MOONSHINE: A PREVIEW

Here is where I'm going to explain my upcoming book, Moonshine, and why I'm writing this very American novel set in the Deep South in 1960.

There's not going to be a preview of the novel's first paragraph in this blog post. I want to use this preview to explain why I, a very British man, am setting a novel in the United States. Well, first of all, I'm a huge hypocrite so I don't like when British authors write very American novels. It's custom to criticise him now but I didn't like how Neil Gaiman's multi-award-winning, acclaimed American Gods, which was very, very American, was written by this very British man, and how the first paragraph, describing a "don't-fuck-with-me tattoo" was clearly written by a very British man trying to hype himself up into being American.

While I don't like that book, I loathe Three Billboards by Martin McDonagh and how, multiple Americans have confirmed to me, it feels like an outsider criticising American culture. That's why this book is going to be a rarity, and while it might seem acceptable to criticize the Deep South, I don't want to be like Neil Young and his song "Southern Man" (which is actually a great song).