So you think we’re remotely interested?
It’s time to start pre-publicity for my next story release, but first: It was a busy weekend on Symi with the children’s dance show on Saturday, the school football team winning matches over on Rhodes (I think they are in the semi-finals now, but of what… you would have to ask a parent or football follower), and with the May 8^th parade in Yialos, celebrating the end of WWII. The wind died down overnight Friday/Saturday and Sunday dawned clear, sunny and breeze-free – though cloud soon started to creep over.

But back to the next book. We are still working on the final edits/proof, but I have now had the proofs for the first eight chapters and the editor is doing a grand job. We’re cutting out some of the ‘dead wood’ and repetitions, something I find hard to do, and it’s tightening up the pace and chapters to give us a clear, comic read. I have still laughed out loud at least once in every chapter (where I am meant to) and have smiled quite a bit too. Contrary as it may sound, this is a good thing: if I can still make myself laugh at something I thought was funny after 18 months or so, then it must be as I intended it. Whether you will laugh or not… that’s another thing.

The title of the next book is, ‘Remotely‘ and it is a coming of age comedy. I am still working on the ‘blurb’ and book-back, but here’s what I came up with early on Sunday morning:

“Britain’s newest and most pointless TV talent competition is coming to Middlestone-on-Sea, a dying seaside backwater on the Kent coast. ‘So You Think We’re Remotely Interested?‘ has taken Friday night viewers by storm as it streams live variety shows from remote, provincial theatres across the country. The theatre with the most audience votes means regeneration and revival for the winning resort and Middlestone’s hopes rest on the shoulders of two ex-best friends, Gary (gay) and Stag (straight).

The visiting guest judge, the mysterious and timeless Miss P, knows that for all to be well, this friendship must be mended, but there is no success without trial. She magically swaps them into each other’s bodies with only four days to go before the live ‘Remotely’ grand finale. Gary now finds himself in the straight world of Stag and Stag finds himself dealing with Gary’s gay life and issues. Comedy ensues, mayhem happens, and the all-important finale draws near. But will the two boys learn enough about each other in time to heal their broken friendship and body-swap back and save the day?”

That’s a very rough opening synopsis and it’s not a full one of course, as I don’t want to give the ending away. It’s been great fun to write this one: putting opposing characters in each other’s bodies (which brings the challenge of making sure the reader knows that Gary, for example, is speaking/thinking while the other characters in the scene see him as Stag), coming up with the complications and reveals, and timing it all in to a believable timeline. There was also the fun to be poked at British television shows. I’ll leave you with a slightly censored example. All you need to know is that this scene takes place in Stag Hunter’s family kitchen: his dad, who swears a lot, his older brother Tod (only one ‘D’ because his dad is called Rod and Rod Hunter’s spelling isn’t very good) and Stag, are at breakfast, with Hunter reading the paper. This is also only a small part of that scene.

‘They call it reality television,’ Tod said. ‘It’s all that’s ever on.’
‘Reality s***e.’ Mr Hunter turned a page. ‘Here you go, this week’s telly line-up. “I’m A Celebrity Ancestor.” New show on Monday mornings. “I’m a has-been please help me pay for my coke habit” more like. Bunch of w*****s. What’s real about this? Look,’ he slapped the page as his two sons looked on over the rims of their coffee mugs. ‘They’s calling this one the next biggest show on telly: “Britain’s Got Brains”, a new quiz show. If Britain had brains it wouldn’t be watching this kind of s***e and paying a license for the privilege. You know,’ he was starting to roll, ‘I am so effing p****d off with the c**p they put on these days in the name of, what d’you call it? Reality TV. Pah! It’s just a bunch of spotty university toffs, sitting in telly-office-land, pretending they’re interesting, deciding what we watch and passing off an hour of cheap b******s and calling it entertainment.’
‘Yeah, but…’ Stag said.
‘Look at this!’ His dad’s eyes went wide as he stared at the paper. ‘Grand finale of “The Great British Oven Race”? Who the F wants to watch some hopeless ex-children’s telly presenter bake a f*****g muffin? D’you realise that half the country tunes in to watch some bloke – who we only heard of ‘cos he got caught in a shag-house in Balham hours after turning up drunk on Children In Need – to watch some bloke cry his eyes out because his fruit cake only scored six out of…’

[A bit later in the scene:]

‘Yes you are, Dad,’ Tod persisted. ‘You’re worried that if Middlestone wins there will be a film crew making shows from the theatre every week, and while they’re here they will film some other stuff. A documentary about the failing fishing boats of Middlestone, or what kind of people work from home in a seaside town and oh look!” There’s Rod Hunter getting paid to fix up cars, best tell the Social and bang, there goes my dad’s beer money. They could call that one, “Pop Idle”.’

‘Remotely’ should be available on Amazon and elsewhere within the next couple of months and I will let you know when you can pre-order your copy.

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Summer view, Greece style

Today’s it’s about films, and two titles from About Travel’s list of top 10 films filmed in the Greek islands. First though, I have to plug my own third book about life on Symi. Whereas ‘Symi 85600’ covers the first five years of us living here and ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’ covers the next couple, this one covers all of 2013. It’s a collection of blog posts, edited, and photos from the year on Symi Dream. This was also the year of my 50^th birthday, so there is a section where we are away in Transylvania (everyone should go there) and while we were away, Jenine and her son, Sam, put in some posts about cooking and what it is like to be a boy at school on Symi.

It’s a day-to-day account of island life seen through our eyes and brings the reader right up to the end of 2013, so if you have all three books you have 10 years on Symi detailed in the articles, posts, letters and some short stories, all included. Again, if you want to search out more books or films with a Symi or a Greek theme, then you can use our Amazon store page which you will find here.

Onto the films. I know I said I would be talking about holiday reading but then I thought, this might make a nice diversion. There are loads on the list that are well known and that you’ve probably seen; Mamma Mia! Zorba the Greek, Never on a Sunday and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin etc. But there are two that I had never heard of. I thought I would mention those so you could check them out, and here’s what I found.

Summer Lovers came in at number four and the write up I found says: A guilty pleasure, this light-on-substance movie is filled with Darryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher in swimsuits, slightly kinky sexual situations, an irresistibly perky soundtrack (“I’m So Excited!” is the theme song), and glorious shots of Greece. Only problem? They combine several locations in Greece into one “super-island.”

Sounds intriguing and might well go onto my wish list for another day along with this one I don’t know: High Season. About.com writes: A personal favourite, this light-hearted romantic comedy has an intriguing darker side, but all takes second place to the beautiful Greek setting. It stars Jacqueline Bisset and a young Kenneth Branagh has a small role.

I will also add, as it wasn’t in their top 10, ‘Driving Aphrodite’ a romantic comedy by and with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding – another huge hit though not filmed in Greece). ‘Driving Aphrodite’ is also titled ‘My Life in Ruins’ for the American audience, and is filmed around Athens. It’s good fun, light and silly, but with great humour and views.

I know those three were films and not books, but hopefully they will inspire you to check out some more Greek reads and you can do a search via this link. All being well, I shall be back to my usual ramblings tomorrow. I should be back on Symi by now and all set to settle in for the regular daily blogging. Oh, apart from next Wednesday when I am nipping back to Rhodes for the day. But that’s a story of another day, or perhaps even another book.

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More Greek reading

Starting off with my second instalment of Symi observations, stories and history, ‘Carry on up the Kali Strata’ is a collection of pieces, mostly first published in the Symi Visitor newspaper. Sadly, the newspaper is no more, but you can find my contributions, plus other things, in this second book about life on Symi. This one started out in landscape form because of the photos we included, photos by Neil of course. It then went to the more standard portrait size and layout to make it consistent with my other books, and the photos remain. The Kindle versions also has photos and you can find the Amazon page here: Carry on up the Kali Strata You should also find links to the Kindle versions from that page.

A few days ago I was thrilled to be interviewed by Effrosyni Moschoudi. Effrosyni was born in Crete and now lives in Athens. She has published several books and you can find links to them on her blog. Effrosyni’s debut novel, The Necklace of Goddess Athena, is a supernatural mystery of Greek myths and time travel, and a touching family story with a good measure of romance. The book is a #1 Amazon bestseller.

You can find more about Effrosyni, her writing, and her promotions of other authors’ work, on her blog Effrosyniwrites.com – the interview with me should be published there towards the end of May, and I will let you know when it appears.

And for today’s third idea for summer holiday reading with a Greek connection, how about ‘My Family and other Animals‘ by Gerald Durrell? This classic account of a family moving to Corfu in the 1930s when Durrell was 10 was recently adapted for British television, proving how timeless it is. I remember reading it at school, and since, and it’s still worth a re-read now. I remember when we first moved to Symi, someone asked us what Symi was like. I said, then, that if you read My Family and other Animals, you will get a rough idea of how Symi is. Of course it’s a bit more advanced now but still, the characters, the events, the traditions and the fun are all still here, along with the wildlife and the heat. That’s my third recommendation for the day and I hope it gives you some inspiration to read Durrell again, or explore Effrosyni for the first time, or even just carry on (up the Kali Strata) with some James Collins humour.

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How it is to live in Greece – some books
I read an interesting article by my blog writing colleague, John P Manuel, on Sunday morning. In it he lays some fears to rest; fears by the ill-informed as to what is happening in Greece with the refugee crisis. He mentions some of the islands who have been at the frontline of this situation and explains a few things to those who would may have only have heard the wrong kind of news from television and print media. It’s well worth a read and this is the link: Ramblings From Rhodes.

And talking of fiction, as the title of the article does, John has also written a few books. Like me he has accounts of moving to and living in Greece, in this case Rhodes with his books Feta Compli, and his latest A Plethora of Posts – there are two others in this series as well, about life on a (larger) Greek island. Larger than Symi I mean. And then there are four novels including The View from Kleoboulos and A Brief Moment of Sunshine. You can find link to the full set of books via the blog site (see link above) or those individual ones by just clicking the titles. If you are interested in Greek living, living in Greece and what it’s really like to live on a Greek island (warts and all) then the books John writes will suit you down to your fustanella. And that is not a rude word, it’s a ‘skirt like garment’ (or kilt-like) to quote an online source, worn by several nations of the Balkans, and by Evzones, the Greek presidential guard.

Meanwhile, if you were wondering about the weekend on Symi and what happened, well, the weather certainly happened. Saturday morning:

Sunday morning:

What a difference a day makes. The weather is good when it’s bad, at least it is if you want free water. We were able to fill up our sterna on Saturday morning, and it’s a pretty large one, which means we won’t have to buy any from the mains supply for a while. The plants also got a good watering and hopefully the reservoirs were topped up. Sunday however dawned clear and cold and bright, and so I grabbed a quick photo for you before writing this, posting it in advance and then getting on with my coursework. Today I have an assignment and that is to write a 300 word story, and then tell the story again three ways using three different story structures. And while I am doing that, Neil is in his room working on his IGCSE in Global Citizenship which, I have to say, is much more academic and much harder work than my writing course. He will also have to arrange to take the exam next year, perhaps having to travel back to the UK to do it, whereas I am purely correspondence. But we can look into all that at a later date. We may even be able to find some way that he can take the exam here in Greece.

What I have looked into is the cover for ‘Remotely’ my next novel which is now with the editor, having been through the proofing stage. Mr Ed (as I just decided to call him) will work through it and lay it out while editing it down; helpfully I won’t get too much back for revisions. I am not expecting a fast turnaround on this one as Mr Ed is also dealing with a couple of films that he has produced and various other projects, but hopefully in the next couple of months, you should see it for sale.

And on that note: if anyone fancies promising me a review of the book on Amazon, I would he happy to send you a copy in advance. Then, when it’s published, you could put your review up on Amazon for me and hopefully attract more customers. I could send an electronic version in advance, or the Kindle version when that’s done. I wouldn’t be able to send hard copies until after publication date though. Drop me an email if you might be interested and we can talk further.

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Symi books and film
The mention of the film, ‘The Thirteenth’, yesterday has caused a slight flurry of interest in the trailer that I put up. (Scroll down for yesterday’s post.) This trailer was made up before the sound, music and colour-grading was complete, but it gives an idea of the kind of shots you can expect in the finished film.

I watched the film again yesterday, part of my job as one of the producers, and in this case it was to check the sound and music. The visuals are now ‘locked’ so can’t be changed (the visuals have to be officially signed off and registered as complete, it’s a legal thing), but the guys are still working on the sound and the colour grading. My job was to go through and listen out for anomalies or put down any ideas where the sound could be improved. I had a few suggestions for background sounds to help set scenes, and some other matters, and they have all been sent off to the big boss back in England.

What I can tell you though is that it looks and sounds great. There are some sound tweaks to take care of, but only minor things. I am not sure how long the colour grading will take, but apparently not too long. And then, as I said yesterday, the backers of the film should get to see the whole thing and this will be via a private link and password sent out in an email from 1066 Productions, when it’s ready. I haven’t yet seen the credits as that’s another thing to be added, but we think we have finalised the credits list and not left anyone out. The closing music, if it stays, is, like the rest of the music, pretty fabulous and I am hoping that the composer, Michael Bishop, is able to bring out a CD of the soundtrack in due course.

And all this film news leads me on to the book, on which the story/film is based. I expect most of my readers have read it now and identified the Symi locations used, without being specifically named, and the Symi history that’s in The Judas Inheritance – the book title. The film does differ from the book, there is always far too much in a novel to get everything onto the screen, but the main themes are there, as are the characters and locations and basic story. If you want to read the full thing, though, and learn some of Symi’s history as you go, then you can get a copy of The Judas Inheritance by clicking that link. That page will also give you the link to the Kindle version.

And, while on the subject of books, here are a couple of other titles with a local or Greek theme that you might like to check out before your summer holidays. Jason And The Sargonauts is another of mine; an earlier comedy that happens in the present day and also in the past, and all (apart from the opening) on Symi. It takes in WWII with historical facts mixed in with the fiction (thanks to Hugo for the research materials), and earlier history from the 19^th century. Fact meets fiction. But away from me (though some of mine are there to) you might like to search through these pages: Click Here and find some guides, novels and other books about Symi including the much sought after Bus Stop Symi by William Travis. All worth collecting if you have not already got them, and all worth sending to Greekophile friends.

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