95 years ago ...

10th January 1914
Pancho Villa leads the Mexican Revolution

2nd February 1914
Charlie Chaplin makes his film debut in the comedy short Making a Living

10th March 1914
Suffragette, Mary Richardson, attacks a painting in the National Gallery with a meat cleaver

20th April 1914
The Colorado National Guard attacks a tent colony of 1,200 striking miners, killing 24 people

25th May 1914
Parliament agrees to Irish Home Rule

28th June 1914
Gavrilo Princip, a Serb nationalist, assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Duchess Sophie, in Sarajevo, sparking off the First World War

28th July 1914
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia and its army marches on Belgrade

August 1914
War spreads in Europe

September 1914
Further battles in Europe. Casualties already exceed 500,000

October 1914
33,000 Canadian troops depart for Europe - the largest force to cross the Atlantic

14th November 1914
A son is born in London's East End to Bluma and Isaac Alper, their 4th (and last) child. They name him Morris (Moshe ben Yitzchak in Hebrew)

Happy 95th birthday to my dad!

I would post photos of our celebration lunch, but my cable's gone AWOL, so I'm afraid you'll have to make do with the one I posted this time last year.

All above info found on Wikipedia *blush* here with links.

UPDATE: Missing camera cable has resurfaced in the debris on a certain person's desk.
I name no names, but watch my eyes, dear First Born ...

Anyway - here are the pix.

Collectormania - proof I wasn't dreaming ...

Oooh - lookee here. I'd begun to think my forthcoming appearance at Collectormania was a figment of my feverish imagination ...

But no. It must be true. I'm going to be there. It says so here ...

In fact it seems like I'm popping up all over the place online because bookings are now open for the Festival of Writing taking place in York next April.

You have no idea how much trouble I had finding a decent photo of myself that wouldn't have people running for cover.

The important thing is (of course it's all that matters and no one but me gives a damn about how I look in the pic) the Festival looks amazing and worth the entry fee for the one-to-one pitches to agents alone. Except there's a great deal more on offer than that.

What's not to love? (Apart from the pic of me, but we won't go there, oh no we won't.)

Family matters

'Everybody in here, please. I need your help.'

G and the boys obediently gathered round while I explained the dilemma.

45,000 words into my WIP, a new character has come on the scene. His existence had been referred to in passing but, as is so often the case, I had no idea why I'd written him in. To prove the point, he'd just muscled his way into the narrative.

I knew who he was, knew a fair bit about his background, his impact on the other characters ... I even knew what he looks like.

But one thing was holding me up. I didn't know his name. Until I got that, I couldn't work out his full role - though it was only just occurring to me that he had one and it might be more significant than I'd realised.
I told G and the boys I needed a nickname, not a real one.

The men in my life rose to the occasion, bless 'em, firing random words at me. As fast as they came, they were rejected, including my own contributions.

Then ...
'Switch,' First Born said.
He'd been looking round the room, calling out the names of anything he could see.
'Switch,' I murmured. 'Do you know ... I think that's it.'

Later, soaking in the bath, scene of so many writerly revelations, the metaphorical switch had literally been flicked and everything fell into place.
I could see all the way to the end of the book; knew almost exactly what was going to happen and how, could see the resolution, the narrative arc, the whole megillah.

It reminded me of when I was writing Trading Tatiana. There's a scene set in Greenwich Maritime Museum where Tatiana performs some impressive acrobatics to escape from her pursuers. We spent an entire afternoon at the Museum, checking out the scene I depicted from every angle and working out the logistics. Then we came home and re-enacted it with toys.

Writing is such a solitary pursuit, but occasionally it can be a family affair.

So ... I have some questions for you:

• How do you come up with names for your characters?
• Do you ever enlist other people's help to come up with names or sort out any other sticking points?
• Do you ever find a character has muscled their way into your narrative but you have no idea why until it suddenly becomes clear much later what their function is?
• Does that blow your mind??? (It does mine - and I love it.)
  

Are you a Collectormaniac?

This writing life sometimes throws up unexpected - and occasionally downright weird - opportunities.

I was contacted recently by the lovely people at Mystery Women.
(You may remember their review of Trading Tatiana.
And I just found this post that I wrote about them over 3 years ago.)

This clever bunch, whose aim is to 'raise the awareness and profile of female crime writers and provide a forum for enthusiastic crime fiction readers', has secured a stall at the forthcoming Collectormania event at Olympia on 28th and 29th November.

Just check out that link. Have you ever seen anything more glitzy? And this is an event you can come to yourself and meet with a dazzling array of mega-name slebs. It's run by Showmasters, who organise high profile signing shows mainly focused on TV & film actors, writers and directors.

For the Olympia event, rubbing shoulders with the Glitterazzi, will be a small band of brave authors and their books on the Mystery Women stall. I can't imagine many of the 100,000 people expected to attend over the course of the weekend will have come especially for the opportunity to meet one of us, but that's serious passing trade. And you never know ...

*Drifts off into fantasy of big-name Hollywood producer picking up a copy of one of my books and saying, 'Hmm. This would make an excellent movie. Let me just go over there and chat to John Barrowman and ask if he's free to take a starring role ... I predict this is going to be huge. Huger than huge ...'*

What? Oh yes. Sorry. Now, where was I?

Ah yes. So, it's an inexpensive day out for the collectormaniacs and should provide me with enough fodder for volumes of fiction and years of blog posts.
Steampunk zone anyone? Or maybe comics are your thing. Or perhaps you're a fan of Twilight. Or you like dressing up.
Then there are the guest days, photoshoots, autographs ...
And I'll have a guest pass and access to the Green Room.
I might even find out why it's called that ...

I could go on and on ... (and have been known to) so I'll stop there and just say that if you're going please pop over to the Mystery Women stall and say hello.

And if you're not, I will of course be blogging the experience. Just try stopping me ...

The Reign in Spain ...

Cast your mind back ... back ...
No, further than that. All the way to here.

My man in Spain, Steve Redwood, has been in touch and he has something to celebrate.
His book of short stories, Broken Symmetries, has just been published.

And he even has a blog. Wonders will never cease ...
It's called A Seriously Disturbed Mind.
So you can't say he didn't warn you ...

Here's what Steve has to say about this latest venture:

Actually, I’m rather pleased this collection has been published, as many of the stories reflect a less... shall we say, merry … side of my character, and taken as a whole are more representative of my damned soul than the novels. Also, the book is attractive as a physical object, large clear print, plenty of white space (there's an excerpt on Amazon.com).

What was that? "Just in time for Christmas?" Funny you should say that…

Kisses, manly hand shakes, grovelling apologies, punches on the nose – you all know which applies to you!!

Steve

PS I might see my way to forgiving you for not buying a copy yourself if:

1. you can prove penury or blindness or illiteracy, or

2. you forward this email to friends (and enemies!). As I'm out of the country, I have no other way of spreading the Good News.

Pleasure's all mine, Senor Redwood.

Mega lit post

There's so much going on lit-wise that any of the following would be justified in having its own post, but I'm grouping them together here.

First off, I know many of you are as yet unpublished.
Just as I know that many of you are talented writers who deserve to be published.

One way to get recognition for your words is to enter competitions.
In which case, you might be interested in the Brit Writers' Awards Unpublished 2010.


There are adult and child categories for novels, short stories, poems and songs with a whopping £10,000 prize.
There is a one-off admin fee of £10.95 and you can make as many submissions as you like once you've paid that. Entry rules and conditions are here.
I've been asked to be on the panel of judges for the adult novel category.
Judging criteria here.

Ding ding. Next please.

How do you fancy a whole weekend devoted to writing?
Would it help to know there is an amazing line up of authors, editors and agents?
That it will be held on the campus of the fabulous York University with en suite accommodation and all meals provided?
That the price for the full weekend (£345) also includes all events on the programme, your choice of workshops and 3 one-to-one slots where you can directly pitch your writing to a top agent?
That there is also a one day option (£145) or a mini course (£60) on the Friday?
If so, welcome to the Festival of Writing 2010 which will take place next April.

I've been asked to lead a workshop and, together with Emma Darwin, run the mini-course.
Tickets on sale from 1st November.

And the next one please ...

Remember Hoovering the Roof, the anthology by members of the East Dulwich Writers' Group?
It's all systems go. The book is in the final stages before going off to print.

We have a launch event planned for Thursday 26th November at the Bookseller Crow on the Hill, my fave indie bookshop.
Details nearer the time.

Last orders please ...

And last but by no means least, Richard Woodhouse, long-standing and multi-talented member of the writers' group, will be reading from his novel, Deathless, at a Halloween event on Wednesday 28th October at Brockwell Lido.

The event, Dark Waters, is organised by One Eye Grey.
See here for details.

Road Rage - a brief update

In case you were wondering, this situation is ongoing.

I still don't want to say more right now in case it's perceived as prejudicing the investigation.

Many thanks to those of you who have commented and others who have emailed me.
Your support is greatly appreciated.

If a point comes when we decide to go public, I promise to post the details here first.

BAD post

Our language is evolving all the time. First 'bad' stopped meaning ... er ... bad and started meaning 'good'.

Now it means something else entirely. And it's very, very good indeed.
I'm talking about BAD, as in Blog Action Day.
And it's today!

Can you think of a single area of life that climate change won't impact on?
The food you eat, the place you live, the clothes you wear, your mode of transport, your health, the air you breathe, your community ...
And in the poorest countries, your life itself.

Though some may still disagree about the causes of climate change, the one thing all intelligent people agree on is that it's happening - and at a far faster rate than previously thought.

So what can we do?

Well, for starters, we can think carefully about our own impact on the planet. Choosing locally sourced food, growing our own, re-using and recycling, refusing goods that are heavily packaged, lowering thermostats, using cars less, switching off appliances, reducing our waste ... the list goes on.

But it's big business and industries that really need to make the changes. And they're generally only interested in their short term profit margins and sod the future.

Who can make them change their practices?
Governments.
And who can influence governments?
Well, you can of course!

And the good news is you don't even have to leave your computer screen to make a difference.
Click here to find out how you can add your voice to the millions demanding action.

Go on. What are you waiting for? For Hell to freeze over? It could happen, y'know ...

Your chance to save the world

Blog Action Day is this Thursday, October 15, and this year the focus is on Climate Change.

At this point, 6,057 bloggers have already registered from 126 countries, with a total readership of 10,787,561. More are registering even as I compose this post. See here for the full list.

If you haven't registered yet, it is not too late. Sign up here

Once you've signed up all you need to do is write a post about climate change this Thursday. There will be a live feed of all your posts on the Blog Action Day homepage so you can track the conversation.

Meanwhile, you can find ideas about what to post and how to get involved on the BAD Blog.

Climate change affects us all and threatens to cause famine, flooding, war and displace millions of people. Given the urgency of the issue and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, the blogosphere has a unique opportunity to mobilise millions of people around the world to try to find a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.

Be part of the conversation. Register now.

Road Rage

Apologies for the paucity of posts. I'm snowed under with work, which is great but leaves little time for blogging.

I also have a very unwelcome distraction that is taking up time and energy.

For legal reasons, I can't go into details at this point, but I will just say this:

I will NOT allow my children to be verbally abused (First Born) or physically assaulted (Little Guy)
in the street ...
by a teacher ...
at a neighbouring school ...
who appears to assume that, as they are state school children, they deserve no better.

It just ain't gonna happen.

My Mum

My Mum had a very expressive sniff.
With one sharp intake of breath through her nostrils, she could say more than most people do in acres of rambling speech.

My Mum used to tease my Dad about his lack of SOA (Spirit of Adventure).
Life had to have a full quota of fun and laughter.

My Mum always wore an apron;
Utilitarian ones for everyday use and frilly, lacy jobs for special occasions.

My Mum loved school.
She was devastated when she was taken out aged 12, on the grounds that girls didn't need an education.

My Mum was determined her children should have the opportunities denied to her.
She loved writing stories, but never did.

My Mum would have had a brilliant relationship with G.
She would have 'got' him, sorted him out.

My Mum would have been besotted by my children.
And they would have adored her.

My Mum loved this time of year, when families gather together to celebrate the New Year.
She would have preened and basked in a way she never had the chance to do in life.

My Mum died eighteen years ago today.

(NOTE: This should have been published on the English anniversary of Mum's death on Sunday. She would have been blown away to know she was the subject of a blog post.)

Psst - wanna join a flashmob?

The message arrived by email.
Lots of emails, to be accurate.
Lots of emails and lots of links ...
But I already knew the answer would be a resounding 'YES'.
I've always wanted to be a part of a flashmob ...

So what's it going to be? Pillow fight? Spontaneous disco dancing? Moon walking?
Neither - it's co-ordinated mobile phone alarms.
It's about putting pressure on governments to take a firm stand on climate change.
And it's organised by the Good Guys of Cyberspace, Avaaz.

Monday 21st September
12.00 midday
Mel and I arrive at Parliament Square and head for our designated spot in front of Westminster Abbey.
I nudge Mel in the ribs.
'There!' I hiss. 'That's them!'
'Who? What?'
I indicate 3 women in blue t-shirts holding umbrellas and exchange conspiratorial nods with them.
'There - they're wearing blue and they're carrying umbrellas.'
Mel looks a trifle panicky. She hadn't read all the emails and has no idea what I'm talking about.
'So?'
'So it's a signal. They know what's happening. Keep an eye on them.'

We do, trying to blend in and look like tourists. It's not easy and we both wish we had proper cameras instead of our mobiles. Our eyes dart round looking for other likely suspects. I smoke a fag. Mel eats a banana.

12.15 pm
Oozing faux nonchalance, we head across the road and into the centre of the square.

12.18 pm
Alarms ring out from 300 phones and assorted alarm clocks. From all over the square, 300 right arms are raised into the air.
There should be 302. Mel and I had synochronised with the website yet somehow we've managed to set our clocks 2 mins slow.
Never mind. We raise our silent phones in solidarity and hope no one will notice when they belatedly beep a couple of minutes later.
After joining in with the obligatory whoops and yells, we all turn north to face Mandela's statue.
'Tick, tick, tick,' we all chant, representing the time we have to save the planet ticking away.
Then we all call Gordon Brown on the numbers supplied in those emails.

12.30 pm
It's all over and we drift away to get the bus home.

Due to road works and traffic jams, we were out for about 3 hours to take part in a 5 minute protest.
Was it worth it?
Well, apart from giving me the opportunity to spend some quality time with Mel on a glorious Autumn day, it seems the message did get through.

And it wasn't just us. All over the world events - over 2,200 of them - were taking place as ordinary people came together in a common cause to save our planet.

And I fulfilled a long held ambition to be part of a flashmob.
I'd post photos - if someone could just tell me how to get them from phone to blog ...
Other, less technically challenged people, fared better - see here.
Someone got me - can you see me?


You can still be part of the movement, even if you missed the day's events.
All you have to do is call the leader of your government, urging her or him to travel to Copenhagen for the climate talks in December and sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty.
You can find the appropriate phone numbers as well as photos and a live blog here.

Here a book, there a book, everywhere a book book ...

Let's see now ...

The deadline for submissions to Hoovering the Roof, the anthology of work produced by members of the East Dulwich Writers' Group, is this Sunday.
16 people have contributed short stories, poems and novel extracts, which have all been through a collective editing process.

Now we need to do everything else necessary to gather them together into a book ready for publishing.

Then there's the project I suggested to the parent/teacher literacy steering group at the boys' school.

'Let's produce a book to tie in with the 50th anniversary,' I suggested a few months ago.

'Great idea,' came the reply last week. 'Let's do it. We can produce a time line covering the last 5 decades, with sections dealing with what was happening at the school at each stage, slots for major national and international events, blasts of popular culture as well as reminiscences and anecdotes from former staff and pupils. It should be visually exciting and will be a celebration of how far we have come.'

'Fantastic! So what's the time scale?'

'Um - we need to launch it at the celebratory event ... at the end of October ...'

Then there's the new development for my freelance editing.
I've always liked to stay in contact with authors whose books I've critiqued, but it's sometimes hard to know when my part of the job is over.
The logical next step has been mentoring and (oh, lucky me) the first person to take up this offer has been the Queen.

She's been blogging in some detail about the process and I'm delighted it seems to be working so well for her. It's certainly a labour of love for me and it's wonderful to be a part of her journey to create a book that I'm convinced is going to be utterly fab!

Oh, yes. And then there's my book. Over halfway and I THINK it's going ok.

Thing is, it doesn't matter how many other books you edit and critique, doing it for yourself is another thing entirely.
Editors need editors too.

Big up to the Squirrel

I mentioned in that last post that I couldn't take the credit for my new blog look, but I didn't tell you who was responsible.

Squirrels can be shy, so I wanted to check with her first.
I'm really pleased that she's allowing me to credit her.

If the world is roughly divided between givers and takers, Beleaguered Squirrel is deffo in the former group. In spite of flying high with a major career change while simultaneously juggling a couple of kids (not easy with those teensy tiny paws) she still found time to devote to me and my blog.

There have been the inevitable teething problems.

The new links I'd added were inexplicably triplicated - easy to sort even for a techy twit like me.

And I managed to work out why all the links embedded in posts seemed to have disappeared ...
that'll be cos I'd set them up to be the same colour as the background then ...

But my stat counter and site meter have also gone AWOL.
I get summaries emailed to me and I've come to the conclusion that ...

EITHER people hate the new look so much that word has gone out to boycott my blog - a highly effective manvoevre since it appears I haven't had a single visit since the switch ...

OR I need to configure something or other.
Any ideas?

One good thing about making the changes was that I needed to blog surf to update the links and came across 2 things that made me laugh out loud.
I'll share them with you here - assuming you're not boycotting me.
If you are, it's your loss, cos they're really very funny.

On Aba's Place I saw this. At a time we're all being warned about germs spreading on public transport, this is a timely reminder that not everything that's infectious is bad.

And Sue G posted this - one author's response to negative reviews.

Enjoy.