EndGame

I’m in the final stages of my novel EggHead, a crime thriller focusing on a boy at the ages of twelve and nineteen.   The twelve-year-old gets into serious trouble when he faces up to bullying.  As a nineteen-year-old, he is struggling to rebuild his life in a remote village on the north east coast (England, UK).   

The atmosphere inside the pub is rising.  The mood is ugly.  Again, I sense the hostile stares, the silent accusations, the thirst for revenge against the monster who killed the missing lad. 

The locals think that I or one of the other men at the Halfway House played a role in whatever happened on Wednesday night.  Worse, I can’t account for my movements that night.  I don’t recall any of it, apart from coming to in a groggy state shortly after midnight in an unfamiliar squat less than a quarter of a mile from this pub on the promenade where the lad was last seen.  I stumbled back home.  Someone must have seen me approaching the Halfway House in the early hours of the morning and passed on the information to the teams of villagers patrolling the area.  That would explain why the teenage boys and men stopped outside the Halfway House in the middle of the night, lingering by the front wall, talking in quiet voices. 

Because they suspect me of foul play. 

They must know my background.  They will have lifted it from the internet.   The anonymity required by law wouldn’t stop people in my hometown identifying me

 Meanwhile, my debut novel – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey – is available on Amazon.    Reviews.

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The Novel, Secrets

http://n0tice.com/report/3757/local-musician-publishes-debut-novel

A local musician has published his debut novel Secrets, a psychological thriller set in Lancashire. Lawrence Estrey, a classical pianist, grew up near the Pennines but is now based in Muswell Hill, North London.

“I really wanted to keep many of my childhood memories alive in the novel,” he says. “Even though I’ve lived in Devon and Wales since then, I’ve always had a nostalgic feel for places like Rochdale and Oldham and Bury. I wanted readers to experience this world through the novel. To meet the people and hear the accents and view the landmarks. ”

In Secrets, the central character, a web designer, has to leave London and return to his native Lancashire when his marriage collapses. However, as the title of the novel suggests, the character has a secret of his own and he is quickly forced to face his secret past when events in his home town spiral out of control. The novel is a mixture of psychological thriller and serious crime.

Lawrence trained in music at Dartington College of Arts in Totnes, Devon, and later came to London to take up a piano scholarship with local pianist and teacher Vera Yelverton. “The early days were amazing. One year, I ended up catching an overnight coach to Edinburgh to give a recital in the Fringe Festival, and that was during a heat wave. The same week, I performed another three concerts in and around London. I used to love the buzz of it all.

“I also used to write on and off, but often it would come and go in bursts. I only seriously got interested in creative writing about 2003, shortly after I moved to Muswell Hill from another part of London. Then I ended up at the local novelist group.”

Lawrence originally approached agents and publishers with a couple of proposals about three or four years ago, both of which attracted considerable interest, but he decided to go it alone, largely due to the recession and the huge difficulties new authors often encounter.

“It’s interesting…after Secrets, I wasn’t sure I could go through the lengthy process of writing another novel, yet I’m more than two thirds of the way through my next novel EggHead, a crime thriller about a boy at the ages of twelve and nineteen. The process is very similar. I expect I shall release EggHead early next year. Meanwhile, I’m concentrating on the piano and releasing recordings and short videos through the internet.” Lawrence Estrey’s debut Secrets is available from Amazon in paperback and in Kindle.

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The New Novel: Variation And Lightness Of Tone

I’m having to rework some of the earlier sections of my new novel EggHead, a crime thriller featuring central character Wayne at the ages of twelve and nineteen.  The story focuses on a bullying campaign and the dramatic measures Wayne resorted to as a twelve-year-old, plus the consequences of his actions.   The present day character is struggling to rebuild his life in a bleak village off the north-east coast, cut off from his former life. 

Not surprisingly, much of the story comes across as intense and moody, so I’m having to bring in a new character to add depth to Wayne’s personality – a kind of platonic girlfriend whom Wayne feels protective of.   I think this will balance out the novel a bit more and allow more of Wayne’s character to show.

Meanwhile, my debut novel – Secrets by Lawrence Estrey – is available of Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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The New Novel

I’m approaching the two sets of ending scenes in my latest novel, EggHead.  EggHead, a crime thriller, features central character Wayne at the ages of twelve and nineteen.  In this section, the twelve-year-old boy has decided to run away from home to escape a bullying vendetta.

I glance at the time on my mobile.  Enough time to get a hot drink and a couple of heated sausage rolls from the overnight garage.  The only thing I’m slightly concerned about is my phone, as I haven’t charged it since Tuesday and the battery’s getting low, but anyway they won’t expect me to have it on at this time of the day, so I turn it off and head over to the garage.

The sausage rolls smell fantastic.  I munch one as I stride towards the playing fields and take a left in the direction of the tobacco factory.  I can see the high rise blocks of flats and Baxendale Court where Zipper lives.  He’ll get upset when he hears I’ve gone. Definitely.  He relies on me to help him with his school work and we’ve always had loads of fun.  I decide that as soon as I’m settled, I’ll get in touch with him and apologise for leaving so suddenly.

 

Meanwhile, my debut novel (Secrets by Lawrence Estrey) is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

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Piano On YouTube

I’ve just started uploading static videos (single image over an audio file) to YouTube.   The videos include piano music by Chopin and Schubert.  In each video, I am the soloist.   You can check them out here.

 

 

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