Relax and enjoy Secrets of the Lighthouse by Santa Montefiore

It's always a pleasure to lose myself in one of Santa Montefiore's novels, and Secrets of the Lighthouse did not disappoint.
The story takes place on the wild shores of Connemara. Ellen has run away to Aunt Peg's house in Ballymaldoon, because she doesn't want to marry William, the man that her mother, Madeline, thinks is the perfect match for her. There, she discovers a whole family that she did not know existed, and also the brooding Conor whose wife, Caitlin, died under uncertain circumstances at the old lighthouse.
A broad cast of characters, reminiscent of the those found in a Jojo Moyes novel, enlivens the story of how Ellen uncovers the secrets of her family, not only in Ireland, but also in England, and finds out how Caitlin died, and the hold that she still has on her family, and indeed, Ellen as she grows closer to Conor.
Through all this, Ellen has to decide whether she is to stay in Ireland where she feels she belongs, or return to England to marry William.
This is a great story which I could not put down!

Get Comfy and Settle Down to Read Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell

It's Guernsey,1995, and when Betty's step-grandmother, Arlette, dies, she is set the challenge of finding Clara Pickles, the mystery person mentioned in her will, despite the fact that Clara will inherit £10,000 instead of her.
In Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell, Betty sets off to Soho, London, to track her down with the £1,000 Arlette has left her and Arlette's fur coat.
Arlette, too, sets off for London in 1920. She gets involved with Gideon Worsley, an artist who wants to paint her in a suggestive pose with Sandy Beach, a member of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, whereas Betty gets involved with rock star, Dom Jones, and market stall holder, John Brightly.
It sounds complicated, and it is, but Lisa Jewell skillfully leads you through the tangle of the two plots and the deep emotions that Arlette and Betty experience to a satisfying conclusion.
This is a great book to settle down with in a comfy chair, and a few tissues!
Have you read any of Lisa Jewell's books?

My Writing Process Blog Tour

 

Today, I'm joining in the 'My Writing Process' Blog Tour. I was invited by Christina Hollis, a best-selling Harlequin author. Her latest novel is Jewel Under Siege, a romance set in the time of the First Crusade, and you can find her blog here.
This blog tour is a great way of learning about how other writers, experienced or just starting out, create their novels and in doing so, pick up some useful tips.

What am I working on?

I’m working on two novels at the moment. One is a time slip set in the present and the First World War and the other is set solely in the present as a relief from all the historical research!

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Everyone brings their own experiences and knowledge to their writing. In the First World War novel, I’ve drawn upon family stories passed down to me, as a child, from my grandmother, and from research I was able to do about my father who was shot in October 1918 near Arras, France. (Obviously, he survived, or I wouldn’t be here!)

In the novel set in the present, I’ve drawn upon my own experiences of helping to make wedding cakes which add originality to the scenes.

Why do I write what I do?

I’ve chosen these things to write about because they interest me. I can’t imagine choosing a story, set in a university astrophysics department, involving the discovery of the beginning of the universe, and being attacked by aliens, although someone else may like to try it!


How does my writing process work?

Ideally, I would like several whole days free to concentrate on my writing, but life gets in the way, and I have to write when I can.

Firstly, I try to plan my novel and I am getting better at this. I find Julie Cohen’s three-act story plan, which she told us about at the RNA conference in Penrith, very useful.

Secondly, I do my research. Although it's very easy to do it online or from books, I think it's very important to visit the places I’m writing about and talk to people.

Thirdly, I make notes and then write with a hard 2H pencil (because it doesn't need sharpening so often!) in an A4 wide ruled notebook. I only write on the right hand page so I can add notes on the left. Bringing in Julie Cohen again, I read once that she was told that if you had to extend a chapter, instead of introducing more people or events, go deeper with what you’ve got. So therefore, on the left hand page, I might extend a scene by exploring exactly what someone did or what they had referred to. I also make notes there for further research or new ideas.

Then, I type it up, editing as I go, but that isn't the end, because, I'll print it out and read it out loud and edit it again until I'm happy with it.
I think that the main thing, though, is to keep writing!

Next week, I'll be passing the baton on to three RNA NWS members:

Clare Chase, newly signed up Choc Lit author, with Anna in the Works, 'a mystery romance with funny bits'!

Vanessa Woolley who has a regular column about her chaotic family life in the Maidenhead Advertiser, who is enjoying writing a romantic suspense,
and Evie Mclaughlin who took part in the NANOWRIMO (write 50,000 words in a month challenge) last November.

You can follow #mywritingprocess on Twitter

Discovering the Secrets of Walter Mitty

Driving into London just before Christmas, I spotted the poster of Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty rushing across the sky, and I had to see the film!
We studied the original short story by James Thurber for 'O' Level in Modern Short Stories (which is still available).
'Modern' is quite a misnomer, because the stories were all written around the first half of the twentieth century, but the authors are famous, and the stories have lingered in my mind over the years, such as Peaches  by Dylan Thomas, Tickets, Please by D.H. Lawrence, and The Ice Palace by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is only seven pages long! So it's amazing that two full length feature films have been made from it. ( The other in 1947, starred Danny Kaye.)
Mitty and his bossy wife are on a shopping trip. She gives him some errands to run whilst she has her hair done. 'Buy some overshoes!' 'Get some puppy food!' No wonder this meek little man lives in a fantasy world, pretending he's Commander Mitty, commanding a US Navy hydroplane, or Captain Mitty going over the top in the First World War, and it is fitting in the end when his wife pops into a drugstore, leaving him outside in the sleet, that he lights a cigarette and imagines he's being shot by a firing squad!
The film, however, is a feel-good movie. Mitty is in charge of the photo negatives for Life magazine, he's not married, but is in love with Cheryl, a new employee, but can't even bring himself to give her a wink on eHarmony. He still has fantasies of impressing her, but when Negative 25, which is to be used on the cover of the last ever issue of the magazine goes missing, real life becomes just as exciting!
The film has great special effects, photography and music and is well worth watching.

Don't Forget To Read Foreign Fruit by Jojo Moyes!

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I love books by Jojo Moyes, but I've only just read Foreign Fruit which won the RNA (Romantic Novelists' Association) Novel of the Year Award in 2004. How did I manage to miss this fabulous book?
It's another one of those engrossing stories that Jojo writes so well with a great cast, and begins in the 1950s in Merham, a sleepy East Anglian seaside town. Celia and Lottie (not her sister, but a child that the Holden family took in during the war) are entranced by Adeline and her Bohemian friends who move into Arcadia, an Art Deco house on the seafront.
The girls get drawn into the circle of people, including the androgynous Frances, an artist who is in love with Adeline, and Adeline's husband of convenience, Julian.
Eventually, Celia goes away to London, leaving Lottie at home with her family. She writes fabulous letters, but Lottie feels that she can't always believe her especially when she writes about this gorgeous man, Guy, because she's always exaggerating. However, when she does bring him home, Lottie falls hopelessly in love with him, and he with her, even though he's now engaged to Celia. Lottie can't tell him that she's now pregnant with his child, in loyalty to Celia, and their marriage goes ahead. Leaving Lottie with Joe who's a poor second best to Guy.

In the 1950s the town was very against the Bohemian crowd, and now in 2003, the town is against Arcadia being sold to be developed into a hotel for Jones, the owner of a club in London. Jones has hired interior designers, Daisy and Daniel to oversee the work, but when their child, Ellie, is born, Daniel can't cope and leaves Daisy to do the work on her own.  Mrs Bernard, the previous owner of Arcadia, comes in every day to help look after Ellie, but she won't talk about how she came to own the house or what it means to her.
It's when a builder uncovers Frances's mural on the terrace wall, depicting the people that spent the summer there in the 1950s, that secrets are revealed and the characters have to face their past and look to their future.
If you like Jojo Moyes too, don't forget to read this book!

Travelling back to the South Pacific with James A. Michener

Apart from Pippi Longstocking, (see last blog post!) I wanted to read something more about the South Seas on my trip, so I bought Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener for a penny on Amazon, and was impressed that it had won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1948.
Michener was posted to the South Pacific as a Naval Officer during the Second World War, and this inspired his stories based on the men waiting for the inevitable attack, including the women they fall in love with, and the action when it happens.
Some of the stories may seem familiar as they were made into the musical, South Pacific, such as Our Heroine which introduces us to U.S. Nurse, Nellie Forbush, who falls in love with the French plantation owner, Emile de Beque, whom she hardly knows and then finds he has two children. She sings I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair in the show, and well she might because in the book, he has eight!
You might also remember Bloody Mary singing Happy Talk to Joe Cable in the film. In the story called Fo' Dolla', she's nothing like the lovely lady, Juanita Hall, who played the part on stage and screen, and has rivers of red betel juice running down the sides of her mouth which led to her name.
Throughout his stories, Michener takes us to a world of hot sun, lush vegetation, blue seas and coral islands. It's hard to believe that such a beautiful paradise could have been the scene of such terrible fighting, but it was interesting to find out more about those times in his book.

Sailing to the South Seas with Pippi Longstocking

I always like to think that I'm a bit like Joanna Lumley: it was a childhood book about a little penguin who wanted to see the Northern Lights that made her long to visit Norway and see them for herself.
For me, it was reading Pippi Longstocking in the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren one rainy day in the school library that made me wish I could sail south to those mysterious islands in the sun.
Of course, I took the book with me, and found the world of friendly people, white coral beaches, black pearls, and tropical rainstorms that I had longed for: the endless Pacific Ocean, tiny green islands surrounded by impossible blue coral reefs, hermit crabs in miniscule red-spotted shells and fish of all shapes and sizes.
All because of a book in the library on a rainy afternoon.
Have you ever been drawn to a place by a favourite childhood book?