015

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I’d wanted to tell you about the great Christmas we had, about the rich cache of actually wanted presents I received (I must be getting really good at getting my hints across to interested parties!), maybe relate the amusing disaster that happened to our turkey crown, which made it involuntarily a ‘poultry-lite’ Christmas as they say, or ‘zero-cal-turkey’ perhaps; I thought I might even set down some of my writing plans for the year ahead, discuss some of the books I’m planning to read in 2015. Then, yesterday, out of the blue as these things have an unlooked for tendency of happening, there came the apalling act of barbarous violence done to the staff of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, and suddenly everything had changed; it seemed difficult, if not improper, to talk of such trivia. 

I have no doubt the perpetrators of this act, and I don’t mean the puppets who fired the guns, but the vicious masterminds behind this atrocity, have their cold hearts set firmly on breeding more mistrust, more intolerance and more hate. I am certain that they are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of those reactionary voices in our society who will now, as a result of yesterday’s action, do their utmost to incite and ferment racial hatred. 

Let’s not give them what they want! There’s already enough hate in this poor old world without adding to its burden. Just a week into the New Year, naive though it may seem, let’s cling to the Christmas message of peace and goodwill to all; I know we live in an increasingly secular society, but surely this most simple wish can’t seriously offend anyone, can it? And, when we find our tolerance tested in the face of incomprehensible savagery, the like of which Paris witnessed yesterday, when cartoonists became the targets for gunmen, let us hold firm to our values and our belief in law and democracy, imperfect though these may seem at times, and the right of everyone to freedom of speech.  

Finally, returning to Christmas and its message of compassion: at the end of one of my most loved books, once Scrooge has been redeemed, Dickens tells us that he (Scrooge) kept the spirit of the season in his heart three hundred and sixty-five days a year, “... and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

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