What's in a Name

It feels like a long time since I last posted here, although it's only just over a week. Actually, a lot has happened since then, including on the blogging front, but just not here. Let me explain.

My Lucy Hall series launches soon, with the first book, Journey to Death, published on 9th February. That means there has been promotional activity, including writing some guest blog posts. So far in the last ten days I've written five, three for my PR team in the US, and two for the UK. So I've not really had time - or ideas - to write about here. 

Being invited to write posts for other people's blogs is flattering but it's not as relaxing as writing here. I like to do a little research and get a flavour of the other blog, if I don't already know it. Often the topic they invite me to write about takes needs thinking and planning. It all takes time. 

And then there's the next Geraldine Steel which I was hoping to finish before I receive the edits for the second Lucy Hall. The WIP is progressing slowly. More a PIP* than a WIP. All the activity surrounding the launch of my new series is distracting. I am very excited about the launch, but also concerned.  

Where my police procedurals begin with a murder, the drama in my new book builds slowly. It may be too slow for some of my existing fans. Was it a mistake to publish Journey to Death under the same name as I used for my other series? Some reviews are already expressing disappointment that Lucy Hall is not like Geraldine Steel. If I had published my new series under a different name, it would have avoided such comparisons. 

At the time, it never really occurred to me to use a different name just because I was trying something new. It seems a little disingenuous to pretend to be someone else. After all, it is still me writing the Lucy Hall books. Yet other authors write under different names, and I do understand why. As Evelyn Waugh, among others, wrote:  'Comparisons are odious'. 

I like to trust that people will read Journey to Death with an open mind. But perhaps, in being open about my identity, I am inviting comparisons between my protagonists.  

Journey to Death is published on 9th February. Wish Lucy Hall good luck! 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Journey-Death-Lucy-Hall-Mystery-ebook/dp/B014KVMWQ4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

*Procrastination in Progress

Thoughts on writing

Recently I came across an author's response to an Amazon review and I have to admit to feeling saddened by the exchange. I have removed names as this is not a personal attack, but a general comment about the use or abuse of our language. 

Here is the review: 

"This isn't a bad story but, like so many books, it is spoiled by a poor understanding of the English language. He was sat should be he was sitting, he was stood should be he was standing. Towards the end this seems to have been corrected so why let it spoil the first three quarters?

Also, every time the word 'yet' appears it is preceded by 'in' which makes no sense.

Possessive nouns and pronouns have no apostrophes and the awful word 'gotten' is used.

Hyphens keep popping up for no apparent reason!

If you can ignore the mis-use of the English language, the book is worth a read though a little slow."

And the author's response: 

"Authors these days are told not to use too many words ending with 'ing'. Such grammatical language alters through the years, but this is something which is frowned upon by editors and publishers, and has been for at least the past five years, so it is abided by at all times. I'm also a little worried having read your reviews, that you are mentioning the same things in each of them. 'The author wrote sat and used the word gotten' is written in all of your reviews on Amazon. These words are acceptable in UK English."

Who is told "not to use too many words ending with 'ing'."? If a writer overuses the continuous tense in her verbs, or peppers her work with gerunds, clearly that is poor style. Any tedious form of repetition may spoil prose. But if a writer needs to be told this, perhaps she should spend a few years reading others who do know how to write, before rushing to self-publish her own work while she still lacks a rudimentary understanding of language? 

It is true that the rules of grammar are constantly changing, but do editors and publishers frown upon the overuse of "words ending with 'ing' " any more than any other poor use of language? I don't think so - and what does "it is abided by at all times" even mean? I certainly don't abide by these dubious ideas about what is "acceptable in UK English".

The author is entitled to criticise her reviewer for repeated complaints about constructions like "He was sat" but perhaps this is a case of choosing your battles carefully. 

"He was sat" is incorrect, and in my view is not "acceptable" from someone who claims to be a writer. 

At the risk of being brought to task for repeating myself, I do think that if you want to publish or, in this instance, self-publish, your work, you have a duty to at least try to write well. For a fellow author to employ such clumsy and inaccurate constructions as "he was sat" and "he was stood" is shoddy. But to then defend such prose as "acceptable in UK English" is shocking. Acceptable to whom? Not to me, nor to several irritated reviewers of her book.  

Several very poorly edited books have famously become blockbusters. We can all probably name at least two. So should we blame writers for throwing their work out and hoping for the best? Am I an idiot to devote so much of my life to agonising over my choice of words, and my sentence structures? Does it really matter? Am I just an old-fashioned pedant to care about the quality of my published prose?

What do you think? 

Links to all my books can be found on my website http://leighrussell.co.uk 

Blogging

I wrote somewhere, rather pompously, that if you call yourself a writer you have a duty to at least try to write well. In my books I do my best to express myself clearly in correct English. This takes hard work because, as Robert Louis Stevenson said, 'The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean.' 

Many authors, some of them very successful, seem to pay scant attention to the quality of their prose, which I think is a pity. Others, like Ian McEwan or Kazuo Ishiguru, express themselves so lucidly that it is a pleasure to read their books just for the beauty of the language. 

In my own way I'm a bit of a pedant, and quite old-fashioned. For example, I try not to including contractions in my work, although there is no good reason why a writer of commercial crime fiction should avoid them. There may even be an argument in favour of using them, as 'don't' and 'can't' speed up the pace, where 'do not' and 'cannot' maybe slow it down. I suppose decades of teaching teenagers how to write 'properly', in correct, formal English, has left its mark on my writing. 

But writing for a blog is different - especially when it is a post for my own personal blog. Here, I am  free to use excessive punctuation, for example!! (Would I ever use double exclamation marks in a book??? Of course not!!!) What might look inappropriate in a novel to my blinkered eyes, seems perfectly acceptable here. 

Of course blogs are not solely outlets for trivia. Many bloggers analyse, critique and comment on important issues in culture and current affairs. A blog can be whatever the writer chooses to make it, and we are fortunate to live in a period where blogs are so many and so varied.

In his droll and whimsical novel, Tristram Shandy, the eighteenth century writer Laurence Sterne set out to break all the contemporary rules of fiction, in an ingenious parody of the rather self-consciously worthy novels of the time. I think Sterne would have relished the liberty of a blog.

http://leighrussell.co.uk

Authors at Literary Festivals

Forgive me if the following post is controversial or sounds in any way smug, in an "I'm all right so what's all the fuss about" way. But I don't understand the problem with authors being offered peanuts, or in some cases nothing at all, for appearing at literary festivals. If it's such a problem, the solution is perfectly simple. Don't go. No author is forced to attend a literary festival. If the festival is not offering a fee, you are under no obligation to accept. Not many books are sold at festivals, unless you are already a big name already selling millions elsewhere, in which case the number you will sign at the festival is going to be insignificant.

Publishers may be prepared to pay for their authors' travel and accommodation, but this is a financial consideration and will understandably depend on how well the individual author's books are selling. Your publisher will obviously be happy to cover these expenses if the amount is insignificant compared to the revenue they derive from your books. Otherwise, it would be unreasonable to expect them to pay. (I hope my publisher never feels the need to remind me I said that... )

  

To claim that authors depend on income from such appearances is a contradiction in terms. Fortunate enough to earn a living from writing fiction, these days I call myself a 'full-time writer'. Before I could afford to give up my day job, I called myself a teacher who wrote books. If you rely on teaching or public appearances to pay your bills, you are a teacher, or a public speaker, who writes books. You are not a full-time writer. I do appreciate the terrible irony of the situation. When you earn enough from your writing to easily fund trips to festivals yourself, someone else will pay for you to be there. While you are struggling with the finances, you are on your own. 

It seems to me that authors benefit hugely from literary festivals. That is why many writers attend even if they are not participating on panels, or giving interviews. Apart from the opportunity to catch up with fellow authors, network with industry professionals, and meet readers, festivals are interesting and enjoyable. And if you are contributing, not only is it fun, but you have the added bonus of seeing your name in the programme, which is free promotion to a target audience. 

I happen to think literary festivals are an important cultural phenomenon, allowing us to meet our readers face to face, in a world where so much of our life is acted out online. If you don't buy into the ethos of literary festivals, stay at home and spend the time writing. Vote with your feet, and stop bleating. 

http://leighrussell.co.uk

Life as a full-time writer

I suspect there are many aspiring writers who would love to be in my position, earning a living from writing fiction, with a series in development for television, travelling to exotic locations for research... it sounds wonderful. And, to be fair, for the most part it is a fabulous life. I've been very lucky.

Of course being a published author involves a great deal of hard work and can involve staying up far too late writing. I am permanently tired. Eugene Ionesco was absolutely right when he wrote, 'A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of writing or thinking about writing.' When we took a city break in Barcelona, I dragged my poor husband to three different police stations, in case I ever needed to include one in a book. In fact, since I began writing crime fiction, I haven't travelled anywhere without doing some research along the way. As a writer, you become a kind of gannet, storing away any snippets of information you come across. You never know when they might be useful. Research is one of the reasons I find my career so interesting. Some of my research has given me wonderful experiences, like my recent visit to the Seychelles, some has been quite horrific, but it has all been fascinating. 

So how can there be a downside to all this excitement? Well, here I am again, waiting for my next book to be published. So what's the big deal? you might ask. I've been in this position before, many times. It's just another book, you might think. But it's so much more than that, because once again I'm sticking my head above the parapet, hoping I won't be shot down. 

Whenever a new book comes out, I'm worried about how it will be received. I think every author feels the same. When you are writing a book it belongs to you, and you can do what you like with it. Once it's published, it is no longer the property of the author. It belongs to readers who can say whatever they like about it... and they may not like it. So far I've been lucky. I've had my fair share of positive reviews. But although Journey to Death will be my twelfth published book, it is my very first in a new series for a new publisher. As if that isn't enough to make me nervous, I'm aware that this new series differs from my existing Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson detective series. 

Unlike Geraldine and Ian, my new protagonist, Lucy Hall, is not a police officer. Another difference is that she is in her early twenties at the start of the series. As happens every time I have a new book, I find myself wondering what on earth I'm doing. While I can't claim to be a 'big name', my books are quite well known in the field of crime fiction. Sometimes I wish I was completely unknown, and could just write for myself without worrying about how my next book would be received. But here I am, and as President Truman liked to say, 'If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.' 

So here goes again. I shall gird my loins, pluck up my courage, and face the world smiling, if not fearless. Wish me luck! And if you're just starting out as a writer, don't stress about your future success. Enjoy your early anonymity as well as the success that may be waiting just around the corner. Whatever happens, you're going to have an exciting experience!

Links to all my books are on http://leighrussell.co.uk 

and here's the link to Journey to Death on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Journey-Death-Lucy-Hall-Mystery/dp/1503951928/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

How did I get here?

After the usual email discussion between my publisher, publicist, designer, agent, and key booksellers, we have finally agreed on the cover for Murder Ring, the eighth Geraldine Steel title. Here it is.

I can hardly believe this is my eleventh published book since Cut Short came out in 2009. By the end of 2016, the number of my published books will go up to thirteen... and these numbers don't include the different editions, large print books, all the titles published in translation... Adding them all together, there are over fifty different covers so far... I have a copy of each of them, together with proof copies of the U.K. editions. I used to look at my collection sometimes, when I was having an insecure writing day, trying to reassure myself that I really can write.

To be honest, these days I am usually so busy writing, editing, and running around on research trips and book tours, that I don't have time to step back and look at how far I have travelled as a writer. I'm not talking about my physical travels, although that has been quite unbelievable too, when I stop to think about it. My research has taken me all over the world, from Margate in the South of England, to Scarborough in the North, and further afield to Paris, Greece, Rome and the Seychelles. 

What I find difficult to believe is that from scribbling down a story that randomly occurred to me, I have become what used to be called a 'mid list author' - half way between the top bestselling authors and those who only scrape a living from writing. I am now a full-time author, living (quite comfortably) off the proceeds. Not that I am complacent. So far so good is all I can say. Sales seem to be going well, but every day is a different story. Which, I suppose, is appropriate for a fiction writer... but I'm not sure how I ended up in this thrilling precarious career. 

Murder Ring is available for preorder on Amazon. The Ebook is published in November. The paperback is published in 2016.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Ring-Geraldine-Steel-Mystery-ebook/dp/B016IEWZIG/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1446110131&sr=1-1

The Benefits of Research

In Transit...

Isn't life strange? Nothing less than National Crime Reading Month could have prompted me to respond to a request for "500 words on any topic of interest" while waiting at one forty a.m. for a seven hour connecting flight to London, having just completed a four hour flight to Abu Dhabi. Yes, writing fiction has taken me into some unexpected places to research my books. 

A lot of my research has involved talking to CID officers as my psychological crime novels also fall into the category of police procedurals, since my protagonists Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson are detective inspectors. I've spent hours chatting to staff in mortuaries, visiting Metropolitan Police Serious Crime Command, sitting alone in a prison cell (voluntarily!) and passing an exciting afternoon with a Fire Investigation Team (yes, an entire afternoon, just me and a team of firemen!) 

All authors follow their own processes but, for me, research follows the plot. I tell a story, aware that certain areas need research. Having completed the manuscript in draft, only when the story is in place do I fill in externally verifiable information. For me, the danger of conducting research before seeing the narrative through is the risk of being distracted. It is all too easy to inadvertently shoehorn material extraneous to the story into a book, just because the writer finds it interesting. 

Herman Melville did exactly that, including pages of detailed information about whales in his famous novel, Moby Dick. These information dumps would have a place in Wikipedia. For any reader following the dramatic conflict between Ahab, demented captain of a whaling ship, and his nemesis, the great white whale that took his leg, the factual chapters are tedious. 

My research involves meeting people from all walks of life, in all sorts of places: market traders, forensic anthropologists, race course managers, psychiatrists, prisoners in a closed prison, the Spanish equivalent of our CID in Barcelona, the British High Commission in the Seychelles - there is no place on earth where a crime writer might not find herself.

Not all my research has been fun. Watching a sheep's eye being dissected was hardly enjoyable, although it was interesting. My worst research experience so far involved live maggots. I haven't put that in a book yet. It was so gross I prefer not to dwell on it, even in my imagination. 

 

Recently a new series has led me to overseas locations. I'm writing this on my way home from two weeks' research on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. Along with the beaches and the cocktails at sunset, I spent time at a local police station and the police headquarters in the capital - again voluntarily! - as well as checking out different settings in the book. After a few weeks at home, working on edits, I'm off again to Paris in July, Greece in August, and Rome in September...  

Just time to send this off before I have to switch to airplane mode.  It's two a.m. in Abu Dhabi, and the flight to Heathrow is boarding...

What if...

A question commonly posed to authors is: ‘How do you start writing a novel?’ This is often followed by questions such as: 'Where do you find your inspiration?' and 'How do you develop your characters?' These are questions I am frequently asked. With eight books out in the shops and the ninth one out this May, the source for my ideas hasn't changed. It can be expressed in two short words:  ‘What if?’

Although my narratives are flights of fancy, I present scenarios that could conceivably happen to anyone. What if your flatmate was a serial killer? What if your boss liked to commit murder in his or her spare time? I think the more credible a story is, the more frightening it becomes, so I make my narratives as authentic as possible, while doing my best to maintain the suspense readers expect from the crime genre. This is why I try to keep the police procedure in my books reasonably accurate. My fans in the police force are very forgiving, allowing fiction a little dramatic licence where the story demands it. So my Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel spends less time behind a desk working on budgets and expenses claims than might happen in real life, and more time viewing crime scenes and chasing after criminals.

Killer Plan opens with one of these ‘what if’ scenarios - a seemingly innocuous meeting. Caroline is sitting on a bench in the park watching her young sons play football. Her husband is at home, preparing to mow the grass. It's a quiet scene of everyday life… until Caroline inadvertently invites another character to tear her world apart.

Have you ever unknowingly met a killer in the park…?

Judging Writing Competitions

Helen M Hunt interviewed me recently about the process of judging short story competitions. 

Tell us about the short story competition you are judging at the moment. How many entries have you had to read, and how did you find the process?

I am currently judging the 2014 Bedford Short Story competition. There were several hundred submissions, but I am not reading them all. A panel of readers chose a short list of ten entries from which I will select a winner. This is not the first short story competition I have been invited to judge. The process is always interesting, because I get to read some brilliant stories! 

For the CWA Debut Dagger Competition, I sit on a panel of judges. We read a shortlist of around a dozen entries chosen from hundreds of submissions by a large panel of readers. Last year's judges were two senior editors from major publishing houses, a leading literary agent, an independent publisher, along with myself as a bestselling author. We compared our opinions over lunch and reached a consensus. The discussion was fascinating, as we approached the reading from different viewpoints.

What appeals to you about the stories you think are worthy of winning, or being short listed? What sort of things are you looking for?

First of all, the writing has to communicate clearly, and have an impact right from the start. That is a prerequisite for consideration. After that, there has to be a hook. This could be an intriguing plot premise, an engaging character, or the lucidity of the prose. Any of these could draw me in and make me want to read on.

Is there anything that really turns you off a story? What should people avoid doing?

As with any reading experience, if the writing is confused, repetitive or poorly expressed, that would put me off. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you have to communicate well and engage your readers. Avoid cliches in your style, and stereotypes in characters. Plots should not stretch the reader's credulity too far, but nor should they be too predictable. It is a fine balance, and not easy to achieve.

Do you feel you can tell in the first few paragraphs whether a story will be any good?

Yes.

What would your main advice be to people entering writing competitions, either for short stories, or any other sort of writing?

Enjoy the writing process for its own sake. If you don't love it, find something else to do. It's great to win a competition, better to be published, and even better to earn a comfortable living from writing fiction, but best of all is the experience of writing itself. 

Have you ever entered any writing competitions yourself, or would you want to?

I have not entered any writing competitions, although my publisher did ask me to write a short story for him to submit to a competition. We are waiting to hear how my story did. Since I am used to writing novels, I found the short story a challenge!

On being a Late Bloomer

I've never discussed bloomers online before, but I suppose there's a first time for everything. An article in praise of 'late bloomers' set me thinking, being a 'late bloomer' myself. Here's the link http://flavorwire.com/497311/in-praise-of-late-bloomers

Our age is obsessed with the concept of age. Just about everyone in the public eye seems determined to resist or conceal the ageing process. Why? What are a few wrinkles weighed against life experience, maturity and the understanding that hopefully accompanies 'old age'. 

Shakespeare wrote of 'that which should accompany old age' which he described as 'honour, love, obedience, troops of friends'. Instead, our society regards the elderly with disgust and derision. Our young people show an unprecedented lack of deference or respect to their elders, and we are all expected to emulate youth. It is part of a wider issue. We no longer want to use obsolete technology. Youngsters insist on having the latest model of everything. Kids using last year's phone are ridiculed. Who ever tries to get a broken toaster fixed any more? Chuck it out and replace it. As Neil LaBute wrote, 'We live in a disposable society. It's easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name - we call it recycling.' And of course he goes on to say that we apply the same principle to our relationships. As soon as they stop 'working' for us, we quit. Separation, estrangement, divorce... what has happened to loyalty and commitment, seeing things through 'for better or worse'?

Because there always will be 'worse', along with the 'better'. Yes, it's better to be young and fit and healthy than old and physically weak. It's better for us as individuals, but why do we judge others for ageing? Because we do. Why does it matter? Why do we all have to meet some image of youthful perfection? Our teeth must be perfectly straight. Our hair can't go grey. We must strive to be popular and rich. What's wrong with crooked teeth? What's wrong with being shy? Why is it despicable to be ugly? Who makes up these rules and decides whose face is ugly anyway? 

I couldn't have written my books when I was younger. I hadn't lived enough or read enough. We all come to writing at different times in our lives. It doesn't matter. Unlike almost everything else in life, creative endeavour in any artistic field is a great leveller. When we read a book, we often don't know anything about the writer. We might gain an impression from the prose, but we could be wrong. It doesn't matter. When we write a book for others to read, or read a book someone else has written, we are human beings engaged in significant communication. That is all. And that is everything. 

I would have been proud to be a 'wunderkind', publishing great books before the age of 25, but I'm equally proud to be a 'late bloomer.' Age is immaterial. How we live, and what we do with our time is what counts. 

How to Sell Books

The buzz word for authors these days is 'discoverability.' After all, what is the point of  publishing your book if no one reads it? And how is anyone going to read your book if they don't know about it?
This may be less pressing with ebooks which don't incur all the production and distribution costs of physical books. Whatever form the books take, it must be possible to cut corners for writers on a tight budget, determined to see their work published. But publishing any book still costs money, time and effort. Someone has to do the work, and put in the hours.
Whatever their expenses, self-published authors don't want to be exploited. Yet a shocking 98% of self-published authors fail to even cover their costs. It seems that making money out of aspiring authors is a mega-industry these days. Someone is making money, and it's certainly not the authors.
Regardless of whether they are traditionally published or self-published, all authors want readers, whether because they provide them with an income, or for personal satisfaction. In order to survive, books ('products') need readers ('customers'). In this respect publishing is the same as any other business. Publisher and author enter into a symbiotic relationship. Successful books benefit everyone involved in their production: agent, publisher, production team, technical team, editor, proof readers, sales team, distributor, publicists, translators, bookseller, reader... it's a long list, right down to the modest author who kick starts the whole process.
What can authors do to find readers? That is the big question. Whether we like it or not, the stereotype of the author as remote and isolated in an ivory tower is largely defunct. Most authors nowadays accept that speaking at literary festivals and signing in Bookshops is part of the job.
But the best marketing comes from readers. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool, and it's one that is impossible to control, except by writing books that readers want to read and recommend to their friends.
So the author's job is still to write the best book they can. Some things never change.

Writing a Spin Off Series

In all my interviews and posts about writing a spin off series, I never considered the possibility of confusing my two crime series. Geraldine Steel is a DI on the Met in London, while her former sergeant, Ian Peterson, is now a DI working in York. Clear enough?
Today I sat down to type the next chapter of the third book in the Ian Peterson series.
Let me give you the context. I'll try not to confuse you. I completed the seventh Geraldine Steel book, Killer Plan, before starting on the third Ian Peterson. That manuscript was interrupted for about a month while I was away at a literary festival in France, and then dealing with the edits for Killer Plan.
It's probably the case for most authors, that when I'm writing a book the narrative lodges inside my head like a giant coiled up worm that has to be unwound and released. Once a story is inside my head, it occupies my thoughts until I've written it out. Half way through the third Ian Peterson story, I had to abandon it temporarily and it went out of my head. My internal 'reality' changed.
Are you still with me?
So today I returned to the third book in the Ian Peterson series. The chapter I was working on opened with the local profiler. Chancing to check on another character in my 'Character Notes' document, I realised that I had introduced the wrong profiler into the Ian Peterson story! Instead of Ian's sympathetic clever male profiler from York, the rather irritating female London profiler from the Geraldine series was there discussing Ian's case with him in York.
Of course I would have realised, and my Editor would certainly have noticed, so there's no way that could have slipped through the net to publication. Even so... I'm going to have to watch out! Writing a spin off series has more potential pitfalls than I realised...      

Living the Dream - Life as a Bestselling Author

After writing for six years, I find myself in the enviable position of earning a very decent living from writing fiction. Recently I took the plunge and gave up my day job as a school teacher. After all, if a crime author can't bite the bullet, what hope is there for any writer? So here I am at last, living the dream. I can finally call myself a full-time writer. And this is the point where I am beginning to realise that, in my case at least, 'full-time writer' is a bit of a misnomer. You might expect that I would have a lot more time to devote to my writing, now that I'm writing full-time. That was certainly my expectation when I gave up the day job. The reality is somewhat different...
It's hard to credit, but now that I no longer have the day job, I'm actually struggling to maintain my output. I hesitate to admit that I'm actually doing less writing now than when I was working. (Although I now earn my living from writing, I still can't think of writing as work.)  'Writers' block,' you mutter knowingly, 'that's why she's struggling to write so much.' You couldn't be more wrong.
The problem that keeps me from writing is that I'm just too busy. Take my visit to York in October. I'm going there to research the area for the Ian Peterson series which is set in York. Of the twelve days I'll be be in the area, I actually have two days free for my research. The rest of the visit is taken up with seven bookshop visits, two library talks, and one U3A talk, and then there's likely to be a radio interview and an interview with a local paper - and I still need to fit in a  talk to students at a local college. And so it goes on... I'm going to struggle to fit in all my research. Writing won't get a look in.
Look at my summer. July was occupied with a research trip for a week, followed by a crime festival which took up nearly another week. apart from two book signings, two author talks, and six meetings. In August I spent two weeks teaching at the Writers Lab in Greece, followed by a week at a Literary Festival in France, with a signing and a meeting thrown in between my travels. And so it goes on, meetings, book signings, author talks and workshops, one after another, with seemingly no let up.
It's all great fun, but I do sometimes look back at the days when all I did was work full-time in a normal job, and write books. Life was so much simpler then, and, dare I say it, not quite such hard work.

A Solitary Pursuit?

It's a familiar cliche to say that the life of an author is a solitary one, stuck behind a desk typing. But what about those of us who struggle to find a quiet spot in which to write? Not everyone enjoys the luxury of an empty house - or even a private study.
My husband helpfully remarked recently that we have a decent sized garden shed, large enough to house a table and chair. By dint of pushing the garden tools right up against the wall, stacking spare plastic chairs in one precarious pile, and engaging in a battle with the lawnmower, it could be done. The shed even boasts the benefit of a small skylight to admit natural daylight. With the faint glow of my screen, that could be workable. But I'm not sure I fancy spending hours with spiders and garden sheers, especially as I have just (ficititiously!) battered a poor man to death in his garden shed. I should add that this scene was written BEFORE my husband's suggestion!
I do have a very nice desk in the house, complete with comfortable chair, and bookshelves spacious enough to house a copy of every edition of all my books, including all the editions in translation, and more in hardback and large print... Now I come to think of it with two books coming out a year from now on, I'll soon be needing more bookshelves.
   The trouble with my very nice desk in my quiet study is that with three other people living in the house, all under strict instructions not to disturb me when I'm writing, there is usually someone bringing me a cup of tea, and then of course they stop for a chat.
The easy alternative is to go out to a local cafe - but then I'm often accosted by a local friend and yes, they stop for a chat.
And when I am left to my own devices, there are my friends and contacts online: facebook, twitter, and my blog.
So I guess it's me... It's a wonder I get any writing done at all!

Competition in the 21st Century

Margaret Sarlej, at the University of New South Wales, has devised a programme that enables computers to generate simple stories. In a statement that may cause some concern to authors, she claims "computers will be making interesting and meaningful contributions to literature within the decade", although she does go on to admit that "it's pretty unlikely a computer will ever produce works like War and Peace."

For those of you who are interested in what, to some, raises a dystopian view of the future, here is an example of one such story, 'written' by a computer.

Once upon a time there lived a dragon, a fairy and a princess. The dragon hated the fairy. 
One summer's morning the dragon gave the treasure to the princess. As a result, the princess had the treasure. The princess felt joy that she had the treasure. The princess felt gratitude towards the dragon about giving the treasure to her because she had the treasure. The fairy and the princess started to love the dragon. 
A short time later the princess killed the fairy. As a result, the fairy was dead. The dragon felt joy that the fairy was dead. The dragon felt gratitude towards the princess about killing the fairy because the fairy was dead.  

Yes, it's pretty silly. But substitute king for dragon, and wicked queen for fairy, and it starts to make sense.

Once upon a time there lived a king, a wicked queen and a princess. The king hated the wicked queen. One summer's morning the king gave the treasure to the princess. As a result, the princess had the treasure. The princess felt joy that she had the treasure. The princess felt gratitude towards the king because she had the treasure. The wicked queen and the princess started to love the king. 
A short time later the princess killed the wicked queen. The king felt joy that the wicked queen was dead. The king felt gratitude towards the princess about killing the wicked queen.

A child of seven could write that. Give the child ten years and they would be writing something rather more sophisticated. They wouldn't come up with anything quite War and Peace, perhaps, but would be writing a decent story within the decade. Just like a computer, in fact.

There's Nothing New

After all the discussion here about how it seems that everyone wants to write a book, I discover this is nothing new...

                Serious post again tomorrow.

The Death of the Novel?

First as reader, now as author, all my life I have  have been permanently engrossed in at least one book.  Like many people, fiction is, paradoxically, my 'reality'.
One of the appeals of fiction is that it offers us an escape from life where the pace of change seems to be speeding up all the time. Most events are consigned to the relative oblivion of history after a year, or a month, sometimes even less. As HW said, "a week is a long time in politics."
But sometimes it can be instructive to take a longer view, so let me take you back in time to 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London. One of the most remarkable records of that event comes from an eye witness account by Samuel Pepys, whose diary has survived. This is not a novel. Not only is Pepys telling us about real events, but he couldn't have been writing a novel in 1666 as the form did not yet exist. It would not emerge for nearly another century.
The first novel in English was published in the mid 1700s. It took the form of a series of letters, as writers had not yet envisaged the concept of the prose narrator as a character in its own right, or even as a disembodied omniscient authorial voice. The letters were a clever device, taking the reader inside the thoughts and feelings of different characters. This allowed for intimate first person narratives, from different view points. It was entirely new, or 'novel'.
Today we retain the name, but the form itself is no longer ground breaking, or even 'novel'.
There has been a lot of discussion recently, some of it on this blog, about dwindling book sales, and 'discoverability' for authors, and how they can attract more readers. But perhaps the real problem lies, not with the proliferation of authors, or the failing quality of writing, or that people are no longer reading, but with the form itself.
Has the novel had its day? And would that matter?
We can access stories from other sources - films, television, games, the media - but these are not the same as novels which go into more depth. Through the medium of stories, the best novels offer us insights into contemporary life and morals, and hence ourselves. Think of any great novel - Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby Dick, Dickens, Hardy - not only were they instrumental in changing opinions at the time, but they provided a record of society and how people were thinking at the time they were written.
Which brings us back to Samuel Pepys, whose diaries tell us about his daily life in the 1600s - no different to a modern blog. Perhaps we have come full circle, and the reason new novelists are struggling to break into the market is that the novel form has outlived its popularity.

Postscript
No sooner had I finished writing this post than I came across an article about "embracing the artistic potential of social media". Really? Here it is:

"David Mitchell To Put Next Work On Twitter
"Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell is to publish his next work on Twitter. The British writer has penned a short story, titled The Right Sort, in 140-character instalments. It will be serialised in clusters of about 20 tweets at a time over the next seven days. In total there will be 280 Tweets.
But while embracing the artistic potential of social media, Mitchell himself is not a tweeter and had to open a Twitter account for the project."

The end of the novel as we know it? Sigh. Sometimes I would prefer not to be tuned into the current zeitgeist, but then that is the job of an author.
Or is it?

DO BOOKS MATTER?

From as far back as we can trace, people have felt the need to share stories. Wasn't early cave man a forerunner of the fisherman boasting about 'the one that got away'? Imagine a prehistoric hunter with limited language but terrible injuries, posturing about the sabre toothed tiger that 'got away'. The cave man lived to tell the tale. Isn't that 'telling the tale' part of what differentiates us from other species of animal?
We hear a lot about the decline of reading, but I'm not sure that's actually a true picture of what's happening. Because we need stories.
I'm a great one for voicing fears of a 'doom and gloom' vision of  a dystopian future without books. Long before the phenomenal increase in ebooks I was writing about the 21st century version of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 where books become obsolete not through political suppression but simply from people not longer reading; we have the technology to become a post-literate society.
My first series offers a snapshot of what has happened in the world of publishing. When Cut Short first came out, in 2009, I remember an author friend urging me to ask my publisher to bring it out as an ebook. I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but duly passed the message on. Six months later, the ebook appeared. Road Closed followed a similar pattern in 2010. By 2011, with Dead End, the ebook and print book were published on the same day. Since then, with Death Bed in 2012 and Stop Dead and Cold Sacrifice in 2013, the ebook has become available to download six months before the print book is published.
The medium itself is not the key issue. The important question is whether fewer people are reading as a result of this change. That's an impossible question to answer in terms of my own books. What I can tell you is that sales of the ebooks have been phenomenal and I suspect they have reached a far wider audience as a result of reaching Number 1 on iTunes, and amazon, than they would have done had they been published solely as print books. Of course that's anecdotal, and the 'people who know' - (whoever they are, I'm certainly not one of them) - may have another story to tell.
Which brings me back to the point of this post. For several hundred years (how long is that in man's history?) books have provided a medium for sharing stories. I am passionate about books. I love bookshops, libraries, the feel of a new book... but think about a book you have read and loved. What lives on in your mind are the characters, the emotions and insights you experienced while reading, the images of scenes and actions. Books can change us, not because of the feel of the paper, but by their content.
What matters is the story a writer tells.

Inspiration

Here's the scene that inspired Cut Short. If you expand the photo you can see a figure on the path. I didn't notice it when I took the picture!

It was a strange feeling, revisiting the scene I had recreated in the novel!

Why do we call hindsight a benefit?

I just logged onto my blog as it’s about time for another post, with no idea what I was going to write about, and stumbled across a list of recent posts on blogs I follow, with links. How did I never discover it before now?
That happens to me so often with technology, which I make no claims to have mastered, and – even more galling – with life. It’s always struck me as a devastating stroke of irony that we learn from experience, because there are situations in life where we need to acquire knowledge before the experience and, once the experience is over the knowledge becomes superfluous. If only I’d known something – anything – about parenting before my children arrived. Yes, I learned a lot about parenting through being a mother and, with the uncomfortable 'benefit' of hindsight could do it all so much better now…
Writing encapsulates the sting of hindsight because once a book is published you can reread it – and it’s too late to change anything! As a rule I’m not one for looking back with regrets, but I wonder if other people’s stories turn out exactly how they want them to be.
Would you change anything about your writing if you could turn the clock back?