Debbie Young's Blog, page 32
March 28, 2018
Why Easter is Such a Movable Feast (of Chocolate)
My column from the March 2018 edition of Hawkesbury Parish News
[image error]So early an Easter is enough to catch the Easter Bunny on the hop (Photo by Gary Bendig via Unsplash.com)
“But Easter’s so early this year!”
With Easter Sunday falling on 1st April this year, the schools will barely have time to squeeze in the spring term before the bank holidays begin. My daughter’s school breaks up on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday.
But it could be worse: it’s possible for Easter Sunday to fall as early as 22nd March. No cause for immediate alarm though, as that’s not due to happen till 2285.
Next year, we will have the opposite problem: Easter will be three weeks later, on April 21st. (Latest Easter possible is 25th April, as will happen in 2038.)
At least a later Easter means that Valentine’s Day won’t coincide with Ash Wednesday, as it did this year, causing a dilemma for anyone who’d given up chocolate for Lent. (What do you mean, your Valentine never brings you chocolates?)
Why do Easter dates vary so much?
[image error]Getting married at the vernal equinox has kept my parents forever young (married 65 years and counting…)
They are set according to the phases of the moon. Easter Day is deemed to be the first Sunday after the first full moon to follow the vernal equinox. (No, I don’t know why, either.)
When’s the vernal equinox? Easy – 21st March, my parents’ wedding anniversary (impressively, their 65th this year, in case you’re wondering). Or so I thought, until I googled “vernal equinox” and discovered it is just as likely to fall on 19th or 20th March, depending on when the sun crosses the celestial equator, a notional line running from south to north above the equator.
In all of this mayhem, you’ll be pleased to know there is still one absolute certainty: that wherever Easter falls on the calendar, there will always be Easter eggs in the shops from Valentine’s Day onwards – and often even earlier. But not to worry: in my opinion, there’s no such thing as too much chocolate.
Happy Easter, folks!
[image error] Launching on 21st April: the fourth Sophie Sayers Village Mystery
The timing isn’t all bad news, though – it’s just right to get me in the mood for starting to write my fifth novel in the Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series, Springtime for Murder, which kicks off with someone thinking they’ve found the Easter bunny dead in an open grave.
Don’t worry, though, all is not what it seems… he’ll still be delivering chocolate this Easter!
In the meantime, you can catch up with the first books in the series here.
March 21, 2018
Spring Fever
It seems appropriate to share my post for the March issue of the Tetbury Advertiser on the first official day of spring – also my beloved parents’ 65th wedding anniversary. Such a romantic and positive day for them to have got married, I always think.
[image error]Admiring the green shoots of daffodils popping up in my front garden, I’m struck by their similarity to post-hibernation grizzly bears. Both spend the winter tucked away, hidden and forgotten, in a kind of cocoon: bulb and cave, respectively. Seeing them emerge in spring is enough to warm the heart of any mortal, though round these parts you’re more likely to spot the former than the latter.
A friend advises me that narcissi contain a natural form of antifreeze. I bet hibernating bears would like some of that, but unfortunately it’s not in a form that’s accessible to them or to us. Otherwise I could have offered a bunch of daffodils to my husband for his car radiator when its burst hose deposited all his antifreeze on the M4 yesterday.
Fur Fury
Further signs of spring at Young Towers are the little tufts of white, orange and black fur scattered throughout the house. Unlike me, Dorothy, our calico cat, takes no heed of the maxim “Cast not a clout till May be out” (or, possibly may with a little m, as in the flower, depending on which version of the saying you prefer). Dorothy starts ditching her winter coat as soon as the days are noticeably longer. By mid-February, she’s kitten-skittish, despite her middle age.
[image error]Big spring skies above the Hawkesbury Recreation Ground
I know the feeling. A single day of forget-me-not blue skies and bright sunshine is enough to infect me with spring fever even in stubbornly sub-zero temperatures. That is, until I stumble across an article identifying this notional affliction as a tangible, physical and serious illness. Common around March in pre-industrial times, “spring disease” was characterised by muscle weakness, wounds that wouldn’t heal, and loose teeth. It could even prove fatal.
C Fever
[image error]“Ok, who’s hidden the spring flowers?”
Although the article is hardly ideal reading the night before a dental appointment, I brace myself to investigate. The disease turns out to be scurvy, caused by a winter diet low in fresh fruit and vegetables. By early spring, the only sources of Vitamin C were vegetables that didn’t rot during storage, such as leeks and cabbages, and, once we’d discovered them, potatoes. Given my impending trip to the dentist, I concoct a supper consisting entirely of all three vegetables, just to be on the safe side.
Confident that I can now enjoy my spring fever without losing my teeth, I step out next morning into a crisply cold but sunny day, ready to visit the dentist. But unlike Dorothy, I keep my winter coat on.
[image error] Coming this spring: the fourth Sophie Sayers Village Mystery
You’ll find a further taste of spring in the fourth novel in my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series, Murder by the Book, to be launched at the FREE Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival on Saturday 21st April. The ebook is already available to pre-order at a special earlybird price of just 99p/99c here: viewbook.at/MurderByTheBook
March 17, 2018
Sharing My Speech from the Launch of Our Community Library
I was delighted to be invited to launch the new Hawkesbury Upton Village Library yesterday, and I wrote a short speech to mark the occasion. A number of people afterwards asked me for a copy of it, so here it is for anyone who would like it.
After I’d spoken, local councillor Sue Hope added her thanks on behalf of the community to the Hawkesbury Village Hall Committee, the Parish Council and the Hawkesbury Writers for their support and funding for the new facilities, for which the books and services will be provided by South Gloucestershire Libraries. A team of eight wonderful village volunteers will staff the library and open it for two hours every fortnight.
My Opening Address
It’s a pleasure and an honour to be invited to open what is going to be a wonderful new resource for our community. It feels like we’re at a little bit of Hawkesbury history in the making.
Like many of you, I was sad that funding cuts led to the closure of the mobile library that had served us so well for so long. It brought great comfort and interest to many villages and hamlets beside ours, and it was always a heartwarming sight to see it trundling down our lanes. It was like a tardis full of books, manned by kind, friendly and knowledgeable staff always willing to help us, no matter how obscure our questions, even when we forget our library cards. I don’t know whether the mobile staff realised how much we loved and appreciated them, but on behalf of our community, I’d like to thank them for the pleasure they have brought us – and to congratulate them for their driving skills to manoeuvre that great bus down the lanes to us, time after time.
So a sad loss, but, like a phoenix from the ashes, this new and different kind of library, with its permanent base in our community, is the start of a whole new chapter (groan) in our bookish lives. In a way it will bring us the best of both worlds: access to the entire stock from South Gloucestershire Libraries, not only from Yate’s stocks but from anywhere in the south west. All we need to do is request them online from the comfort of our own homes, and they’ll be served up to us by our fantastic team of volunteers, all trained to give us the help we need at a local level.
[image error]Smart new mobile shelving allows the librarians to create a pop-up library every fortnight in the village hall
You can of course still use the other South Gloucestershire libraries of your choice – in Yate when you’re shopping, or the library nearest your workplace – but just as the mobile library brought resources to those who couldn’t get to those, so will the community library. But choosing books from the Community Library will help you save fuel and time – just as the Hawkesbury Stores makes it possible for us to buy groceries close to home.
For any cynics who are wondering whether public libraries are still relevant to us in the digital age, think again. Studies show that a large proportion of library users are also regular buyers of books. Libraries are for everyone – and not just for those who can’t afford to buy books.
Why do affluent book buyers use libraries too? Library books should not be considered as second-best to buying books. The quality of books in libraries is always high, mostly as new or nearly new condition, and it’s a joy to touch and hold them – these days, with the high production values of modern books, they are an aesthetic treat as well as a literary one. You can get as much of a buzz out of walking home with an armload of library books as from buying them in shops – and you don’t have to worry about running out shelf space at home, either.
Libraries also offer a low-risk strategy to expand your choice of reading matter. Well, I like to think of a library as a tasting menu in a restaurant. Like a tasting menu, a visit to the library offers you the chance to try new things. When you haven’t paid for a book, it doesn’t matter if you don’t much like it or finish it – but at the same time, you might discover new passions and interests in the process.
A library is also like a smorgasbord because it’s an all-you-can-eat menu – only in this restaurant of reading, you don’t end your visit by paying a bill. The only money you will spend here is if you treat yourself to some tea and cake, which you can do with a clear conscience because the takings for refreshments are what will cover the hall hire costs for each session.
But that’s fine too because libraries aren’t only about books on shelves. They are also an important social meeting point, accessible and affordable to all, where everyone may meet on an equal footing. They are hugely democratic and an enormously valuable anchor in our society for all sorts of reasons unrelated to books – the books might even be considered a bonus. What matters is that we connect.
[image error]Recommended reading for everyone who loves libraries
I’ve just finished reading a fascinating fly-on-the-wall memoir by a librarian, Chris Paling, called Reading Allowed. He points out that public libraries can also be study centres, play areas, A&E departments, refuges for the homeless and much more – Hawkesbury librarians, you have been warned! I’m sure our library will serve as a brilliant coffee shop too – a safe, warm place to socialise with friends. Fortunately libraries no longer have a silence rule!
I realise not everyone may be instantly persuaded that the library is for them. “I’m not much of a reader,” they might say, or “I don’t have time to read”. I bet they still find time to watch television. In that case, I say they just haven’t met the right book yet.
The book stock has been carefully curated to match the needs and interests of our community, and it will be constantly refreshed to keep it interesting for us.
[image error]Celebratory cake – we don’t do much in Hawkesbury that doesn’t include cake
Who watches “Game of Thrones”? Of course, that hugely popular series is based on books by a very wise man, George R R Martin, who famously said about books and reading:
“He who reads lives a thousand lives. He who does not read lives only once.”
Our new community library gives us all the chance to live a thousand lives. So please do take advantage of this wonderful gift to our village, today and every time it opens, once a fortnight, in future. I’m delighted to declare it now officially open.
If you love libraries, you might enjoy these other posts from my blog archives:
In Praise of Public Libraries for National Libraries Day
Sharing My Stories about Public Libraries
Another Story Inspired by Public Libraries
[image error] Click the image for buying ilnks
Both of the stories about libraries featured in those last two posts are included in Quick Change, my collection of flash fiction, available in paperback and ebook. Click the image to buy online or quote ISBN 978-0993087967 to order at your local bookshop.
February 21, 2018
Murder, She Wrote Reluctantly
Making notes for an article I’m writing about the importance of meeting readers’ expectations, I’m forced to acknowledge that, for a cosy mystery writer, I’m a reluctant murderer.
While I love devising an intriguing and imaginative plot that provides motive and opportunity for a multitude of suspects, when it comes to delivering the fatal blow, I have to force myself to, er, bite the bullet.
There have even been moments when I’ve regretted announcing in advance that all seven titles in my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series would have “Murder” in the title – although when they’re all lined up together on the shelf, they will make an excellent matching set:
Best Murder in Show
Trick or Murder?
Murder in the Manger
Murder by the Book
Springtime for Murder
Murder Your Darlings
School’s Out for Murder
Mea Culpa
I confess… a certain hesitation in bumping people off for the sake of entertainment. This may come as a relief to my family, friends and neighbours. But it’s hardly an ideal quality in a crime writer.
I’m guilty… not of murder, but of occasionally breaking the rules of what’s expected in a crime story.
I stand accused… of letting intended murder victims occasionally escape with their life at the last minute, or to have a murder turn out to be not what it first seems.
It’s a fair cop… But it’s all good fun, all the same.
Must Try Harder
[image error] The first three books are available from Amazon or may be ordered from your local independent bookshop
But in my next book, Murder by the Book, I’ve pulled myself together and started the story in no uncertain terms: by chucking a stranger down the village well to a certain death.
But who is the victim? And who pushed the stranger, and why?
All will be revealed in April, when I’ll be launching Murder by the Book at the fourth Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival on Saturday 21st April.
For more information about the Festival, visit www.hulitfest.com
To buy the first three Sophie Sayers books before the fourth is published, click here.
For general information about the Sophie Sayers Series, click here.
February 14, 2018
Spring Balance
In my column for the February edition of the Hawkesbury Parish News, I’m trying to persuade myself of the virtue of living in a climate with four seasons – and wishing winter away.
[image error]Daffodils outside Hawkesbury Village Hall this week
Apparently, at the equator, the sun rises at 6am and sets at 6pm every day, all year round.
Though stunningly beautiful, equatorial sunrises and sunsets last only a few minutes, with none of the long, languid transformations that we see on Hawkesbury’s horizons.
The climate in equatorial countries varies so little, they have only two seasons: wet and dry.
That lack of seasonal variation must limit conversation about the weather: “Turned out nice again. And again. And again.”
Ex-pats living on the equator must miss hearing the phrases that drive me nuts each British winter: “The nights are really drawing in” and then “The days are getting longer”.
These are just some of the things I’ve been telling myself to make the long dark nights of winter seem more tolerable.
On short dull days post-Christmas, when it’s often felt like the sun hasn’t risen at all, if it had been possible to teleport myself to the equator for a twelve-hour day of sunshine, I would have done.
But now a scattering of cheerful blackbirds – my favourite British garden bird – has started paying daily visits to the bare-branched apple tree outside my study window, their sunny yellow beaks a little brighter each time they stop by. This natural change in their marking shows they’re gearing up for their spring mating season. That thought cheers me up almost as much as it must them, even though I suspect this is the closest I’m going to get to seeing sunshine until March.
They don’t have blackbirds at the equator. That’s another reason added to my list. I’ll convince myself eventually.
[image error]Catkins on the Cotswold Way, behind Hawkesbury Primary School
[image error]Available in paperback and ebook
Fed up with waiting for warmer weather?
Get a dose of sunshine early with
Best Murder in Show,
set in a classic English summer,
the first in my series of cosy mystery novels
that span the course of a village year.
Quote ISBN 978-1911223139
to order from your local bookshop
or buy online in the UK, in the US,
or in any other Amazon store.
February 7, 2018
Please Don’t Be My Valentine
[image error]
In the February edition of the
Tetbury Advertiser ,
my Young By Name column homes in
on the real meaning of Valentine’s Day
As a lapsed Anglican, I’ve never had saints on my radar, apart from the obvious ones whose special days are pre-printed in our diaries – Andrew, George, Patrick, David, Valentine, etc – and the quartet after whom my old grammar school named its houses: St Anne, St Bride, St Francis and St Mary.
At primary school, our teams were distinguished only by colour: red, blue, green, yellow. On moving up to senior school, I was naturally more interested in the colour of the houses, rather than their saints’ pedigrees. In a kind of synaesthesia of the saints, for me St Bride (my house) will forever be associated with yellow, St Anne green, St Francis red, and St Mary blue.
[image error]Now that’s confused me – my souvenir pencil from St Bride’s Church*, Fleet Street, isn’t yellow
Strangely, we were never taught anything about our school’s four saints, and we never thought to ask. Nor did we query why in an all-girls’ school we had a single male, St Francis, alongside the female trio.
Top Trumps of Saints
I reckon the school management missed a trick to cement house loyalty. They could have turned the distinguishing features of each saint into a compelling game of Top Trumps:
St Francis:100 points for animal husbandry, 0 for maternal instinct.
I wish I could cite further examples, but my knowledge of even the most famous saints is slim. Just how slim I didn’t realise until doing some research for my latest novel, Murder by the Book** (out in April), which culminates in a murder on 14th February.
It turns out my perception of St Valentine was more Hallmark than historically accurate.
Apparently, asking someone to be your Valentine is nowhere near as appealing an invitation as I’d assumed.
The Fate of the Saint
Legend has it that the Romans made it illegal for marriage ceremonies to be performed for soldiers, on the assumption that having wives would sap their strength and their inclination for war. Valentine, a Christian priest, defied the ban, continuing to perform wedding ceremonies until the Romans arrested him. In jail, in what could be the earliest recorded case of Stockholm Syndrome, Valentine healed his jailer’s daughter’s blindness, after which, not surprisingly, they became friends. When led away to his final fate, he left her a note signed “From Your Valentine”.
His execution was cruelly prolonged: he was beaten and stoned before being beheaded.
So be wary of asking the object of your affections to be your Valentine – they might think you’re inviting them to a fate worse than death.
[image error] Wry humour about romantic relationships, available in paperback and ebook
MORE FUN READS
*More about my visit to the wonderful St Bride’s, the journalists’ church, in this post from my archive
**Murder by the Book, the fourth Sophie Sayers Village Mystery, will be launched at the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival on Saturday 21st April.
And if I haven’t put you right off romantic fiction, you might enjoy my collection Marry in Haste , currently on special offer at 99p/99c for the ebook, and £4.99 for the paperback.
January 31, 2018
Remembering Forget-me-nots in the Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries
My contribution to the Authors Electric collective blog this month
Visit their website to find a different post by a different author,
every day of the month
(I post on the 30th)
[image error]I’m also very partial to bluebells (Photo: Angela Fitch Photography)
As a novelist, I like to think I make everything up.
While the standard disclaimer appears on my copyright pages declaring each book a work of fiction, little details creep in from real life.
Snippets and snapshots are dredged up from the ragbag of my memory.
Sometimes this is for no apparent reason, such as the recycling bins that appeared in three separate stories in my flash fiction collection, Quick Change. I didn’t even notice the repetition until one of my beta readers asked why they kept cropping up. For fear of seeming obsessive, I replaced one bin with a bonfire, which made for a much better story.
Other times I manage to wrestle the reasons from my subconscious after I’ve finished writing the story, such as the forget-me-not motif that runs throughout my Sophie Sayers Village Mystery series.
In the first novel, Best Murder in Show, Hector, the local bookseller, remarks on the colour of Sophie’s eyes. She’s in fancy dress as Virginia Woolf on a book-themed carnival float, while he’s playing Homer, togged out in a toga.
“Your eyes are the wrong colour for Virginia Woolf,” he tells her. “Hers were grey. Yours are forget-me-not blue.”
As the series progresses, forget-me-nots become a symbol of all that Sophie stands for. (I won’t spoil the plot by explaining what that means.)
The Roots of My Fondness for Forget-me-nots
Only after weaving this motif into the story did I realise my affection for this humble little flower dates back much further. It originates in the unlikely setting of a suburban London garden most unlike Sophie’s home in the idyllic Cotswold village of Wendlebury Barrow.
[image error]Forget-me-nots in my grandmother’s treasured old vase
You see, forget-me-nots flourished in my grandmother’s back garden, in my childhood home town of Sidcup. Visiting after school, I’d skip up her garden path, admiring the low clouds of tiny blue flowers edging the concrete path beneath her washing line. Often I’d pick a bunch to present to her on my arrival, complimenting her on how beautiful the garden was looking.
Compared to the carefully cultivated garden of my other grandmother – the one I picture when I write about Sophie’s Auntie May’s cottage garden – the forget-me-not grandmother’s garden was sparsely planted. The only reason those flowers appeared there in such profusion was that she often didn’t bother to plant much else. With no competition, they quickly took over the flowerbeds. My grandmother may even have regarded them as weeds.
To my childish eyes, with their sky-blue colour and fairytale name, they were as precious and exotic as the very best hothouse roses.
I’m very glad that Sophie likes them too.
A Growing Fancy for the Little Blue Flower
Since writing them into Sophie’s stories, I’ve started to acquire forget-me-nots all around my writing desk – fake ones, of course, so they last all year round. The latest addition is a vintage pottery candleholder decorated with forget-me-not transfers, a must-buy at the local Guides’ jumble sale. Seeing my little forget-me-knot collection every day spurs me on to write more and makes me happy.
What Next for Sophie Sayers?
[image error]Their manifestation in my current work-in-progress, Murder by the Book, came to me in a flash, and I’m very pleased with how it’s worked out. Set between New Year and Valentine’s Day, this fourth Sophie Sayers adventure will be launched at the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival on Saturday 21st April.
But I’ll have to wait till book five, Springtime for Murder, before I can allow the real flowers to blossom in Wendlebury Barrow. Oh no, hang on, I mean fictitious ones.
Roll on, spring, I’m ready for you, real or not.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE SOPHIE SAYERS VILLAGE MYSTERIES HERE
January 24, 2018
The Role of Humour in Crime Writing
A post about striking a balance between crime, humour and optimism in fiction
I often describe my Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries as “feel-good fiction”, which may seem odd in a series whose titles all feature the word “murder”. But I discovered long ago that I find it much easier to write fiction if I’m allowed to be funny, and this applies to my crime writing too.
Comic Relief amidst the Crime
As with any story involving tension and perhaps fear, a touch of humour provides balance and light relief – think James Bond, Indiana Jones and the Cumberbatch version of Sherlock Holmes.
But in my own mystery books, I use a much larger dose of humour because the underlying purpose of my stories is not to frighten or thrill, but to be life-affirming, celebrating the positive features of community life in the village of Wendlebury Barrow.
Crime at the Castle Commendation
[image error]Coming soon to Glamis Castle…
So I was particularly pleased to hear this week that Sophie’s getting a special shout-out at the Scottish crime writing event, Crime at the Castle, in the splendid setting of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of the Queen Mother.
Scottish novelist Wendy H Jones will be citing it as part of a workshop about injecting humour into crime fiction, and she’s told me she’s using the opening line of Murder in the Manger, third in the Sophie Sayers series, as an example:
“Does your Baby Jesus need a cuddle, Mrs Virgin,” said a small sheep politely.
[image error]Scottish crime writer Wendy H Jones
“I’m going to use your line because “I laugh every time I think of it,” Wendy told me. She’s also kindly shared it on her radio show since she interviewed me live on her programme last year.
But much as I love laughing at my own jokes, my books aren’t all about comic effect. I embed serious themes about the value of community life and the importance of tolerance and understanding, and about love, loss and consolation.
There’s the odd moment when I’ve even moved myself to tears:
In Best Murder in Show , Sophie is overwhelmed with unresolved grief when she comes to Wendlebury to take up her inheritance of her late Auntie May’s cottage.
In Trick or Murder , she finds solace in an All Souls’ Day service in the village church.
In Murder in the Manger , she attends a poignant Remembrance Day service in the village school.
I’m endeavouring to keep a healthy balance in each book, but always with the emphasis on the upbeat. Like Wendy, I’m a committed optimist, and that’s our take on life.
Even if we do have to commit the odd murder along the way…
If you’d like to read the rest of the opening chapter of Murder in the Manger on my blog, click here.
For more information about Crime at the Castle, and to reserve tickets for the event, click here.
You can also meet Wendy H Jones south of the border at her Novel London event on 2nd February.
To find out more about Wendy’s crime novels, visit her website: www.wendyhjones.com.
January 10, 2018
Who Needs Wi-Fi When You’ve Got Good Neighbours?
My column for the January issue of the Hawkesbury Parish News
[image error]The wrong kind of snow still looks pretty when you don’t have to be outside in it
Just before Christmas, a couple of evenings after our internet and landline were felled for a week by the wrong sort of snow, I was unexpectedly detained in Bristol by the need to take my mum to the emergency room at Southmead Hospital.*
As the thick walls of our Victorian cottage don’t admit mobile signals, I was for a moment stumped as to how to let my husband know that I’d be very late home.
Then I realised the solution was simple: I’d text a neighbour to pass the message on. Unbeknown to me, she was away from home too, but she kindly forwarded the message to another neighbour a few doors down. That neighbour happened to be on the motorway at the time, but she phoned yet another neighbour, who then nipped over the road to deliver the message in person. Problem solved.
Returning home towards midnight, I was more grateful than ever to live in a community in which everyone looks out for their neighbours, and not only in the season of goodwill.
[image error]Reader, I married him.
It was a bonus that this three-step system had not distorted the original message, Chinese whispers style. Not so when I first started seeing Gordon, who later became my husband, when “He is Scottish and lives in Swindon” quickly morphed into “His name’s Scottie and he comes from Sweden”.
But then, as now, intentions were of the best – and that matters far more than accuracy.
With grateful thanks to Emma Barker, Jane Shepley, and Joan Yuill, and all good Hawkesbury neighbours.
*I should add that my mum made a speedy recovery, so happy endings all round!
[image error] My collected columns from Hawkesbury Parish News 2010-2015, is available as an ebook and in paperback – click image for more information
January 3, 2018
From Zero to Three Novels in a Year – My Latest Post for Authors Electric
(This post was first published on December 30th 2017 on the Authors Electric blog, for which I write on the 30th of every month)
With Orna Ross (left) and Katie Fforde (right) at the first Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival in 2014 (Photo by Clint Randall)
Writing on the penultimate day of 2017, I can’t NOT think about where this year has taken me and what next year will bring.
Don’t worry – I’m not going to be banging on about New Years’ Resolutions. I love new beginnings and seize every opportunity for one – new school terms (I have a school-age daughter), solstices, equinoxes, birthdays, etc. But I was cured of an addiction to Resolutions a couple of years ago by my friend and mentor, the author and creativism teacher Orna Ross (you may also know her as the founder and director of the Alliance of Independent Authors).
Orna Ross made me realise that New Years’ Resolutions generally focus on the negative: things to give up or bad habits to reform. Her recommendation is to state Creative Intentions instead – a more positive, constructive system which focuses on the process rather than the outcome.
Novel Intentions
This is the approach I took for 2017, and, hey presto, it turned me into a novelist. Instead of saying as midnight chimed on 31st December 2016 “This is the year I’ll write my first novel” (for the umpteenth time), I formulated a specific plan to write and self-publish the first three Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries seven-book series, for which I’d fixed the names and broad character outlines of the key characters, the titles of each book, the timeframe of the series (the course of a village year from one summer to the next), and the timeframe for publication, starting with three books in 2017, to match the timing of each book’s setting.
The key difference? I had an actionable – ambitious but still actionable – plan that made a lifelong dream seem tangible, believable and real.
I also stated my intention publicly, a kind of reverse of “naming and shaming”, or, to put it a more positive way, like a creative marriage vow, that made me feel more committed, as if it was an inevitable result.
Thus Best Murder in Show, taking place in the summer at the time of the vllage horticultural show, was to launch on April 1st (Orna’s birthday, by no coincidence). Trick or Murder?, set at Halloween and Guy Fawkes’ Night, was out at the end of August, and Murder in the Manger, revolving around a nativity play that goes wrong, was published on 6th November – picking up the day after the last book left off.
So, from 0-3 novels in a year – and I’m three-quarters of the way through writing the next one (Murder by the Book, due out in April), and am planning two further books in the series for 2018, with the final one – plus three bonus spin-offs (an eighth novel, a novella, and a short-story collection) planned for 2019.
[image error] From nought to three novels in a year – no wonder I’m looking smug (header from my Facebook author page)
I confess it left me exhausted – physically, mentally and emotionally – and I’ve realised that as a novelist, I’m an all-or-nothing girl. When I’m in novel-writing mode, I’m totally immersed, waking and sleeping. Literally: if my last thought at night is how to solve a plot problem or a character issue, and my first thought on waking is its solution.
So aware have I become this year of the power of my unconscious, and at times feeling as if I’m simply taking dictation rather than consciously writing, if this was medieval times, I’d worry that I’d be burnt as a witch.
But it’s been a deeply exciting and rewarding year, and it has made me very happy.
If you’d like to find out more about my novels and other aspects of my writing life, visit my website: www.authordebbieyoung.com. All three novels are available as Kindle ebooks (coming to other ebook platforms soon) and to order from all good bookshops by quoting the ISBN (and from Amazon if you prefer to shop online – here’s the link to the Amazon page for the three-book series so far).
Festival Intentions
One other creative intention for the new year is the Fourth Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival on Saturday 21st April 2018, for which I’m just finalising the programme.
I launched this Festival series in my village in 2015 as a one-evening event, offering free events for all, to be accessible even to those who couldn’t afford conventional litfest tickets and the associated costs of events such as the Cheltenham, Bath and Hay-on-Wye festivals. (As I live in the Cotswolds, I’m not far from any of those.)
It has now grown into a day-long, action-packed programme featuring about 50 authors in talks, workshops and readings – all still free to attend. Check out its website to catch news updates from 1st January: www.hulitfest.com.
What are your creative intentions for 2018? I’d love to know!
Filed under: Writing
