Author: jaymountney

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February Reviews

Films and TV

The excellent (watch if you can and if they’re still available).

They Shall Not Grow Old*****
The special version of WW1 footage, edited and coloured under the direction of Michael Jackson. A fantastic feat, though beginning with a long section of flickering black and white might have been good cinema but nearly made me switch off with a headache.

Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain*****
Fascinating because it basically covered my life. While you’re living through events you’re not always aware of the wider picture.

Reginald D Hunter’s Songs of the South*****
I loved hearing the history of some of the American music, but even more, I enjoyed the road trip through the southern states. Whilst I knew perfectly well where they were it’s actually rare, on Brit TV, to see any film of that part of USA and I now feel I have a much more detailed mental map.

Grantchester Season 4*****
This is the first Grantchester season I’ve seen and I loved it. Since I was new to it, the departure of Sid didn’t upset me. I’ve always liked Robson Green and I enjoyed the mix of crime with the accurate and detailed look at the period, which was the time of my childhood, and as I was the daughter of a country vicar this was inevitably going to appeal!

100 Vaginas *****
Amazing, excellent, poignant, and intriguing. I think it’s still on catch up TV in UK (ch4) and if it is, watch it! It unravelled women’s attitudes to what is sometimes seen as a taboo subject with incredible photography and sensitive narration.

Desperate Romantics*****
Fabulous. I knew that with Aidan Turner as Dante Gabriel Rosetti it was likely to be good, but Millais, Hunt and Lizzie Siddall were good too. So was Tom Hollander as Ruskin. I bought it ages ago and forgot about it. Six hours of fantastic acting in a mesmerising story about some of our most famous artists. Plus, I’ve seen some of the originals of the paintings that were the focus of the story and have been to a number of pre-Raphaelite exhibitions. I wallowed in this and will be watching it again.

The good.

British History’s Biggest Fibs****
Lucy Worsley makes history interesting, as usual, but I think this started with an odd premise. Most people who studied any history beyond the age of about 14 (or just did a lot of reading) wouldn’t believe these fibs anyway, and the rest of the general population wouldn’t remember them. That’s as far as the Wars of the Roses, and the Glorious Revolution are concerned, at any rate. But maybe Victoria and the empire are a little more recent and people do look back to what they think was a golden age. And maybe this was an attempt to alter the public perception of the empire carefully slotted into a more general history lesson.

Dogs behaving (very) badly****
Really, it was the owners, in every case, who were behaving, if not badly, at least foolishly. The trainer gently but firmly put them on the right track.

Death in Paradise Season 8****
‘Cosy’ mysteries with a beautiful tropical background and an interesting ensemble cast. I felt nostalgia for my trips to the Caribbean, and I enjoyed the banter. There were plotholes galore but I would watch again for the humour and the scenery. I kept thinking about the ‘backstory’ in Lewis that had Lewis in the BVI after his wife’s death, and wondered why we never got a series about that period – maybe this was it?

The real Saudi Arabia: why I had to leave****
The young fashion designer who went to visit relatives in Saudi to see whether she could live there might have known it would end in tears, but she really did try hard. I was surprised by the ending.

The vaguely watchable.

Moulin Rouge***
Nowhere near as good as I was led to expect. When we went to Paris we stayed near the Moulin Rouge and the film didn’t give a real picture of the area. In fact, I found it unlikely and faintly annoying.

And the unwatchable.

Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities – abandoned
I couldn’t stand the way this was presented. Not sure if it was the narrator’s voice but I found myself falling asleep despite the inherent interest of what was being shown.

Gavin and Stacey – abandoned.
It was supposed to be a romantic comedy but I didn’t think it was either… Not sure why I bought it in a charity shop but it’s going back there.

Master and Commander – abandoned
I was looking forward to this but… Too much sea and too much gore. Since I’d read some of the books I already knew the characters and there wasn’t going to be any element of mystery or development so I gave up.

Books

The really really good (highly recommended):

Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee*****
Both the second and final volumes of The Machineries of Empire were wonderful sci fi, with plenty of aliens, space battles, futuristic science, sex, and explorations of ‘big’ themes like gender identity, loyalty and democracy. I was dying to know what happened but didn’t want them to end. I was initially disappointed in the ending but then realised I just hadn’t wanted the story to end at all. It was perfectly satisfactory except that I wanted more! Highly recommended series for anyone who likes sci fic. And a huge thank you to the person on my DW f’list who recced it!

Snow and Secrets by RJ Scott (Stanford Creek series 3)*****
This was almost stand-alone but is actually part of a series. Nice characterisation and an interesting plot. The series as a whole deals with m/f relationships but this volume is m/m. I much prefer Scott’s writing when she is developing the story of a whole group or community. She is very good at locating the reader in a ‘place’ with ‘real’ people, and I would rather follow her series than read her shorter standalones.

Cops and Comix by Rhys Ford (Murder and Mayhem)*****
I love this series, with the dysfunctional but rich family, the cops trying hard to keep up, the background of valuable artefacts in the film and comic industries, and the mayhem that seems to follow everyone who gets anywhere near. Another writer who pulls the reader into a fully realised location and group of people.

My Anti-Valentine by DJ Jamison *****
Three stories here, all on an ‘anti-valentine’ theme and all well written and satisfyingly romantic in the end.

The Station by Keira Andrews*****
A fascinating story based in the convict days of Australia. The research was detailed and the reader learns a lot about the deportation process and about the outback in those early times.

Apple Boy by Isobel Starling*****
A gorgeous introduction to what promises to be a fascinating series. As I pre-ordered it, I was sent a beautiful map too. The world building is excellent, slow and detailed with no sense of any ‘info-dump’. The magic is unusual and interesting. I gather we will meet new characters in the sequels but already the minor characters are almost as well developed as the main protagonists and we can trust the author to introduce worthwhile personalities to inhabit her world.

Concierge Service by P.D.Singer*****
I loved the angst in this romance, with the main character desperate not to compromise his position as a brilliant metropolitan concierge at a top hotel despite falling for a guest. I liked the way the relationship developed and the fact that there was very little sex until the end. The UST was much more exciting than the more explicit accounts in so many books.

Two for the Road by Alexa Milne *****
A May/December story about a man who falls in love with his friend’s son, a young man who has in turn loved him since they first met. Most of the relationship is developed during the lifts to and from work which underpin both the plot and the title. I also enjoy reading stories set in my own part of the world (northern UK) especially when the author obviously knows the area well and loves it. I read this while I was doing the final edits on a May/December story of my own, so it was even more appealing.

The Holly Groweth Green by Amy Rae Durreson*****
This is a Christmas fairy tale (which is a kind of contradiction in terms). It takes place after WWII when a naval doctor, damaged by the war to the extent that he can no longer practise, is stranded in a snowstorm and meets someone living in a house in the countryside – a house that later turns out to be an uninhabited ruin. But this is not a ghost story, and although it takes place over the twelve days of Christmas, that’s because those are the days the fairies have chosen when they laid a curse on Avery. A fabulous story (in both senses) and one which I must read every Christmas. This year it didn’t reach my notice till February but now that I have it, I shall treasure it!

The good. Good enough to recommend but I probably wouldn’t re-read them (usually because they’re very short). All these are well written and are excellent examples of the art of the short story.

The Fall Guy by Chris Quinton****
A Pinkerton agent ends up following suspects across the Atlantic to London. I actually hope this might turn into a series.

Bad Valentine ****
Four novella by four authors, all well written and worth reading.
Love Magic by Jesi Lea Ryan ****
Oliver thinks Derrick is ‘just’ a conjuror but it turns out Derrick has real magic.
Quill Me Now by Jordan Castillo Price****
Dixon thinks he is a failed spellcrafter but when he meets Yuri he learns the truth about himself and his family.
Hidden Hearts by Clare London****
Ethan and Kel survive clumsiness and disasters to make something of a valentine date.
Temporary Dad by Dev Bentham****
Nick and Dylan work through minor deception and fantasy to a good relationship in the end.

His Spark by DJ Jamison ****
A very short story in which Josh and Dylan act the parts of Harry and Draco from Harry Potter but find their own personalities are better in the end. Nicely written but this is another author whose series appeal to me more than her shorts.

Valentine’s Day with Princess Petunia by K-Lee Klein****
How easy or difficult can it be to find romance when you’re a single dad? Bobby finds out when he meets Greg.

Drawing Love by Tully Vincent****
A short story with a focus on a drawing one of the main characters did in primary school. The love he was trying to convey then has lasted.

Blitz by Charlie Cochrane****
Two guys who fancy each other but have never acted on their feelings are thrown together sheltering from the blitz.

The readable (just)

Forgive me Father by PL Travis***
Jamie underwent an appalling childhood which is reconstructed in almost loving detail. The second half of the book deals with his experiences in adulthood when he has overcome his past, but it is told in a blur of events and people, with a lot of death and angst all round. Jamie has a good life in the end, but I wouldn’t read this again.

The Ultimate Greetings Card Book by Caroline Green (re-read) ***
Some of the techniques are good but most of them are already well known to me. A reasonable reference book but no really new ideas or anything I’d forgotten about.

The dire

Three Sisters (Emily Castle Mysteries 1) by Helen Smith *
I was mesmerised by just how awful the characters were, how unlikely the plot, and how garbled the explanations. I did finish it but only just. The style was irritating, too, with attempts at purple prose and experimental prose too.

Hunter’s Chase (The Edinburgh Crime Mysteries 1) by Val Penny – abandoned
I think this was making an attempt to be the next Inspector Rebus series. It failed.

Fanfic

I eventually finished the Lewis Christmas Challenge stories, the SGA Secret Santa ones, and the Bandom Big Bang. Lewis and SGA demanded in-depth knowledge of canon, but two of the Bandom stories would, I think, work well for the new reader. Both are m/m stories that use real people, or at least their media personas, to explore sci fi/supernatural themes. I really enjoy AU stories in Bandom, because nobody can complain that the stars are being unfairly treated – after all, everybody knows they don’t live in a world with space travel, vampires, werewolves, magic, etc.

ataraxia by akamine_chan https://archiveofourown.org/works/17224229 (3707 words) studies possible attitudes to androids, with obvious reference to canon stories and films in the genre. Frank meets Gerard on Venus and is excited to be working with him.

Ethici Strix by ermengarde https://archiveofourown.org/works/17212841 (2458 words) Gerard is job-hunting when he accidentally meets Frank, who is cool, but weird. An eventual vampire theme.

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International Women’s Day

(First, a confession. The photo is taken from Tripadvisor. Yesterday was incredibly wet and I couldn’t take a decent photograph.)

My daughter and I and a couple of friends went to a talk on Elizabeth Gaskell’s Heroines at Elizabeth Gaskell House in Manchester on Thursday. The talk, given in honour of International Women’s Day, was given by Dr Diane Duffy and was well worth attending.

Dr. Duffy clearly knew a great deal about the Victorian novelist and her life and works, but also gave us plenty of food for thought. I had read a couple of Gaskell’s works and had watched the BBC costume dramas but too long ago to recall the details or the names of all the characters but our speaker soon made sure we all knew the outline of the stories.

She started by unpacking the word ‘heroine’, pointing out the recent de-gendering of the term so that we now have female heroes, and gave a slide presentation showing aspects of the way heroines had been depicted in Britain in the past in both text and art. Some of her listeners felt she paid too little attention to attitudes in other countries, and other literatures, but so far as Britain was concerned I think her points were valid, even if somewhat ‘parochial’.

We were asked to consider the attributes we expected to be assigned to male or female heroes, and to look at the true nature of heroism. This was interesting and thought-provoking, especially given the preponderance of ‘hero’ movies today. Even in an atmosphere of ‘liberation’ for women we are capable of automatic stereotyping and a failure to notice or admire characters who do not conform to those stereotypes.

It was clear that Gaskell tried to push the boundaries of what was acceptable to Victorian readers, just as other novelists did, particularly Charlotte Bronte, who was a friend of Gaskell’s. Some of the characterisation they developed might seem very slight to us but was really subversive in Victorian times. Women, then, were advised that if they were intelligent or well-informed, they should hide the fact, and in most publications it was thought obvious that a blonde beauty would not only be the main character but would also be ‘innocent’ and would ‘get her man’ whereas anyone with dark hair would inevitably turn out to be a villain. So a dark-haired heroine was a really new departure for the audience of the time. Some listeners made the point that Disney was in fact one of the first to go against the trend, and although their depiction of Snow White with dark hair was in keeping with Grimm’s text, it was also in direct opposition to the prevailing norms.

Gaskell had publishers to contend with, too; you can’t get a message across if you can’t get your book printed and sold. She was perhaps more subtle in her attempts to subvert the ‘normal’ way of thinking, and did not meet the same kinds of publisher outrage and panic experienced by Charlotte, or by Wilkie Collins. I know today’s publishers are driven by the profit motive just as much as their forebears were, and I wonder how far the current development of self-publishing and small indie publishers/co-operatives will allow more widespread questioning of the social order.

The talk was certainly relevant to anyone who writes female heroes and perhaps to all writers, given the way that prejudices and stereotypes were questioned.

The Elizabeth Gaskell House is a beautifully presented small museum just outside central Manchester. The building has been renovated by Manchester University and lovingly restored to its nineteenth century incarnation as a Unitarian minister’s house – and that of his wife who gave us some enjoyable and provocative novels. I would recommend a visit if you’re in the area!

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Sale! (and some freebies)

I’m participating in the Smashwords Read an e-book week sale. All my titles have been discounted by 75% for one week, running from 3rd to 10th March. That means some of them are free and the rest are at silly prices. The discounts will be automatically applied when you add a book to your cart.

The Lord of Shalott (a novella) FREE
Silkskin and the Forest Dwellers (a novella) FREE
Silver Chains (a novella) FREE
Three Legends (three short stories) FREE
The Skilled Investigators (series):
The Scroll (book 1) FREE
The Market (book 2) FREE
The Crown (book 3) $1
The Lantern (book 4) $1
Living Fae (series):
Growing Up Fae (book 1) $1.25
Tales from Tara (book 2) FREE (I wouldn’t recommend reading this without reading book 1 first)

This is a pricing experiment to see if I can tweak my marketing somehow. No guarantees it will happen again so make the most of it if you’re interested in what I write!

Go to https://www.smashwords.com and search Jay Mountney in the search box at the top.

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Silver Chains

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Shameless advertising. A short story, outside my ‘normal’ style. This one’s a contemporary May/December romance and is 99p on both Amazon and Smashwords. It’s been up for about 48 hours but then Smashwords had a hissy fit when I mentioned my Amazon page in the ‘about the author’ section, though Amazon didn’t seem to care about Smashwords. That delayed things a bit while I hastily edited so that Smashwords would send it out to other platforms.
Incidentally, I wrote it ages ago and it first saw the light of day in an online zine under the title ‘Angus’ (the main character) but I now have the rights back and have done some edits and changed the title. I know some of the zine group follow this blog and I wouldn’t like them to buy the story and feel cheated.
Links:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/924818

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What fanworks mean to me.

The Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW) which has Archive Of Our Own (AO3) as one of its projects, asked members for contributions to Fanworks Day on February 15th. One suggestion they made was 350 words (max) on ‘what fandom means to you’. I jotted down my thoughts then spent ages getting them into some kind of coherent shape and exactly 350 words. Then I found the ‘box’ in the communication form didn’t actually allow for 350 words… I emailed them but got no reply, so Fanworks Day passed me by. However, I thought my social media friends might be interested in what I came up with. (I shall also post it to my AO3 account as Meta.) Any omissions are due to the constraints of the word count. Today’s picture is my new membership icon/badge which arrived by email this morning. Clearly they’ve forgiven me for leaving the staff!

What fanworks mean to me: an A to E of fanworks.
A.

Fanworks mean adventure: they take me to places I never imagined. This applies to the ones I enjoy and the ones I create myself, whether they are text, art, video, crafts, or anything else. My life is enriched.

Fanworks mean ambiguity: I can now find subtexts and subtle new agendas in almost everything I view. My imagination is stimulated to find new perspectives and I can share those imaginings with others who will not think me mad!

B.

Fanworks mean belonging: a space where (mostly) women come together to share. It’s a homecoming, of sorts. Finding fandom was like sinking into a warm and welcoming bath after a lifetime of feeling ‘different’. It’s empowering to find others react to canon creations in a similar way.

Fanworks mean brilliance: some fanworks can be much better than a lot of mainstream creations. Yes, there is dross, but then there is in all creative output. Yes, there is a mass of material by young creators who may or may not improve; they have to start somewhere – and should!

C.

Fanworks mean community: the people who create, consume and critique them. People come together online and offline and have a common starting point.

Fanworks mean continuity: the characters and worlds I love get new life and fresh ideas. They don’t just die or remain encapsulated in their original form.

D.

Fanworks mean development: storylines and characters are developed beyond their origins by creators. The creators themselves, and their fans in turn, develop their skills and perceptions. Even the occasional disagreements contribute.

Fanworks mean discussion: comments and ratings, in archives and on social media add to the pleasure and interest of finding new works. In turn, they add to discussions among friends both at conventions, and in private conversations online and off.

E.

Fanworks mean enjoyment: the pleasure of seeing works from known and trusted creators and the pleasure of finding new ones.

Fanworks mean excitement: the thrill of seeing something from a totally new point of view, or in a new medium.

And if anyone wants to look at my fanworks, you can find my account under moth2fic (same as my Dreamwidth pseudonym).

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Knocking at heaven’s door (a ficlet).

The Watchtower lady was very attractive but seemed more concerned with her soul than her body. Anyone’s body. Julia lounged in the doorway in her half-open housecoat watching the play of sunshine on the Watchtower lady’s blonde hair and wondering what lay beneath the prim but pretty beige coat. She tried, too, to get a gleam from the blue eyes but for once her famed charm wasn’t working.

“You see,” the lady was saying earnestly (odd how she was definitely a lady and not a woman or a girl), we believe that human beings are doing their best to ruin God’s world and we are trying so hard to stop them. Aren’t you concerned about the state of the world?”

‘Nowhere near as much as I’m concerned about the state of my arousal,’ thought Julia, but she managed some kind of non-committal reply about how she believed in humanity’s innate goodness and the likelihood of a successful outcome.

“And then,” the beige angel went on, “there’s the worry about getting into heaven.”

Julia considered. Getting inside the beige coat and further might be glorious but probably wasn’t worth the extra hassle. After all, this was Sunday and she’d promised herself a lie-in till the doorbell had dragged her down to this delectable but irritating visitor.

“Don’t your lot believe there are only so many places?” she asked. “What are my chances?”

“Nil, if you don’t even try,” came the glib retort. Like the lottery then. If you didn’t play you couldn’t dream. But Julia could go back to bed and dream of playing.

She heard some kind of query as to whether she was interested in the bible and heard herself saying, “ Not today thank you,” as if it was an encyclopaedia or a new kind of vacuum cleaner rather than the chance of an afterlife. The lady muttered about ‘no interest at all’and flounced in an extremely ladylike fashion down the path.

‘Oh, there’s interest, all right,’ thought Julia, sighing. ‘Just, probably the wrong kind. Although it would lead to heaven, that’s for sure.’

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Work in Progress

Ever wondered how a trilogy gets turned into a quartet?

Having cleared Christmas and New Year out of the way, I took a deep breath and opened up my writing folder. I have a couple of projects in the pipeline but stuck a virtual pin in and came up with the final (hah!) volume of my fae trilogy (double hah!) Living Fae.

You may recall I’ve already published Growing Up Fae, which is in the form of a journal, written by Harlequin, one of my main characters, and I followed that with Tales from Tara which takes Harlequin and his boyfriend Yarrow separately off the Edge (Alderley Edge in Cheshire) and recounts their adventures at the royal fairy palace in Tara. The last volume was intended to update the stories of Harlequin and Yarrow after their return from Tara and also the stories of various members of their extended family. I called it, in my head, and in various posts about it, Life on the Edge.

Most of the original material was written on Live Journal some years ago starting in a ‘drama’ community, in the form of role play – diaries, letters, responses to memes, etc. The rest was written in response to prompts in an online writing group. It was all on my hard drive. So, I thought, how hard could it be to collate and edit the final part of the story?

Well, not a stroll in the park (or on the Edge, which is a great place for dog walks). Turning diaries etc. written in the first person (various characters) and present tense into a smooth narrative requires concentration and a strong reliance on my editor who is a rock of strength and will pick up any errors of person or tense. (Any other errors, for that matter.) However, it was done, and I quite enjoyed myself because I was re-reading some of the stories for the first time in years and they came as a pleasant surprise.

Then I started to worry about whether I actually had enough for a novel. I didn’t want a novella as the finale. So out of curiosity, I checked the word count.

Oh. Double oh. 118,000. Far too many words for this kind of genre novel (fantasy m/m). And hard to split because of the intertwined storylines of the family members. After a sleepless night (literally) I managed to turn part of the story into a novel of about 70k. Fine. Except that now I was left with under fifty thousand words for the last volume and I was back to my worries about a novella as a finale.

After a lot of angst and tweaking, volume 3, Flying Free, is now with my editor and I am not allowed to touch it till she tells me what to amend, delete, add, etc. That’s one load off my mind. I have updated the glossary (on a separate WordPress page) and am working on the timeline which will join it. Those aren’t a problem. For light relief I’m working on the covers for both volumes.

I think I’ve already mentioned elsewhere that Harlequin is my ‘muse’ for all my writing. That, I think, is what comes of creating a character and developing it in first person journal entries over quite a period of time. Anyway, he has been quiet for a while but came out all guns blazing to develop more story to extend the last volume. I am vaguely bemused (I use the word advisedly) as to how my fairly vanilla fairy couple have ended up in a ménage à quatre. I had no idea my younger secondary characters would grow up the way they did. There is romance that girdles the earth (though not in 40 minutes) and there are dark episodes on and off the Edge. There are at least two m/f sub plots, too.

I am sleeping badly, and wake up with my brain spinning with ideas. I am quite excited but also daunted. Life on the Edge is now in progress. I only have about twenty thousand words to write. How hard can it be? And more to the point, how do I rein in my muse so that I don’t end up with too many words again in the end?

I seem to be unintentionally writing a fae quartet – for now.

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January reviews

Films and TV

Somehow or another I seem to have gone square-eyed this month. We treated ourselves to a Firestick to try to reorganise our TV access and I re-subscribed to Radio Times after a couple of years’ hiatus. Result: more TV and more films via TV or Prime or Netflix. I might have got a bit carried away. Most of what I watched was excellent.

The really really good. Watch them if you can.

Fantastic Beasts***** Magic and mayhem in the world of Harry Potter but earlier.
I, Daniel Blake***** Chilling indictment of government policy on benefits. Rewatch (husband hadn’t seen it.) For Brits, still on iPlayer till Monday night.
Brexit: An Uncivil War***** Benedict Cumberbatch clarifying the referendum.
A Very English Scandal***** Jeremy Thorpe’s attempt to murder Norman Scott. We were Liberal Party activists at the time…
The Huntsman: Winter War***** Chris Hemsworth in the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman
Tangled***** Disney version of Rapunzel
The Great Fire of London***** Three hours of TV – I wouldn’t have watched (fire ‘triggers’ me) but it was on in the lounge.
Bodyguard***** Six gripping episodes of a very Brit thriller which we caught on iPlayer later than most people!
Treasures of the Indus***** Art, architecture and religion from Pakistan to southern India. Mesmerising and informative.

The good. Watch them if they’re brought to your attention.

American History’s Biggest Fibs**** Lucy Worsley. I didn’t learn much but the presentation was good and so were some of the interviews with academics.
Monkey Kingdom**** Disney natural world film. It’s better with the commentary switched off – just saying…
The Jungle Book **** Golden oldie! Rewatch.
Dr Who: The New Year special.**** I like the new female doctor.
The Yorkshire Vet**** The season finale celebrated the life and work, both medical and literary, of Alf Wight, or ‘James Herriot’.
True Lies****Arnie Schwarzenegger stars with Jamie Lee Curtis in a romantic spy romp. Silly but good. Rewatch
Manhunt****Martin Clunes stars in the docu-drama about the way the Met finally linked the murder of Millie Dowler wwith that of Amelie Delagrange. Fascinating look at the minutiae of police work.
DCI Banks pilot**** Not sure how I missed this when I originally watched the series.
The Prosecutors: The Babes in the Woods Murders****Explored the way the law changed, forensics progressed, and a killer was finally brought to justice, with emphasis on the way the families reacted all along and were kept in the picture.

The mediocre

Starship Troopers *** Based on Heinlein’s novel. Excellent CGI makes it worth watching but I disliked the book and then the film. Rewatch because it was on in the lounge.

The dreadful

The Wolf of Wall Street* DiCaprio stars in this semi-factual drama about the rise and fall of a US stockbroker. The acting and direction were good and I’m sure the depiction of the characters as incredibly foul-mouthed was accurate but I hated the amount of swearing, which got boring, and there were no characters to empathise with. Like the Great Fire film, this was on in the lounge and I wasn’t going to be driven out…

I’ve started following three series:
The Crimson Rivers***** French cop drama – good so far and I’m tending towards looking for fanfic
Grantchester***** I had never watched but I’m impressed! Takes place in the era that encompasses my ‘formative’ years and deals well with social problems of the time.
Death in Paradise**** Cosy mysteries with humour set on a Caribbean island. Again, I had never seen them and now that I know the cast I won’t necessarily watch every week but might turn to it for ‘comfort’ viewing.

Books

The excellent

In case of emergency by Keira Andrews***** Step brothers for a few months, years ago – but Cole puts Daniel down as his emergency contact and then has an accident which leads to them spending Christmas together. A delightful Christmas story which I will almost certainly revisit next year.
Lessons in Cracking the Deadly Code and Lessons in Chasing the Wild Goose by Charlie Cochrane.***** Two novellas in the Cambridge Fellows series. I usually prefer full length novels for detective stories but despite being short, these are beautifully crafted mysteries with plenty of college and period detail and well developed secondary characters.
Machineries of Empire. Book 1: Nine Fox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee***** Really worthwhile sci-fi, complex and beautifully written. Excellent world building and fascinating characters. Explores big questions about cultural conditioning, gender identity, war, obedience, genocide… all in a grippingly alien far future. Star Trek on steroids. I have almost finished book 2 and have bought book 3.
Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett***** A re-read. One of my husband’s friends sent it to me saying he thought I might like it. I have no idea what it says about him or me that he thought I might not have read it already… It’s as good as ever though I think after the first reading there’s a sense in which the novelty is gone. However, you can concentrate on the details instead of the story. Apparently there’s to be a TV series.

The good

Rustic Melody, Rustic Memory and Rustic Moment by Nic Starr.**** A nice trilogy of m/m romances set in Australia. The locations were refreshing, the main characters were endearing and well developed, the secondary characters were good, the plots were gripping and the writing was excellent. So why only four stars and not five? Well, we were ‘treated’ to sudden incursions of extremely long accounts of very explicit sex that did not further the plot or character development. I found that tiresome. A few paragraphs would have sufficed.
Silly Signs with no apparent author but published by Aura **** My husband picked this up in a supermarket. Some of the signs were truly hilarious. There was the usual crop of poor translations but some of the funniest were not translation.

The mediocre

Ultimate Christmas by Jane Newdick*** Swathes of beautiful decorating ideas that nobody would ever have time to copy, but I might re-read it next year for the recipes in the final section and there are some fresh ideas for handmade cards.
(The Ultimate Book of) Doing up old junk by Whitecap Books*** I can’t think this is the actual name of an author and assume that like the Silly Signs book, the publisher is taking full responsibility. I was fascinated by some of the advice and techniques but couldn’t really think why anyone would strip down furniture and then paint it and add patterns and flowers etc. Even given chips and dents, most pieces benefit from less interference, not more. I can sort of see why you might paint over burn marks, but unless the piece is a family heirloom, the amount of time and effort expended seems out of proportion to the results. Interesting food for thought, though perhaps not quite in the sense intended by the creators.

I read the rest of the Rainbow Advent Calendar and other freebies offered on FB etc. I enjoyed them but there’s nothing to highlight. In fact, I think next Christmas I’ll just revisit my favourite seasonal stories. I also continued to read through my Georgette Heyer collection which provides me with a great deal of pleasure.

Fanfiction

Nothing to report. I’ve been catching up with the rest of the Bandom Big Bang, the Stargate Atlantis Secret Santa, the Lewis Christmas Challenge and some previously missed Professionals ficlets. All satisfying reads but all needing not only knowledge of canon (source material) but also fanon (concepts introduced by fans and now accepted as a kind of canon).

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Book covers I have liked.

A friend and fellow writer on FB tagged me to do a meme. The instructions were to post seven book covers that you liked or were influential in your life, with a brief explanation, then tag other writers to do the same. This was to take place over seven consecutive days. Apart from the problem of getting my head around logging in and posting every day, which, incidentally, I managed, I was a bit worried because I lost a lot of my favourite or most important books in our fires in Portugal, and had to do a lot of googling to get approximate versions of the covers I wanted to use. It was hard to choose the covers. A lot of the books I read early in life had plain covers, and I can’t quite remember when modern covers became the norm. Also, I might like a book but not the cover, or vice versa. I decided to go with the first seven that pushed their way to the front of my mind. I thought you might be interested, so here they are. Obviously, if you read the FB posts you can now stop reading this!

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My first cover is of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of Tolkien’s trilogy. I ought perhaps to say that most of my books as a child and teenager had plain covers – often faux leather or the Penguin coded ones – and this came as an intriguing surprise. My own copy looks like this but is grey with black, white and red; I don’t currently have a scanner and Amazon don’t apparently have the old version. The elvish script and the way the shape reflects the title, the hint of exotic lands, heroic deeds and a group adventure – these all appealed to me as soon as I saw the book. I had no idea in advance what it would look like – a school friend had recommended it and I requested it as a Christmas present. It is a gift that has kept on giving, as I have read it numerous times, and have referred to the maps and notes when reading The Hobbit and after watching the films. My son-in-law assures me that if I hadn’t actually read my copies of the books they would now be valuable. They are valuable to me, in any case!

My second cover is perhaps a cheat. I have lost my copy, so even if I had a scanner I couldn’t scan it. So I looked on Amazon, in vain, and then googled images. This comes nearest but is not quite as I remember it.
George Macdonald’s The Princess and the Goblin was written in 1870 but still appealed to me when I came across it in the 1950s. The cover hinted at the themes of good and evil, of a child learning about hidden things, and of magical beings. I know my cover had the ‘fairy godmother’ element, and was, like this, a plain cover with a picture superimposed – actually stuck on – in the centre. I’m not sure it was exactly this one; I seem to remember more blueness.
I enjoyed the book and its sequel, The Princess and Curdie. I was never encouraged to read ‘fairy stories’, though perhaps this one was an exception because the author originally published it in a Christian magazine. This may or may not explain my current addiction to fantasy and all things fae! Anyway, I loved the story, though not really for the ‘good and evil’ aspect that the author was perhaps trying to emphasise. I loved the idea of the hidden world of goblins, of their possible interaction with ‘reality’ and the idea that an ordinary girl, albeit a princess, could be introduced to that world. I loved the cover, partly because of liking the contents, but also for its promise of secrets. It’s a precursor of stories like Mary Norton’s Borrowers and Pratchett’s Truckers for younger readers and CJ Cherryh’s Goblin Mirror for adults. It also echoes a variety of traditional tales such as the one about the elves and the shoemaker. I was, I remember, reminded of AA Milne’s Christopher Robin poem about the brownies who might have lived behind the nursery curtain.

Day three. My choice of cover is The Warden by Anthony Trollope. It is, of course, the first in the Barchester Chronicles, a series I loved before the BBC found it. I like the way this cover shows me a picture of rural England and suggests I can enter it and get to know the people and places in the books. It doesn’t try to impose a portrait of any of the characters, either from an artist’s imagination or from a film version, but lets me create them in my own mind. I originally borrowed the books from a friend and from the library, then my daughter bought me a set, (none of which had this cover). In any case, my copies were lost in the fire.
I enjoy the slow unfolding of Barchester life with its sense of place, the gradual character development, and the way the stories never follow traditional tropes or paths but grow out of the characters and their surroundings. I think I prefer Trollope to Austen, though it’s a close call. At any rate, I prefer both to Dickens or Eliot at least partly because there is less high drama and more recounting of gentle individual joys and sorrows. I like nineteenth century novels with their measured pace, so at odds with present day ideas of story-telling. I like modern novels too, but variety is good!

My fourth cover has to be The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, the book that introduces the Discworld series. Paul Kidby’s covers (to the whole series) complement the stories. Both the illustrations and the stories are detailed, funny, wise, and refreshing. They teach us about ourselves and our world in the guise of fantasy tales and pictures, and repay frequent visits! I had all the books and have rescued some. I also had a calendar of covers which might still be around, buried in a box. I love looking at the pictures and finding the characters mentioned in the story. Needless to say, I love the books, too. I love all their covers and have just chosen this first one to represent the rest.

For the fifth day I’ve chosen The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins. This was the cover of the copy I had (before the fire) but my version was a softback. It was quite hard to read in the physical sense – heavy, and difficult to keep open, with shiny pages that didn’t do my eyesight any favours. I had to use a lap tray and be careful about lighting. However, I loved the book and the cover seems to point to the wonders within! I can be irritated with the typical Dawkins stridency about all kinds of things revolving round evolution (even though I agree with him) but this is a purely factual book, presenting the latest in research. It is structured in a way that echoes The Canterbury Tales, which is amusing and holds the reader’s interest. Dawkins and his co-writer Yan Wong take the reader from the very beginning of life on our planet to the present day, taking their time, and exploring all kinds of byways as they go. I enjoy reading about biology, and evolution, and this book is excellent. It is also perfectly accessible to the ‘lay’ person, even though the research is, of course, excellent. If I repurchase it, I will not be going for the landscape softback edition even though the orientation suits the illustrations. It was too hard to deal with, and as a new copy would be mainly for reference purposes, a ‘normal’ book would almost certainly suit me better.

My sixth cover is for A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. It’s a straightforward romance though it’s far more than that and it’s very long (and very satisfying).The story concerns an Indian girl from a ‘good’ family, and the search for the right bridegroom. In the course of the novel the heroine and the reader meet a variety of possible husbands, and it is interesting that the western reader’s choice might well be quite different from the eventual decision reached by the heroine and her family. The book follows the numerous suitors’ lives in some detail, and gives us a lot of insight into life and culture in modern India, including politics, religion and gender issues. I loved the novel, was deeply immersed in the various lives and loves, and was quite startled by the final approval of the suitable boy. My copy (lost) had this cover, which I think gives a good idea of the contents: a gateway to the world of the upper class Indian in the second half of the twentieth century, not long after the partition from Pakistan. The peacock represents India, of course, but also refers to some of the candidates for Lata’s hand, as well as, perhaps, to Lata herself.

My final cover is one I do not possess (and have never had it) but which is firmly on my wish list. Harry Potter – A History of Magic, produced by the British Library, is the book of the exhibition. I don’t often visit London and when I did, I was unable to get a ticket to the exhibition at a convenient time, but I saw the television programme based on it, and would love to have the book. I’d like the hardback version because I know I’d be using it as a reference book and for me, neither e-books nor paperbacks are adequate for that purpose on a long term basis. I love the cover. The phoenix encapsulates the Harry Potter connection plus the theme of ideas rising from unlikely or unusual origins to create a tradition of magic. Since some of my writing involves fantasy and magic, I would hope to find inspiration and information within the text and illustrations. The television programme was tantalising and has raised my expectations.

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An introduction to me.

I saw a writer Instagram meme on Facebook and decided to join in. I don’t use Instagram but I extracted the questions and have done my best to answer them.

Introduce yourself.
I’m Jay Mountney. I’m a retired teacher, mostly of English and English as a Second Language, but all sorts of other things, too, such as law, which was my initial qualification. I live with my husband in Cheshire, UK, on the outskirts of Greater Manchester, in a seventeenth century house that defies mobile phone providers and isn’t quite finished yet. I no longer have any pets but I sometimes look after our daughter’s dog and I frequently entertain a neighbour’s cat. Until recently I volunteered for Organisation for Transformative Works on the AO3 Policy and Abuse team and I love fanfiction (both reading and writing it). Now, I concentrate on my original writing, which is almost all fantasy with an m/m element but very little explicit sex. I self publish and do my own formatting and covers though I use beta readers and proof readers, of course. I’m very interested in politics and read widely about that and associated issues. (As you might gather from my other answers I’m socialist.)

Back to work.
Now that it’s January I ought to get on with writing but have been procrastinating by tidying up my files, which desperately needed attention. So much so that I couldn’t find my notes or the beginning of my WIP.

Writing resolutions.
I intend to write every afternoon but that will include long posts for my WordPress and Dreamwidth blogs (such as this one) and my occasional poems. I also do a monthly review post for books (including fanfic) I have read, and films/TV I have watched. I have nine self published books at the moment and I intend to increase that to eleven this year.

Who/what inspires you.
I’m inspired from time to time by various writers, including Facebook friends, who all seem to be more organised than I am. I’m also inspired by the fantasy ‘greats’ such as Tolkien, Tad Williams, etc. Since I enjoy reading crime and mystery stories I have tried to merge the genres in my elf detective series. Another source of inspiration is location. I love the UK countryside and my books are grounded in descriptions of real places, but either peopled by fae or transported to alien worlds.

Anticipated read of the year.
I keep hoping the final Game of Thrones novel will appear and I suppose that would be my anticipated read if it happened. I have a large number of books awaiting upload to my Kindle but in 2019 I shall also be re-reading some of my favourite authors in printed books that we saved from the fire that destroyed our house in Portugal (2017). There were boxes of books in the garage which escaped the fire, and I am gradually getting reacquainted with my comfort reading: Heyer, Pratchett, Lindsey Davis. Sadly, my Anne McCaffrey books and my Melissa Scott ones did not survive, having reached the bookcases in the house. Lord of the Rings never left UK.

Where do you write?
I usually write in our lounge, with my laptop on my knee (on a lap tray). I sit in a recliner, with a side-table supporting drinks and my mobile phone. Nobody can actually ring me on it (courtesy of our thick stone walls) but people who know me communicate via Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger. I can, however, write anywhere I can use a laptop. I can’t write more than a short email on a tablet or mobile with those virtual keyboards, and I can only scribble notes or short poems with a pen or pencil.

Favourite character.
My favourite character in my own books is Harlequin, the very modern fairy who lives on Alderley Edge in Cheshire. He sprang into my head fully developed and has insisted on acting as my muse ever since, regardless of what I’m writing.

My favourite fictional character written by someone else is harder to identify but I might go for Angua, the werewolf police officer in Pratchett’s Discworld. She satisfies my desire for a blend of fantasy and mystery or crime.

Teaser Tuesday.
I’m not sure what Teaser Tuesday refers to so will leave that out. (I strongly suspect it means snippets and I hate either choosing them from my own work or reading them from others.)

First line of WIP
(From Life on the Edge.) Peasblossom knew perfectly well that her brother had seen her at the pool, trying to scry her future lover. She knew, too, that he had seen the apparent emptiness of the reflection. 

Cover of WIP
It isn’t finished yet. I design and make my own covers and I know which photograph I’m going to use. Like the cover for the first book in the trilogy (Growing up Fae) it’s one of the photos I took on Alderley Edge but instead of a living tree, this one’s a fallen tree that looks like a cross between a bridge and a fantasy creature. I like playing with Photoshop and various online graphic manipulation programs.

Favourite Cover (not yours).
Heavens! What an ask! I really don’t think I have a favourite. However, I did a meme about special covers on Facebook and intend to copy it here.

Selfie Saturday.
If this means taking a selfie then count me out. I have a frozen eye which makes me look all kinds of ridiculous in still pictures though friends assure me they rarely notice in real life. I am also hopeless at taking photos with my smartphone which is a very recent acquisition.

Shelfie Sunday.
?????

Favourite read of last year.
I think it has to be The Science of Discworld (all four volumes) by Pratchett, Cohen and Stewart. I loved all the scientific explanation and discussion, interspersed with chapters of a fantasy story.

Time out Tuesday (what you do to relax).
Apart from reading, photoshopping pictures, etc? (I play with icons, avatars, etc. as a kind of rest from writing, and much as other people play with e.g. knitting.)Well, writing helps me to relax and certainly beats housework, any day. I love nature, art and architecture and follow TV documentaries about these. I enjoy swimming but I’m not sure it counts as relaxation as I find it increasingly hard work. I also like cooking but that’s something I have to do anyway. I like doing paper craft – things like 3D découpage. I play the piano (I lost my keyboard and my guitar in the fire). I listen to music – anything from rock and roll to classics with some modern stuff in between.

Movie/TV Adaptation.
At present I’d say the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy, but Game of Thrones might just beat them into second place once it’s finished.

Currently reading.
I’ve just started Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee (SF) and I’m re-reading Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman. I’m wandering through the latest copy of Searchlight magazine, too. I’ve just finished In Case of Emergency by Keira Andrews and a re-read of The Toll Gate by Georgette Heyer. I also have a history book in the bathroom which is going slowly – Justice in the Sarladais 1770-1790 by Steven G Reinhardt, which is an excellent prequel to the French revolution.

Line last you wrote.
Obviously the last line of the last paragraph above but maybe that isn’t what’s wanted… I can’t really take a line from my current WIP as all the sections were written months ago and just need putting into some kind of order, possibly with linking paragraphs. So it had better be the last line of my latest publication (The Lantern):
The group flew on, the beginnings of sunset behind them, until Rath called them all to turn.
“We want to be back before dark,” he said, and then led the way to Lonis, Fel beside him, as though he had always belonged there.

Fave classic.
Does Lord of the Rings count as a classic yet or are we talking nineteenth century and earlier? If so, I adore Trollope’s Ayalla’s Angel.

Feel good read.
Anything by Pratchett, Heyer, Lindsey Davis, the Pern books (prior to McCaffrey’s son’s takeover), Lord of the Rings. Anything by Charlie Cochrane, KJ Charles, Rhys Ford, Alex Beecroft or JL Merrow. Game of Thrones. Poetry anthologies.

Recommend one of yours.
If you want a heavy dose of m/m in your fantasy, Growing Up Fae. If you prefer to focus on the crime angle, The Scroll. Those are both first volumes in their respective series. If you want a stand-alone novella, The Lord of Shalott.

Fave series.
Game of Thrones/Discworld. I’d have to toss a coin.

Five fun facts about you.
1. I’m a vicar’s daughter from the wilds of Northumberland. I went to the boarding school that featured in Jane Eyre and am still in touch with many of my classmates and with a couple of my father’s parishioners.
2. When I’m not writing fantasy I write fanfiction in a variety of fandoms – currently Lewis, Pros, and SGA. I will read almost any fanfic provided it’s both literate and long. I admit to a slight preference for Harry Potter, Bandom, The Hobbit and SGA.
3. I spent most of my teaching career working in multicultural education and race relations and was also heavily involved in trade union affairs.
4. Despite being 74 I am a dedicated ‘remainer’ (passionate about the EU) and a socialist and I am very technically competent (more so than a lot of younger people) in terms of using my laptop, and the various programmes I need.
5. My favourite colours are turquoise and plum – but not for furnishings where I prefer neutrals that can be dressed up with cushions etc.

Audio Book rec
I don’t really like audio books. I used to listen to them every Friday night on my drive across the Pennines to help care for my mother, but other than in the car I can’t cope with them because I get distracted and lose my place too easily. Since I no longer make long car trips alone, I don’t listen to audio books! When I did, my all-time favourite was Gaiman’s Neverwhere, which seemed to gain an extra dimension when read aloud.

Feature Friday.
?????

Fave secondary characters.
I feel like being sarcastic and saying any that don’t use ‘fave’ as an abbreviation but I’ll be sensible and say all the dwarves in The Hobbit. I’m also becoming more and more fond of Ariadne Sheridan in Charlie Cochrane’s Cambridge Fellows series; I loved Jonty’s parents and was devastated when the author killed them off.

Book that made you cry.
Most recently, Guernica by Dave Boling. It’s a novel about the bombing and the events surrounding it, with a focus on one (fictional) family.

Fave funny/humorous book.
Terry Pratchett’s Snuff. I love the way he tackled a really serious issue (racism) via humour.

Place you’d like to visit.
China’s great wall. We considered a trip but I’m not sure I could manage the amount of walking involved any more. (Helping to nurse my mother left me with back problems that limit my mobility.)

Current MC’s names.
I have two series in progress. The main characters in Living Fae are Harlequin and Yarrow. The main elf detectives in The Skilled Investigators are Genef and Rath (plus Scratch the dragon).

Words of Wisdom.
Goodness! I can quote various people but I have nothing unique to offer. I like a few sayings and ideas such as:
*Not all who wander are lost./ I know I’m in my own world. Don’t worry, they know me here./ Sorry I ignored you; I was writing fic in my head.
*I read therefore I am./ Reading can seriously damage your ignorance.
*Who does not hold within them vast worlds?/Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under their skin. The talent of a writer lies in giving them their separate names, identities and personalities and have them relate to other characters.
*Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
*There are three rules for writing a successful novel: the trouble is nobody knows what they are.
*Why I write. Because kidnapping people and forcing them to act to act out your interesting make-believe worlds is technically illegal.