Extract from The Weekenders by David F. Ross

When I was contacted about taking part in The Weekenders blog tour, I knew I wasn't in a position to read the latest from David F. Ross as my reading mojo is still very hit and miss but I still wanted to show my support for the author and his publisher. So today I have an extract which you can read below but first a little about the book. 

Glasgow, 1966: Stevie 'Minto' Milloy, former star footballer-turned-rookie reporter, finds himself trailing the story of a young Eastern European student whose body has been found on remote moorland outside the city. How did she get there from her hostel at the Sovereign Grace Mission, and why does Stevie find obstacles at every turn?

Italy, 1943: As the Allies fight Mussolini's troops, a group of young soldiers are separated from their platoon, and Glaswegian Jamesie Campbell, his newfound friend Michael McTavish at his side, finds himself free to make his own rules…

Glasgow, 1969: Courtroom sketch artist Donald 'Doodle' Malpas is shocked to discover that his new case involves the murder of a teenage Lithuanian girl he knows from the Sovereign Grace Mission. Why hasn't the girl's death been reported? And why is a young police constable suddenly so keen to join the mission?

No one seems willing to join the dots between the two cases, and how they link to Raskine House, the stately home in the Scottish countryside with a dark history and even darker present – the venue for the debauched parties held there by the rich and powerful of the city who call themselves 'The Weekenders'.

Extract from Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F. Ross

Today I'm hosting our final blog tour post of the year, an extract from Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F. Ross who I previously hosted in a debut spotlight feature back in 2015. 

Renowned photo-journalist Jude Montgomery arrives in Glasgow in 2014, in the wake of the failed Scottish independence referendum, and it’s clear that she’s searching for someone.

Is it Anna Mason, who will go on to lead the country as First Minister? Jamie Hewitt, guitarist from eighties one-hit wonders The Hyptones? Or is it Rabbit – Jude’s estranged foster sister, now a world-famous artist?

Three apparently unconnected people, who share a devastating secret, whose lives were forever changed by one traumatic night in Phoenix, forty years earlier…

Taking us back to a school shooting in her Texas hometown, and a 1980s road trip across the American West – to San Francisco and on to New York – Jude’s search ends in Glasgow, and a final, shocking event that only one person can fully explain…

4th June 1983: 

It is my birthday. Sweet sixteen. Delphine Toussaint, my mom, has allowed me to stay home from school. Larry is driving a car to Dallas for his boss. So Momma wants some company, I guess. She is in a good mood. Sober too. That will make it particularly memorable. We sit on the porch. We laugh about Gonzo chasing a rabbit. And Gonzo’s fat hairy ass getting jammed in a gap in Ed White’s fence. 

Aw Jeez, Jude, Ed wails. I’m gonna have to paint that again now! 

Debut Spotlight: David F. Ross

Under the debut spotlight today is Scottish author David F. Ross, the latest debut author to be signed by Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books.  His debut novel The Last Days of Disco is published next week as a paperback although the eBook is already available if you cannot wait to read.

David F. Ross was born in Glasgow in 1964 and has lived in Kilmarnock for over 30 years. He is a graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art, an architect by day, and a hilarious social media commentator, author and enabler by night. His most prized possession is a signed Joe Strummer LP.

Early in the decade that taste forgot, Fat Franny Duncan is on top of the world. He is the undoubted King of the Ayrshire Mobile Disco scene, controlling and ruling the competition with an iron fist. From birthdays to barn dances, Franny is the man to call. He has even played 'My Boy Lollipop' at a funeral and got away with it. But the future is uncertain. A new partnership is coming and is threatening to destroy the big man's Empire ...Bobby Cassidy and Joey Miller have been best mates since primary school. Joey is an idealist; Bobby just wants to get laid and avoid following his brother Gary to the Falklands. A partnership in their new mobile disco venture seems like the best way for Bobby to do both at the same time. With compensation from an accident at work, Bobby's dad Harry invests in the fledgling business. His marriage to Ethel is coming apart at the seams and the disco has given him something to focus on. Tragic news from the other side of the world brings all three strands together in a way that no one could have predicted. 

The Last Days of Disco is a eulogy to the beauty and power of the 45rpm vinyl record and the small but significant part it played in a small town Ayrshire community in 1982. 

Witty, energetic and entirely authentic, it's also heartbreakingly honest, weaving tragedy together with comedy with uncanny and unsettling elegance. A simply stunning debut.

How long did it take you to write The Last Days of Disco?
That's not as straightforward a question as it might appear. I wrote the bulk of the first draft in around 12 months during 2011. During that year, I was travelling a lot with work to China and the Middle East. Writing just became a good way to fill some of the time on planes, or when the jet-lag kept me awake in the hotels during the nights. When I finished the manuscript I published it myself, and it gained some positive comments from people who have downloaded it. During 2014, I began communicating with Arcadia Books through Twitter - not initially realising it was Karen Sullivan I was 'talking' to - and when she started supporting a wee collaborative writing thing I was doing, I thought I'd chance my arm and ask her to look at the manuscript, which she kindly did. She liked it, and for the past 8 months we've been refining and polishing it into the version that you've just read.