Margaret Skea's Blog, page 8

Giveaway of E-copies of Turn of the Tide

Hi Folks,

To celebrate the publication of A House Divided there are 5 e-copies of Turn of the Tide up for grabs to be chosen from those who comment on this post below and sign up to follow the blog. Valid from 30th September – 1st October. Please remember to leave me your email address, so that I can contact you  if you’re a winner.

(If you miss the chance or aren’t one of the lucky recipients don’t despair! Up until the 15th October the ebook will be on sale on Amazon for .99p / .99c)

Margaret

Filed under: Uncategorized

Did I say I was looking forward to editing?

I did say that – and I meant it! I still do, even if the process took rather longer than I anticipated.

My target was to finish in June, which discounting full-time working and holiday, effectively gave me seven weeks. Perhaps predictably, I didn’t quite make it, but I’m happy with ten weeks from first draft to sending off to the copy-editor. I’d much rather have a little slippage and a manuscript that is as good as I can make it, than rush it off too soon.

As for the editing process itself – my ‘Red Letter’ edit was fairly straightforward – at least finding the information I needed was. Checking the rest of the manuscript to ensure that any changes were carried through consistently was rather more of a task, but oh so worth it.

it was at this point that I entrusted my ‘baby’ to several readers for their comments. The deal was that they’d email them back to me noting page / line numbers for each comment. Which should of course have been fine, except that as I was also continuing to edit myself the pages were constantly changing, so it made it harder than it should have been to marry the comments to the relevant text. Even the marvels of technology couldn’t help with that one!

Having sorted out that tangle (and made some useful alterations along the way as a result of the feedback) it was time to tackle repetitions. By this time, having read through the manuscript three times (aside from as I wrote it) I had a (long-ish) list of words and phrases that I suspected occurred rather too often. Several of my characters appear to be very fond of stepping forward, guffawing, and shaking their heads and I had to politely, but firmly tell them enough was enough. My rule of thumb – no more than 4 occurences of any such actions are permitted. This is where technology in the form of the ‘find and replace’ feature on the computer comes into its own. It took me from occurence to occurrence without a hitch and though at times it was incredibly hard to think of another more interesting way to describe a particular action, the resultant changes and / or deletions are (I hope) an improvement.

It wasn’t only repetitions of phrases I noted, but an over abudance of the word ‘that’. Useful in many circumstances, but sprinkled like salt on almost every page wasn’t appropriate. So ‘that’ had an edit all to itself, with the rather amazing result – I removed c 400 instances of ‘that’ and I don’t miss one of them!

A word to the wary – computers are great, but they don’t as yet know the difference between a collection of letters and a word. – So if you ask the computer to find a word it will find every occasion when that collection of letters occurs, whether a whole word or part of a larger one. Nor apparently can it distinguish between lower and upper case letters. If you want to change a person’s name from Tom to Neville, for example, click ‘replace all’ and you may find you have spawned some very strange words indeed such as ‘Nevilleatoes’ and ‘Nevilleorrow’, turning sentences into gobbledegook in the process. The only safe way to use ‘Find and replace’ is one occurrence at a time.

The final step for me was a read-aloud read through in as large chunks as possible. It took me 18 hours spread over two days and I was shattered by the end of it. (I hope actors who record audio-books are well paid for their efforts…) This was very much an instinctive process, I found very little actually wrong with the manuscript, but there were a few points were I felt uneasy and so revisited the text to tweak a little. As for the next stage – handing it over to the copy editor – that’s for another post.

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It’s Day 6 and the Scottish Borders

Today I’m privileged to be able to take part in a mammoth blog hop – Around the World in (I don’t know how) many days. Just now it’s Day 6 and Scotland – I’m talking alittle about how the environment in which I live helps me to bring the 16thc alive.

Visit target=”_blank”>http://jaffareadstoo.blogspot.co.uk to read my post.

(With thanks to Book Connectors and Trip Fiction for this opportunity.)

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Image of the week – not for the faint-hearted…

I can hardly believe it’s 2 months since I finished my first draft of the sequel to Turn of the Tide and began the editing process. How far have I got? Well…

I have gone right through my ‘red letter’ editing, researching and checking facts, and as expected it was (mostly) fun, with just the odd (but often very time-consuming) frustration when I struggled to find exactly the right piece of information as well as the occasional need to re-write a chunk of the story to bring it in line with what I had discovered.

Most interesting (if not exactly pleasant) fact? The method of killing of witches in Scotland in the late 16th century. Unlike in England and (I think) a lot of Europe, Scottish witches weren’t hung. The reality was rather more horrible. First of all they were garrotted and then, whether still alive or not, were burnt. There were special garrotting chairs which had a tall back with a metal band which was put around the victim’s neck and progressively tightened. It appears that those executing them didn’t worry too much about whether the person had just lost consciousness or was dead before they moved on to the final stage. The burning was often carried out by placing the victim(s) in a tar barrel – sometimes two or three folk were burnt together – economy of scale I imagine – and setting light to it. It could take up to 16 loads of peat to accomplish the task! It is to be hoped that most of the victims were dead before the burning was carried out.

And what does this have to do with the sequel? Now that would be telling…

Speaking of lengthy processes – I (perhaps foolishly) expected to finish the fact-checking edit within a couple of weeks. In fact it took a month, partly because I couldn’t resist doing some general editing as I went along. Hugely happy though to have cut almost 10,000 words in this first pass.

Next stage was meant to be looking for repetitions / favourite words or phrases that have been over-used, and so in the first edit I noted potential cuplrits and now have an A4 sheet with a (long) list to work through.

However I was side-tracked by the discovery that there is a point in the manuscript where something more is needed and I’m working on that at the minute… I now know what that final piece of the jigsaw will be, all I need to do is to write it!

Then I’ll return to my grand plan, hopefully by next week.

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Editing – Day 1.

Editing of Turn of the Tide was a lengthy and rather ad hoc process. Having finished a first draft of its sequel yesterday I’m excited about starting on the editing process, which this time I’ve planned.

So today my plan was to skim through the entire manuscript – at just over 130,000 words a fairly big task – noting every place where I typed in red, indicating that there was something I wanted to check. I was so chuffed to manage that and now have a list to start working on and as I LOVE research tomorrow should be FUN.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: 16th century, Editing process, Margaret Skea, Prize-winning novel Turn of the Tide, Scotland, Writing sequels

Red Letter Day!

Yesterday I finished a first draft of the sequel to Turn of the Tide So today is a red letter day – when I begin the editing process. And I’m quite excited…

I’m also terrified that a re-read will throw up so much that needs to be altered that it’ll take another 2 1/2 years to do it!!

But actually I’m hoping that having learnt from the process with Book 1 that I’ll find the editing much quicker this time. (Hoping…)

I’m already setting down the various edits I want to do – I prefer to focus on particular aspects rather than attempt a cover-all edit. Some of which are: Story arc / balance between action and pause for breath / character development and of course grammar, punctuation and so on – NOT my forte – I tend to sprinkle commas like sugar.

And I do have one major problem – I don’t yet have a title…

Next step is to write that dreaded synopsis, perhaps a title will emerge from that process.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: 16th century Scotland, Clan Cunningham, Clan Montgomerie, Editing process, First drafts, Margaret Skea, Prize-winning novel Turn of the Tide, titles

Where’s My Plaid? – Lovely new review for Turn of the Tide

Sometimes you get one of those reviews that really lifts your spirits and you know that what you’ve written has given a lot of enjoyment to a reader – this was one of those reviews.

4.0 out of 5 stars Where’s My Plaid!, March 9, 2015

By The Just-About-Average Ms. M (North Florida) – See all my reviews

This review is from: Turn of the Tide (Kindle Edition)

‘ The plot moves at a good, steady clip for those readers who prefer to be jostled along, but it also pauses from time to time to allow the setting to take a bow, or the weather, or the sometimes haunted—and haunting—ruminations of Munro, his wife, and a number of other characters. The slower parts are well-crafted, the descriptions those of someone who has been there, seen it all, and doubtless has several tee shirts to prove it. When the action escalates, which it often does, take a deep breath because you will feel the rush. Once you sort out who is who, and feel pretty certain you know not only how this story will progress but also how it will end, prepare to be embarrassed. Prepare to be amazed, rather, because you won’t see it coming.’

The full review can be seen here.

Filed under: Book Reviews Tagged: 16th century, Clan Feuds, Cunninghames, Hatfields and McCoys, Margaret Skea, Montgomeries, Plaid, Prize-winning novel Turn of the Tide, Scotland

When History came to Life – Scotland’s History Festival 2014

After many years as the ‘Cinderella’ subject, history has been making a comeback. Authors of historical fiction are beating all comers in the big prize stakes, our TV schedules are full of (less than accurate) dramatizations such as The Tudors and Reign, and currently the excellent adaptation of Wolf Hall and accessible documentary-style histories abound – who wouldn’t immediately recognize Neil Oliver’s flowing locks? Interest in history is alive and well and perhaps never more so than in 2014 when we remembered the start of The Great War.

There are now at least six festivals devoted to history in the UK, and they bear little relation to the dull history lessons I remember from my school days. From History Live at Kelmarsh Hall – an all-round ‘experience’ including the sights, sounds and smells in the living history encampments and re-enactments; to Harrogate’s History Festival, focusing on writing and writers. North of the border November is History Month, with Previously – Scotland’s History Festival delivering 140 events over 18 days in six towns – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Dunfermline, Moffat and St Andrews. I was proud to be part of the programme.

As the introduction to the 2014 programme said: ‘History can shake the entire world – or just yours. It’s the story of nations, the clash of armies…and the scar on your knee where your brother pushed you on the rocks when you were seven. History hasn’t finished, and neither have we.’

That comprehensive view of history was reflected in the variety of events which were on offer, from workshops and walks, to tours and talks, from exhibitions and discussions, to music, art and theatre. It’s impossible to cover them all, but to give you a flavour…

Walking tours included Edinburgh’s atmospheric, underground Vaults; the Secrets of the Royal Mile explored the closes, wynds and courtyards of Old Edinburgh; and the Dean Cemetery explored the host of fascinating characters interred there.

Historical novelists Andrew Williams, William Ryan and Edward Wilson discussed the shadow world of spies and secret policemen from WW1 to Vietnam; Shona Maclean, Marie Macpherson and Louise Turner talked about riot, murder and reformation; and Register House unveiled the story of the Kaiser’s Spy and the landlady who help the authorities to snare him.

Politics in Rhyme was much more entertaining than the real thing; and Stirling Castle hosted the Flyting–

a verbal war between two of James IV’s makars, described as ‘a brilliant, beautiful and bawdy battle of verse and verb, originally written to please a king’.

There were four days of events celebrating the life, work and travels of Robert Louis Stevenson, this quote is definitely one to live by, and a series focusing on significant women- in war: Weapons and Wounding; in education: Watt Wonderful Women – a talk on Heriot Watt University’s trailblazers; in trade: Women in 17th Century Fife Trade; and in drama: Miss Julie, Strindberg’s classic play.

As you might have expected in this centenary year, war was well represented; Leaving it all– Scottish soldiers’ wills and appeals against military service in WW1 a refreshingly different angle.

Food and drink weren’t forgotten: from The History of Gin and Distilling to Fireside Feast a three course banquet served in Riddle’s Court, in Edinburgh’s Old Town, similar to one that was served in 1598. (One I was sorry to miss.)

A host of events focused on family history: Getting Started with Family History Research, and the more unusual Hospital Records for Family Historians.

If your taste was for the creepy there was the Dark Truth Tour, or Ghosts and Ghouls.

Glasgow focused on the Irish connection; Dunfermline, on Andrew Carnegie; and St Andrews hosted a variety events in honour of St Andrew’s Day.

For children there was The Reluctant Time Traveller with Janis McKay (21st) and a varied schools programme; and two events for writers: Writing Your Story, Writing History with David Simons and Chris Dolan; and my workshop event:

History in Historical Fiction – Icing the Cake or Main Ingredient. I had the opportunity to present it twice – once in Edinburgh and once in St Andrews, the latter a particular pleasure for me returning to the old haunts where I’d spent my student days. And amazingly, one of the participants had gone to the same school as I had in Ulster, though not at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed both events – I hope the folk attending did too! The feedback was good, so I guess they did.

All in all an exciting 18 days – I’m already mulling over options for a workshop or talk that I could present this year…roll on November!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Edinburgh, Glasgow, History Festival, History in Historical Fiction, Margaret Skea, Robert Louis Stevenson, Royal Mile, scottish history, St Andrews, Stirling Castle, turn of the tide

Escape to the Country – then and now…

I have to confess to a mild (my husband would say serious) and long-standing addiction to house programmes on the TV – buying houses, selling houses, renovating houses…even cleaning houses. If a programme has a house as its focus, I’m your man. (Woman actually, but let’s not quibble.)

And with apologies to non-UK readers – a little nostalgia here – Who remembers the excesses of ‘Changing Rooms’ or the fun of watching wannabee property developers making mistakes on Sarah Beeny’s ‘Property Ladder’?

For the record I once applied to be on Property Ladder, and got as far as being invited to send in photos / details of the renovation project, but to my husband’s great relief a similar project had just been accepted and so I was turned down. It didn’t dampen my enthusiasm though and my ‘house’ addiction is now fed by watching as many airings of ‘Grand Designs’ as possible (mostly re-runs) and, my latest ‘fix’, episodes of ‘Escape to the Country.’

For the latter I blame a friend, Helen Hollick, for although I tell myself that they are very educational, and my knowledge of the geography of the south of England is certainly improving, it was Helen’s appearance on the show I was originally watching for, but of course I’m now hooked – on the landscape and the many and varied houses…

Having now watched oodles of episodes there is a recurring thread that runs through most of the programmes. – Most folk looking to relocate seem to want a property with ‘period features’. But not too authentic – for, along with the desire for the period feel, is usually an equally strong preference for every modern convenience. And who can blame them? A medieval hall house may sound romantic, but how many of us would want to live with a central fire and no chimney to take away the smoke? Or an outside earth closet in lieu of a toilet? Not me!

Interesting though to see how medieval house-styling is still echoed in new-build England today. Compare developments of ‘mock-Tudor’ housing with the originals and externally, at least, the derivation is clear.

If you dislike ‘mock’ anything, and you have plenty of money to spend, it is possible to re-create the real thing – there are specialist firms who will supply and erect an oak frame, using very similar techniques to those used in Tudor times.

The current trend for open plan living certainly lends itself to that style of house.

I have to admit here to a closet desire to live in an oak-framed house, a dream I’m unlikely to fulfil, for though these houses, both the original properties and the modern re-creations, are undoubtedly beautiful, they would look entirely out of place where I stay in the Scottish Borders.

Why most people would feel that way is an interesting issue – for modern architecture is much less location specific. Perhaps it is an instinctive appreciation that style of housing is part of our historical landscape, and often in earlier times directly reflected the physical environment; for example, the honey-coloured Cotswold stone, the flint houses of Essex and the thatched cottages of Devon – all of which owe their predominance to the convenience and local availability of the materials concerned, in a way that 21st century building doesn’t. And therein lies their charm.

Why isn’t the Scottish Borders peppered with half-timbered houses? It can’t be explained by a lack of materials, for Scotland was just as heavily wooded in the 15th and 16th centuries as England, perhaps more so. The answer lies not in the landscape but in lifestyle.

While a Kentish farmer was enjoying the relative comfort of nestling securely in the surrounding farmland, his Scottish social equivalent was keeping fit on the spiral staircase of his gaunt and forbidding tower house, built primarily with defense in mind.

A reflection of the widespread lawlessness of Scottish society at this time. So no timber-framed ‘hall-style’ house for me then.

If you think renovation is a modern concept think again. The island of Bute on the west coast of Scotland boasts one of the most amazing restoration projects I have ever seen. Mount Stuart House was transformed before: and after:

Well worth a visit, with ‘wow’ factors galore, from the overall magnificence (decadence?) of the interior to the detail of the decorated brass door hinges, individually designed according to the purpose of the room in which they are used!

But now, as then, if you have enough money you can build almost anything, anywhere.

Right?

Well, maybe.

Apart from the restrictions placed by the planning authorities of course.

Are planning regulations a new thing? Yes and no. Aside from national regulations, we have conservation areas in towns and cities, and national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty in the countryside, all of which place specific restrictions on the extent and style of building allowed within them. Along with mountains of paperwork to be waded through in order to understand the restrictions or to make an application.

It was much simpler in the 16th and 17th centuries, but by no means a free-for-all. Consider the 1589 ‘Act against the erecting and maintaining cottages’, which stated:

‘ no person shall within this realm … make, build and erect, or cause to be made, built or erected, any manner of cottage for habitation or dwelling, nor convert or ordain any building or housing made or hereafter to be made or used as a cottage for habitation or dwelling, unless the same person do assign and lay to the same cottage or building four acres of ground at the least, to be accounted according to the statute or ordinance De terris mensurandis being his or her own freehold and inheritance lying near to the said cottage, to be continually occupied and manured therewith so long as the same cottage shall be inhabited’

Hmm – 4 acres…and as for the manuring…

But regulations are made to be broken, and illegal building of cottages on common ground was rife. It was however possible, but by no means certain, to obtain retrospective permission, usually by payment of a fine. (The equivalent of a modern-day ‘sweetener’ perhaps?)

Poplar Cottage, now re-erected in the Weald and Downland museum, but originally sited in West Sussex, is thought to be one such illegal or ‘wasteland’ cottage, the owner of which must at some stage have received a ‘licence to remain’.

As it happens, I wrote a short story called ‘The Price of Poplar ‘ speculating on the means used to gain that permission, which has been published in the anthology ‘Beggar at the Gate and Other Stories (Historical Novel Society)

Is ‘escaping to the country’ a modern concept? Not really – wealthy folk in Tudor London also prized their country estates, enabling them to escape from the city when the weather, or disease, or political difficulties dictated.

The TV show ‘Escape to the Country’ is somewhat different. Not featuring temporary escapes to country estates by the privileged, but folk like me (well, ok, maybe a teensy bit better-off than me) making a permanent move; choosing, not just a beautiful part of the country to live in, but often also a different pace and way of life.

May they all enjoy it!

Postscript: One of my holiday ‘treats’ is to look in estate agency windows and pick up house brochures. Imagine my delight when a property I’d noticed when on holiday in Devon featured as the mystery house in a recent episode – and I got to enjoy a virtual tour…

(A modified version of this article first appeared as a guest post on Helen Hollick’s blog http://ofhistoryandkings.blogspot.co.uk)

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: BBC, Devon, Escape to the Country, house renovation, Margaret Skea, Oak-framed housing, Prize-winning novel Turn of the Tide, Scotland, Tower Houses, Tudors

Charles I and a very small coffin…

It isn’t every day I find an intriguing little snippet, but today was one of those days. This article tells the tale of the finding and opening of Charles I’s coffin- fascinating in itself, especially as it was found in vault considered to contain the coffins of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, though the two coffins in question are not inscribed as such.

Charles I’s though does have an inscription and when opened the facial features relate to portraits of him, and the head was clearly severed, execution-style. So no reason to doubt it’s provenance.

But for me the part that really intrigues is the mention of a small coffin placed on top of Charles’ pall, covered in crimson velvet. A child clearly, but who?

The suggestion that it was a stillborn child of Queen Anne, (Charles I’s mother) while she was a Princess in Denmark seems, in my opinion, preposterous.

1) She required to be a virgin when James VI married her and there has never been any suggestion that she wasn’t.

2) Why would the coffin of a child likely born many years earlier have been kept and re-buried along with Charles I?

3) (Most intriguing of all) Why would this be suggested?

If anyone can shed light on this for me, or point me in the direction of further information I’d be grateful – little snippets like this can be very useful, but they can also be VERY distracting…

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Anne Of Denmark, Charles I, Coffins, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Margaret Skea, turn of the tide, Windsor