Dreams and Nightmares and Midsummer Night.

Ill met by moonlight ?

Fellow Choclit author Alison May's latest book came out in ebook last Friday. One of her Twentieth Century Bard series, it's a modern reworking of the Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Called, appropriately, Midsummer Dreams. As part of the launch celebration a number of fellow authors blogged about dreams and nightmares, and that got me thinking about the fact that both are the stuff of romantic suspense.

Extreme emotions are the bedrock of the genre - fear and love. How often have you heard it said that a painful experience in the waking world was 'a nightmare'. And, of course, love is so often linked to hopes and dreams. Really, when you think about it, this has to be day dreams, as sleeping dreams usually don't make sense. At least, mine don't.

Nightmares don't make sense either, but the emotion they usually provoke, of fear, is real. And that's where I come in, turning those emotions into a story. (Pause for evil laughter.) Why are we, as readers, so interested in crime and mayhem? No wants it in real life, but between the pages of a book - that's different. And, of course, love and romance turn up the heat too. Crime and romance are two of the most popular genres of fiction. Plenty to get your heart beating faster in both of them!

As I say frequently, it is very much easier to turn up the heat between hero and heroine when they are facing some external threat together. Nothing like fighting for your life to persuade you that the guy/girl fighting next to you just might be 'The One'. But first the writer has to decide on the threat. Nightmares are not much good for plot, the writer has to provide that, but they are great for the scary stuff - claustrophobia, being chased, being thrust into a situation that you are totally unprepared for. Anxiety dreams - but all the ingredients of a romantic suspense hair raiser, right there, in your own comfy bed.

Alison's book is in a much lighter vein, but if it follows the Shakespeare play, it has it's dark moments too. I'm looking forward to finding out how she has handled the supernatural elements of the play. Are the lovers going to be held under the spell of a mysterious love potion? And it all has to work out in the span of one night, The seasonal dates on the calendar have always had a certain resonance - the summer and winter solstices, midsummer, Halloween, points where supernatural realms are mean to be much closer to the regular human ones. Time when you can believe in magic. And dreams?

About Alison May's Midsummer Dreams

Four people. Four messy lives. One party that changes everything … Emily is obsessed with ending her father’s new relationship – but is blind to the fact that her own is far from perfect. Dominic has spent so long making other people happy that he’s hardly noticed he’s not happy himself. Helen has loved the same man, unrequitedly, for ten years. Now she may have to face up to the fact that he will never be hers. Alex has always played the field. But when he finally meets a girl he wants to commit to, she is just out of his reach. At a midsummer wedding party, the bonds that tie the four friends together begin to unravel and show them that, sometimes, the sensible choice is not always the right one.

You can download the kindle edition of Midsummer Dreams HERE

The Purpose of Siblings

Do heroes and heroines of romantic suspense have to be only children?

I've been musing on this one since I realised that all mine are. The published ones and the ones lurking in the filing cabinets. A few of them saw the light of day yesterday when I had to remove all the drawers in order to wheel a desk past them. The handles were sticking out. But I digress ...

I can't think of one book where the protagonists had siblings. Except for the Work In Very Slow Progress. Tess, the heroine, starts off with two brothers ... Not going to say any more, as that would be a spoiler before I've even got the book out from where ever it is inside my head that books wait to be written.

Of course it might be that I write about only children because I'm one. Write what you know, and all that. But I think there might be something deeper going on too. One of the key features of romantic suspense is that the protagonists should feel under threat. Isolation ups the stakes. So having no brothers and sisters - possibly no close family at all, to provide support and refuge - helps to increase a sense of menace.

Us writers tend to be a heartless lot when it comes to characters. They are expected to serve a purpose and pull their weight in driving the book along, or they have no business being there. The most obvious roles for a brother or sister are close confidant or arch rival. Or they could be under some sort of threat - the older sister who has to seek unsuitable employment or undertake some distasteful task in order to provide for her younger siblings is one of the staples of historical romance. She usually meets the hero as a result, so everything turns out right in the end.

A hero or heroine from a close family who is obliged to keep some sort of secret from them might be interesting to write, but on the whole a protagonist who has no-one is on a winner from the start if you want to write creepy and menacing. Which I do. Most of the time. Interestingly (well, I find it interesting) the H&H from the romantic comedy crime novella which I keep harping on about and which I really do hope gets published sometime this year (!!!!) are also onlies. In both their cases there is a reason for that which is not creepy or menacing. That's how they arrived, but I don't think the plot would hang together if either was part of a large family. Coincidence? Or is that the 'write what you know' surfacing again?  

It's all about the stories

A couple of weeks ago I did a lightening hop to London for the RNA summer party - as much fun as always and so good to catch up with friends. And soak up the writing atmosphere that I have been missing of late. The award for the Joan Hessayon was the big event of the evening ... congratulations to the wonderful finalists and winner Brigid Coady, who was very sweet about letting me hold the trophy. I gave it back with only the smallest of struggles.

I also managed to squeeze in a couple of hours at the Chelsea Flower Show the evening before. When I lived in Chelsea I was a regular, but I haven't been there for a while. Fun again to catch up. I took pictures, intending them to be for myself - a few memories and ideas for my own garden. (Dream big!!!!) When I ran through them I realised that several of the gardens and displays I had chosen to photograph seemed to tell a story, be an inspirational setting or be connected to some point in history, so I thought I would share a few of them after all.
 

I loved this one for the cool quality of the stone and the white and green planting. 

This was an evocation of a garden in the South of France. Perfect setting for a book? 

This was France again - the retelling of a story of an airman shot down in WWII

One for the history buffs - celebrating Magna Carta

Another historical theme - this time Waterloo

Do you come here often?

If you are writing romance, the first meeting between your hero and heroine is crucial. It ought to happen early, preferably on the first page, and it will probably set the tone for the rest of the book. It's the writer's equivalent of the chat up line - it needs to be interesting, memorable - plausible. Like locations for chat-ups there are favourite situations, a close encounter between vehicles in a car park, the start of a new job, some sort of mix up over a booking, where hero and heroine end up sharing anything from a hotel room to a house. Wills and inheritances are good too. As is falling, literally, into each others arms. 

He gives her flowers - is that cute?

It's frequently referred to as the 'Meet Cute' - if you can find a good one, you are probably onto a winner. But it isn't always easy. One of the complications is that instant attraction thing. Assuming you are not going down the love at first sight route, which can make it difficult to keep them apart later - why not just walk off into the sunset right now - then the couple has to go from strangers to soul mates in whatever the time span of the book happens to be. Fine if that's a year or so, but not if it's only a week. It is a bit simpler when you write romantic suspense, tension and life threatening situations turn up the heat nicely. 

Pondering this has made me wonder if this might be a reason for the apparent popularity amongst readers for 'friends to lovers' and 'lovers with past history' plots - the love story has had longer to work out, even if you don't see it all happening, and it is easier to believe that the relationship is the forever kind? 

I've been wondering as my recent ideas have all involved lovers with past history - the novella which I hope will be published this year, the one I am currently working on, which is a Romeo and Juliet type reunion, and another idea that has been bubbling on the edges. Am I taking the line of least resistance? 

Time to break out a few new ideas for a meet cute?   

Things that we don't do now.

I've been reading some of the classic crime books re-issued by the British Library, from mostly forgotten authors. They are still very enjoyable, particularly if you want a bit of a wallow in nostalgia - the village bobby and the wily police detective, the amateur sleuth, the total absence of DNA, telephones that are few and far between - bit like trying to get a signal on a mobile now :).

Get your quotes here?

One of the things that struck me while reading was something that you rarely see these days - I can't remember when I last encountered it in a book - chapter titles. Not only did the book itself require a title but each individual part of it also got a headline and/or a line of poetry or a quotation.

From Dickens to Tolkien and CS Lewis, and one of my great inspirations - Mary Stewart, who favoured the quotation method, they all gave individual chapters a heading. (Titles of books themselves were frequently quotations too - from the Bible, from Shakespeare or from poetry - again some of Mary Stewart's are lovely and intriguing - Nine Coaches Waiting, Madam, Will You Talk? This Rough Magic.)

The naming of chapters still happens in academic writing. When prowling the archives I am always on the lookout for snappy phrases and quotes to head up the sections of my dissertation. And resisting the temptation to invent a chapter just because I have a lovely quote.

When did the naming of chapters in fiction fall out of fashion? And why? E-books might have something to do with it, but I think it was declining before they were on the scene.

Will it ever come back, I wonder?

You are where you live?

I remember when I was in school, doing various quizzes designed to teach you about words. They probably don't do that kind of stuff now. (Stop sniggering - I've heard all the jokes about sharing the class with the dinosaurs) One of them was matching the animal to the home - bees to hive, badger to sett and so on.

Skyscraper?

So - how important is the place you call home to a character in a book? I think the choice could tell you a lot. A couple of my heroes probably would have very sparse, minimalist places, not really from choice, but simply because they don't accumulate much in the way of possessions - and, let's face it, it's the 'stuff' that ties you down. (Speaking as someone who has promised herself to de-clutter for at least the last two years!!!)

Or castle?

At the moment there are a number of historical buildings in my area that have been converted to residential use and offered for sale, which are what got me speculating about who might live  in those sort of spaces? How far does the place you live reflect or affect the person you are? How big a character revelation is your choice, if you are choosing a home?

Not something I've actively thought about in relation to characters before. I've known where they live, and why, without really thinking about it. Does that make sense?

Something else to put on the list of fun things to think about when you should be writing. Or even better than thinking - visiting. I'd love to spend some time in some of the unusual holiday venues I see advertised, like yurts and light houses.

Research. Its called research.

Pardon me, but your theme is showing ...

Now this picture seems to have the theme of buttons :)

There is a lot of advice out there for aspiring writers. I've read most of it and ignored a lot. Or at least, discovered that it doesn't work for me. Which is not quite the same.

One of the classic pieces of advice is - you must have a theme. I have to admit it is not one of my top ten  'must-dos'. As a reader I get irritated when books beat me over the head with the chosen motif and everyone seems to be suffering from a variation of the same problem. But other people must enjoy it, or it wouldn't be one of the perennial pieces of advice. I can see that it would be helpful to the writer in giving shape to the book and, done well, could be extremely satisfying to execute. It just doesn't suit me. We are all different, thank goodness.

But having said that, themes do creep up, without me being aware. The subconscious at work, I suppose. Not every book, but in some there is a definite thread that was not obvious when I started. In Never Coming Home it's lost children - and that applies to the adults in the book, too.

And of course, all my books are about secrets. The things people conceal or the things they don't know. And secrets can be a threat- something you have to protect, or a danger you don't appreciate. The nitty-gritty of romantic suspense.

The idea I am trying to work on at the moment, (When will someone invent the 36 hour day - please!) seems to be about names and identity - changing them, and the effect that has on life. It was definitely not there when I started, but it's interesting to see it playing out.

Maybe that advice to writers about themes goes deeper than you think?