A Floor of Bones

Near where I grew up in Devon is a wonderful old National Trust house called Killerton. And in the grounds of this house is the Bear Hut - an old summerhouse tucked away among the trees. It is wonderfully rustic, wood and thatch and a ceiling of fir cones.

 

It is called The Bear Hut because in the 1860's it was used to house a black bear brought back by one of the family from Canada.

 

But one of the strangest things about this hut is this section of the floor. It is made up entirely of the knuckle bones of deer. Weirdly macabre - and looks like a lot of deer to me!

 

The Curious Fox Launch

Last Thursday I headed up to London for the Curious Fox launch party which was held at Dr Johnson's house - a wonderful old building tucked away among offices of glass and steel.

It's a while since I've been to London and the city looked amazing. I headed from the station out over Waterloo Bridge, lights reflected in the Thames and from one angle Big Ben was framed by the London eye. But what struck me most was the number of bicycles, racks and racks of them by the station and fleets of them moving along the roads.

And then to the party, fizz and canapés, interesting people and great conversation. My fabulous agent came along, and it was lovely to see the Curious Fox team again and to meet the other authors. The MD gave a speech and introduced our books and they had a big banner made up with the covers of all our books on it! It was such a thrill to see my book there among the others!

There were games to spark our curiosity, and fascinating people from all over, but all with a shared passion for books. There were lots of photos taken and I'll post a link should any come online.

The evening flew and it felt all too soon that I was heading back over Waterloo Bridge to the station, and to my friend's where I was staying. And when I looked inside my goody bag on the train back I found a lovely copy of Sharon Gosling's The Diamond Thief which will be one of the first Curious Fox titles to launch!

I woke the next morning to a white world, driving home through snow and spray. But by the time I reached the New Forest the snow had stopped. I passed oak trees, jagged branches etched in white, and patches of heath and gorse where the snow covered the vegetation in lumps. Every so often it fell from the trees as I passed underneath in a flurry of ice shards.

I reached home, still buzzing. Back to those edits.....

Weird Weather

As 2012 has drawn to a close there has been a lot of discussion in the media about the extreme weather we have seen.

 

The weather in this country has always been unpredictable.  Extreme weather events are certainly not unheard of, but this year has been a year of particularly extreme rainfall - and not on just one occasion.

 

 

This is a picture of my garden after the most recent downpour, shortly before Christmas. My garden never flooded before this year - for starters we live on a hill and our soil is quite sandy and normally drains really well. But this year the ground was so saturated  and the rain so intense that it just couldn't drain away fast enough.

 

And back in the summer the downpour was even heavier, and my garden even more of a pond. Water was bubbling up in the road from drains that were unable to cope, and the river, backed up by a high tide burst its banks and flooded the town.
 

 

This is the footpath through the marshes a few days after the rain had stopped. The saddest thing to hear were the cries of the terns, their nests and chicks washed away. Although one brave man from the RSPB swam out with inflatable rafts for them and some were saved.

 

They say that extreme weather events like this will become more common as global temperatures increase. This is certainly the case in the world in which Danni, my heroine in Red Rock, lives. Britain has become a colder, wetter place.

 

I fear that the world I imagined when I was writing her story may soon become a reality for us all!

Signing my Contract...

What better way to welcome in the new year!



 

2013 is going to be a big year for me. It is the year I am going to be published. At the moment I'm in the middle of the edits. Exciting stuff!

I've also set myself up a facebook page, as well as a profile on Goodreads, which you can find by following the links to the side of this page.

So Happy New Year to all my blog readers, and thank you for joining me on my writing journey. And extra special good wishes to anyone else who has a book coming out in 2013.

The Apocalypse? Or just another Christmas?

Will it? Won’t it? Will we even notice?

This isn’t going the be the first time we’ve lived through the end of the world – the Millennium – the eclipse – not to mention the various prophesies that come and go.

So enjoy your mince pies and mulled wine. Have a great Christmas everyone and (if we’re still here) I’ll see you all on the other side.

Reflections



It was calm down by the marshes and I spotted this heron, standing so still that there wasn’t even a ripple in the water around him.


 

It is a time to reflect as the year draws to a close, and for me 2012 has been momentous – I got a book deal! And next year I will see my book in print!

I have also been reflecting on the direction of this blog. When I started it was simply going to be a writing blog, on which I would chronicle my journey to publication. But I’ve found myself blogging about other things along the way, and, since there are so many writers out there chronicling their journeys, I find myself wondering if I should change focus here.

So I thought I would ask you, my blog readers, what sort of things you would like to see more of.

Do you want to see more about writing in general and the process of publication?

Do you prefer my more general posts on the natural history and strange and quirky things I encounter in the countryside around where I live?

Would you like to hear about the science behind the themes that inspired Red Rock?

A combination of all three?

Or something else?

Review: Ferney by James Long

Now this is an interesting book.

I met the author at a Literary event in Yeovil back in October and bought it, partly for that reason, and partly because the subject matter looked fascinating. This is a new edition of a book which was first published some 16 or so years ago. It is one of those books that took off through word of mouth.

And having read it I can see why.

Ferney is a love story, but it is also so much more. It is a story of old love, reborn and rekindled, generation after generation. The landscape of Somerset is beautifully drawn, and is as interwoven with history as Gally and Ferney’s love for one another also is.

But in this incarnation Ferney is an old man, nearing his end, and Gally is young and married to someone else. And as Ferney awakens dormant memories this is bound to cause conflict.

This is a powerful book that will resonate with you long after you have finished the last page. A time-slip love story that I strongly recommend.