Barbara Spencer's Blog: Two sides to Every Story, page 2
August 19, 2016
An unforgettable character
Authors on occasions fall in love with their characters ... and I am no exception. Only problem is, my character is a camel ... Bud from A Dangerous Game of Football. I have no doubt there's a great many teenagers out there who will agree with me, having read this book whilst at primary school. Published originally in 2009, and relaunched as A Dangerous Game, as the name suggests, our hero Jack Burnsides is a keen footballer. When his best mate disappears, with the aid of Bud, who just happens to be magical, he sets off to find him, embarking on a journey to a land ruled by sun, sorcerers and giant crows.
Bud, however, is not your super-hero, like Captain America or Batman. No, he's more like your anti-hero. Yes, of course he's magical, but he also spits and smells and is both bad-tempered and rude, hilariously funny and quite perfect.
Of course, there had to be a sequel and along came, The Bird Children. A little more scary this time with Jack trying to save Bud from Mendorun, the sorcerer whose plans include becoming the most powerful sorcerer on earth.
And that's where the adventures of Jack Burnside stayed, until fed up with my daughter and granddaughter nagging, I set about writing the third book ... The Lions of Trafalgar. And on its pages, another memorable character came to life ... Capstick, one of the lions that guard Nelson in Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, they come alive and so does Nelson. And mayhem ensues.
Is Capstick now my favourite? Has he knocked Bud off his pedestal?
You need to read the series to find out:
Bud, however, is not your super-hero, like Captain America or Batman. No, he's more like your anti-hero. Yes, of course he's magical, but he also spits and smells and is both bad-tempered and rude, hilariously funny and quite perfect.
Of course, there had to be a sequel and along came, The Bird Children. A little more scary this time with Jack trying to save Bud from Mendorun, the sorcerer whose plans include becoming the most powerful sorcerer on earth.
And that's where the adventures of Jack Burnside stayed, until fed up with my daughter and granddaughter nagging, I set about writing the third book ... The Lions of Trafalgar. And on its pages, another memorable character came to life ... Capstick, one of the lions that guard Nelson in Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, they come alive and so does Nelson. And mayhem ensues.
Is Capstick now my favourite? Has he knocked Bud off his pedestal?
You need to read the series to find out:
August 3, 2016
Solving the problem of glitches
With so many authors taking the self-publishing route, Amazon.com have uploads of several million books including several thousand self-help manuals.
As a result of all this writing, whether we are talking blogs from experts or 'things that worked for me' from amateurs, there is a wealth of expertise out there on how to write a best seller.
Naturally, I have my own ideas but I can promise you, it's not as easy as it sounds. Once your book is published, you then have to consider the marketing because no way will it sell itself ... unless your name is J K Rowling or Roald Dahl. For mere mortals, it takes time and daily application. Even then it may not work. So much depends on title, cover image and story line. Of those three, the story line is the most important. Get that right and your audience will forgive both typos and a less than grammatically perfect text.
As they say when you're looking for a new house: location, location, location. It's all about the story.
One thing I have learned. No matter how carefully you prepare your manuscript, it can always be improved. This week saw the first of my books, Kidnap, on audio. Having completed the narration, the audio has come back to me to correct any errors. With ten hours of recording, it will take me the greater part of a week. With a paperback copy of the book in front of me, I read it word for word, chapter by chapter, as it is narrated. At the same time I keep a note of all the places where the narration flags. I admit, there's not many, I was surprised how well it reads. But there is the mandatory misplaced comma, word omitted, perhaps the overuse of a word or the inclusion of one that is unnecessary. Still it's there ... and despite reading the text fifty or so times, once the audio is tidied away, I will be back to making changes to the text.
So here's my number one tip: Ask a friend to read your book out loud while you listen and make notes.
And be prepared to be surprised! Very surprised!
https://www.facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerAuthor
As a result of all this writing, whether we are talking blogs from experts or 'things that worked for me' from amateurs, there is a wealth of expertise out there on how to write a best seller.
Naturally, I have my own ideas but I can promise you, it's not as easy as it sounds. Once your book is published, you then have to consider the marketing because no way will it sell itself ... unless your name is J K Rowling or Roald Dahl. For mere mortals, it takes time and daily application. Even then it may not work. So much depends on title, cover image and story line. Of those three, the story line is the most important. Get that right and your audience will forgive both typos and a less than grammatically perfect text.
As they say when you're looking for a new house: location, location, location. It's all about the story.
One thing I have learned. No matter how carefully you prepare your manuscript, it can always be improved. This week saw the first of my books, Kidnap, on audio. Having completed the narration, the audio has come back to me to correct any errors. With ten hours of recording, it will take me the greater part of a week. With a paperback copy of the book in front of me, I read it word for word, chapter by chapter, as it is narrated. At the same time I keep a note of all the places where the narration flags. I admit, there's not many, I was surprised how well it reads. But there is the mandatory misplaced comma, word omitted, perhaps the overuse of a word or the inclusion of one that is unnecessary. Still it's there ... and despite reading the text fifty or so times, once the audio is tidied away, I will be back to making changes to the text.
So here's my number one tip: Ask a friend to read your book out loud while you listen and make notes.
And be prepared to be surprised! Very surprised!
https://www.facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerAuthor
June 12, 2016
Back from my adventures
While preparing my talk for my next school visit, I suddenly realized I have been doing this for ten years since the publication of Scruffy. Of course there are two ways of looking at my selfless devotion to my art ... how wonderful or what a boring life I have led. With the latter I take umbrage: how many people have flown with magical camels, or Nelson and his lions, or gone back in time? It's only becomes a dull a boring life when I can't get the words right. With twelve books to my name, I have talked to hundreds of children and parents in Waterstones, met some remarkable people including three brilliant illustrators and until their change of policy was a very regular visitor to their stores for book signing events. With school receptionists, I was more often than not known as 'The Scruffy Lady.'
Almost too doddery now to traipse round the country, I have begun writing for an older audience ... as satisfying? Not sure yet - although I am finding it much, much harder: learning how to caress sentences into life is proving a challenge. Gluing children to the pages of a book and making them laugh was my special talent.
Almost too doddery now to traipse round the country, I have begun writing for an older audience ... as satisfying? Not sure yet - although I am finding it much, much harder: learning how to caress sentences into life is proving a challenge. Gluing children to the pages of a book and making them laugh was my special talent.
May 25, 2016
Wednesday Blog Day
In 2010 I wrote my first YA novel 'Running', part of the Deadly Pursuit series. An instant success in paperback it took me to over a hundred book signing events at Waterstones and secondary schools.
The first person to review it was a 'granddad'. He objected to my spelling the word garage as 'garidge' but loved the story.
Looking back at it now, what surprises me is how much of the book is relevant to our politics today. I read somewhere that a computer virus was secretly used to discover the nuclear programme of Iran. Is the UK about to be reduced to island status? Or are we there already? Is Europe top dog? Yes! In Running laws are draconian, even travelling to mainland Europe is prohibited if you have a criminal record.And what about the US with an election coming up? All the balls are in the air.
The idea came to me as early as 2006 and I kicked it about for a few years before putting pen to paper. In those days the understanding of computers were still very much in its infancy. At work, we called in an expert when they went wrong. (Of course that still happens today. We can operate them but can't mend them).
The Deadly Pursuit series about Styrus, a powerful computer virus, has produced some memorable characters, in particular Sean Terry, a world-weary FBI agent determined to prove the US innocent of all charges. And, surprisingly a red Suzuki 1000cc motor bike. My cousin was given Book 1 - Running by his children for Christmas. Meeting up at a funeral, he asked how I knew about motorbikes? I confessed to riding pillion on a great monster of a bike when I was a kid. The bike is an appropriate metaphor as the story voyages from London to California, Cornwall to Scotland, finishing up in Lisse in Holland.
And Book 2 - In every hunt to the death there has to be a Turning Point.
The first person to review it was a 'granddad'. He objected to my spelling the word garage as 'garidge' but loved the story.
Looking back at it now, what surprises me is how much of the book is relevant to our politics today. I read somewhere that a computer virus was secretly used to discover the nuclear programme of Iran. Is the UK about to be reduced to island status? Or are we there already? Is Europe top dog? Yes! In Running laws are draconian, even travelling to mainland Europe is prohibited if you have a criminal record.And what about the US with an election coming up? All the balls are in the air.
The idea came to me as early as 2006 and I kicked it about for a few years before putting pen to paper. In those days the understanding of computers were still very much in its infancy. At work, we called in an expert when they went wrong. (Of course that still happens today. We can operate them but can't mend them).
The Deadly Pursuit series about Styrus, a powerful computer virus, has produced some memorable characters, in particular Sean Terry, a world-weary FBI agent determined to prove the US innocent of all charges. And, surprisingly a red Suzuki 1000cc motor bike. My cousin was given Book 1 - Running by his children for Christmas. Meeting up at a funeral, he asked how I knew about motorbikes? I confessed to riding pillion on a great monster of a bike when I was a kid. The bike is an appropriate metaphor as the story voyages from London to California, Cornwall to Scotland, finishing up in Lisse in Holland.
And Book 2 - In every hunt to the death there has to be a Turning Point.
April 23, 2016
When life comes down to the wire!
Back in the wars between the cousins Red and White, Richard III purportedly cried, ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse,’ as in the middle of battle, his barons deserted him for Henry Tudor and his horse was cut down under him.
You will note in the last sentence the word, horse, was repeated four times. For that is how important the animal was to the past, eventually declining in the First World World l914 from being a war horse that charged the enemy as part of a cavalry regiment to a decorative beast capable of dancing round an arena to music. Will anything else be as wondrous as the horse? As the vehicle on which life revolved it lasted thousands of years.
So why this musing in praise of a horse! Am I now going to extol the virtues of a car or a plane?
No, I am about to focus the remaining words of this blog on the humble existence of a small piece of wire. Not any piece of wire … a long, thin piece with a plug on one end, without which civilization as we know today would fail and come crashing down … the humble charger.
On the train yesterday, a young woman before disposing of her luggage whipped out this mandatory ‘piece of wire’searching for a socket, and changed her seat three times before she found a functioning unit. (She had mistakenly entered the quiet carriage).
Buses, trains, anything that moves, now feel obliged to offer both charging and YiFi points … and I ask, does the success of business now depend on this?
Waiting for the train at wondrously rebuilt Birmingham New Street Station, about which I will blog another time, the platform is awash with stylish fingers skimming over keyboards and loud-voiced conversations in which the intimate details of Aunty Minnie’s sex life are shouted into a mobile to, presumably, some interested party at the other end. Business deals worth millions of dollars are touted on that same platform while I, spoilsport that I am stand in my little bubble of silence … and think longingly of … er … I guess, silence.
And all of this is down to a single piece of wire.
If Shakespeare were alive right now, he would adroitly alter a those words of Richard III to: A charger, a charger, my kingdom for a charger.
April 5, 2016
An extraordinary week
Last week for me was quite extraordinary. The sun shone, 'The Amazing Brain of O C Longbotham' won Bronze at the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, ages 9 - 12, and I received an overwhelming review for 'Broken'.
Now I don't actively think 'reviews'. Predominantly a children's writer, I prefer to receive emails from fans saying how much they loved this character or that character, so to receive a review of this calibre ... well, to put it mildly, the week left me gob-smacked!
'Broken' is for me a very special book. Different from all my children's books which all have the feel-good factor, it is the only book set in the local area of Streets and Glastonbury, it is a very personal book. Not such much the content but in its emotion. It tugs at the heartstrings. (I remember a critic described, 'Time Breaking' as leaving her bereft. It is a good word for 'Broken' too.)
While I was writing, it was entitled, Me and Mrs Jone' for the two main characters Jem Love and Katrina Jones. It was only when it reached the publication stage that it was changed ... Quite honestly, I am still in two minds as to whether this was a good move or bad.
Read 'Broken' yourself and decide which title you prefer. And do let me know.
Now I don't actively think 'reviews'. Predominantly a children's writer, I prefer to receive emails from fans saying how much they loved this character or that character, so to receive a review of this calibre ... well, to put it mildly, the week left me gob-smacked!
'Broken' is for me a very special book. Different from all my children's books which all have the feel-good factor, it is the only book set in the local area of Streets and Glastonbury, it is a very personal book. Not such much the content but in its emotion. It tugs at the heartstrings. (I remember a critic described, 'Time Breaking' as leaving her bereft. It is a good word for 'Broken' too.)
While I was writing, it was entitled, Me and Mrs Jone' for the two main characters Jem Love and Katrina Jones. It was only when it reached the publication stage that it was changed ... Quite honestly, I am still in two minds as to whether this was a good move or bad.
Read 'Broken' yourself and decide which title you prefer. And do let me know.
April 3, 2016
Not since Twilight ...
Not since I picked up a copy of Twilight have I been fastened to my chair for six hours without moving. That happened today. The book: A Well-Tempered Heart by Jan-Philipp Sendker. Translated from the German, each word was chosen with such delicacy that I immediately wanted to destroy my new novel and start afresh. Set in New York and Burma, it is a journey of discovery but not in the usual way. It is a journey of the heart. It's characters - breathtaking, particular U Ba, the half-brother of the New York Lawyer, Julia, who tells the story. He is perfection and I only hope I can create magic on this scale one day www.facebook.com/BarbaraSpencerO
April 2, 2016
A futuristic thriller rapidly coming true
In 2010 I wrote my first YA novel 'Running'. An instant success in paperback it took me to over 100 book signing events at Waterstones and secondary schools.
The first person who reviewed it was a 'granddad'. He objected to my spelling the word garage as 'garidge' but loved the story. A thriller, in which Europe are top dog, and England reduced to island status, the US have been ostracized for inadvertently creating an nuclear explosion which took out Iran. It has also suffered a major earthquake along the Saint Andreas fault.
The story about a powerful computer virus, capable of penetrating any system and stealing its secrets, has produced some memorable characters, in particular Sean Terry, a world-weary FBI agent determined to prove the US innocent of all charges. And, surprising a red Suzuki 1000cc motor bike. My cousin was given Running by his children for Christmas. Meeting up at a funeral, he asked how I knew about motorbikes? I confessed to riding pillion on a great monster of a bike when I was a kid.
The bike is an appropriate metaphor as the story voyages from London to California, Cornwall to Scotland, finishing up in Lisse in Holland.
What surprises me is how much of the book is relevant to our politics today. I read somewhere that a computer virus was secretly used to discover the nuclear programme of Iran. Is the UK being reduced to an island status? Is Europe top dog? And what about the US with an election coming up? All the ball are in the air.
Running has now made it onto ebooks with the sequel, Turning Point (also in paperback) appearing shortly.
The first person who reviewed it was a 'granddad'. He objected to my spelling the word garage as 'garidge' but loved the story. A thriller, in which Europe are top dog, and England reduced to island status, the US have been ostracized for inadvertently creating an nuclear explosion which took out Iran. It has also suffered a major earthquake along the Saint Andreas fault.
The story about a powerful computer virus, capable of penetrating any system and stealing its secrets, has produced some memorable characters, in particular Sean Terry, a world-weary FBI agent determined to prove the US innocent of all charges. And, surprising a red Suzuki 1000cc motor bike. My cousin was given Running by his children for Christmas. Meeting up at a funeral, he asked how I knew about motorbikes? I confessed to riding pillion on a great monster of a bike when I was a kid.
The bike is an appropriate metaphor as the story voyages from London to California, Cornwall to Scotland, finishing up in Lisse in Holland.
What surprises me is how much of the book is relevant to our politics today. I read somewhere that a computer virus was secretly used to discover the nuclear programme of Iran. Is the UK being reduced to an island status? Is Europe top dog? And what about the US with an election coming up? All the ball are in the air.
Running has now made it onto ebooks with the sequel, Turning Point (also in paperback) appearing shortly.
March 30, 2016
I went weak at the knees when this popped into my email:
A book that will break your heart and then restore your hope for humanity, March 29, 2016
By Francis Guenette This review is from: Broken (Kindle Edition)
Sometimes you get lucky and happen upon a book that breaks your heart. Broken is such a book and Barbara Spencer is a writer who knows how to bring the reader along through the thick and the thin of trouble, right to edge of despair and then, like a magician, she waves her wand and makes it all come out right.
There are so many wonderful things to say about this book, I hardly know where to start. It is the rare author that can render the voice of a fourteen-year-old boy with as much depth and believability as she can bring to a somewhat hardened going-on-thirty social worker - but Spencer manages this feat hands down.
Then there is the writing - words flow through descriptions that leap off the page with vitality. I'm not going to say anything about the story - it has to be discovered for itself. But I will say this - at about the three-quarters mark, I wanted the book to end the way it did so badly I could scarce get my breath.
Read this book - you won't be sorry. It will make you believe once again in happy endings that glitter like gold as they sit in the dustbin of cold, hard reality. Such is life and some truths of life are best rendered in fiction.
By Francis Guenette This review is from: Broken (Kindle Edition)
Sometimes you get lucky and happen upon a book that breaks your heart. Broken is such a book and Barbara Spencer is a writer who knows how to bring the reader along through the thick and the thin of trouble, right to edge of despair and then, like a magician, she waves her wand and makes it all come out right.There are so many wonderful things to say about this book, I hardly know where to start. It is the rare author that can render the voice of a fourteen-year-old boy with as much depth and believability as she can bring to a somewhat hardened going-on-thirty social worker - but Spencer manages this feat hands down.
Then there is the writing - words flow through descriptions that leap off the page with vitality. I'm not going to say anything about the story - it has to be discovered for itself. But I will say this - at about the three-quarters mark, I wanted the book to end the way it did so badly I could scarce get my breath.
Read this book - you won't be sorry. It will make you believe once again in happy endings that glitter like gold as they sit in the dustbin of cold, hard reality. Such is life and some truths of life are best rendered in fiction.
March 28, 2016
Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2016
It's March 28 - 3 days to go! As a finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, I think both Philip James Longbotham and Cash Harris the heroes of The Amazing Brain of O C Longbotham, they are most likely quivering in their boots. Kitty says, waiting to hear the result is worse than having your teeth out. Anna says, if Kitty had cleaned her teeth every day then she wouldn't need to have them out. To which Kitty replied: 'Der! Anyway, Mrs. Longbotham thinks it is quite wonderful to be in the final. She says ' it doesn't matter about winning, making it to the final is okay, too. But don't tell your grandmother, I said so.'
Two sides to Every Story
Today, May 17, with lockdown once again lifted and people able to dash off to shops without a sense of guilt, 'but I only went to the supermarket,' the burgeoning sense of free is creating a somewhat
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