Gale Force
No, that's not a Max Gordon title - but, maybe it should be.
Finished the script I had to write, completed an almost, almost, final edit on ICE CLAW, read through THE DEVIL'S BREATH for the American editors, and then someone came and knocked my house down. Sort of.
I've been patching my old conservatory for years. I sit out there trying to read and there's a steady drip on my newspaper. I shift the chair, and it drips on my head. I had a huge fish pond (11 000 + litres) in my previous house and it leaked! I spent most of my life wading chest deep in slush and mud trying to find where the problem was. No more fish ponds, I told my wife. I haven't got time with all this writing - need a smaller garden - lower maintenance. Good thinking - almost!
Here, I could see where the water dripped in - not so much dripped , but trickled, poured, in places. Even the cats wouldn't sit out there. I never got to read the newspaper - I kept having to paint more anti-leak gunk on the rotten wooden frame. Get a builder in and a new conservatory, ordered The Commander in Chief.
So a couple of days ago - just when I was in the whirlwind of work - the builder arrived. Right, lads - sledgehammers out. He's a week early. I round up the cats - get them into the cattery. They're miserable. I'm running out of time. It's lashing down and I'm out with sheets of plastic trying to cover the windows and doors. I'm trapped. How would Max Gordon escape from this demolition?
No excuses now - HAVE to write - I'm stuck in here. All Christmas shopping will be done via the Internet. I peep out and there are my telephone wires pulled out the wall, whipping around like an extraterrestrial's ganglions. Maybe there won't be a Christmas this year. I'll have to send everyone the socks and handkerchief's they sent me last year.
But I was cheered up by my very nice Dutch publishers Thomas Rap who sent me through their edition of The Devil's Breath.
I thought that was pretty cool, quite different from the cover we have here, and I've just seen the American cover which was designed by the same team who does John Grisham's books.
Lashing rain is now coming under the front door. Have to go!
