Jacqueline Ward's Blog, page 3

LockdownTown Oldham Reloaded – Day 7 – Location, location, location…

While Oldham is still in lockdown, other parts of the UK are loosening their grip. The British Museum opened yesterday and seeing the inside of my beloved London bolthole tugged at my heartstrings.

I used to spend a lot of time in London. But since March I haven’t been there and I don’t think I will be going back for a long time. I always stayed in Bloomsbury, near to my spiritual book home and withing walking distance of the South Bank and Covent Garden, as well as theatreland.

Staying alone in hotels is no fun after the initial novelty wears off. So I found myself wandering endlessly around the exhibits in the fabulous British Museum. It’s there I found Sanaa.

A while ago, after a 23andMe DNA test I found out that my genes held a secret – I am 18% Balochi. This was a huge surprise for someone who had been told little about their ancestry and been led to believe they hailed form Ireland.

It was almost unbelievable that when, 20 years earlier, I had stool in Aleppo in Syria and not known that my ancestors’ origins were there. I decided that I would find out as much as I could about it. I found myself standing in the Assyrian room in the British Museum looking at the origins of language.

I thought about Aleppo being raised to the ground and me leaving Cyrpus because the Iraq war started in 1990. I had recently read a series of spy thrillers including I am Pilgrim and one things that struck me was the role of women. the portrayal of women around war and terror as either servile or in the background.

I decided to write a book about three women – British, US and Iraqi – and their roles on the peripheral of a deadly battle. Sanaa came to me in the British museum through the artefacts, her art shining through the pieces and providing a solid base. The Truth Keepers was born.

Kate and Juliette are written around strong women who have to work extra hard in a man’s world. While the main locations in the novel are London, New York and Baghdad, I could not have avoided writing the British Museum itself into the plot,and the very room where I first found Sanaa.

I will miss the British Museum for the time being, but I am extremely fortunate to have writing memories such as this one that, for me, bring my characters to life.

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LockdownTown Oldham Reloaded – Day 4 – Where are my Characters?

Thank you for visiting Day 4 of LockdownTown. If you were looking for Day 2 and 3, don’t bother. Like many COVID19 lockdown days, they’ve evaporated into the gap between ‘I don’t know what day it is’ and ‘sitting frowning at the world’.

It’s never a good way to start a story, but I woke up this morning thinking about pubs. Manchester Pubs. Two in particular. I’m not a big drinker; I occasionally roll back the years to standing at the bar with a double vodka and coke in hand. And I admit I love it. Those halcyon days before the social networking nanny state when the first clue about your alcohol intake was a P45 and a yellow tinge to your skin.

The first pub on my mind was The Refuge in Manchester. The first time I went in there it took my breath away. We become desensitised to how beautiful things are but the splendour of Refuge never faded for me. It became the second stop on a middle aged two-pub pub crawl on the way to see a band.

It was the uniqueness that struck me most. Converted insurance offices, it is difficult to imagine working in there – the high ceilings and glazed tile work adding a certain quiet dignity. But the pub – or bar as I suppose it would be in the 20teens – added beautiful cut glass and, behind the bar area a glass conservatory. I would sit in there and watch Manchester.

One aspect of it, anyway. The edge. The dressed-up Manchester ready for a party. The sniff of a gig and an afterparty. The coats and the umbrella’s. The low vowels at every turn and the DJ mixing soul and Madchester. It was the mood more than anything, the vibe. It soaked in and transported itself onto my pages.

But at the forefront of my longing is The Millstone. A small pub in the trendy Northern Quarter, you know about it before you get there. 24/7 karaoke – not Steps or Kylie – more Tom Jones and Dean Martin. One night in there my partner and I had just ordered drinks when the whole bar broke into a spontaneous version of Tom Jones’ I’ll Never Fall in Love Again. Arms linked. Chorus loud. True passion. Belonging.

These are the Manchester people I write about. This is where I found Sheila in How to Play Dead – blonde and silent with fingers full of emeralds. And it stars in my next novel as the ‘second sitting room’ for a Friday night out. Kaye and Janet with Susie waiting for the turn to come on. Tension. Barracking. Dirty looks. Dirty tables.

Millstone clientele are pure Manchester people – the ones who remember what the 1970’s ad 80’s meant in terms of ‘the craic’ – singing loud, drinking doubles, laughing, pork scratchings, smoking inside and getting there early to get a seat. It’s standing room only in the Millstone.

The Millstone is a very, very special pub. pic.twitter.com/d2T3pLdnja

— David Blake (@David8Blake) August 14, 2019

I’m about half way through writing my next novel at the moment and this is the reason for my panic. I’m going nowhere. Not the story – it took off like a rocket and I can hardly keep up with it. Me. I’m going nowhere. I’m at home or at work. But I’ve reached the part of my story where my protagonist Judy is on her quest. She’s going out and about to find a solution to her problem. she’s digging deep. She has names. Numbers. She needs to talk to people.

But who?

This would be the point that I became more social. For inspiration. Just hearing other people’s stories sparks my imagination. So many times a conversation at a bar has set off a train of thought that, eventually, has nothing to do with that particular story and everything to do with a new character appearing with their own story.

I woke up this morning in a cold sweat. I’d always imagined The Refuge and The Millstone perpetually rolling through their day-to-day week-to-week facilitation of the best of Manchester dancing, singing and stories. I only just realised they would be there, but silent. I just hope that in time they restart.

In the meantime I’ll chase my characters down my imagination and around the corners of my memories of place and times that maybe will never be again.

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LockdownTown Oldham Reloaded – Day 1

I’ve been in lockdown in Oldham since 26th March 2020. I’ve been working from home and barely going out of the house because I am terrified of getting COVID19. It’s been difficult. I love being at home but there are things I miss.

Things that haunt my dreams and my daydreams. Today’s particular sadness was standing on a crowded dancefloor, hands in the air, singing my favourite song and dancing.

Constant reruns of concerts and festivals from before we had to stay both apart torment and fascinate me. My whole social life is arranged around going into the city to see a band with my lover. Drinking and laughing and dancing. Singing on the way home and talking about it for weeks afterwards.

Our lives are by no means empty because we have each other, but we miss it. Now we talk about how long it will be – will it ever be?

Yesterday Oldham was put into a deeper lockdown that says that we cannot meet people outside out households. Yet shops, pubs and restaurants are still open and I see people walking around dressed up. There is no live music. How will we live?

Some people are still going out to eat. Some are still going out to drink. But nothing seems the same. I’ve been to the city once since lockdown to donate blood. I never realised how much I liked to browse until I couldn’t. I had it in my mind that i would look around Debenhams. But when i got to the door a wall of visors stared back at me. People in blue gloves and worried faces wondering if I will be the one.

So this is day 1 reloaded. I didn’t keep a journal at first because I was paralysed. I couldn’t read or write for weeks and it seemed like my life was slipping through my fingers. Now, 5 months later, I am calmer and more accepting that life is very different. But a new kind of emotion has arrived in lockdown town today.

It’s a suspicion that there will never be a ‘new normal’ mixed with a dread about the economic future. A new nervousness about spending even a penny mixed with a fuck it attiude about everything.

It’s Saturday and, yes, I’ve been to Tesco and I’ve cooked steak. I sat in the sunshine with my dog and listened to Joni in my yard. But just outside my door there is a seething undertone about whose fault this is that could erupt at any second.

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It’s time to face the data – Jacqueline Ward in The Bookseller

I’ve written an article for The Bookseller about writing and Big Data, and where to start. I’ve been looking at the problem of promoting work as an author for five years now and I’ve come up with an answer – a data strategy.

In the changing landscape of the literary world you need to be agile. Here’s the article:

It’s time to face the data…
Jacqueline Ward in The Bookseller

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Lockdown life in COVID-19 2020 – writing, singing, sadness and a dedication

Week four of lockdown and I’ve learned a lot about myself. Before I go on, I just want to say that I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well, and continue to be.

The past three weeks have been a frenzy of initial panic at the food shortage, then a glut of baking and cooking. In between that, I’ve been singing. Yes, singing! That is not necessarily good news for any one listening!

Sunday saw a Carpenters special on Radio 2 and I was astonished to learnt that I know the lyrics to all Carpenters songs played on the show. I’ve been singing along loudly along with lots of songs because it makes me feel happy in a time when I feel very sad most of the time.

Dancing too. My ability to throw shapes in legendary in the nightclubs of the North West of England. I discovered that Jarvis Cocker was streaming a Domestic Disco live in Instagram and I joined in – it was hilarious! Hours of fun, brilliant music and equipment failures. You can find him @jarvisbrandoncocker on Insta. Over the Bank Holiday Weekend there was a live streamed Hacienda House Party and I danced away an rubbish TV evening in my lounge live to the best DJs. You can find it as United We Stream GM @streamGm on twitter.

So. Dancing and singing? Yes! It’s my reaction to the deep sadness I am feeling at the COVID-19 situation. And writing. I almost feel guilty at losing myself in a song or with my characters because when I come back the bad stuff is still there.

On Saturday I got terrible news that a school friend had died of COVID-19. Ian, who was also known as Paddy, was a lovely person. I had a long conversation with him at the last reunion about life, the universe and everything and I would see him in Sainsbury’s all the time. My deepest condolences to Ian’s family. While he was not a very close friend, he was part of the beat of my local life and I will miss our chats.

Early on in the lockdown my friend Susannah Rickards invited me to take part in a Decameron. The original Decameron is a collection of stories curated by writer Giovanni Boccaccio in the wake of the plague of 1347 and was finished in 1353.

Our Decameron was ten days of writing and pictures to mark the current pandemic. The group chose themes and contributed their pieces. It focused my mind in what were early mornings of panic about my family and friends. My job and my colleagues. But it was strangely freeing. Almost like free-writing outside the constraints of genre and form.

The last day’s theme was, appropriately, #endings. I wrote this piece and posted the picture before he passed away, but I would like to dedicate this short piece to Ian Padmore – I am devastated at his loss but another school friend Susan Radcliffe is organising another reunion to honour Ian. And that is where hope lies even in loss – in continuation and remembrance.

I live and work in a built-up urban area next to the M60 so I take pictures of any nature as often as possible before it disappears. I took this picture about three years ago and shortly afterwards the trees were chopped down to make way for a hotel.

I cried when turned the corner and they were gone. I turned the radio up in my office as the electric saws buzzed through me all day for weeks. I mourned those trees and the birds who made their homes there for a long time. It was so final.

Then one morning I stopped and watched a bird picking up twigs from what remained of the trees, flying over the motorway and making a nest in the trees opposite. Back and forth. Back and forth.

I listened to the traffic and watched the workmen clearing the ground. The birds taking what they could and reassembling remnants of hope somewhere else as best they can. And I realised that what we often think of as the end isn’t really the end at all…

Decameron 2020 – For Ian Padmore

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Anxiety and breathing – try this…

Lots of people on my social media timeline are anxious at this difficult and uncertain time of Corvid-19. As a psychologist I have tools to help with anxiety and my first line of defence is 7–11 breathing. It sounds new-agey and a little bit twee —  and because the Coronavirus can cause shortness of breath and is respiratory a little scary to talk about breathing. 

But it works as it activates both psychological and physical responses that help to calm panic and anxiety. It is true that this virus can affect our lungs but we can also use our lungs to our advantage.

It’s so simple — you breathe in for a count of seven and breathe out for a count of eleven. If you can’t manage 7–11, try 3–5 or 5–9. As long as the out breath is longer than the in breath it’s fine..

So:
Breathe in for a count of seven
Breathe out for a count of eleven
Continue for as long as you can up to 5 minutes.
It takes practice — a couple of times a day and do this when you feel anxious.

The counting will bring you into the moment and calm you psychologically. It will distract your mind from the anxiety and panic by focusing on the present. This is often referred to as mindfulness — currently a buzzword but a long-term and valid technique. 

The breathing itself — specifically the out breath — stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which is our ‘rest and digest’ state as opposed to our sympathetic nervous system ‘fight or flight’ state. For further information on this it is worth reading about the vagus nerve.

The best way to breathe is deep diaphragmatic breathing. Put simply, when take a breath in deep, your tummy moves out. When you breath out, your tummy goes in. 

For many of us this takes practice and we have been trained to hold our stomach flat. Hyperventilating in short breathes caused by stress becomes a way to breathe for many of us. Additionally, flat stomachs are valued in appearance, and holding your stomach in as you breath in is a hard habit to break. 

Breathing is such a natural process that we take for granted. But being aware of our bodies and the way they work with our mind gives us more control over our psychological state. Attention to breathing is a great way to activate the natural processes in our body to help us to be calm in the shadow of threat and danger.

It’s worth a try in these difficult and uncertain times. My love and best wishes to all of you. 

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AUDIOBOOK SERIES GIVEAWAY!

Audible have given me FIVE FULL SERIES CODES to give away!

All you have to do is like my Facebook page
or
go to @jacquiannc on Twitter and RT and like my giveaway post

I’ve been working with lovely Laura Brydon to bring you DS Jan Pearce in more than nine hours of Jan’s story – and there is more to come! I can confirm that i am currently writing Book 4 in the series – this will be released in the Autumn.

If you would like to listen to the series fro free, let me know in the comments below! Or Go along to Twitter.

The codes are restricted to UK and US and the closing date is 11th March 2020. I will announce the winners on the 12th March 2020.

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DS Jan Pearce Series now on Audible – get the whole series free…

I’ve been working with the wonderful Laura Brydon to bring the DS Jan Pearce series to Audible. I searched for a narrator for a long time because I wanted to make sure that Jan’s voice was realistic and true to her character. When I heard Laura’s audition of Jan and Bessie I knew she would be fantasic – and she was.

There was a moment when Laura was recording Random Acts of Unkindness, when I heard Bessie’s voice for the first time, that I was in tears. It was exactly as I had heard it as i was writing it. Laura has managed to convey all the feeling poor Bessie has for her missing child as well as being relatable.

The series is available on Audible now. In the coming weeks I’ll be giving away free codes for the complete series of three books – including bestselling Random Acts of Unkindness – to my newsletter subscribers on a first-come-first-served basis so sign up to receive them!

SIGN UP TO FIND OUT MORE

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It’s Christmas and here is a free short story for you…

Readers are the most important people in publishing and I want to say a huge thank you by giving you a short story. Many readers have contacted me asking me for more of Ria and Janice from How to Play Dead. I’ve chosen a heart warming Christmas story from Ria and SafeMe – I hope you love it.

Sign up here and you will receive the short story, Angel, immediately into your inbox.

All very best wishes for the New Year 2020 – an exciting new decade begins!

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How to Play Dead – Reviews…

Thank you so much to all reviewers. I’ve captured a few of the 100+ reviews in this video.

You can buy it here

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