Six in June

I read six books in June, half May’s number. But I wrote two instalments of a People’s Friend serial and a short story. Writing/reading – sadly, it seems I can’t do lots of both at the same time.

Her Forget-Me-Not-Ex by Sophie Claire.

Read my interview with Sophie here.

Wonder by RJ Palacis

Read for book group. This is an American YA novel about a boy born with a severe facial deformity:

'My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'

But ‘Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things – eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside.’

It’s written from Auggie’s point-of-view and various others such as his sister and his classmates. He’s been taught at home but now that he’s twelve his parents decide he should go to high school.

In places it’s more cheesy than a pound of cheddar but, yes, of course I cried when Auggie won through to be voted the most popular boy in the school. 

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg

As I was buying Wonder, From the Mixed-Up Files came up as ‘customers who bought this … ’ When I read that it was about two children who run away from home and hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art I had to have it.

It was originally published in 1967, won the Newbery Medal, and ‘has rightly become one of the most celebrated and beloved children's books of all time.’

Claudia and Jamie aren’t badly treated at home or anything like that – the wonderfully resourceful twelve-year-old Claudia is just rather bored in the suburbs of New York. She plans their escapade to the nth degree while her entrepreneurial younger brother looks after their (not very much) money.

The new edition is lovely (paperback with flaps). I loved the characters and the setting, and the story is quirky and charming and I really liked it – I expected to love it though, not sure why I didn’t.

Debs at War 1939-1945 by Anne de Courcy

What upper class young ladies did in the war, from factory workers and land girls to decoders, ambulance drivers and pilots. For most of them it was the first time they’d mixed with the hoi-polloi – but one had to do one’s bit.

Beauty Tips for Girls by Margaret Montgomery

Blog post about this book here.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

The second in the private-investigator Cormoran Strike series (after The Cuckoo’s Calling) – did not disappoint. I would enjoy these books even if it were a previously unknown writer called ‘Robert Galbraith’ who’d written them.

In The Silkworm:

‘When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, she just thinks he has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.’

Strike’s enquiries take him into the murky word of … London publishing. The author must have had great fun writing it.

Can’t wait to read the next one.

Go Set a Watchman

As just about everyone in the world knows, Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee is published today, 14 July.

To get in the mood, and to prepare for reading it, I thought I’d speed re-read To Kill a Mockingbird. I found I didn’t want to do that – speed-read it, I mean. I wanted to take it slowly, no skimming. 

There is nothing original I can add to the massive weight of words that have been written about this book since its publication over fifty years ago. For me, as for millions of others, the character/voice of Scout, the sense of place, the story and the way it’s told, all come together as more than the sum of their parts.

Can Go Set A Watchman repeat the experience? Its UK editor has said, 'There will be those who'll say: you have spoiled Mockingbird for me by publishing this book.'

I hope that's not the case. I don’t intend to read any more about it before I read it for myself.

A few weeks ago when I went into the West End branch of Waterstone’s in Edinburgh to order my copy I saw that they had planned an event for the night of the 13th – a showing of the film of To Kill a Mocking Bird, preceded by refreshments and followed, at midnight, by picking up book orders. I put my name down.

It was a lovely idea – I remember the terrific atmosphere around the midnight launch parties for Harry Potter.

This wasn't on that scale of course but the second floor had a cinema screen; about sixty people squished into the space and although my view of the screen wasn't terrific I was quickly engrossed. Oreo cookies and mint juleps were served (bourbon, sugar syrup, crushed ice and lots of mint). I kept my paper cup.

There was a countdown to midnight and then we were able to pick up our copies.

As someone who (so far) has written serial-length stories but not an ackshull book, I don't know whether I would rather (if it was possible to have the choice …) write just one that becomes much beloved, critically acclaimed and stands the test of time, or several that – don’t.

The jury's out on that one.

Now, excuse me, I have a book to read.

Beauty Tips for Girls

One of the books I read in June, of which more anon, was Beauty Tips for Girls, by Scottish writer Margaret Montgomery. A blackly funny contemporary novel (highly recommended), it’s told in three voices – Katie, a fifteen-year-old girl; Corinne, Katie’s mother, who has descended into drink following the death of her young son; and Jane, Katie’s teacher.

Katie reads Misty, a magazine aimed at girls her age, which includes advice on sexual positions, really cruel comments about celebrities, and advertisements for cosmetic surgery. It is one of these small ads that drives Katie to tell her dad she’s staying with a friend when she’s actually made an appointment with a London plastic surgeon.

It made me think about the advice doled out to girls and young women over the years, as chronicled in my various book/magazine collections. For example:

‘Girls of this age [fifteen or sixteen] are particularly apt to look untidy if their dresses are not chosen properly for them. … Nearly all young girls will look well in Magyar blouses and quite plain skirts.’

Article in Woman’s Weekly 1911 (in The Woman’s Weekly Keepsake Book of Vintage Childhood, available now in newsagents. This is a great series – to read and for writerly research.)

‘Why it is necessary for women to powder and paint and black their eyes between the courses [in a restaurant] is one of the unsolved problems of these unhappy times.’

The Girl’s Own Annual (no date but probably the late 1920s)

‘Thick ankles cannot be slimmed overnight but perseverance and patience for a couple of months will work wonders. Olive oil rubbed in every night is invaluable … ’

Aunt Kate’s Household Companion (1938)

‘It is comforting to know that however shy and awkward a girl may feel, a boy of her own age is likely to be still less composed.’

The Girl’s World (1950)

‘Horizontal stripes make fatties look wider than ever.’

‘Fussy prints, button, frills and bows make fatties look bitty and lumpy.’

and

‘You’ve got your little eye on this fanciable fella, but as far as he’s concerned, you just don’t exist! … 21 ways to make him notice you:

Drop the ice-cream you’re licking all over his sleeve. Then you have to clean it off, don’t you!'

Jackie Annual 1975

‘Twenty Ways to Make Him Come On Strong: How to put back the sparkle into a love affair that’s gone flat:

 Force him to look at you. Do the vacuuming in bra and pants.

Amaze him by turning up for a date dressed totally in violet – turban, lipstick, dress, tights, shoes, with undies dyed to match.’

I wonder how many Cosmopolitan readers took those pieces of advice.

Twelve in May

I read twelve books in May.

Twelve.

Accomplishable partly because I was on holiday in London for a week, travelling there and back by four-and-a-half-hour train journeys; and partly because, ahem, I was not doing much writing. But I was having a long-overdue tidy-up of writing-related bumph, about ten years’ worth of notes from classes and workshops, scribbled bits of stories etc. Etc. Also had big reorganisation of bookshelves – nothing I like doing better, apart from reading what’s on them.

Between You and me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris

I wrote about the last chapter of this book in a previous post A Penchant for Pencils. Mary Norris has been a proof reader at the New Yorker since 1993. As the blurb says: ‘Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer and finely sharpened pencils [yay!] to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice.’ See also:

http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/mary-norris

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

I finally got round to reading one of the highest selling and critically acclaimed books of recent years – and found it deserving of all the hype. Love the writing and the story, and the picture it paints of 17th-century Holland.

Rescue in Ravensdale by Esme Cartmell

This is a book I loved when I was about ten and I rediscovered it during the aforementioned bookshelves reorganisation.

I must have reread it several times because I found I could remember great chunks of it. It’s about a family – parents, four daughters and their eighteen-year-old male cousin (from whose point of view the story is told) – on holiday in Yorkshire in August 1939, who get involved with the search for an apparent German spy.

It stood the test of time for me, and I think this was why. It is unusual in a children’s book for the parents to be so much involved – generally they are got out of the way as quickly as possible. Here, with their writer/reviewer father and artist mother, the girls (I remember being intrigued by their names – Thelma, Kyra and twins Daphne and Dione) and their cousin have wonderfully wordy, punny, literary conversations that I enjoyed this time round too.

Neither the book jacket nor Google can tell me anything about Esme Cartmell and whether she/?he wrote anything else.

Hysteria 3 – read on Kindle. An anthology of winners from the Hysteria Writing Competition, which include my fellow Edinburgh Writers’ Club member Olga Wojtas, and her typically amusing, and wonderfully named, story Green Tea and Chocolate Fudge Cake.

The Highland Lass by Rosemary Gemmell

Read on Kindle. A dual narrative, cleverly interspersing contemporary Eilidh’s return to the Scottish town she left as a child, and the story of Robert Burns and his doomed romance with the lass known as Highland Mary. With its great sense of place, the book is also a love letter to Burns’ home county of Ayrshire.

Sunshine Through the Rain by Gilly Stewart

Read on Kindle. Ellen’s transition from no-baggage career girl to hands-on guardian to her sister’s children is very believable, as is her slow-burning romance with neighbour Kit. I loved the farming background too.

The Pearl Locket by Kath McGurl

Read on Kindle. Enjoyed this even more than The Emerald Comb. Again, it’s a dual narrative, this time contemporary and WW2.

Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym

Read umpteen times before but never stales. Have just joined the Barbara Pym Facebook page and thought my favourite title of hers was due for a reread.

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

Love a good spy story. Was there a sixth man – along with Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Cairncross and Blunt?

Kissing Mr Wrong by Sarah Duncan

‘Lu Edwards may write and illustrate books for children, but she's certain she doesn't want children of her own. She believes in travelling light, with not even a goldfish to tie her down, until Nick – a WWI expert with more baggage than Heathrow, right down to the kids, ex-wife and hamster – blows into her life.’ A good read.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Christian Aid sale purchase. The second LM book I’ve read, following The Husband’s Secret. Much enjoyed this one too – her characters are really … real. Alice hits her head and when she comes too she thinks it’s ten years earlier, but her whole life has changed.

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

Christian Aid sale purchase. Enjoyably farcical situation. And a reminder, if it’s required, that trying to relive your youth with your first love is never a good plan.

Re-reading childhood books on the other hand is, mostly, a very good plan.

Interview with Sophie Claire

I am pleased to have Sophie Claire on my blog to answer questions about her debut novel Her Forget-me-Not Ex which was published in May 2015 by Accent Press:

Natasha has consigned her wealthy French ex-husband Luc to the past, so she’s horrified when he turns up at her village florist’s shop out of the blue, pleading for help. He never dared to tell his family about the divorce, and when he asks her to come to France and pretend they’re still married for a couple of weeks to please his dying father, she’s not sure she can say no. She certainly isn’t prepared for the warmth of his family’s welcome, or the attraction that’s still simmering between her and Luc. But it’s just two weeks in a vineyard, no strings attached, right?

Sophie – congratulations on the publication of your novel.

Tell us how the novel came about – and are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m kind of in between, or a wannabe plotter! Before I start a book I need to have a plan (for my peace of mind!) of all the main plot points, but most of the time that plan gets abandoned as I write. I think of better plot developments, or I write a section and it doesn’t feel right so I change it. I don’t mind rewriting huge chunks of a book if I think it will improve it – unfortunately, this isn’t the most efficient way of writing, and I do wish I could think up a perfect plot in advance and then stick to it. 

Her Forget-Me-Not Ex came about because I’d had the two main characters, Luc and Natasha, floating around in my head for a while. I knew they’d been married and divorced, but I wanted to bring them back together in the present day and I wasn’t sure how to do that until I went to a writing workshop. During one of the exercises the book’s opening scene came to me – it just wrote itself. It was very exciting and I wish that would happen more often!

Some writers say that characters arrive in their heads fully formed. Did that happen to you with Natasha and Luc?

I get to know my characters as I write, and I need to put them in different situations to see how they will react. As I get through the first and second drafts they become more rounded individuals and develop their own quirks – for example, Natasha’s nail art. Don’t know where that came from! The wonders of the subconscious…

I think it’s true to say that, traditionally, romantic novels did not include a male point of view but it is a requirement of some publishers now. Did you know from the beginning that you were going to include Luc’s pov?

I did include Luc’s pov from the start, but I was advised to add more and I’m so pleased I followed this advice because it really added to the story. It gave me a greater understanding of him as well as his strained relationship with his father. And it also revealed how Luc and Natasha hadn’t known each other very well in the past and had more in common than they realised.

Natasha is a florist. I loved her arrangements with sunflowers! Is this something you’ve done yourself?

No, never! I’m far too clumsy to be able to do anything like that. I knew that Natasha liked modern flower arrangements and I think I may have got my inspiration for the sunflowers from Pinterest. I made a board as I wrote this book (which you can see here: www.pinterest.com/sclairewriter), and found the visual inspiration really helped me as I wrote.

You pitched your novel to Accent Press at the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference. Could you say a little about that experience?

Pitching your work to industry professionals is nerve-wracking, but it’s such a golden opportunity to get feedback on what you’ve written and also to find out what people are looking for (for example, the publishers I spoke to liked the French setting). I was thrilled because Accent asked to see the full manuscript and then made me an offer for it ten days later! I’ve never known a publisher respond so fast and that was part of their appeal for me.

Do you have a writing routine?

My routine varies depending on which stage of the novel I’m up to (first draft or revising/editing) and whether the children are at school or on holiday, but generally I write first thing in the morning, then do Twitter, Facebook or writing blog posts later. For the writing I set myself targets – a word count when I’m writing the first draft, or a number of hours for editing. When I get to the editing stage, I’m happy to write all day and into the evening because I find it so much easier than the first draft.

I believe that you spent many family holidays in Provence when you were growing up; clearly the landscape left a lasting impression on you. Will your next book have ‘French connections’?

The book I’m finishing at the moment is set in Manchester so it’s a long way from Provence! However, I’m not sure about the next book yet…

Thank you for answering my questions. All the best with your writing.

It’s been a pleasure, Kate, and thank you.

Find out more about Sophie Claire (a pseudonym for her own name Johanna Grassick):

http://romanticnovelistsassociationblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/sophie-claire-what-i-learned-from-new.html

Website:  www.johannagrassick.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophieclairewriter
Twitter: @SClaireWriter
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sclairewriter/

A Penchant for Pencils

One of the books I read in May (of which more in a separate post) was Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris. She has spent more than thirty years in The New Yorker’s copy department. Her descriptions of some of the most common problems in spelling, punctuation, and usage – and how to fix them – are made in an amusingly helpful manner.

I fell out with her over her objections to putting a hyphen in ‘coworker’ but I completely forgave her when I read the chapter – yes, a whole chapter – on pencils and pencil sharpeners called Ballad of a Pencil Junkie.

I was soooo jealous to find out that in her early days at The New Yorker: ‘There was an office boy who came around in the morning with a tray of freshly sharpened wooden pencils.’

Obriously that doesn’t happen anymore … and I totally empathise with her current frustrations over having to use pencils which are lovely and pointy when new but whose lead breaks the first time they are sharpened. Is the pencil the problem, or the pencil sharpener?

After I read that bit I stopped and counted up the number of pencils I had that were in various stages of bluntness – there were EIGHTY-EIGHT.

Pencils are a cheap and useful souvenir –eg I have pencils from the Giant’s Causeway; Ellis Island; the 9/11 memorial; the Louisa M. Alcott House in Concord; Holland; the pencil museum in Cumbria; a Caledonian McBrayne ferry; the Imperial War Museum; Liverpool Cathedral; the National Library of Scotland; and (my favourites) three from the shop of the Rhode Island School of Art and Design which are pure graphite (when I dropped one of them it snapped clean in half).

A pencil is my writing implement of choice for shopping lists, other lists, lists of lists … And I love my laptop but if I get stuck when writing a story, or I want to write somewhere I don’t have the laptop with me, I reach for paper and pencil. The brain can make connections on paper that it doesn’t onscreen, plus it’s easier not to listen your inner editor and keep going, rather than polishing sentence by sentence.

I kept reading snippets out to my ever-patient husband:

 ‘guess what, there’s a pencil sharpener museum in Logan, Ohio’

‘someone called David Rees has written a book called How to Sharpen Pencils’

‘David Rees “specialises in the artisanal sharpening of No 2 pencils” and charges $15 a time’!

When I came to Mary Norris’s advice on what constitutes a decent pencil sharpener (an all-metal industrial strength X-acto, Boston Ranger 55) he must have detected a longing tone in my voice because he asked me if I’d like one as a birthday present.

Who needs chocolates or roses? Lovely though they both are at the time, ultimately, they: make you spotty/wither.

A pencil sharpener, securely attached to the desk, is for life, not just for the end of May.

Pardon? Well, thank you very much for your advice but I have got a life actually. 

It happens to be one that happily embraces punctuation problems and – oh joy! – it now includes 

eighty-eight 

perfectly pointed

pencils.

The People's Friend Story Writing Workshop

I was honoured to be the Guest Author at The People’s Friend Story Writing Workshop on 12 May. The PF has run workshops in London but this was the first one in Scotland, in the magazine’s home city of Dundee.

It was a thrill to approach the DC Thomson building and see iconic cartoon characters painted on the side – as well as being the home of the world’s oldest story paper for women (it's been going since 1869), this is also the birthplace of Jackie magazine, Oor Wullie, The Broons, Dennis the Menace, Desperate Dan and many more.

(Although I have been in a DC Thomson building before, can’t remember whether it was this one or not. When I was 21, xx years ago, armed with my Diploma in Book and Periodical Publishing from (as it was then) Napier College, I had an interview for a position they called ‘Journalist’ but which would have meant working on various magazines in various capacities before finding a niche somewhere. Before I heard whether I’d been successful or not I got a job offer from a publishing firm in London which I accepted.

I must say I had a pang of regret for the road not taken as I talked to enthusiastic People’s Friend Fiction Editor Shirley Blair and her colleagues on the day of the workshop, and I took my Beano napkin from lunch home as a souvenir.)

Eighteen ladies had signed up to do the workshop. The first to arrive told me I looked like Helen Mirren, so that was a good start (although I must point out that Queen Helen is older than me … ). 

Shirley told them what kind of stories the Friend looked for and then my morning contribution was to talk about where to find inspiration, with examples from my own work; between us, Shirley and I moved on to show how to develop the original idea into a story.

In the afternoon I talked about structuring a story, and suggested ten things to do if you get stuck. In between these talks attendees were given exercises and some read out what they’d written (all very promising). Shirley’s colleagues Alan and Tracey chipped in with useful comments throughout the day.

The afternoon finished with advice from Shirley on how to be professional about your writing.

I was happy to tell the would-be short story contributors how unusual The People’s Friend is in welcoming new writers, and giving support and encouragement to their regular writers. With a weekly magazine requiring seven stories plus Specials and the Annual they require a lot of stories – which, in a dwindling women’s magazine market, is brilliant news.

The feedback from the workshop was good and another one will be run later in the year. Look out for announcements on The People’s Friend website and Facebook page.