Emerging from the depths… (and how you can help Russel stay afloat in 2025!)

It’s been a long time since I posted to the website or updated anything. Not because I’ve had a lack of things happening, but perhaps because too many things have been happening, and I’ve just had to put some tasks on the back burner. So, apologies in advance, but this post is a long one including some professional news, a more personal update, and a small request which will really help me out in terms of my books in 2025…

It doesn’t help that I haven’t really had much new to promote since 2017 (Ed’s Dead), apart from the new self published editions of the J McNee novels (with their gorgeous JT Lindroos cover art and layouts by Jay Stringer).

But I have got to live vicariously through my wife, Lesley McDowell, whose book, CLAIRMONT, was published earlier in 2024 and did brilliantly well (It’s about a woman called Claire Clairemont, who was a friend of the Shelleys, but whose own writings and story have been unfairly forgotten by history). If you haven’t read it, you really should, and you need to keep an eye out for her next book, LOVE AND OTHER POISONS, due out in 2025.

Some Publishing News!

And speaking of 2025, that’s when my own publishing luck is due to change! Earlier in 2024, the fantastic folks at Black and White/Bonnier publishing agreed to take on a project I thought would never see the light of day. Yes, there’s a new book coming — another crime novel. And a return to my old stomping grounds of Dundee!

When people asked me, after the McNee series finished, what I planned to do next, I always said that a passion project I had was to be set in 1978 in Dundee, set in a dark, shadowy underbelly of crime, corruption and violence. It would be influenced by the city’s history, although not directly taking its main plot from any real crimes. And it would the first in a sequence taking the city from ’78 through to ’91, when I feel the city went through some seismic changes that were ideal breeding grounds for crime stories.

But, after the McNee series finished, I couldn’t quite get into the right mode for this project. It felt somewhat… intimidating was the word. The ideas were there, but the story never felt quite right. It needed time to digest. So I took some time away from Dundee to write two standalone novels set in Glasgow…

And then I got a little unwell. I had two rounds of kidney stones (one of which, ironically, was shaped like a dagger!), along with various other issues that got in the way of my writing. I kept starting and stopping projects. I focussed on my editing because that at least kept a roof over my head, and found I didn’t have the energy left to really write.

Until about four years ago when I found that the 1978 novel was still gnawing somewhere at the back of my mind. And then I saw all the chaos at the Met in the wake of the Sarah Everard case, and the exposure of continued misogyny and bullying in a system that should encourage better behaviour. And I began to think about why and how people could be drawn into that culture if they joined up for the right reasons.

Suddenly, I had a character — a young woman — who wanted a better future for the police back in the bad old days, and who would have to struggle between her own ideals and a system that was embedded in bad practice. And I had an opening scene that, unusually, hasn’t changed that much since the first draft as it really sets the book’s tone.

I’m really excited to talk more about this book as we get closer to its release in March. I know that some lucky people have advance, uncorrected copies either with them on on their way to them, and I’m hoping these people enjoy the book. I’m waiting on a final cover to be revealed (which I’m very excited), but it feels so good to be back in the writing game, and to have had great support form my editor, Rachel, who was incredibly supportive of what I was trying to do with THE FRIDAY GIRL. I’m so excited for everyone to read it when it comes out. Current pub date is March 13th this year and I’ll update the site with more details when I have them…

A more personal update…

Something else happened during the writing of the book that helped to explain in part why it took me so long, and this was a more personal journey, but one I wanted to briefly acknowledge.

Many writers feel a little distanced from the world, and perhaps even like they’re looking at it askew. Its what helps us to create fiction or art or entertainment or whatever you want to call it. We take things that don’t or shouldn’t exist and we make them feel real. It takes a certain kind of distance and mind to do that, so of course we’re all a little odd. But I’d always felt that as comfortable as I have always been with stories, the real world is something different. Numbers have always confused me, deadlines are things that I knew existed and always met, yet it as always last second, with overnight bursts of sudden creativity or energy that would allow me to complete work and then have me lying around exhausted for days. Simple things (washing dishes!) always seemed to be impossible — no matter how hard I tried, they’d remain filthy! And these are the small things in life, but they exhausted me every time, and ran co-concurrently with a number of other issues I may talk about more one day.

While I was working — in my capacity of editor — on a series of YA books written by the incredible Chris Bonello (Check ’em out, the UNDERDOGS series), I found myself strognly relating to several of the characters. Now, if you don’t know the series, the UNDERDOGS books are about a group of neurodiverse (ADHD, autism and so forth) kids who have to band together as a military force to save the world. Its a brilliantly optimistic series, despite its refusal to pander to “happy” endings, but it also shows neurodiversity in a very honest light, with both the flaws and the benefits such brain wiring can bring. Now, I’m not daft enough, and never was, to say that “we’re all a little autistic on some level” because that’s a strange way of looking at things, but I did begin to wonder why I was identifying quite so strongly with some of the characters.

And, as it turns out, after talks with my doctor concerning panic attacks that have stretched all the back to my teenage years, and that we’ve never really been able to resolve, I actually have ADHD. But I was missed in the 80s and 90s, because back then it was seen as “the naughty kid’s” condition. And I wasn’t a naughty kid. But there were some questions I’d always had (especially surrounding my general clumsiness, inability with numbers, and ability to break almost anything by looking at it) that were soon answered by the diagnosis. And while I’m not diving into detail on this post, it also explained why I had stopped writing — my brain was too overloaded with everything else I was trying to do — or why some projects started strong and faded away (The Glasgow Noir at the bar that me and Jay Stringer set up, and that I soon ran out of time to even think about despite our very strong early shows). As I have always done, I was taking on too much at once because my brain thrived on trying new projects, but I wasn’t able to tell when too much was… well… too much.

I debated for a long time whether I would talk about this publicly, but I thought I would do so in order to highlight the fact that many people are or have been in a position such as myself, knowing something’s wrong but unable to specify what it is, even if they’re aware it seems to make their life more difficult than it should be. But getting a diagnosis can be scary. For a start, there’s this idea that maybe we’re somehow “making it up” or imagining something’s wrong; something that isn’t helped by certain newspapers with axes to grind claiming that there’s an “overdiagnosis” of neurodiverse conditions (when in fact, the rise in diagnoses is due to the fact that people whose symptoms would have been ignored are now being noticed). I also wanted to highlight how great my local health team have been despite some huge challenges. Waiting lists for assessment are long. I was put on the list in 2021, and only diagnosed in the latter half of this year. And that was relatively quick. If you go private, then the costs can be extortionate. Services such as the excellent Glasgow Adult ADHD Initiative are underfunded and understaffed because the priority on mental health is low, and this can lead to greater anxiety and worsening of symptoms for those who are undiagnosed. But at the same time, once you get through the team they are really excellent, and the waiting lists are the fault of this in local government who refuse to prioritise mental health services properly.

I’m not an expert in any of this, of course. Just someone with their own experiences. I’m still learning, but have been seeking out advice where I can, including ADHD UK’s pages, and ADD-itude Magazine (Not to be confused with a similarly titled magazine, of course!). But if you suspect you may be neurodiverse and undiagnosed and feel it is affecting your day to day life, please go and talk to your doctor. Ask for help. Don’t be afraid. It really can change your life.

Onwards (and how you can help with the new book!)

So I’m moving into 2025 with a better understanding of all this, and a hope I can balance everything better. I’m hoping that Black and White (and readers, too!) might want a sequel to THE FRIDAY GIRL, which I have started writing an outline for. But, dear reader, you can help with this, too… how, you ask? By going to your favourite bookstore, or online retailer and pre-ordering the book. Obviously places like Amazon (affiliate link) and Waterstones will let you do this online (follow the links!) but you can go to your local store or look up your preferred online retailer and do so there, too. The more people pre-order, the more publishers know that readers are interested… and the more I know that readers are interested, too. Because often authors worry whether they’re simply shouting into the void, and pre-orders can help allay that worry!

So with 2025, I hope this website becomes a little busier. I’ll be talking books, films, and all my usual nonsense, as well as posting updates about the book and any events or related activities. I may even have some updates about my script work, who knows?

But in the meantime, I hope, dear readers, that you have a brilliant New Year and may 2025 see you moving onwards and upwards!

Russel