About the Book
Title: Painting By Numbers
Author: Tom Gillespie
Publication: Crooked Cat Publishing (September 2012)
Summary: A dark, surreal thriller that follows one man’s relentless pursuit into an old truth buried deep within.
What I Think
Jacob Boyce visits a 17th century allegorical painting every single day in a Glaswegian gallery hoping, with meticulous measurements and careful observation, to unlock its secrets. One day he is convinced that an object in the painting has moved. Giving up his career and neglecting his wife, he is determined to get to the bottom of this ancient mystery.
"You can live in denial as long as you please, Monsieur Boyce, but the truth is that fakery and lies are at the heart of all things."
Gillespie weaves a complicated plot of lies, deceit, art and intrigue which takes us on a mad pursuit from Glasgow to Spain. We follow Jacob on this hunt for answers: what is the secret behind the painting? where is his wife Ella? who is the mysterious Jude? And all the time never quite knowing if he is sane, starting to lose the plot or a complete idiot.
Detailed, clever and clearly well-researched, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book. And whatever you do, don't think you know what's coming next, because you'll never guess!
About the Author
Tom Gillespie grew up in a small town just outside Glasgow. After completing a Masters in English at Glasgow University, he spent the next ten years pursuing a musical career as a singer/songwriter, playing, recording and touring the UK and Europe with his band. He now lives in Bath with his wife, daughter and hyper-neurotic cat, where he works at the University as an academic English lecturer.
Tom writes long and short fiction. A number of his stories are published by www.eastoftheweb.com. He is also a regular contributor to fridayflash.org.
He is currently working on a second novel and a collection of short stories.
His critically acclaimed, debut novel Painting by Numbers, a dark, psychological drama that explores the surreal complexities of the human mind, has been selected as FINALIST for The People’s Book Prize.
On May 4th 2012 I embarked on an adventure. A flash fiction adventure: to write one piece of flash fiction a day. For those of you who don't know what flash fiction is, it's fiction that is short, usually between 100 and 1,000 words. Anything shorter is micro fiction and anything longer is a short story.
I stumbled across this idea through Calum Kerr's blog. He wrote and published a piece of flash fiction daily. He is also the Director of National Flash Fiction Day, something which he launched with great success last year. This year's National Flash Fiction Day is to be held on 22nd June.
Back to my adventure. I quickly cut down to one piece a day Monday to Friday (as I have very busy and long teaching days on Saturday and Sunday) and I skipped a few days too whilst on holiday. However, on other days I wrote two, three or four pieces. In total I wrote 260 pieces. Each week I picked one to publish on my blog and so Friday Flash Fiction was launched. During the year I published 44 pieces on my blog. I would like to thank everyone for all the comments - I don't think I would've been quite so happy to continue without that level of support.
Because this form is so short, it's easy to experiment and I've tried various different things: 1st, 2nd, 3rd person perspective; male and female voices; different genres; the list is (almost) endless. Writing so often has taught me a lot about my writing, and I feel that I'm starting to develop a style.
So, what does this mean for the future of my writing? I'm certainly not going to stop writing flash fiction. I have found a great group of supportive flash fiction writers on Friday Flash. I'm still writing Flash Fortnightly for Artipeeps (and have no intention of stopping that!) and May is taken care of with A.M. Harte's #flashsense challenge: to write about difference senses. And after that? I'm hoping to start writing some longer pieces again and maybe finish that book I started 18 months ago!
