I find it an increasing disorientating experience these days when I emerge from a few days down the word mines.
Every time I unearth a rich vein of dramatic action the real world is busily thwarting anything I could invent.
The challenge of writing a novel right up against a contemporary event is the time lag from manuscript to bookshop.
It is at least a year.
Consequently, your creation is a hostage to events dear boy.
Of course, in the digital age, twelve months can be an epoch rather than simply another year.
It certainly feels that way.
When I started the original idea for The Squad in 2006/2007 I invented a black President of the United States.
However, I could never have imagined someone like Donald Trump in the White House.
In the summer of 2016 when I was working to turn a screenplay into a novel I certainly never saw Brexit coming down the tracks.
Now I have to contend with the possibility of once more living alongside a hard border.
On the bright side, the ex-Mayor of London now wants to build a big bridge from Blighty to Narne Arne.
Cheers Boris!
In The Squad [wee spoiler] there is a foreign intelligence agency actively working to undermine An Garda Síochána.
I tried at hard at making that plotline believable.
However, I reckon if I had submitted a manuscript that had the MI5 Liaison Officer of the PSNI becoming Garda Commissioner then my editor would have found it utterly risible.
Yet Drew Harris is now that guy.
While I was inventing highly charged scenarios last week the world-class chaps at Hampden easily outdid anything I could come up with.
The Aberdeen fans, in particular, have been treated with contempt by the SPFL grandees.
If you have read The Squad [relax no major spoilers] then you will know that the climax features a major sporting event at a large stadium.
However, Semi-Final Sunday as planned by the SPFL is beyond parody.
You may recall that it was Mr Doncaster who famously observed in the summer of 2012 that there was “no mechanism for what we are attempting”.
For the avoidance of doubt, he was referring to his failed attempts to parachute Sevco into the top flight.
Mr Doncaster, who was the then CEO of the Scottish Premier League, was working closely with his colleagues in the SFA on that one.
Of course, that is the same SFA that can train and nurture a world-class officiating talent who didn’t give a foul for this yesterday!
Oh dear…
There seems to me that there are common themes on Planet Fitba and the Brexit shambles engulfing the British state:
A toxic mixture of hubris, incompetence and misplaced exceptionalism.
I cannot see any of this ending well either at Hampden or Westminster.
Indeed, it all seems like an entirely fanciful plot for a novel.
In Westminster’s case, Phil, exceptionalism exists.
Exceptional at hubris and exceptional at incompetence….
Possibly with some complete disdain thrown in for good measure
No,no Phil, you have it all wrong.
Stewart and Thompson on Sportscene were in agreement that it was the Dons defender’s momentum what did it and a yellow card should have been the result!
BBC’s answer to Laurel and Hardy without the laughs.
Thompson even called the penalty award to Motherwell at the weekend as a pen all day long, and that was with the benefit of a slow mo replay, when clearly the Killie defender had pulled out of the tackle and any contact was initiated by the Well player’s momentum……
Stevie G is getting it tight from the fans after failing to put Livvy away.
Many of their support have written off Hearts as a contender in the title race. If the Jambos prevail at the weekend then they will be staring down the barrel of an 11 points deficit.
That will have them howling at the moon but the good news is that if their away form mirrored the home form then they would be top of the table!
If only?
The Euro run has cut Gerrard some slack but if he fails to deliver the title, having been backed to the hilt, and beyond, by Kingco, things could get messy very quickly.
The annual results won’t be a good news story either with an increase in revenue wiped out by top dollar being paid to Gerrards new players and back room staff plus pay offs and transfer fee installments for the Breadman and Pedro’s recruits.
Will be interesting to see if there has been any movement in the ‘soft’ loans column, in or out, or if any debt for equity swop has taken place.
With Stevie G keen to sign up 4 of his loanees on permanent deals in the January window and the Close Bros loan due to be repaid in February where will the funding come from?
Celtic had to sell Dembele to cover the failure to qualify for CL along with the Armstrong cash and Van Dyk sell on monies.
Will Morelos or Tavernier have to go in January to fund the manager’s ambition?
And will anybody want to pay the amount we received for Dembele? HH
Hi, really enjoyed ‘The Squad’ well thought out, thanks.