Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...
Crime Tuesday
This morning’s guest speaker was crime publisher Jon Wood, seen above in interview with Swanwick’s very own Michael O’Byrne. Having started his career with Hodder & Stoughton, where the first best selling author he took on was Harlan Coben, Jon moved to Orion Books in 2000. He had a great deal to say about changes in the publishing industry, but what struck me most was that calls on his time could well lead to his reading a submission on the Tube. For nine minutes. While strap hanging. Not encouraging news for budding authors!
Feeling the need for a change of scenery, I devoted the afternoon to a visit to Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood. The main building dates from 1660, the museum being housed in the 19th century east wing. Some rooms were used in the 1995 television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and the tour guide showed us a mantelpiece on which Mr Darcy aka Colin Firth leaned and the table on which he wrote a cheque to the manipulative Mr Wickham. He (the tour guide) then stood back and waited for the ladies to swoon. No one did. The museum was fun and it was good to see so many children fascinated by traditional toys and then allowed to play with carefully crafted replicas.
Back in Swanwick, a stroll round the lake before dinner appealed to me and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it looking more attractive.
The evening speaker was Zoe Lambert, who told us all about her short story collection The War Tour, concluding that it was not the writer’s job to judge but just to show what kind of people the characters are.
Write, Camera, Action! has become a regular feature of Swanwick week and a series of sketches presented by Katie White and guests brought this very busy day to a close.
13 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Fashioning Fiction From Fact
Syd Moore, seen here on the right, followed last night’s talk with a two part workshop. After a brief introduction, she divided the audience into groups and gave each a set of fairly random stimuli around which to construct a plot. My group had to include the renovation of an old house, a ghostly voice repeating ‘The cutter’ and Matthew Hopkins (again!) who may or may not have died of TB on a Caribbean island.
The second session saw the original groups broken up and new ones working on characterisation, each individual having chosen to concentrate on someone from the earlier scenario. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting – to be honest, I’d rather have heard more about Syd’s own writing – but a useful exercise nevertheless.
Our evening speaker was retired Chief Constable Michael O’Byrne, a Swanwick stalwart who never fails to entertain. The Unprepared Surviving The Unexpected, although serious in parts, brought the house down. We learnt that it’s the smell rather than the sight of dead bodies that makes policemen faint and that the aroma can be reproduced – should any crime writer wish – by keeping fish and prawns in a plastic bag exposed to the sunshine for three days. My particular favourite amongst Michael’s many anecdotes was that of the police officer who arrested a rich heiress in London. At the time, she was driving erratically at about 5mph and bouncing off other cars ‘as though trying to read Braille’. He was running beside her Rolls Royce and eventually managed to wrench open a door and stop the car. What a shame no one was around to record the scene and post it on You Tube!
12 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
And now for something completely different!
Today has been very full. James Moran followed his talk last night with a two part course on screenwriting and deftly fielded all the questions a very appreciative audience could come up with.
My next course, to be delivered in four parts, was with the inimitable Steve Hartley. Well remembered by Swanwickers for his talk last year, particularly the challenge to fit as many people as possible into the enormous pair of pants he had brought along with him, I knew that this would be fun and today’s session certainly was! Steve’s approach to humour for younger children doesn’t always go down well with adults, in particular those opposed to robust language with regard to bodily functions, but his Danny Baker Record Breaker series is a sure fire winner with the 7+ age group. Tomorrow, Steve will be talking about the importance of keeping the adult voice out of children’s stories.
Our evening speaker was Syd Moore, who held a packed Main Conference Hall spellbound – definitely the most appropriate word – with an account of her research into the persecution of witches and subsequent weaving of facts into fiction. I’d be very surprised if no nightmares ensued from Syd’s unflinching description of the horrors inflicted on innocent women in the 17th century by Matthew Hopkins, the infamous Witchfinder General. The extracts she read from The Drowning Pool were frightening enough but having the lights switched off at the climax of her reading from Witch Hunt was a masterly way to end the talk.
Later on, the Swanwick buskers had their chance to shine. Mark Iveson, seen above with Julia, Andy, Katie and Graham, did a magnificent job of organising the whole event. John, Zana, Marguerite, Daniela, Roy and Fliss are also to be congratulated on their performances. And so to bed.
11 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Swanwick 2013
It’s a real pleasure to be back at the Writers’ Summer School, known affectionately as ‘Swanwick’, and hosted for every one of its 65 years at The Hayes Conference Centre. The main buildings were bathed in sunshine as I arrived but, rain or shine, I know that I’m in for a stimulating and challenging week. Placing copies of my short story omnibus in the Book Room for others to purchase (I hope) was only the first of many pleasures.*
Once again allocated a comfortable en suite room in Lakeside – yes, there actually is a lake in the grounds of The Hayes – I set off to meet old friends and make some new ones. There are 47 ‘white badgers’ this year, also known as ‘Swanwick virgins’, so that will be interesting. Chances abound to mingle; on arrival over tea and cake, in the bar before dinner, during dinner (no set places, thank goodness), in the bar later on …
Our opening speaker this year was screenwriter James Moran who, among many other things, has written episodes of Dr Who, Torchwood, Primeval and Spooks. He shared with us his ‘journey’, from weird paintings he produced at primary school, where he was already obsessed to some degree with horror, through winning a Sci Fi Channel script writing competition and then to being taken on by an agent and scripting the 2005 film Severance.
James made the point that a freelance screenwriter, however successful, is never ‘home and dry’. The more pitches you make, the more rejections you leave yourself open to and you will certainly meet many infuriating people along the way. Everyone connected with a production thinks that he/she knows better than the humble writer, who (if wise) quickly learns the art of lip biting. However, the writers who make it are those who don’t give up. Now how many times have I heard that at Swanwick!!!
The adrenalin was still flowing at ten o’clock when, after a swift trip to the bar and assured that no previous drama experience was needed, I joined the inimitable Julia Pattison’s ice-breaker. The warm up exercise, where everyone stood in a circle to reproduce the sounds of the Brazilian rain forest was fun and very effective. Later on, our little group’s attempt to reproduce a Japanese fairy tale – cast of 80+ characters required and there were four of us – left a lot to be desired. I’ll draw a discreet veil over my own performance as a windy mountain top!
*A copy has already been sold (before the official opening of the Book Shop) and I was delighted to pen a dedication to the lady concerned.
10 August, 2013 - There are 2 comments on this story
Potential eavesdropper in the Woolpack
Well, Rhona (Zoe Henry) seemed to think so in one of this week’s episodes.
This website is mostly about my writing, but I am asked from time to time about my ‘day job’. As often as not, people complain that they’ve never actually seen me in Emmerdale. Well, here I am! For once, I’m not just a blur in the background or disappearing round a corner.
9 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Ripon Writers’ Group featured in Club Focus
As the current Chair, I’m delighted to see RWG featured in today’s Ripon Gazette and its sister newspapers. Given that the Group’s history stretches back over 30 years, founder member Daphne and I certainly had plenty of material to choose from when we wrote the article. (The limitations imposed by an A4 scanner have led to its appearance below in two overlapping sections.)
8 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Featured in Writing Magazine
Sally Jenkins’s article on independent e-publishing is in the September 2013 issue and I’m delighted to be one of her interviewees. The others are Neneh Gordon, Anne Harvey and Jackie Johnson.
Along with a great deal of practical advice, Sally has explored our reasons for jumping onto this ‘shiny new bandwagon’. My own are twofold. First of all, it’s an opportunity to offer to a wider readership a selection of short stories that have won competitions and/or already been published; secondly to showcase others not written to fit the requirements of mainstream publications.
As Sally points out, independent e-publishing is not a get-rich-quick scheme for most writers. However, knowing that my stories now have a much longer life span than was previously the case will do for the moment.
2 August, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Also available in print!
I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me that they’d love to read my short story collections if only they were available in print. Well, here they are and all in one omnibus edition available from any Amazon website!
Readers who prefer to download the omnibus from Amazon as an eBook can also benefit, as this offers all three collections for the price of two.
28 July, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Literary Allsorts 2013
Ripon Writers’ Group’s third annual ‘open mic’ event saw around forty writers and their guests enjoy an evening of readings at the Golden Lion on Allhallowgate. Vicky and Steve generously allowed us free use of their large (and air conditioned) function room, for which everyone was very grateful on such a hot evening.
In addition to many local writers, it was good to welcome contingents from Leeds, Harrogate, Nidderdale and York, including many Swanwickers (devotees of The Writers’ Summer School held each August at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire).
Poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction flowed in generous measure and I managed to fit in – just – everyone who signed up to take part. Chairing the event was quite a task but an enjoyable one, even though I seemed to spend as much time scanning the list of would be readers and anxiously eyeing my watch as listening to their contributions.
Fortunately, fellow RWG committee members kept my glass well filled and the evening ended in a happy glow.
More photographs of the event can be seen at www.riponwriters.co.uk
12 July, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
Featured in the Yorkshire Post
N.B. My companions and I didn’t just have ‘a trip round’ the Russian capital in a double-decker. We bought the old bus for a very modest sum and drove from Manchester to Moscow via France, Belgium, West and East Germany and Poland. Our route home took us through parts of the Ukraine, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Six weeks on the road and plenty of food for thought!
5 July, 2013 - Make the first comment on this story
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