The Lost Village

“That’s the Medieval Village of West Ringstead,” said the man as I passed. He was standing in the long grass beside the footpath staring out across a field, wild white hair and sun bronzed skin. “It was destroyed by the plague in the 14^th Century.”

My husband gave him and odd look and hurried on past, but I paused and looked in the direction that he was pointing. The field was a wide grassy meadow and over on the far side I could see a series of humps and bumps. I’d never noticed them before.

“If you stand on them you can see the layout of the village, the streets, the houses,” the man continued. “But there’s a fence here now.” He prodded the barbed wire with the tip of one finger.

There was something forlorn about those grassy mounds, and I couldn’t help wondering about the people who lived there, and how they must have felt as the plague took hold.

When I got home I tried to find out a bit more about this village. I found it is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. I also found another explanation for what happened to it – a rumor that the village was destroyed by French pirates, who kidnapped all the women and children and took them away. J

Which explanation do you prefer?

Review: Weymouth Bound by Paul Weston

Set in 1800, Weymouth Bound is the story of Jack Stone, whose life is changed forever when his ship, the Cicely, is boarded by the French when on passage to Weymouth. Jack discovers that the Cicely's capture is the opening move in a French scheme to strike at the heart of the British establishment, and that he must do his best to ensure that the plot does not succeed.

I picked up a copy of this in my local independent bookshop – Imagine Books, attracted by the cover and nautical flavour. It’s published by Roving Press which I know is a great little publisher specialising in local interest books.

I really enjoyed reading this. The author clearly knows his naval warfare and the scenes on the ship were not only historically fascinating but I could almost taste the salt and feel the roll of the deck as I read. If you are a fan of all things nautical you’ll love this – and even if you’re not it’s a cracking good story.

I couldn’t help wondering at the amount of research that must have gone into this. The whole thing felt really authentic and I learned an awful lot about shipping circa 1800. The descriptions of the London docks and of life aboard ship made me feel as if I was really there, living it with Jack.

In fact reading this put me in mind of Monsarrat’s ‘The cruel Sea’, or Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ (only without the bits about whale anatomy), which I also loved for all the same reasons.
I do hope we see more of Jack Stone.

Christmas in July

Have your seen this amazing opportunity?

A few months ago Ruth Lauren Steven and Michelle Krys opened the doors to children’s authors with a chance to jump the slushpile and receive feedback from an agent.

Well this time they’ve gone one better!

This time there are ten – yes you heard me TEN agents involved and the doors are open to pretty much all genres!

But don’t take my word for it! Head over to Ruth’s blog and check it out for yourself!

Christmas in July

Me and My Kindle

My new kindle arrived the other day.

I haven’t had a kindle before. I have a kindle app on my ipad, and when I got it I downloaded a couple of books – loads of those wonderful old Victorian novels are available for free – but I never got round to actually reading anything on it (too many other potential uses).

So I linked up my shiny new kindle to my Amazon account and was pleasantly surprised to find all my earlier downloads were there for me. I also downloaded a couple of other books. After meeting Babs Morton at the Brympton Festival I’d been meaning to read her novel, Mrs Jones. So I downloaded that one first. And then I saw that MG Harris’s The Descendant, was available for free download – so on that one went as well.

Am I looking forward to reading these on my kindle? You bet!

Do I think the advent of the e-book means the death of print? No, of course not. Print will always have a place.

And will having a kindle change my reading habits? Not at all. The books I read will be the same – it’s only the format that’s different.

So tell me – what do you think of your kindle? How has it affected you as a reader?

The Portland Giant

I had heard tell of a face in the cliffs above East Weares, staring out over the bay. So today I went looking for him. And there he was - The Portland Giant!

When Authors Meet

But not just any authors - I'm talking about Greenhouse authors.

Last weekend I was in Bournemouth with my daughter and by fortuitous coincidence Sarah Lean, a fellow children's author who is represented by the lovely Greenhouse Literary Agency was in Waterstones that day doing a book signing for her recently released book 'A Dog Called Homeless.'

 

It was the first time I've met a fellow agency sister - I do hope Julia's ears weren't burning too much ;-)

 

 But of course, this fellow was the real star of the show.

Empathy

There was a discussion recently over in a certain writing forum that I frequent about whether a main character needs to be likable, and of course, the resulting debate was really quite interesting.

We can all point out characters who are grumpy and disagreeable. In some genres, crime for example, this appears to be a prerequisite. And yet as readers we devour these characters and are hungry for more.

Don’t we all just love a good villain? (The number of times I’ve found myself rooting for the bad guy – even though I shouldn’t be.)

Because it’s not all about being likable. These characters are often fascinating – or they touch something deep inside us that we can all relate to. And as a result we can’t help to engage with the surly detective or angst riddled teen. It’s all about empathy.

Now I wish I had some amazing tips to give you at this point – some magic formula that will bring your characters into focus and cause the reader to instantly warm to them, empathise with them and become totally invested in their story.

But I’m afraid I don’t.

And yet it is something so vital. Something we all need to be aware of. And I’m asking myself as I take my new MC or her tortuous journey – will the reader empathise with her enough?