Tom Jones

My OH and I watched a small, intimate concert of Tom Jones on BBC4 a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed the music. It was Tom in a refective mood. With maturity, his voice has taken on a deeper, velvety note entirely suited to the bluesy music he was singing. A couple of the songs were outstanding, namely 'Tower of Song' and 'Gotta be Me'. The outcome to our enjoyment was that we bought the CD. It's called 'Spirit in the Room' and it's fantastic. I would recommend this to anyone who likes the blues and/or Tom Jones. The two go well together.

Incidentally, I'm a longtime fan of Tom and have seen him in all sorts of venues.  Last time I saw him live was in the grounds of Chatsworth House a few years ago. If anything, I think he's more handsome now with grey hair and beard than he was then.

J K Rowling's new novel

A couple of weeks ago, my OH came home with a present for me (he's like that!). It was J K Rowling's new novel, 'The Casual Vacancy'. For anyone who doesn't know, this is her first offering of an adult novel. Now that I've read it, what do I think of it?

Well, adult it certainly is, with mention of drug addiction, rape, domestic violence and self-harming among other themes. The swearing is frequent and explicit. Personally, I found the characters a pretty unsympathetic bunch though they do sort of redeem themselves somewhat towards the end. The only really sympathetic character dies in the first couple of pages, hence creating the Casual Vacancy on the local parish council, leading to much conflict in the town. Rowling's great strength is her portrayal of the teenagers in her novel. Perhaps she should consider a Young Adult novel next time?

Having said all that, it was an absorbing read and I enjoyed it. I love how she she builds up the story layer by layer - it was what I admired most about the Harry Potter novels. And yes, I read them all!

Writing Workshop

This morning, I attended a writing workshop given by Joanna Fulford concerned with writing that essential first chapter and the pitch. Joanna writes for the Harlequin Historical Romance series for Mills and Boon so the the workshop was mainly geared towards writers wanting to write for Mills and Boon. And, with 7m worth of sales a year, that's a goal not to be sneered at! 

Having said that, what she had to say could definitely be applied to writing in whichever genre or publisher one is aiming for. I found writing the proposed pitch for an idea I'd only just come up very challenging and, having to write in just 100 words, definitely concentrated the mind!

Holiday Blues

It was the last day of our week's holiday in Northumberland, an area we both love. 'Let's make a day of it,' hubby had said, 'rather than going straight home.' The idea was to head towards Darlington then wend out way towards the East coast. Good idea in theory; shame it didn't work out as planned. The idea was to lunch in Recar except that it took longer than we thought so we stopped for lunch on the A68. Unfortunately, it took us nearly an hour to order, wait for our two toasted sandwiches, then eat them! Once on the A1(M), there was no exit southbound for Darlington (unless we missed it!) and we ended up driving through a couple of small villages before reaching the road round Darlington.

When we reached Redcar, the ticket machine at the beach car park wasn't working so we decided to head out of the town. However, there had been an accident further along the Promenade and we were diverted  into the centre of town. Being a reasonable sort of day, everywhere was busy and it took ages to find our way out of town. We consoled ourselves with the thought of a cup of tea at a log cabin cafe on the coast road at Sandsend only to find that double yellow lines now decorated the road where we had always parked before. The car park was full and although there was parking further long the road, it was too far to walk back.

By the time we reached Whitby further along the coast, it was 3.15 pm so we decided to write the plan off and head for home. After a much needed cuppa, of course! It was about 8 pm when we got home but we did stop for a carvery en route. Hubby's last words on the day were, 'If I get any more bright ideas, remind me of today!' Good job we can laugh about it!

RNA Birmingham Chapter Meeting

Last Saturday, I travelled to Birmingham to meet up with the Birmingham Chapter Meeting of the Romantic Novelists' Association. It's the first time I've been for over a year and I really enjoyed it. With ten of us, it was difficult to join in the conversation at the other end of the table but somehow we managed between us. The lunch wasn't without incident as I knocked my milk jug all over my tray and had to mop up what I could with napkins. Fortunately, my sandwiches were well wrapped and didn't suffer any damage. Then someone else knocked over a bottle (non alcoholic!) which soaked the trousers of our co-ordinator. More napkins needed to soak up the contents of the bottle.

I haven't been doing any writing for the past month or so having a lingering virus, plus I've been compiling a porfolio of the work I've been doing over the summer for a short course on 'Historic Landscapes' . Thankfully, that's now almost complete and hopefully I can get back to some productive writing. I'll hopefully have something more to add next time I post.

A Eureka! moment

I had one of these the other day while watching a TV programme. It was a dramatised version of how Tony Warren, the Manchester lad who first thought up the idea of 'Coronation Street' overcame enormous obstacles to get his series shown on Granada TV. The Granada bosses shook their heads, 'No one,' they said, 'would want to watch a programme about Northern working class people. There's that accent, for a start.' Tony and his supporters (and there were a few) proved them wrong by showing the pilot show to the ordinary employees of Granada who, for the most part, enjoyed it. 

I have been told, too, that no-one wants to read about ordinary people's lives, which is mostly what my novel Save The Last Dance For Me is about. I do believe, like Tony Warren did, that they do, I think because they can relate to the story. Is this why 'Coronation Street' has been so successful for the past 52 years?

Incidentally, I learned that the series had originally been called 'Florizel Street'. That had to be changed when the Granada tea lady said that Florizel sounded like a disinfectant!

So, I've decided that I'm going to concentrate on small independent publishers, preferably in Lancashire, where my novel is set.

Romantic Writers' Conference 2012

I had a fantastic time at the Romantic Novelists Association Conference 2012 in Penrith, Cumbria, absorbing myself in the atmosphere, meeting published an unpublished authors, attending various workshops, chatting about writing, meeting and making new friends. I'm a moderate wine drinker but I was amused at the copious amounts of wine being drunk. Apparently the 'kitchen parties', where members of the shared accommodation meet late at night, drink even more wine, are legendary. Say it almost in a whisper for to admit it would be met with looks of horror, but there were only three of us sharing a student house and we were all most circumspect. Suited me though. Perhaps it's my age.

The Conference is noted too for its display of shoes, the more exotic the better.  Lamentably, I can no longer wear high heels so in that respect I am a disgrace to the Association. Despite a nightmarish trip up to Penrith (necessitating three changes), I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I came away so inspired, encouraged and motivated, all fired up to get back to the writing. What happened? I came down with a nasty virus that has laid me low for the past two weeks.

Just to cheer myself up, I'm posting a pic of our table at the Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening. The woman on the right of the picture is Marilyn Rodwell, a friend from the Birmingham Chapter of the RNA. Thanks for a great time, Marilyn. That's me in the middle.