China Belle (Brian May)

 

I’m fairly pleased with the work on my next e-book so far. I have a title, which includes the words ‘Another World’; of course, and have an idea for the cover. I would’ve liked it to have been a collaboration between me and different writers, but I haven’t found any who can produce anything right now. Thus I’ll continue alone in this venture – let’s see if anything else changes. It doesn’t bother me much at the moment – I still have ideas, which I hope can be realised in this series of stories.

At least there’ll hopefully be a story book for re-release of Brian’s second album – by necessity totally unofficial - although we don't know the release date yet, and I may find that my book has to come out later.  

Appropriate for the forthcoming Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), this weekend I’ve been working on a story for ‘China Belle’, who’s described as living in ‘Old Beijing’. As we’re entering the Year of the Tiger, an idea concerning this enters the story. I thought this may be one of the easier stories to compose, as I have first-hand experience of living in China (mainly 1981-2 and 2017-9), which I recount in my book, ‘Bohemia Place’.

However, I’ve had to do some research on pre-modern China, as I feel this era best fits the description in the song. There are very few vestiges of the old residential city of Bejing left, but you can still see what remains of the hutongs, those winding alleyways where there was always a lot of activity of many different kinds: shopping, refreshments and leisure.

I was intrigued about some information I found online concerning the status of prostitutes in high-class Shanghai brothels in 1917. I’ve transposed the story (but adapted, ie not lock, stock and barrel ) to Beijing, to fit the song. The idea in the song that she ‘ain’t love for sale’ fits perfectly. I was also intrigued by the ‘diamond on her finger’ and I’ve elaborated on the story around that idea. There’ll be a little twist at the end, which befits a short piece. At the same time, I shan’t keep to all the ideas in the song - there are too many. I've also had to rewrite the story from my original plan, so it isn't quite finished yet. 

 Also this week the CBBC programme featuring Brian’s acting debut as the ‘Godfather ofRock’ was aired. It struck me that there was a story within a story here, and I’m thinking that I could adapt it for ‘On My Way Up’. I can’t think of any other title on the album to which it could belong. The whole idea of the Odd Socks rings true: particularly now, as I’m a writer on Instagram – that makes me an Odd Sock more than a lot of other things, I should think!

Cyborg (Brian May): The Tell Tale Eye

 I admit that I haven't been sleeping that well lately - I've been waking up in the small hours and struggling to get back to sleep. However, it has been productive time in terms of ideas - and, as a result, I've completed my first fiction story for my 'Another World' collection - the one that connects with the track 'Cyborg'.

It's actually the idea of 'Cyborg' meeting an Edgar Allen Poe short story - to find out which one, you'll have to get hold of the E-book once it comes out! If you've read the title of this blog post, you should be able to work it out, though. 

It's very different from Brian's original idea behind the song, in which the narrator is a broken-up robot, apparently (according to an article I found online from 'Total Guitar', Dec 1998). But I do have a Cyborg who's full of self-doubt about the soundness of his judgement. I guess I'm showing that you can be physically enhanced and it can really sharpen at least one of your senses, but you're still never quite sure that you've read things right. 

The 'Total Guitar' article features a page about the track, mentioning the tapping technique that's used. This technique also featured on the 'News of the World' track, 'It's Late', which I mention in the 'Queen and Adam Lambert' section of my autobiographical book, 'Bohemia Place' (already published).

I know things won't fall into place immediately for a  fledgling writer. I mentioned in my last blog that recognition is something that I've rarely received in the past - but I still hope for it in the future, of course. I think the best thing I can do is to carry on writing. This will definitely support 'Bohemia Place'.

Another thing that I've done in this 'Cyborg' short story is incorporate a mention of the Instagram 'Bri artists', many of whom will feature in the forthcoming 'Another World' artwork book. Up to now, I've felt that I've been working on a different plane from the artists - they have their community, of which I can never be a part, of course. But couldn't my writing complement their work? I hope so - it's certainly something that I explore in this 'Cyborg' story. 

I'm really pleased with my progress with the 'Another World' stories, and I feel I've unlocked an area of writing that mightn't otherwise have been touched, although I've always intended to write in the fiction genre. The 'Another World' compilation, though, will be a mixture of non-fiction and fiction. 

In the meantime, I have over a couple of hundred followers on IG, for which I''m grateful. Others have thousands, but I guess it's down to the flawed nature of the platform - like Facebook, where I've never had an account. Quantities aren't a big deal at my age anyway. The important thing is that I continue to tell my truth. 

Another World (Brian May): 'On My Way Up'

I recently read a story about a letter written World War II that was delivered after 76 years. Its writer, who died a few years ago, was an American stationed in Germany at the time and had written to his mother back in the US. The letter was recently delivered to his widow (nobody knows the reason for the delay), who stated, “It’s like he came back to me, you know?”I've had a similar feeling about my mum since writing my autobiography, ‘Bohemia Place’, which I published as an E-book on Amazon at the end of last year.

Now I’m starting a new project to accompany the re-release of Brian's second album, ‘Another World’. The track I’ve chosen to start with is ‘On My Way Up’, What better song to start us off, to get energised, propelling ourselves into this New Year? A way to feel invigorated, and to ‘Januarise’ your life, if you like? The most important of our time frames is the present, of course, but January is named after the Roman god Janus, who looks both backwards - into the past - and forwards - into the future. There’s a problem with him, though: he appears to do both with equal weight. We can’t dwell on the past -  it’s finished. At the same time, though, it shouldn’t be forgotten: that’s also very damaging, hence the way I’ve remembered mum, preserving her in my book. Nevertheless, the present and the future are all we have some control over. So Janus’s forward-looking head should, in fact, be bigger. The future holds all the excitement of an empty page, just waiting to be written on. 

Let's look at the title of this song, 'On My Way Up'. We associate ‘up’ and ‘down’ with our moods. The latter is a synonym of ‘depressed’, whereas the former provides us with the word ‘upbeat’, implying the opposite. The up-down theme is something else that came up in ‘Bohemia Place’, when I recalled (my memory jogged by one of Brian’s Instagram posts) a quote I used to have on my wall when a teenager, which was in German, and translates as ‘The way into the valley always leads me back on to the summit’. This spawns the idea that the ‘way up’ is unlikely to be easy: it’s an ‘uphill struggle’, as we say.

Brian recently put out an appeal for artists to contribute to a book to accompany the re-release of  ‘Another World’. As a writer who’s working towards a book to go with this album too, I’m on my own. I never set out to be exclusive – but that’s just the way it is: everyone has their unique story to tell, choosing their own way to tell it, according to their talents. I’m alone here in my writing, but, like that mountaineer returning again and again to the summit, it’s a life-affirming thing for me - I’m not in a lonely place.

 I suppose that I’ve never needed recognition in order to write, although it would’ve been appreciated, of course. Back in the days when I wrote pieces for the Queen Fan Club magazine, I only remember one person complimenting me. If I dwelt on that, I’d simply give up. I suppose that I could at least say that I was ignored rather than criticised, whereas Queen themselves always had a great deal of negative press, especially at the beginning. Yet the musician plays to be heard, the artist paints to be seen, and the writer writes to be read. 

Just as I was about to start writing this blogpost, Brian posted on Instagram that Mazz Murray, (formerly ‘Killer Queen’ from the London ‘We Will Rock You’ show), had found a guitar outside Edgware tube station in London. First of all, I thought of the accounts from Brian’s old schoolfriend, Dave Dilloway, which I mentioned in 'Bohemia Place', that Brian had been very absent-minded while they were together in their schoolband, even leaving his beloved Red Special guitar around in places! Brian's post also made me think of an adaptation to the ‘six-word novel’ (attributed to Ernest Hemingway) - ‘Brian May: “Guitar found. Owner sought”'!

So now I’m embarking on another writing adventure – but at the same time promising that my stories will be longer than six words each!