10 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #6: Fun Facts!

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 10 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course! 

Today, a few facts about 15 Days Without a Head:


Fun Fact #1: The first version of the story that became 15 Days Without a Head was called Somewhere. The title was inspired by the song from West Side Story, though it was the Tom Waits version I had in my head (and on my character's iPod.)

Fun Fact #2: In the original version, the brothers Laurence and Jay were called Jimmi and Danny Harris. Mina was a Scottish girl called Nikki, who lived with her gran, on the floor above Jimmi in the Heights.

Fun Fact #3: The story opened with a scene in a pub – very much like the real life incident that drove me to write it – and ended in a police station. The journey Jimmi and Danny take in Somewhere is very different to the one Laurence and Jay live through in 15 Days Without a Head. There are lots of things I like about the original version, so you never know, there may even be a book in it … someday, somehow, somewhere!

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: The National Association for Children of Alcoholics.