Sarah E. Smith's Blog, page 2
July 25, 2014
What has Lucy got herself into this time?
“– although all the men you meet in this time zone will lie to you, only Mark will betray you.”
***
The 1949 Affair is here – out on kindle ahead of its paperback release Monday…
Mark was hoping to go home. Not that home was up to much; but it was a bit more stable than jumping around in time. Unfortunately someone or something had other ideas. You see, he and Lucy are back on a pier – only it’s not Southend, nor is it 2013. It’s 1949 and the the Second World War hasn’t gone according to the way the teenagers remember it from history lessons.
The truism of every alternative time line and every scifi writer is a reality. The Nazis won the war in 1940 and are in control. To survive, the friends are going to need their wits about them. But that’s easier to say than do! Hitler knows about the time travellers and he has issued a very specific order: when they are found they are to be executed immediately.
While you don’t have to have to have read End of the Pier Affair to enjoy this new installment of Lucy and Mark’s time travelling adventure, it won’t hurt you know…
Published to coincide with the UK summer holidays, The 1949 Affair is the second book in the Aldwych Stand Trilogy, which will conclude next year with the Cut Throat Alley Affair.
(need the US link? Click here)
July 22, 2014
The 1949 Affair – Ask me a question
Hi guys: Lucy and Mark’s 
next adventure is out next week. If you have any questions about their previous adventure – The End of the Pier Affair – or their latest travels in the 1949 Affair: post them below and I’ll do my best to answer them…
If you don’t fancy posting here and are a member of goodreads, you can post your question there :-)
Look forward to hearing from you
July 21, 2014
Character Profile: Mordecai Gold
Mordy (as he is known to his friends) runs a jewelers -come- pawnbrokers. He is a hard nosed businessman, with an eye for a bargain.
But I didn’t want him to be the stereotypical Jew of literature. When Walter Scott created Isaac of York he made him an extreme – the complete antithesis of his beautiful daughter Rebecca; while both George Du Maurier and Dickens created wholly evil criminal masterminds – who looked and acted in an immediately identifiable caricature.
There’s far more to Mordy than that. Tall, white haired – grandfatherly – this is a man who will admit to being 50 but not a day older. Having escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe, Mordy made his home in Whitechapel. Using his connections Mordy has built up a reputation as an honest criminal. He is the soul of discretion who (trusted by the highest born and the lowliest of beggars) will ensure the best deal is achieved for all (though obviously the house will always win). But you cross him at your peril. Fail to keep your word and retribution is swift.
A man who always has sweets in his pockets, Mordy is at the centre of his community: respected, loved and feared in equal measure
When he first encounters Emily, the lonely little girl who spends at least ten minutes of her walk home from school staring into his shop window, Mordy sees an outsider – just like himself: a mystery inside an enigma. After her father’s death, when her mother brings trinkets to pawn to pay for the funeral, Mordy finds himself being wrapped around the finger of a 7 year old girl who has wisdom beyond her years and an innate ability to identify rough diamonds. Intrigued and sensing there is more to Emily and her mother than meets the eye, Mordy makes her mother an offer that will ensure that as Emily grows up she becomes the Pawnbroker’s apprentice.
July 6, 2014
The Cut Throat Alley Affair
I’ve been playing with covers…
what do you think?
May 31, 2014
The Secret Aldwych
These are the photographs taken on our visit to the disused station at Aldwych. Of course, I wasn’t there for the history. I was there to check I’d got the description right.
From top to bottom they show:
1. The unfinished lift shafts 2. A very substantial door 3. Condensation and damp on the passenger tunnels 4. Platform one – which was used until its closure in 1994 (although notice only part of the station ceiling was tiled). 5. The never used second platform 6. Tiling patterns – tested at Aldwych before being rolled out elsewhere on the underground 7. The Grade One Listed tracks ( in a Grade Two Listed building) 8. The unused staircase from the unused platform to the lists. 9. The train tunnels 10. Concourse/passenger tunnels 11. Wartime posters courtesy of every film company ever to have filmed in Aldwych :-)
Helen (the station ghost) refused to put in an appearance, as did Lucy, Mark and -thank heavens – the distortion.
If you get a chance to visit the station the next time it’s open, then do. It was a fabulous hour. And though I say so myself, I do think I got the description right :-)
May 25, 2014
The Problem with Dressing Gowns!
I have made a decision, my gentleman detective needs a dressing gown.
Well, you’d have thought I’d have asked the Pope to change religion!
You see, if I wanted an Arthur Dent style dressing gown, I’d have been fine. Not only could I have sourced one for Symington at the start of the 20th century, but I could get one for OH from Ebay…
But a man’s dressing gown? Very limited stock indeed from which to choose.
See what I mean?
Now Symington is a man of taste, suaveness and sophistication. I can’t see him in any of the above.
Well possibly the last one but in black and gold…
May 18, 2014
Research for Cut Throat Alley Affair 1
I read this book as part of my research for the third book of Lucy and Mark’s adventures.
London’s Shadows: The Dark Side of the Victorian City by Drew D. Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Typical researcher that I am, I’m afraid I have been dipping in and out of this book to find out what it was like to be in the East End during the 1880s. But incomplete as my reading is, I have decided to review Drew D. Gray’s book. You see, this it well written an well researched – in a word it is a joy.
Most books that deal with this period of London’s history are sensationalist, focussing on the Ripper and his activities rather than looking at the context of the murder, the state of the East End; the ethnic mix, the geographical complexity of the situation. And for me, this is why this book scores highly.
Yes, the Whitechapel murders are the focal point of this book. It was the biggest “thing” to happen in the East End after all. And yet, through this book, I have learned about: the increasing professionalism of the police and the work of the courts; as well as what drove the women of whitechapel to prostitution and the desperate poverty and disease that was endemic in the area.
To be honest, this is one of the best books I have read about Victorian London in a a long time. If you want to know about the London underbelly you cannot go far wrong by reading this book.
May 1, 2014
Featured Blog: MJF Images
A very talented young man indeed. Thank you for bringing him to my attention
Originally posted on Wind Against Current:
By Vladimir Brezina
One of the pleasures of blogging is seeing what your fellow bloggers are up to. Some blogs are quite spectacular. We’ve long wanted to start a series of posts featuring those blogs, the blogs that we particularly admire. So, here goes!
There’s a particular reason just now (read on!) to start our series with MJF Images. It’s a landscape and nature photography blog by Michael Flaherty. But it’s a photography blog with a difference:
Instead of a strict focus on photo how-to, gear and the like, I pass on knowledge about the places and people pictured. That means tips and recommendations from an experienced adventure traveler. It also means learning about the geology, nature, wildlife and cultural history of the photo destinations, all from a long-time teacher & earth scientist. And since I am a working photographer as well, I’ll pass on ways you can successfully…
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Amnesia
In Book Three, Lucy suffers from Amnesia.
Obviously, I can’t tell you how it happens – well, spoilers sweetie! But it’s violent and traumatic and not (directly) the result of travelling through the distortion.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to find it as fascinating as I have, and I’ve had to be very disciplined not to dive in too deeply, because I’m not writing a book about trauma I’m writing fiction. So: for the purposes of my research, I’m ignoring amnesia caused by psychological trauma and concentrating on what happens as a a result of physical injury.
In this case there are two types of memory loss: retrograde amnesia, forgetting things that happened before the accident which has caused the amnesia, and anterograde amnesia (where the past is crystal clear but things happening now cannot be remembered).
Anterograde amnesia was not what I was looking for. Lucy is is danger because for once her encyclopedic knowledge of history cannot help her. Therefore, she has a kind of retrograde amnesia known as post trumatic amnesia. You see Lucy’s memory loss is only temporary, unlike those who have retrograde amnesia who may have partial recall or gradual recall but rarely is the full loss restored.
Obviously, Lucy can’t lose her memory for ever, so what triggers its return?
Hollywood would have us believe a second blow to the head will bring the memories back; sometimes repeating a similar action – restores the memory of the prior event – a bit like deja vu, only in reverse. Like putting the final set of pieces back in the jigsaw that is the brain.
At the moment, I don’t know if I want Lucy’s memory to return over time, or suddenly, which is holding up writing book three.
All I do know is that it has to return before she is murdered.
April 27, 2014
The importance of image
I’ve been playing with the headings for the website that’s on the bookmarks we’re currently distributing as promotional materials for the books
And,
well,
I just don’t know.
This is the one you are all familiar with from this site:
This is the one I went with originally on sarahesmith.info. It goes with the grey colour scheme for the site:
And then there’s this one, which look like the Daleks have got to it :-)
Currently, it’s on a random shuffle ( so a bit like my Ipod I’m waiting for an image I didn’t upload to turn up). If you want to see them in situ click here
As always – your thoughts are needed chaps :-)
