Ambiguous Heroes

I’ve been musing this week on the Choc-lit blog on the nature of heroes. Alan is here, in his Sheriff of Nottingham era, as an illustration of the kind of actor who plays heroes and villains with equal talent. And because it’s always nice to look at a picture of him. Thanks to Mary for this one. If you want to have a look at another actor who’s equally at home on both sides of the tracks, check out the Choc-lit blog today, as it was my turn to chose Wednesday’s hot man.

That’s how I like my actors, and that’s how I write my heroes. They all have some pretty dangerous stuff in their past and with a flip of the coin they could be either hero or villain. Not necessarily the sort you want to cuddle up to. So my heroines have to be the kind of women who can handle that. I’ve got four men in my life at the moment.

Devlin – the hero of Never Coming Home has worked for an un-named government agency that does unspecified things – dark deeds, done in the dark. He’s retired from that now, but he can’t change his past and has great difficulty in believing that Kaz can accept him for what he is. He’s also pretty good in a fight, which is useful when you’re chasing bad guys all over Europe, trying to find out what happened to your daughter.

Jay – he’s the hero of the other book that made the final in the American Title contest, Out of Sight, Out of Mind. (If you want to know more about that, have a look at my website.) Jay has a big problem. He doesn’t remember who he is, or anything about his past. He has a horrible suspicion that it’s something pretty black and that somehow he’s a threat to Madison, my heroine, who’s trying to help him. And of course, he’s right.  

Oh – and he and Madison can both read minds. Just so you know.

Luke – he’s the hero of The Last Thing You See and an old friend. This one is a bottom drawer book. I love the story – and Luke, naturally - but it was an early effort at romantic suspense. When the third person who read it gave me exactly the same list of things that were wrong with it, I heaved a sigh and put it away. But I love the book, and after a couple of years I have an idea of what I’m going to do with it. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story, only Luke survived the tragedy and now has to live with it.  And without Miranda – until he gets a very strange e-mail. I’m really looking forward to going back to this one to try again with it.

Zack – he’s the man in my work in progress. I call it that, but The Camelot Game is still very much at the thinking about and research stage. Zack is a slightly different hero, maybe a little less of an Alpha, which may be the effect of issues he has from someone trying to bury him alive. Kate, my heroine, gets to come to his rescue on one occasion, and he’s confident enough in himself to be OK with that. This book is a treasure hunt, with stolen art work and conspiracies and clues to an old Victorian mystery. The research is going to be fun, but time consuming, I think.

So – those are the men in my life – or at least on my pages. I hope you’ll get to meet them all one day.

Life's a Beach

Tide going out - or maybe coming in!



Shells and pebbles.



One of the standard questions for any author interview is 'Where do you get your ideas?'

Living by the sea doesn't exactly give me ideas, except for my pirate/smuggler historical series, which I hope to get back to writing some day. That is set firmly in the area where I live, and I have a very clear idea of all the locations involved and what takes place in them, although I have taken a few liberties with the geography. But hey, I'm a writer - it's what we do.

If you live by the sea you always have a place to walk to. And a walk, and a look at the ocean, is my favourite way of sorting out hiccups in the plot, characters who won't behave or too much staring at the computer screen.



Coming into harbour

So - I thought today I'd share some of the photos I've taken, when I remember to put my camera in my pocket. I was walking the other evening, there was no wind, and the sea was literally like a mirror. Very weird. Of course, that night I didn't have the camera. I did have it in my pocket to capture a shot of a tall ship, coming into harbour. It's a modern version, but it looks like a good stand-in for my pirate ship to me. So maybe that walk did give me some inspiration.





Hold the Back Page!

You're in a bookshop, choosing  the one that's going home with you tonight, to keep you company for the next day or two - or maybe it will replenish the TBR pile. How do you make that choice? Maybe you've read a review. Maybe you've read something else by that author. Maybe you've had a recommendation from a friend.

If none of these apply, then the first thing that draws you will be the cover. Then you might flip the book over, to see what's on the back. Then you might open the book, to read the first page. And it's only then that you get to the bit that is down to the author. The creative talent that goes into the cover and the synopsis on the back are in other hands.

Whenever writers gather there are always stories about horrific covers - the rom-com decked out like a misery memoir, or vice versa. And we've all read the blurb on the back that tells you the whole story before you've even bought the book. A bit like modern film trailers, which show you all the high spots, so you feel as if you've already seen the film. Sometimes the trailer is better than the film!

Choc-lit work hard on their covers and the story on the back of the book to ensure that they reflect the story inside the book. The back cover synopsis for Never Coming Home is now on the Choc-lit website, if you'd like to take a look.

http://www.choc-lit.co.uk/htm/never_coming_home.html

What do you think?

Finding the Plot

One of the classic questions in any interview with an author is - Are you a plotter or a pantser?  i.e. do you plan your writing or simply fly by the seat of your pants. A more elegant expression for that is writing into the mist.

Well, I would have said that I'm in the second category, but I'm currently doing my first ever edits/re-writes - for Never Coming Home  - and the questions my editors are asking have sent me back to my original working papers for the book. And what did I find? Far more plotting than I ever remembered doing. I have time lines for the characters, charts of how old they all are at any given point, diagrams of where in the world everyone is at crucial moments. (I remember that one - it was when I woke up in the middle of the night convinced I had my murderer in two places at once. I hadn't, but I worked it all out, just to make sure.) There are lists of character's motivation, timetables for fight scenes and family trees.

I think I'd forgotten how much work I did as it was not all done at once, but gradually, as I needed it. Once I'd worked it out and written the scene, what was written took over and the stuff on the back of the envelope faded into the background. But it's there, like a skeleton or a scaffolding, holding the whole thing up.

Nice to know I'm a lot more organised than I thought.

An Update for my Website.

I first got into writing romantic thrillers when I made it into the final of the American Title Competition, run by Romantic Times magazine. I didn't win, but everyone said I really must go to the RT Convention, in Pittsburgh, as it would be a once in a lifetime experience. So I did, and it was amazing. And the next year I entered the contest again, and got into the final again. And that book was Never Coming Home. I didn't go to the convention that year, but I do hope to repeat the trip one day. Maybe next year, in Chicago?

The slogan used by the finalists in ATV.

The convention is a huge affair. As well as parties, lunches, balls and book signings, there are a large number of panels, where writers can learn all sorts of skills. I attended several, and was surprised to hear that a website was considered essential, even for an unpublished author. A number of editors and agents made it clear that they would check whether a writer had one, as soon as they received a manuscript. I thought about it for a while, and then decided to give it to myself for a birthday present, two years ago.

It was designed for me by the lovely Paul, and I was thrilled with it. It's now been updated with some new information on the books and work in progress. If you want to check it out, you'd be very welcome.

http://www.evonnewareham.com.

The Joy of Research



Yet more Archives!



Just back from another archive trip - not the National Archive this time, despite the photo. This time I really got around - the British Library, the Newspaper Archive in Colindale, the London Metropolitan Archive and a lovely little gem in the City - the Museum of the Order of St John, better known these days as the St John Ambulance. More about that at another time. I also crammed in some theatre. More about that later too. All this activity may be why I feel this morning like someone has borrowed my brain, and forgotten to return it. Archive research is essential for the academic stuff I'm involved in, and a delightful and justifiable indulgence/wonderful displacement activity, if you write historicals. (Can't actually write anything today - not until I've researched eighteenth century medicine, or the battle of Waterloo, or this very important detail about gentlemen's wigs ... you get the picture.)

As my chosen genre of the moment is contemporary romantic suspense, I don't get to do a lot of archive stuff for that. Devlin, the hero of Never Coming Home is more your action hero type. Actually he'd probably look over his shoulder if you called him a hero, wondering who you were talking about, as he doesn't think of himself that way. But I do, and so does Kaz, so he'll just have to get used to it. Only don't tell him I said that. I don't want to get on the wrong side of him. No-one wants to get on the wrong side of Devlin. Kaz can manage him, I'll leave her to sort him out. If we say he's a hero, he's a hero. And I'll hide behind her while she tells him.



RNA Party - IME Library - Jan and Myra, looking very glam.



But - back to the research - for Never Coming Home it was more practical stuff, which is why, when I was writing it, I spent a morning before an RNA summer party researching exactly which bench in St James' Park was suitable for murder. There are a lot of benches in St James' Park, but I found one that was just right. And then I had to work out how long it would take to get there from Scotland Yard. After my third trip around the block I began to worry about getting arrested for showing a suspicious amount of interest . 'Well, you see Officer, I'm writing this book ...

Then, the day after the party, I went down to Hayes, an old haunt when I lived in London. (I still have fond memories of the prefabs in the grounds of the Town Hall - my first 'proper job'.) That day I was looking at derelict buildings. I needed one close to the railway line. I won't tell you what for, but it did stop all the trains in and out of Paddington for a couple of hours. No - not what I did - (We're back to being arrested again.) I was a good girl and stood on the pavement, in the rain, and peered at suitable buildings. It was what Devlin did that stopped the traffic. I'll leave that one to your imagination. That's the fun part about being an author, you can do just about anything you like.  Anyway I found several that were close enough to the line to make what I had in mind plausible, and there you go. Worth the train fare and the rain.

It's a hard life, making all this stuff up.

Cardiff Landmarks



The fountain - the Torchwood bunker was meant to be under here.




With Torchwood back on the screen, although no longer located in Cardiff, I thought I'd dedicate today to a few of the city's landmarks that fans might recognise. I used to work in the area of Cardiff where the series was filmed. Filming usually took place at night, and I frequently ran into camera crews, with equipment still strewn all over the road, while on my way to work in the morning. The night scenes contributed to the edgy atmosphere of the show, and it was always fun trying to work out which part of the city you were looking at.


Torchwood was not the only series to be filmed around the Bay and in the surrounding area. Doctor Who was/is also filmed around here. 


The Pierhead Building



The original pilot for the recent modern version of Sherlock Holmes, with Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor Watson, was also made in Cardiff Bay. If you have the DVD of the series you get to see it, but the version that was actually screened was re-filmed using London locations. I preferred the Welsh version, but maybe I'm biased.



The Millennium Centre



The Millennium Centre is

 another familiar landmark from Torchwood. It was also the location of the first public reading from Never Coming Home.

But that's another story.