Paula R.C. Readman's Blog, page 17

Stepping Out.

Exercise the Body to Free the Mind.

Yesterday, I walked with my village walking group for the first time. The day was bright and sunny after all the rain we’ve had. The walk started at our village library and while I was there, I was pleased to find all four of my books still on the shelf. This meant I could tell the members of the walking group that if they were readers, my books were free to borrow if they didn’t want to purchase them online.

The libraries in England have changed the way they accept books from authors. I was able to personally take my books to the local libraries, but now I have to submit them with their ISBN (International Standard Book Number) numbers online.

The number is designed to help customers identify and order the exact book whether they are ordering from bookstores, libraries, distributors, online retailers, or wholesalers. It’s a unique identifier and helps to track purchases and sales, too. I’m hoping our village library will accept my other two published books and any future ones I write.

Old Sheep Cote Farm

Yesterday’s walk wasn’t very long, but we managed to do a circular one across the gravel pit before doubling back on ourselves. I had to remind myself that the group weren’t seasoned walkers like Ana and I but had limitations. Ana and I enjoy exploring new paths and never do the same route twice. I always feel refreshed when I come back from a walk and ready to get back to writing.

We passed the old farm house called Sheep Cote. The word Cote is an Old English word (from the Germanic) meaning a shelter. It’s where the word Cottage comes from, too.

All I can find out about the history of Sheep Cote Farm is that the house was built late in the 16th or early in the 17th century and was constructed on an L-shaped plan, with the wings extending towards the South and East. It’s a beautiful building that stands on the corner of a quiet back lane, leading out of our village. The grounds are always kept nice. The path we took was reasonably dry, considering all the rain we had just lately. The colours of the leaves and berries in the hedgerow show that it’s going to be a hard winter when it finally arrives. It was amazing to see a dragonfly on the wing and a devil’s coachman running about on the hunt.

Devil’s Coachman: these amazing creatures are a species of beetle Red dragonfly

At the moment I’m busy working on my talk for the WI meeting on the 21st November. I’m a little bit nervous as I never want to let anyone down, but parts of my talk I have done before and it went down well. I’m trying to tighten it up as much as possible so I can keep within the time allotted to me. In Scotland, I talked for longer than I should’ve so I have reduced it, cutting out my advice on marketing and the use of social media sites.

Have a great weekend,

Chat again soon.

A New Story.

Dancing in the Dark.

Today I’m lucky enough to have another story published on the wonderful site CafeLit. It has been quite a while since I submitted a story to the site, so I was delighted to have a new one accepted by them.

I had planned to write more short stories at the beginning of this year, but when commissions for paintings came in, I just couldn’t say no. I’ve always wanted to be an artist, but to find out I’m both an artist and an author is beyond my wildest dreams. To have two strings to my creative bow is brilliant, but tough not be able to give them both a hundred percent of my time.

At the moment, my art is paying for itself, and far more than the writing. This is very frustrating and even disheartening, considering the amount of time and effort it takes to write and edit a novel. It makes you want to weep. The trouble is writing is like a drug: addictive. The more books you get published, the more books you want to write in the belief that the next book will be the one that is the money-maker.

I’ve been less stressed about my book sales this year. I used to panic to the point of being obsessed, but since my paintings have been selling well, I’m more relaxed. This coming new year, I shall be focusing more on my writing as I want to add to the number of books published. I’ve been invited to talk at a Paranormal Festival in the new year. All things Pagan, Wicca, and Paranormal. I shall have to get my finger out and get busy writing.

My only wish is to produce a book a year, whether that be a novel or a novella. I hope to finish writing a new Granny Martha Wenlock book this year now I’m able to give it a hundred per cent of my time.

Dancing in the Dark: A dark tale about an unusual job.

It is often said things are not always what they seem, as a young barman at an unusual drinking establishment finds out.

Dancing in the Dark by Paula R C Readman November 6th 2023.

Dancing in the Dark was created from a drabble I wrote for Black Hare Press, an Australian publishing company. The drabble was only a hundred words long, so I took its theme and turned it into a much longer story.

I hope you enjoy reading Dancing in the Dark on this link

It’s free. Please let me know what you think, thank you.

Chat again soon.

Nothing but Rain.

I’m glad we have nothing but rain here as Storm Ciaran hits the British Isles and the Channel Islands. Gusts of more than 100mph (160km/h) have been recorded in places. There’s flooding in some places, some people’s homes have been flooded, and for some, it isn’t the first time it has happened. Some have lost the roof of their homes too.

So why are you glad for the rain? you might ask me.

Because it’s better than bombs.

Though our island home, sitting in the North Sea, is being battered by the force of nature and there’s a risk of damage to homes and lives, it is not the same as the constant terror of war.

I can’t begin to imagine what it is like to live in fear for your life and that of your family as bombs rain down on you. To crouch in the darkness, wondering whether you will live to see the sunshine, to feel rain on your skin or to hear the sound of birds song instead of gun fire.

As the storm dies down, and the morning comes, I will take a look around my home to see what damage has been done. My husband will set off to work as normal, with a hug and a kiss from me. Of course, I hope his journey is straightforward with no fallen trees or floodwater to deal with. I don’t take our lifestyle lightly. I know how lucky we are in our safe and secure world here in the North Sea on the British Isles.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Paula R C Readman (@grannywenlock)

I made this short video while walking to the library today. There were men out working in the heavy rain trying to clear the blocked drains.

While I’m sitting here writing this, my husband is sitting downstairs watching his car programs. Brutus (our cat) is asleep in the hallway, while Willow (our other cat) is asleep under our bed. We have no worries about when we will eat again or problems about finding fresh water and worrying about whether the power will come on again. Outside, the wind is still strong and it’s still raining, but there’s a sense of peace in our home, knowing we are all safe here.

Enjoy the simple things in life while you can, because you never know what will happen tomorrow.

Keep on Writing.

Chat again soon.

Happy Halloween everyone,

For two hundred and fifty years, my ancestors lived, worked, and died in Whitby, North Yorkshire. Then, as the shipping industry declined in Whitby, my great-grandfather moved his family out to Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. Now, tourism keeps Whitby alive.

In these more enlightened days when we no longer fear death in the same way as our superstitious ancestors did, Whitby has become the home of the Whitby Goth Festival. Here, the undead, creatures of the night, werewolves, ghosts, vampires, and numerous such characters roam the streets and alleyways with the living during the daytime.

What has brought such a festival to Whitby? A book written by the business manager of a London actor while he was on holiday in 1890. He started writing down ideas for a blood-sucking Transylvanian Count. Six years later the birth of this book would overshadow a more ancient and powerful history of Whitby. The fact that Christianity was born in the north of England during ancient Roman times.

While Christ was being crucified, Britain wasn’t part of the Roman Empire. In A.D. 43 the Roman Conquest of these islands began. Christianity arrived in the country on the back of the Roman armies, but only after being recognized as the Roman Empire’s official religion by Constantine the Great allowed it to become more established. Constantine the Great was in York when his predecessor died, and he was hailed Emperor in 306 AD. In 314, he summoned a Council of Bishops to Arles in France, which included three English Bishops, including one from York.

By the fourth century, Roman rule in Britain was collapsing. The inhabitants of Yorkshire became Saxons or Norsemen/Vikings. My DNA shows that this is where some of my bloodline comes from. For a while, the old pagan way of life clung on in Yorkshire, but by 634, the Celtic missionaries had re-established Christianity in the North of England.

Streonashalch (the ancient name for Whitby) Abbey, stands on the headland, looking out across the North Sea and was once part of a double monastery, with communities where both men and women, were ruled over by an abbess known as St Hilda.

In the summer of 1890, Bram Stoker took a holiday in the Yorkshire fishing port of Whitby. While he was there, he began jotting down a series of notes and a plot line for a novel. One of these was the story of a Russian schooner, Dimetry which beached on Colliers Hope by Tate Hill Pier in 1885. It took six years of planning before the book for which Whitby is now known was finally published.

There were plenty of other stories, novels and even poems by other well-known authors and writers about vampires before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Stoker must have drawn his idea from these and such books as John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney the Vampire (1847) and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872).

The restless, undead vampires is a mixture of legend and mythology and based around a real character from history. Vlad Dracul was born in Transylvania, Romania and rule Walachia, Romania, off and on from 1456-1462. During his battle with the Ottoman Empire Vlad earned his title Vlad the Impaler. After his enemies were killed he would have their bodies impaled on a wooden stake outside his castle, but he didn’t drink blood.

Author at the Whitby Goth Festival.

The belief in vampires centred around the fear that the dead could still harm the living even after they were buried. These legends arose from a lack of understanding of how bodies decomposed. As a corpse’s skin shrinks, its teeth and fingernails can appear to have grown longer. As internal organs break down, a dark “purge fluid” can leak out of the nose and mouth. People unfamiliar with the process could interpret this fluid to be blood, and suspect that the corpse had been drinking it from the living. This in turn caused people to believe that any unexplained illnesses or plague might mean that a vampire was feeding on members of their community.

In today’s world, we have a better understanding of death and infectious diseases than our ancestors, so we have no fears about death. Halloween and dressing up as vampires and other nightmare creatures have become a bit of fun. Whitby and its religious past have become an amazing backdrop to anything Gothic. Its ruined Abbey and church on a foggy night have a ghostly, supernatural feel for most, rather than a spiritual feel, which is a shame.

At the time St Hilda of Whitby (614 – 680) was living in a man’s world in which she held such power. The second daughter of Hereric, nephew of Edwin, King of Deira, and his wife, Breguswīþ. Hilda became a saint of the early Church in Britain after being the founder and first abbess of the monastery at Whitby. The Abbey was chosen as the venue for the Synod of Whitby in 664. St Hilda was an important figure in the Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England, an abbess in several convents, and recognized for the wisdom that drew kings to her for advice.

St Hilda was a real person, unlike the fictional character, Dracula. Funny, I’ve never seen anyone dressed up as St Hilda at the Whitby Goth Festival

My novel Seeking the Dark is set in Whitby and Middlesbrough. The tale has an interesting twist on the theme of vampires, if you are looking for a new book. (Thank you if you do check it out.)

Click on here for the link to the book

Happy Halloween Everyone

A nice surprise and more rain

After the struggle to upload a story on Saturday, which I had been working on all week, which I finally managed to send on Sunday, I’m delighted to say it has been accepted by the publisher, CafeLit. I will, of course, post the link here when it goes live.

Today, I have been busy working on one of the two paintings that I must finish within the next month. On the 21st of November, I’m giving a book talk at a local WI meeting. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m hoping if all goes well, I might receive more requests to give other talks in the future. Maybe, I should put my name forward and be a bit more pushy, but it isn’t in my nature. I have to keep reminding myself if I want to sell more books, I need to put my name forward whenever I can.

The weather in Britain has been awful. Heavy rain and stormy weather have caused flooding in many parts. It has been blamed in some areas on new housing being built in areas that were used to drain water away from villages and other much older houses. These areas were known as flood plains.

When I was growing up in the Mill, I remember seeing localised flooding in Chelmsford, the town near where I was born. The earliest recorded records for the town show that they always had a lot of problems with flooding, especially after heavy rains. The area where the town developed was at the meeting place of two rivers, the River Chelmer and the River Can. These areas now have thousands of new homes built on them. In the past, I used to see these fields flood when the weir was opened to allow the water to drain away and prevent the town centre from flooding.

I would never buy a house anywhere near a river, stream, or the sea. A friend of mine, her house was flooded by water running off the fields after the new houses were built in a dip. It must be so awful to have worked so hard to have a lovely home, only to see it full of muddy water.

With such awful weather, I haven’t been out walking much. On Thursday, I was hoping to join a local walking group, but the weather forecast is showing strong winds and heavy rain on that day. Oh well, let’s hope we get some sunny days soon.

Chat again soon.

Don’t get too lost while writing.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written a new short story. Finally, I’ve completed and edited one. Over the last week, I made numerous changes as I hunted out the soul of the story. After sleeping on it on Friday night, an idea popped into my head, and in walked Orion. Suddenly, I need to write another eight hundred words. By the end of the day, after numerous read-throughs and more editing, I reached the point where it was ready to submit. Or I thought it was.

Let me explain. I have sitting on my computer a file containing a collection of flash fiction I had published by Black Hare Press, a small independent publisher based in Melbourne, Australia. I decided to put all the stories I had published by them into a single collection. The only problem is each tale is told in a hundred words, so the book wouldn’t be very long, even if I added in the longer stories I had published by them.

Some of these books by Black Hare Press contain my work.

To solve this problem, I have come up with a cunning plan.

By using each of the flash fiction (drabbles) as a theme, I’ll write a much longer piece. The first of these stories I completed yesterday. The hundred words became two thousand, eight hundred and twenty words. At one point, I was worried as the main character developed and grew on me. I started to think I could turn it into a novella, but I had to stop myself. I needed to stay focus.

I’m working on a novel at the moment, and have two paintings to finish before Christmas, too. I must stick to my plan and complete the novel first before thinking about my next writing project. It’s far too easy to come up with ideas.

Each month in my home, I run a writing group, so I need a piece of work to read out to the members. Nothing longer than two thousand words. My plan is to take one of the flash fiction pieces and edit them into a longer story for this job. Of course, I could read parts of my novel, but I find you have to explain the plot to anyone who didn’t make it to the group the month before.

Yesterday evening, I tried submitting the new short story to CafeLit, but because it’s been a while since I last did it, it took me ages to fill in the submission details. Grammarly told me that there were mistakes in my story too. Feeling tired and frustrated I gave up and went to bed.

It was the best thing I did because I gave the story another read-through and made more changes. On visiting the submission site again, I found it straightforward to submit now that I wasn’t so tired. Hopefully, I have tightened the tale and made it flow better.

Fingers crossed that the publishers enjoy reading it.

Have a great week.

Words and Brushstrokes.

I’ve just come back from the post office. I’m feeling very nervous as I’ve just sent a painting off into the big bad world on its own. I know I’ve wrapped it up the best I can, under three thick layers, but you know, some people are less respectful of other people’s belongings. This is the first time I’ve sent one of my paintings through the post to a client, so I’m hoping they receive it safe and sound. It took me three weeks to paint it, and I know it means a lot to them to have the painting of their childhood home.

The cottage was built by the client’s great-grandfather, and they lived there until their late teens. When tragedy struck, they had to move away. Over the years, the cottage has been sold many times, and is now beyond the price the client can afford to buy it back into the family.

The client explained that they have no photos from the time they and their parents were living in the cottage. I asked them lots of questions so I could create an image that was familiar to them. A photo of a painting is never as good as seeing the real thing, but when I sent them a photo, they messaged back that they loved it. I’m so pleased they did. I’m never sure if my work is good enough, even though I try my best.

At the moment, I’m busy editing a short story, Dancing in the Dark. I kept coming back to this particular story over the last few months between paintings. It started life as a piece of flash fiction, only a hundred words long. I felt the theme of the piece had the potential for a longer one, so I played around with it, but I got stuck. I’m sure you know that feeling when you begin to hate it. No matter how many times you read through it, you can’t make any improvements. It remains flat.

After a couple of months, I set it aside and focused on painting and gardening. My husband and I needed to eat too. Yesterday evening, I took another look at the story. Distance really does help. Before, I couldn’t find that familiar buzz when you know you are on the right track and the story starts to come alive. Maybe I had been in too much of a hurry. My mind was too full of other things.

This morning, before walking to the post office, I was working line by line, asking myself simple questions.

What can the character see? What season are they in?

I just kept on digging. Suddenly, the fog cleared, and what I was hunting for click into place.
The small changes I’ve made has brought the story alive. Just few more edits and I’ll be ready to submit it. I’ll let you know what happens next.
Happy writing everyone.

Gifted: a new Anthology

I love writing short stories. It’s how my writing career started. Mastering the art of writing short stories will teach you all the skills needed to write a novel. Working with a limited number of words makes you think carefully about which words to use; in turn, this keeps your writing tight.

Bridge House Publishing is a small, but amazing publisher who is always on the lookout for new writers to help and encourage. I discovered them by chance and submitted my first short crime story to them in 2012. Much to my delight, Rat Trap made it into their anthology Crime After Crime. You can read Rat Trap, along with twelve other stories in my collection of short stories, Days Pass Like a Shadow, published by Bridge House Publishing.

Bridge House Publishing has its own online bookshop. Here you can find an array of books by their authors as well as a collection of anthologies published by the company annually, as well as their books been found on Amazon and many other online shops. I’m lucky enough to have my work published in nine of their past collections. Every year, Gill James sets the theme for the following anthology at the Bridge House book launch in London.

This year’s themed anthology was called Gifted. I submitted a short story I had written for a magazine many years ago. Of course, I did a rewrite as over the years my writing has improved and I’ve learnt to edit much better. There’s also the added bonus of looking at your own work with a fresh eye, too. We should always put some distance between finishing a short story/novel before submitting it.

I could see with the original version of Just A Packet of Seeds I had tried to pack too many threads into the storyline. Having a set word count for the submission meant I had to rethink the storyline and tighten it.

This is where the fun of writing short stories lies for me, and why mastering them helps you write better novels. It’s too easy to get carried away with how many words you have written when writing a novel. Yes, it takes time to write a novel, and it’s important to get the first draft down so you have something to work with when editing. The most important thing is to get rid of words that either slow the pace of the storytelling or go off track. Too much unnecessary padding or waffle to give yourself a higher word count might be something you can boast about or impress your online community, but when it comes to readers, they won’t be so impressed.

Writing short stories for submission doesn’t allow you to waffle as you are normally writing to a limited word count. So every word has a special job to do. If it’s weak and doesn’t add to the flow of your story it has to go. You’ll be surprised how changing a simple word can make your sentence stronger and add a bigger punch to your storytelling. I often find myself checking the meaning of words as I hunt for another one that means the same but has more clout. Less plodding and more ass-kicking.

Check a thesaurus, and increase your understanding of the power of words.

You can thank me later.

Happy Writing everyone.

Writing Characters’ Backstories

Backstories: Do you write them?

Hmm, no. I don’t. I find them to be time wasting and the only way to really get to know your characters is to let them tell you about themselves.

Actions speak louder than words.

Let me explain why. When I first started writing, I read that you had to write out the life history of your characters. From what they looked like, i.e.: hair, eyes, skin colour, scars on the body, body shape, etc. How old they were, what school they went to (college, university, etc.), where they first lived, how many siblings they had, their first job, etc. Favourite foods, what they disliked. What clothes they wore, whether they wore jewellery. On and on the list went. Most of it never went into my books because it wasn’t relevant to the story I was writing.

After spending ages writing out a list for each of my main characters for my first novel, I realised something important. I didn’t know who my characters were going to be to start with. So, I started by asking myself whether the main point of view was going to be male or female. Then, I started with their name, age, height, and build.

If you think about when you meet someone for the first time. What do you know about them other than how they look?

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First impressions are everything.

All we know about anyone is how they look. Think about our profile photo when paging online social media sites. We all take so much care in selecting our photos to show us at our best. Do we stage our photos to tell the viewer something about us? Are we sitting in a flashy car, seated on a motorbike, dressed in expensive clothes, in an exotic location?

From our profile photos, the reader only learns a small amount about us, but once they begin to read our social media sites, they begin to build an understanding of who we are, but still not a full picture.
So now I start with the basics. First, I select a name and start building my main character with the colour of their hair, adding in style, etc. Maybe adding the colour of their eyes, and whether they are tall, short, or stocky built, etc. After that I start writing the first draft. As the storyline starts to develop so each characters tells me a little about themselves.

How often have you read a book and created an image of what the main character looked like, only to find they look nothing like the star used in the film adaptation of the book?
Think about how much you know about the people in your life. Even though those closest to us know very little about us, most of us only reveal parts of our true selves when it is necessary.

That’s exactly how I learn about my characters. As I write, they reveal a little of themselves to me.
I add all the relevant information to a document where I keep a list of characters. By the time I’ve written the first draft, I’m really getting to know my characters and what makes them tick. Also, by keeping notes on them as you write the first draft, you’re less likely to change hair or eye colour.

The most important thing is to only tell your readers what they need to know to move the story forward. If you are building a series of books with the same character/s, then you will continue adding to your character/s’ background as the series develops.

This is why editing several early drafts of your novel is so important because you are getting to know your story and your characters. The more you know about them within your story, the more your plot will develop, and the stronger your writing will become.

Underdeveloped characters and storyline weaken the book and make it a less enjoyable read for your readers.

Hope my post is helpful, but I do know all writers have their own way of writing. Just enjoy the journey and happy writing to you all.

Being Creative

Today I started a new painting. I’m feeling rather pleased with myself as the style of my painting is developing and improving. I’m working in acrylic, which allows me to finish a painting quite quickly, unlike oil paint where you have to allow for drying time in between each layer. Acrylic paint dries too quickly for my liking until I discovered I needed a stay-wet tray. I only discovered this while watching a video on YouTube when I started painting again. When I was sixteen, I dreamt about being an artist. It was the only thing I really enjoyed doing when I was at school, and I would borrow books from the local library to read about artists and their lives. I’ve always loved the paintings of Victorian artists that are full of symbolism and hidden meanings.

Last year, I began painting after a thirty-six-year wait. I set up a studio in my son’s old bedroom, knowing he wouldn’t return home after getting married. I was able to decorate the room and bring all my art stuff down from the attic. In my first series of paintings, I decided to just paint and see what happened. In my youth, I worried too much that everything had to look like a photograph rather than a painting. In today’s world where everyone has a camera on their phone, and photos can be printed onto canvases, a painting has become something rather special. A unique one-of-a-kind piece of art work.

What started off as something I did between books to cleanse my mind before starting the next book has turned into a craft of its own after I posted the paintings I did on Facebook. I was both surprised and delighted when people started to ask if they could buy them.

Yesterday, I needed to focus on write a short story for my writing group. I had been busy editing a story I had read at the last group meeting but this I had set it aside to focus on completing some paintings. I have two more paintings to finish before Christmas. My plan to start writing again on the first of October had to be scrapped when a request for a special painting caught my interest on the Essex Artists FB group. I wanted to complete it plus the two other paintings before I started work on the next Granny Wenlock novel.

Granny Wenlock (Click here to buy the novella)

After setting the short story aside, yesterday I began to play around with the Granny Wenlock novel. For the last three years, I hadn’t been able to get the new novel straight in my head as a fog stopped me from seeing the way forward. Yesterday, I moved a couple of paragraphs around, created a new character, and added more detail to a scene. Suddenly, the light bulb moment I had been hunting and hoping for clicked on in my head and everything dropped into place.

History repeats itself. The hunter becomes the hunted.

Now I just have to find the time to write it. My plan has always been to write one high-quality book a year. Somehow, I don’t think I will have a book published next year because this one won’t be finished. Just have to finish some more paintings instead.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Much Peace and Love to All.