Serial thriller at large
Tuesday August 10, 2010
Writer and journalist Ray Connolly is giving his latest novel away for free during a new publishing experiment.
The Fulham-based author, who has already brought out 10 novels as well as writing scripts for film, television and radio, is making his latest book The Sandman available for nothing on the internet as a daily serial.
“I don’t know of anyone else who has done this, but I think they will in the future,” he told h&f news. “Everyone I have spoken to says ‘you’re doing a Dickens, aren’t you?’ and they think it’s a brilliant idea.”
Charles Dickens might have pioneered the serialised novel in the 1840s, but Ray’s new story has put a contemporary spin on the old form, exploring the dark side of social networking sites.
“It’s about internet grooming and Facebook, and it follows a TV reporter who investigates a series of deaths which she believes are coming from an online social networking site,” he said.
When the novel was rejected by the first few publishers who received it, Ray decided to take matters into his own hands to publish the story while it was still fresh and topical.
“It’s a story about now, and I didn’t want to miss the moment,” he said. “I thought to myself, even if one of the publishers had bought it, it would be a year before it was on sale. I’d rather publish it myself. Now, not next year.
“Writers write to be read, and it’s exciting and really empowering to be able to do this.”
Ray, 69, has lived with his wife Plum in Moore Park Road for the past six years and is a father of three and grandfather of two.
He has been writing since 1967 when he landed a job as a regular columnist at The Evening Standard and went on to write for a host of daily newspapers including The Times, The Telegraph, The Observer and The Daily Mail.
Ray quickly asserted himself as an authority on rock ’n’ roll and popular culture, interviewing some of the most influential personalities of the 60s and 70s including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali.
The prolific writer also penned screenplays for the 70s films That’ll Be The Day and Stardust, both produced by David Puttnam, and wrote and directed the feature length documentary James Dean: The First American Teenager.
In recent years Ray has written scripts for several radio dramas and he believes his ability to switch between different media helps his stories to continually reach an audience. “I chop and change between formats and if they don’t work in one format, I often change them into another,” he said.
“And whenever I finish a novel I like to do something different. I think I might be doing another television series next.”
The Sandman is being published free, chapter-by-chapter, on Ray’s website. A new chapter will be added each day, Monday to Friday, for the next 10 weeks. Readers also have the option of buying and downloading the entire book at any point.
Ray added: “It really is an experiment. Who knows what’s going to happen? But it’s just about getting your work out there – that’s what drives most authors.”
To begin reading The Sandman visit www.rayconnolly.co.uk
