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 Place an order for Two Miles to Tynecastle at Apex Publishing Ltd here |
Update
2009 Two Miles to Tynecastle reaction I did upset some people with certain things that I’d written, and I’m sorry for that: however, on the whole, reaction to my book was much better than I expected, thankfully. In a way, none of it actually mattered at all, because the most important thing for me was simply writing it in the first place. For a first time author, people said that it was a great achievement having my work published, and it was; but in all honesty, my greatest feeling of accomplishment was getting to the end of my crudely written first draft. To have a completed document felt extremely rewarding and even if had been forced to hand out binded sheets of A4 to the guys in The Diggers, then I would’ve done so. Having the book in hardback form in the shops, the launch party and all the stuff that followed was simply icing on the cake. Getting things off my chest was paramount. For me, the last ‘act’ of Two Miles to Tynecastle is the 2008 Christmas market and hopefully the people who read it for the first time over the festive period or in 2009 and beyond will enjoy it as much as most other folk did. The most touching moments I experienced are when I received well wishes and compliments from people that I’ve never met before, yet who told me that they identified with events from a life that mirrored their own. But now it’s soon going to be a new year and after that - a new decade. It’s time to face forward now. HMFC Quiz Book As a stroke of luck, my decision to sign up with Apex Publishing for Two Miles to Tynecastle immediately opened up a chance to get a second football-related title out in the space of a year. Apex has become the market leader in football quiz books (as well as publishing quiz books in general), and my ‘sad’ anorak knowledge of facts, dates and figures led me to enquire as to when the last time my beloved Heart of Midlothian FC released such a book. There hasn’t been one since 1987, so we got on the case right away and I’m delighted to say that ‘The Official Heart of Midlothian Quiz Book’, compiled jointly by Chris Cowlin and me is scheduled to be published in August 2009. Other future projects At the moment, I’m busy doing a degree, so my free time to write any more books is exceptionally limited. At the time of writing this, I’m about a quarter of the way through penning my follow up to Two Miles to Tynecastle, although this book doesn’t go with a football genre. I’ve no idea when I’ll get it finished but 2010 would be lovely. Another potential book collaboration involves my good friend, Ray French, although we’re only at the talking (over a beer) stage, so there’s no hurry! Plans, plans, plans – books, books, books . . . +
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Two Miles to Tynecastle. Six weeks after Heart of Midlothian FC won the 2006 Scottish Cup, a considerable event occurred in my personal life that kick-started the drive I needed to write my book. Until then, writing had only ever been a pastime but I always sensed that I could do it, and people like my brother, Bobby and my friend, Kevin kept saying I should do it. So it was on that hot day, June 28th that I began a voyage that would eventually top a hundred thousand words and re-visit thirty-four years of laughter, pain and misery! I have to say my first draft was only a few weeks old when I hit something of an emotional brick wall. It took one meeting (and about eight pints) with Hearts fans Gary and Ron in downtown Toronto to sort out my writer’s block. “Keep going” said Gary. “Don’t read it: just keep writing” said Ron. It was sound advice, and by Christmas 2006, I had completed draft number one. I set myself three criteria for the book. One: I had to be true to myself about going over the past. In one sense, I saw this as a historical document. There were things that were going to be uncomfortable to recall and I imagined that a certain amount of courage would be needed. The second thing I wanted to achieve was to take the reader through the emotions with me. Where the book is funny, I want people to laugh. Where it is sad, I want people to shed a tear, and maybe laugh again. The thing is, the funny stuff is often quite tragic and the tragedy has much comedy. I have quite a dry wit anyway so the crossover was a fairly natural progression. And so there was my third aim, which was to try and encapsulate what it really meant and felt like to be a Hearts supporter; to be cursed to carry all the torment and thrill that goes with it. Hearts as life, life and Hearts, the two themes just seemed to become spontaneously intermingled and representative of each other as the writing process developed.  No one, I imagined, would ever want to read solely about my
life; and a
Hearts book alone could easily be written by anyone. So what my
book needed to have in order to give it that spark was something unique
and truly personal about it. I began to realise that football
matches alone can only be described in so many ways. And Hearts,
even by their own outrageous standards, wouldn’t have made such a
compelling read had I simply ploughed though season to season (“yeah we
won that game, and then we lost the next one, man”). There had to
be a marriage of the two genres. By writing my book with such raw
feeling, I didn’t spare the reader any repulsion or sadness, elation
and hope that I had felt at the time those events occurred. And
besides, the reader might well have had similar feelings about such
happenings anyway, directly or indirectly. What I want is for
Hearts fans to think “that’s right, I was at that game, and I left
devastated too”. Or more generally, I want people to broadly
identify with that let-down, that knock-back, that bus, street, film,
pub, fight, kiss, cuddle and cup win. I want the location and
details of my part of the world to be the meat and bones of the book:
but I want the humour and the tragedy to be its heart and its
soul. Two miles to Tynecastle moves through the years as I describe my life growing up in an Edinburgh housing scheme, and the difficulties that I faced as a child. The book has a fair old scoop of 80s nostalgia and there were a plethora of mishaps back then and also as the story progresses through the 90s and 00s, when I stumble into a number of terrible jobs where commotion and calamity seem to follow (as is the case with my jinxed flat). After surviving both misfortune and mediocrity, I start to take stock of my life and begin a process of achieving a sense of accomplishment that coincides with other major events. Throughout the book, my own sense of crisis is mirrored by my love (and despair) of following Hearts FC, and each football passage is described with drama and resentment; passion and optimism – none of which know no bounds. The book’s crescendo leads me to the 2006 Scottish Cup Final, as I’m forced into a personal battle with a tragic event from the past. And if that isn’t exciting enough, another momentous happening occurs to close out Two Miles to Tynecastle in a flurry of drama! |
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many of the images used on this web site. |
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