Stuart Aken's Blog, page 326

Edit Hits a Highspot

[image error] Image via WikipediaToday, I finished at chapter 43, page 418 and discovered, quite unexpectedly, this was a place I could end the first volume. All three threads of the interwoven story come to natural ends, of one sort or another, at this point and all end with the knowledge that there must be more to come, almost on cliff-hangers, in fact.
Of course, this means I'll have to now write an introductory chapter for book 2 before I can properly continue with the edit. It also means I'll have to merge part of the old volume 2 with this new version, but that brings the completion of volume 2 that much nearer, which is good, since I intend to start looking for agents/publishers only when I have both of the first 2 books ready to offer.
On the way, this afternoon, I found a way to incorporate some of the historical information I'd gleaned from the BBC's history documentary I have been following, A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver. By pure good fortune, in the episode we'd recorded from last night, I also discovered a fact about funeral pyres that meant I had to modify part of the penultimate chapter to make it more credible. It was relatively easily done, but without that knowledge, I might well have ended up with egg on my face. So, thank you Neil for your experiment. Just goes to show: research can always be improved upon, no matter how thorough you think you've been.

Author Interview with Jean Fullerton

Jean Fullerton was born within the sound of Bow Bells and still lives in the East End of London.  She is a qualified District Nurse, university lecturer and started writing in 2002. She joined the Romantic Novelist Association in 2003, under their New Writers' Scheme, and has never looked back. Her debut novel, No Cure for Love won the Harry Bowling prize in 2006, which gained her an agent and her first two-book contract with Orion. No Cure for Love was published in December 2008. Her second novel, A Glimpse at Happiness was shortlisted for the 2010 Romantic Novel of the Year. Her third book, Perhaps Tomorrow, is just released and her fourth Hard Lessons is due for release early in 2012. She is currently working on her fifth.
She is a well-known figure in East London and Essex as she has undertaken dozen of speaking engagement at women's groups, rotary clubs and libraries throughout the region. She has also given talks and workshops at numerous writers' conferences, including Winchester, Get Writing and York.
Jean's story-telling and attention to detail have earned her generous praise. The Daily Express described A Glimpse at Happiness as 'A real page-turner with larger-than-life characters and convincing period detail' while the Daily Mail called it 'Well-written and atmospheric'. The Historical Novel Society reviewer stated, 'Underlying sexual tension and cleverly handled introspection make this a real page-turner.'
How did you get started?
I am District Nurse and eight years ago I was a manager in the NHS in charge six community clinics when my boss sent me on a stress management course. In order to unwind at the end of the working day the tutor advised us to take up a hobby. A good friend of mine had just signed up for a creative writing course and as a life-long reader of all types of historical fiction I thought I'd have a bash at writing a story- just for fun. You know. Nothing serious! Anyhow, I sketched out a rough plot on a sheet of A 4 and opened my lap top on the kitchen table and typed chapter one. After just a dozen or so pages the story just seemed to pour out as if someone had shaken up a bottle of cola and undone the top.
I finished that book in about four months – it takes me considerably longer now I can tell you- then I started another. Again the story flowed. Of course, I had no idea about technique or formatting, I learnt that later, I was just telling the story.
After I'd written three books my hero-at-home encouraged me to send one off to see if they were any good, which I did. With trembling hands and naive dreams of agents and editors fighting over my brilliant book, I would post a handful of submission out on Monday morning only to have them fall back through my letter box on Thursday with a photo copied rejection letter shoved inside. But
Tell us about your latest book.
My latest book Perhaps Tomorrow is set in 1847. The heroine is Mattie Maguire and life has not been easy for her since her husband died three years ago. She has struggled to keep the family's East End coal business solvent, but now everything that Mattie has worked for is under threat because of corrupt local benefactor Amos Stebbins.
Fugitive Nathaniel Tate is a man who knows just how ruthless Amos can be: he was wrongfully imprisoned for embezzling money that Amos stole. After learning of his family's tragic death, Nathaniel tracks Amos to Maguire's, it is there that Nathaniel meets Mattie. As Nathaniel begins to help Mattie turn around the fortunes of the business, and the pair grow ever closer, he starts to think less of revenge and more of the possibility of a new future with Mattie.
How did you come to write this particular book?
The idea for Mattie's story came to me as I was writing the previous book, A Glimpse at Happiness, as I felt she needed a story and a handsome hero of her own.
If you have a favourite character in your novel, why that particular one?
My favourite characters are the ones I'm writing at the moment. They have to be otherwise I could get myself totally involved with their stories. However, I am in love with all my heroes but don't tell my husband.  
Where and when is your novel set and why did you make these specific choices?
I'm a native Londoner, a cockney in fact, I grew up alongside the river and docks. My family have lived in the East End around Wapping and Shadwell since the 1820s and I love the history of the place. I set my heroine in No Cure for Love, Ellen O'Casey, in old one up one down house I live in when I was a child -there is a picture of me as a child outside the old house on my website. I've used actual streets and place in all of my books and there is a map in the front of my books of the area where the story is set.
East London was multi-cultural before the phrase was ever coined and I want to bring the vibrate community alive with my stories and show the reader just what it was like. The river, docks, police and overcrowded and impoverished streets are all wonderfully rich backdrops for any story and it was most natural place for me to set mine. 
Do you write every day? What is your work schedule?
I try to write every day and aim for 1500 words which is a about the length of most of my scenes. My day job is teaching nursing studies at a London university so I dash in from work at 4.30 and have to do the domestic goddess thing, which I'm appalling at. Have dinner at 6ish then I disappear into my office for 2 hours to write. I usual surface about 9.00 to 9.30 and watch a bit of TV then when the Hero-at-Home goes to bed I'm back on my computer until 1am.
How did you get your agent and publisher?
In 2003 I joined the RNA via the New Writers Scheme and sent in my second novel. Thank goodness it landed on the mat of Rachel Summerson who in her reader's report opened by saying 'before I say anything else you have what it takes to be a novelist because you create believable characters and put them in gripping plots that makes the reader want to turn the page but…' I still cherish that report.     But! I suddenly realised I knew nothing about the craft of writing, formatting or any of the other skills that are essential to produce a publishable novel. So I spent the next 5 years learning them.After writing 10 books, submitting to umpteen agents and editors I finally wrote No Cure for Love which won the Harry Bowling Prize in 2006. That got me my agent and first two-book deal with Orion and when A Glimpse at Happiness was shortlisted for the 2010 Romantic Novel of the Year, I got my second two-book contract. Winning the Harry Bowling was my big-break but the hard work goes on. In fact, it never stops.   


How can people buy your books?
      You can get it from Orion, my publishers, http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/books/perhaps-tomorrow-paperback but also from Amazon or the Book Depository but also from Waterstones and any good independent bookshop. It's also available on Kindle.
How do you set about writing a piece?
      I start with the main two characters and then sketch out a plot. I often have odd scenes or incidents whizzing around in my head and I try to anchor them down to where they might fit in the story. I actual put a three-column table onto a word document and plot out each scene including whose point of view it's and a brief description of what happens.       I have multi points of views in my novels so I then colour code them. Red for heroine, blue for hero green for villain etc. I can look at the plot as a visual representation and see if it's balance between the different PoV. I also number the scenes so I can find my place quickly as I go through. Of course, it's not written in stone and I change it as the plot twists and turns but at least it keeps me going in the right direction.   
Beginning writers make many mistakes; what do you think is the most harmful?
      Thinking they are undiscovered genius and the publishing world is waiting for their manuscript. Sorry, folks, it's not.
To what extent are grammar and spelling important to a writer?
The most important thing for a writer is to weave a spell-binding story but in order to have your manuscript even looked at the grammar and spelling has to be 100%. I'm dyslexic and this was a particular challenge to me. I had to work a night shift in a local nursing home every other week to afford to have my manuscripts copy edited in full before I could submit them. Now as a published author I do have lovely line and copy editors who help with the technical side and after writing over 2,000,000 words I have improved.  
How much revision of your MS do you do before you send it off?
      I go through my manuscript at least four times before I send it off. Not just to catch       missed commas or miss-spelt words but to make sure all the plot is believable, the  characters hold together and there isn't a twist I've missed. It is always with a view to making the story better.
To what extent do you think genre is useful in the publishing world?
      We write stories, it's the industry who puts them into genre but that said the fact of the matter is publishing house reps have to sell to Waterstones, and the like, and bookshops want to know where they should put it on the shelves. You might think this is unfair but and although your murder mystery might be very different from others it's more likely to sell if placed in the crime section. 
How do you know where to begin any given story?
      One thing beginners also do is start the story with the main characters back story. (I did it myself). We might need to know that he/she their previous life to explain their current actions but we need to start with the current action.              The first five pages are so important to hook your reader in I often rewrite them again once I've finished the whole story.   
What do you think an editor is looking for in a good novel?
It doesn't matter whether you're writing romance, sci-fi or a political thriller what all editors of popular fiction are looking for is a riveting, page-turning story. 
Do you have support, either from family and friends or a writing group?
      I have a 110% support from my hero-at-home and three daughters plus I belong to the Romantic Novelist Association and the Historical Novel Association both of whom have regular meetings where I can chat to other authors. Being a writer is a lonely business. It's you, your head and the computer most of the time, so it's good to get out.
Is presentation of the MS as important as most agents and publishers suggest?
It's not important, IT IS VITAL. Don't give them an excuse to reject you. If you can't be bothered to do as they request why should they be bothered look at your manuscripts?  It also shows lack of professionalism and could be construed as arrogance. Every agent/editor has hundreds of submission sent to them and if you can't do as they ask they will move onto someone who can.      
How long does it normally take you to write a novel?
      As I still have a day job, it takes me 6 months to write the first draft then another two to polish, correct and rewrite. I then send it to my agent and she sends me back her comments after which there is usually another months of rewriting so probably ten months in all before the publishers get it. Then it comes back from them with line edits so I have to halt my current book for a month to sort them out.          
If there's a single aspect to writing that really frustrates you, what is it?
There are two actually. The first is sitting down and starting a new scene. It's not that I don't know what I'm going to write it's just getting into the swing of it and I can usually do that after a paragraph or two.  But the worse part of writing for me, as it must be for many writers, is the edits where you have to sometimes deconstruct your plot or rework characters. Mentally I've done with the story and my head is already in the next book, but the editing has to be done.  
Is there any aspect of writing that you really enjoy?
      I really enjoy when a scene goes right or when I make myself laugh with a funny incident in the story but the best bit about writing is when a reader emails me and says they sat up all night reading my book because they couldn't put the book down.   That's the sum of why I write.
Do you think writing is a natural gift or an acquired skill?
Truthfully, I think story-telling is a natural gift like painting and music but writing a story is an acquired skill, which has to be practiced and improved upon with everything you write.   What single piece of advice would you give to writers still hoping to be published?
Believe in yourself. Don't try to chase bandwagons. Learn to accept and utilize constructive criticism and be ready to rewrite you book.  Work hard and never give up but if you're doing it to make money then take promotion at work: it's easier. 
What are you writing now?      I'm just doing the research and plot prep for my next book that I will be starting in a week or so. It's the first book of my next contract and I'm very excited about it. It's still set in East London but I've jumped forward 100 years into the immediate post-war period. The heroine is the local district nurse and the story follows her as she goes about her rounds.
Given unlimited resources, what would be your ideal writing environment?
      I already have my ideal writing environment so I don't crave an isolated country cottage or beachside veranda in the sun. I have my own office with all my research books to hand. 
Do you have a website or a blog that readers can visit?
      I certainly do. It's at www.jeanfullerton.com. You can see pictures of the actual places where I set my stories plus bits about me and my writing. And if you do to read any of my books please email me via my website and let me know if you enjoyed it. Lastly, thank you Stuart for giving me an opportunity to be interviewed on your blog. 

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Gabber

Gabber: noun - chatterer, prattler: verb - talk volubly, jabber.
'Mr Blenkinsop is such a gabber; always prattling on about the defects of others, when, heaven knows, he has faults enough of his own.'
'Sarah will gabber on and on and on; saying nothing but using all the words in her vocabulary to express it.'

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Fabian

Image via Wikipedia
Fabian: noun - member of the Fabian Society, or a sympathizer with its ideals: adjective - pertaining to the manner of the cautious and delaying tactics employed by Roman general, Fabius Maximus; to wear out an enemy; pertaining to a socialist society founded in 1884, which advocates a policy of cautious and gradual political change.

For this definition, I felt I could do no better than include the introduction from the Fabian Society's own website:

The Fabian Society has played a central role for more than a century in the development of political ideas and public policy on the left of centre. Analysing the key challenges facing the UK and the rest of the industrialised world in a changing society and global economy, the society's programme aims to explore the political ideas and the policy reforms which will define progressive politics in the new century.The society is unique among think-tanks in being a democratically-constituted membership organisation. It is affiliated to the Labour Party but is editorially and organisationally independent. Through its publications, seminars and conferences, the society provides an arena for open-minded public debate.All Labour Prime Ministers have been members of the Fabian Society, while the Young Fabians have been influential in creating debate and as an arena for young people with an interest in politics to both influence and learn from influential political figures.
I must tell you, though, I have no affiliation to or connection with the Fabian Society. In fact, I think party politics is the antithesis of democracy and polarises opinion in the most unhelpful way. In a distortion of Groucho Marx's words, 'I wouldn't join any political party that would have me as a member.'

One More Chapter Done in the Edit.

Image via WikipediaYesterday was a long day at the day job, followed by ballroom dance class with my wife, which is always great fun. So, I did no editing. This afternoon, I returned from work to find 91 emails awaiting responses. Those have all been answered and I've done another chapter, but only one this time. Tomorrow is another day dedicated to the day job, followed by an evening with my writing group, so I shall get no more done now until Thursday. How wonderful it would be to spend all my working time on the writing, but, in common with the vast majority of writers, I have to do other work (albeit part time) to support my family.
The edit continues to go well and I'm approaching the point where I shall have to decide whether I can break the first volume and make it shorter. I'm hoping that will be possible, as it will make the package more attractive the conservative book-buying agents and publishers (I note that readers are generally far more adventurous and often welcome longer books, but they, unfortunately, don't govern whether or not a book is published, more's the pity!)

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Eager

[image error] Image via Wikipedia
Eager:  adjective – impetuous, full of or demonstrating keen desire or appetite; impatiently longing.
'Barnaby was so eager to impress Shirley that he almost killed himself as he jumped over the wall and landed in a ditch some twelve feet down.'

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Dabble

Image via Wikipedia
Dabble: verb - moisten or soil by sprinkling, splashing, or dipping into water or other liquid; move, splash Hands or feet in water, move the feet, hands, etc., in shallow water, paddle; work at something in a desultory manner; meddle, interfere.
'Under the burning sun, Georgina and Cindy dabbled their feet in the fountain to bring some relief from the heat wave that all but consumed the city.'
'David dabbled his handkerchief in the river to wash away the blood after murdering his wife's lover.'

Edit Almost Two Thirds Done

Next chapter waiting is 41 and page 390. So, done quite well today. In between chapters, I've done a few more bits and pieces of stuff for blog posts, prepared another author interview, been for a longish walk in the surrounding countryside with my wife, watched a recorded version of 'The Beauty of Books' on the old idiots' lantern, completed an application to join the Society of Authors and read a little. So, a quiet day, really.
Tomorrow I'm spending till the end of time at work, as I have to make up time I took off to take my daughter to her university interview. And, of course, tomorrow night is ballroom dancing with Valerie, so I'll not get back to the edit until after work on Tuesday.
Now, if some kind publisher could recognise my genius and pay me a large sum of money as an advance, I could just get on with the real work. Any takers?

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Cabal

Image via Wikipedia
Cabal  noun – Kabbalah, a conspiracy, secret intrigue, a faction, petty plotting, secret meeting, political clique: verb - come together for a private end, intrigue against.
'The cabal of opposition senators plotted to overthrow the incumbent leadership, intent on establishing their own version of government regardless of the wishes of the people.'
'Members of the secret conspiracy caballed underground to discuss the assassination of the president.'

#SampleSunday - 1 of 10 Tales for Tomorrow for your enjoyment

This is a very short story (also known as flash fiction) from the collection of speculative fiction that is my anthology of science fiction and fantasy. Ten Tales for Tomorrow is available via Smashwords, on Amazon UK (click on the title to this post for the link) or Amazon.com  If you enjoy this sample, you might want to try more of the book. It's an eBook and can be read on most eReaders, including your PC or Mac via any .pdf reader.


A Land Despoiled
No one had been so far south for a decade. His trip of desperation was hope for those living in the north.'Nothing but GM oilseed rape, as far as the eye can see.''Your height and location?'He told them, sneezing and coughing as the pungent odour punished his nose and throat even two hundred metres up.'Any wildlife?''Bees by the billion. Some adapted birds. Millions of crickets.''Trees?''All dead or dying.''Anything green?''Even flying at three metres there's nothing but acid yellow to every horizon.''Any people?''One small camp, maybe thirty individuals. What do they live on?''You'd better return now. Storm approaching from the Atlantic. Be your location, three hours.'He scanned southwest, saw black billows pushing blue sky. Cutting power to everything but the prop gave his solar-powered microlite a chance to outstrip the weather. If it didn't, three-hundred kilometre winds would rip it, and him, to shreds.Below, unbroken brimstone slipped past at speed. Even river beds and dried up lakes sported the ubiquitous plant. Four hundred kilometres north, occasional rain allowed specially cloned goats to exist on parched pastures, rains permitting. But continuing drought seared the land below. When the flowers died, smoke from lightening fires would replace the current dust and pollen mix.West, a dark scar marked the ruin that was Birmingham, home to criminals and outcasts since the Great Starvation. He tacked east and glanced behind at building clouds.A red diode flashed in his visor and he leaked power to hear the message.'You've seventy minutes at most.''I estimate sixty-seven to the bunker.'He cut power back to the prop and hoped cloud wouldn't obscure the sun. His biofuel emergency tank held enough for just twenty minutes in fair conditions.Derby was still in flames, smoke soaring high and thick. He veered, keeping sunlight on his power cells.Wind buffeted him over the Savage Zone, where renegades took pot-shots at him with home-made weapons. Cloud patched sunlight, dropping his power and subjecting him to fitful gusts. Skill, willpower and biofuel took him down the last slopes of the hills and he reached the tidal flatlands flooding York. As the sun vanished behind black cloud, the base, with bunker doors ajar for him, hove into view two kilometres north. He stripped off and jettisoned his protective shell to lessen weight. Unclipped landing wheels and watched them fall to fighting scavengers. The cameras and recorders with their data were vital. With atmospheric interference rendering satellites all but useless, his records would be all they'd have.Skimming the high electric fence out of the Savage Zone, he felt power surging toward him as he crossed it. Brown fields passed beneath him and, ahead, uniformed figures stood by doors, urging him home. He wrestled with cameras and recorders, stuffing them inside his sweatshirt. Fitful wind lifted him thirty metres, then dropped him like trash. He swivelled the wings to break the fall, unstrapping himself as the aircraft rushed to meet the ground. A forward roll reduced impact and he stumbled the last few metres with only a dislocated shoulder as the cost for urgency. Hands dragged him through closing doors battered by the wrecked craft as the dry storm hit them. A medic relocated his shoulder, helped him into fatigues, and strapped his arm into immobility.The commander shook his hand and took the data.'Good work. Can we move back?''You know why they named that stuff rape when you look down on that desert. Thousands of hectares glowing bilious yellow. No Sir, we can never go back.'