Michael Jecks's Blog, page 28

Quick Tips: Goals

Perfect morning: blog post written, pens ready, shot of espresso… now to write!

I keep having people ask how I work: how do I get my ideas down on paper? How do I write so quickly?

Well, I work one hour at a time. In 50 minutes I can type 1,000 words, and that is most of a scene, usually. Then I’ll take a ten minute break, during which I plot out the next scene in my head, and hit the keys again. That way I get through a day with ease, generally typing 1,000 words an hour. 5,000 a day is easy.

Some people hate having a target. For me it works well. But then I’ve always been target-orientated. I was a salesman and had goals every quarter before I became an author. But first and foremost, I’m a businessman and I work within set timescales. Publishers need to have the conviction that they will get the work in so that they can book time at printers, with their copy editors, with their proof readers. All business is run on targets. So I set my own to help me achieve the deadlines I must hit.

In any case, having a daily word count means you can assess how far you’re progressing. It won’t mean that you write more sloppily. What it does mean is that you know you’ll have to edit hard! [That's the bit I dislike, and in part I think it may be because I cannot assess my progress. When putting words down, I can see how things are growing. When that's all finished, I have the main basic story on the computer and it's down to edits.] However, by writing fast, you maintain a narrative energy that is difficult to emulate when you write more slowly and with perfect prose in the first draft.

So, if you’re writing, set yourself targets, but make sure that they’re not challenging. If they’re too hard, you’ll find them disincentives rather than encouraging. It is important that you can actually hit your targets. Have small goals so that you can achieve them, but increase them if you find that they’re too easy. If you have a full time job, give yourself an hour a day and see how much you can type. If you can get 1,000 words down, you’re doing brilliantly. Through the day take notes and think about what you’re going to get from the scene: where is it heading? Then, when you are ready to type, you’ll find the words flow.

And when you do complete each target, it’s another milestone. That’s good: it means you deserve a glass of wine, or an extra hour on the X-Box, or the naughty delight of that bar of chocolate hidden in the fridge. Reward yourself!

Don’t forget: if you want to be a writer, you can be. But you need to write!

If you want more hints and tips, I’ll be adding to this blog every week. I also have the writerlywitterings channel on youtube, though, if you want to hear me talking about writing and how I do it. Next video on writing goes up on Thursday morning. Don’t miss it!

Tagged: author, authors, blogger, book writing, crime writer, crime writing, Dartmoor, Devon, hints and tips, historian, history, Knight Templar, knights templar, medieval, medievalist, Michael Jecks, novel, novelist, publishing, Q&A, questions, questions and answers, scribbler, Templar series, templars, writer, writing

Day Jobs

There is a different mindset in Britain compared with more entrepreneurial nations like America.

In Britain we have always been pigeonholed at an early age. Men would learn a trade, serve an apprenticeship with a leatherworker, cordwainer, butcher or smith, or perhaps, if he was lucky, he might get a post with a bank and earn a little more. Meanwhile women would get jobs as servants, waitresses, or something a little less savoury, until they met a man with money and prospects.

The main point is, in Britain people tended to take a career, and then they were lumbered with that for life.

In America, from the earliest days, people tended to have to have multiple careers. If you turned up in the mid-west and all you had was one skill-set, you were not a huge help to a growing community. So shopkeepers would also keep pigs or chickens, would perhaps double as part-time chippies, and would invest in the local theatre or bar. That attitude is still there. I know several Americans who are working on three or four different jobs. Yes, the professionals tend to stick to the one main career, but others have no need to be buttonholed by one job specification.

With the AsparaWriting Festival organising committee and the lovely Simon Brett

I’ve never had a problem with working on different schemes. In the past year I’ve worked with the Royal Literary Fund and the AsparaWriting Festival. I’ve been involved in planning and marketing, selling, and one-to-one tuition. And at the end of it, I can happily say that I’ve probably lost two books.

The thing is, certainly for me, that to write efficiently, it’s essential that you concentrate on the job. You cannot just throw words down and hope that you’ll make sense. A novelist is someone who is living through other people’s eyes. Sometimes the writer will work effectively in the present day, which makes the job a damn sight easier: you can write about the world as it is, and merely translate it to another’s point of view.

However, for me it’s a bit more difficult. I need to research constantly, because I’m trying to accurately express how people used to look at a world that did exist but which is now long gone. To do that, I have to immerse myself in the world I’m describing. So, for months every year, I disappear into my own head, thinking, dreaming, living in a long-dead world.

It is weird. If I were a carpenter or builder, working for seven hours, I would understand the sudden exhaustion at the end of the working day. There is nothing, nothing, tiring about sitting at a desk and thinking. Is there. Or is there? I find that after writing 5,000 words for five days, I am utterly exhausted. I cannot think clearly, and social interaction is impossible. I am, in effect, a zombie. So while I am in a book, the weekends are pretty much a wash out.

OK, I did have a little editing work to do last year as well!

However, while, for example, I was working with the Royal Literary Fund, I found that I couldn’t write my own books. I was getting so taken up with the essays, theses and dissertations I was reading, that I couldn’t write my own books. I had estimated that I would be able to write my normal 5,000 words a day for at least two days a week if not three, but in all honesty, I was damn lucky to get 5,000 in total. And that cost me dearly – basically, it meant I lost two books.

So, perhaps there is something in my genes that makes me very un-American. I’m one of those people who cannot fit in multiple careers. If I want to write, I need to have time and peace in order to be able to concentrate and get the words down on paper. Perhaps that is the case.

All I do know is that as writers earn less and less, with now only eleven percent able to live on their meagre incomes, and the vast majority having to keep up a separate career to support themselves. After all, in real terms, i.e. allowing for inflation, writers’ incomes have fallen by twenty nine percent in the last eight years.

So, if you know of a film director with money burning a hole in his pocket, and the need to donate funds to a successful author by buying into his book series, do please get him or her to contact me.

It would be nice to have some money again!

Tagged: author, blogger, book writing, crime writer, crime writing, Dartmoor, Devon, hints and tips, historian, history, Knight Templar, knights templar, marketing, medieval, medievalist, Michael Jecks, novelist, Q&A, questions, questions and answers, scribbler, Templar series, writer, writing

Football’s Over – Yippee!

I know. It’s rather immature (mind you, no one’s ever accused me of maturity), but I so detest football, that I cannot help a little frisson of delight that the damn nonsense is over for a while.

My poor son is a perfectly ordinary lad. He enjoys all kinds of sports: he adores cricket, swimming, tennis, netball, rugby – everything, really. But to maintain his street cred, he is most particularly keen on football. And it is the one thing I won’t compromise on because I hate it.

When I think of football, I think of the weekends when I was a lad of his age, and I heard every week of violent assaults on innocent people. I remember the news reports talking about murders having taken place, the stories of riots, and the racism, sexism and cruelty. There were deaths, so it seemed to me, every week.

It’s not a recent innovation. Readers of my books will know that I’ve mentioned the game in books. A Friar’s Bloodfeud springs to mind here. And I mention it because even in medieval times football was mentioned pretty often in the Coroners’ Rolls for being responsible for homicides.

Then again, it’s not only violence on and off the pitch that football brings to my mind. It’s also the corruption. The way that the players can earn sums that are utterly ludicrous. Yes, they are competent at their sport. Does that make them worth £150,000 or £200,000 a week? No. To earn weekly what most people would take ten years to earn is, to my mind, appalling.

Then you see how nations are carefully selected in order to host the ‘world cups’, with massive stadia being constructed, as in Brazil, with people evicted from their homes, with the poor pushed out and away from the limelight because they don’t do a nation’s image any good. And then you hear of the interesting consultancy fees and advisory payments to people as happened in Qatar, and the whole process starts to reek.

Of course, to an extent the entire system is daft. Like the Olympics, the fact of moving every year makes the process a joke. Why should there be a group of people who hold such power over even nation states, rewarding those they like with the opportunity to have a games held in their country every so often. The cost of the British Olympics was insane, with buildings being thrown up all over the place, many of which were unnecessary and not needed. Far better to return to the old system and have the Olympics held once more in Greece and not to keep moving around the world every four years. There would be a single set of buildings to build which could then be maintained. No need to reinvent the world for every new games.

But when I become the world’s beneficient dictator, football will return to its correct status in the world, relegated to a game played for fun in the streets.

Tagged: author, blogger, book writing, Dartmoor, Devon, football, hints and tips, historian, history, Knight Templar, knights templar, medieval, medievalist, Michael Jecks, novelist, Q&A, questions, questions and answers, scribbler, Templar series, writer, writing

MPs

Lovely photo last night of our revered Members of Parliament discussing some important matters about the UK’s relationship with Europe.

Seriously, if our MPs can’t be bothered to vote, why the hell should they expect us to vote for them?

I am developing grumpy old git syndrome.

Tagged: EEC, Europe, European project, Politics

The Research Into Author Incomes

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth reconsidering this week.

The Authors Licensing and Collecting Society is a marvellous organisation that helps authors by collecting odd amounts of money. For example, I recently had some few pounds because someone in Germany had been copying pages from one of my novels for use in classes in a school. The ALCS has an interest in how authors are remunerated.

And the news is, even worse than ever.

Yes, there is a nice lady called JK Rowling; there’s another called Martina Cole. There are men like Ian Rankin, Sandy McCall Smith, John Grisham, James Patterson, and all of them earn stratospheric amounts. In the same way, the legal profession has some QCs who can afford yachts, some architects can afford private jets, and musicians can afford mansions on both coasts of America to go with their properties in the UK.

The top percent of people in any profession seem to be hugely well remunerated. This is the case in almost every profession: whether  lawyers, architects, musicians, and authors, you can bet that the top 5 percent will take pretty much 80 percent of all the income for their field.

Yes, there are authors who earn ridiculous sums. However, the reality for most is nearer Grubb Street.

In the late 1990s the Society of Authors asked all their authors about their incomes. To the horror of very few, it was learned that while the national average wage was £21,000, only 5 percent of authors earned above £30,000. Three quarters of all authors earned less than the national average. Worse, two thirds earned less than half that, and fully one half earned less than £5,000. Those were considered pretty abysmal numbers.

However, in the ALCS’s report this week, we learn that the average writer’s income has dropped by almost 30 percent since 2005.

Why?

The sudden increase in sales of books on line and the sales of second-hand books in charity shops have both had a huge impact. Authors now see their books being resold up to 12 times on second hand markets. Many people make money from them in this way – the authors don’t. Authors see ebooks appearing and then reappearing for free downloads as criminal gangs and the unscrupulous spread other people’s efforts for nothing. Why? Well, writers all earn too much, don’t they … No, they don’t.

But as well as this, there is the collapse of the retail stores in high streets. We are told that since Google and Amazon provide books on the internet, this doesn’t matter. But it does. Massively. With a local book shop, you can wander and browse. You can pick up books at random and see what you think about  them. However, with books on the internet, Amazon and Google will keep track of what you’ve looked at in the past and present you with books to consider. So, if you have been a keen buyer of John Grisham and Jeff Deaver, you won’t see a sign of a Michael Jecks title being presented to you. You’re in the wrong markets for an historical, after all. That is why sales of mid-listers have declined.

In short, support your local bookshop. If you don’t, you lose the wonderful spread of books that have been available, because while the author may well have moved his or her books into electronic formats – the sad fact is, you’ll never find them. You’ll still keep on receiving the same type of books in the same genre you’re already buying.

The full details of the research can be found here in a PDF download.

And now, if you want something to cheer you up a little after that misery … I have a new YouTube video up which answers some of the more common questions I’ve had in recent weeks. Hope you enjoy it! If you do, please hit the button to give it a thumbs up, and do please subscribe to my videos, because subscriptions are my substitute for achievement in the video world!

Oh, and if you have any questions, please put them in comments here, on YouTube, or on my Facebook page here. And you can “like” that, too, if you want!

 

Tagged: author, blogger, blogs, book writing, crime writing, Dartmoor, Devon, hints and tips, historian, history, Knight Templar, knights templar, Libraries, medieval, medievalist, Michael Jecks, novelist, publishing, Q&A, questions, questions and answers, scribbler, Templar series, writer, writing

I’m Constantly Being Astonished …

Okay, so I used to be a salesman. And now I’m a writer, which means I’m still a salesman.

There are many rules about salesmanship. One is, that you spend a little time thinking about your potential client and make the best pitch you can based on his or her needs. You use all kinds of basic concepts to build up your specific benefits and convert them into real, creative advantages for the punter. It’s not rocket science. A salesman has to get inside the head of the buyer first and understand what makes that buyer tick: what does the buyer want for him/herself, what do they want for the business – everything. Only when you can understand the buyer can you understand how to best promote your own products and services.

It ain’t rocket science.

Which is why the two emails I just received are so bloody depressing.

First, I am a writer. Yes? I know it’s a surprise to some, but I am. Receiving a message like this doesn’t impress me or give me even a faint desire to speak the the company:

I see a lot of interesting content on your blog.

You have to spend a lot of time writing, i know how

to save you a lot of work, there is a tool that creates unique, SEO friendly articles in couple of seconds, just type in google – laranita’s free content source

So, in short, these people (presumably people get involved at some level) think that people who have voluntarily taken up blogging (put aside my own career, they clearly aren’t interested in me personally, it’s just aiming at bloggers full stop) would want automatic blogging software.

Just think about that. The very people who enjoy writing, who like the process of thinking up an idea and developing it, the people who enjoy stringing words together – these are the target that this firm has decided to attack with their software. Software which is not likely to impress, since it cannot pick up a lower case “i” and cannot tell the best place for a full stop instead of a comma. For me, to consider using software like this would take away the pleasure of writing, and reduce my blog to an automaton’s. At the same time, it would destroy my brand’s main advantage: my ability as a writer.

This is, of course, the main thing about any software that is intended for a wide market. Don’t bother to market it at specific clients: you are throwing stuff at the wall and hoping some will stick.

So, thinking of ordure, here’s another:

Your good friend John has invited you to join him to play with us at Ruby Palace casino, where he has already won over 350GBP/EUR playing Video Poker.

And he’s not the only one – with pay out ratios topping 97% we make winners every single day and who knows, you could be next!

If Video Poker isn’t your thing, don’t worry – we’ve got a huge collection of games featuring everything from classic Table Games such as Craps and Blackjack to state-of-the-art Slots such as Thunderstruck II and The Dark Knight.

Seeing as any friend of John’s is a friend of ours, we’ll give you a special 200% Match Bonus on your very first deposit to triple your funds and help you get settled in – you certainly won’t find an offer like that anywhere else!

What are you waiting for?

Join John on our Wall of Winners today.

http://inma.org.in/hare.html

All the best,

Sophie

Casino Manager

John? John? Which John? I know several. Which is, of course, why they picked the name. However, I don’t know any “John” who regularly uses video poker, because if he did and was concealing the fact, I doubt he’d have told Ruby Palace to let me know that he was doing just that. And that he was a moron who routinely liked throwing money at a dubious bunch of thieves. With the profit margins of casinos, let’s assume a twenty percent payout. That’s pretty generous, I’d think, for an internet, and therefore not very well regulated, gambling business. If twenty percent, that means to win his £350, he would have “invested” £1,750. All of a sudden, this brilliant offer looks rather less attractive. You know, I reckon I can think of several things that would give me more pleasure for that amount of money. I could buy a Bernese Mountain Dog to replace my lovely old Dori who died year before last. I could buy a nice set of paints. I could even take a holiday. Yes, I have lots of things I could do if I had that sort of money to play with. But I’m an author, so I don’t.

They have pay out ratios topping ninety seven percent! Wow! But how do they define that? What is a “payout ratio”. I know it sounds rather good … except these are gambling people involved in persuading mugs to give them money.

And when you look at the (really quite well crafted) mailer, you can see that it’s been professionally written to appeal to the widest audience. You can play poker, or craps or blackjack or, or, or… and “John”, your friend, means you are a friend of the casino – whoops, I forgot. It’s a casino. They make lots of money by moving cash from your account into theirs as smoothly as possible.

It’s a good example of a mailshot note that’s been thrown at the wall. No doubt Ruby Palace (what a “Craps” name) will have brilliant reporting systems to tell them exactly what their hit rate is. And if it really, really pisses me off to get invitations for a business offering me the chance of getting into gambling big time, a pursuit I detest almost as much as football, do they give a … (insert the stuff they throw at the wall).

No. Because for every hacked off, grumpy old git like me, there are penny of mugs who’ll happily give away their hard-earned savings.

Poor saps.

And meantime they’ve cost me a half hour of ranting on my computer. Bastards!

 

Tagged: crooks, Dartmoor, Devon, fling enough shit, fraudsters, free source content, gambling, history, laranita, medieval, Michael Jecks, mugs, novelist, Ruby Palace, sales, scams, selling, thieves, writer, writing

A New Character

It is always hard to invent stories. First, you have to invent people, who have to feel real, well-rounded characters with lives and motivations of their own. Then you have to create a world in which they can live, and infuse that with logic and atmosphere. Finally, you need to take those people (and the readers) on a journey in which the people can show their innermost feelings, live through excitement and danger, and experience life to the full … ideally.

This is all why I’ve spent my entire career working with the same people. No, ye Gods! Not editors! In twenty years I have worked with a total of ten editors! (No one wants to work with me for long, clearly!)

No, I mean that I have worked with a limited number of characters in my stories, in my books and (alarmingly) in my head. Baldwin and Simon were the original cast, but they grew to include Hugh and Edgar, their servants. Then wives butted in on the stories, and children too. It all started to grow a bit too rapidly for this dopey scribe.

But it gave me vast opportunities. When I wanted to look at a father’s feelings for his daughter, I had Simon and his little (then less little) girl. For thinking about marriage and love, I had Baldwin’s marriage to Jeanne. I could bring in the relevant people for any story I was working on.

However, when I set out to create my Hundred Years War trilogy, it was much more difficult. First, I had to invent a whole new cast of characters, and invest them with believable backgrounds. I had to hunt down interesting people from the period, and most of all, I had to explain what English archers and other soldiers were truly like. And without over-glorifying what were really not very nice people. Many French men and women (and children) were slaughtered in the course of the English rampage through France. Women and children were raped and murdered; whole towns were set ablaze; the rich were kidnapped and held for ransom. These English soldiers behaved in the worst imaginable manner. And yet my job is to find the humanity within them. It’s not easy.

In the past I’ve been asked whether it’s easier to keep to a series, or whether I’ve wanted to write more stand-alone stories. I can see the attraction of both, but I can promise: when you are on a tight deadline and have to write 120,000 words in a hurry, it makes life a damn sight easier to have the characters in your mind already.

The other thing is, when you have new characters for a series, you have to be careful about who you use and why. I set out with the Baldwin/Simon series thinking that I’d have Simon as the lead character. Readers soon put me straight on that one! Now, with my archers, I had decided early on that the main character would be Berenger. Who am I to argue, however, with all the readers who are telling me that it ought to be Sir John?

I’m only the flaming author, after all.

Still, thanks to all who have written to tell me how much they liked FIELDS OF GLORY. I hope you enjoy the second in the series too!

 

 

Tagged: #MondayBlog, author, battle, Crécy, Creative writing, FIELDS OF GLORY, fighting, France, French history, history, Hundred Years War, medieval, Michael Jecks, novel, novelist, Sir John de Sully, war, writer, writing

REVIEW: SHE DEMONS by Donald Hauka, published by Dundurn Press

REVIEW: SHE DEMONS by Donald Hauka, published by Dundurn Press

ISBN: 9781554887637, £6.99

 

While I was cavorting in crime with the Crime Writers of Canada in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to be given books in my goody bag by a number of authors I’d never heard of. This is always a Good Thing. There is nothing better than discovering a new author you haven’t tried before. Well, when the author’s good, anyway.

And I’ve found one. The first book from the bag that I tried was SHE DEMONS. I’ve never heard of it, nor of Mr Jinnah, nor of Mr Hauka, but I can guarantee I’ll be reading as many more of these titles as I can.

This book had me hooked so badly from the first moment, that I’ve been neglecting my own book for the last few days. Not good with an approaching deadline, but it’s just one of those things.

First, the main character. Mr Hakeem Jinnah is a Canadian. He is a journalist for a paper in Vancouver, he is middle-aged with a (long suffering) wife and slightly confused son who is more Canadian than Indian, and who, like any teenager, wants to push the envelope a bit. Hakeem has strong views on such matters. He has strong views on many issues, especially regarding how they relate to his duties as a reporter. He is dedicated. He’s also flirtatious, enterprising, witty and a hypochondriac. All of which adds up to a fascinating, funny and constantly surprising character.

The story begins with the discovery of a dead body. It is very dead, because when friends move the seated figure, the head falls off. Marks graven into the man’s cheeks indicate a strange symbol: Yaksha. And Hakeen discovers that the Yaksha, as well as being she demons from the Hindu pantheon, who appear as attractive young women to tempt the unwary into forests and kill them, is also the name of a new gang of drug dealers from Los Angeles.

But soon it’s learned that the dead man was associated with a new cult lead by an international singer and songwriter – who happens to be rather litigious – and Hakeem has an intriguing case on his hands. Drug dealing, drug gangs, religious sects, police, journalists with competition from TV, and of course the import of the Babjis – brown skinned Barbies. What more could Hauka have fitted in?

I loved this book: it’s hilarious but also a very effective crime thriller, and I was held enthralled to the very last page. It works as a story with a fast plot that drives forward all the time increasing the tension, the characterisation was spot-on, and Hauka’s skill at describing scenes is superb. His invention, Jinnah, is fantastic: by turns aggressive, then ridiculous, but always believable.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book. I will be hunting for more books by this guy!

 

Tagged: book review, Canadian crime, crime, crime writer reviewer, Crime Writers of Canada, crime writing, Donald J Hauka, Michael Jecks, Mr Jimmah, She Demons, Vancouver

REVIEW: SHE DEMONS by David Hauka, published by Dundurn Press

REVIEW: SHE DEMONS by David Hauka, published by Dundurn Press

ISBN: 9781554887637, £6.99

 

While I was cavorting in crime with the Crime Writers of Canada in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to be given books in my goody bag by a number of authors I’d never heard of. This is always a Good Thing. There is nothing better than discovering a new author you haven’t tried before. Well, when the author’s good, anyway.

And I’ve found one. The first book from the bag that I tried was SHE DEMONS. I’ve never heard of it, nor of Mr Jinnah, nor of Mr Hauka, but I can guarantee I’ll be reading as many more of these titles as I can.

This book had me hooked so badly from the first moment, that I’ve been neglecting my own book for the last few days. Not good with an approaching deadline, but it’s just one of those things.

First, the main character. Mr Hakeem Jinnah is a Canadian. He is a journalist for a paper in Vancouver, he is middle-aged with a (long suffering) wife and slightly confused son who is more Canadian than Indian, and who, like any teenager, wants to push the envelope a bit. Hakeem has strong views on such matters. He has strong views on many issues, especially regarding how they relate to his duties as a reporter. He is dedicated. He’s also flirtatious, enterprising, witty and a hypochondriac. All of which adds up to a fascinating, funny and constantly surprising character.

The story begins with the discovery of a dead body. It is very dead, because when friends move the seated figure, the head falls off. Marks graven into the man’s cheeks indicate a strange symbol: Yaksha. And Hakeen discovers that the Yaksha, as well as being she demons from the Hindu pantheon, who appear as attractive young women to tempt the unwary into forests and kill them, is also the name of a new gang of drug dealers from Los Angeles.

But soon it’s learned that the dead man was associated with a new cult lead by an international singer and songwriter – who happens to be rather litigious – and Hakeem has an intriguing case on his hands. Drug dealing, drug gangs, religious sects, police, journalists with competition from TV, and of course the import of the Babjis – brown skinned Barbies. What more could Hauka have fitted in?

I loved this book: it’s hilarious but also a very effective crime thriller, and I was held enthralled to the very last page. It works as a story with a fast plot that drives forward all the time increasing the tension, the characterisation was spot-on, and Hauka’s skill at describing scenes is superb. His invention, Jinnah, is fantastic: by turns aggressive, then ridiculous, but always believable.

I have no hesitation in recommending this book. I will be hunting for more books by this guy!

 

Tagged: book review, Canadian crime, crime, crime writer reviewer, Crime Writers of Canada, crime writing, Donald J Hauka, Michael Jecks, Mr Jimmah, She Demons, Vancouver

Complaints and Reviews

I’m just back from a trip to Belstone, talking on video about BELLADONNA AT BELSTONE. And while talking about BaB, I was struck by some of the things that stick in my mind.

It’s not the usual old rant. There are people, generally, who love to point out errors in an author’s research, for example. I’ve spoken about these lovely folks before. Some of them are well-meaning. I well remember the very pleasant lady who told me that my modern language in one novel really did put her off.

Looking past the for

Now, I could wax lyrical about language. After all, if I were to be accurate, and I mean really accurate, I would have to write in a mixture of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norman French, Celtic, and God knows what else. And to be really authentic, I’d have to write on vellum. In ink, of course. One copy at a time. So, no one could possibly read whatever I wrote and it would be hard to make enough money to teach myself how to read Latin, let alone all the other languages.

The word she complained about? “Posse”. When I mentioned my fellows gathering together as a posse, she said that it brought her to the present day and distracted her from the book. Which is fine, except that “posse” is an ancient term. The posse comitatus was an old legal term for the collection of men sent to serve the county as set out in the Statutes of Winchester, 1285, for example. Posse is an ancient English, perfectly correct and authentic term.

However, while thinking about the research (and not just her, but all the complaints about my horrible, unkind and unjustified treatment of the Church in the fourteenth century), I began to wonder what people thought the period was actually like. After all, Belladonna got me more complaints than any other book, mostly from people who believed me to be irreligious or worse.

I have no axe to grind about religion. Yes, religion has caused more wars over the centuries than anything else, but that doesn’t mean I believe Christianity to be evil any more than I believe Shintoism, Islam, Druidism or Shamanism to be. After all, taking Christianity, I doubt there could be any religion more committed to peaceful coexistence with all other faiths.

And yet, I am fairly unkind, apparently, in my treatment of religious people in Belladonna.

Well, of course I am! It’s a crime novel, and that has to mean death and naughty motives for many of the people involved! It wouldn’t be much of a crime book if everyone was kind to each other and no one got killed, after all.

The other point is, that almost all the issues I mention in the book are culled from the visitation reports of Bishops Stapeldon and Grandisson. These two dedicated prelates travelled widely all over their diocese and investigated all the major establishments, and they reported their findings in great books. And it was clear that the female convents did have great failings. The women were said to be ignoring many of the instructions of their Orders. In part it was due to the usual problems of women not being able to generate the same income as their male counterparts. Women couldn’t hold services in the church, so they didn’t gain the same sort of bequests as, say, the Benedictines and others, where a dying man would donate large sums in order to have Masses to speed their passage up to Heaven.

I have, in twenty years of writing, had many letters from fans. From the very first, which listed what the author thought were twenty one factual errors in THE LAST TEMPLAR (he was wrong and I took pleasure in documenting his errors), to the most recent Goodreads and Amazon comments, I’ve been surprised by how many people are willing to anonymously berate me for perceived mistakes. Obviously I do make mistakes, but these tend to be (politely and kindly) pointed out by people whom I know. Generally, the louder the complaint, the less justified the comment! For example, I know of one reviewer of a book who gave the novel one star. His reason? The book arrived late because of the US postal service.

North tip of Belstone Tor

Let’s just reflect on that for a moment. A lousy review because the post was late. Not entirely justified as a comment on the book and its readability or otherwise.

Most recently I’ve had two complaints about FIELDS OF GLORY because those “readers” didn’t like the cover. Neither has read the story, and in fact they couldn’t have, because they commented on the cover within a day or two of publication. They had not had time to touch a copy and glance inside. But both felt justified in giving it one star because they didn’t like the cover.

I consider that unforgivable. Many writers have no control over the covers of their books. To give a book one star will have an impact on that author’s income. Amazon will work automatically to push low-reviewed books down the chain, so it won’t be seen by a large number of potential readers. That’s why I never give poor star ratings to books. If I don’t like it, I won’t review it. It’s very easy. After all, a writer whose work I dislike to the extent that I’ve never been able to finish a single book by him, is James Patterson. I have nothing against the guy, but I just don’t like his work. However, just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean other people won’t. And my opinion is not valid. We all have opinions, and all reflect personal bias. An opinion about a book is, by its nature, subjective.

So, I won’t give a bad review about any book. Hopefully not too many will be wanting to review mine unkindly as well!

Tagged: #MondayBlog, author, Belladonna at Belstone, Belstone, crime novel, crime writer, crime writing, Historical Novel, history, medieval, publishing, review, writing