Mar 21 2016

Flood thoughts

I haven’t said much about the flooding that affected the whole of our valley and others. On Christmas Day 2015 the rain started to fall and it continued through the day into the evening, the night and the following day – and will now be forever remembered as ‘the Boxing Day floods’.

The village of Mytholmroyd, little known to the outside world, was suddenly headline news.

The water on the left is usually a small brook flowing peacefully a good ten feet below the level of the road, on the right is the road.

We were away at the time, ironically, in the ‘Lake District’. They’d already suffered from heavy flooding with ancient bridges being swept away; people having to make big detours for what had once been short journeys. Watching the waters rising on the news reports, we knew that our house would be safe, but so many just a few hundred yards away, were inundated with floodwaters of biblical proportions.

Mytholmroyd, the name – according to one of my sources – means ‘the meeting of the waters’. It is, in fact, where the Turvin River (now called Elphin or Calder Brook) meets the bigger Calder River that runs through the valley. Through the course of the valley there is also the canal that runs between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge. Too little, too late perhaps – dredging operations are now taking place in the canal. The river is also heavily silted up.

dredging

Some businesses have recovered well. The local independent bookstore in Hebden Bridge, The Bookcase, had their grand re-opening last week. They had no insurance, having been completely flooded out in the summer flood event of 2012. Through the help of their landlord, friends, the community, and generous book donations from well-known authors, they are now back in business. Others haven’t fared so well. There are many shop premises and houses still empty, stripped back to the brickwork, under floor cavities exposed.

Time stands still

The church tower in Mytholmroyd is symbolic, I feel, of the extent of the catastrophe. The clock stopped at 11:30. And it hasn’t been fixed yet. The congregation of St Michael’s church has to meet in the local cricket club’s pavilion for their services.

wall_fall

One of the public houses in the village, the Shoulder of Mutton, isn’t likely to re-open until the summer. The collapsed wall behind the car park has yet to be repaired.

building_fall

The main street through the town has a gap, like a missing front tooth, where one of the buildings fell into the river. Fortunately those premises had been vacant for some time.

The valley will recover. It will take time but the surrounding hills have a timeless quality that permeates not just the landscape but also the consciousness of the inhabitants. We will endure!

If you want a flavour of the area, before the floods, take a look at my latest romance, The Circle Dance – set very much in the heart of the Calder Valley in Hebden Bridge.

Ebook links for The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks/Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Chapter One of The Circle Dance is available to read on the Affinity eBook Press website.

Ebook links for The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Arc Over Time: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Carved in Stone: Amazon US / Amazon UK

(All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited)

Mar 12 2016

Finding the “loaded gun”

Navigating the mushy middle – I’ve always thought that would be a great title for a book. I’m at that stage with my latest work-in-progress and it seems to be the way my novel writing goes.

Other writers have a problem with deciding where to start the story. I’ve not encountered this particular sticking point yet. Starting is the easy bit. I will sit down to write once I’ve got a few characters in mind and know enough about them to set them off on their journey…which is my journey of discovering where they are going.

So where does the ‘loaded gun’ come into it. My mother reminded me of this piece of advice Chekhov gave to one of his writer friends: “One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of using it.” This theory was expanded to say that if the gun is there in the first act, it must be used by the third. Now story plotters are well aware of this device, commonly known as the Art of Foreshadowing. If they’ve placed a loaded gun on the mantelpiece in the first chapter, they know exactly when, how and why it will go off.

After talking with my mother I realised that the loaded gun theory could also be applied to my next published novel, The Circle Dance (being released on Tuesday 15 March). When I was writing this book and floundering about in the mushy middle wondering which direction the story was going, I realised I had a loaded gun, primed and ready to be used. Someone I thought was only ever going to be a minor character was waiting in the wings. She had a much bigger role to play in the story than I had envisaged when I first introduced her.

Once I’d had this revelation, everything started to fall into place. The mushy middle had been conquered. Other elements in the story came together which led to a surprising conclusion (well it certainly surprised me!).

circle_final

This no doubt seems a haphazard way of working to those who meticulously plot their novels ahead of time. I admire them, I really do. It would make my life so much easier if I could do it. I also admire, and envy, those who can write the synopsis before they start. This would also be a way not to get mired in the mushy middle and would save me several weeks of agony trying to write a decent summary to send off with my submission to the publisher.

So, back to my current WIP. I’m standing in the swamp, about to sink to my knees in the mushy middle. And I can’t find my loaded gun. I’ll need to go back to the beginning to find out where I left it. It will be there somewhere…in crime writers’ parlance…a vital clue or a red herring.

It would be good to find the gun before I end up fully submerged and abandon all hope of getting out of the bog…and being able to finish the story.

Shooting arrows in the snow

I have to confess that I don’t own a gun, although I do have a recurve bow in the cupboard under the stairs and several longbows leaning against the wall in a corner of the kitchen. They don’t quite fit into the loaded gun analogy and only get taken out to shoot at targets.

Chapter One of The Circle Dance is available to read on the Affinity eBook Press website.

Ebook links for The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks/Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Ebook links for The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Arc Over Time: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Carved in Stone: Amazon US / Amazon UK

(All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited for the next 2 months)

Feb 26 2016

Introducing The Circle Dance

Returning home from our holiday in Tenerife, it was straight into editing mode for me. My next novel, The Circle Dance, is due out in mid-March.

I’m very excited about this one. It’s completely different from The Starling Hill Trilogy books. Be prepared to meet new characters embarking on a rollercoaster ride of emotions as they experience numerous ups and downs in the course of the story.

The action takes place in northern England, mostly in the market town of Hebden Bridge, with forays into the city of Manchester. Most of the characters are in their mid to late forties so you would think they might have settled down by now. But, as often happens in real life, the path to true love isn’t always strewn with rose petals.

circle_final

One of the main characters is a keen cyclist and Irish Dragon Designs has done a fine job of depicting her on the cover with a very English-looking village in the background.

This is the short version of the synopsis:

Jamie Steele has moved to another town trying to forget the heartbreak of losing her lover. She now has a low paying job as an IT technician, lives in a rented room, and mostly failing, at the forgetting part.

Ivana Spencer is introduced to Jamie over dinner at her friends’ house. She can see herself falling for Jamie, but Jamie hasn’t got over her ex, Sasha, and perhaps never will.

Sasha Fairfield, finds her thoughts taken up with her ex-lover of six years and thinks she wants Jamie back. But given the acrimonious nature of their breakup will Jamie want to even talk to her? After all, Jamie lost her home, her job, her car…and most importantly, the cat…all at the same time.

Follow this captivating romance as love dances through the lives of these women to its surprising conclusion.

Chapter One is available to read on the Affinity eBook Press website.

Book links for The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Arc Over Time: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Carved in Stone: Amazon US / Amazon UK

(All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited for the next 2 months)

Feb 19 2016

Holiday time

Valentine’s Day display in the hotel reception area

We’ve had several golf holidays in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands situated in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Africa. It’s a four-hour flight from the UK and the weather in winter is an acceptable temperature – not too hot, but warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.

February is a good time to get away—a welcome break from our winter of continuous rain and a lovely dry course to play on with the ball getting plenty of run. This was important, as I hadn’t played for four months—and it was three months since my hysterectomy operation. I was relieved to find that, not only could I still remember how to hit the ball, but also didn’t experience any pain from the activity.

I find I can hit the ball (truly amazed at the colour co-ordinated outfit as well!)

Flying in to the airport at Tenerife South, all you can see from the plane is a big rock sticking out of the ocean. It’s hard to believe from the air that there is any greenery on the island at all. But it does have an abundance of flora and fauna. The golf course we played on was surrounded by banana plantations. And the course itself had many mature palm trees and cacti of different shapes and sizes.

Palm trees everywhere

After four days of golf we decided to have a rest day and took the little train down to the beach. It was a fascinating ride, getting a close up view of the deep fissures cut through the rock by the original volcanic eruption. The beach was a popular place for families, both locals and visitors. I wasn’t quite brave enough to take a plunge into the ocean. It was a yellow flag day – which meant ‘large waves, swim with caution’.

Beach transport

Sea view close up!

Although on vacation, I couldn’t resist checking up on social media sites and Amazon. The third book in The Starling Hill Trilogy was released two days before the holiday. So, I was thrilled to find a few reviews appearing. The Lesbian Review website also started the trilogy giveaway competition on Valentine’s Day…there’s still time to enter – the competition ends on February 29th. All you need to do is visit the website and send in an email to be entered into the draw.

The trilogy competition – three trilogies are being given away!

So, onto the next project. I came home to start on the edits for The Circle Dance – my new romance novel, set for release by Affinity eBook press mid-March. Look out for a cover reveal and teaser in next week’s blog.

Book links for The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Arc Over Time: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Carved in Stone: Amazon US / Amazon UK

(All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited for the next 3 months)