I am very happy with it as it reads and flows well (despite the distinct style changes over the course of its three main parts), makes a sort of sense as the third part of the trilogy with my first two books, and, is an original, honest and at times, fantastical, piece of work. I am happy with the various drawings and photographs included in it as well as the short pieces of poetry and children narrative dotted about. It is at times, as expected, raw and brutal, uncompromising and painful but it also has a simple message at the end which I think a lot of people can relate to.
But, I hear you ask, what is it actually about? Well, our main character has found a way to traverse through "reflections" in his life in an attempt to make sense of his existence. He travels to the past and the future and gets trapped in the present for a period. We see the birth of our universe as well as the destruction of the Earth, spend intimate time with family as well as amongst the stars, and, raise the question of regret and how far we will go in order to put right what once went wrong.
Naturally, it is based on my life with 99% of the past and present sections pulled from memory having happened to me. The rest is possible future time lines with maybe just a dash of sci-fi thrown in for good measure.
The next stage is self publication. I have shopped around but it looks like I will be once again using the same publisher I used for my other two books. This time though, I want it to be hardback and bigger in size...unfortunately that means all the costs will be higher so it may be at least the end of February before I begin the self-publishing process!
Until then, see below for a little snippet of what to expect:
As he stepped out, the rhythmic pounding echoed in the distance and he could just about feel it through the ground. And yet despite the distance away the piston worked, evidence of the damage it caused was all around him, especially on the gravestones themselves; there weren’t any of them still intact. James shuffled through careful not to stand on any rubble and rock, his concentration remaining fully on the ground and how he walked on his swollen ankle. Eventually he arrived at the grave he was visiting. Even though it too had succumbed to the fracking piston, he had made some makeshift repairs using the pieces that had broken off mixed with fresh concrete. It certainly wasn’t pretty but its shape remained as close to its original and he was determined to keep it that way.
He
dropped to one knee and kissed the headstone before lightly brushing it with
the feather duster he somehow suddenly materialised from the overlong and
ripped coat that hung from his body. He then sat down with his back resting on
the headstone and placed his palms onto the ground itself gripping the soil
with his fingers and whispering words only she could hear. James could feel the
rhythmic pounding rippling through his entire body sat in this position;
through his fingers, under his bum, on his back…he imagined it was her
heartbeat coming from the grave itself. As much as he wanted to sit here
forever, in reality his legs were cold and his bum was numb after twenty
minutes. As he prepared to make the struggle of actually getting up from this
position, he noticed something new protruding from the ground a couple of yards
in front of him. Crawling over to what looked like a white ball half sticking
out the ground, he stopped sharp in his tracks when he noticed what it really
was; the top half of a skull.
