Jane Lythell's Blog: https://janelythellamwriting.blogspot.com/, page 4

BLOOD TYPE: An interview with Barbara Copperthwaite

Barbara Copperthwaite : How do you pick character names? Do any have special meaning to you?

Jane: I’m actually picky about names. I decide how old a character is. I then look at the 100 most popular baby names the year my character was ‘born’.  I read through these lists again and again until the right name leaps out at me. Dickens said he could not write a character until he had the right name and he had a point.
Barbara: How do you go about plotting your book?
Jane: Most novels have a central plot idea and then subplots which reinforce or comment on the main plot in some way. When I start I have the central plot idea and a rough idea of where that will take my characters but the detail emerges as I write. For example with THE LIE OF YOU I knew that one woman was trying to destroy another woman but didn’t know why and that was what I had to work out.However with my third novel, WOMAN OF THE HOUR, I did more work planning the sub-plots as well as the main plot before I started writing and one of the sub plots became very important. I also create a page for each of the main characters where I list key characteristics, back story, quirks, strengths and weaknesses etc. I find this is a useful thing to do.
Barbara: What is the best writing tip you have ever been given? How has it influenced you?
Jane: The best writing tip I ever saw was on a blog called The Writing Prompt Boot Camp and came from James Scott Bell. He said that people don’t want to read about Happy People in Happy Land and that readers engage with a plot via trouble, threat, change or challenge. I thought that was so neatly and memorably put and I try to keep that in my mind when writing. Novels need conflict to work.
Barbara: How has your writing style developed over time? And the way that you approach writing?
Jane: The only way to develop your writing is to write and I have learned more with each book and hope I will continue to learn with each new story and set of characters.I am interested in the issue of Point of View. My first book THE LIE OF YOU was told in the first person by two women, Heja and Kathy, in alternating chapters.

With my second book AFTER THE STORM I moved to third person narration as I had four characters who were all equally important. I noticed that writing in third person was less intense. It did however have some advantages as you are not tied to what only one character can see! With my third novel, WOMAN OF THE HOUR, I have gone back to first person narration from a single female character and I think on balance that this is what I like to do best. It is the immediacy of first person that appeals to me.  Barbara: What book do you wish you had written?
Jane: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. It has everything I am drawn to in a novel: a magnificent sense of place – Newfoundland; a flawed hero who is an outsider despised by most people; a cast of authentic believable characters and a plot that allows the hero to find redemption. I do not like hopeless books. A bit of hope at the end is necessary for me.
ABOUT YOU
Barbara: If you could be a character in any book, including one of your own, who would you be?
Jane: I am reading the Neopolitan novels by Elena Ferrante and am drawn to Lila and would choose to be her. I love her fearlessness and her intense way of experiencing life.
Barbara: How much do your own life experiences appear in your writing?
Jane: My experiences shape what I write about. 

For example I made the sail from Belize City to Roatan which I describe in AFTER THE STORM. The characters are fictional but the setting, the food and the weather comes from a holiday journal I wrote at the time and the many photographs I took.

In WOMAN OF THE HOUR I have drawn on my fifteen years as a TV journalist, then producer and commissioning editor to create StoryWorld, a London TV station, with all its monster egos and high-octane drama.
Barbara: Do you ever surprise yourself with what you’ve written?
Jane: Yes because sometimes a scene seems very important to invent. It’s as if it won’t be silenced and I don’t know why it is relevant. Only after it has taken shape and been written down do I realise that there was a fictional problem I was grappling with and that the scene has dramatized that problem, brought it to life.
AND FINALLY…
Barbara: Describe your current work in progress in five words.
Jane: Power struggle at TV station.  (Woman of the Hour)

My novels are published by Head of Zeus.Available here:
WOMAN OF THE HOUR
AFTER THE STORM
THE LIE OF YOU
This interview first appeared on Barbara Copperthwaite's BLOOD TYPE blog. My warm thanks to Barbara.

One book, five covers

Titles and book covers always tell a story. My debut novel THE LIE OF YOU has been translated into German, Norwegian and Italian and I’ve been fascinated at how the UK and foreign version titles and covers have highlighted different aspects of the story.
Essentially the novel is an examination of jealousy that tips into obsession. In alternating chapters we get the point of view of the two main characters: warm, insecure Kathy who is a new mum recently promoted to be editor of a prestigious architecture magazine and the mysterious and reserved Heja who was once the face of Finnish TV news and who now works alongside Kathy at the magazine. Heja wants to destroy Kathy.
The first UK cover highlighted the disturbing nature of Heja.

First UK cover from HEAD OF ZEUS
The title THE LIE OF YOU is subtle and intriguing because it is ambiguous. The reader has to work out who the liar is. The action of the novel hinges around a number of lies told both by Heja and by Marcus who is now married to Kathy. Kathy also has her secrets. We see the face of a beautiful, apparently tranquil woman gazing out at us. It is Heja and her face has been fragmented by a broken mirror and, importantly, there is a shadow image of her face in the background. This shadow doubling portrays Heja as one thing on the surface with something else going on underneath, something which is to be feared. It is beauty with a discordant note.
 Paperback cover UK from HEAD OF ZEUS
The second UK cover also highlights a woman looking and again it is Heja who is doing the looking. This time the woman is in profile and there are shadows thrown across her face from half closed blinds. This draws on film noir imagery where shadows always imply skulduggery. It makes you think that the looking is covert and secretive and does the person being watched know that she is being subjected to this intense gaze?


GERMAN cover DENN DU GEHORST MIR from PIPER
The German title is FOR YOU BELONG TO ME and the cover goes full frontal. The title makes it explicit that this is a tale of possessive jealousy bordering on obsession; how can a person ‘belong’ to someone? The ‘You’ and the ‘Me’ are written in huge letters and the ‘You’ is in red for danger. The eyes looking out with the cracks across the facade are unnerving. Again it is Heja, the antagonist, who is the focus of the imagery and the title.


NORWEGIAN cover ALT A MISTE from CAPPELEN DAMM
Alt a Miste means EVERYTHING TO LOSE and this is clever because the phrase could refer both to Heja and to Kathy. Heja is playing for high stakes from the beginning. It takes Kathy a while to figure out that her apparently fortunate life and relationships are under severe threat. Heja is the focus of the cover and the woman that Cappelen Damm chose is exactly how I imagined Heja: an icy blonde with a torrent of emotions beneath her cool exterior. Crazed lines fan out from the middle of Heja’s forehead. There is no mistaking the message here.


ITALIAN cover DIMMI LA VERITA TUTTA LA VERITA from NEWTON COMPTON
Two things stand out for me with the Italian version: the use of the word truth (rather than the lies of the UK version) and that for the first time the focus is on Kathy rather than Heja. The title: TELL ME THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH applies to Kathy. She has been kept in the dark by her husband Markus and his silence has made her vulnerable. Kathy’s pale troubled face emerges from a dark background. Unlike the images which have Heja’s gaze blazing outwards, Kathy is looking down. She is a woman who needs to know the truth and the cover puts us in her position. Our sympathy is with her.
THE LIE OF YOU is available here

Rye: cobbles, church bells, castle and alleys

Three days to explore Rye in East Sussex, home of writer Henry James for 18 years. I loved the architecture, the alleys and lamp posts and the bells in the church tower.

Rye's cobbled streets
Note the VR - a Victorian post box
The bells of Rye church


Rye Castle, used as a holding prison for centuries
Castle cell door
Alley with lamp, off Mint Street
You know what you're getting Rooftops of Rye
And for a change the wide open space of Camber Sands which is 4.5 miles from Rye.

My novels are published by Head of Zeus.

The Lie of You



After The Storm

Cover Reveal: Woman of the Hour

Head of Zeus will be publishing my third novel on 14 July 2016.

I worked in television production for 15 years and Woman of the Hour is an insider's account of the power relations and monster egos at a TV station. It is the first in what will be a series of novels set in StoryWorld TV.

Liz Lyon is Head of Features at StoryWorld TV. It is exhilarating and sometimes glamorous work, but as a single mother with a demanding career, her life is a constant balancing act.

Then simmering tensions erupt at the station, trapping Liz in a game of one-upmanship where she doesn't know the rules. As the power struggle intensifies, can Liz keep her cool and her job? Does she even want to?

A twisty drama of power, rivalry and betrayal.


My two previous novels:
AFTER THE STORM




THE LIE OF YOU

To retreat or not to retreat...

I have learned that for me to be able to write I need empty time and as few distractions as possible.



For many years I worked full time at the kind of demanding jobs that meant you were still checking your emails at nine at night. The only time I was able to write was during my annual leave. I had started a novel and on two occasions I treated myself to paid tutored retreats. The first was at the brilliant Arvon retreat at Totleigh Barton in Devon. www.arvon.org  The second was at Moniak Mhor in Inverness-shire www.moniakmhor.org.uk 
At both retreats you spend the morning with a tutor and with fellow hopeful writers talking about writing. The afternoon is yours to write or to walk. You meet again at dinner and can choose to read extracts of your work in progress, if you feel brave enough to do so. I did not! 

Those two weeks were inspirational for me both because of the time I could spend working on my novel and discussing it with other writers. But as important I think was the fact that I had taken my writing seriously and had decided to invest in it. In May 2011 I was finally able to leave paid employment and to start writing full time. It was a joy. 

However I am still a great believer in retreats when you need to power through a difficult segment of a novel or get your first draft really moving along.

What I do now is go on my own DIY retreats. In the early stages of writing THE LIE OF YOU and AFTER THE STORM I rented a small apartment in the Grand at Folkestone. This is a hotel that has seen better days and which offers apartments rather than rooms to hire. It is very cheap to stay there in the winter months.

The Grand, Folkestone

I always rent the same small apartment which is under the dome of the Grand with views of the sea and seagulls from those oval windows. I have stayed there six times so far for up to two weeks at a time. I have to be honest and say that at times it feels bleak and lonely. I am there to avoid distractions and I turn off social media. I have one friend living in Folkestone who I meet for dinner when I am desperate for company. Otherwise there is a daily walk by the sea and the coastline there is stunning. I particularly love the walk from Folkestone to Hythe.
But precisely because of the isolation and the time to focus these retreats have always worked for me and the words do get written. My novels are published by Head of Zeus. AFTER THE STORM
THE LIE OF YOU 

Cover Reveal: Norwegian version of THE LIE OF YOU

Here is the cover of the Norwegian version of THE LIE OF YOU which is called Alt A Miste, EVERYTHING TO LOSE.

I think this cover is very effective. This is just how I imagined my character Heja Vanheinen; an icy blonde with a torrent of emotions beneath her cool exterior. The crazed lines fanning out from the middle of her forehead leave us in no doubt that this is a psychological thriller.

It is being published in Norway in April by Cappelen Damm as part of their Dark Room imprint.




My novels are published by Head of Zeus.
The Lie of You 
After The Storm

Cover of Norwegian version of THE LIE OF YOU

Here is the cover of the Norwegian version of THE LIE OF YOU which is called Alt A Miste, EVERYTHING TO LOSE.

I think this cover looks great. This is just how I imagined my character Heja Vanheinen; an icy blonde with a torrent of emotions beneath her cool exterior. It is being published in Norway in April by Cappelen Damm.




My novels are published by Head of Zeus.
The Lie of You 
After The Storm

Everything To Lose

There was some lovely news from Norway this week. The publisher Cappelen Damm will be publishing THE LIE OF YOU on 4 April 2016.

They have selected the new title of EVERYTHING TO LOSE (ALT A MISTE).

I think this is a good title because it could apply to either of the main characters Heja or Kathy who are involved in a titanic struggle with each other.

It is always so interesting to see another country's take on the story. When I receive the cover to the Norwegian version I will share it here.

My novels are published by Head of Zeus.

The Lie of You

After The Storm

My Top Ten Films

Recently I have been giving talks about my career in film both at the British Film Institute and at BAFTA. I was asked what were my ten favourite films? It was difficult to get it down to ten but here they are. I selected films that were truly cinematic, films that had used the unique tools of cinema to create their impact.
RAGING BULL 1980 Boxing biopic directed by Martin ScorseseRobert De Niro plays the tormented boxer Jake La Motta. Scorsese used black and white film except for the colour home-movie scenes which depict Jake LaMotta falling in love. The fight scenes are very graphic and Jake La Motta's decline is moving. This is my favourite film of all time.
THE ENGLISH PATIENT 1996 Romantic drama directed by Anthony MinghellaWhat is striking is the extraordinary use of panoramic landscape shots in this stunning film which follows the exploits of Hungarian Cartographer Count Laszlo de Almasy played by Ralph Fiennes.
UNFORGIVEN 1992 Western produced, directed and lead role by Clint EastwoodI love the way this film inverts the moral order of the West and puts the plight of the prostitutes at its heart. It is only the third Western ever to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
MARNIE 1962 Psychological thriller directed by Alfred HitchcockThis film was described as a Sex Mystery at the time. Now we would call it a psychological thriller. It is highly stylised with a strong influence from German expressionism. Hitchcock was a great admirer of the films of Fritz Lang. In some scenes the images are suffused with red, an outward sign of Marnie's memory of blood being spilled.
POLLOCK 2000 Biopic of artist directed by and the lead role played by Ed HarrisThis film was a labour of love. For years Ed Harris immersed himself in the life of Jackson Pollock to create this outstanding biopic. I think this is the best biopic I have ever seen.
BLADE RUNNER 1982 Dystopian science fiction directed by Ridley ScottThe film is set in Los Angeles in November 2019 (not long then!) Its production design is exceptional, it is thought provoking and it is a film that repays many viewings.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS 1946 Adaptation of Charles Dickens directed by David LeanThis has a memorable opening scene that grabs the viewer. I am a huge admirer of David Lean’s work and love these quotes from him too:‘Always cast against the part and it won’t be boring.’I think people remember pictures not dialogue. That’s why I like pictures.’
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE 2006 Comedy-drama directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie FarisI selected this because of its terrific script, its character driven story and its great ensemble cast.
ALL ABOUT EVE 1950 Drama written and directed by Joseph L. MankiewiczThis has a sizzling script and memorable performances from Bette Davis and Anne Baxter. It is the only film in Oscar history to receive four female acting nominations.
CALAMITY JANE 1953 Wild West musical directed by David ButlerI had to include a film starring Doris Day as in December 1980 I organised a full retrospective of her films at the National Film Theatre with my colleague Diana Simmonds. We called our season Move Over Misconceptions: Doris Day Reappraised and we attempted to give a feminist re-reading of Day’s films. Other stand out Doris Day films are: Love Me or Leave Me; Pillow Talk and Teacher’s Pet.
I’d love to hear your top ten films.
My novels are published by Head of Zeus
After the Storm


The Lie of You

A short video on where I write

In August I made a short video (4 minutes 20 seconds) about Where I Write. Hope you enjoy:

Where I Write video

My novels are published by Head of Zeus
After The Storm


The Lie of You