IT BEGAN WITH A BOY CALLED TOM
My first blog ever and I’m following Lizzie Lamb, Adrienne Vaughan and June Kearns!
Before I learnt to read, my youngest aunt loved to read to me, except when I asked to hear more of The Water Babies. Aunt Ede preferred fairy tales or any Beatrix Potter. I loved those too but I wanted to know what happened to Tom. All her life Aunt read only romance so what she probably hated most in The Water Babies was the ending:
“And of course Tom married Ellie!” My dear child, what a silly notion!
Despite most of it going over my head, I believe The Water Babies sowed the seeds of my yen to write fiction. As you can see I still have that book.
I’ve loved books forever, couldn’t wait to learn to read, and I wrote, letters, a sort of diary to my absent mother. As an only and adopted child, inherent loner and compulsive reader, I spent hours curled in a cavernous armchair, like most of my generation, immersed in Enid Blyton, Richmal Compton, the classics – Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Three Musketeers, Little Women – how those March girls got on my wick. I thought, one day I would like to write a book.
What sort of book?
As you can see from the picture of my recent paperback reads, I don’t favour any particular genre. On Kindle, since Christmas I’ve also read, Up Close by Henriette Gyland, Terry Tyler’s Dream On and the first two volumes of Peter May’s Lewis trilogy. None of these diverse books, in my opinion, are worthy of less than 5 stars, and I have just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. Set in the early 1980s, Eugenides shows not tells how, despite ‘deconstruction’, the novel today remains essentially the same as Austen’s. Like any of Jane’s, and many other ‘literary’ works, it’s about the nature of human love.
So what sort of book, when I finally came to write it, is Last Bite of the Cherry?
Dark romance, Lizzie says. My heroine, Monica says, “I don’t want to get married. Not ever. I want to live”. Also a quote from one of my Amazon reviewers – “The three interwoven love stories keep up a fast pace which made it very hard to put down.” And thanks to New Romantics 4 it’s out there being read.
And why the thistle, pleasant to look at yet prickly? Symbolic of Last Bite of the Cherry and my next novel, Twins of a Gazelle.
Are You Sitting Com-fort-ably?
One of my earliest memories, is sitting on my grandad’s knee in a thick cloud of pipe smoke, (aromatic, home-grown, probably illegal now!), listening to some mystical words on the Home Service: Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne and Dogger; easterly, veering south-easterly. Becoming cyclonic?
What was all that about? What did it mean? Didn’t matter.
Then, the wonderfully warm voice of Daphne Oxenford, who died last year: ‘Are you sitting comfortably? Then, I’ll begin.’
Ah, lovely. Listen with Mother. Or, grandfather, in my case.
More fond memories, of sitting under the kitchen table, hidden by fringing on the chenille tablecloth and listening to my mum, her sisters, my grandma – the rise and fall of their voices, the buzz of gossip. Knitting needles clicked, teaspoons clinked. A lot of laughter, some sniffing and tutting.
Even then, that ritual – the music and rhythm of words and voices – seemed so seductive.
At seven, an only child and living in my head, I became an avid reader, anything and everything – copying out pages and pages of Enid Blyton to see how she did it. (How did she do it!)
The habit of plucking out words from texts, started around then.
This is a small part of my ‘office’ at home. It’s a bit like a mouse’s nest – a mess of fluff and feathers, paper, pens, post-its. (My mind’s probably much the same.) On every wall, bits and bobs – phrases, poems, hints, tips, pics – from Ovid to Spike Milligan. They spur me on, slow me down, lift me up. I’m still collecting, just can’t stop it.
Who else remembers Shannon, Rockall, Viking, German Bight? Light icing! In South Utsirra? Magical, seductive. Don’t you think ?
And what was that song? Faraway places with strange-sounding names, calling, calling me. It’s why I wrote An Englishwoman’s Guide to the Cowboy!
ARE YOU MY SECRET AGENT?
Fantasising about my heart’s desire, you know gazing doe-eyed at people on trains, in restaurants, in fact everywhere, was becoming a habit. No, not searching for the love of my life you understand but for the other thing I so desperately needed…a literary agent!
It manifested itself in earnest at the airport. I was idly scanning rows of world-weary passengers, fiddling with clear plastic bags, when I noticed an attractive woman and found myself staring at her, and doing it again, wondering, just wondering. Read the rest of this entry
How To Make A Dream Come True
How long does it take before a dream comes true?
May All Your Dreams Come True
My dream began when I was seven years old, sitting on the back doorstep with a brand new notebook on my knees, overwhelmed by the need to fill it with words. Words which I had written and which reflected the stories and ideas crowding in my head, demanding to be shared with others. That is, anyone who would listen – friends, family, the dogs and my toys heard my little tales. When I was about ten I was given a Lilliput typewriter – and I took my first steps on the path to becoming a published writer.
What Shall I Write About?
I always dreamed of having a bedroom in a turret
Born in Scotland, my writing was influenced by the images that surrounded me: beautiful scenery, turreted castles and ancient legends passed down through the generations. Craic, shared with family members sitting around the coal fire talking about times gone by, built within me the love of engaging stories. I was also influenced by what I read: The Waverley Novels, classic children’s stories, what I saw in Saturday morning cinema and watched on tea-time television. I wrote about adventurous derring-do heroines who righted wrongs and made their mark in the world disguised as pageboys or princes ! [feminism was a distant dream in those days, readers!!] And then I started reading Jilly Cooper’s shorter novels Emily, Imogen, Prudence et al and the stage was set.
All the best heroes are Tall, Dark and Kilted
It was all a long way off from self publishing my first novel: TALL, DARK AND KILTED in November 2012. But the seeds sown on that cold doorstep were quick to germinate if slow to flower. Finally, my dream has come true – and I am now a published author and am working on my second rom com.
The longer version of this path to publication ?
Well, I tell you all about that another day.
New Romantics Press 