'Leeford Village' is a serial - a cross between the '44 Scotland Street' stories written by Alexander McCall Smith and The Archers. Earlier this year I started a writing collaboration with Jon Markes, a friend and ex-colleague. Jon lives in York (so a lot of the work is done via email) and, like me, he is trying to publish his debut fiction novel. As the serial 'Leeford Village' develops, we intend to publish the serial in the form of a novel and hope that one day it will feature on the radio.
Jon and I have a particular way of working. I write one episode, then send it to Jon so he can check it over for mistakes. After a bit of editing, he writes the next episode and sends it to me. We try not to influence each other in our writing, so it is always a surprise when we each receive a completed episode. We have no idea what is going to happen next ! It's great fun writing like this. There is no point making a plan as we have to react (almost in real-time) to the latest episode. Life is simply 'happening' to the characters in the village. Sometimes I follow a thread that Jon has created and end up completely changing the idea he has come up with. At other times, I might start a completely new thread, and then Jon throws me by adapting and changing the situation. Great fun.
From 1st September you will be able to read the first 3 episodes of 'Leeford Village' in the Michael Braccia blog. Ongoing, we will add an episode to the blog on the 1st of each month.
