Nick Zuliani

I have recently discovered that Nick Zuliani really exists!  For me, he is one of my main characters appearing in two novels and several short stories.  He began as follows.  My enthusiasm for Venice led me to want to create a character who lived in the medieval city, and who, like Marco Polo, travelled to the Far East.  There he would meet Kubilai Khan and became a solver of murders.  I made him a bit of a "wheeler-dealer", who got involved in all sorts of illegitimate business deals, and in the end was accused of murder himself.  This drove him from Venice, and he ended up in Xanadu, the summer palace of the Great Khan.
His name was made up from using the Italian first name Niccolo, which as he had an English mother, got shortened to Nick.  His surname was created in the following way.  There is a church in Venice called San Giuliano, which in Venetian dialect is called San Zulian.  At the time of writing the first novel, I was (and remain) a great admirer of Michael Dibdin's modern Venetian detective - Aurelio Zen.  So with a nod to that, I named my character Zuliani.  With such a random approach, I could not have imagined that I had landed on a real name! But recently, a fan in Italy (curiously with the same surname as myself) reported that a friend of her's was called Nick Zuliani.
I hope he forgives me for stealing his name.  My Nick Zuliani is a loveable rogue, and will appear again in the ninth Medieval Murderers anthology due in 2013.

Some personal bits and pieces

Those of you who look at my website, will know my enthusiasm for theatre, particularly amateur theatre.  Since moving to Hastings, on England's south coast (yes, that Hastings - famous Battle of etc), I have got involved with the Stables Theatre.  In order to learn how it works, I have been sitting in on, and helping with, a production of Terence Rattigan's 'The Winslow Boy'.  This is a retelling of an actual case in the UK from just before the First World War concerning a young boy at Osborne naval college who was accused of stealing a five shilling postal order ( a fairly small amount of money, even in those days).  As a military cadet, he was not entitled to defend himself in a civil court and was deemed guilty.  His father would not give up the case, however, and virtually bankrupted himself petitioning the government to exonerate his boy.  As the play puts it, the criterion finally was 'Let right be done.'  So it raises the subtle difference between right and justice - that is, if the legal concept of justice cannot be achieved, then right can prevail at least.  Ironically, the real-life 'Winslow Boy', George Archer-Shee was killed in the First World War age 19.

I am still working on the next, and possibly final, Falconer.  I know, that's what Conan Doyle said when he sent Holmes over the Reichenbach Falls, but I want to send my man off in a blaze of glory.  So a return would be a whimper.  Mind you, if the money was right...(wishful thinking, I know, in today's publishing climate).  That's not to say he may not reappear in a Medieval Murderers story some time.  I have the next two of those lined up, including a tenth anniversary volume.  The eighth Medieval Murderers book - 'The First Murder' - is due out soon.

Just to update you on Facebook Timeline, I have got it working and I haven't had any of my life erased!  Well, that's a relief.

Facebook Timeline? It's a bit bent!

Ah Facebook, how I love it...not.  So useful to keep in touch, and to use to pass on information about myself and my books.  Or so I thought.  Then I saw this new Timeline option, and thought I could add some old pictures of myself to it.  Vanity, I know, but...
It all started so well, until I wanted to go back and amend some stuff.  I noticed at first that sometimes pictures and events on the timeline were there, and then sometimes they weren't.  Then an event for 1953 appeared in 1968.  Finally, a whole chunk of my life disappeared between 1951 and 1958!  I know I had put in some events, and then amended them, but Facebook had wiped them out and wouldn't let me open that section.  Help!  My life between those dates has been obliterated, or at least rendered secret even from me, and feel bereft.  Am I some human version  of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia where events were changed regularly and amendments sent out, often obliterating people from Soviet history altogether?  Have I become an un-person in a  modern version of a Kafka story?
If this blog disappears, you will know the worst has happ....

Hostage to Fortune

My comments in January about Falconer ageing in the stories at more or less the same rate as real time, reminded me of the incautious way I ended the first Falconer story in 1994.  As an epilogue, I wanted to give readers the feeling that all the characters in the story were real by telling them what happened to the main protagonists after the story finished.
Of course, some of my characters were real people.  Thomas de Cantilupe did exist, and after being Chancellor of Oxford University, became Chancellor of the Realm.  Sadly, his association with Simon de Montfort brought that role to an end after Simon was defeated by Henry III.  However, Thomas survived and eventually was a trusted advisor to Edward I.  All that is made clear in my epilogue to Falconer's Crusade.  I continued to use the names of the actual Chancellors of the university at the relevant times in future stories.  So, Nicholas de Ewelme, Thomas Bek, and William de Bosco have put in appearances.  I have ascribed particular temperaments to each one, some not very flattering, though they were real people.  I apologise to their shades if they feel offended.
Other characters were made up by me, some only appeared in one story, some being recurring characters.  Peter Bullock is a case in point.  As constable of Oxford, he has been a particularly close friend of Falconer's.  And in my first novel, I stated in the epilogue that he died in 1274 in a very particular way.  At the time (1994), I little thought this would present me with a problem, not imagining the Falconer stories would have such longevity.  Or that I would stick to a realistic time-frame in writing more.
In my  latest Falconer (number 9), which I am writing at the moment, I have reached 1274.  In fact I have gone past it by a year. For various reasons, based on actual historical events, Rain of Blood is set in 1275.  Now my careless assertion in the first Falconer eighteen years ago has come back to haunt me.  I must kill Peter Bullock off...Or must I?  Will anyone notice?  What do you think?

Aging

I achieved that landmark age of 65 a couple of days ago.  Of course, in the future it may not be much of a landmark as in the past.  If the UK government continues to push forward the age of retirement - now planned for 66, and maybe 67 - the traditional retirement age of 65 will become meaningless.  In fact, I retired from full-time employment when I was 50 and concentrated on writing - and other pursuits.  To imagine the last fifteen event-filled years of my life as otherwise being filled with more work along the lines of that which I had been doing up to when I was 50 fills me with horror.  Nor can I imagine having to work until I am 67, or even 70, in order to have enough money to retire on.  I know, I know, I've been lucky in choosing a career (outside of writing) that gave me a good pension, and that many people aren't so fortunate.  But I would hate to have to work for the bulk of my life, and then only have a handful of years to relax or do other things.
As a writer, my long-running characters have aged more or less in line with the timing of the stories.  The William Falconer series began in 1994, and that first story was set in 1264.  The latest one I am writing is set in 1275, so there has been a slight time-slip, but Falconer is definitely older and more tired than when he began.  Will he leave Oxford at last?  You will have to wait until the ninth Falconer is published.

Christmas

I have just returned from a great break in Bruges.  Imagine being in a country where they brew 1130 different beers, make the most exquisite fries served with curry mayonnaise, and delicious chocolate shops are on every corner.  I thought I had died and gone to Heaven!  Seriously though, for a writer of medieval stories, Bruges is a fascinating place, which has barely changed in hundreds of years.  Due to their conservative nature, the residents of Bruges eschewed the Protestant revolution, and so became a backwater after once being the centre of the cloth trade.  Beautiful old buildings abound, including a complete "beguinage" - the residence of an order of women who chose to live a life in a female community without taking vows as a nun.  Even now, the enclosed district is only available for women to rent.
I also visited Ypres and Ghent, and on Christmas Day made a side trip to a World War One cemetery. It was very sobering to see thousands of small white headstones, many of which had no name on them - simply "A soldier of the Great War".  It was saddening to see all those young men who lost their chance of a life, and reminded me of John Lennon's words - "War is over, if you want it".  I recalled that incident when at Christmas 1914, soldiers from both sides emerged from the trenches and sang songs and played football, only to return to killing each other.  "War is over, if you want it".  If only.

Moving

I seem to have written an awful lot recently about matters publishing, so I will provide some personal news.  I have been living in Cyprus for the last seven years, coming originally for the good weather and low cost of living, which stretched my money a little farther.  Since joining the EU, Cyprus costs have been escalating, and although the tax system places a smaller burden on my funds, the benefits are consequently equally small.  I have also come to dislike the summer weather, which is humid and enervating.  It also seems to last longer now than it used to.  I have decided to return to the UK therefore.
My wife and I have had a flat in Hastings for a couple of years, and we are now going to use it as our home base.  The town is lively and full of opportunities, and lies close to Gatwick airport, and London.  It will be a good jumping-off point for other places, when the English weather does not suit.  I will miss a lot of friends in Cyprus, particularly the ones I made through Stage One - the drama group that was my mainstay on the island.  But I have other drama groups to occupy my time in Hastings, and I will return to Cyprus and see the plays that Stage One put while we have our villa there.
As for writing, I am now beginning what I think will be the final Falconer story.  I want to give him a fitting send-off, as he has been my companion for nearly twenty years.  Who knows, though?  Sherlock Holmes came back from the brink (not that I am comparing my meagre talents with Conan Doyle's), so Falconer might also.  The thing is, I made the mistake in the early Falconers of adding a final section that told the readers what happened eventually to the principal characters.  And now I am stuck with it!  Oh well, here goes.