A Brief Extract from The War Zone: 20th Anniversary Edition

A brief extract from The War Zone: 20th Anniversary Edition, a newly updated (see two posts below) and revised edition now available from Amazon, Barnes&Noble.com, AuthorHouse and other booksellers:

"There is a moment which is so beautiful it makes everything else
worthwhile. You stand on the cliff above the village, early in the
morning or late in the evening, and you gaze out at the sea – a
huge, changing wash of light and movement, bigger than any of us,
a joker with a patience longer than any one life and an inconceivable
strength that can snap your back against the rocks as easily as you
might flick a fly off your nose.

I can feel how cold it is, even when it’s warm. Even when the water’s
not skimmed with a purple film of oil, and the pebbles and seaweed are
stewed in the sun, I can sense the ocean’s cold heart further out, out
by the skyline. Jessie’s tried to paint it, but she can’t get close. Either
the beauty is there or the darkness, but not both...

It’s not just the color, it’s the color of light, it’s the mood of the sky
and your own cross-wired soul. Down on the beach, it’s the druggy
thunder-hiss of the surf dragging at thousands of pebbles, as if the sea’s
in training for the greatest glue-sniffing contest on earth. Up here, with
a view of the sheep and the cottages and the coastline, there’s just the
image, no sound, and a faint tang of brine in the air, like a taunt or a
memory."

It’s more than a moment. It’s repeatable, though it’s never the same
twice. It’s where I go to stay sane down here, it’s where I go when I
miss London, when I want to work out what the fuck I’m doing with
my life."

(Image above from Tim Roth's film of The War Zone: the family on the beach)

Twitter Contest: Win a Signed Copy of The War Zone: 20th Anniversary Edition

My friend, fellow blogger and Twitter-ist, Merrel Davis, suggested an exclusive Twitter contest to commemorate the 20th Anniversary Edition of my novel, The War Zone, by offering a signed copy of the book to the person who provides the best answer, in three "tweets" or less, to the question:

“WHAT EXPERIENCE IN ADOLESCENCE MOST SHAPED YOUR LIFE OR WORK?”

To win, simply submit the best answer in three tweets or less to my Twitter account @AlexanderChow (just to confuse things, and for a degree of privacy sometimes, I am Alexander Chow on Twitter) by midnight PST Sunday August 23rd 2009. [Full Disclosure: Merrel is co-judging this Twitter contest. You can follow him at @UncompletedWork.]

Stay tuned for the second part of Merrel Davis' Stepping into The War Zone, where he reviews and compares The War Zone novel to Tim Roth's film of my book.

More iPhone Dawns

Just a spectacular, radiant dawn - the cosmos gives us a good reason to greet each day.

This and the photos below (including the full moon rising) were all taken with my iPhone, with no filters and no changes to the pictures afterward.

Dawn light through the trees - what a way to wake up!

Another radiant dawn. Note the planet to the top right of the picture (I think it's a planet and not a star, they are equally beautiful anyway).

A slightly blurry picture (best I could do with my iPhone) of the full moon rising. I watched this with Huddy after he had been swinging from our tree in the dark. The moon was spectacular.