Large parts of Britain were once covered with temperate rainforests. Remnants can be found in the Lake District and I always feel that’s possibly evident here on the eastern edge of Lake Windermere.
On arrival, I’m captured by the clearness of the air, the beauty of the surroundings. I wander down to the lakeside and breathe it all in. Calm and soothing, listening to the gentle movement of the water, the rustling of the leaves, and somewhere the silence broken by the strident calls of wild geese (although the two in this photo are serenely moving along).
Back to the primeval elements: what is this – emerging from the rock – a creature from Lord of the Rings?
A new book
My writing life has stuttered and stumbled through the last two years, but I can finally announce that I’ve just signed a contract with Affinity Rainbow Publications for a new book, scheduled for an August release.
The latest series of Digging for Britain was as fascinating and informative as usual, but I think the one item uncovered that generated the most interest for a lot of viewers, including myself, was the dodecahedron. 33 of these objects have been discovered in Britain with a number of others throughout Europe. But no one knows what they were used for. Theories abound with no idea why they were created. Perhaps it was an early version of a Rubik’s cube.
Vindolanda…site of ongoing excavations near Hadrian’s Wall
I’ve always been interested in British Roman history. So, it was a natural choice to explore some elements of it in my debut novel, Starting Over. At the outset, I knew that an archaeological dig was going to feature as part of the story. However, until about three quarters of the way through the first draft, I didn’t know what the great find would be.
Then my mother gave me a book she’d had for many years – a history of the Brigantes tribe. As I live in a part of Yorkshire that was pretty much in the middle of the territory covered by this tribe – stretching from below Manchester up to the much-disputed border with the Picts – I was quite taken with the story of Queen Cartimandua. The Roman historians gave her the title of ‘queen’. She was really the tribal chief. Although much has been written about Boudica’s exploits, Cartimandua barely gets a mention. She disappears from history and her remains have never been found.
Time to step in and rectify this. Over the three books of what became the Starling Hill trilogy, I was able to give Cartimandua her due – recognition as a leader who aimed for peace with the invading Romans, and a fitting tribute.
The Starling Hill Trilogy
As I was writing the second part of the trilogy, Arc Over Time, the discussions about where to reinter the recently discovered bones of Richard III under the car park in Leicester were ongoing. This led me to speculate in the third book, Carved in Stone, about the location of Cartimandua’s final resting place. I ventured briefly into the paranormal as the Queen was able to have her say in where she wanted to be buried, along with a fitting memorial to her reign. In each of the books, Cartimandua gets a chance to give her point of view, as in this extract from the end of Starting Over: The Last Word, A voice from the Past:
…She had lain a long time in the cold ground, unheralded, forgotten, surrounded by a few tokens representing her position and her wealth, ill-gotten gains some would have said, including her poor excuse of a husband. What did they know? She had kept the peace, traded with the invaders. She had taken care of her people. Her tribe lived free.
Why did that bitch, Boudica, and her rabble grab all the attention? Iceni upstarts. Bunch of foul-smelling horse breeders, rampaging about the countryside, killing, looting. No better than the Romani. Numerous books were written about the marauding queen, a statue erected in a place she’d burned to the ground, and what recognition did she, the peacemaker, achieve? The occasional one line in dry historical tomes. A footnote in the history of the greatest tribe in northern Britain.
And now, her final resting place disturbed. She had chosen to retire here. Away from the conflict raging in her formerly peaceful queendom. It had been a tranquil, healing time with her lover, away from the strife, watching the starlings swoop and play in the clear air across the moors…
(from Starting Over by Jen Silver, published by Affinity Rainbow Publications)
As if the date on the calendar isn’t enough notice of the upcoming festive season, there’s a covering of thick frost everywhere…with maybe some snow on the way.
Time to think about suitable winter reading. Jae has compiled an extensive list of holiday romances to choose from…370 books so far. Christmas at Winterbourne is there, along with contributions from other Affinity Rainbow Publications authors, including a wonderful anthology…Christmas Medley.
The follow-up short story to Christmas at Winterbourne…Winterbourne Revisited…didn’t make it onto the list, but is definitely worth a mention
December Sale now on all Christmas-related books and stories from Affinity Rainbow Publications. Christmas at Winterbourne / Christmas Medley. Sale prices also on Amazon sites.
Reviews for Christmas at Winterbourne
This review from a few years ago still makes my day…a big thank you to Clare Lydon for including Christmas at Winterbourne as one of her top festive picks (and my book is in great company with her other choices.
Some words about my two October releases…my first published novel and my twelfth (I don’t want to say ‘my last’ as I hope I still have another book or two inside me). This is my muse, Colin the Chameleon. He sits on top of a cabinet looking down at my computer screen. I think he’s hibernating at the moment as not many words are reaching the blank page. But I’m thankful for the ones that have emerged to produce books 1 through 12.
Starting Over will always have a special place in my heart. I started writing it during the summer of 2013. Newly retired, with more time on my hands, it was the ideal opportunity to fulfil a lifelong ambition to be a published author. Sitting in my garden writing random thoughts in a notebook about characters’ names, ages, occupations, I somehow knew that one of the MCs was a potter. This led me to researching pottery online. I came across a pottery place in Bardon Mill, Northumberland. This led me to check out Vindolanda. I discovered that I could volunteer to excavate at this Roman site near Hadrian’s wall. The story started to take off after that and I knew that archaeology would have a large part to play in the storyline.
Changing Times developed in a very different way. I already had a cast of characters from Changing Perspectives (story set in 1993, published in 2017). But the main characters would now be of retirement age. So, although I wanted to revisit them, the focus of the narrative for this book was on the younger generation. Setting the story thirty years on meant that Dani’s nieces were now in their thirties. My task then was to find out what Lucy and Holly were up to. They inhabit a world that has changed somewhat since 1993 and I tried to express the impact on them through their different life experiences.
Social media update:
I’ve now joined Blue Sky Social – connect with me there: @jenjsilver.bsky.social
I have quite a collection of books from the eighties and nineties. A few are piled up in this photo. I think Dykeversions may be one of the first I purchased from an Athena shop in London. Athena sold mostly wall art print and posters and I don’t think they exist anymore. Anyway, they had a rack of books and I picked this up, excited to see that it was published by a Canadian company…The Women’s Press. I had just recently returned to England after ten years in Canada. Anyway, I was reading one of the short stories in Dykeversions on the bus and was so engrossed, I missed my stop.
This book seemed to be the sole lesbian offering in the shop. So, I don’t how or why it ended up there. After that, I discovered Silver Moon on Charing Cross Road. When I moved up north, I continued to buy from their mail order catalogue until they went out of business.
Stone Butch Blues came from Silver Moon. This is the 1993, first edition, published by Firebrand Books. It made a great impression on me. Jess Goldberg’s story in these pages is a tough read and it took me thirty years to get around to rereading it last month. It is a work of fiction but I’m sure a lot of the problems arising from Jess’s chosen identity were experienced by the author.
Revisiting this book was very much worth it. A reminder of the battles that were fought, the difficulties of connecting with a community that would accept you…it’s a history that lives on. Reading Stone Butch Blues, and these other books, is like opening up a time capsule from the middle of the last century. A lot has changed, but much has remained the same. (Ref: the pain in Spain over the football kiss – misogyny and sexism rules!)
I’ve been hit this week with a bittersweet nostalgia…seeing all the photos posted on social media of this year’s Golden Crown Literary Society’s conference in Denver. (The city locations for each yearly conference may change, but the hotel carpets have the same eye-wateringly exuberant patterns!)
I attended three conferences in past years and had amazing experiences in each one. The first was at New Orleans in 2015. A lot of firsts at that event…meeting the Affinity team, other authors and readers, participating on panels, and doing a reading in front of an audience, signing books. It was all very new and exciting.
New Orleans: Annette Mori, Jen Silver, C D Cain, Ali Spooner
The following year the conference was held in Washington DC. Highlights include: Annette Mori winning a Goldie for her book, Locked Inside; getting my photo taken with Lee Lynch, asking Katherine V Forrest to sign a copy of Curious Wine (and surprised she knew my name); seeing Velvet Lounger dressed up as Frank-N-Furter for the Rocky Horror Picture Show evening.
Book signing at 2016 conferenceWith Lee Lynch in 2016
2017 was my last GCLS conference, held in Chicago. It had some very fine moments too. Lots of fun and laughter, especially with the Affinity crew.
Affinity authors in Chicago: Angela Koenig, Renee MacKenzie, Annette Mori, Ali Spooner, Jen Silver
So, thank you to the delegates sharing their experiences from the Denver conference. It’s good to see familiar faces and new. Wishing all the finalists good luck for tonight’s awards ceremony (1 July 2023).
Country Living has been out on audio for a few weeks now. But it still feels new. Hearing the characters come to life is always a delight. Nicola Victoria Vincent has a great repertoire of different voices and accents and her narration always delivers another dimension to the story.
Because my books feature mainly older women, we had fun finding examples of actors or newsreaders whose voices might fit particular characters. For a professional woman based in London, I thought of Emily Maitlis. Then for another character with a less serious background, maybe Jennifer Saunders. Some of the suggestions ranged from Clare Balding to Nicola Walker to Sarah Lancashire. Certainly no shortage of choice. Possibly the biggest challenge was finding a suitable candidate for a young woman from Canada. Quite a range of voices, including the more local Hebden Bridge ones. But nothing that Nicola couldn’t handle.
Reviews have been very few and far between for this book, but the ones received so far have been very positive. It was wonderful to see these words along with a five star rating on Amazon.de:
Continuing 30 years later. Written wonderful and very interesting to find out what happened to characters of Changing Perspective A absolutely must read ….and for sure some tears are included. Anyone who enjoyed Changing Perspective can simply not pass this on up.
Our two day break last week was a mix of sunshine and showers weather-wise. We saw a lot of the countryside and included a visit to the Boars Head pub (no apostrophe), Beeston Castle, the Cavern bookshop (indeed cavernous with tons of books), and the market town of Nantwich. The hotel gardens had some interesting features. Still early spring, so only a few trees starting to blossom. Overall a good trip and invigorating to see new places.
Think we ordered too much food.Entering the Victorian built gateway to Beeston CastleLooks to be having second thoughts about swimming.Maybe she’s thinking she should have shaved her legs.Walking the hotel grounds.St Mary’s church in Nantwich. Built with local sandstone (needs a bit of a clean).
I had high hopes for this book which was released on 1st October 2022 by Affinity Rainbow Publications. As a sequel to my most successful book, Changing Perspectives, it seemed a good prospect. However, this story set thirty years on, hasn’t lived up to that anticipated expectation.
I thought readers would be interested in meeting the original protagonists as they have matured…Dani and Camila…now moving into late middle age…65+. And then introducing the younger generation, Dani’s nieces, Luc and Holly.
Five months later…the best laid plot looks doomed to failure with only 75 sales.
So, was this just a bad idea, or a badly executed one? I don’t have the answer. Not many people have read this book, and apart from the two 5 star reviews on Amazon, it looks like those who have read it either really disliked it, or feel they can’t give it a positive review.
New year and many new books to read. Thanks to TB Markinson and Miranda MacLeod for pulling together a fantastic range of books and authors in this year’s I Heart SapphFIC Reading Challenge. Lots of prizes to be had with authors giving away ebooks, audio, and print copies.
One of my books is featured in one of this week’s (16 January 2023) categories: Reporter/Journalist.
Although Carved in Stone is the third book in the Starling Hill Trilogy, I feel it can stand alone. There’s an Author’s Note and a Prologue to start things off so readers are able to jump right into the story.
Coming up on the w/c 30 January, Changing Perspectives is featured in the Butch/Femme category.
Many thanks also to Jae for setting up another Sapphic Book Bingo. There are two categories to complete a book bingo card…Main and Unicorn. Check out all the details here.
Here are some of my books to fill some of the bingo card categories.
Links to all my books, including audio, are available below.
jenjsilver 