But is it research?

The weekend before last I spent the whole of Saturday in the theatre - the Ustinov, which is the Studio attached to the Bath Theatre Royal. Three plays from the Spanish Golden Age - morning, afternoon and evening, with meal breaks and time to wander round a rather dank city. I even squeezed in a little Xmas shopping.

I do this sort of thing because I love the theatre, but I also like to think of it as research. Many of the themes were similar to those used by Shakespeare - girls dressed as boys, unsuitable suitors, fortune hunters, tragic lovers. Okay, not the sort of stuff you necessarily get in modern romantic suspense, but the emotions and the tensions are still the same.

The programme notes (Great extravagance - I actually bought a programme!) listed a number of Varieties of Comedia  - categories of play - and one of them particularly appealed to me:

Plays of Intrigue - complicated plots, disguises, and mistaken identities, often cape and sword plays.

Cape and sword plays - I loved that image. My heroes don't wield a sword or possess a cape - although I'm working on that one - but they are that kind of man. And I certainly go for complicated plots. Disguise and mistaken identity? Why not?

See  - it was research after all.

And the Award goes to ...

Excitement - the moment the envelope is opened. My publishers, Choc-Lit, had one of those moments at the recent Festival of Romance when they were honoured with the Publisher of the Year Award. I wasn't there to share the fun, but I gather a good time was had by all who were.

Go Choc-lit.

My debut novel, Never Coming Home, has won an award or two, and been nominated for a few more -  but I was only able to be there for the opening of one of the envelopes - for the others, a rather large expanse of water separated me from the proceedings.  Which is a pity, as it would have been a wonderful experience. Getting the e-mail to tell you about the win is good, but not as good as the real thing. What does it mean to get an award? Honour, validation, the knowledge that readers have liked your book enough to vote it into first place. It's a fabulous feeling, and a big thank you has to go to all the organisers of all the contests who put so much work into making that happen.

I wasn't able to be there for the presentation ceremonies in the United States, but the arrival of the trophies was a great day. And to celebrate that, the Cardiff mini chapter of the Romantic Novelists' Association - all three of us - had lunch. I wasn't there when the envelope was opened, but the event was still commemorated. And yes, we did drink something sparkly ...

Vanessa, Lorraine and me, a bottle of bubbly and a trophy or two 

Welcome to my world?

World building. Something I associate mainly with sci-fi or fantasy. Except that at the moment, I'm having a go at it for some new romantic suspense. I'm creating an island off the Welsh coast, where three new books will hopefully be set. On it I'm also creating a house, which was built in 1793, so it's not just the architecture and the furnishings but how the place has evolved since it was first constructed, and the people who have lived in it ...

The house - Ty Newydd* -  began as a setting for an historical series (smugglers, revenge, gorgeous men, wearing lace and velvet - you know the sort of thing) which is currently trapped in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, but which I'm sure will escape one day and refuse to go away until I write it/them. When I was thinking of a discreetly out-of the-way site for my new  branch of the security services - more world building - the house popped into my mind. It's been through love, marriages, children, Victorian modernising, two world wars, the hint of a ghost or two - and I get to work all that out. It may not all make it into the final books, but it's enjoyable, if time consuming. And I have to say my ability with drawing plans and maps leaves a bit to be desired, so my attempts at explanatory doodling leave a bit to be desired too. :)

My security service also needs a London HQ. Which is why I was wandering around the side streets near St Paul's on a recent away-day, looking for suitable locations. It was tipping down with rain, so I have no photos and my explorations had to be curtailed as I was in danger of being soaked to the skin, but I now have a sense of the atmosphere of the part of London I want to use. I think I'm going to have to invent the tiny Georgian Square I have in mind, so that's another to add to the list.

At the risk of drowning by torrential rain, I took refuge at the Wallace Collection, one of my favourite London galleries/museums. And one with a large number of exhibits from in and around the time that my Ty Newydd would have been built. I may well be pinching some of their fireplaces, and I'm pretty sure that the original owner of my house is going to have a small collection of paintings by Canaletto, mementos of a youthful Grant Tour ...

World building is complex but so much fun. And all that lovely research - such a wonderful way to procrastinate ...


* New House, in Welsh.

The Weather in the BooK

You're not supposed to begin a book with a statement about the weather. I don't know where I read that, but it's stuck in my mind. I've not been tempted to do it, which is probably A Good Thing, but the state of the seasons, the weather and the ratio of dark to light in the day has been on my mind lately.

I'm always saying that I prefer to write about beautiful places, bathed in sunshine, which makes it  slightly disturbing to find that I am currently brewing two books that are set around this time of year - Autumn. Halloween, Bonfire night and the cold dark days of November/December. One of them even has snow in it. What happened? I haven't a clue, but that's where my mind is going and as there are complex plots and some rather interesting men involved, I'm going with the flow. 

It does mean that I am watching the weather with an especially keen interest. I'm even clipping weather maps out of the newspaper for my filing system, as well as making a note of what time it gets dark and what time it gets light in the morning. I can still do more or less what I like with the climate - if I decide on sun and mild winds in October, no one can stop me - but I can't ignore sunrise and sunset. The long hours of darkness are one of the things I hate about winter, but it certainly adds to the power of the creepy stuff.

I suppose it comes down to atmosphere - and Autumn fits the mood of these particular stories. Having said that, the one that involves Halloween is the first of my projected trilogy so will be followed by Spring and Summer - something to look forward to - and to keep me watching the state of the sky and the time it gets dark for a while to come. 

Into the Dark ...

When you write thrillers your books have to be ...well, thrilling. Which means tapping into the dark side. We're not talking a walk in the park here, at least, not unless it's midnight and there's a serial killer lurking behind that tree.

There, you see what I mean - if you write stuff that is intended to be thrilling then you tend to see the world - well, let's say your perspective is a bit skewed. Nothing is innocent, everything is potentially dangerous. There is usually some form of crime involved and your protagonists should be under some sort of threat.

To write that stuff, you have to go somewhere ...

I don't actually know where that is. I suppose it must somehow feed off  bad experiences that have happened in life, although I'm rarely aware of drawing on anything specific. I like to think I am a reasonably nice person, but give me a pen and paper ...

Conjuring up the scary and the gory isn't easy, but when the thing is working, in a perverse way, it can be a lot of fun. Now call me weird. You won't be the first.

Writing books is an exercise in fantasy, although that term tends to be applied these days only to stories with elves in them. Writers live in two worlds simultaneously. Here - and somewhere else entirely. It's solely inside your head, and that can be dark as well as light. Maybe there is an element of adrenaline junkie too. If you write it, you feel it. And now we're back to the 'fun' again.

I like writing the dark stuff, although I run a mile from it in real life. But, and it's a very significant but, my black stuff has to be tempered by a fully realised romance. Not just an add-on love affair. That's why I write Romantic Suspense. If I'm walking on the scary side I have to have the payoff of a hopeful ending and a new beginning to look forward to.

If I'm going into the dark, I have to know that something good is going to be waiting on the other side.

Where do you get your ideas?

The classic question, asked multiple times of authors during their careers.

Answer - I rarely know - it just happens.

Inspiration is a slippery thing. I find ideas are like buses - nothing for ages, then a whole glut at once. I have four and a bit ideas that I'm working on at the moment. Working  on - as in staring into space, thinking, and going on research trips. No danger of anything being written down yet.

This post is getting a transport theme. Room for one more on top?

Then I went to London for the day, and another idea came rolling round the corner. I've wanted for ages to do something involving the London Tube. I'm not big on tunnels, so I'm not sure where that came from. It was another of those random thoughts, floating around in the ether. Until last week, when an idea suddenly jumped out at me, climbing the steps at Charing Cross. And that has fitted with something  else that's been bobbing about in the soup in my brain. Just like Lego.

Well, it's going to have to take it's place in the queue. I've got far too much sloshing around in there at the moment. There are four and a half older and bigger siblings all clamouring for attention. And that's not to mention the rom/com novella that I am also working on. That one is written down, but I'm doing a major edit on it and it's slow going. This may be explained by the fact that all these other inspirations are dragging me away, trying to impress me. And research them.

Well, for the moment they are going to have to form an orderly line.

But maybe I ought to be penciling in a few trips on the Tube, just to get the atmosphere ...

Please leave your disbelief at the door ... Or not.

Since the last cinema in town closed I don't get to see many films on the big screen. So on my trip to London a few weeks ago I grabbed my chances. And one of the films I chose was Now You See Me. Robbery with magic - how could I resist? Especially as I'm currently planning my own heist story. No magic in mine, at least not at the moment.  Now You See Me has four magicians carrying out a series of exceptionally high profile robberies, chased by the cops.

I found the film great fun, but even as I was watching I was conscious of holes in the plot and unanswered questions. Thinking about it afterwards, the holes got bigger and the explanations which were offered more flimsy - but none of that interfered with my enjoyment. The story moved fast and the characters were engaging. That was all that mattered. I wanted to know 'What happens next?' I was quite prepared to suspend my disbelief in order to find out.

Books are a bit different from films in the cinema. You can't ask for the film to be wound back for you to check on something - you need to wait for the DVD to do that. During the editing process I get into trouble for avoiding explanations, and have to (reluctantly) fill in the blanks. But I'm still not convinced that we need to know everything. Maybe I'm wrong?

I suppose your willingness to let a few loose ends escape depends how much fun you're having in the process.