My New Novel: The Witch-stone or 'I, Morgana'

So far, I've managed to complete 30,000 words of my new novel, and I've sent this 'partial' off to the Romantic Novelists Association New Writers Scheme, a wonderful service that's provided me with a life-line over the past few years, along with Birkbeck College's creative writing classes and another writing class at the lovely Mary Ward Centre. Still no sign of an agent who wants to take on my first novel, 'The Practical Woman's Guide to Living with the Undead', so I'm cutting my losses and forging ahead with the new book this autumn.

Once again, I'm writing a book with a paranormal theme, although this time, it's witchcraft, not vampires. The first chapter begins on a lonely moorland, where a young girl, Jeanie Gowdie, has been taken to pray before a stone, known as the witch-stone... It's all very menacing at first , as her mad Presbyterian father, the owner of the cheerless Knox Hill Guest House, insists that she must never repeat the sins of the ungodly women who were once 'justly punished' in front of the stone, but then Jeanie remembers the words of her wise, hedge-witch grandmother, "Your father's beliefs have as much worth as a blast of gas from a cow's backside" and, after that, she recovers her equilibrium.....

Books contd./Persephone meets the Gothic

My spare bedroom has just had a magnificent makeover, thanks to two talented friends, and, as a result, I now have some new bookshelves to add to the overspilling bookcases that grace almost every other room in the house. It was fun deciding which books to display in such uncluttered glory, and I chose the eclectic approach. Thus, my cherished collection of lovely dove grey Persephone books (Dorothy Whipple, Katherine Mansfield, Monica Dickens etc.) is elegantly arranged between the complete set of Lemony Snicket's 'Series of Unfortunate Events' and three of Tom Holland's Gothic/supernatural novels, including The Vampyre, and on the top shelf, A Dance to the Music of Time is happily wedged between Paul Magrs's 'Never the Bride' sequence and Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell'.
I love the books produced by Persephone Press. If I had unlimited resources, including shelf space, I'd buy them all. I used to keep my Persephone Books in the conservatory, under the shelves where I'd placed my collection of green Virago Modern Classics, as seemed fitting, but with the new shelves, I was inspired to move them and let them mingle with the Gothic. I'd love to see Persephone meet the Gothic in real terms--it would be great, for example, to see a Persephone edition of the ghost stories of Cynthia Asquith or Rosemary Timperley, but I have the feeling that isn't going to happen; the supernatural isn't Persephone's bag (although they have published Marghanita Laski's time-slip tale 'The Victorian Chaise Longue'.)
Nevertheless, thank goodness for Persephone and the sterling work of Nicola Beauman in rescuing the writers who have 'fallen through the cracks' and who merit reprinting. The shop in Lambs Conduit Street is a rare haven, and I spent two delightful hours there last night enjoying a 'Possibly Persephone' evening--literary discussion (what book would you like to see reprinted by Persephone?), Madeira, and bread and cheese. Sheer perfection and long may it continue!

Lower Loxley Will Never Be The Same Again

So that's it then. On January 2nd, 2011, sweet, romantic lovable toff Nigel Pargetter fell to his death in what was, depending on your point of view, either a thrilling dramatic moment (and I must congratulate actor Graham Seed on that scream!) or a cynical piece of over-the-top and utterly unnecessary hype to 'celebrate' 60 years of The Archers.

I am devastated and not a little perplexed. Why celebrate the anniversary of the programme by killing an amusing character who loved his wife and children? Why Nigel some of us are asking? If anyone had to die, (and arguably no-one did) why not despatch self-obsessed, control freak, Helen Archer once she'd given birth? And what's going to happen to Lower Loxley now? If all the rumours about the hidden agenda behind The Archers are correct, then perhaps we will see the once-stately home turned into a birthing clinic for single women like Helen who have chosen to dispense with romance and relations with men altogether and have babies by artificial insemination.

Oh dear.....I am, as it happens, the same age as The Archers and the same age as Graham Seed (who was dismissed from the programme at such short notice, against his wishes), so perhaps I'm being over-sensitive, but I'm not the only person to feel outrage. The forums where this programme is discussed are incandescent with fury, in fact, the previously pleasant Archers Addicts site is seething with malcontents and there have been three letters of bitter complaint in the Radio Times.

On January 2nd 2011, Ambridge was due to be shaken to the core, and thus the makers of The Archers broke faith with their audience, shooting themelves in the foot in a spectacular fashion for the sake of publicity and ratings. They lost the plot with that clunky, contrived episode. According to Vanessa Whitburn, the imperious editor of The Archers, listeners were supposed to feel mixed emotions; sadness at Nigel's death, and 'relief that Helen was all right after developing pre-eclampsia. The problem was, no-one liked Helen much, so no-one cared about her, whereas Nigel's death prompted anger and disbelief. What did Miss Prism say about the good ending happily and the bad ending unhappily? Not on The Archers, I'm afraid. Helen's egotism and her unpleasantness to poor Tony (her kindly Dad whose only crime was to suggest it was a shame her baby wouldn't have a father) has been rewarded, and Nigel's been punished by being improbably pitched off the roof of Lower Loxley. It might as well be a tragedy by Thomas Hardy.

January 2nd 2011. The day The Archers died.

Books etc.

Here is the top of my favourite bookcase, the one I call my ‘Haunted Bookcase’ for obvious reasons. The shelves are freighted, two deep, with the Ghostly and Gothic, more piles of books spill on to the floor and I despair of ever reading through my entire collection. And there, on the top, sits my raven, Edgar, between the Grim Reaper bookends and presiding over such personal treasures as my Professor Snape figure and my Weeping Angel.
Over on a far more scholarly blog than this one, a cyber-friend (who, considering what a genial person he seems to be, mysteriously blogs under the soubriquet ‘The Argumentative Old Git’) has produced a list of one hundred essential books, all neatly categorised. It’s the kind of list I envy, being the somewhat slapdash, disorderly person I am. Years ago, when I’d just come out of uni, I might have attempted a similar list, but now, I’m just too shambolic. And I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that I’m never going to finish the Decameron and Orlando Furioso, both of which I started (and was enjoying) as a Fresher. So, I’ve decided to start producing a different type of list, based on my bookcases and on which seven books I’d save for each if, for some ghastly reason, I was told I couldn’t keep them all.
So, starting with this bookcase and in no particular order:--
1. Harry Potter. No—I’m not ashamed of loving Harry Potter. I love the way the story arc develops in the sequence of the books, I love the way the themes deepen and darken, and I love Professor Snape. (Why on earth didn’t Lily see that out of James and Severus, Severus was the far more interesting man, Heathcliff to James’s Linton?) So if I can only have one Harry Potter, I’m taking ‘The Half Blood Prince’.
2. All three of Richard Dalby’s Virago anthologies of Ghost Stories.
3. The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R.James---Monty was the Master.
4. John Harwood: The Ghost Writer---a wonderful, creepy novel.
5. Dracula-Bram Stoker. The book no respectable member of the Dracula Society can be without. Have re-read about five times now.
6. Lots of anthologies of vampire stories here; if I can only have one, I’ll take the Penguin Book of Vampire Stories.
7. And finally (I’m going to cheat!) I’ll have the complete Brenda and Effie novels of Paul Magrs (the sequence begins with Never the Bride)—they are an absolute treat.
That’s it for now….

September: Time to get back to work

Well, perhaps a lady of my advancing years should know better, but I've always been of the 'When I grow old, I shall wear purple' disposition. Or rather, in my case, I shall wear black and be a semi-geriatric, semi-Goth, and go on all kinds of literary and film/TV associated pilgrimages. Here I am, this summer, in Bristol, on the 'Being Human' trail, standing outside the house that was inhabited by George, Annie and Mitchell.

Anyway, enough frivolity. It's September, and I have to get back to work on the writing. I'm waiting for the critique of 'The Practical Woman's Guide to Living with the Undead' to arrive from the new writer's scheme that I joined, and I've signed up for yet another novel writing course in London. And soon (maybe) it will be time to start approaching those scary agents again.....

(And yes...I do know that I've misquoted Jenny Joseph...sorry, it's just one of those 'play it again, Sam' things that we all do as we slowly lose our marbles...erm, I think.)

Play Snakes and Ladders? No thanks!

By creating the ‘Authonomy’ site, HarperCollins have provided an invaluable service for unpublished authors, giving them the opportunity to show-case their books on the site, to edit and re-edit their work on the site as often as they wish, and to read and comment on the work of others. I posted my novel on there some time ago, and am now in the process of re-drafting and re-editing the book-there’s nothing like seeing your work in public cyber-space for making you recognise your flaws!
So, I have no complaints about ‘Authonomy’, but I do have some misgivings about the way some of its users appear to be viewing the site, that is, not as an on-line creative writing class, offering support and constructive criticism, but as a literary version of the ‘X-Factor’ or as a ruthless game of snakes and ladders in which it’s perceived as essential to push your book up the ratings in order to reach the ‘Editor’s Desk’ (the Holy Grail of so many participants) by any means possible. Ploys used in this process include ‘backing’ the books of others in order to persuade them to return the compliment, or heaping unconditional praise on the work of others for the same purpose. All this, I have to say, gets in the way of meaningful work-sharing, and is a hollow exercise in self-promotion. Mutual support is one thing; sycophantic grovelling out of self- interest is quite another. (If you do reach the Editor’s Desk, you get a critique of your book, which may prove helpful, but won’t be the Golden Gate to publication. And why should it? )
Of course we all want to be published eventually; nothing wrong in that. But surely it’s just as important to learn to write well first, whether you’re aiming at the literary or the commercial market. I’ve now received about 170 comments on my book, and only about three of them have actually been helpful. The rest of them are just empty phrases of fulsome praise. Now, maybe some of those positive comments have come from people who’ve read the first three pages and dipped into the rest just to get a feel of the book (I wouldn’t expect anyone on Authonomy to waste valuable writing time reading my whole book!), in which case, many thanks. But it’s quite clear that most of these comments have been made by people who’ve only read the pitch and whose only concern seems to be to make me ‘back’ their book, whether I like it or not. One or two writers, mainly, I have to say from the U.S., have even stated this objective categorically in a pushy ‘how about it Buddy?’ tone. I haven’t asked anyone to back my book, and I won’t be doing so. I’d rather someone just stumbled on my work, and read it and offered me some practical criticism, even if it’s just pointing out a typo or two.
As I’ve said on the site, on my profile page:

“I'm here in order to hone my writing and test it out on other readers, who can perhaps suggest ways to improve it and make my work more marketable. I'm not here because I see this site as a route to publication, nor am I playing a snakes and ladders game to reach the editor's desk. In my view, the best way to achieve publication is to redraft and redraft your work, study your craft, pitch your work to agents, and, if you do want a professional assessment, pay a reputable literary consultancy, or join excellent organisations such as the RNA, who offer a wonderful New Writers Scheme.”

And there’s the rub. There’s no quick, magic way to publication. One or two authors have been published after their work has been seen on ‘Authonomy’, but that will be because their work was worth it. Literary success (and arguably any real, artistic success) is the result of 99 percent hard work, and maybe one percent luck.

An Actual Holiday Snap

...but from a very different place from the one in my RNA story . Here I am, in 2010, in Wellington, New Zealand, outside the birthplace of the author whom I consider to be the best woman writer of short stories of all time, Katherine Mansfield. We were on a lovely guided tour, but unfortunately our stay in Wellington coincided with the two days when the house is closed, but at least that gives me an excuse to return some day. I love Katherine Mansfield's work; she is exactly the kind of writer I would like to have been, sharp, sassy, poetic, poignant and insightful. If you haven't read her yet, including her brilliant journals, I urge you to do so. And there's also a superb biography by Claire Tomalin that's not to be missed.