For some reason, maybe because I’m between books, and still digesting ‘The North Ground‘ by Chris Speck, I started to reread one of my own. I began to read ‘Flipside’ which I published first as an e-book then as a paperback in 2012. It’s the only book I’ve written which is set in a real location, although I added some extra streets, pubs, a mill, restaurants and a school which exist only in my mind. It didn’t occur to me to make up a place for the action to take place. I’ve mentioned before the inspiration for it, which came from a small incident which only lasted ten or so minutes. I was picking up my car from a service at a garage in Oldham where I lived, and was intrigued by the two men working there. They may have been friends or just work mates, but they obviously knew each other well. One was small and dapper, and busied him self with paperwork and going into the workshop to check on what was happening there. The other was tall and well built, muscular and fit looking and he was standing behind the counter, the diary/schedule in front of him.
The smaller man bustled about, but I wasn’t sure whether he was really busy or just seeming to be. The larger man stood, silent, staring out of the window across to the Pennine hills in the distance, his mind clearly on other things. I was very struck by the contrast, but they seemed companionable enough. In my story, ‘Flipside’, they were partners in the garage – a much smaller business than the one I had taken my car to, and they had been friends since they met at university. Kiran, the smaller, busy bloke was the brother of my main character, Jas, and Anglo-Indian, although he pretended to be Irish. David had been in the military, serving in some special unit, operating in eastern Europe and in Ireland during the troubles. I guess from the abbreviated details I’ve given here you can guess one of the story-lines involving Jas, but there is another about a series of horrific murders which takes place in Oldham and which seems to be connected with the main characters.
I was interested to read it (even though I wrote it!!) because of course I know all the story-lines and what happens to the characters, but I was also interested in my style. It was much more straightforward than now, with not as much extra detail, and apart from my Radwinter books, it is the only first person narrative. It made me wonder whether I need to slim down what I write, less is definitely much much more on occasion! I know I write more economically with my short stories, especially the monthly one I write for my writing group. Maybe I need to buck up my ideas and not be so complacent!
Meanwhile, here’s the blurb and link for
Jaz has moved from Bristol to be with her recently widowed brother; she is a teacher and she has moved from a high-flying head of faculty post in a top school to take a lowly temporary position in a challenging school in the north of England. She is up to the challenge, but she does not expect to find her life is in danger from a man who has already butchered three women; she has met the love of her life, but is he, could he possibly be, the murderer? She discovers some brutal truths about her beloved brother, he seems on the verge of a breakdown, convinced there is a conspiracy surrounding his wife’s death… but where does he go on Fridays, and what does he do? “I was alone, utterly alone. I thought I’d been brave running away from my life in Bristol, my friends and familiar places; I was pleased to be so daring and impetuous, and so certain of my love for David when our eyes had met in the Lees Spa Hotel. But I hadn’t taken him home and made love to him in order to enter a violent world of fear and hate and danger.”
Lois Elsden 