¦ dialling in from Jesus Mound ¦
14:49 GMT, Saturday 17th October 2009. I'm sitting at the oak refectory table, in the cavernous space of the extension built onto the back of the house, here in Jesmond. Bright grey light flooding in through skylights above and the row of tall square-lattice windows to my left... lots of green outside... the dense tangle of forest leading down into the Dene.
I'm about to close down the laptop and go meet Floyd, who's over from New York, random chance allowing us to be in the same city at the same time. Tradition demands that we rendezvous in the Dene. 3:21 at the old mill. I'm bringing a silver hip flask filled with Jamieson whisky.
I'm listening to Deadmau5, Ghosts and Stuff...my new favourite track.
Sample Deadmau5 Ghosts & StuffReally uplifting stuff, and great visuals thanks to the video.
I'm also aware that it's been 20 years since I started writing. October 1989. Sitting at this very same oak refectory table with my Philips video writer
This thing had orange glowing ASCII text on a dark brown screen. Very basic but I loved it. Not compatible with any other kind of machine and a million miles from the idea of a PC.
I'd given up my job at the time (financial consultant) to start a book. This was the awful turd that shall not be named; well, it had a working title as bad as the book itself: Dark Coyote. Blech.
But here I am, 20 years later; I've learned my craft and I have four published novels and an RPG (Yellow Dawn) under my belt, and making enough money from it to buy the Rocket.
Time's up, got to head out.
EDIT:
It's now 14:01 GMT on the next day, Sunday, 18th October. Yesterday was a blast. I took a couple nips of whisky from the flask as I strode through a deserted Jesmond Dene towards the rendezvous point, Deadmau5 thumping away through my headphones. Very euphoric. Floyd arrived a few seconds after me. I was standing on the horse-shoe bridge that crosses the river and overlooks the big waterfall. We hugged, grinning; I tapped him on the chest with the silver flask and quoted lines from Highlander. Two friends who meet throughout time.
Floyd took me to a new pub; a bit of a gem on the outer edge of the Dene, a free house that sells real ales. We quaffed several pints, munched the kind of cheese toasty that you can only get in the North East, and bounced ideas around. I talked about the new book. He talked about publicity and marketing ideas. We discussed me coming to his country retreat in upstate New York once the coming snows melt away... next spring, where I'll be able to lock myself away for a few days and write.
I kind of stumbled home, with a sloppy smile, listening to my tunes, very happy.
So...
It's been a quick week.
Back on 9th October I had the perfect Friday night. The stress and storm of recent days at work had come to an end, so I finished the week on an exhausted high. Came home and got exactly what I wanted: bought a bottle of red wine, oven baked some fish, built up the cast iron fire in the front room with logs and smokeless fuel, turned the lights off and sank into the sofa with the growing heat washing over me and watched flames dancing and throwing shadows across the walls. Jo and I chatted until she dozed off in the cosy comfort. I stuck on an old DVD... Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Wow, what a fab film. Just brilliant to watch right now, too, as I'm in the flow writing Dog Eat Dog.
Saturday was a game day. Yellow Dawn. A bit stand-off for the player characters, trapped in a mountain gulley surrounded by bandits. It took a whole day to resolve; two characters died.
Sunday saw me up early and into town: Boston Tea Party and working on notes, me driving around in Rocket with the hood down, autumn sunlight kissing my smile below tinted chrome sunglasses. A text message from Oj, "I'm ready when you are..."
I got home and discovered she was ready for our little photo shoot. Mmmmm nyyyyce. A couple hours of funcity.
I went to the cathedral in Bristol on Tuesday and lit a candle for dad; I also got to think about the fact at some point in the near future, hopefully after Christmas, I'll be lighting two candles instead of one. But the way I see it is, it'll be like mum and dad are reunited again, every time I do this, two flames burning bright side by side.
The weather's been fantastic this week; warm, cloudless blue sky and golden sunlight. But Thursday / Friday saw Autumn come crashing back in with a cold snap, icy breeze and rain.
Driving home Thursday night I had early Jean-Michelle Jarre playing on CD: I was driving through misty rain with eerily luminous sky above... the huge front end of the car protruding into my field of vision and I felt like I was driving through an old horror Noir film. The Jean-Michelle Jarre brought back vivid memories of my good friend Richy, and Osbourne Avenue circa 1990.
During this week I've really struggled with the novel; chapters 9 and 10. But I finished chapter 9 on Friday and I've just finished chapter 10 today, and I'm pleased with result. You can grab a copy of sneak preview here:
Grab Preview PDF*******************
20 Years Of Writing
*******************
So, to celebrate this fact, I've slashed the prices of most of my novels and RPG (Yellow Dawn) material. I'll keep the low prices in place until the end of October. You can make a saving of around £5 on each of the novels and the Yellow Dawn rulebook; and a couple of quid on the PDFs and the murder mystery game (Murder At Sharky Point). If you're not sure where to look, here's a list summary of all my published work.
List all of David J Rodger's Published WorkEnjoy.
David