As many may know, I was about to finish my second novel at the beginning of this year. I sent the manuscript to six readers and gave them a deadline on 9 January to turn in their findings. I would then go about ironing out typos and inconsistencies, creating the final draft. Blood and Rain would be published somewhere in spring 2016. Nothing could change that.
Or so I thought. David Bowie has been a huge part of my life for more than 30 years. I studied his music as a teenager, immersed myself in his world. I was fascinated by his sounds, words and looks. He was different, somehow above the rest.
David Bowie died on 10 January this year. One day after the deadline and two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his latest (and last, we now know) album, Blackstar. I was devastated. It affected me more than I thought it could. A huge part of my life was gone. It was, literally, like losing a close relative.
January passed and I had no desire to revisit Blood and Rain. February passed and things were still not getting any better. I would look at the written pages and try to get into the world of Barcelona in 1937, but it felt distant. One day I will finish it, but first this…
We went to Venice on a mini holiday at the end of February. The masks were fascinating, the city beautiful. Something happened in my head. I remembered a line from a Bowie song.
The Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees
Hunt you to the ground they will, mannequins with kill appeal
And this.
But there’s a shop on the corner that’s selling papier mache
Making bullet-proof faces, Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay
The Diamond Dogs wore white masks and went hunting for mutants. A story begun to form in my head. The story of a girl that is forced to leave her home on Poachers Hill and go back into Hunger City to find Halloween Jack. The story is writing itself. I sit here and I type, but almost feel like it’s being channeled through me. I don’t want to sit here alone and work on this in solidarity. I want to share it with the world now. One chapter at a time. Get your feedback as we get through the story. Discover the mysteries of Hunger City together.
This is not the story as written by Bowie himself. It is not a copy of his storyboard. This is a story about a girl that lives in the world of Hunger City. And yes, Halloween Jack will make an appearance later in the series.
Enjoy. Here is the link to CHAPTER ONE. A new chapter will be published every week until the story has been told.
Leave a Reply