Kit Berry's Blog, page 4

A Room of One's Own - part 4

This is my last Room of One's Own post. Hopefully by now you're all feeling at home in my writing room. The photos are of my Stonewylde reference books - such a huge luxury to have them all together like this. I have hundreds and hundreds of books and previously, they were scattered all over the house and in the attic. Since moving to this house, I've been able to sort them out. Many are still in boxes in the garage and Narnia (more about Narnia in a minute) as we've run out of bookshelves, but I've pulled out the most vital ones that I know I may need to consult when finishing the Stonewylde series. This funny bookshelf unit was an old e-bay purchase and is meant to fit under the stairs. I used it at the old house to store the Stonewylde T-shirts and greetings cards, stationary etc but it was never very good for that. Now it's absolutely perfect for my books and keeping them in categories. I have one area just for information on wild flowers and fungi, for instance, and another for books on herbalism, and so on. It was such fun categorising them all and re-discovering some old favourites. When I've finished writing the series I shall treat myself to some serious reading whilst I think about what comes after Stonewylde.

The second photo shows the small door in my room. The picture the other day of my purple throne-chair had a weird amber sparkly thing in the background - this is the door into my room. Our house is a rather strange early 1970s creation - I'm sure it was very avant-garde in those days. It's built like a great wedge of cheese and has some unusual features, such as four internal doors made of teak with amber glass. When we first saw the house we both thought "Ugh - those will have to go if we buy the place." But I think we've both come to love them, along with some of the other more bizarre features.

The little white door you see above is small - less than five feet high. It leads into a cupboard which reminds me of the dreaded cupboard used for Leveret's torture (and if you don't know what I mean here, then you need to read Shadows at Stonewylde!) with a very sloping ceiling, and this leads, through an even smaller door (like in Alice in Wonderland) into a long sloping loft space that runs the whole width of the house. I call this Narnia, obviously, as it's reached through a sort of wardrobe.

I have a fur coat - which I hasten to add I didn't buy and have never worn, but inherited when my mother died. She was bought it by my father in the early 1960s when such things were seen as status symbols and almost de rigeur in smart circles. When we've worked our way through unpacking the dreaded boxes stacked up in the cupboard, I shall hang this beautiful fur coat in the wardrobe and then Narnia will become real, I'm sure. In the meantime it's quite exciting sitting here knowing that the little door leads into another world. When I find them, I shall stick many of my special cards and pictures on the white door and it'll look lovely and even more magical.

Yesterday I nipped out (well, it took ages but nipping out was the plan) to Hobbycraft on the other side of Reading to buy a few big pieces of paper. I ended up buying a huge sketch book as it worked out cheaper - it's A2 with 50 sheets of heavy grade cartridge paper and thick covers of black board. I'm about to use it now and next week I shall tell you about it (no, I haven't taken up art-work - I'm useless at drawing and leave that to my clever sister at Helixtree). But before I start using it, I think those plain black covers need a little embellishment. Or is that just a displacement activity?

Have a lovely weekend, dear Stonewylders. Thanks for reading my blog this week and taking the trouble to post comments too; so inspiring and encouraging for me. Now where did I put my silver stars and glitter ....

A Room of One's Own - part 3

So ... the cup of tea. I'd just finished painting my room, ready to start Book 5 after Yule. It was now almost the end of November and pretty hectic. We'd been in our new home less than a month and were still surrounded by boxes. Yule was approaching - always very busy for us as all my children come home for the duration, plus one of my sisters, and then we have many other family visitors to stay during the holiday period too. But I'd already arranged an extensive Waterstones book-signing tour to promote the four books published this year and had to honour all the engagements.

I arrived in Staines Waterstones a little frazzled as always - I can never find the place. I should be able to by now, as this was my fourth visit here since the first book was self-published back in 2005. Staines was the very first place where I ever did a Waterstones book signing event - a lady called Maria had somehow discovered the book and called me in great excitement to arrange a visit. I was terrified. It went alright-ish apart from some heckling from a band of yoofs (one day soon I'll blog about Waterstones signings in case any other writers who haven't yet done a book signing event are interested). Since then, I'd been invited back here three more times. Maria had long left but the staff at this branch are always very welcoming. This is not always the case, so it's with relief that you turn up on time on the allotted day to find a table and chair have been provided, a supply of your books are actually on it, the promotional materials sent by Nina Douglas my publicist at Orion are on display and the staff smile at you in welcome.

One of the sad things is that book-sellers come and go, so even when I've visited the same branch before, often the people there are different. Plus I am absolutely useless at remembering names - so with apologies I say that a very lovely bookseller looked after me that day and whilst I was unpacking my signing pen and leaflets, she made me a cup of tea. And served it in THE MUG!! A mug the exact shade of purple that could be found lurking under my fingernails and with the wonderful title "A Room of One's Own". I squealed with joy but luckily the mug and tea remained intact. I had of course seen the retro Penguin merchandise around before, but not this particular example.

I immediately decided that I had to buy a mug like it, but to my huge disappointment, the lady told me it was no longer on sale in the shop. Much later, having sold lots of books, drunk more tea and eaten some of her amazing home-made shortbread, it was time to pack up and go home. And she took the mug away, washed and dried it, and presented it to me with a hug!! I can't believe that I've forgotten her name as she was so kind and I absolutely treasure the mug. It is sitting at my elbow and contains dregs of tea (fresh) right this moment!

Of course I then realised I had to read the book itself, and ordered a first edition (see photo) that I found online for only about £4. This was published by Penguin Books in 1945, although it was originally published in 1929. My copy, in very good condition, has a label inside saying "Clare and Peter West" and some old-fashioned writing in blue ink saying "Peter W. Clifford West, March 9, 1946". In fact the book, as many of you probably already know, is actually an essay, based on two papers read to the Arts Society at Newnham and the Odtaa at Girton in October 1928.

As with any Virginia Woolf prose, it's beautifully written and also very thought-provoking. The title of her original papers was "Women and Fiction", and she discusses this from a 1928 perspective. Women had only recently won the vote, and the literary world (the whole world in fact) was dominated by men. It's a wonderful little book to read, and Woolf states that in order to be freed of the constraints of family demands, lack of space etc, every woman who aspires to write should have a personal income of £500 p.a. and a room of her own. She says that without this, it's almost impossible for a woman to find the time, energy or privacy to concentrate for any length of time and create something worthwhile.

As I read her book I smiled, many a time. I remembered my attempts to write, surrounded by teenagers, cats, blaring music and computer games and with four of us to support through my full-time teaching job. I imagined the refined Mrs Woolf staring at me in perplexity as my fingers flew over the keyboard and I ignored plaintive requests for food/clean T-shirts/help with homework. Of course she's talking about creating a work of great literary merit, not a simple story such as Stonewylde, but even so ...

She discusses authors such as Jane Austen and the Brontes, and says," ...the middle-class family in the early nineteenth century was possessed only of a single sitting-room between them. If a woman wrote, she would have to write in the common sitting-room." This really made me smile. But it also reinforced my great excitement and sense of good fortune at finally possessing "a room of one's own". And of course, the mug to match!


Quoted from "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf, Penguin 1945

A Room of One's Own - part 2

Since meeting Mr B over six years ago, we've been living together in rented houses. This October, finally, we bought our own house together. There'll be lots more about this house as it's so lovely and the garden is just wonderful. But one of the exciting things about the house is that finally, I have a room of my own in which to write.

I'd imagined that the little back bedroom that overlooks the garden would be fine for me to squeeze a chair into and sit with my laptop, tapping away. But Mr B had other ideas - it wouldn't be a spare guest room (we have eight children between us, all of whom come to stay with varying degrees of regularity) for me to camp in, but my own writing room which occasionally may have to be converted into a guest room if space was tight. This totally altered the dynamic of it for me and made me very excited indeed. Mr B is very good about my "bits and pieces" but his children, unused to such strangeness, have shown puzzlement and even disgust at my collection of bones, skulls, snake skins, stones and bits of wood. I also have loads of cards and pictures (mostly of hares, crows and owls!) that people have given me over the years and which I've always wanted to cover the walls with. I have many pretty, sparkly things that need to be dangled and draped. And as for my reference books ...

Before Yule, I decided to paint my room. It was a pale minty green which was nice, but didn't feel right. I opted for a vibrant shade of purple - one of those ones that they mix up for you in the shop to just the right shade - and it's called amethyst something. It's gorgeous. The room is very small but perfect for me. All the furniture is "recycled" (lots from e-bay) and I have the old wicker chair I sat in whilst doing the re-writes of the first four books. I was going to chuck it out when we moved house as it's enormous and very tatty, but it's great for writing in. You can sit all day in it without getting back or neck ache and there's room for a cat to lie behind your head and another to curl up by your side. I've covered it with a wonderful Celtic dragon throw I bought ages ago at an MBS event. The room isn't finished yet (can't find the box with all the natural objects in, nor the cards and pictures!) but my books are on shelves and it feels just right in here already.

So now I'm sitting on this chair and Book 5 is jostling in the wings of my imagination. I didn't get terribly far yesterday. Someone (sorry - I can't look back and check who whilst writing this) said it was 95 days I think - is that right? Does that include weekends? I had a panicked few hours when I couldn't find a load of research I'd already done two years ago for Book 5. It was pretty extensive and took me ages, on all sorts of subjects which I can't tell you about as it would give the plot away completely. Yesterday I decided to read through it all but couldn't find it anywhere on my laptop. Panic!! But later on I did find it, in a folder called "Shadows". How daft.

I've also started a quick re-read of Shadows to get me right back into Stonewylde. It's very, very strange reading your own book - a bit like contemplating your own grown-up children really. You know you created them, you remember them as little ones who needed nurturing, but now when you look at them they've become something entirely wonderful and separate and surprising. You simply can't believe they ever sprang from you.

Tomorrow I shall tell you about the Virginia Woolf connection. It involves a cup of tea and a very lovely bookseller in the Staines branch of Waterstones. But now the red kites are calling outside and I need to get back to Clip and Cherry who are waiting for me in Clip's tower. I also need to find all my planning notes for Book 5. I like to record my research on the laptop but I do all the planning and plotting in a big hardbacked notebook. I hope it wasn't lost in the move!

A Room of One's Own - part 1

I won't make any comment on the size of the gap between this post and the last. But rather than archive this old blog I decided to resurrect it as I embark on writing the fifth and final book in the Stonewylde series. This blog will hopefully be something to focus me each day before I start writing. I do apologise to the people who signed up to follow my blog and were then left dangling for almost eighteen months. I shall try to amaze you with the regularity of my entries over the next few months.

It's January 3rd. My deadline with Gollancz for the first draft of the book is the end of March. I haven't actually counted the days (anybody care to do it please?) but it's not a huge amount of time for writing a whole book. I need to get cracking. There again - I wrote the first draft for what turned out to be the first three books in the series in little more than four months - and that was whilst working full time as a teacher.

Now I have the luxury of uncontested time and energy each day instead of a few measly hours after work when I'm tired. And I also now have a room of my own! The first four books were written in my little terraced house in Dorset. My eldest son was at University in Bristol, but my other two teenage boys were living at home, the youngest still at school. We had seven cats and one open-plan living room. I wrote the books sitting on the sofa using my school laptop, whilst the boys played noisy games on the PC behind me and had Kerrang!! blasting out of the TV in front of me. Next door neighbours on either side thundered up and down their stairs. There was no privacy and no personal space. Cats regularly jumped on me and boys regularly wanted food and mothering, whilst the dust and washing piled up all around us. I ignored everything and just wrote and wrote ...

I can't post the picture I'd planned to accompany this first blog entry because of "technical hitches". I won't moan but grrrrrr - life was simpler when it was just me, my basic digital camera and my basic laptop. I'm now married to a man who works with computers and really, that only makes this technology stuff worse. Nothing works for me, I can't mess around with things in case I really mess it all up and I feel completely useless. So this is a bald and picture-less entry I'm afraid. Tomorrow when Mr B has waved his magic wand there'll be a photo of my inspiring purple things in my own room. And I also may be able then to update the pictures of my old, self-published versions of Stonewylde into the glitzy new Gollancz versions and add the fourth book. Perhaps though I'll leave the photo of me looking younger and more glamorous than I do today!

Yesterday I read "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf. I'll explain the synchronicity of this tomorrow as I must keep these blog entries reasonably short and sweet and not ramble into displacement activity that keeps me from what I really must do. Jan 3rd to Mar 31st - HELP!!!

Self-published author signs six figure deal with Gollancz

Yes, that is real champers I'm drinking! Well, wouldn't you?
Today Gollancz made their announcement to the trade press about signing a deal with me to buy the worldwide rights to the five books in the Stonewylde Series. Since the story broke, I've been inundated with good wishes and congratulations from people on Facebook, Twitter and via my e-mail, which is on the main Stonewylde website. How lovely!

In fact I signed in June, but for some reason the announcement didn't happen straight...

The Amazing Elf Fantasy Fair

A stunning pink fairy - who loved to pose!
Mr B as the Green Man

Beautiful peacock girl

Kit at the Stonewylde pavilion with Sorcha, our Villager

Lion? Not sure who but a beautiful costume
Since we returned from our magical weekend at the Elf Fantasy Fair in Haarzuilens, Netherlands, the time has flown by. I'm feeling very bad for not having posted before, and of course now lots more has happened to tell you about which will have to wait. I'm leaving in a minute (should have left an hour and...

Busy April

Surreal mosaics on the Tarka Trail, Devon
Lovely identical twins at Westminster

Gnarled trees outside Houses of Parliament

Sewing tatters and sequins onto Mr B's Green Man cloak


What an incredibly hectic month it's been since my last post. Suddenly this year is almost into May already - seems only a couple of weeks ago we were snowed in and queuing for milk at the Co-op! This will only be a brief blog as I'm off to the Elf Fantasy Fair in the Netherlands in the morning. We're leaving extra...

Not alone at East Midlands Pagan Federation Conference

Isle of Wight - a tantalising taste

The incredible colours of the rock at Alum Bay
Kit at the Longstone at Mottistone Down

Cycling along the Tennyson Trail towards the Needles

Last weekend Mr B and I had three days off and spent his birthday on the Isle of Wight. Neither of us have visited the island since about the age of eight, and had no idea really what to expect. Last year Mr B was given a mountain bike by his family for his big birthday (and so I had to have one too of course!) and it seemed fitting, now he's two stone...

Magical Cornwall - the Pagan Federation Conference

Kit with Damh the Bard (and his big guitar)

Kit with two Stonewylde fans

Kit and the Stonewylde Wheel of the Year

I'm so sorry about the delay in posting a blog - I felt horribly guilty when I saw the date of the last one! Where is this year going? Thanks to a nag from one of my most ardent supporters, Cornmother, I've finally come to write this. It's been a bit of a hectic few days actually, and today I was interviewed by a lovely reporter from the magazine Spirit & Destiny. She came to...