Ramadan gives you time to write!

During Ramadan the local populace and Muslims around the world celebrate the Holy Month by fasting during daylight hours. No food no liquids, quite a challenge in 50 degree heat. So, I don't spend any time eating out and no new movies are released for the whole month, I just write.
The malls here are empty during the day, the roads are quiet and forlorn Westerners search for anywhere that will sell them food. Goodness knows how the Muslim athletes in the Olympics cope.
I have written several chapters of my new novel 'Shadow of the Burj', which in all honesty should have been with the publisher by now, but it is well on its way. Inspiration is coming thick and fast and this is likely to be the most international and dramatic novel to date. Writers are sometimes a remote lot but Ramadan doesn't help socialisation, nevertheless I am going to an Iftar buffet organised by the US Consulate and so that should be fun.

Djibouti Man

Researching locations for a new book is often nothing more than an excuse for a nice holiday, not so Djibouti, where I need seven shots before I got on a plane. Now before you all start feeling sorry for this poor author, let me explain I was staying at the Kempinski Hotel where a thousand US Dollars gets you two nights of bed, breakfast and dinner. Notwithstanding my luxurious accommodations I spent most of my time travelling across Djibouti and meeting local officials and US and other Western Navy Personnel. I was also able to speak to a few ex foreign legionnaires.

Once you are out of the city, which hold about 600,000 of the 800,000 population, the accommodation is shanty's built of discarded advertising signs and corrugated iron. Despite this total lack of facilities the kids head off to school smartly dressed in clean clothes and everyone has a smile for a strange author. I was humbled and pleased I made the journey.
Djibouti will appear in Shadow of the Burj as I had planned but it will also be a long time in my memory.

Heat of the Emirates

Here in the Emirates, Dubai more specifically, the heat is beginning to build. A dust cloud has kept temperatures low, and visibility lower, for a week now. I am starting my one year sojourn in Dubai and hope to be living in the Shadow of the Burj Khalifa very soon. Helpfu,l as my new novel is based here and is provisionally entitled Shadow of the Burj. For an author whose works rests heavily on research it has been easy for me in the past two years as my books were based on people and places I know in London.
In 48 Hours a loss adjuster receives a text threatening his life and it involves scores of London landmarks and relies on real people, their talents and skills. In the follow up Chameleon, also set in London, I had to recreate the abandoned tube station at the Strand, an eerie place with posters on the walls from eons ago. But still a fun place to see. Less dramatic is Thames House, home of MI5. Oddly enough I have had more trouble getting into popular nightclubs than getting into MI5's offices. The people at Britain's foremost intelligence service are keen to be open, keener still to dispel cold war depictions of their staff and agents. Then more latterly with Fogarty, coming soon to a Kindle near you, I had to look at the damage inflicted by the riots and talk to 'legitimate businessmen' who eschewed rumours of their criminality. Contacts on the periphery of criminal organisations in the UK and in near Europe always give a good insight into their 'strictly a business' approach to appalling crimes such as; drug running, prostitution and money laundering. Likewise the Police are always eager to be portrayed positively and so they too will tell you the 'way it really is'.
Here in Dubai it is a lot harder but I guess that I will soon build up the contacts I need to flesh out another novel heavy on research. I hope that Shadow of the Burj will be sent to my publisher later this year and be out for Christmas, as long as I can keep away from the poolside and rattle away at my keyboard.