Susan Appleyard's Blog, page 10

Am I a closet psychopath?

I have killed. I can write that shamelessly and without conscience. As a historical novelist, I have often killed my characters off. Many have died in battle, by sword or axe or mace, and some have been executed either by hanging or beheading. Some have died in spectacular fashion like the one who was crushed by an elephant (true) and the one who was torn apart by wild horses. (I think that was fiction but, in any case, neither of those works made it into print.) Then there was the famous case of the two princes who were smothered under pillows. In my new novel (still under construction – more about that in a later post) many are burned alive. Sometimes I’m happy to shuffle them off to a better world. Sometimes I’m sorry to see them go.

In relatively few cases do my characters die in their beds. So, I wonder, what attracts me to tragedy, to stories where people die sometimes hideously? I have to try to put myself in their heads, feel what they feel as a foot of cold steel enters a man’s belly or the weight of a dying elephant turns another’s bones to powder in an instant. How is it I can do that without flinching?

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One definition of a psychopath: An unstable and aggressive person. ‘Schoolyard psychopaths will gather around a fight to encourage the combatant.’ Was that me? Well, not really. I was more likely to jump right in, fists flying. OK, that’s kind of aggressive. But I don’t slow the car when passing an accident scene with my neck craned looking for blood.

So am I a closet psychopath? Are you?

Written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Check out my books:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Susan+Appleyard
Visit my author page at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Appleyard/e/B00UTVMT5Y

My review of Queen of the Darkest Hour by Kim Rendfeld

Set in Carolingian France in the 8th century.

The story opens with the marriage of King Charles of Francia (later known as Charlemagne) and Fastrada, his fourth and much younger wife and sets out not only the relationship of characters to each other in a comprehensible way but also their attitudes to one another. So we learn that Fastrada is anxious about living up to Charles’ late queen. Pepin is jealous of his younger brother Karl, who is destined to be king after their father, but also fearful of the young Fastrada and the children she is likely to give Charles. He works toward diminishing her status but he can go only so far because he is but a boy of fourteen, only two years younger than his stepmother. However, as the story progresses, Pepin matures and his envy and ambition only grow.

It is unfortunate that stories revolving around queens, with a few exceptions, have them sitting in their palaces receiving news of action taking place elsewhere. Charles was involved in many wars during this period, so the author loses the opportunity to involve the reader in the excitement because the action is dealt with in a sentence or two from a messenger or in a letter. This is also true of Fastrada.

Having said that, with Pepin around life in the palace wasn’t entirely dull. Pepin is one of the antagonists, but he is not an entirely evil character, which gives him dimensions. It is not difficult to sympathise with him because who wouldn’t be angry after being overlooked in favour of a younger brother just because of a physical deformity?

I often find reading an ebook with the list of characters at the front is frustrating. However, in this case, and in spite of the unusual names, the author was so adept at identifying her characters in the narrative that beyond the first few pages I never had occasion to refer to that list.

This is an unfamiliar period of history to me and I enjoyed my first foray into it.

****

I wrote this review for Discovering Diamonds.

Plotter or pantser

I know. Zillions of words have been written on the subject, so here is my two pennyworth. I was always a pantser, which is logical because my first 9 books were all about real people and true events. There wasn’t a lot of plotting to be done, only to flesh out the characters, add descriptions and decide which parts of the actual history to develop. This suited me well enough until I came to book no. 10. Here I set fictional characters against real events, but there was some plotting involved and I did it ‘on the wing’. The book that was supposed to no. 11 was the subject of a previous blog (the book that didn’t want to be written) so I’ll bypass that and talk about the new no. 11, which is also a combination of fictional and historical.

Before starting this book, I decided I wanted to be a plotter because it seemed to me a more professional approach. I found a neat little book called Take off Your Pants, laid out my strategy according to the author’s suggestions and jumped right in. After writing about 70 pages, I decided it was necessary to give my heroine 2 brothers. Around page 120, I decided I didn’t need the two brothers if I added the point of view of a protagonist to show the other side of the story. By page 180, I had reached the conclusion that the book would be too long, with too much war and not enough human drama so out went the protagonist’s voice and back came the two brothers. (Two, so I could kill one off.) Proud to say I have now finished the first draft.

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The moral is, you can’t drive a round peg into a square hole. For better or worse, I write by the seat of my pants.

Greece

 

[image error]This Blog has been quiet for some time. The reason is that I have been doing a lot of travelling. First, my hubby and I went to Greece to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. We were home for four days (hardly enough time to do the laundry and winterise the place) before we went to our daughter’s where we stayed for eight days. Then we drove to Laughlin to do what people like to do in Laughlin. (Gambling, for the uninitiated.) After four days there, we continued on to our second home in Mexico. We have been here now for three weeks, settled in and I’ve resumed work on my w.i.p. and caught up with a backlog of other stuff. Now I can devote some time to my blog.

First I would like to show you one of the most wonderful gifts I have ever received. It was from all my children but was conceived and created by my wonderful and clever eldest daughter. Isn’t it just perfect?

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The bench is concrete. The rings and butterfly are glass inserts.

So, Greece on the 24th September. I won’t lie. We were a little disappointed in the weather. Our first outing, of course, was to the Parthenon, where the wind was so strong it carried off the voice of our guide and almost blew me off the Acropolis.

Before I continue, I will divest my self of a pet peeve; the refusal of the British government to return the Elgin marbles to Greece is a disgrace. Half of the ancient sculptures originally part of the Parthenon were removed by agents of Lord Elgin, who claimed he had written permission from the government of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Greece at that time. That document has never been found. Lord Elgin sold the statues to the British government and they now reside in the British Museum. In my opinion, the removal of these priceless sculptures is the greatest art theft in history. They should be returned to Greece where they belong. ‘Nuff said.

I also wanted to visit the Corinth Canal, but it was closed to boats due to the high wind. Plaka is an interesting pedestrian-only area, full of bars, restaurants and boutiques. Our visit was accompanied by rain and wind. If you look closely at the picture below, a restaurant where we had dinner, you will see that everyone is wearing heavy coats and the propane lamps were lit. It was cold!

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After Athens, we took to the sea. Homer described it as the ‘wine-dark sea’, which I think from a literary point of view is an absolute gem. However, I have always thought of it as being a tender blue, sparkling in the sun. Nope. It was dark and angry and tossed our boat around like a great monster trying to devour our little ferry. Ever experienced air turbulence? Like that but worse.

[image error]We made it to Mykonos, leaving the monster gnashing its teeth. The weather improved. although it was still cooler than I had expected and often windy. Mykonos is a small island with only one city – the capital, Mykonos city – and a small settlement inland. The capital is entirely closed to traffic and a fun place to wander. There is also an interesting harbour, lined with restaurants.

[image error]Next was Paros, where we had an enormous apartment with 5 beds to choose from, a small kitchen, and a view of the sea – now a tender blue. This was where we bravely dipped our entire bodies in the sea, swam four strokes, and leapt out again. It was very cold, shattering another of my illusions about the Aegean.

 

[image error]Then we moved on to Santorini, surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. Due to a volcanic eruption aeons ago, the centre of a much larger island dropped out leaving a circular archipelago of which Santorini is the largest island. The capital city Fira is built on the rim overlooking the caldera. From below it looks as if the boutique hotels are slipping down the cliff.  Further to the north is the stunningly beautiful city of Oia pronounced like ‘ear’ but with no emphasis on the ‘r’. It is a must for sunset-lovers. The only way up from the landing stage is by donkey or a steep climb on foot.

[image error]On the ferry back to Athens we had to go via Mykonos and the sea was even rougher with huge swells and white caps. People were advised not to go outside and remain in their seats. Apparently, the sea at that point is always rough.

We spent four days on each island and each had something different to offer, but my favourite was Santorini.  I would go back there again except that there are so many other interesting places to visit. I hope to get to them all.

The Inquisitor by David Penny

This is the second novel about Thomas Berrington, physician by profession and a sleuth by virtue of a rabid curiosity. The setting is Spain in the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella. Thomas arrives in Seville to treat the queen who is pregnant and bleeding. Within the first hours, he meets old friends and enemies and some who could be either one. He is also caught up in the mystery surrounding a terrifying figure called The Ghost, who kills his victims by opening their chests and taking out their hearts. Thomas’s fiancé arrives with some other interesting characters, I presume from the first book. Oh, and plague is on the rise in the city. There is more than enough to keep Thomas occupied and the reader interested.

Aside from these elements, the new characters flesh out the story with a love affair, the tragic end of a pregnancy and a kidnapping. This is not a standard who-done-it. Why The Ghost has committed such bizarre murders and when he will be caught provide the suspense. I particularly enjoyed the banter between Thomas and his friend Jorge, a eunuch (not sure if that is the proper term here) who is, apparently, an incorrigible and gifted lover of women.

The plot was simple and easy to follow. The sub-plots plumped up the storyline.

I had some issues with this book. First, the title. None of the characters was an Inquisitor, nor was the Inquisition involved except peripherally. I read a lot of pointless dialogue that neither advanced the story nor said anything about the character.  Without all that, the book would have been shorter and better. I also I did not find the ‘twist’ at the end altogether credible.

***

The Inquisitor by David Perry

This is the second novel about Thomas Berrington, physician by profession and a sleuth by virtue of a rabid curiosity. The setting is Spain in the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella. Thomas arrives in Seville to treat the queen who is pregnant and bleeding. Within the first hours, he meets old friends and enemies and some who could be either one. He is also caught up in the mystery surrounding a terrifying figure called The Ghost, who kills his victims by opening their chests and taking out their hearts. Thomas’s fiancé arrives with some other interesting characters, I presume from the first book. Oh, and plague is on the rise in the city. There is more than enough to keep Thomas occupied and the reader interested.

Aside from these elements, the new characters flesh out the story with a love affair, the tragic end of a pregnancy and a kidnapping. This is not a standard who-done-it. Why The Ghost has committed such bizarre murders and when he will be caught provide the suspense. I particularly enjoyed the banter between Thomas and his friend Jorge, a eunuch (not sure if that is the proper term here) who is, apparently, an incorrigible and gifted lover of women.

The plot was simple and easy to follow. The sub-plots plumped up the storyline.

I had some issues with this book. First, the title. None of the characters was an Inquisitor, nor was the Inquisition involved except peripherally. I read a lot of pointless dialogue that neither advanced the story nor said anything about the character.  Without all that, the book would have been shorter and better. I also I did not find the ‘twist’ at the end altogether credible.

***

Novel Conversations

https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com/2018/09/novel-conversations-with-anna-belfrages.html

That’s not good.  It seems I can’t share because I don’t have a Blogger account and copying an pasting only results in a link. Therefore, Novel Conversations is terminated on my blog but look for it on Helen Hollick’s Blog.

https://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.com

 

Novel Conversations

IndieBRAG and Helen Hollick of Discovering Diamonds fame have got together to give us a series of interviews with a chosen character from books that have won the IndieBRAG Medallion. Great idea? I think so. I will start tomorrow with Helen’s interview with Matthew Graham from Anna Belfrage’s timeslip novel, Revenge and Retribution. Helen’s interview with my own dear Ludwig II will appear in November.

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My review of Echoes Down the Line by David J. Boulton

A murder mystery set in 19th century England and Ireland

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the author is a former railway man. His knowledge of railway jargon and the workings of trains and railway procedures is phenomenal. Of course, it is possible that he spent a lot of time on research.

The story opens in Ireland with two brothers who are forced to flee after being involved in an attempted theft of grain that went wrong. Many years later, one of the brothers dies. On the day of his funeral, a dead body is found in the railway yard, which turns out to be the son of the other brother fresh off the boat from Canada. At the same time boxes of dynamite are discovered missing from a rail car.

Enter Sergeant Sam Spray and Constable William Archer. Love interest is in the person of Lizzie Oldroyd who provides lodging and food for the two cops and worries about Sam. Nothing hot and heavy here which suits the period and the story. The most likeable character, however, is an enterprising 11 year-old boy named Jimmy Allcroft who manages to get in on the sleuthing. Sam loses a few points because of his impatience with Jimmy.

The mystery is put together cleverly and involves Fenians and royalty, and kept me guessing to the end, but it was slow moving, and there was just a little too much ‘railway’ in it for my liking. Perhaps inevitable given that the sleuths belong to the railway police, but some rather lengthy descriptions of the movement of trains tended to interfere with my enjoyment of the story.

***

I wrote this review for Discovering Diamonds.

The book that doesn’t want to be written.

[image error]Have you ever wrestled with this monster? I call it a monster because it frustrates the hell out of you, saps your confidence and sucks up your creative juices until you feel as wrung out and used up as an old dish rag.

Some time ago I decided to write a series because… well, series are popular, aren’t they? Book 1  went well. It’s a historical romance: boy meets girl and they fall in love in spite of their countries being enemies. It is  a light-hearted book, an easy read, with an element of comedy. A nice change for me because I tend to be attracted to tragedy. I’ve killed off so many characters that readers may be tempted to think I am a closet psychopath. Not so, I do assure you.

I didn’t publish it immediately, because I thought that while writing Book 2, I might find changes I wanted to make to Book 1. The monster made its appearance very shortly after I started writing Book 2. In 6 months of ardent effort, after various stops and starts, I managed an incredible 62 pages. Was I ever going to write another book? Was I finished, washed up, with all those books clamouring in my head never to be written?

Say it ain’t so!

[image error]I hate an unfinished project, but I had no choice. If I wasn’t to lose confidence in myself entirely, I was going to have to abandon Book 2, or at least set it aside for a while until I had tackled one of those charming creatures inside my head that were waving for my attention.

I started a new book. Want to know how I did? Begun in the merry month of May, I have at this writing managed 169 pages. Not a great output by some standards, but that doesn’t matter. It is progressing.

The monster is vanquished.