Month: March 2012

Time does fly…

It doesn’t seem like it but it is now just over four years since my little Pixie was born as she celebrated her birthday last week. She was the first one of the children to have their birthday on a school day as Hpops always has hers in the summer holidays and Imp is often in the half term. This didn’t stop her, she was up early enough to open the majority of her cards and presents before we had to leave for school, she was delighted to wear a birthday badge on her school top and take in some sweets to share with her friends.

The afternoon was difficult as she couldn’t decide what she wanted to do, first it was the cinema, then it was a restaurant and in the end we went to the local starbucks for pink milk and a cookie, as once she got home she  was distracted by more presents and cards. She enjoyed blowing out the candles on her cake and then the next count down started – the one to her party! She was very excited about this having been to quite a few of her class mates and some of the ones the older children had attended. In between we went to a roller skating party.

It was interesting watching the children go from complete beginners, where every move resulted in them falling over to novices which meant they could almost get around the whole course. Imp and Pixie proved to be very dodgy and I spent most of my time scooping them off of the floor or preventing them falling over. Hpops on the other hand after a shaky start seemed to figure out how to stay on her feet and manouvere herself around without too many problems. The evening ended with the realisation that Imp had lost his second tooth although it was nowhere to be seen. He spent some of the time looking for it but after a bit of coaxing he conceded defeat. Luckily we were able to convince him that if he smiled when he went to sleep the tooth fairy would see the gap and might leave him a reward, which of course is what happened.

The weekend heralded Pixie’s party, excitement before the event was reaching fever pitch and the entertainers comment; ‘She’s buzzing isn’t she?’ made me wonder if she was going to run out of energy. She attacked the microphone with gusto, danced with all her might and revelled in all the games and tricks the entertainer played. She did indeed thoroughly enjoy her party and adrenalin carried her through until quite late. It caught up with her on Sunday though and an early night seemed to get things back on track.

Whilst all these celebrations were going on marathon training continued, apart from a few days off thanks to a back injury, I was lucky enough to get a quick referral to a physiotherapist who not only diagnosed the problem and helped solve it, but also gave me some exercises to improve my core strength to make running easier. It turned out to be a pulled back and after a few days not running I was allowed to try and run and see if there was any pain. I was delighted when there wasn’t and then once I had seen the physio for a second visit and been given the go ahead I was able to resume normal training. I have a half marathon race this weekend and then just three long runs, an 18, 20 and then a 15 mile before the big day. It seems close not, only a calendar month which is both exciting and frightening, I think I am getting to the point now where I just want to to get it done and then the mammoth talk which seems to have taken over my life will be over, I guess now all I need to do is decide what I am going to do afterwards.

An afternoon with the authors.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend an event at Simon and Schusters London offices. We were able to meet with a panel of four authors who all spoke about how they wrote and it all proved very illuminating.

The authors were; Rebecca Chance, writer of Divas, and Bad Sisters, Benjamin Wood, author of The Bellwether Revivials, Penny Hancock writer of Tideline and Lloyd Shepherd author of The English Monster. Questions had been submitted by attendees in advance and so we began with some of these questions.

The writers were asked if they read and wrote in the same genre or why they had chosen the genre they have written it. It transpired that  Lloyd ‘found himself writing historical fiction by accident.’ All of them loved the idea of being able to invent people, places and events and draw readers into the world they have created. Rebecca has written in a range of genres but said that she found writing the ‘bonkbusters’ more fun. All of them agreed you have to love it otherwise writing can become stale. All the writers are avid readers and as many students on creative writing courses will have heard they all agreed reading as much as you can from a wide a range as  you can will help to develop the writer within.

We talked about the conflict between e-books and print, by the end we seemed to have reached a vague consensus that reading devices do have a place in the modern publishing world providing convenience and access to books in places that would otherwise require us to carry heavy books around, although we agreed that print books wouldn’t die out. One look at my treasured folio books is enough to ensure that, I’m hoping that someday my children will look after them and treasure them as much as I do.

The writers were then asked to talk about the hardest part of their books to write, Benjamin said he found getting the inciting incident correct at the very beginning difficult, Penny talked about the difficulty of getting into a particular character with whom she had nothing in common, Lloyd talked about the importance of portraying the memories of people who had really lived correctly and Rebecca said she found actually moving characters around difficult. There were several nods at this point and the frustration of trying to get characters into the same place for an essential showdown without using too much contrivance seemed to be a common problem.

Perhaps the most revealing question from my own point of view was how the different authors plan their work. Rebecca Chance said when she writes she has an outline, starts at the beginning and goes through to the end then goes back and edits. Penny on the other hand had an ending in mind and then worked out how to get there. Ben outlines first and then works thorough. Lloyd starts at the beginning and works though to the end, he doesn’t outline. One thing he said stuck in my mind ‘it’s a bit like driving in the dark, you can’t see very far froward but you get there in the end.’

As someone who would, at some point, like to be sitting where the authors were sitting I found the afternoon highly informative and found it encouraging for my own work. When asked about their next projects Lloyd revealed he had just delivered his second novel to his editor and it sounded very intriguing. Penny is working on her second novel and Benjamin has a novel due to be delivered next year. Rebecca has two forthcoming novels which both sound like good fun. I would like to add my thanks to Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to meet the panel and talk to them afterwards.

The authors stayed to talk to us and we were all given the opportunity to view many books from the forthcoming catalogue as well as having copies signed of the books we had been hearing about and helping ourselves to as many books as we could carry home on the train. When you are starting out in an industry the opportunity to hear how other people do things and see their success works as a real motivator for others. It was also great to meet people who love books as much as I do, have written or are writing them and even some more Stephen King fans!

My own writing has temporarily stalled as at the moment I am still trying to finish formatting the site so reviews end up in the right place and then I can add some of my own work. Being busy with the children and training for the marathon seem to be squeezing all my time at the moment and although I have spent some time going through my research and projects I haven’t spent as much time as I would like to actually writing them. In just over seven weeks the marathon will have been completed and in just a few months all of the children will be out of the house for a few hours for school and I am hoping that by the end of 2012 I may well have a first draft of a novel I have been working on in fits and starts for a bit as well as finishing the first story for story I have planned. Time will tell.