Catnip for Authors

 You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Research. I've been posting recently about the up market kind - what I did on my holidays - but research can take all kinds of forms and be for all kinds of reasons. I just did a quick inventory of some of the things I've done recently that could be classed as research, if you use the loose definition of 'finding out'. 

The total comes to four classes and a catalogue for fruit trees!  A mix of planning and serendipity! You  never know where useful information will come from. 

The classes are a mixed bunch.

There is my regular gardens course, with the Lifelong Learning Department of the University, which is mainstream for the WIP. I am creating a garden for the book and am having soooo much fun working on the back story. Will it all get into the book? Possibly not, but I think that knowing it is there will add depth to the writing. And yes. It is FUN! 

I also did a lecture on divination. I have a character who is into this kind of thing and it was a good opportunity to find out the sort of tools she might use - observing natural phenomena, like bird movements and the sky. For things like that I think it is important to make sure that details are correct and plausible. 

Another one-off on-line course was craft - a webinair from the Crime Writers' Association on science and crime - very useful on the forensics that a writer might need and other practical stuff, - like the fact that poisons are not usually instantaneous in effect  and that someone hit in any part of the body by a bullet probably won't be running around chasing bad guys a few minutes later, even with an artistic sling.

The second craft class is this week - and in person workshop on characters which is being held by one of the writing groups I belong to. We don't do it often, but it is good sometimes to get together and consider the nuts and bolts of putting words on a page. I'm looking forward to it. 

And that fruit catalogue? I seem to have got on to the mailing list of a specialist fruit nursery. I'm unlikely to be planting any trees in the near future, although I have not given up on the idea of a tree in a pot, and I have managed to germinate an orange pip which might one day amount to something. My mother grew one that flowered, although I don't think it fruited - but Mum could have planted her walking stick and it would have rooted.  Anyway the catalogue has given me ideas for all sorts of unusual fruit - medlars, sloes, crab apples - that can be made into jams and jellies which fits into the ethos of the community I am also creating - and there is a bit of hedge witchery going on there. I'm enjoying that too, although I know I have to be careful, or it will be taking over the book. 

That's always the thing - research that gets into the book is almost always only the tip of the iceberg. 

The Hidden Garden - Plas Cadnant

The last post about my North Wales holiday. And this visit definitely qualifies as research. It was unexpected. I knew there was a garden on the schedule for the last day of the tour, but I had no idea that it would be a perfect inspiration for the garden I am creating for the WIP. On the Isle of Anglesey, overlooking the Menai Strait, Plas Cadnant has been reclaimed from an overgrown state and it is lovely - and exactly what I envisaged for the garden I am trying to create, a coastal setting with series of different moods - formal and much wilder. 

 I have a thing for writing gardens in my books, and happily readers also seem to like them. I have a half realised idea for a derelict garden sometime in the future, but the one in the current WIP is far from that. I have created a whole back story for it, and its past owners, which may not even make it into the book, except as passing references, but I have had so much enjoyment from imagining it. And now I know what parts of it  might look like. My creation has a stumpery, a number of follies and a lot of sculpture so it will be different, but I now have a reference point that I know is real. I took a ton of pictures. These are some of them. 

Topiary - there will definitely be topiary

Formal - and very pretty

A pond and a river god, lurking in an alcove. 
I'm thinking more on the lines of the green man -
or maybe Cernunnos, the horned god from Celtic mythology. 

Another pool lower in the garden - down a steep and rather scary path.
But I made it! 

One of the wilder areas. 

More wildness

Back to the formality and sunshine. 

Port Meirion

 This was a bucket list trip. It's been on that list since The Prisoner  TV series used it as a location - yes, I am that old.

It is colourful and a bit crazy - a little piece of Italy on a Welsh hillside, running down to the sea - a folly in the form of a whole village, and I loved it.

The sun shone, I rambled around, ate ice-cream and soaked up atmosphere. It has given me ideas for the colour scheme for my garden, when I finally get that sorted out and can paint some currently grey block walls. Next summer, now. I have a wooden container that holds the recycling bags that I painted blue and which came out a bit more vivid that I expected, Now I know that it is Port Meirion blue  and that I might be painting some of the walls terracotta. I'll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime I have pictures. 

Archways were a thing

This could be on an Italian hillside 

See what I mean about the colour scheme. 

More colour here

This might be my favourite view -
 and you can just make out the sculpture in the exotic planting. 

Research Holiday?

 Regular readers will know that I'm taking a break from the Riviera and the next book, which is making very slow progress, is set mostly in Wales, although the location is one that I have made up. I live in South Wales and have spent time in West Wales - many childhood holidays for starters, but I have only been an infrequent visitor to the top end of the country.  I've never set a book in North Wales, but maybe that will change in the future as I've just had a very enjoyable holiday in Llandudno and its environs - an escorted tour with Great Rail Journeys. 

It was billed as railways and castles, both of which featured, but it was two other locations in particular that captured my attention - more of those in future posts. The castles were Conwy and Caernarvon and the railways were Ffestiniog, the West Highland Railway and the Snowden Mountain Railway.  The first two were steam - memories of my very early childhood - and the last one was rack and pinion, because of the gradient and was a bit scary with some jaw dropping sheer drops. It was a perfect clear day and now I can say that I have been to the top, (almost, as I didn't climb up to the summit) of the highest mountain in Wales, and have the pictures to prove it courtesy of Helen and Paul, my fellow holiday guests. 

I haven't been on an escorted tour like this for a long time and was a little nervous, but I really enjoyed myself and saw one place = Port Meirion - that has been on my bucket list for a long time, and also a lovely garden which was definitely research material. 

I'm not sure that steam trains and castles will be making an appearance in a book anytime soon, but never say never to an author. Port Meirion might - although I suspect it maybe a re-invented place by then. A bit like the gothic buildings I have written about in the past, which owe a lot to Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch.  And the garden ...

And I even managed to take pictures. 

Paragliders - and an amazing view

Proof I was there, plus the train. 

This one is steam. 

Work in Progress.

 Yes - it is slow. but it is happening. 

I've moved on to what I think of as the second part of the book - in which the heroine Eleri is moving on -  to a new and totally unexpected life in a house she has inherited. It's an idea I have used before - in A Villa in Portofino - but the setting and circumstances this time are very different, and it still spoke to me of something I wanted to explore. 

The next part is spinning around in my head, which is always exciting - if writing it down and getting it right is more laborious.

Eleri is moving into a small community and while I have known the people in it for a long while, I have only just realised that they are going to want to know as much about her as she does about them. Actually probably more so, as she is keeping a low profile, for various reasons. Now I get to work with some minor characters, at least one of whom has long roots in the community, the significance of which will only be apparent at the very end of the book.  

There are a number of mysteries to unravel involving the house and there are exterior threats from at least two quarters, so I have plenty of things to keep me busy. I have no idea how big this books is going to be - write first, edit later - but I suspect it may be big. 

At the moment it is a messy sprawl of papers dotted all around the place. I am going to have to have a comprehensive round up session in the near future to get it in some sort of order. The thing is, I am enjoying it, so I hope readers will too - once I finally get it finished and out in the world. 

Radical Victorians

 Regular readers will know that I have a bit of a thing for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. As I don't have the bank balance of Lord Lloyd Webber, who has a notable collection, I have to get my fix visiting galleries and exhibitions. And the place to go has always been Birmingham, as the museum there has a fabulous collection. 

That collection is the basis for an exhibition that has been running most of the year and will be on until Xmas - Victorian Radicals.

 The Pre-Raphaelites had a distinctive style - brightly coloured painting told stories - from the Bible, from legends and from literature. It appeals to my love of story and drama. I've wanted to visit this exhibition for months but health issues have interfered, but on Thursday I finally made it. It was well worth it. Fabulous paintings, but not just them - the art movement gave rise to the Arts and Crafts movement - with the same artists designing or inspiring household items - everything from textiles to glassware. The exhibition had many examples on display. I was a happy bunny - this was a fun day out but it was also RESEARCH. The Arts and Crafts house I am creating for the WIP would have been built and fitted out around the time all these items were being created. As the country home of a wealthy man who would have wanted the most up to date furniture and fittings, many of these things will still be there when my contemporary heroine inherits the house.  With my memories of studying the exhibits and the very expensive catalogue - which is absolutely gorgeous - I am going to have so much fun selecting items. When I have had the chance to study the book and make some choices I'm sure I will be posting again about the exhibition. In the meantime, I do have a few pictures. 

You can't really see it clearly, but the painting on the wall - of a young Jesus in the Temple
was one I remember from Sunday School. 

An unfinished painting of Jane Morris by Rossetti 

I think this marble sculpture was commissioned by Gladstone.
More background research needed. 

Sorry about the glare from the flash. This is a late scene from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona.
I've had a copy of a postcard of it for ages. You can see the level of detail and the wonderful colours. 

Secondary Tropes?

 Tropes seem to be a big thing in the romance writing world at the moment - enemies to lovers, fake relationship, grumpy/sunshine - you can fill in the list. 

It has occurred to me during my recent reading that while these might be the main tropes - the headline acts as it were, there are other supporting 'tropes' that feature in the action. Including, but not exhaustively:-

 A controlling and interfering ex

A protagonist who likes to cook with a love interest who can burn boiling water

Extended family, as demonstrated by the Sunday lunch. This can be a hostile affair or a lovefest of homely togetherness and warmth,

Houses and gardens as 'characters' in the action

Evocative locations = bakeries, libraries, universities, bookshops,

Animals - I've read a few lately with working or service dogs, but also with animal familiars, I have wide reading tastes. 

The power of scent. Clothing, bed linen, or just general smell. 

I'm sure you can add a few. I'm still collecting them. 

While those headline tropes define the book these are the ones that give it substance and help create a world you want to inhabit for a few hours or even longer.