Romy Gemmell's Blog, page 40

Travel Inspiration: Amsterdam and Alkmaar

I finally got my Internet connection back late Thursday afternoon - five days without my own access was a lesson in patience! However, it gave me a little more time for writing and organising various things, and proved how much of my day is taken up with various social networking activities. Before moving on to today's post here, I must just mention my Flights of Imagination blog, where author Maggie Lyons is talking about the inspiration behind her two fun books for eight to twelve year olds.

Today, it's the next travel inspiration piece - and I think I'll stick to going through them from A to Z, although there might be several places under one initial letter. That should give me more of a focus for deciding on the places to feature.


Many years ago, when the children were teens and I used a film roll instead of digital, we had an unexpected holiday to Holland. We'd set off to visit relatives in England first, on our way to France, but the French lorry drivers were blocking all routes that summer and we changed plans at the last minute. Once in Holland, we kept driving until we reached a lovely small village towards the north, Bergen Am See, where we managed to rent a cute little holiday cottage. As often in these circumstances, it became one of our favourite holidays.


We took the double decker bus into Amsterdam where we wandered along by the canals, viewed ornate barrel organs, and visited the famous Rijksmuseum, dedicated to arts, crafts and history. Of course, we inadvertantly ended up walking along a certain famous street with interesting window displays!

Clog Whittling
One of the greatest pleasures of the holiday was being able to hire bikes for several days. The most interesting cycle ride took us some miles away into Alkmaar, where we were delighted to watch the fascinating cheese weighing at the annual market.



Our trusty bikes took us all over this beautiful area of North Holland, allowing us access to places we might otherwise have missed. And it was great exercise!
Rosemary

Author Spotlight: Debut Novelist Serena Clarke

Sorry I’ve had no Internet since the weekend - very frustrating. Grateful for husband’s work computer and borrowed access!


A very warm welcome to debut author Serena Clarke who is visiting all the way from New Zealand. Serena kindly answered all my questions and tells us about her debut novel, All Over the Place . It’s all yours Serena, and many thanks for coming over.
Thanks so much for having me to visit Rosemary – it’s lovely to be here!
Tell us a little about how you became a writer, Serena.
There was a certain birthday looming – a birthday with a roundy number. I’d spent years joking, in difficult moments, “Oh well, it’s all good material for the novel.” Like lots of people, writing a book was my ‘maybe one day’ thing. But I suddenly knew that ‘one day’ was now. So I started – and kept going until I finished!
Did you have to do a lot of research for this debut novel? Does your country/environment affect your writing?
Although I'm living in New Zealand, I was able to draw on lots of experiences from my time living in England and Europe. And of course the internet is an unbelievable resource. I still find Google Street View incredible – you can even hike the Grand Canyon with it now! And on YouTube you can find countless videos made by people just walking down the street – in Paris, or New York, or anywhere. It all helps, not just for specific detail, but for the feelingof a place. I’m looking forward to setting a book in New Zealand too – my exotic back yard!
How do you promote your books and does it work?
Well, All Over the Place has only just come out, so I’m not sure if it’s working yet. But I’m enjoying sharing interesting things on my Facebook author page, and merrily tweeting away, as well as visiting with lots of lovely authors and bloggers. All of that qualifies as ‘work’ but is actually the best fun!
What is the most difficult part about starting a new book?
Organising the ideas, definitely. The sisters in my next book are in for a wild ride – the trick is deciding what to torment them with first! (But don’t worry, they’ll be happy in the end!)
Do you think eBooks are the future? Or do you prefer print?
You can’t argue with the convenience of an e-reader – you can leave the house with dozens of books in one slim device. But I do think a bookshelf full of books is a thing of beauty. I’ll keep buying print, definitely.
Do you have a favourite writing place?
Bed is the best place, in a quiet house in the wee small hours, with everyone asleep. There’s a certain magic afoot at that time. It’s less magic when you have to get up a few hours later, and wrestle breakfast into children, and children into school uniforms! But it’s worth it. J
Do you find time for hobbies?
I always say my children are my hobby – like most mothers I spend a lot of time doing kid-related things and taking them around to lessons and activities. I’m the mum trying to keep her Kindle dry poolside! I have had a lot of hobbies over the years, but now writing fills all that time. In a good way!
What are your current writing plans?
All going well, finish the next book. Then write the one after that. Then the next one. And so on… *happy sigh*
Any tips for new writers?
I’m a pretty new writer so I’m still collecting tips myself! For the as-yet-unpublished, I like: “Writing is work, whether you’re published or not.” Take it seriously, keep learning from others, and don’t give up. And once you are published, the same rules apply!
Thanks for a great interview Rosemary – it was fun to chat with you across the world!
You're very welcome, Serena. Excellent answers, and I wish you all the best with your writing career. I’ll be adding your book to my TBR list!
All Over the Place – contemporary romantic fiction with a chick lit feel

Livi Callaway has fled back to London after a reality TV disaster in New Zealand. Safely anonymous in the big city, she’s determined to stay under the radar from now on. But her attempts to build a new life are complicated by unexpected visitors from her old one, and new dangers and temptations lie in wait.
Late one night, she meets a mysteriously sexy American on the Underground – and the events that follow take her from Pooh Bear to the golden lights of Paris, via a trail of rock stars dead and alive. A family in disarray, a determined Swede, a crazed Australian and a childhood friend (who might yet be more than that) have her all over the place as she tries to discover the American’s secret – while keeping her own.
With help – and occasional hindrance – from her friends, what she eventually finds is something unexpected...sometimes, running away can lead you to exactly what you didn’t know you needed.
All Over the Place is available from all major e-book retailers, including:
Amazon US, Amazon UK, itunes, Barnes andNoble

Serena grew up in a family of itchy-footed readers and dreamers – not concentrating, reading the atlas and Narnia books, and planning to escape somewhere magical as soon as she could. When she was 16, she went from New Zealand to live in Sweden for a year. It was the beginning of many travels and adventures – and quite a few disasters! She didn’t know it at the time, but eventually she’d be grateful for all the downs as well as the ups. As writers say in the face of adversity: “I can use that.” She’s now living back in New Zealand, where she writes stories reflecting her determined belief inmagic, possibility and second chances – and happy endings!

Find Serena here – she’d love to hear from you!
Website, Facebook, Twitter

Ghostly Clues

Having Internet connection problems so I've just managed to borrow husband's computer for a quick post on my Flights of Imagination blog, where featured author, Kay LaLone, is talking about the inspiration behind her tween book, Ghostly Clues.

Rosemary

Part Five of Gwen's Book

For those readers who have been following Gwen Kirkwood's family saga about the Maxwell family set in the Scottish Borders, part five A Maxwell Profit is available to download free from Amazon until Sunday 10th March. This is part of the enjoyable Laird of Lochandee series.




Very pleased my tween book, Summer of the Eagles, is featured on The Twilight of Magic blog along with some other interesting YA books.

Writing Market: Fiction and Verse

This is a fairly new online market for short stories and poetry and there is a small payment made according to length. Sounds quite a good home for certain short stories.

Fiction and Verse accept Micro fiction from 100 words, to short stories up to 7500 words, as well as poetry. In addition to publishing an author's biography page on their site, they also provide links to authors' published work and websites. Check out the full details on their website.

Must just mention my daughter's very creative sketchbook which she completed as a fun project at the end of last year - it's now being transported (with others) around American libraries and has been digitised to view online. You can read more about it, with a link to the sketchbook, over on her Through the Looking Glass blog.

Rosemary

She's the One: Anyone can be a Heroine

I was delighted to receive my author copy of lovely little non-fiction book, She's the One , which was compiled in recognititon of International Women's Day. Subtitled 'Anyone can be a heroine', it contains short pieces of non-fiction and poetry celebrating the lives and achievements of many different women. Some are famous, others are pesonal heroines, but all have been inspirational in some way.

The book comprises the winning entries in the She's the One competition. My own page is about St Teresa of Avila, the 16th century nun and mystic, whose writings captivated me while studying that period of European history. Not only did she have to contend with a patriarchal society, but the Inquisition kept a close eye on her writing. Yet St Teresa still managed to have her say, albeit written in such a clever way that she played the men at their own game.

The inspiring little book is now available in print and ebook from Amazon. A lovely gift for Mother's Day.

By sheer coincidence, today's feature on my Flights of Imagination blog is J.Q. Rose and her non-fiction book for teens, Girls Succeed: Stories Behind the Careers of Successful Women . It's a celebration of women all round today!

Travel Inspiration: Aruba

The bright morning sun must be inspiring me this morning, after the recent very cold weather - even yesterday, it was zero degrees when I drove from the house. As we wander gently into spring, many people's thoughts are probably turning to holidays now, whether at home or abroad, and it gave me a new idea for blog posts.

Since my husband has been a travel professional all his working life, we've been lucky enough to visit many countries around the world, even more from cruise ships. I love taking photographs and have amassed a huge number now that digital makes it so easy to keep snapping. So, I'm going to start a new occasional blog series, using photos to inspire creativity. Some will be scenic shots, some might be more quirky, but I hope they might spark an idea for a story, or poem, or just some dreams of far of lands, or even remind us of the beauty in our own country.

I'm beginning with the Caribbean island of Aruba, in the Lesser Antilles, partly because this notice I snapped at the entrance of a little garden came to my attention this morning and I love the sentiments. Hope you can read it as it was rather old and faded.


Aruba is a small island, only 33 kilometres long and is surrounded by beaches, but the most interesting sight for me was this stunning natural bridge down by the sea.


If anyone is ever looking for professional, personal travel advice or arrangements, by the way, you can find details of my husband's independent business and the company he works with on his website here. Many of my photos are on his site!

Rosemary

Mslexia Short Story Competition and Exercises

The Mslexia writing magazine short story competition has become an annual event and is well worth entering if you write more literary stories, as opposed to commercial women's magazine fiction. It's a hugely popular magazine, but you must be a woman to contribute to its pages or enter the competitions.

The current short story competition closes on 18th March and should be a story on any theme of up to 2,200 words. The judge is Janice Galloway, a writer I greatly admire - I wrote a review of her wonderful novel, Clara , on this blog some time ago. It's quite a steep entry fee at £10, but the prizes reflect the quality of the competition, with a first prize of £2,000 plus two optional extras of a week's writing retreat at Chawton House Library, and a day with a Virago Editor. Second prize is £500 and third prize is £250, plus three other prizes of £100.

To inspire and help entrants, Mslexia are running short story workshops and exercises on their website and you can read the first excellent advice and exercise here. The next workshop will be live on their site tomorrow, 26th February. These are useful to all short story writers, whether or not you intend entering the competition. Mslexia magazine also features a New Writing section in many of their issues which is free to enter and is usually a mixture of fiction and poetry.

Good luck if you enter!

Meanwhile, the first post in my new series of features about children's, tween, and YA books is over on my Flights of Imagination blog, where Bil and Bon Franks are talking about the inspiration behind their new YA book Running Over Rainbows, and their Twilight of Magic series.

Rosemary

Log Lines and Print

I'm really pleased that my Victorian novella, Mischief at Mulberry Manor , is featured on the Log Line blog today. This is a great idea for promoting books, as it forces us to condense our story into one sentence of 25 words or less. You might have heard of the term Elevator Pitch - that's when you get the chance to pitch your book to an agent or publisher until the lift (or elevator) stops - well, a log line is the equivalent. It certainly makes us focus on the relevant parts of the story!

Although I love my kindle and read as many ebooks as print now (or maybe more), sometimes we still want to hold a paper copy of our book in our hands. And not all of my friends and family have e-readers yet. So, by way of an experiment, I published my novella through FeedARead which is supported by the English Arts Council and several large publishers. It's ideal, as I can now order several copies to sell to anyone who might prefer a print copy, and readers can buy it straight from the FeedARead store. Authors can pay to have their print book available on every other site too, such as Amazon and Waterstones, but I've decided against that option for now.

It's great that we have so many more publishing options than before, so it's good to try a variety of methods and see what works best. I'm aiming to stay with publishers wherever possible but experiment with other options for some work. It's a whole new world!

Rosemary

Edits and Revisions

I love when a book gets to the editing stage, as it means I've actually finished and submitteded the whole novel! As a panster, I'm never quite sure how a story will end until I get there, and I'm still trying to decide if I should plan a little more. Like many other writers, the characters are the most important element of a novel for me and I prefer to set them up then let them play. But my plot sometimes get a little lost on the way, and occasionally I have to rework an ending.

This week, I was delighted to receive the first edits for my new tween book, The Jigsaw Puzzle , which will be coming soon from MuseItUp Publishing. Fortunately, my editor really likes the story and there are no issues with the plot, nor too many corrections as far as I can see from my quick glance. I'm really looking forward to going through it all in the next day or two, with the benefit of her professional experience and advice.

I also submitted another children's story, shorter and for younger children, to an online publisher who bought one of my previous children's stories. Although they really like the story overall, this one needs a slightly stronger ending. I was very pleased to get the opportunity to revise the ending and submit again - which I did right away this morning! I'll let you know if it's successful.

I'm also redrafting and revising an adult historical that had some very good feedback from the first publisher I tried, but some elements of the plot let it down. Now that I'm going through it all again, I completely agree and I've already ditched almost 5,000 words of it (I'm about 3/4 of way through revisions). I've learned two lesons from this: I submitted in far too much of a hurry, and some novels need a little more plotting than others. This novel will hopefully be all the stronger for its revisions and will soon be ready to wing its way to another publisher.

Fortunately, I love all the stages of writing and submitting, and don't even mind occasional rejections, as long as I'm still getting acceptances. It's even better when I learn valuable lessons that hopefully strenthen the writing along the way!

In case anyone is interested in writing for children, I'll be starting a new series over on my children's blog, Flights of Imagination, from Monday. Each week, I'm going to feature a children's, tween, or YA author and book. If you write for these age groups and would like your book featured, please let me know.

Rosemary