Month: May 2019

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‘Why I write’ meme adapted for original works.

I promised to adapt this set of questions for my original work so here it is.

1 What made you start writing original stories, poetry, etc?
My first ‘work’ was a play performed by our local Brownie troop. I was five, and because I had written it I was allowed to join the big girls and be onstage. I think this must have gone to my head… I continued with plays, poems and stories until I left uni. Working as an English teacher meant producing work as a ‘role model’ for pupils, and I had neither the time nor the creative energy left to write anything else. When I took early retirement, one story was already in my head so I was itching to get to the keyboard.

2. Which of your own works have you reread the most?
I think sections of my Living Fae series. The story started in a ‘muse’ journal on LJ and by the time I decided on publication it needed a great deal of collection, collation, and decisions about what to include. As a result, I read and re-read various parts till I almost knew them by heart. At first, they were a pleasant surprise as I’d forgotten quite a lot. Later, I just wanted to get them sorted out and sent off to my editor.

3. Describe the differences between your first published work and your most recent.
When I decided to self-publish I used two novellas and a collection of three short stories as ‘practice’. So they were comparatively short. They were all based on legends and fairy tales, twisted into fresh forms. I was lucky enough to have seriously good editors and I learnt a lot from them.
My most recent publication was a short story – a contemporary romance. I wrote it some time ago, initially for a prompt in a writing group then, in a longer and edited version, for inclusion in a now defunct online zine. I decided to publish it myself and it went through a further editing and formatting process until I was satisfied with it. It has no fantasy and no connection with fairy tales.

4. Do you think your style has changed over time? How so?
I think and hope I use different styles depending on the kind of story I am telling. For example, my novella The Lord of Shalott, and the first volume of Living Fae are told in first person. I write novels, novellas, short stories, flashfic and poetry. I also write reviews and critiques. Obviously I need to use varied styles for all these. I don’t think my style has changed much in recent years; it has changed since I was a teenager, of course, but that’s to be expected.

5. You’ve posted a work anonymously. How would someone be able to guess you’ve written it?
As I said in the fanfic meme with the same questions, I once did this when the online writing group suggested we all write a flashfic in the style of my Living Fae material. Nobody was able to guess who had written what; I assume part of the reason was the choice of similar subject matter, characters, etc. Beyond that experiment, I can’t think how anyone would guess I had written something unless I included locations that people who know me know I’m familiar with.

6. Name three stories you found easy to write.
No real answer to this.

7. Name three stories you found difficult to write.
All writing is easy for me. It’s the editing, proof reading, formatting, etc. that causes headaches.

8. What’s your ratio of hits to kudos?
This was a fanfic question and I assume I need to consider ‘success’ as a writer. The world is drowning in self published material and I am not alone in sinking without much of a trace. My royalties about keep us in pizza and we don’t eat that every week. They also cause intense irritation to me when my tax returns are due. Most people who both like fantasy and actually find my books are complimentary, but too few find them! The same applies to my fanfic and I think the bottom line is just that I’m completely hopeless at marketing.

9. What do your fic bookmarks say about you?
Another fanfic question (specific to AO3) so I’ll refer to my to-be-read list instead. I read widely and voraciously, and at any one time you’d find mainstream novels, genre novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction in the queue. I think it just says I like reading! I also keep a record of e-books I’ve read, partly to stop myself re-purchasing them and partly so that I can recall the titles and authors to recommend to other people. That list says I like history, fantasy, mm romance, crime, biography, science (especially the natural world), finance, politics, and cookbooks.

10. What’s a theme that keeps coming up in your writing?
Culture clash, which is something that interests me.

11. What kind of relationships are you most interested in writing?
I have a tendency to focus on mm romantic relationships, though not to the exclusion of anything else.

12. For E-rated fic what are some things your characters keep doing?
I will assume we are talking about books that would be suitable for general audiences. That means my Skilled Investigators series, and as the name implies, the characters keep finding crimes and mysteries to investigate. Other than that, like anyone, they eat, sleep, talk, etc.

13. Name three favourite characters to write.
1. Harlequin, the main character in Living Fae. I call him my muse and he lives in my head and tries to influence all my writing.
2. Genef, the main character in Skilled Investigators. She is training as a detective and I like both her attitude to her work and her ability to question herself. She doesn’t live in my head, and although female, has almost nothing in common with me.
3. Scratch, the dragon who helps Genef in Skilled Investigators. I love writing from a dragon’s point of view, thinking how he might see human and elf behaviour and what he might say about it.

14. You’re applying for the [fanfic] writer of the year award. What five works do you put in your portfolio?
I’d have to think about things that are published somewhere, including my WordPress site. My work wanders around between genres and I don’t think they’d ever be regarded as award material for original writing. However, if I had to put together a selection:
1. Lord of Shalott: a novella set in Arthurian legend and inspired by Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott.
2. Growing up Fae: volume 1 of Living Fae, told in journal form by Harlequin, a modern fairy living on Alderley Edge in Cheshire.
3. Answering Amanda: a children’s story based on Harlequin’s little sister’s letters to a human child. This is ready to send to anyone who asks for it using the information at the end of volume 3 of Living Fae. It was, in fact, the springboard for the entire world/series.
4. The Zoo: one of my poems, based on an actual day at Chester Zoo. It’s on my WordPress site. I might create a volume of poems to put on Smashwords; poems always get more ‘likes’ than anything on WordPress.
4. The Scroll: volume 1 of The Skilled Investigators and the one that introduces Scratch, the dragon.

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Guest Blog by Alex Beecroft

I was excited at the idea of welcoming Alex to my blog. I really love the Trowchester series and am looking forward to reading this latest installment. A highly recommended author, whether the books are set in historical periods or are contemporary romance.

Hello from Alex Beecroft  I write gay romance that is on the sweeter side of the spectrum. I am asexual and agender myself, so that probably has something to do with the slow decline of my heat level over the years.

I made my name with books set in the 18th Century Age of Sail, but there’s only so much you can write about the navy in one go.

Now my settings range all the way from Bronze Age Crete to the modern day UK.

My latest book, Seeing Red, is a contemporary romance set in my own fictional town of Trowchester.

Let me tell you some more about that…

When I started writing novels I had no idea how people wrote contemporaries. What was there to write about in real life?

I don’t like biography, or autobiography. I don’t like paying bills and having to clean the bathroom. I go to books to escape all that.

It took Trowchester to free me from that mindset.

At some point after I began contemplating how to write in the present day without writing a story about cleaning toilets, it finally occurred to me that I had been confusing contemporary novels with non-fiction.

But contemporary fiction is still fiction.

I could create my own world every bit as much as I would have done in a historical or a fantasy. I could write about a town that was everything I liked about towns and nothing that I didn’t. If I wanted tea-shops and hanging baskets full of flowers I could have them.

I could mix them with morris dancing and pagan wells, Bronze Age burial mounds, murder mystery, found families and a basket full of puppies, if I so wished.

And so Trowchester became my playground.

If you like sleepy English towns with some quaint customs, a gay book-club who look out for one another through arson and escape attempts, more than a hint of peril behind the scenes, and a promise that love will save the day, it might be yours too.

SEEING RED

BLURB:

Bad boys don’t tame easy.

Victor is a bad man. Is there anything he won’t do for power and money?

Destroy a local business so he can buy it cheap? Kick out its owners and turn it into a cash cow? He relishes the chance.

Idris is a good man in possession of a renowned tea-house. He’s put his heart and soul into the place. It’s everything he has and wants…

Except for Victor.

He wants Victor too.

Can the love of a compassionate man restore a predator’s withered soul? Or is Idris doomed to lose his life’s work, and his heart with it?

~

A contemporary mm romance, Seeing Red is a long-awaited new installment of the critically acclaimed Trowchester Series.

Each book in the series is a standalone, and can be read in any order.

Feel free to start here and work back!

Get Seeing Red today and visit the town where love conquers all.

EXCERPT:

The suit had given Victor a certain untouchable air, like something on which the stray hand would cut itself. But now he wore a soft, turquoise silk button down and black skinny jeans, grayed and soft with age and wear. Idris hadn’t noticed a bin smell, but he did notice the scent of soap and shampoo—an almost continental fragrance of blended coffee and whiskey. Victor was a vision, dressed as though he was about to go clubbing, and Idris’s infatuation—somewhat dashed by the house—flared up again like a tongue of flame.
“Wow,” he said. “You are so beautiful.”
“Don’t!” Victor flinched, his mouth turning down. He poured himself a drink with curt movements as though he’d been insulted. “I know I don’t look like much, but don’t make fun.”
“No, I meant it!” Idris exclaimed. “How can you not see? You’re—”
“I look like them,” Victor dropped to his knees beside the dogs, which put him dangerously close to Idris’s side. He brought a blast of warm, humid air with him, his hair still damp from the shower. Even watered, it was still bright, a bronze rather than the red-gold it was when dry. Idris reached up for it without thinking, touched the ends that curved over his ear, and then swept his fingertips over the soft arch of his ear down to the lobe as if he was petting another dog.
“Hm?” he asked.
“Scrawny, half-starved, feral. Like I’ll bite you as soon as look at you.”
Idris smiled, because although there was an element of truth in that, it didn’t sound like such a bad thing. “Would you?” he teased, “Bite me? That sounds like a promise.”
Victor took in a breath as if prepared to snap. Then he seemed to realize that he was being flirted with and laughed, awkwardly. “Not on a first date.”

FIND ME ONLINE
Website: https://alexbeecroft.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexBeecroftAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Beecroft

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Healing Glass: A Gifted Guilds Novel by Jackie Keswick. An in-depth review.

I received an advance review copy of this book but I can assure you that if I hadn’t liked it I wouldn’t have reviewed it at all here!

I loved the story of Minel and Falcon and their strong bond. I enjoy fantasy novels, not least for their fascinating world-building, and this was no exception. The floating city of glass, with its possible sentience, is a wonderful concept and the author helps the reader to see it clearly, along with a thrilling awareness of the ‘invisible’ steps that lead to the shore.

At the beginning of the story, Minel, a glass master-craftsman, is suffering from a severe and probably fatal disease, one which we gradually learn was contracted by more than an unlucky chance. We are also given a glimpse, or clue, in the prologue, of the fact that all is not well with the city, its craft-masters and its council.

Falcon, a warrior captain, is desperately anxious for Minel to live. I enjoyed their growing relationship and the way their society was depicted so that same-sex love is never presented as anything unusual, and the culture clash that always appeals to me in stories is between craftsmen, warriors, commercial experts and councilmen or administrators.

There is sufficient angst and mystery to grip the reader, the descriptions of both locations and characters are detailed and excellent, and even the most minor characters come alive in the hands of a competent writer. There is magic, but it never overwhelms the plot or becomes unrealistic. The two main protagonists and their friends are highly gifted but at all times there is stress on how much hard work has led them to the flowering of their abilities.

I was, towards the end, slightly disappointed that we didn’t learn more about the wider context of the world in which the story is set, but it appears there will be sequels, or at least books set in the same world, so hopefully this will be remedied. Meanwhile, there were other pleasures, such as the details of glass making, and other ways of life.

I would highly recommend this book and look forward to the next volume.

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April Reviews

I’m sure April this year was even shorter than usual. (*glares at April*). And here we are, already a week into May.

TV and Film

Line of Duty seasons 1, 2, and 3 *****
After watching Season 4 last month we binge-watched these prior to watching Season 5. Well worth the effort! I absolutely love the concept and the characters and particularly the long interview/interrogation scenes which are totally gripping.

A United Kingdom *****
The story of Seretse Khama of what is now Botswanaland and his marriage to an English woman. They found prejudice in both their countries and a great deal of British political manipulation too, but overcame it to provide themselves and what was then Bechuanaland with a hopeful and positive future. Interesting and romantic.

Sergeant Pepper’s Musical Revolution*****
Howard Goodall explored the album and the work of the Beatles in a fascinating in-depth look at the band and their music. No longer available on catch-up but if it returns, watch it!

Classic Albums, Paul Simon: Graceland****
This looked at Simon’s collaboration with South African musicians and had some interesting footage but was not as exciting, for me, as the Goodall programme about the Beatles.

Natural World: Tasmania****
I enjoyed seeing the landscape and fauna of Tasmania, not a country we often get to see on television. As with most Natural World programmes, however, I found myself just enjoying the ‘eye candy’ and almost falling asleep.

Legend of Zorro **
I didn’t deliberately watch this but was not about to be driven out of the lounge. I wasn’t impressed. I gather from family comments that it wasn’t as good as the more famous prequel.

Baptiste: abandoned
I got irritated with this Dutch/Belgian/British police show. I found the plot unlikely and the main character never really came alive for me, possibly because I hadn’t watched the earlier show, ‘The Missing’. I gather this was a spin-off.

The Bay: abandoned
Another series with an unlikely plot and some unlikely police officers with dysfunctional families.

Books

The excellent

Harry Potter: A History of Magic published by British Library and Bloomsbury*****
This is the book of the British Library exhibition which I was unable to visit. The book is beautifully illustrated and I loved the way it tied a lot of scholarly research to J.K. Rowling’s work. There were some wonderful photographs of antiquities from various museums, and some delightful art by Jim Kay and by J.K Rowling herself. Unless, like me, you write fantasy and want a magical reference book, I would recommend ordering this from your local library. It’s worth looking at the pictures in all their glory in the expensive hardback edition. The articles are by a variety of writers, and are introduced by specialists in each aspect of the history of magic.

A Merciful Death, A Merciful Truth and A Merciful Secret by Kendra Elliot*****
This series consists of police procedurals set in a rural town that was Mercy’s birthplace. She is now an FBI officer helping to investigate deaths that have possible links to terrorism, and there is the added interest of a very slow moving romance between her and the local Chief of Police. The books gain an extra dimension from the detailed explanations about ‘preppers’, the people (like Mercy’s fictitious family) who prepare for The End Of The World As We Know It. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and bought the next two. The series continues and I might buy more but not just yet. Recommended.

Midnight Flit by Elin Gregory*****
This is a sequel to Eleventh Hour and follows the later adventures of Miles and Briers in the 1930s. This time, there are threats to Miles’ parents and the duo have to protect them and themselves from mayhem and potential murder. The characters are well drawn and the period is wonderfully evoked. Highly recommended but you probably need to read the books in order.

Old Sins by Charlie Cochrane*****
This is a continuation of the series about Robin, a detective, and his partner Adam, a teacher. As well as being a gripping detective story it has a romance element (they are planning their wedding but finding it hard to decide on various factors) and a lot of well developed minor characters. Perhaps the main attraction is their dog, Campbell, a Newfoundland who enriches both their lives and their investigations. Again, highly recommended but start with the first book in the series!

Chaucer by Peter Ackroyd ****
I enjoyed this biography of the poet, which also contained a lot of detail about mediaeval London. I knocked off a star, not because of any criticism of the writing but because I had the paperback edition and found it irritating to be frequently referred to the coloured illustrations which I gather are only to be found in the hardback. I think a good editor should have dealt with this issue. There were black and white illustrations but these lost a lot of the detail I’m sure would be in the coloured ones.

Red Fish, Dead Fish by Amy Lane****
This is volume two in the Fish out of Water series and I found the continuing story of Ellery and Jackson trying to uncover high level corruption gripping and interesting. I have bought the third volume. However, I would criticise the structure of the book though this might be due to editing rather than the author. At the end, there are what are called Accompanying Stories. These, we are told, took place between volumes one and two, and are referenced in the main text. I think they could easily have been edited into the main story but if that was not the author’s wish, and if the publishers wanted to have them at the end I think at the very least this could have been highlighted at the beginning. The contents of the extra stories expanded and clarified parts of the main tale, and I found it annoying to be presented with them as what amounted to flashbacks after the volume was over. I have the third volume and am looking forward to it, and am very glad I read the extras.

The acceptable or even quite good.

Skythane by J Scott Coatsworth***
Absolutely no criticism of the writing but this was too much of a fantasy/sci fi mix for me. I prefer stories to be one or the other, and this straddled the two genres. There were winged people, a doorway between worlds, both those worlds in danger, and some worrying chases and villains. The characters were interesting, especially the young boy who ends up saving everyone. There is mm romance but it doesn’t overwhelm the plot and I never felt particularly keen to know whether the protagonists would end up together or not. There is some good world building but it didn’t seem to be able to decide whether the worlds were magical or science-based. I’m sure this doesn’t spoil the story, but it did mean it wasn’t quite for me. I’m not absolutely sure why. In some ways the concept (the joined worlds) echoes both the Harbinger series, which I’ve abandoned, and the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor, which I adored. I suspect I have to empathise deeply with the main character or characters before accepting the rest of the cross-world trope.

Rune Witch Mysteries (complete series) by Victoria DeLuis***
Urban magic set in South Wales. The concept intrigued me and I liked the characters and location. By the end of the series (four books) these had become almost overwhelmed with generic magic, demons, etc. and I felt less empathy with Summer and Thomas than at the beginning. I actually think the author should probably have given Summer and her non-magical boyfriend more cases to solve before setting them out to tackle the disappearance of Summer’s father and the family problems of fae royalty. Some good writing, and the stories are very readable.

My Partner the Wolf by Hollis Shiloh***
I like werewolves and this one, a cop who can trace victims in his wolf form, is no exception. But I would have liked more cop work and less about the relationship between Sean and Tom. A certain amount was essential, to get Tom estranged from his ex and established with Sean, but more police procedural from a wolf’s viewpoint would have made this a stronger story.

Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman***
Quite a sweet ff romance between a young woman who dyes knitting yarn and an artist who inspires her. It’s fairly short and has pleasant enough characters, Clara and Danielle, but the story, despite some angst-ridden moments, is slightly thin.

And the dire

Wranglers (Rodeo Boys 1) by Gavin E Black: no stars
This was very short so I did finish it, hoping to find a plot. I failed. It was in fact just a series of mm sex scenes and I certainly wouldn’t read any sequels.

Dangerous to know: The Chronicles of Breed: Book 1 by K T Davies: abandoned
I didn’t feel any empathy for the main character, a rather vaguely drawn half-alien rogue, which after a couple of chapters made me abandon the book.

Fanfic

All the Important Words Unspoken by blamebrampton. *****
https://archiveofourown.org/works/5494034 73,456 words
This is a Harry Potter AU mm/mf/gen/auror casefic. I suppose that needs some clarification. If all the events of the HP books had taken place in Victorian times… Then if Harry as chief auror and Hermione as his ‘boss’ decided to recruit Draco with his knowledge of herbs and potions… And if Narcissa, desperate to marry Draco off, had chosen Astoria, who actually preferred Charlie Weasley… Then throw in smuggling of magical creatures and some delightful vignettes of real life muggle politicians. There is romantic subtext but it never goes further than a chaste kiss. Altogether delightful and highly recommended.

The other fanfic I read this month was probably impenetrable unless you were immersed in the canon stories of The Hobbit or Stargate Atlantis though I have to say And Maybe a Little Bit Wiser by Goddess47 puzzled me. There was no apparent connection with the SGA canon characters other than the names. The author admitted the story had initially been original then she decided to edit it to suit SGA which she’d had in mind all along. She didn’t do a very good job of it. I loved Small_Hobbit’s A Hobbit Bingo, a series of drabbles and ficlets with a short AU detective story featuring Thorin in the 1930s. However, I decided a detailed knowledge of canon was needed, not to enjoy it, but to appreciate it properly.