More mill days memories - and friendship

Vera (on the left) and me on Blackpool Beach

In the past, I’ve blogged about my time working in the mill during the 1950s. Now I’d like to introduce you to one of my dearest friends, Vera, whom I met when we were both working together in the mill (having asked her permission first). We’d be about 15 or 16 then. Her long fair hair, bubbly personality and ready smiles and laughter made her popular with everyone and as I was still of a shy nature, she sort of took me in hand.

              Horwich, along with other Lancashire towns, had its own Wakes Weeks, when the Locomotive Works and the mills closed down for two weeks in the summer, usually the second week in July. Each year, Harry Stocker’s Temperance Bar on Winter Hey Lane, organised about three coaches to go to Butlin’s Holiday Camp at Pwhelli. In 1956, the year I was 17, I went along with Vera Yates and two of her friends.

              I’d never stayed away from my parents before so it was a big shock for me and felt thoroughly miserable for most of the week. The trouble was, I was completely out of my depth, and couldn’t handle some of the things that were supposedly going on. Rumour had it, for instance, that some lads had already been thrown out of the camp for placing a French letter (a condom) on a light bulb. The camp was then made up of those flimsy looking wooden chalets and every night we had to lock our chalet windows. Even that didn’t stop gangs of boys going round the girls’ chalets and banging on the doors. I often quaked in fear at night even though there was what was called a Chalet Patrol which went round checking the chalets to see if anything was amiss.

              Mid-way through the week, my companions, particularly Vera, sat me down and gave me a good talking to, the essence of which was that even if I wasn’t enjoying myself, I shouldn’t spoil their fun by being miserable. After that, I made more of an effort to join in and ended up actually enjoying it. One of the worst things had been having to share such a small chalet with three other girls but towards the end of the week, I began to see the funny side of it, especially when all of us were trying to get ready at the same time and having to share one tiny mirror. Those girls taught me a valuable lesson on that holiday that the more you put into life, the more you get out of it.

              Vera became my best friend after that holiday. We went all over the place together, Bolton Palais de Dance, the Tudor Ballroom in Chorley, the Empress Ballroom in Wigan or more locally, Rivington Hall Barn, a 14^th century tithe barn and organised every Saturday night. Being out in the country, there were special buses to and from the Crown pub. It was very popular with us locals, but people from further afield came too, so there was usually a good mix of the known and unknown

              In 1957, Vera and I went on holiday again. We stayed in a boarding house in Blackpool and had a wonderful time, dancing in the Tower Ballroom or the Winter Gardens, trooping along the Golden Mile or visiting the Pleasure Beach, especially the Fun House with its laughing clown machine outside that you couldn’t help laughing along with. The beach at Blackpool, then, was so crowded that you were lucky if you could manage to find a spare few inches of sand yet, one sunny day, we actually managed it and still have the photograph to prove it (see above). I remember that we used to meet up with some Scottish lads in a café on Central Drive that later became the setting for the B&B café in my book Bitter Sweet Fellowship.

Although there was good money to be made in the mill, I never made a fortune out of my time there because I did not apply myself diligently enough and spent too much time day-dreaming. Several times I tried to get out, such as the time Vera and I wanted to join the WRAC (Women’s Royal Army Corps). In the end I had to go alone to Manchester for the interview because Vera’s Dad, who was very strict, said she couldn’t go. I was actually a bit relieved when I was turned down on account of my ears, which were deformed as a result of scarlet fever when I was two.

Vera and me at Horwich Heritage

              After I left the mill and subsequently moved around a lot, we lost touch for many years. It was only after my parents moved back to Horwich and Mum started chatting to Vera on the bus one day that we got in touch again. There was much to catch up on! We’d both married (and I divorced!) had children, by then grown up but whereas I had moved around a lot, Vera had stayed in Horwich. We’ve never looked back since then and when we do go back to Horwich, every couple of years or so, the highlight of our visit is always the time we spend with Vera. We’ve been known to chat for hours and never run out of things to say.

              A few years ago, I was invited to speak to Horwich Heritage, a civic society that preserves the industrial history of Horwich, about my first book A Suitable Young Man, set in Horwich. It was entirely appropriate that Vera, herself a member of the society, was by my side supporting me. Thank you, Vera, for 65 years of treasured friendship. Yes, 65 years!

My First Author Talk

Selling books with long-time friend Vera

My first official author talk! I’ve done a couple before to small groups mostly made up of people I know but this was something completely different. For a start it was in a large hall, attended by about 40 people and I actually had a microphone!

I’d actually been quite nervous beforehand, knowing that I would be facing a larger crowd than normal, and I must confess I’d been honing and refining my talk for a couple of weeks beforehand. I hoped I’d set the right tone.

Let me set the scene. My novel A Suitable Young Man is set in the very real town of Horwich in Lancashire (mentioned before in one of my blogs Eulogy To my Home Town) in the 1950s when it was a bustling thriving town, quite heavily industrialised, the main source of employment for men being the Locomotive Works. When this closed down in 1983, the town was devastated. To hopefully give people more pride in their town, the organisation Horwich Heritage was founded. Thirty years on, it’s still thriving with an active membership. Even though I no longer live in Horwich, it still holds a very special place in my heart and I am a long-distance member.

Some months ago, it was arranged that I should give this author talk on the evening of Tuesday, 11^th August. I had been advised by a writer friend not just to talk about my writing and my book but to give lots of background information to my life. As many of you know, I spent quite a lot of my childhood years with my parents in domestic service so that was something I could describe. When I was 13, we moved back to Horwich. It’s been said that the person you are is synonymous with the place where you grew up and I think this is particularly true of me and the influence Horwich has had on me.

In my talk, I incorporated many memories of people and places eventually leading on to how and why I became a writer, finishing with a couple of readings from my book. Talking of my own experiences seemed to resonate with many attendees because, of course, the memories were theirs too. Despite my nervousness, I think the talk went down well, certainly people said they’d enjoyed it. My long-time friend Vera was helping me with selling books afterwards and I was delighted when a couple of women came up to me and said they’d already read my book!

The chairman, Stuart Whittle, suggested afterwards that I get in touch with a couple of free local papers and once back home this is what I did. To my delight, the editor contacted me for more details and has promised to plug my book in this weeks’ edition. And she’s promised to do a review of it.

Very happy with the way things have worked out!

A Steep Learning Curve

I can’t believe that it’s been a month since I last blogged. And I know it is because ‘A Suitable Young Man’ is due for release on Monday, 1^st December. Pre-orders have been a little on the disappointing side but then I always knew that the novel would do better as a paperback (more on that later). A couple of people who’ve bought it have promised to do a review about it and I’m on tenterhooks about that. Suppose they think it’s rubbish? Hopefully, they’ll find something good and positive about it, even if it’s for the historical accuracy. If I had fingernails, I’d be biting them but I cut them recently!

So what have I been doing since my last blog? Self-promotion and more self-promotion, not something that comes easily to me. I joined Twitter a couple of weeks ago but, if I’m honest, I find the constant stream of ‘buy my books’ tweets boring and unnecessary. I’ve done it a few times, of course, one has to, but I prefer the more human side of interaction with only the occasional mention of a book for sale. My friend and fellow Indie author, Lizzie Lamb, has had some brilliant posters done incorporating the cover of her books. She uses the services of Gary Walker of Look4Books so I investigated. For a very reasonable yearly subscription, he does three such posters, lists you on his website www.look4books.co.uk and tweets every few days. Well worth it, I’d say, and one I’ve quickly taken advantage of. The image I’ve used is one of the posters he’s done for me.

As I said earlier, I’d always planned to issue my book as a paperback, simply because I think it will sell better. I plan to offer talks to groups and take some copies with me. In fact, I’ve already got one booked for next August to speak at a Horwich Heritage meeting. As my book is set in my hometown of Horwich, I hope to sell a few copies there. But for that I need to physically have some books to offer. To do this, I’m using the services of Createspace. To that end, I bought a copy of a book by Tim C Taylor called ‘Format Your Book With Createspace’ from Amazon. For anyone thinking of following the Createspace path, this is absolutely invaluable. Originally, I bought the Kindle version but soon realised that if I was going to follow his advice, I was going to have to have the print copy, to be able to flick back and forth as required. I can honestly say that it has been a steep learning curve. I’m a touch typist, trained as a secretary, but for Createspace, I had to learn how to do things differently, from setting margins for books, using section breaks instead of page breaks, first line indentations instead of tabs, page numbering from the start of the book. I found the process of uploading the book to Createspace relatively easy though I had to search for the pdf cover template. Even as I write, Berni Stevens, my cover artist, is working on the complete cover so that I can finalise the procedure. Then, I will order a proof copy to check carefully. This can take a few weeks as it has to come from the United States.

Whilst I’m waiting for my proof copy to come, I plan to go back to my follow-on novel, ‘Bittersweet Fellowship,’ which I haven’t touched for months. I’m looking forward to tackling that because it was very much a first draft and I need to study the comments made by my New Writers Scheme (Romantic Novelists Association) reader a couple of years ago. So, some challenging times ahead. I can’t wait!