R.W. Wallace's Blog, page 3

New Mystery Short Story Available

As promised, I continue publishing last year’s short stories. This one is Mystery (like a majority of my stories) and it’s quite funny. At least it was fun to write!

I usually spend two or three weeks in Norway every summer, and most years we eat at least a meal or two of crabs. Seems like last year, this was a source of inspiration!

Critters

Some crimes are more interesting than others.

Some killers are more surprising than others.

Today’s murderer appears to be a crab.

 

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Happy New Year and A New Story!

I know, I haven’t posted in over a year. But I’m still here, and still writing, I just didn’t have anything ready to publish.

2018 has been the year of short stories for me. I’ve finished a whole bunch of them, and you’ll be seeing them popping up over the next few months.

The very first one, a weird Science Fiction story with cats (of all things), is coming out tomorrow! It’s called The Vanguard and was written for an assignment in a writing class I took. It had to have aliens and it had to have pets – so, yes, this story has alien felines… I promise, it’s a great story, though!

Here’s the cover and the blurb. Let me know what you think.

Minou’s latest kill, a wonderfully delightful mouse, has gone missing.

The mouse-thief isn’t the cat next door, but someone far more unexpected—and dangerous.

Apparently, Minou had a job to do.

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Pin a Book: Ascension by Gregory Dowling

This week Gregory Dowling takes us to 18th century Venice with his novel Ascension[image error]! It sure makes me want to go for a little trip to Italy…

How or why is the setting important to who your character is?

It is crucial to my character. He is an Anglo-Venetian; he was born in Venice but moved to England with his mother when he was very small and so grew up there. He has returned to the city of his birth and now works there as a tour-guide for wealthy English visitors, who are usually doing the Grand Tour. Although he grew up in England his mother brought him up speaking Venetian, so he is bilingual. The result is that he feels a close attachment to Venice, while at the same time maintaining an outsider’s perspective on it. As he is the narrator of the stories this is obviously helpful, since it means he doesn’t necessarily take all Venetian customs and ways for granted and can explain them to the reader (it also helps  that he is a guide, of course). Although he feels very Venetian he is not always accepted as such by Venetians, and so ends up feeling a little divided. But an awareness of the special nature of Venice is a fundamental aspect of his character.

Which location did you enjoy writing the most in your story? Why this one?

The obvious thing would be to name some very famous location like St Mark’s Square, and I certainly did enjoy imagining what it was like in the 18 th century. However, the scenes that work best in this novel, I think, are the ones that take place in a comparatively little-known palace on the Grand Canal, Ca’ Garzoni; the palace belongs to a Venetian nobleman who has lost most of his fortune but maintains all his fierce pride, and so the grandiosity but at the same time the dilapidated state of the building say something about the condition of Venice at the time. I chose this particular palace because for many years it hosted the university department where I worked, and so I got to know it pretty well. Mind you, I have never been on the roof of the building, as my hero does. And the condition of the palace in the 18 th century is essentially my own invention. I suppose it was one way of re-appropriating the palace after it had been sold by the university. At the time it was generally believed that it would become a hotel, because, of course, if there is one thing Venice needs, it’s another hotel (I should probably add an irony emoji here); however, now it transpires that it has been turned into a luxury condominium. If Ascension sells a few more million copies, maybe I’ll be able to buy one of the apartments there…

When you visited France, which location did you prefer?

[image error][image error]This question comes really at a very opportune time because in a way I have just rediscovered France. When I was a child we used to go almost every year to France for family holidays, usually to the south-west, around Bordeaux, but visiting other parts as well. And so when I grew old enough to travel independently I felt I had, so to speak, “done”

France, and I wanted to see other places. This is one of the reasons why I ended up moving to Italy, never having been there until the age of 22. Over the years I have visited Paris a number of times, often for academic reasons, but very few other parts of the country. Just this summer, however, my wife and I were invited to go and stay with friends in a house in Brittany, and from there we took a trip to the Loire valley. It was a marvellous holiday. Probably the Loire valley was what struck me the most, partly because it reminded me of holidays spent there over 40 years earlier, when I was a teenager being dragged around large chateaux… I now saw the whole place with new eyes but had the memories of those earlier holidays to add a touch of sentimental nostalgia.

If I had to name just one place discovered during the holiday I would pinpoint the amazing church of Notre-Dame de Cunault on the Loire. Partly this is because we discovered this church quite by accident; while we had planned our visits to the various chateaux with some care, in the case of this church we were just driving along the bank of the Loire and saw this stunning Romanesque building towering over the river. And in contrast with so many of the chateaux, this church had almost no visitors. There was something very impressive about its position as well, with the broad tranquil river flowing past it.

What gave you the greatest cultural shock when in France?

I would have to go back to childhood memories to dredge up anything resembling a cultural shock; and it would probably have something to do with plumbing arrangements, which are perhaps not exactly cultural…

Which part of the French archetype did you discover to be wrong? Right?

They do eat long baguettes. They do eat snails. Haven’t come across any frogs’ legs yet.

What do you think would be the greatest cultural shock for a Frenchman who visited the location of your story?

Venice is so famous that very few people can have any doubts about what to expect. Perhaps the greatest surprise (shock is too strong a word) is to discover that it actually is the way it appears in paintings, films, ice-cream advertisements… It really is a city where “the streets are full of water”, as an American humourist once put it. I think that many people expect the popular image of any place to be somehow illusory – or, at least, only a part of the story. Yes, the Eiffel Tower does exist, the Tower of Pisa really does lean, there is a Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but all these cities also contain dreary suburbs or traffic-jams or glue-factories…. Whereas in the case of Venice, with the exception of the car-park at Piazzale Roma, the whole city is what the tourist-images have led us to believe. It surprises us by its total lack of unexpectedness.

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Pin a Book: Merle by Angela Wren

After a very long absence (I’m going to call it Summer vacation), I’m back with a new mystery set in France! Angela Wren takes us to a small village in the Cévennes, which apparently has lots of ideal locations for hiding misdeeds…

How did the setting of your story impact your writing?

The setting was the inspiration for the first story in my Jacques Forêt mystery series. I was visiting the Cévennes, an area in south central France that covers parts of four départements when the weather changed overnight. It was late September 2007 and I awoke to a light flurry of snow and a landscape covered with a white blanket. That set me thinking. The Cévennes is an upland area that is sparsely populated, the villages are small and the place where I was staying was at an altitude of about 1200m. It occurred to me that a sudden fall of snow could be a perfect cover for someone’s misdeeds and the first chapter of Messandrierre (book 1 in the series) was born.

How or why is the setting important to who your character is?

Cévennes in snow. Photo: Angela Wren

My character Jacques is from Paris. He was working as a detective in Paris until an incident whilst on a case caused him to re-evaluate his life. On the suggestion of his then boss he moved, and took a significant demotion in rank, to the rural gendarmerie and was assigned a post in the tiny village of Messandrierre. My setting of a small village means that I can and do explore the dynamics between the villagers, who have lived there for generations, and the interloper from Paris. I hope it has created some interesting scenes for the readers. It has certainly been a fascinating aspect for me to write about. Especially in Merle (book 2 in the series) when the office of the Consul Général suggest changes that affect the working life of the village.

Which location did you enjoy writing the most in your story?

[image error][image error]The countryside I suppose, rather than any one particular location. The scenery in the Cévennes is quite spectacular. As the year moves through the seasons the landscape transforms itself. The cool fresh green of the grass and pale flowers of spring are replaced by the jewelled clumps of mimosa and poppies in the upland meadows and contrasted against the inky-green back ground of the pines and heavy canopies of the deciduous trees. Late in summer and the grass is a parched and straw-hued but the vast grey boulders that are strewn across the landscape still stand glinting in the harsh sun. Autumn brings the winds and the rain and the red and gold of the falling leaves. Winters can be harsh and sometimes the snow comes early, as it did in 2007. When the snow sets in it can be relentless. Last year whilst I was

there, one of the ladies in the village told me that the last snowfall had been in May!

When you visited France, which location did you prefer?

Wow, that’s a tough question. I’ve travelled and stayed all over the country. If it must be one place then that has to be Orange. The route down the RN7 and at the entrance to the city stand a magnificent roman arch. There is also the roman theatre and, as an actor I could not stop myself from standing on the stage and wondering about whose roman feet might also have stood in that spot. It was truly awesome!

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Pin a Book: The Darkest Heart by Dan Smith

First pin in South-America! Dan Smith takes us on an adventure to Brazil with his book, The Darkest Heart[image error].

How did the setting of your story impact your writing?

The setting for The Darkest Heart came before anything else. I wanted the story to take place in a lawless, remote place, where the characters are forced to live on their wits if they are to survive the difficult situations they find themselves in.

How or why is the setting important to who your character is?

Zico has run away to a small, frontier town in central Brazil to escape the brutality of his past life in a Rio favela. The town represents his opportunity to start again, in a place where nobody knows him. The journey he takes along the river Araguaia towards the Rio das Mortes becomes a test of his moral strength.

Which location did you enjoy writing the most in your story? Why this one?

The river. I drew on my own experiences and had the chance to relive some of the moments I spent with my brother as a teenager. We lived for a number of years in central Brazil and had many adventures on the river Araguaia, miles from anywhere.

When you visited France, which location did you prefer?

I’ve been to France a few times, but haven’t ever spent more than a week there in one stretch. As a child I occasionally crossed the channel to Boulogne or Calais for the day, and I recently visited Paris with my family, which was a chance to see the sights. I remember a holiday in Nice when I was a young teenager, and I was struck by the beauty of the coastline – and there’s nothing quite like a fresh breeze drifting in across a glittering sea. I would definitely visit again if I had the chance.

What gave you the greatest cultural shock when in France?

I don’t think I had a cultural shock. During my childhood I travelled all over the world, from Africa to Asia to South America, so I’m pretty used to accepting other people and their cultures. Mind you, it would have helped if I could speak French a bit better!

Which part of the French archetype did you discover to be wrong? Right?

Ugh. Archetypes are awful aren’t they? And they usually turn out to be a load of nonsense. There’s a misconception about people being rude in France, but I suspect it has come from people visiting major cities, like Paris, where everybody is busy and rushing around. If you go to London, you’ll find the same is true.

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Pin a Book: Old Friends and New Enemies by Owen Mullen

Owen Mullen takes us to Scotland this week. He promises Scottish humor, dour Scots, and an almost-outsider looking in. Seems like a great read!

How or why is the setting important to who your character is?

The setting is the bedrock of this series.  It influences everything. The scenic splendour of Scotland allows us to see the philosophical and romantic aspects of the main character Charlie Cameron.  In the west of Scotland particularly, the people share a unique sense of humour.  All of the characters but especially Patrick Logue and Jackie Mallon, are great examples here.  In contrast, DS Andrew Geddes typifies the dour Scot of legend.

Charlie Cameron is a mongrel – born in Edinburgh to well-to-do parents, and educated in England.  He is not a typical Glaswegian but  lives in Glasgow because he is drawn to it and it’s people. This gives him the advantage of often being able to be the observer. And from his unique perspective, we see Scotland itself as the character it surely is.

Which location did you enjoy writing the most in your story? Why this one?

I enjoyed writing the Loch Lomond scenes the most.  The day before I started on that part of the story, my wife Christine and I were in Luss and everything we saw that day appears; a man was painting his fence; kids were jumping off the edge of the pier, and the loch was at it’s beautiful best. As a result, the writing was easy.

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When you visited France, which location did you prefer?

I have been to Paris many times.  I love it, everything about it.  When we are there we just walk for hours, drink coffee after coffee and just soak it all up.

Christine and I are great foodies so the French has always had great appeal for us, though nowadays the restaurants we really want to visit are too expensive.  

Provence is another magical place, when I am there I am back in time –  to it’s heyday – and I imagine myself walking under the same sun as the beautiful people. I would gladly live in either of these places…lead me to it!

Which part of the French archetype did you discover to be wrong? Right?

The right archetype for me is the food. Wonderful; although I have had some God awful meals there too.  The wrong archetype would be best dressed – for me the Italians are much more stylish.

Please note that Amazon links are affiliate links. You’ll pay the same price for anything you order, but I will earn a small commission.

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Pin a Book: The Turtle Run by Marie Evelyn

Exotic location this week (for me, anyway): Marie Evelyn takes us to Barbados, with her story, The Turtle Run[image error]. Marie Evelyn is actually a mother daughter team – you can check out their bio on the map.

Why is the setting crucial to your story?

The story concerns the Redlegs of Barbados, though the background of the story is in the UK. The last battle to be fought on English soil was the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset in 1685 – a battle between the Protestant followers of the Duke of Monmouth and the royal soldiers of Catholic King James II. The ‘Monmouth rebels’ lost the battle, and those who were caught were either executed or exiled to the British colonies as indentured labourers on plantations. The Turtle Run concerns the rebels exiled to Barbados. The protagonist, Becky, is tasked with finding out what happened to their descendants, who were known by the now politically incorrect term of ‘Redlegs’. Therefore most of the story takes place in Barbados.

How did the setting of your story impact your writing?

We chose the northern parish of St Lucy as the location of the old plantation house in which Becky becomes trapped, precisely because it is a relatively remote and less visited area, which reflects the character’s feeling of isolation and gives rise to her impression that time has stopped. Some of the action also takes place on the wilder east coast of Barbados, in contrast to the tamer west and south coasts that most people visualise when they think of a gleaming hotel resort near a paradisiacal beach.

[image error][image error]

What was your first experience of France?

My mother speaks French, and would have a far more cultured answer for you, but here was my first experience of France: When I was 13 I went with friends on what was billed as a deluxe camping holiday in Saint-Tropez. It was actually a nice enough site in the lovely town of Port Grimaud, a few miles away from Saint-Tropez, but the most exciting event was the return journey. What was meant to be a coach journey to Calais with a brief stop in Paris turned into a very long stop in Paris as the coach driver did a runner with the proceeds that had been collected for him on the coach in a passed-around hat; I don’t know if his sudden disappearance was because we had wildly over-tipped him or under-tipped him, but it certainly took a long time to get home.

What do you think would be the greatest cultural shock for a Frenchman who visited the UK?

French people who are fluent English speakers are surprised at what they see as our lack of respect for the English language. There is a view that English was a ‘peasant language’ which evolved through pragmatic use rather than adherence to rules. Whereas it seems to me that the French guard their language quite jealously. I remember raving about a ‘Pre-Raph’ art exhibition to a French friend, whereupon she raised her eyes and said “Why do you English abbreviate everything?” And it’s true – we do!

 

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Pin a Book: The Promise of Provence by Patricia Sands

Back to France this week, la Provence to be precise. Patricia Sands takes her protagonist from Toronto to Provence (check out the pin on the map), and there seems to be a promise of cheese! Doesn’t get more French than that.

How did the setting of your story impact your writing?

We rented an apartment in Antibes for five months while I wrote the first draft of The Promise of Provence[image error]. So I lived the sights, sounds, smells and every other aspect of the Provençal culture in all my words. Each morning I would write from 7 to 8:30 and then take my camera and walk through the old town and along the ancient ramparts overlooking the Mediterranean. I would visit the market and choose from the vast array of delicious products for our daily meals. One of the fromagers in the market became the role model for the primary male character in the story, Philippe. I met with him several mornings at 6 a.m., before the market opened, to learn about cheese and about being a fromager. He’s a delightful man and I learned a great deal from him.

How or why is the setting important to who your character is?

The story actually begins in Toronto, Canada, where the protagonist, Katherine, has lived her entire life. As she falls in love with France, her character undergoes change just as do her habits.  Initially, Katherine is rather conservative and has only visited Europe once before, thirty years earlier. Before she ever makes a romantic connection with a man, she falls in love with the countryside, the people, the customs … and, surprisingly, a yellow Lab that teaches her a great deal about trust and love.

Which location did you enjoy writing the most in your story? Why this one?

It goes without saying that I love to write while I actually live the life in the south of France. For the past twenty years, my husband and I have spent at least two months each year there. I first fell in love with France fifty years ago and the love affair has only grown. I also do love Toronto, which is my home town, and it was a pleasure to write about that beautiful city. Many readers commented on the fact that a Canadian city is seldom featured in novels and they enjoyed getting to know more about Toronto.

[image error][image error]However, the majority of my readers are true Francophiles and they can’t get enough of stories set in France. They love all the details that I love to include in my stories … so it’s a win/win situation. This sharing of details is part of the brand I have established. It’s important to me to have the reader feel the story took them to the location.

Most reviewers mention how they love this aspect of my novels. However, once in a while I receive a review that complains about all the details. Those reviewers should not bother to read my work! I’m always going to share details like that with my readers.

When you visited France, which location did you prefer?

I have to admit I love all of France. It’s so diverse and each region has its own distinct personality, cuisine and scenery. However, Provence has always called to me more than the other areas. From the perched villages to the pastoral countryside of lavender and sunflower fields and vineyards to the dazzling sun-kissed shores of the Côte d’Azur, my heart lives there.

Which part of the French archetype did you discover to be wrong? Right?

The common complaint that the French are grumpy and unfriendly, I found to be absolutely false. They are not prone to walking around with a big grin, advising strangers on the street to “Have a good day.” However,  every shop or restaurant, market stall worker greets you when you enter before they ask what you would like and, likewise, they all wish you goodbye when you leave the premises. Courtesy is extremely important to the French. We have never had an unpleasant experience.

 

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Look What I Found!

At the turn of the new year, many people look back at what they did in the past year. Well, thanks to my mother, I got to look back at my entire life. A couple of years ago we gave her a machine that digitalizes old photos, in the hopes that she could save the old slides from the eighties. Well, she did even better; she got the slides and everything else with it! I got an external hard drive under the Christmas tree, filled with photos.

There are some real gems in there that will never ever be shared with anyone, but look what I found:

Photo: private

It’s AZF (and the poudrerie nationale) before the explosion (almost exactly two years before, actually). We used to go walking up to Pêch David quite often because it has a nice view of Toulouse and it only took about thirty minutes on foot from campus. So, yay, I have a “before” picture to go with The Red Brick Haze! And as a bonus, you get a picture of me at nineteen. Yeah, I’d have edited that part out, but I don’t know how…

In case you haven’t read The Red Brick Haze yet (why haven’t you? It’s free!), AZF was a fertilizer factory that blew up on September 21, 2001. It killed 31 people, wounded thousands, ruined the immediate area around it, and destroyed one third of the city’s windows. The area has since been transformed into a cancer research center, which is what you’ll see if you look at a Google map for example (what do you know, I have one right here – check out the AZF pin).

It was very difficult to determine the exact cause of the explosion, so many theories still exist. A trial was held in 2009, with the person responsible for the site judged for manslaughter, but that didn’t necessarily stop people from theorizing. I guess that’s part of why my brain thought it would be a good idea to include it in a story!

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Pin a Book: 300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson

I’m kicking off the new year with a book promising 300 days of sun – sounds like a good idea in the middle of winter, doesn’t it? Deborah Lawrenson takes us to Faro, Portugal in her novel, 300 Days of Sun[image error]. Another pin on the map!

How did the setting of your story impact your writing?

The idea for the novel grew from a stay in Faro. I loved the elegant but slightly shabby buildings and wanted to find out more about them. It was a town that tourists usually passed by, and yet it had so much to offer, from the sea marsh islands to the chapel lined with skulls and bones at the Largo do Carmo. I knew it would make a fabulous – and unusual – setting for a novel.

How or why is the setting important to who your character is?

The gentle decay and the sea marshes became a metaphor for one of the main themes of the novel: the process of change. All the characters in the story experience life-altering change – and the world around them is unstable, too. War and economic and political power-shifts undermine the individual. Violent storms re-draw coastal geography. Nature cannot be contained even with modern sea-barrier engineering that is supposed to keep the islands and marshes stable where the forces of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean meet.

Which location did you enjoy writing the most in your story? Why this one?

The desert island – always exciting! Across the marsh channels of the Ria Formosa, the Ilha Deserta is an exposed sun-blasted curl of beach in the sea, and feels much further away than the short ferry boat ride.

[image error][image error]

When you visited France, which location did you prefer? Why?

I am lucky enough to have a second home in the South of France, in the glorious Luberon valley. Though I am an adoring Francophile, and enjoy exploring all parts of the country, I always love to return to Provence.

Why? The light and the colours, the heat, the scents, the fruit and wine, and the relaxed outdoor life throughout the long summer.

What gave you the greatest cultural shock when in France?

The speed people drive on twisty hillside roads! I still find it unnerving.

Which part of the French archetype did you discover to be wrong? Right?

The myth in Britain is that the French don’t appreciate our role in the WW2 liberation of France. The Luberon was a bastion of the Resistance, and there is huge respect in this region for the RAF and its dangerous work in supporting them, dropping supplies and making clandestine landings. So much so that I wrote a novel based on some of the stories I heard – The Sea Garden.

 

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