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. 

Life of a romance writer?

 This week I thought it might be fun to think about what an author actually does with her time. This author, in fact. 

So what have I done this past week? 

Well, one day was spent in Herford with a group of like minded writers catching up on news and life in general. Gossip, giggles, exchange of experiences, commiserations over rejections, professional support and general bookish chat. Cake and lunch were involved and as I managed to catch an earlier train, because it was late (are you with me?) there may have been a sneaky bacon butty in Morrison's cafe on the way to the theatre where the meetings are held. It was an enjoyable if tiring day. 

There has been the usual social media and e-mail stuff, including fixing another writerly get together later in the year, a research trip to Birmingham, and admin connected to some future personal appearances. Watch this space. Some time was spent on searching for the script of the book trailer that I scribbled down on the train the week before last. I did not find it. I hope it will turn up in due course in whatever safe place I have stashed it. 

I spent a couple of happy hours looking at weddings a Chelsea Old Town Hall. Lots of snazzy photos of brides, grooms and guests, confetti explosions and a good gawp at the venue rooms available from large halls to intimate spaces seating only a handful of people. And don't get me started on the rabbit hole of  the rich and famous who have married there, including the wedding that didn't happen. If you have an idle moment or sixty and like weddings, have a google,  This was RESEARCH for the wedding of a secondary character in the WIP. It may eventually only occupy a line or two in the book, but the devil is in the detail. 

And writing? Oh yes, there has been a bit of that. This week I have been inhabiting the mind of a serial killer. An interesting place to be, if not always comfortable. I think it is a thread I ought to included in the new book, but it has to be married to the romance in the right way, Much grittier than I have been writing lately and stretching a bit, but good for the writing muscles.  I'm working on the principle of getting it down and then seeing what I have got. 

A bit like writing a blog post. 

Oh, and I did that too. 

Romantic Novelists' Association Conference 2024

 Let's get this clear from the outset. I had a really good time. 

This year's conference was at Royal Holloway, University of London - which is actually in leafy Egham. It is a sprawling campus - much puffing and groaning between venues - with a very fancy set of gothic buildings at its centre. 

The weekend was hot, the food was good, the accommodation studentish but comfortable - I was not in the block with a dead lift and dodgy lights - the company excellent. 

I went to some enthralling if slightly scary talks on various techy topics - Artificial Intelligence, keywords, self publishing - and now know more than I did about all of them. I'm looking forward to putting all that learning into practice. I particularly enjoyed a talk on making book trailers. I used to do that for my books years ago. Apparently this time around they can be used for Facebook adverts and for some quick book plotting. I had a go at that on the train home - about 20 words for about 30 seconds of air time. I now know a bit more about the WIP and have found out that is a slightly different book from the one I thought I was writing - all good. 

Lots of friends had good appointments with agents and editors and were asked for full manuscripts. Fingers crossed that stuff happens for them. Imogen, my fellow Cariad Chapter member did not win the Joan Hessayan trophy- sad about that as I would have liked to see another Cariad's name on the cup. Quite a lot of the group were featured in the shortlist for the Elizabeth Gouge trophy,  though, which is awarded for a conference based contest set by the Chairperson, which shows what a talented group we have with Georgia Hill coming second.  

There was a barbeque in the Quad, a quiz, a disco and a lot of giggling and gossip - what you might expect if 200 odd romantic novelists get together. Yes, alright, some of us are very odd. 

I didn't take any pictures so I shamelessly stole this one from Sue McDonagh.  As usual I am gurning at the camera. It's a good one of Sue and Jan though,

Photo stolen from Sue Mc Donagh

I say again  - I had a really good time, 

Only sadness is having to wait two years before doing it again. 

Of course we have the internet now ...

As you know, I'm a fan of vintage crime and the differences in what could be written even in the 1940s and now are often striking. Books like Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar, with a plot about a mystery claimant who may or may not be heir to a country estate could now only be written as an historical, or not at all. These days DNA would settle the matter in a few weeks. We have CCTV, forensics, social media. Ah yes, social media. 

Even twenty years ago the world would not be getting moment by moment updates on what you had for breakfast, but some of that vintage crime I have been reading lately have got me thinking about some of the parallels. 

I've read two which feature poison pen letters - the equivalent of trolling? And when mail would be delivered within 24 hours and possibly more often during the day a barrage of unpleasant correspondence would be possible. We have 24 hour news - but when newspapers were the main means of communicating events, editions could be produced several time a day.  Social media can give instant glimpses of what celebrities are doing - but newspapers and magazines had their society pages for the great, the good and the not so good.  Now authors are encouraged to keep their readers in the loop with newsletters - but the likes of GK Chesterton and William Morris produced their own newspapers. Print was more cumbersome, but possible. 

As someone who writes crime I have to admit that technology can be a bit of a bother. How to get around that pesky CCTV isn't just a matter for the criminal fraternity! The aforementioned DNA is a consideration, and what about mobile phones? So many crime novels from the past could be solved by a simple phone call. Authors have a fun time making protagonists lose phones, drop them in water, have them stolen, forget to charge them. Then there is the good old standby  - no signal. This feels like a cliche, but if you listen to the Today programme on Radio 4 - which I do - you will know how often a line disappears mid call - and not just those spanning long distances. 

Communications are not new, if technology is. In the past it just took a bit longer. And sit was ometimes more difficult - but not always. 

It's a man's world?

 Regular readers will know I have a bit of a weakness for the vintage crime put out by the British Library. Haven't succumbed to a subscription yet, but they are trying hard in my Facebook feed, 

One of my favourite Golden Age authors is E C R Lorac, in real life Edith Caroline Rivett. As you can see as well as reversing one of her names, Carol, for her pseudonym she also adopted the use of initials, a device often used by female writers and still being done today, particularly in the crime genre. The general feeling seems to be that this widens the prospective audience. Women will apparently read a crime novel by a man, but  a man read a woman author? Not so much. 

It's a matter for discussion, and one that is not new. The most recent Lorac I read was Death of an Author in which the debate over whether a critic/reader can tell whether a book has been written by a man or woman forms a keystone of the plot. I enjoyed it - and it shows that the discussion has been around a long time - and it is probably not going away anytime soon. 

I'm not entirely sure where I am going with this post except to flag up something interesting. 

Although there are a great many females being just as gory and twisty as their male counterparts is there an implicit assumption that crime is a male thing? 

One event I will be interested in is the first short list for the new cosy crime category in the CWA Dagger awards which makes its appearance for the first time next year. It is a genre with a lot of women writers and writing well too. Certainly worthy of a dagger. So - is there a possibility the the CWA might have an all female short list for this one? 

An intriguing idea. 

Eavesdropping

 You've all seen the mugs, tee shirts, etc. with the writer threatening to 'put you in my book'. Yes, it's funny, but I would never do it. Some authors do base their characters on real people, but for me it's an an invasion of privacy. And I'd be afraid that the victim might recognise themselves and come round and punch me on the nose! 

Which is not to say that I am not an inveterate eavesdropper. Public transport is a great place for this, but anywhere that people gather can be a prime source. What do I get from it? Apart from fascinating snippets that I could/would never use? Rhythm, pace, the pattern of speech and the flow of conversation, which all help with making dialogue sound real.

One of my favourite playwrights is Harold Pinter, who was the master of using a pause - which is something I do - listening to conversation gives the patterns that can be adapted for the book. The way conversations overlap, repetition - although you have to be careful with that or your editor will be putting a red line through it, Local colour and frequently used expressions - swearing too perhaps. Ums and Ahs - we are all guilty of those - make speech realistic, judiciously used. 

And then again, despite what I said above, there are occasionally snippets that no one would recognise as theirs. This post was inspired by one I heard last week. Two colleagues in the Premier Inn as everyone trooped back into the building. 

'And where were you when the fire alarm went off? 

It seemed to me that it would make an intriguing first line for a story. 

Maybe I'll use it one day.

And no one will ever know where it came from, will they?