Shine On Me

I'm going through the final proofs. There have been several and these will be the last ones before going in to the professional proofreader who checks on grammar.

I'm making the most of it with dub albums and coffee to help. All looking good for a Spring book launch.

An argument about Oxford commas broke out during a break.

The winter, and covid, is biting but things are moving along.

I'm currently waiting for the final proof and to then make those last edits... there are always more.

The cover got a bit of a tweak too, and we're looking at blurb quotes.

There may be a surprise from the good people at Werewolf Brewery too.

Roll on Spring: warm weather, drinking outdoors, and Shine On Me.

The first draft has come back from the editors and I've made my changes and it's in for a second rinse. The cover still needs some work too, but progressing steadily.

In the meantime I've been watching 70s spook series The Omega Factor which turned up an unexpected skinhead/horror headbutt. 

The protagonist goes into a Edinburgh ghostie museum, the vaults I think. The episode is Double Vision and…

The book is in with the editor and we're still on course for a Spring release.

I've ranged words in Shine On Me from Queen's English, colloquial, cockney, yiddische, and polari.

A few faves I've put in are:

Malison - curse

Bummaree - market porter at Smithfield

Pishers - youths (yiddische)

Kaffies - trousers (polari)

Electrickery - electricity (Catweazle)

Sigil - pictoral signature of a demon…

I'm now at the editing stage. That's always quite enjoyable for me. I've put my text to the editor having gone through it a few times myself. I'll then be taking their notes into consideration before a couple more edits. There's usually a bit of back and forth, and it's valuable work.

My favourite editorial comment on passges in Moonstomp was "This is too opaque for me." The editor knew I use some…

Met with the publishers at Unbound yesterday to hand over text. The next stage will be working with the editor, getting proofs done, and fitting into Unbound's publishing schedule. Still plenty of work to do and we're a way off books in paws but getting closer.

Here's Unbound's John Mitchinson with a couple of my Slade paperbacks. They've a second Dave Hill book coming up and so we spent a fair…

Yes, we hit 100% on the funding today. Big thanks to all of you for your support.

The next step is the editing, proofing, and printing. I'll update how that's going once Unbound have sat me down with an editor and we've done a few read throughs.

In the meantime I'm having a drink, or two.

Pulp fiction is nothing new to us yobs. The Hells Angels and Skinhead books of the 70s sold by the barrowload. As a yoof I'd buy bovver books at Rock On in Camden Town, at Brick Lane of a Sunday and also at the book barrows that used to be on Holloway Road and Leather Lane.

The Penny Dreadfuls were a precursor and in his Curiosities of London Life, from back in 1853, Charles Manby Smith himself had…

Less than 10% left to go. I've gone through three drafts of the book and once it's fully funded the next stage will be to sit with an editor. That's always quite enjoyable for me.

My favourite editorial comment on a few passges in Moonstomp was "This is too opaque for me." The editor knew I use some partiular vocabulary and asked if my mates would understand it, and was happy when I said they would…

As both Shine On Me and Moonstomp are set mainly in north east London, and as it's my tipple of choice, lager top gets served in several of the pub scenes. It's a drink particularly known in London and less so round the rest of the country. 

Simply it's a pint of lager with a splash of lemonade, about half an inch, sploshed in when the lager has finished being poured. A shandy is an 'alf and 'alf…

Some of the witchery that takes place in the book is set in the old Huguenot houses around Brick Lane and Spitalfields. These days they look lovely but it was quite a different story in 1980, when the book is set.

Author of 'The Rats' James Herbert, whose father, Herbert Herbert, had a fruit and veg stall on Brick Lane, recalled that in his childhood "Rats ran in the alleyways and over the bomb sites…

Artwork from Joel Loya of Boots 'n' Booze zine. Their zines recent graphic novels are well worth a punt.

Here's the playlist for the upcoming book. It is set in 1980 so reggae, 2 Tone, mod revival, and punk all feature, as well as a couple of other songs that make an appearance.

Shine On Me

 

Looking My Love

My first whistle

was a silver

grey number.

Thin lapel,

centre vent,

three button.

The bottom

never done up.

A nebbische

I am not.

White

towelling socks.

Black brogues,

white

Fred Perry.

My first whistle,

wolf that is,

was from her

as I

was bowling up

Clapton Common,

rude

and ruddy,

on a sunny

spring morning

and I

was fabulous.



Tim Wells

Here's a Spotify playlist for most of the choons in my first skinhead werewolf pulp horror: Moonstomp

The Gonads website asked for an interview about my skinhead pulp horror, Moonstomp. The book is set in 1979 and is a New English Library style tale of a skinhead werewolf. I asked Garry, who runs the site, what he wanted to know, and he said I should ask my own questions. This seemed a bit weird, it might have been the done thing at Sounds, but not for me. I asked a few hooligans what they’d like…

Quick bump of purple heart poetry for the bank holiday.

Making Indecsions

The Easter bank

holiday we mobbed

at Brighton.

‘arringtons

over button-downs

cos the sea breeze

held a chill.

Sta-prest

had a knife edge,

brogues shined,

the clack of blakeys

typed trouble.

When the Tottenham

made a show

we was in the Lanes.

The first bottle

put a window

right through.

We edged back…

Interview I did last year with my mates over at Boots N Booze zine from Santa Cruz, USA,

Boots N Booze Interview: Tim Wells!

We sat down with legendary author and Skinhead, Tim Wells to ask him about his book 'Moonstomp'! Check it out!

How long have you been writing?

Since the late 70s, but gigging properly as a poet when the Ranters kicked off in the early 80s. I’d not written…

Food is always a sign of class, in every way that can be taken. One of the good things about the Harry Palmer films is how Harry Palmer shows his confidence with good food and coffee. It's a very mod outlook, us working class types should be living well. It's come as a surprise to many when I tell them that Len Deighton, author of the IPCRESS File and the other Harry Palmer books, as well as the superb…

Shine On Me takes a bite from Pelican sociology books we read in the 60s and 70s as much as the New English Library pulps. 

'Sociologists write reams about the alienation of capitalism. We know, we read it. We see ourselves described in those blue Pelican sociology books but never understood. We know all about alienation and capital, we don’t need it explained by soft handed wankers that can’t…

I was delighted that Stewart loved Moonstomp and also supported Shine On Me on his website. He wrote of my pulp horrors: "I loved Moonstomp. Wells' authentically pastiched werewolf-skinhead novel bleeds 1970's New English Library youth pulp into Pan Horror anthology gore, against the backdrop of a vividly realised nascent North London punk scene. I can't wait to find out how Joe's double life develops…

Skinhead werewolfery from my mate Joel Loya over at Boots 'n' Booze zine in Santa Cruz.

"The lad Warren Zevon remarked of the werewolf of London that ‘he’d like to meet his tailor’. Indeed, a mere hint of lycanthropy will play havoc with a chap’s stylish shmatta. My pal Tim Wells’ pulp horror, Shine On Me, is a measured, well stitched, ticket pocketed whistle in the New English Library style. Try it on for size."

One of my favourite weird places in London is the Limehouse Pyramid and it features as part of an occult ritual in Shine On Me. This is how chapter six kicks off...

'From Commercial Road the Limehouse Pyramid thrusts up like an occluded tooth in the churchyard of St. Anne’s, one of Hawksmoor’s churches that supposedly form a five pointed star. The day falling to twilight added to the air of mystery…

Throughout Shine On Me, and previously in Moonstomp, I have been detailed on clothes. This book is set in 1980, and Moonstomp in '79. The clothes can be more fun to write than the sex and aggro. Maybe that's nostalgia (for all three!) and age.

  It annoys me when subcultural writing is lazy and gets the style wrong. 'The look' was the most important thing for us. We may not have had much else but…

The book is set in 1980 and badges were an integral part of 'the look', be that punk, skinhead, reggae, metal, or whatever. The were pinned to the collars of Harringtons, the lapels of leathers, and even on braces.

There's a bit in chapter 7 of Moonstomp about how badges played their part in meeting people and sussing them out...

'As Joyce came back from the toilet and was strutting it to show…

There's a lot of music from the late 70s, and a few other tunes dropping by, in Shine On Me. Moonstomp was set in 1979, and this book moves into 1980 with punk being nudged aside by 2 Tone and the mod revival. A couple of mod pubs in Dalston feature, and there's mention of the Purple Hearts, the Spiders, Long Tall Shorty, the Jam (of course) and many more of the three buttoned jacket, terry towelling…

This is the follow up to Moonstomp.

What happens next to East Londons skinhead werewolf?

How do mod witches get involved?

Are white towelling socks and loafers in?