Bruce and me?

 Those 'If you like that, you'll like this.' comparisons for books have always been around, but right now they seem to be having a particular moment. Influence of TikTok maybe? Using familiar illustrations to sell a concept has always been a thing for authors. Jane Austen meets Jaws, as an unlikely combination, was always my favourite fantasy elevator pitch, but hey, someone successfully pitched Sense and Sensibility with Sea Monsters, so maybe not such a fantasy. 

But to get to the present - book comparisons do seem to be hot. With other authors, with other books, with films. At the moment films appear to be popular. Probably seasonal, as watching Xmas films seems to be becoming a tradition, from It's a Wonderful Life to The Holiday. Also at the moment a debate seems to be raging about whether Die Hard is a Xmas movie. Or is that just the circles I move in? 

Bear with me, this is going somewhere. 

My publishers, Joffe, who like to be on top of these things, featured the film comparison idea in a recent newsletter, selecting a Choc Lit book to match a favourite film. Now my Xmas book has always been a bit of an odd duckling as it is romantic suspense. I think it is very romantic, but it does have kidnapping, attempted murder and a few dead bodies along with the tinsel and snow, Yes, there is snow, in the Brecon Beacons/Bannau Brycheiniog. This is a Xmas book, It's in the rules.  So. I was very amused to find that my newsletter comparison was yes, you have guessed it, Die Hard. 

Now I'm really not sure that Bruce Willis is the model for Drew, the hero of What Happens at Christmas. In fact I know he's not. No guns, no vests, no ventilation shafts. The late Alan Rickman now, one of my all time favourites, even if he is playing the villain. He's not Drew either, even though I fell for him playing Valmont in Les Liaison Dangerous at the RSC some time before that film shot him to stardom. Drew is a very successful adventure/fantasy author with a reckless streak and is up for the dare devil stuff, in the name of research, up to and including a fake kidnapping that abruptly turns into something else ...  

I have to say there is a lot more romance in WHAC than Die Hard, but linking WHAC with an action thriller gives the reader a really good clue about what they might be getting into.

I'll take it.   

And if you're looking for some excitement along with the mince pies ...

Enjoying Agatha

 Last week I had a great night out with friends - watching a performance of the stage version of Death on the Nile - which is currently touring. It's a long tour, so if it comes to a theatre near you, I recommend it. 

One of the attractions for me was actor Mark Hadfield as Poirot. Not a well known name generally but a long term favourite of mine from his time with the RSC. From rather hazy memory, it put me in mind of when Peter Ustinov played the part rather than TV's more recent David Suchet. I enjoyed his performance. and those of the rest of the cast who worked well together as a striking ensemble. 

Casting, set, costumes were all good and it was interesting to see where the plot had been adjusted to accommodate a stage setting, including a large and menacing sarcophagus that had its own part to play. You can't reproduce the river Nile on the stage (although I have been to performances that incorporate bodies of water, with greater and lesser degrees of success, as anyone who booked a seat at the National Theatre's production of Way Upstream will testify.) This one went for the feeling of sun and sand rather than water, and it worked. It added to the enjoyment of the evening to have these different elements drawing it away from various film iterations. 

Of course this production made me think of the research I did for Masquerade on the Riviera which was my own excursion into Egyptology and a bit of homage to Dame Agatha.    

The other thing that the performance provoked was a scamper through those film versions once I got home - hence the realisation that Mark Hadfield reminded me of Ustinov. That was a particularly star studded performance featuring, amongst others, David Niven, Angela Lansbury and Maggie Smith. The theatre production stood up to my memories of seeing that in the cinema - although it was screened in 1978 so some things were a bit hazy. 

The question has been asked often - what is the enduring appeal of Christie? I don't have an answer, but suspect the combination of a puzzle and a strong 'atmosphere', whether that is desert, train or country vicarage, has a lot to do with it. But when it comes down to it, Agatha Christie was a story teller - and human beings love stories.     

Snap judgements

A few weeks ago I attended the Bournemouth Festival of Romance Writing. You can find the post about it in the October archive list. I mentioned then the Slay the Slush Pile panel, when three editors indicated how far they would read in an anonymous script before deciding whether to reject or read on. The speed of the responses was fascinating - and I have to say, somewhat depressing. 

But now I have to admit that I have found myself doing something similar. A realisation that came to me when I sent back a selection on my Kindle that hadn't grabbed me in the sample pages. 

I have always been a die hard library user, from the age of seven, when you were allowed to have your first library card. You had to be able to sign your name and that was when you were expected to have mastered the art of joined up writing. 

My habits have changed quite a bit since becoming a Kindle reader. For a start, I actually buy more books. I still use the library, and am an avid user of the reservations system, but now I buy electronically from my favourite authors so I can have them faster, and keep them! 

My tolerance level seems to have gone down though. Using the sample feature and subscribing to Kindle Unlimited, if it doesn't grab me in the first few pages, back it goes. This may be a factor of getting old - a lot have friends have commented that they now give themselves permission not to finish a book that isn't holding their attention, where in past times they would have soldiered on. Large scale library use might be a factor here. When you have struggled home on the bus with your weekly quota of heavy reading matter it is harder to give up on a book and the hope that if you keep reading it will get better. To be fair, sometimes it did. But not often, And now I don't have the patience. Always more fish/books in the sea.  

Impatience? Yes. But also more choice. If you don't have to commit to carrying it/reading it to the - often bitter - end there is room to experiment. I've taken a chance on an unknown author, a genre I don't usually read, a recommendation from a friend - or an algorithm - and found a new one for the favourites list.   

A little lowering to discover that I am just as quick to make up my mind as those professional panelists? Maybe. 

Moral of the story - that first page matters. 

Christmas reading.

 Regular readers know that I never intended to write a Christmas book. It just sort of crept up on me. What Happens at Christmas has been around a while now, but if you haven't discovered it yet, why not give it a go? I'm still very fond of Drew and Lori and enjoyed telling their story, And, of course, there is snow.

It's got a new cover, and you can get it now on Kindle Unlimited. It's romantic suspense, so it has some dark stuff along with the tinsel and mince pies - but if you are looking for a Christmas read that is a little bit different....

And, of course it has a happy ending. 

  Get it here

Not where but when

 Choosing a location to set a book is an essential part of the preparation process, but at the moment I am not thinking about where - it's going to be the South Wales coast - but when. And no, it's not an historical. 

It's contemporary, but I'm thinking about which season it could be set in. 

In the old days, when books took maybe a year or more to get into print, I don't think it was quite such an issue. Books happened when they happened - or so it seemed to me. 

Now books are season appropriate. With the production rate moving up to two books a year, a summer story and a Christmas offering is often expected as a norm. Indeed, Christmas books certainly seem to be much more of a thing these days.

But now autumn too seems to be moving into the frame. With the emphasis on pumpkin spice, autumn decor, like door wreaths, celebration of Halloween, autumn is also becoming a thing. 

As you know, I'm not a great fan of this time of year, mainly because it's always so dark, but the New Idea seems to be trying to set itself in the autumn. I'm not sure if that is simply because it is autumn, or if something else is going on. Certainly at the moment the Idea is coming up with a gothic tinge to it. You know I'm always threatening to write a gothic romantic suspense. Is this one it? 

There seem to be a lot of creepy houses and stormy moonlit goings-on going on. And did I mention the wolf? No - it's not a shifter romance. Logan is 100% human. He's the hero - he's been wandering around in my ideas bank for a while. She doesn't have a name yet. I'm working on that, but nothing has felt right so far. 

Maybe once that happens I'll have a better grip on what exactly is happening here. 

Research Threads

 Research takes many forms - and not all of them are procrastination, honest. Sometimes you need to look up something specific like character names, or breeds of dog, or train frequencies. Other times it is deeper stuff - building blocks to an idea, inspiration, background colour. And sometimes those odd strands coalesce and form - well, something quite unexpected. 

In the last few weeks I have several things that I am chalking up as research. My visit to the Russel Cotes Museum and Gallery in Bournemouth was one, as I have a number of ideas in the melting pot that will involve a Victorian house. 

Then, on a trip to London and a visit to one of my favourite occult bookshops - Watkins in Cecil Court,  I located a book that was on my wish list - Of Dove and Ravens by Benjamin Stimpson which is Welsh folklore and will again feed ideas into ongoing projects. I've just written what I hope is a creepy scene involving the Mari Lwyd  - which is a horse skull on a pole - for the WIP, and as that book has a character reputed to be a local witch who has just made her first appearance I'm looking forward to other traditional folklore I can use. The last thing I did in London was a trip to the play Born with Teeth which explored the relationship between Elizabethan playwrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. I've long had a manuscript idea that hinges on such a relationship so it was a must see. And a memorable one with  Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel in bravura performances. 

All of these were to feed the inspiration bank, adding layers to ideas I am already working on or will be working on in the future. And then as sometimes happens an idea that I'd had a considerable time ago and not developed suddenly surfaced, gathered some of these elements up and became ... well, something. Separate bits smooshed themselves together and started to demand attention. I'm not sure where we are going, but I like what I'm seeing so far.  Whether it will be a story or simply idea soup remains to be seen, but I'm hoping ...

A Day at the Museum

 I'd made an executive decision not to travel back from Bournemouth after the fabulous Romance Writing Festival on a Sunday. Having had the train journey from hell on the way down, I did not regret the decision. (The journey back on Monday went like clockwork!) 

But what do you do on a wet Sunday in Bournemouth when you forgot to pack your umbrella?  I didn't relish tramping around getting soaked - and it was raining cats and dogs, all day. Luckily I had done my homework and discovered the Russel Cotes Museum and Gallery which I was keen to explore. Also luckily it was very close to my hotel. Even so I had to dry my showerproof coat out with a hair dryer when I squelched back after a fun day spent at the house. It is one of those gloriously bonkers Victorian piles - all turrets and verandas outside and stuffed full of treasures inside. It was a 66th birthday present from Sir Merton Russel Cotes to his wife Annie. The couple owned and managed the Royal Bath Hotel next door - where the Festival was held - and staff from the hotel looked after the devoted couple who lived there until they died.  I loved it. The decor - basically if it was a wall or ceiling, paint it, tile it or stencil it. If it was a window, put stained glass in it. If it was vertical, hang art on it, if it was horizontal put an ornament on it. The house was perched high above what was a very rough sea on that day. Many of the rooms and the lovely little conservatory had spectacular views mostly of lashing waves. 

The art was also spectacular - the house was intended to be a gallery to be left for the benefit of the people of Bournemouth and the Russel Cotes' were avid collectors. Victorian art - including a couple of lovely Pre-Raphaelites - sculpture, small pieces in china and metal - cabinets full of ornaments. Even a small museum to the famous actor Henry Irving who was a friend of the couple and stayed often at the hotel. I spent a happy day going from room to room studying the comprehensive catalogue in each one that explained the details of what I was looking at. A scone and tea in the very nice cafe, and a trip to the gift shop rounded off the day.   

As I have two idea simmering which involve Victorian houses it was a worthwhile research exercise. Plenty of thoughts to stoke the simmer. 

If you want to take a look the website with lots of pictures of house and art is HERE