Jenny Worstall's Blog, page 11
February 19, 2013
A Very British Blog Tour 2013
Welcome to A Very British Blog Tour 2013 – a collection of blogs, books and authors who are surprisingly very British. Author Paul Anthony http://paulanthonys.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/a-very-britsh-blog.html began the tour with the help of Clive Eaton http://www.cliveeaton.com/averybritishblogtour2013.html . Many authors have now joined the tour and given their answers to the questions below.
First a note from Paul Anthony:
“We British have certain conventions, traditions and procedures that are expected. There is a dress code in the reading of this British blog and you are expected to comply with it. For example… Gentlemen will wear suits, white shirts and dark ties (military ties are expected where possible). Ladies will wear dresses (one inch above the knee, no higher, no lower) and floral summer hats. A break for tea and cucumber sandwiches is expected at some stage, and is permissible. The list at the bottom of the page is not a queue! We British hate queues, and will accept them no longer. It is an invitation, and you are expected to accept that invitation and support the home-grown product. Now then, let us proceed in an orderly fashion. As you know, we are all very boring and staid in Britain, aren’t we? Well, there’s a myth about the British and your starter for ten is stuffy, class conscious, boring, staid! But is this still relevant in today’s world? Let’s find out from our wonderful writers what they feel about it.”
I’d like to thank Rosie Amber who is my host for the tour. Please have a look at her lovely blog and see how she answered the questions. These are my answers:
The Very British Blog Tour Questions;
Q. Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born in Portsmouth and now live in south London, more specifically Addiscombe in Surrey, which is part of Croydon.
Q. Have you always lived and worked in Britain or are you based elsewhere at the moment?
I moved around a lot in my childhood (forces family) – Portsmouth, Dartmouth, Bath, Shaftesbury and Naples – but moved to London as a student and still live here.
Q. Which is your favourite part of Britain?
I love the sea and am also very fond of Bath.
Q. Have you “highlighted”, or “showcased”, any particular part of Britain in your books? For example, a town or city, a county, a monument or some well-known place or event?
My novel ‘Make a Joyful Noise’ is partly set in Bath but mostly in a fictional part of South London called Springfield.
Q. There is an illusion – or myth if you wish- about British people that I would like to discuss. Many see the “Brits” as having a “Stiff upper lip” is this correct?
I couldn’t possibly say.
Q. Do any of the characters in your books carry the “Stiff Upper Lip” or are they all “British Bulldog” and unique in their own way?
I think Miss Greymitt, the rehearsal pianist in ‘Make a Joyful Noise’ has a bit of a stiff upper lip. She would never complain and is an eccentric in the true English tradition. She still wears a tweed suit every day which she calls a ‘costume’.
Q. Tell us about one of your recent books.
My novel ‘Make a Joyful Noise’ is very British – quirky and understated. It tells the story of a choir rehearsing for a performance of William Walton’s ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’. King Belshazzar comes to a sticky end after an evening of blasphemy, music and feasting, and Tristan, the choir conductor also…but no, I won’t spoil the story. The libretto for Belshazzar’s Feast is terrifically colourful and dramatic (selected and arranged from the Bible by Osbert Sitwell, a true British eccentric). I have used the music as a backdrop for a pair of love stories and my peculiarly British sense of humour sends most of the characters up in ways that they all thoroughly deserve.
Q. What are you currently working on?
I am working on another musical romcom, which will probably include a murder.
Q. How do you spend your leisure time?
Reading, gossiping, playing the piano…
Q. Do you write for a local audience or a global audience?
Anyone with a passing interest in family, love or music, with a sense of humour.
Q. Can you provide links to your work?
Jenny Worstall Author page USA
If you are a British author and would like to take part in this tour, please take up the invitation and contact me on the form below.
Look out for the hash-tag #VBBT2013
Reply to the invitation by filling in this form.
[contact-form]
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 15, 2013
Love You Forever
My short story collection ‘Lemon and Lace’ has now been published on Smashwords for free download. The first story, Forever, appears below.
Forever
I felt a sharp needle like pain as I pulled out my first grey hair. Drawing closer to the mirror, I looked anxiously for further signs of decay. Surely those wrinkles around the eyes were deeper? And my neck was definitely showing its age. My mind started to dwell on uncomfortable thoughts of mortality. I pulled out another grey hair, then noticed another and then saw a whole streak of grey.
“Nearly finished the hall, darling,” called my husband Tom. He stood at the bedroom door grinning at me, wearing filthy paint splattered overalls and carrying a dripping paintbrush.
“Mind what you’re doing with that – we don’t want paint on the carpet,” I protested.
“Well you’ve already got a few streaks on you,” said Tom good naturedly. “I can see a grey mark on the back of your shirt and a couple in your hair. What have I said that’s so funny?”
I explained my mistake to Tom as I tried to pick the grey paint out of my hair.
“Well don’t pull any more hair out. I don’t mind a grey haired wife, but I draw the line at a bald one!”
Then he added, with a more serious note in his voice,
“Are you all right, darling? Are you still worried about your Mum?”
“Oh, I’m OK. I just can’t stop thinking about her. I want to do the right thing for her and for us and I’m not sure what it is yet.”
“Well you know I’ll give you my full support whatever you decide.”
I looked up at Tom gratefully and he moved closer to take me in his arms.
“Keep away from me with that brush,” I laughed as I slipped out of his reach. “You really are impossible!”
In the afternoon I drove along the coast road to the nursing home where my mother now lived. Noisy seagulls soared overhead and the fresh biting wind wrapped my skirt against me as I ran up the wide stone steps of Everdene. I was greeted by the Matron, Mrs. Crabtree, in the hall.
“Mrs. Winthrop’s not too good today, I’m afraid dear, but she’s really looking forward to your visit. Would you like to come and have a few words with the doctor? Come this way then.”
Later, I sat by my mother’s bedside, smoothing the hair back from her face as delicately as I could. Her skin was like the soft leather of gloves that have been carefully put away in a scented drawer for years and her hair was an intricate mesh of fine silver threads. She looked up at me and there was a tremor in her voice as she said,
“You will be coming to see me tomorrow, won’t you? I look forward to your visits so much.”
“I’ll be in to see you every day, Mum, and William and Tom will be here too at the weekend. You mustn’t worry – we’ll look after you. Now get some rest. I’ll stay with you a little longer while you sleep.”
She gave a sigh and her frail form relaxed. I continued stroking her head and as she drifted into sleep my thoughts went back to my childhood with all its fun and excitement. We were always busy dressing up or cooking little grey pastry shapes for my father to eat when he returned from work or making fantastic pictures with poster paints and glitter. At the centre of it all was my mother with her endless vitality and enthusiasm.
“I love you forever, Mum,” I murmured softly, as I kissed her perfumed cheek.
I took the long way home and stopped for some time looking out over the endless stretch of the sea. The sun sparkled on the waves and the water faded from blue to a dull grey as it merged into the horizon.
“Just a few more months,” the doctor at the nursing home had told me. “This will be her last winter.”
A pink glow spread over the water from the setting sun and I knew what we would be able to do. The sun sank lower and lower until it was extinguished in the water. Tom would have finished the decorating and collected William from school by now.
As I let myself into the house, the smell of paint hit me. Tom stuck his head over the banisters and blew me a kiss.
“Hello darling! I could murder a cup of tea.”
“What a welcome!” I said, smiling. “If I make the tea, can we sit down and have a chat? There’s so much we need to discuss.”
“I know,” Tom replied. “I’ve been thinking about your Mum all afternoon.”
We talked over steaming mugs of tea in the kitchen and found that we were in complete agreement about the course of action to take.
“Shall I make the call then?” I asked.
“Go on love – you know how happy your mother will be.”
I dialled the number of Everdene.
“Hello? Mrs. Crabtree? It’s Mrs. Winthrop’s daughter here. We’ve decided that the best decision for my mother is to have her here with us for her last few months. Yes, I know it will be a lot of extra work and I appreciate how different things will be for us while she’s here, but you see there’s really no other solution, not for my mother, not after the way she’s looked after me and…”
Just then the door flew open and our son William rushed in, dressed as Superman. He gazed with amazement at Tom’s hair which was liberally sprinkled with grey paint.
“You look old,” he shouted. “Doesn’t Daddy look old, Mum! When you’re both old, I’m going to look after you. You’ll need me then to do your shopping and stuff. Don’t worry- I’ll look after you.”
William ran out and as he disappeared from view I could hear him saying,
“Love you forever!”
Filed under: Uncategorized
February 14, 2013
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
I have recently read this heartbreakingly beautiful book on my kindle. Jojo Moyes must have shares in Kleemex tissues. Thoroughly recommended! It will change the way you think.
Filed under: Uncategorized
January 13, 2013
This has made my day – thank you!
.
My novel ‘Make a Joyful Noise’ and a short story collection ‘Lemon and Lace’ were recently both short listed in a competition. Today the results came through and I am amazed and delighted to find that ’Lemon and Lace’ has been awarded third place (Anthology section) in the Indie Book Bargains ‘Best Indie Books 2012′ competition.
Many thanks to all who voted in this competition and three cheers to Indie Book Bargains for organising such a great event!
Check out the full award list below and discover new award winning authors – I am going to have a browse and spend some of my Christmas Amazon vouchers!
Filed under: Uncategorized
January 10, 2013
7 Writers get to strut their stuff (The Seven-Line Challenge)
Pat Garcia http://patgarciabookreviews.com/ has tagged me with the seven line challenge. Thank you very much Pat!
Here are seven lines from my musical romantic comedy, Make a Joyful Noise. Lucy, the staggeringly trusting young music teacher, is besotted with Tristan Proudfoot, the charismatic and vain conductor of the Springfield Choral Society. We meet them here as Tristan has finally managed to track Lucy down in the pub after a choir rehearsal.
“You’re looking gorgeous tonight,” Tristan murmured, gazing deep into her shiny eyes and catching a reflection of himself as she looked straight at him. “Utterly, utterly gorgeous.”
“Oh, thank you, I suppose,” said Lucy, utterly scarlet.
“I’ll come straight to the point, sweetie,” said Tristan. “Stupid to beat about the bush at my age.” He gave a harsh laugh as he took a long slow drag of his cigarette.
Why do musicians smoke, thought Lucy, annoyed. He needn’t think he can do that when we’re married.
It is now my turn to tag seven other writers to continue the challenge.
This is your mission: Go to line 7 on either page 7 or page 77 of your manuscript and do a post with the next 7 lines, then tag 7 people to keep the challenge going! This a short and savvy way to see what others out there in the blogosphere are writing.
Filed under: Uncategorized
January 9, 2013
A Guest Post from Julia Hughes. Music and ‘The Griffin Cryer’.
Today I am thrilled to welcome Julia Hughes, author of the Celtic Cousins series and of the sweet romance, ‘The Bridle Path’.
Julia has been hard at work producing her latest creation, ‘The Griffin Cryer’ and shares with us here a musical extract from this enthralling and imaginative tale, giving us an insight into how she composed it.
Over to you Julia!
I’m ultra excited to be here on Jenny’s site, especially as music plays a crucial role in my latest title: “The Griffin Cryer“, which will be free to download from Saturday 12th January: Teenager Frankie is living a half life, ever since her brother Michael fell into a coma after a horrific accident. It takes the appearance of a stranger from another world, and the power of music to break down the emotional walls she has built around herself.
In the following extract, Frankie has been bullied and coaxed into taking part in the class play of “Romeo and Juliet”. As we all know art sometimes imitates life – Frankie’s music teacher is also called Miss Worstall!
Just as the fictional Miss Worstall helps a novice piano student appear more accomplished than she is; by generously sharing her musical expertise, Jenny enabled me compose the following extract, without striking too many wrong chords! See if you agree:
From “The Griffin Cryer” (Year 11 are about to perform “Romeo and Juliet“).
Chapter seventeen.
Around four hundred pupils crowded into the assembly hall, from Year 7′s to Year 10′s. Some sixth formers and a smattering of Year 11′s lurked at the back; most were taking part in the play. Frankie shuffled her sheet music on the piano stand, and readjusted the stool, as teachers guided Year 8′s into third and fourth row seats. The front two rows were already filled with Year 7′s, who giggled and chattered, dizzy with their freedom from lessons, and the nearness of Christmas.
Mr Sharky’s voice rang out ‘Waddle and Greenson! One more peep from either of you, and I’ll assume both of you would rather be in my classroom doing maths for the next two hours!’ In the absolute silence that followed he added ‘If there’s anyone else in the hall who’d rather be doing maths – speak up now!’
Frankie grinned. For once, Mr Sharky’s sarcasm was welcome. This’ll be an easy audience, they’ll applaud anything, rather than face old Sarky! The past two months had passed by in a whirl of rehearsals; Poppy and Chelsi had fallen out with each other a dozen times, Max Harley had transformed from class nerd into a hunk, and Paul Kastel had declared he was going to audition for a stage school. Frankie had spent the majority of her lunch hours learning how little she knew about music, and trying desperately to perfect her piano playing. She stifled a yawn. Poppy had insisted that everyone involved in the play should arrive at school by seven am. When Frankie had protested, ‘I’m not on stage, and I don’t need to “dress up”‘, Chelsi rounded on her. ‘You’re part of this play, and you are “dressing up” – or do you want Annette to have one of the prettier outfits?’
It was now nine twenty, and Frankie had been awake since five this morning. She stroked the silky folds of the gown she wore. Chelsi and Poppy’s gowns were tighter fitting, with medieval style bodices and long trailing sleeves. Frankie’s sapphire blue gown was more contemporary, with a sweet heart neckline, and puffy off the shoulder short sleeves. Perminda had styled Frankie’s hair, pulling it back with a tiara decorated with imitation flowers of blue, and she felt like a bridesmaid at a posh wedding.
The curtains billowed, and Poppy appeared on stage. Her peach coloured gown swept the floor, and chestnut ringlets bounced around her shoulders. A quiet murmuring broke out, and then lessened to the odd whisper. Poppy looked around the hall, waiting for complete quiet. Then, with a brief nod in Frankie’s direction, Poppy began her narration. As she spoke the now familiar lines, Frankie began to play, very softly. Although she’d learned the chords by heart, she kept her eyes on the musical score. Miss Worstall’s simple arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number Six flowed seamlessly; the bitter sweet melodies gave a foretaste of the impending doom awaiting. Poppy finished ‘What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend’ with a flourish, and Frankie eased her foot off the piano’s left pedal, allowing the exquisite notes to swell throughout the hall. The curtains swung open revealing the actors on stage at the precise moment Frankie finished playing. She grinned at Miss Worstall when a voice called out ‘that’s the music from one of Disney’s films!’
The play galloped along. Poppy stood at Frankie’s side to manage the stage directions and ready to prompt any forgetful actors. Once or twice she had to nudge Frankie into playing the incidental music. That wasn’t Max and Chelsi up on stage pretending to be Romeo and Juliet – a heart rendering love story was playing out in front of her eyes and Frankie sensed the entire audience willing the next scene to begin.
There were gasps of ‘No,’ and ‘she isn’t dead, she’s sleeping’ as Romeo sobbed over Juliet’s lifeless form. When he drew his dagger and raised it high in the air before plunging it into his chest, a deathly quiet smothered the hall. Seconds later Juliet sat up, stretched, and yawned. A voice called out ‘You stupid cow, why didn’t you wake up before?!’ followed by a scuffle and the main door creaking open as the heckler was thrown out. Juliet’s head bent way over Romeo’s chest, her long blonde hair shielding both their faces. Somehow Frankie knew that Chelsi’s shoulders shook with giggles, rather than sobs. She stroked the piano keys beneath her fingers and cringed, as she waited for the whole school to latch on and explode with laughter. Then with a flash of inspiration, Frankie played a sequence of chords. She sensed her audience listening as they struggled to recognise the familiar intro; so she played them again, and after a moment’s pause, swept into a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. This time she carried the audience with her, as she poured her heart into her music.
Poppy, who had been nibbling her lip, beamed at Frankie. When she judged the audience had once more been lured back into the moment, Frankie allowed the notes to die away. Juliet snatched up Romeo’s dagger, and angling it towards her own chest, spoke, shattering the renewed silence.
With the help of her friends, Frankie has broken free of her self-imposed prison. But her problems aren’t over yet – she discovers that an evil professor is exploiting her brother’s comatose condition. If she can rescue the Rider, and help both him and his griffin return to their own world, the impossible becomes possible. Like for example, helping Michael find a way out of his coma, and back into this world.
“The Griffin Cryer” will be free to download to your kindle from Jan 12 – Midnight Jan 16 – here are the links: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Julia Hughes is the London based author of “The Celtic Cousins’ Adventures” and the stand alone romance, “The Bridle Path“. Discover more about the author and her books at JuliaHughes.co.uk or catch her tweeting @tinksaid.
Thank you Julia, for sharing this with us. I thoroughly recommend “The Griffin Cryer” for a magical, timeless read – a veritable modern day fairytale. Don’t forget to download it FREE from tomorrow, Friday 12th January!
Filed under: Uncategorized
December 28, 2012
December 24, 2012
An Advent Calendar of Christmas Music. HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
Happy Christmas from Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole!
Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
Filed under: Uncategorized
