Linda Mitchelmore's Blog, page 2

DON’T FORGET THE ARTIST….

I have an artist friend – let’s call him Bert – who has earned his living, more or less, all his life by his pencil/paints/silk-screen printing press. Over a shared kitchen supper he declared (okay, possibly a couple of glasses of good Rioja down) that ‘the world today couldn’t manage without us artists’.

‘Well, you would say that,’ I laughed – paraphrasing Mandy Rice-Davies, and also possibly a couple of glasses of good Rioja down myself.

He went on to give me a very long list of the things that begin their conception at the artist’s easel/fancy computer programme that requires artistic input. Paperclips. Cars. Space rockets. Packaging for everything from Andrex loo rolls to a zither. Statues (this one  is Horseman by Elisabeth Hadley).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jewellery. Clothes and shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

Every electronic gadget you can think of. The icons on met office reports…..on and on the list went.

“Book covers!” I added to the pile.

“Yes,” he said, “and there are some pretty terrible examples of that.”

Another interesting discussion followed….:)

One of my favourite book covers of all time is for a non-fiction book – MAKING SHAPELY FICTION. It does what it says on the tin and in a very pleasing-to-the-eye art deco way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m lucky enough to have had short stories commissioned by magazine editors and I find seeing a visual and then being asked to write a story for which that illustration would be appropriate is a great way to get the creative juices flowing.

And I’m also lucky enough to have had two books published – TO TURN FULL CIRCLE (ebook/paperback/large print/audio) and HOPE FOR HANNAH (ebook), and I’ve just had the book cover designed for the sequel to TO TURN FULL CIRCLE, which will be published in January 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

So, I have to concede that ‘Bert’ (giving him a pseudonym to spare his blushes!) was right. What would our books be without artwork?

 

 

So where do you go for your holidays?

Oh for a pound every time I was asked this as a teenager growing up in the 1960s! I live, you see, beside the seaside. Back in those days few people went abroad so Paignton Beach was ramjampacked with holidaymakers. I often had to pick a very careful path through people eating their picnic sandwiches, being careful not to knock over their thermos flasks of tea. Children were everywhere, building sandcastles and licking ice-cream that mostly dripped onto the sand in the heat. It seemed to be hotter in summer in those days, and for longer. Come August, the air would often be cleared by an almighty thunderstorm…..lightning cracked and lit up the sky, and the rain came down in stair rods. But it was all soon over, and the sun came out again.

My Aunt Frances and Uncle Jona had no children and a house with many spare bedrooms, so in the summer they took in visitors on a Bed and Breakfast and Evening Meal basis.  Many came from the north and this Devon Dumpling struggled to understand their accents. When I was 13 or so I used to go and help my aunt serve the fried breakfasts. And often her guests would ask if I’d like to go with them in the car to Dartmoor or the South Hams where the sand was white and not red as it is in Paignton. Oh happy days…..although I was never on holiday really.

I am naturally quite dark-skinned. My hair was raven-black way back then. I was often asked if I was Greek, or possibly Spanish. And way back then there was no sun screen whatsoever. The beach was often awash with not only the smell of seaweed and candyfloss, but also Ambre Solaire …..and the local sun-tanning speciality – olive oil and vinegar mixed. No extra virgin olive oil either……this was those little bottles from Boots or Timothy Whites that you bought to unblock waxed up ears. We sort of fried in the sun….makes me shiver to think of it now!

My mother made me a huge towelling changing tent contraption. It had a hole for my head and slits for my arms and came down to my ankles. Once inside I could disrobe modestly, emerging in my seersucker bathers, and later a home-made denim bikini – oh how I loved that bikini, and wish I’d kept it.

But how times change! Not just the weather either, although last Monday, 27th May, my husband, grandson Alexander, and I were the only ones on the beach – the sun was out but there was a terrific wind, and it was bitingly cold. No wonder most people go abroad, but I have to say that trip to the beach with Alexander had the same magic for him, as he built a huge sandcastle and then proceeded to tunnel through it very happily wrapped up against the elements, as it’s always had for me. More people go abroad for (almost) guaranteed sunshine these days but on a good day there’s nowhere better then my home beach to be.

My bikini days are long gone, but I still like to paddle and – when the water’s warmed up considerably come September – take a dip as well.

So, here’s a seaside picture for you although not a picture of me in a bikini – or even my Spanx bathers – to frighten the horses….

FRIENDS INDEED

I was dragged kicking and screaming into the world of computers. Well, I would be, wouldn’t I, considering I share a maiden surname with one of the most famous typewriter manufacturers in the world? – Underwood. I learned to type on a machine the size of a small gas stove. You had to hit the keys with quite some force to make the metal arm leave that curve of letters and make its way to the piece of paper you’d secured in the roller.

But I was dragged kicking and screaming to that typerwriter in the first place by my father. He didn’t hold with my Grammar School not teaching its pupils shorthand and typing. So, he decided I should learn at nightschool. ‘You’ll thank me for it one day, Maggie Murphy,’ he said. For some reason my father always called me Maggie Murphy, whoever she was. And I’ve come to thank him over and over because hasn’t the ability to type got me some friends on the internet! Loads and loads of them, I’m pleased to say. Some I’ve already met, and some are names I know almost as well as my own now and am ridiculously pleased when I see them on my Facebook page, or in a Twitter message.

So, these friends…..they write blogs and I struggle to keep up with the blogging. I am going to have to get my act together and get something done professionally before too long, but in the meantime this one will do….:)

And one of those friends I’ve made but not yet met is Marilyn Chapman. She writes a most excellent blog over on http://guernseygirlie.blogspot.com/ and she’s nominated me for something called the Sunshine Award, which has a very pretty logo. The rules for this aren’t arduous…..just a few questions to answer and I’ve even been able to answer them after a lunch that didn’t include wine today because I’m on the 5:2 diet and it’s Fast Day today – and that could be the theme for another blog, somewhen.

So….the questions.

1. What was your first publication? A poem – more doggerel than poetry – in People’s Friend about my then 11 year old son going to Scout Camp for the first time. I was paid £10 with which I bought a little necklace I still have some thirty years later.

2. Favourite destination? La Roche, which is a tiny hamlet in Brittany where dear friends, Richard and Jennie Bohnet, live – it is peace personified….and Jennie is a wonderful cook!

3. Facebook or Twitter? Hmmm….I waste far too much time on both but I find Facebook the friendlier of the two.

4. The man I would most like to have met? Two actually……both my grandfathers who had died by the time I was born. Seeing how wonderful my husband is with my grandchildren has made me realise I have badly missed what could have been wonderful relationships.

5. Writer who most inspired me? Absolutely anyone who has got into print – it isn’t easy!

6. When would you have liked to have lived? The 1930′s and in the UK and I would have liked to have been well-blessed in the bank balance department to enjoy that peace between two terrible wars.

7. Favourite quote? ‘You can’t stop misery from coming into your home, but you don’t have to give it a chair to sit down in.’ I have no idea who said it first but it is such good advice.

And now another little rule of this award. I have to pass it on to other bloggers. The rule says ‘between five and ten bloggers’…….now I know I said I’ve made a lot of friends on FB and Twitter and through learning type in the first place and I’d like to keep them – and besides, so many have already done all sorts of blog awards. So, I’m recommending three blogs which I love.

Valerie Holmes – http://valerieholmesauthor.wordpress.com

Sarah Tranter – http://rambling indulgences.blogspot.co.uk

Christine Stovell – http://homethoughtsweekly.blogspot.co.uk

Over to you ladies….:)

BREAKING NEWS

Following the publication of TO TURN FULL CIRCLE, the first in my Devon-based trilogy for Choc Lit, on 7th June 2012,  I am happy to announce that TTFC’s sequel, NO TURNING BACK, has been contracted.Publication date for NO TURNING BACK is May 2014.

A long time to wait for a sequel? Well, fear not, because in the meantime Choc Lit have published my novella, HOPE FOR HANNAH, as an e.book. There are plans for it to come out in Large Print later in the year. Like TO TURN FULL CIRLCE, my novella is also Devon-based – this time Dartmoor is the setting.

Why Dartmoor? Well, I have strong memories of Sunday School coach outings over the moor, most of which I loved. I say most….Dartmoor prison always sent a shiver up my spine and I used to close my eyes when the coach went past. I appreciate that inmates are there for a reason but I found it unexplicably sad a year or so back when I went to the churchyard in Princetown and saw the tablets marking prisoners’ graves – just their initials and a date of death. I felt I had to set a story in this place and so HOPE FOR HANNAH was born.

WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE?

The lovely Christine Stovell (Turning the Tide, Move over Darling – published by Choc Lit) has invited me to be part of the zig-zag blogposts. For this, authors need to find the word ‘like’ in one of their books and post a paragraph or two around that word.

Well, I’m a Choc Lit writer so it seems only sensible to build my post around chocolate, doesn’t it? In this small extract, Seth – my hero – is offering Emma (the heroine) a bar of choclate. How can we not love a man who gives us chocolate?

So here’s my link in the zig-zag chain. It comes from my novel, TO TURN FULL CIRCLE.

Emma shrugged. What could she say? And if she did speak she had a feeling she might cry and no way did she want Seth Jago feeling sorry for her. She was surprised when he drew a small bar of chocolate from the pocket of his trousers.

“I thought you might like this,” he said.

Emma had eaten chocolate once before and had found it bitter. But Seth was offering her a gift, and she would accept it with good grace.

“Thank you.” She took the chocolate and sniffed it. It smelled of almonds. And then she noticed the wording on it and her heart lifted. “Oh, it’s French! Where did you get it?”

Eagerly she read the words, not needing to translate them into English, but understanding them for themselves. How good it felt. How close to her papa she felt reading them. Maybe she could buy more for herself somewhere close by when she had the funds.

 

And a picture for you……no suprises for guessing of what!

 

 

 

 

THE NEXT BIG THING – hopefully!

One of the great things about having become a published novelist is that it’s put me in touch with so many people. And one of those, Marilyn Chapman, has asked me to be part of THE NEXT BIG THING. Marilyn has written about her own NBT on her very excellent blog http://guernseygirlie.blogspot.com/ Do take a look and see what treats you’ll have in store some day soon.

So, here are my answers to the ten questions I was asked about my own NBT

1. WHAT IS THE WORKING TITLE OF YOUR BOOK?

No Turning Back.

2. WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK COME FROM?

It’s a sequel to my debut novel, TO TURN FULL CIRCLE.

3. WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL INTO?

Historical romance.

4. WHAT ACTORS WOULD PLAY YOUR CHARACTERS IN A FILM OF YOUR BOOK?

I think Tom Ellis would be perfect for Seth – he’s dark-haired, good-looking and a very decent sort of chap. Oh, and quite sexy with it. Kara Tointon would be perfect as Emma, I think – she has an inner-strength look about her. And she can dance – there’s dancing in my  book! As you’ve probably noticed I want to keep this an all British production!

5. WHAT IS THE ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?

What price will Emma put on loyalty?

6. WILL YOUR BOOK BE SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?

NO TURNING BACK will be published by Choc Lit, I’m very pleased to say. Choc Lit is a small publishing house, but perfectly formed! Choc Lit writers have won – or been shortlisted for – many awards. I am proud to be part of the ‘family’.

7. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT?

About nine months – but a lot happened in those nine months and I didn’t sit at my desk tapping away every day.

8. WHAT OTHER BOOKS WOULD YOU COMPARE THIS STORY TO WITHIN YOUR GENRE?

I don’t like to compare myself to anyone, really. I wrote what I wanted to write in the way I wanted to write it. But, that said, readers and reviewers have been very kind and likened me to Catherine Cookson, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens – in my dreams!

9. WHAT OR WHO INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK?

Readers and reviewers! So many people said they didn’t want Emma’s story in TO TURN FULL CIRCLE to end where it does. And if I’m honest, neither did I.

10. WHAT ELSE ABOUT YOUR BOOK MIGHT PIQUE THE READER’S INTEREST?

Emma’s story doesn’t end with this book either – there’s more to come!

I’m passing on the baton of THE NEXT BIG THING to Michelle Heatley. Michelle lives in Devon and has recently signed a contract with Sunpenny for her first novel which will be out in summer 2013. But that’s enough about that from me …I’ll let Michelle tell you all about it. http://fishsoupnovel.blogspot.co.uk/

And as I’m a Choc Lit author where all our heroes are like chocolate, here’s a picture of a cake I made for my grandchildren last Easter. We all love chocolate cake, don’t we?

 

PUSSY CAT, PUSSY CAT, WHERE…..

When I started writing short stories – and now novels – one aspect of it I didn’t factor in was where it would lead me. I’m talking geographically here. Before I became published I think I’d been to London precisely three times in my life – twice as a child and once as a young mum to show my children the sights. I never saw myself as a city person, and certainly never dreamed I would get to know it as well as I now have. Or come to love the place quite so much, which I do.

So, imagine my surprise when – six or so years ago now -  Liz Smith, the fiction of editor of My Weekly invited me to lunch with her in London. She was at the London Book Fair and said something along the lines of, ‘I’m down your way, and would love to meet you. We like to meet our authors when we can.’ Liz lives in Scotland as My Weekly is part of the D C Thomson group which is based in Dundee. If you look at the map then certainly Devon looks closer to London than Dundee does although it’s a four hour train journey for me. So off I went – my first writerly lunch with someone from publishing. And very nice it was, too. I still write for My Weekly and Liz Smith is still my editor there.

When I joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme I discovered that, as a member, I have corporate membership of The New Cavendish Club. No more away days for me now! I could stop over after attending their winter and summer parties and it wasn’t long before I could find my way from Paddington station to Marble Arch which is just a stone’s throw from The New Cavendish Club. The more parties I attended the more of London I have come to know. I can find my way down Oxford Street to Regents Street and thence to The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, the latter being my favourite gallery so far. Hyde Park is just a stone’s throw from The New Cavendish Club, too, so I’ve had many a stroll in there and sat in a deckchair eating ice-cream, watching the world go by – people-watching in writer-speak.

I’ve come to the love the architecture of London , especially those wonderful buildings that are on corners – sort of arrow-shaped if you know what I mean. I tend to get a crick in my neck looking up at it all. I can hail taxis with the best of them. Bus pass in hand, I can hop on and off buses when the whim takes me.

But my husband doesn’t much like cities and I fancied a weekend there. A non-writerly weekend, just for the pleasure of being in London- getting my fix of the buzz and having a leisurely lunch in Spagehetti House followed by a limoncello. Who to take? My daughter, Sarah, often comes to RNA parties with me so stopping at The New Cavendish for her is as much home-from-home to her now as it is to me. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I’d love to come.’ And then my five year old grandson, Alexander, piped up and said he wanted to ride in a London taxi. He has a few model taxis, bought by his mum and his grandma on our visits there, but he’d never actually been in one. ‘And Big Ben,’ Alexander said. ‘I’ve seen it on TV and I want to see it for real’. Well, why not – while the wonder of childhood is still in him?

So, that’s what we did last weekend. London was still all Union Jacks everywhere and flags of the world and Olympic logos and the place was gearing up for the Paralympics. Alexander got to ride in not one, but three taxis. He got to ride the long escalator at The National Portrait Gallery. And he got to ride to the centre of the earth up another long escalator in The Museum of Matural History.

But neither my daughter nor I dreamed he would get to meet the Queen. But he did. In Hamleys. I have photographic evidence but you’ll notice a sort of stiffness about Her Maj as she’s made out of Lego.

But something else I never dared dream about was that I’d have a novel on the shelves in a W H Smith travel shop….but there it was – not one, but twice….Liverpool Street Station and Paddington Station. A heady moment or two there for me last weekend.

Where next, I wonder, is writing going to take me…..watch this space.

 

COUNTDOWN!!

It’s just days now until the paperback version of my debut novel, TO TURN FULL CIRCLE, hits the shops and the general public. The Kindle version has been available for a few weeks and is already picking up some good reviews…..for which thanks to all those who have posted.

But, it’s the paper version that is dear to my heart because, for me, there’s something about the feel and smell of a new book – all those virgin pages to explore – between my fingers. TO TURN FULL CIRCLE has been a long time coming – not so much the gestation period of an elephant but more like a whole herd of the things. But, oh it’s been worth the wait. My book cover is stunning, for which thanks must go to Berni Stevens. That’s not to say it’s taken me a long time to write this book, it hasn’t. It’s the half dozen or so that came before while I honed my craft that took the time – and are sitting in a drawer waiting for their moment in the sun.

I keep getting asked how long it took me to write – it, in this instance, being TO TURN FULL CIRCLE. I honestly can’t say because during the writing of it I’d often get an idea whilst gardening, or watching TV and I’d nip back to my desk and get it all down before I forgot. Or I’d be on a walk or a cycle ride and something relating to the book would pop into my head and then there’d be a mad scramble for a piece of paper and a pen – I’ve been known to jot something down on the back of an old rail ticket – lest it be lost forever. None of it has been a chore, which I often think the person who asks the question really means….like writing is hard work. Well, yes, it often is. But it’s all self-inflicted, so whinge not, Linda. And there are those wonderful moments when I can sit down and whole scenes just pour out of me.

All the above is on a good day and now, having had to edit a book, I am of the opinion a writer needs to edit a book before she/he really knows how to write one. Already I’m taking a different tack with the sequel – it has the working title of NO TURNING BACK.

When I was a child – in a pre-TV age – I used to amuse myself on wet Sunday afternoons by ‘making’ books. I’d take half a dozen sheets of lined paper from a Jotter (remember those anyone??) and fold them in half, then stitch down the join with embroidery thread in chain stitch to make a book. Then I would be begin. Not quite with ‘It was a dark and stormy night …’ but close to it! And then I put away childish things as The Beatles and boyfriends and holidays in sunny places to its place. So I’ve been something of a late bloomer with this book……but don’t we all love that flower that blooms late in the season after the summer abundance and the greenfly? Well, that’s my theory. And I’m sticking to it.

This coming Thursday – 7th June 2012 – the wonderful Torbay Bookshop in Torquay Road, Paignton – owned and run by Matthew and Sarah Clarke – is hosting a launch party for me. 6 – 7.30 p.m. should anyone be nearby and wish to come along. It will be lovely to meet you.

So…the next post will feature photos of my big event…..I do hope you’ll drop by again to see them.

In the meantime, here’s a picture taken from Paignton pier ….stunning, isnt it?

IN A SPIN!!!

Goodness, is this an exciting time for me, or what, with my debut novel on Kindle now and due to come out in paperback on 7th June? My feet aren’t touching the ground as people get in touch asking me to do library talks and booksigning events – a whole new world and a massive learning curve for me, but an exciting one. Oh, and as I am also a short story writer, I’ve been asked to judge two short story competitions….details later this year.

One of the best things, so far, has been being asked to blog on the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme blog. http://www.romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.co.uk should find me if anyone wants to take a look.

I’m due to do five guest blogs within the next three or four weeks….no schedule yet, but as soon as I have one I’ll try and remember to post messages.

So….a busy time, especially as I have the first draft of a sequel to TO TURN FULL CIRCLE to get to my publisher by the end of October. I do have a working title for that – NO TURNING BACK – and it is a continuation of Emma’s and Seth’s love story…..will they marry, or won’t they? Read on to find out, folks.

It was a lovely surpise to find two people have left messages on this site – prompting me to keep it rather more up to date than it has been of late – will do better…..promise!

So, a couple of pictures……boasting ones, I’m afraid, but I’m sure no one wants pictures of my garden that badly needs a tidy up or my uber-boring but very efficient Skoda….:)

This is my friend from schooldays, Chrissie Vincent, looking so happy to be the first Kindle buyer of my book…thanks, Chrissie.

And this is the lovely Christina Courtenay at The London Book Fair with my book proudly on display ….the orangey red cover in case you don’t want to go to the bother of getting a magnifiying glass to read my name.

Back now to half an hour on w.i.p before bedtime….maybe…..:)