Archive for the ‘My Writing’ Category

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This Writing Life


2010
08.19

Posted in Inspiration, My Writing, Workshops, Writing your novel | 2 Comments »

I am very excited by this writing life just now. Why? Well firstly I’m excited about possible options on my Danny Beck novel for publication here and USA in 2012.  Given the delay on this I have decided to put my second crime novel on ice and in the hiatus of Renga days – I still find I’m fascinated and surprised by writing this daily verse – several new projects have emerged.

To some extent they are ideas that lay fallow – an East Anglian novel (place is so often my starting point) being one of them. I now have approx 5000 words and a kind of outline of where the novel is going and more importantly I am very much enjoying the writing.

Then there are my short stories, the first of which, about the artist Michelangelo, floated almost fully formed into my head and demanded to be written. I am now working on a themed collection and have just completed a story in the voice of Mark Rothko. This feels like quite a creative leap for me but one which springs out my love of Art and my background in Art History.

There’s my poetry too, I haven’t abandoned working on that.

And last but not least is my Autumn Novel Group – the details of which are below – this is something I’ve wanted to do for some time and feel quite passionate about.

Autumn Novel Group 2010

This autumn I am offering a unique course for writers interested in making significant progress with a book length project i.e. a novel, a collection of short stories or a family memoir.

The course will take place fortnightly in my home in Witton-le-Wear from 7-9.45pm on Tuesday evenings at a cost of £15.00 per session and will initially run from Sept – December (start date Sept 14th) over a period of 12 weeks = 6 sessions.  Follow up options may be arranged to continue into 2011 with possible monthly meetings.

Places will be limited to 6 participants. This is to ensure those taking part have sufficient time in which to discuss their current work, their progress and concerns at each meeting.

My intention is that we will concentrate less on reading out and the fine detail of our text (although this may sometimes be appropriate and relevant) and more on process – plot, narrative voice, structure, beginnings, middles, drafting, editing, the language, dialogue, research, procrastination…….we might discuss some or indeed all of these and more, depending on where you are with your writing and what issues or problems you bring to the group.

Having written my first novel The Sweet Track whilst taking part in just such a group I am keenly aware how much there is to learn in the rarefied atmosphere created by the committed few.

It is my intention that as well as leading the group I will write alongside you. My current crime novel has attracted interest with an option for purchase in 2011 and publication in the UK and America in 2012. In the intervening period I will be writing a new novel set on the east coast of England. I am also working on a themed collection of short stories inspired by the lives of well- known artists.

Whether you are just starting out, or already part way through, embarking on and completing a piece of long fiction can be a daunting task. It will be my aim to offer you advice, support and focus in achieving your goals, as well as a warm welcome, coffee and biscuits and a share in my own passion for writing and getting the work done.

If you are interested in joining the group or have any further questions please contact me at: amjoy@hotmail.co.uk

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Sweet Peas From My Garden


2010
07.20

Posted in Gardens, My Writing | 4 Comments »

Sweet peas from my garden

Sweet peas come very near the top of my favourite flower list, perhaps my favourite although I would hate to have to choose and can think of many others that hold a special place in my personal catalogue: cornflowers, old fashioned roses, lilac, cherry blossom, primroses, peonies….

What I love about sweet peas is their glorious, jewel- like colour and their sensational scent and I’m so pleased I planted a whole row in my garden this year. They have just begun to flower and this means I can pick them for the house and enjoy them all day – sweet peas love to be picked, in fact they insist on it. The more you pick, the more flowers appear – a cornucopia of delicate blossoms

My second novel, The Orchid House, reflected my love of flowers and gardens and was inspired by a visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. An editor at Bloomsbury said some good things about it and I often think of going back to it and using what I’ve learned – so much now-  to re-write it. I think one day I will…and the sweet peas will be there for sure.

The Flower Garden was set in rows of intense colour, spread out like a carpet made from rags of cotton and chintz. Protected behind walls of warm brick its sheltered beds threw up sweet, old-fashioned drifts of larkspur, cornflower and scabious, godetia and marigold.

Madeline stood against a row of cornflowers, a basket at her feet already half full with sweet peas and cosmos


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Clear Thinking


2010
07.12

Posted in My Writing | 2 Comments »

It’s been quite a week or more – ten days to be precise: back and forth to London twice – and in the heat, the Royal Albert Hall, the rolling hills of Surrey, countless motorway road works, champagne – twice, a party and a final show. All of this played out against the backdrop of a crazy man with a gun on the loose in Rothbury, the hitherto sleepy town, just up the road in Northumberland, where the sky was awash with helicopters and the countryside and streets flooded with armed police, armed vehicles and journalists from across the UK. On balance, last week, leafy Surry seemed a safe bet.

And the way it all finally ended – who says truth isn’t stranger than fiction?

On the subject of fiction – it’s a long game waiting to know the fate of your novel – about six months now — but I’m not complaining – it’s a game I’d much rather been in than not.

Thanks to the hard work of my agent my Danny Beck novel is still out there under consideration with both mainstream and independent publishers, and what has been really encouraging for me is that one editor already likes it very much. Unfortunately a deal is currently not possible for various reasons, however it bodes well for the future and I am so pleased that it has found such favour with an editor and her co-publishers. Someone in the publishing world believes in my novel and often (perhaps not in this case, although maybe – time will tell) one person is enough.

So back to waiting and writing of course – and back also to remembering the Seven Habits of Highly Unhappy People! one of my Clear Thinking weekly insights (if you want to find out more or subscribe then click the link) – the habits listed are Judging, Criticising, Complaining, Blaming, Arguing, Competing and Controlling (i.e. trying to control others)

OK so it’s impossible not to employ some of these habits some of the time, I know, but resisting them leads to a much more positive outlook and comes in very handy when you have to deal with rejection, disappointment or difficulty. Try it and see.

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When The Waiting Stops and the Writing Begins/ Fire and Ice


2010
06.26

Posted in Crime, My Writing, Writing your novel | No Comments »

While I wait to discover the fate of my first crime novel (some very encouraging developments so far but nothing concrete yet ) I’ve found it difficult to write. The waiting game is not easy but there is only one way to play it and that is to start work on the next novel. So far I’ve had a number of false starts and I’ve held off because it seemed presumptuous to begin a second novel with the same character- Private Investigator Danny Beck – at the center when the first has yet to be accepted. But the thing is I believe in him, and if I don’t believe in myself and my characters then who will?

There is much more to say about Danny Beck and a new story to explore, but most important of all it’s what I want to write, what I feel excited about and inspired by and its no good embarking on the long haul if you don’t feel fired-up. Which brings me to fire and ice and to volcanoes.

I have decided to open the novel (working title Fire and Ice) against the backdrop of the volcanic eruption beneath the glacier in Iceland, at the point at which it brings european air space to a standstill. This decision has sparked off a whole train of ideas and I have since been playing with the properties of fire and ice, both physical and metaphorical.

I like to have abstract themes underneath of what I write, for me this is one of the more playful aspects of writing. Today I have been thinking about which of my characters are fire: hot-headed, quick, angry and which ice: emotionally detached, slippery, lethal which of course applies to both elements. But more importantly I have been writing and sketching out the first ten chapters- and all of this is where the joy and pleasure of writing reside – and not in the waiting.

Writing Tip - What will it be about? I have learned that it’s a very useful exercise to write down in a matter of sentences and certainly no more than a paragraph what your novel is about – you can do this at any stage of the writing, it is always useful. It is not as easy as it sounds. It is not about telling the story but about capturing the essence, its heart, more like the blurb you read on the back of published novels. For instance I might begin – Fire and Ice is about one man’s quest for justice…

You need to be able to do this because if you don’t know what the  novel is about how can you expect your reader to know.

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Writers, Readers – and Bluebells


2010
05.21

Posted in My Writing, People, Reading | 2 Comments »

Today I walked in the bluebell wood near the Botanic Gardens in Durham - heavenly! Took my new camera

Writers need readers, without them we are nothing. When we write or when we  come to consider what we’ve written, it is vitally important that we ask ourselves if it will work for our readers and what their experience of our novel will be.

I recently had some interesting feedback on my current novel after a close reading by a perceptive American reader. It was invaluable to know about his experience of the novel: what he felt about about my characters -  how they might be developed further, what else he needed me as the author to tell him, where there was ambiguity, where he needed clarification or to be  ‘pointed in the right direction.’ His feedback made me see the novel from the reader’s perspective. It made me realise ways in which I could improve it and it reminded me of the duty we have as novelists not only to create fully rounded and satisfying characters but  also to guide our readers effortlessly through our narrative.

Eileen Elgey – friend, writer and reader, recently had a piece on being a reader published in The Journal (click to read)-  the first thing she does, she says, when she wakes in the morning is reach for a book….

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Eighty Nine Going on Twenty Nine..


2010
05.06

Posted in Crime, Inspiration, My Writing, People | 1 Comment »

P.D.James is eighty nine, soon to be ninety. At the Hexham Book Festival last Sunday you could be forgiven for thinking she was twenty years younger …or more! She was simply fabulous, as was her host Val Mcdermid, and their on stage meeting  sparkled with good humour and wit. Their conversation was littered with gems about writing and the writing life. Val McDermid had undoubtedly done her homework, and together they made it seem effortless and above all – fun! It was a privilege to eavesdrop.

At Hexham I also talked with crime writer Ann Cleeves, who I knew in another life, in prison. It was great to meet up with her after a long gap in which she has become a star! She is as she always was, a brilliant and dedicated writer and a lovely person to know and be around. She also said some interesting and perceptive things about writing crime fiction which chimed with P.D. James earlier in the day – in particular they both spoke about structure and plot in the crime novel, as a liberating rather than constraining force: as something that looked after itself.

Being new to the genre I’d worried a great deal about coming up with a plausible and complex plot – it had seemed like venturing into unknown and hostile territory (although of course we are hard wired into the genre, if not from our reading, then from film and television.) Then when I’d finished the first draft of my novel I wondered why it  felt so easy and relaxed to write– I think now I know. I think as Ann said, ‘the plot takes care of itself.’

AND I  love what P.D. James says in, Talking About Detective Fiction – a must-read for crime aficiandos-  ‘To say that one cannot produce  a good novel within the discipline of a formal structure is as foolish as to say that no sonnet can be great poetry…’

*** To read more about the day and about Ann Cleeves’  interview on The Writing Game - read Wendy’s great post at Lifetwicetasted.

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Why Crime Fiction?


2010
04.30

Posted in Crime, France, My Writing | 1 Comment »

L'Herault, Agde, taken during my stay last year - I was very sad to leave - see left under Inspiration- for my poem

Last year, during two hot months in France I wrote the first draft of my new (now completed) novel about a Private Investigator.

Until then I had not anticipated writing crime fiction and there are times still when I find myself surprised by this turn of events in my writing life. Times when I ask myself – why crime fiction?

I think this P.D. James quote goes a long way to answering my question – she says ‘I learned a lot from Dorothy Sayers, I think. I learned that it’s important to write well. She was a good writer. I learned…that you can use  a detective story…to say something true, or something you really believe in – and to illumine contemporary life.’

A number of crime writers I admire, Henning Mankell for one, have said something similar: that moving into crime fiction was the means for them of exploring  social issues and moral dilemmas.

Ian Rankin, defender of the genre says ‘…the best crime fiction today is actually talking to us about the same things big literary novels are talking about. They are talking about moral questions, taking ordinary people and putting them in extraordinary situations, and saying to the reader, “How would you cope in this situation?” Or saying, “How would you feel about living in a world in which this these crimes are allowed to happen?” I don’t see a distinction between the two. I think some of the best crime fiction is literature. And some of the best literature is crime fiction.’

I’m inclined to agree – after all a good novel is a good novel is a ….and for me, crime fiction, is most definitely the  place in which I can explore the darker aspects of  the world I live in, including the lives of many of the women I worked with in prison, while at the same time doing what I enjoy most – writing.

And writing my crime novel was probably the most fun I’ve had in my writing life to date!

Looking forward very much to 11.00 am Sunday and P.D. James interviewed by Val McDermid at the Hexham Book festival (now sold out)

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Feel The Fear and Write…


2010
04.17

Posted in Inspiration, My Writing, People | 6 Comments »

Writing Down The Bones, is a book I often turn to get my writing juices flowing!

Sometimes it’s hard to believe in ourselves as writers, but it’s very important that we do. Too often we doubt ourselves, and we rely too heavily on approval from others and ultimately from the world of books and publishing.

Without self belief it’s impossible to keep writing and that’s why we need people like Natalie Goldberg to help foster our faith in ourselves and our love of writing. We need to nurture our fragile egos, learn to say  ‘what the hell’ to everything that gets in the way and know we can write!

Being with other writers is sometimes the best medicine for self doubt and for me it’s always inspirational.

This morning I listened to a fascinating conversation between Wendy Robertson, who was recording for her new radio programme, The Writing Game, and local writers Hilary Smith and Eileen Elgey. They talked about beginnings – about their writing and about writers they admired, as well as bravely and beautifully reading from their work. The programme goes out on Bishop FM in early May – (I will let you know time and date -soon) – it  will be a valuable resource and inspiration for both new and existing writers as well as readers, and will feature interviews with published authors, local writers, writing workshops and regular book reviews and recommendations.

The recording today inspired me to get writing. I’ve bought  a new notebook so I’m prepared. I have a beginning, something I’m working on but I’m still experimenting and looking for something fresh, maybe completely different. The best way to find it is of course is to just WRITE

But if you feel like I do at the moment, unsure of where to start, unsure of what you want to say then why not try starting with Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down The Bones - its bursting with ideas and inspiration and her own unique zen outlook. It’s sold millions of copies and being translated into many languages

On writing the book she says , ‘I think I was writing the book to save my creative life. To learn to trust my own mind and have a confidence in my experience.I felt I had something to say and wanted to say it. At first, though, I was afraid… I was afraid people would think it was stupid or idealistic. But I decided I had to put it down and share with the world something that I saw…’

Natalie teaches us not be afraid – possibly the best message there is for a writer!

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New beginnings…beautiful things


2010
03.08

Posted in My Writing, Workshops | 1 Comment »

The Easington launch was a great success: a packed house and over two hundred books sold.

If you would like a copy it is available through all good bookshops (ISBN 978-0-9564823-0-3) OR through AGNES FRAIN . Email her at agnesfrain@hotmail.co.uk Catch all the photos and details on Wendy’s blog post.

Beautiful gift from Easington writers

Now  the RoomToWrite conference is imminent!! – next Saturday in fact. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to arrive on as beautiful a morning as we did last November? If today is anything to go by then we may be in luck, with some early spring sunshine catching the dewy grass and sparkling its welcome.

But rain or shine it’s sure to be a day of intense and focused discussion, a lot of learning  and of course writing ,with one or two glasses of white wine or G&Ts thrown in. I’m looking forward to it very much. Why?  Because I like nothing better than to spend the day with writers and talk writing!

Today the sun at the conservatory window has set my bowl of hot red and pink tulips alight, and my beautiful gift of flowers from Easington Writers fills the room with its scent.  The sky is a faultless blue – and accompanying the day is sense of the winter past and the new spring arriving – a time of beginnings.

Speaking of new beginnings – I set myself the task of writing six beginnings from portraits – here is one I wrote in Suffolk – this time from a live portrait..

A lone figure appeared on the horizon, looming out of the shoreline fog,hovering in the mist thrown up by the North sea: black and hooded and bent into the wind, leaning on a rolled-up umbrella. A man she thought, a young man, although she couldn’t be sure – a man from another age,  pilgrim-like, a saddhu robbed of his nakedness by the icy east winds…

I have been working on several other beginnings since Suffolk and  the strange – although perhaps not really strange thing is, they are beginning to look like fragments of the same story – who knows a novel even…

And speaking of beautiful things do take a look at    absolutelybeautifulthings – I discovered it today – its a real visual treat!

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A Conversation with the Sea


2010
02.13

Posted in Inspiration, My Writing, Places, Visual Arts | 2 Comments »

Scallop - Maggi Hambling

I am about to spend a week away with friends in Suffolk, and I’m really looking forward to it. East Anglia is a place that holds real resonance for me. I went there as an undergraduate many moons ago and more recently I lived in Norwich for six months.

The flatlands call to me – perhaps they remind me of home and the Somerset Levels or perhaps it has more to do with how I felt when I left home and a whole new life opened up before me – I especially loved those four years I spent there from age 18 – 22

The cottage we are staying in is on an estuary – with great views to the sea, so I will be in my watery element. I am also feeling optimistic having had some unexpectedly good feedback on my new novel. There is still a long way to go but I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I’m enjoying the praise and positive vibes while they last – I’m beginning to be a great believer in celebrating the small successes and not worrying too much about the future.

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Maggi Hambling’ s Scallop again, on Aldeburgh beach. The edge of the main shell is pierced with the words, “I hear those voices that will not be drowned” It makes my skin prickle just thinking about it!

I’ve been thinking for some time about setting a novel or some stories in East Anglia so I’m hoping very much to hear some of those voices and have my own conversation with the sea.

Music is an abstract art, but we cannot help being struck, as we approach the sculpture from shoreward, by the anguished cry from Peter Grimes: ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’. It is immediately visible, written by light on the rim of the shell. These are words bound to intensify our sense of hearing as they suggest we listen for reverberations of another kind on the marine air – echoes of ‘the still sad music of humanity’. We remember at once the essential humanism of Britten’s music, its expression of the total range of thought and feeling, its empathetic capacity to celebrate and to commemorate, to praise and to mourn.

Mel Gooding

Notes: Maggi Hambling referred to Scallop as ‘a conversation with the sea’.

Mel Gooding is a well-known writer on art and architecture. He is Research Fellow at Edinburgh College of Art.

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