Midlist Writer: Fez

Showing posts with label Fez. Show all posts

Saturday, 28 March 2020

Writing During Lockdown

Hello from lockdown!

No, I'm not locked down in the hypostele hallway of Karnak temple like the photo suggests, I'm locked down in my apartment in Madrid, the hardest-hit city of one of the hardest-hit countries in the world. I'm only going out for essential shopping trips these days. My Easter trip to England has been canceled, as has a planned spring trip to Tunisia.

At least that gives me plenty of time to write. In addition to work for my usual clients, I'm hard at work on the fourth book of my Masked Man of Cairo series, The Case of the Karnak Killer. I should be done with it in a couple of weeks and then it will go into edits. After that I'll finish up the third in the Interzone Mystery series, Flight to Fez. After that I'll be working on a couple of new projects that I'll announce later in April.

My word count has definitely gone up in the last two weeks of total lockdown. Writing is keeping me sane, so I'll just keep doing more and more of it. What are you doing to keep sane?

Stay safe!

Tuesday, 28 January 2020

My Adventure Travel Year: A Look Back And A Look Forward

The Red Pyramid of Dashur.

Is it too late to write a retrospective on on 2019? Yeah, probably, but I've been busy.

It was a pretty solid year for me travel-wise, starting and ending with trips to Egypt to write my Masked Man of Cairo mystery series. I explored the old medieval district of Cairo, hung out with Egyptian and Sudanese friends, and headed to Bahariya Oasis deep in the Western Desert. The second trip, from which I recently returned, took me up the Nile to Luxor, somewhere I hadn't been since 1991. The modern city had grown and so have the ruins! No, there aren't suddenly more ancient temples, but more had been excavated and restored. Funny how even an archaeological site with change with time.

Bas-relief in tomb Luxor

Sandwiched between those two trips was a trip to Fez in Morocco. Readers of this blog will know that I regularly go to Morocco and have a few books set there, but oddly enough until this past year I hadn't been to one of its most famous cities. I stayed in the old medina and spent my days wandering around the labyrinthe of alleys.

Of course I also had my usual stays in Oxford and London for research and catching up with old friends.

The tannery in Fez ha been operating (and stinking) for centuries

So what's on the agenda for 2020? At least one trip to Egypt, perhaps with the goal of seeing the Faiyum region, which I've never visited. I also want to get some new countries under my belt. I've been to 35 countries but not a new one for several years. I'm fixing that by giving a talk at the International Dublin Writers' Festival in June. That's right, a guy named Sean McLachlan has never been to Ireland! Shameful. I'm also considering a trip to Tunisia and maybe even the Sudan. More details when I get them!

Holy man's tomb, Fez

Nobelman's tomb, Luxor

The hypostele hall in Karnak.

Saturday, 12 October 2019

Back from Fez!

I just got back from a ten-day writing retreat in Fez, Morocco. Like my many trips to Tangier, this was to work on a novel set in that city. It's the third of the Interzone Mystery series, and this time Shorty and Melanie have to track down a fugitive who's hiding in the medina of Fez. Shorty has a mission for the Party he's trying to do on the side, and it doesn't help that his old nemesis Chason is hot on his trail. Flight to Fez is a whole lot of fun to write. You can keep track of my progress on the sidebar to the right.

Fez is a fascinating town. It was the seat of many dynasties of Sultans and is filled with historic mosques and madrasas. i stayed in a house in one of the quiet backstreets, trying to get my writing done during the heat of the day so I could go sightseeing in the mornings and evenings.

Attached are some pictures. I'll have a full article on my trip in the next issue of my newsletter, coming out later this month.


My street.

Courtyard of a medieval madrasa.

Neighborhood donkey.

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The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?

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