Natasha Solomon's Book Launch

On Saturday we headed inland for the launch of Natasha Solomon's novel 'Mr Rosemblum's List'. I have been following Natasha's blog for some time now and it was lovely to finally meet her in person.



The village hall was all decked out with bunting, and cream teas were being scoffed. Natasha read from her book - a piece describing the very hall we were all sitting in.

And we even spotted a wooly pig (but for some reason blogger has decided not to let me upload the picture I took of it!!)

As for the book I bought - I'm really enjoying it!

Short Story Sale

Another short story sale to The Absent Willow Review!

This one, a Sci Fi tale called The Sea and The Sky will be going live in May and is my second story to find a home with this market.

Characters

Where do these characters come from?

It’s strange, isn’t it, how a character can suddenly turn up and make him/herself known to you. As if to say

“I’m going to be in your story too – only you don’t know it yet.”

I’ve just had one such character walk into my WIP – quite literally – he just opened the door and walked into the room. I hadn’t planned him, and while I was writing his scene I was puzzling over him. Why had he appeared now? He clearly had a part to play in all this – but what?

“Well,” I thought. “I can always delete you later.” So I carried on writing.

And a few days later it hit me! He actually has a crucial part to play in this story – I need him!

But how come he knew this before I did?

Where Stories Lurk

I often see writers being asked where they get their ideas from, and this always strikes me as a very odd question. You see stories are all around us, everywhere we turn; snippets of overheard conversation, strange looking buildings, those quirky items on the news.

Or even in the middle of a field.


On the map this is marked as an old dairy. A walled enclosure and a ruined building, now wild with trees and brambles - a small oasis of history in the middle of a field of young rape. The old meets the new.

There are many stories here. We only have to look a little deeper.

Falling in Love Again

Or the thrill of the first draft.

I’ve been throwing myself back into WRRW. The poor novel has been languishing on my hard drive for long enough. But I’m here now, and I think my characters are pleased to see me.

If fact my MC has grabbed me by the hand and is dragging me along on her adventure faster than I can type. I can’t blame her. I left her hanging in a bit of a tricky situation and she’s keen to get out of there – only thing is, I’ve got some nasty surprises for her up ahead.

Ah, but I suspect she has a few surprises for me!

That’s the thing about falling in love again – you never quite know what is going to happen. Will it all work out? Will this turn into a permanent relationship? Or am I still in love with my last novel – the one winging its way back to the agent’s in tray as I type.

Will I end up two timing? Maybe I’m a novel bigamist?

But for now I’m happy to go with the flow. I’m keen to know how things work out in this story, and, well, what happens afterwards – I’ll worry about that another day.

'Symbionts' Published Online

My short story 'Symbionts' has just gone up at The Absent Willow Review in their February issue. You can read it here. Do pop over and take a look.

There are some great stories on that site and some lovely artwork to go with them.

Symbionts is my tenth short story publication. It great to see it in print. :-)

Grabbed by the Throat

We drove to the Alps last week to go skiing, and as we drove through the mountains I stared up at their snow clad slopes and dark forests and allowed my thoughts to wander.

And as usual, at times like this, when my mind is empty and I’m not thinking about writing at all, along comes a new idea, sliding into my head from out of nowhere.

And as we drove and the snow started coming down it began to grow.

I’ve been buzzing with it all day, jotting down notes as they occur to me, and it’s growing, developing, taking shape like a piece of unformed clay in a potters hands. At first it was one story, but now I see it could be a series.

And it’s exciting. It’s very exciting.

But I’m not ready to write it just yet. Let it mature a little bit longer, like a good wine.

And anyway, I’m right in the middle of writing WRRW, and that one isn’t about to let me go.

So many stories – so little time to actually sit down and write them!! This one is just going to have to be patient!