Wrecking Crew - available now on Amazon~!
As promised/threatened here, my first* novel "Wrecking Crew" has just been released into the wild.
Inevitably, my submissions to literary agents have not quite generated a game-changing buzz or triggered a ferocious bidding war. Still, I'd like to re-emphasize that my being forced to sail the self-publishing seas may not be because my work is entirely terrible, but could instead be due to its lack of marketability or resistance to being pigeonholed into a tried and trusted genre. I hereby invite you to be the judge.
"Wrecking Crew" was inspired by a flight from Key West to Orlando at the beginning of November 2014, the transition between the first, relaxing phase of our honeymoon in the beautiful Florida Keys to several days of theme park-based craziness at Disney World. Because most people undertake this journey by car, and because Key West airport is adorably dinky, we flew on a propeller plane. And not being the hardiest of travellers, I had no idea how terrifying a descent those things could offer when the winds perk up and violently buffet you in all directions.
Later, when we were waiting on the Orlando runway for takeoff to Boston for the next leg of the trip, I thought back to our recent near-death experience (mock if you must, but it sure felt that way at the time). My mind started to wander. How many near-misses happen at airports? What would it be like to experience a 'minor' accident, one that didn't kill you but might shake you up somewhat? And what if some of the passengers on that flight got to know each other, and reunited some time later in some kind of quasi-support group?
The ideas germinated from there. The first character - Marianne, an ex-pat Bostonian serving time in London - appeared surprisingly quickly, and other character sketches soon followed. Before I quite knew what had happened, I had the vague structure of a novel-length story. I hadn't written any fiction for years and hadn't planned on undertaking a novel whilst in the initial throes of marriage, but such is the mysterious and unknowable nature of The Muse, or something.
As you can see, Wrecking Crew has taken an enormously long time to write, thanks to large amounts of procrastination. Excuses such as wanting to spend my free time with my wife are valid to a point, but don't explain the numerous times Becky was out and I decided to watch football/browse the internet/scratch my balls instead. Of course, on the occasions when I mustered sufficient motivation to sit at the keyboard for a long period, there would be a torrential outpouring of ideas which my typing fingers struggled to keep up with.
Here follows a brief pitch:
To recap, I began writing this novel because the idea embedded itself into my head and refused to budge. I'd be lying if I said it was written with a specific genre or audience in mind - I would say it's contemporary non-literary fiction for men and women who don't mind a bit of bad language or the odd heavy theme. More or less.
It's available from Kindle store now (and I believe you can download a Kindle app for other devices if you don't own an actual e-reader yourself), at a bargain price of £1.99 because frankly I wouldn't expect anybody to pay more. Anyway, for me this was never about the money - what I told myself many times over the years was that completing what I'd started would be an incredible personal achievement, and if anybody else liked it that would be a bonus. That's mostly true, although of course I secretly hope that the whole thing snowballs and becomes an unstoppable best-seller, enabling us to move to one of those vast houses up the road and hire a squadron of full-time nannies.
I would encourage you to give it a try, and would also encourage you to give feedback, whether to me personally or on Wrecking Crew's Amazon page. All I would ask it that any criticism is constructive and polite, rather than the 'OMG, why did I waste my time and money on this piece of shite' variety.
Nervously, I sort-of look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks in advance,
Ben
* If we discount the one I wrote whilst bored working in Germany and France in 1999, and it's best for all concerned if we do.
Inevitably, my submissions to literary agents have not quite generated a game-changing buzz or triggered a ferocious bidding war. Still, I'd like to re-emphasize that my being forced to sail the self-publishing seas may not be because my work is entirely terrible, but could instead be due to its lack of marketability or resistance to being pigeonholed into a tried and trusted genre. I hereby invite you to be the judge.
 |
| Behold the generic clipart cover! In fairness, I like words more than pictures. |
"Wrecking Crew" was inspired by a flight from Key West to Orlando at the beginning of November 2014, the transition between the first, relaxing phase of our honeymoon in the beautiful Florida Keys to several days of theme park-based craziness at Disney World. Because most people undertake this journey by car, and because Key West airport is adorably dinky, we flew on a propeller plane. And not being the hardiest of travellers, I had no idea how terrifying a descent those things could offer when the winds perk up and violently buffet you in all directions.
Later, when we were waiting on the Orlando runway for takeoff to Boston for the next leg of the trip, I thought back to our recent near-death experience (mock if you must, but it sure felt that way at the time). My mind started to wander. How many near-misses happen at airports? What would it be like to experience a 'minor' accident, one that didn't kill you but might shake you up somewhat? And what if some of the passengers on that flight got to know each other, and reunited some time later in some kind of quasi-support group?
The ideas germinated from there. The first character - Marianne, an ex-pat Bostonian serving time in London - appeared surprisingly quickly, and other character sketches soon followed. Before I quite knew what had happened, I had the vague structure of a novel-length story. I hadn't written any fiction for years and hadn't planned on undertaking a novel whilst in the initial throes of marriage, but such is the mysterious and unknowable nature of The Muse, or something.
As you can see, Wrecking Crew has taken an enormously long time to write, thanks to large amounts of procrastination. Excuses such as wanting to spend my free time with my wife are valid to a point, but don't explain the numerous times Becky was out and I decided to watch football/browse the internet/scratch my balls instead. Of course, on the occasions when I mustered sufficient motivation to sit at the keyboard for a long period, there would be a torrential outpouring of ideas which my typing fingers struggled to keep up with.
Here follows a brief pitch:
The story starts with a party.
A rather strange party, whose guests were all passengers on one fateful flight. Strangers brought together by fate, and an incompetent airline desperate to atone for its mistakes.
The story really starts with an accident.
A forced landing at Gatwick airport when the landing gear fails. A plane-load of strangers whose return journey from Rome ends in chaos. Some aren't supposed to be on the flight. Others wish they hadn't been.
No fatalities. No long-lasting media story. But what happens next?
"Wrecking Crew" is a story of love and loss, relationships and pain, and how far we are prepared to go to avoid being alone.
To recap, I began writing this novel because the idea embedded itself into my head and refused to budge. I'd be lying if I said it was written with a specific genre or audience in mind - I would say it's contemporary non-literary fiction for men and women who don't mind a bit of bad language or the odd heavy theme. More or less.
It's available from Kindle store now (and I believe you can download a Kindle app for other devices if you don't own an actual e-reader yourself), at a bargain price of £1.99 because frankly I wouldn't expect anybody to pay more. Anyway, for me this was never about the money - what I told myself many times over the years was that completing what I'd started would be an incredible personal achievement, and if anybody else liked it that would be a bonus. That's mostly true, although of course I secretly hope that the whole thing snowballs and becomes an unstoppable best-seller, enabling us to move to one of those vast houses up the road and hire a squadron of full-time nannies.
I would encourage you to give it a try, and would also encourage you to give feedback, whether to me personally or on Wrecking Crew's Amazon page. All I would ask it that any criticism is constructive and polite, rather than the 'OMG, why did I waste my time and money on this piece of shite' variety.
Nervously, I sort-of look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks in advance,
Ben
* If we discount the one I wrote whilst bored working in Germany and France in 1999, and it's best for all concerned if we do.
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