The Story Behing Hector's Hobbies.

Hector is the second book in the series suggested by Carmen Callil when I was at Chatto and Windus.

I doubt there is an author who does not dream of their book becoming a film or adapted for TV.  Such dreams coming true are as rare as hens’ teeth.  The problem sets in when you get a call that someone wants to buy an optioned on your book - an option is one thing, it coming to fruition is another.  When this happens, my advice is always the same - bank the money and forget about it.

For those who don’t know I’d best explain.  A film company or an individual will ask for an option, usually for a year, to make your book into a film etc.  At the end of the year if they are still hopeful they will take another option for another year and so on.  There are stories, largely apocryphal I’m sure, of authors getting cheques from Hollywood studios for years because the project has been forgotten.  I wish!  Several of mine were optioned and I had learnt, the hard way, that I was more likely to win the lottery.

Molly and Hector were a special case, however; and I ignored my own advice and became hopeful.  Bryan Izzard, a producer with a CV as long as your arm, optioned Molly with the understanding that he would option Hector if . . .!  Bryan was successful - On the Buses, The Rag Trade were just two of his successes, when I met him he was working on Channel 4 with Melvyn Bragg.  He was a huge man with a huge personality, I adored him the moment I met him

We were invited to Pinewood Studios for an exploratory meeting, where we met Roger Marshall who was to write the script - another experienced and successful professional, he had written many of the Lovejoy episodes.  I was wide eyed and star struck, gawping at the familiar faces in the huge dining room.  Pinewood is redolent of the past and I  quite expected James Mason or Stewart Granger to appear at any moment.

The good news was that Bryan, Roger and myself hit it off immediately.  I was kept abreast of what was going on, my opinion was asked.  We were set fair.  The first script was rejected by the BBC and so Roger wrote a second.  By now we were into the second option but things were getting very exciting.  We had Penelope Keith on board to play Molly - perfect casting - and Timothy West as a possible Hector.  The  BBC were enthusiastic and paid for further development.

It was a Tuesday, Bryan rang to say  the final meeting, when the BBC would rubber stamp the go ahead, was set for Thursday.  On Wednesday the commissioning editor changed.  On Thursday Tales from Sarson Magna was rejected - the new editor didn’t like it!

I was so disappointed.  Several years later, the phone rang, it was Penelope’s husband asking if there was a possibility of it being resurrected.  I said of course, trying to sound as laid back as possible.  But I never heard anymore.

Herein lies the warning.  Counting chickens springs to mind.  Best to wait until it is on the screen - just to make sure.

The Story of Molly's Flashings

The story behind Tales From Sarson Magna - Molly’s Flashings.

In 1991 Molly’s Flashings was published by Chatto and Windus.  I was lucky, far luckier than I had the sense to realise, to be involved with such a prestigious publisher.  The  MD was Carmen Callil who, rightly, was regarded as one of the most brilliant and innovative publishers in London.  One of the founders of Virago, when I met her she was revitalising Chatto and bringing it into the 20th century - it was not an easy task since there was resistance to her plans.  This great literary house was resting on its laurels and while it was all very well to be regarded as the most esteemed house it did not help pay the bills! 

I was writing my first trilogy - The Daughters of a Granite Land - when Carmen suggested that, at the same time, I write a series of books set in an English village.  “I want 18,” she said - this made me quail.  I thought about it on the long train journey back to Cornwall and by the time I arrived in Penzance, I had the makings of a plan.

Writing Molly and the sequel Hector’s Hobbies, was fun.  They are quite short and uncomplicated.  Initially the were released as by Annie Leith, so that my readership were not confused; sales, however, insisted they revert to Anita Burgh.

Sadly these are the only two of the series.  I did a stupid thing.  I was head hunted by another publisher.  The money they offered seduced me away. While they were good to me, and professional in the extreme, I now know, I should never have gone.  At Chatto with Carmen and my editor, Alison Samuel - in my opinion, the best editor in London - I was safe.  But you only learn such things when it’s too late.

Molly is now worrying about her flashings on Kindle.

CLARE'S WAR - Story

Clare’s War is the third novel to go on Kindle.

There are times when publishers are looking for a novel on a specific subject.  They then they ask one of their writers if they would consider doing so.  I have written several at their suggestion - Advances, Molly’s Flashings, Hector’s Hobbies, the trilogy The Cresswell Inheritance and Clare’s War were all suggested to me in one way or another.   There have been others which, on reflection, I decided I could not do - either I did not like the subject or was not interested in it or I felt it was one which was beyond my capabilities or knowledge.  There was never any pressure but I always felt it was courteous to think about it.

     So, I was asked if I would consider working on a novel set in France during the Second World War, particularly involving the Resistance.  I needed to read a lot around the subject since most of what we know about France during that period is from the English standpoint and, it has to be admitted, is not always complimentary to the French.  It was a fascinating subject to research.

    It was by sheer chance, looking through a magazine that I learnt that of the thousand medals bestowed by the French, after the end of the war, only six were awarded to women.  It seemed a paltry number.  Had they done nothing?  Unlikely, I thought. 

     Fortunately I was living in France at the time, in the Auvergne which, wild and mountainous as it is, was a centre for the resistance.  Memories were fresh as if it had happened yesterday.  On the road below our house two young men had been executed.  Our neighbour’s house, which is higher than ours had been requisitioned by the Germans as a look out post.  The more I enquired the more I learnt; a farmer’s family, close by, had sheltered a Jewish family for the whole of the war.  We were warned not to patronise a certain shop since the owner’s father had been a collaborator.   The fallout from the war was all about us, and who had been in the thick of it - the women.  It was they kept the network going, delivering food, printing papers, hiding people, transporting Jewish refugees, nursing the wounded, always with the knowledge that if they were found out they would be shot.

     So I decided I would write this novel from a woman’s point of view, but she would be English.  I began the novel but after ten thousand words felt it was not right and started again.  Something told me that it should be in the 1st person.  I had never attempted this nor wanted to, but, it was right for this book and once the decision was made then Clare’s adventure really began.

    

      

Lottery's Story

When I posted the story behind Love the Bright Foreigner I received so many emails saying how interested they were to learn how it came about.  While their starts are not so dramatic, I decided to explain a little about each new one when it appears on Kindle.

Lottery.  This book was first published in 1995,  it came about purely by chance.  I often write on the subject of money and the affect it can have on an individual or on their friends and family.  I know from experience that having great wealth does not always make people happy - even though I find that puzzling for I’m sure I would be happy!

It also raised another interesting point for me, that is, why do some people see a story that needs to be told and yet the next person does not.

One evening, watching TV, there was a news cast about a woman who had won a small fortune on the football pools.  She looked to be early sixties, and as if she had worked hard all her life.  A very mumsy sort of woman.  Surrounded by her family they were hugging her and saying what a great mother she was and it couldn’t have happened to a better peron . . . the usual, somewhat banal expressions.  But then I noticed at the back was a young man with a steely expression and a chill ran down my spine.  “It’s all lovely,” I said to Bill, “What about that blog at the back. I don’t like the look of him, I wonder what comes next?  There’s a book in this.”

      “I don’t see it myself,” Bill said with a shrug.

      I knew there was; how would she cope?  How would her relationships pan out?  What would happen within the family?  Some of you know that once I have a premise or theme, I make a list of words I related to the theme.  So soon I had a listl; jealousy, avarice, suspicion, gratitude, bullying, love . . . on and on went my list.

     The problem I had however was making the subject of football and the pools, sexy and enticing.  Difficult.  My editor was not over enthusiastic about the project and I could not blame her.  I had serious doubts myself.

     Then, suddenly, all was resolved.  The Prime Minister, John Major, bless his cotton socks, announced there was to be a national lottery.  However, another difficulty loomed; this lottery was some time away and so I had to write the book imagining how the winner would be treated, what ceremony would there be.  Camelot, were as helpful as they could be but they themselves did not know what the final result and the machinations would be.  So I carried on in the dark - made it up as I went along since I had to write it in time for the November launch of the real lottery.  I did it!  There was plenty of time left over, we could present the book at the very same time.

     Now, publishers move in interesting ways which we mere mortals cannot understand and never will.  For reasons unknown, the launch date was to be in the summer - the following year!  I am not a publisher nor am I an advertising expert, marketing is a mystery to me BUT in my opinion they were daft, pure and simply daft not to ride on the wave of publicity the lottery and Camelot created.     

.

KINDLE and ME

Well, I’ve done it!  I’ve taken that step into the unknown!.  I’m part of the brave new future from which there’s no turning back. I’ve put a book on Kindle.

  So what, everyone is doing it, what’s the fuss?  I can hear you say. I am aware of that, I’ve friends galore who have been up and running for months.  I didn’t expect the reaction I had, it took me by surprise how emotional I felt at sending the book into the ether. It was different and it was exciting and, in a strange way, it was moving.

   My backlist is long and choosing which novel to be first was difficult. Eventually I chose Love the Bright Foreigner. It was the first book I wrote though it was the second one that was published.  Subsequently it has a special meaning to me and, since it had been out of print for some time, it would be nice to give it a second chance.

   When I wrote it we were facing financial wipe-out from a disastrous venture into the hotel business - having converted our lodge in the Northern Highlands of Scotland - there was no Ruth Watson to come to our rescue in those days.  A stern letter from the bank arrived just as I was watching a programme on Charlotte Lamb on television, telling of her success and huge earnings from writing.  To console my partner and my sons and to lift their spirits from the doom which the bank manager had created, I was laughing as I suggested we wrote a best seller.   We trooped into the kitchen, the only warm part of the house, armed with paper and pencil and began.  Two hours later, I looked up and I was alone.  The others, bored had drifted off.  With a start I realised that I had become totally lost, immersed in my story, that what had been a joke was nothing of the sort.  I knew instantly that there was no going back, I had to finish it.

  There are people who are born under lucky stars and I am one of them.  For the year before, on holiday on Mull, we had met and made friends with, Mic, a literary agent who when we said goodbye had asked me when I wrote a book to send it to her.  I fell about laughing and explained I would never write, that I didn’t want to, it was the last thing I would ever do.  ‘I think you will - one day,’ she replied.
 
   So, when I had finished my novel, we had no idea what to do next until we remembered the meeting on Mull, I wrote to her, she phoned, I sent the typescript and twenty-four hours later I had an agent.  In my ignorance I had no idea how difficult it was and is to be taken on.  See what I mean about lucky stars?

    Still in Scotland, I had caught the bug and immediately started writing my second novel - Distinctions of Class.  From having no desire to write I now could not stop and twenty five years and twenty three novels later I am still writing.  The truth is I don’t know what I would do with my time if I stopped nor what filled it before I became a writer.

     I have met so many wonderful people during this career of mine, fellow authors, publishers, book sellers, journalists, students and readers.  It is a wonderful career path to take and it all started with a bleak day in the Highlands, a letter from the bank, Charlotte Lamb, a chance meeting on Mull and a book called Love the Bright Foreigner so I feel it had earned the right to be published first this time.

CATCH UP

My apologies for being away for so long.  There are several reasons.  The first was that I felt I had nothing more to say about writing.  There are so many blogs around that I knew I would not be missed and I cannot see the point of just writing for writings sake or to fill up a blog - and we all know blogs like that!

So what have I been up to.  I finished my new novel and I am in the process, a bit slow, to edit it.  My agent suggested odd changes and tweeks here and there.  I doubt I’ll ever learn for when I sent it off I KNEW there were weak areas but was too idle to do anything about it.  Of course my agent picked up on the self-same parts.  Inner voice, as I’ve said before, is the best tool we have.  Don’t be like me, listen! 

There was another factor.  You can get fed up with a novel.  I seem to have been writing this one for ever.  I would start it, work for a week or two and then go off on a tangent and do something else and then when I went back to the work in hand I found I had forgetten what I’d done and have to reread and redo.  And it gets boring.  When that happens I have to put it away again for the simple reason that when feeling such emotions I risk conveying it in my writing and thus to my readers and that would never do.

The distractions have been quite big ones.  Letting people know that “Sex, Lies and Parkinson’s” the documentary I helped with was to be shown on Channel 4.  It is done.  The reactions were strong, those who liked it were very keen, those who didn’t were evangelical in their disapproval.  The aim was to raise the public’s awareness that young people can get Parkinson’s too, it isn’t just old people who suffer.  Vicki, whose story it was, has had a lot of stick, since she told of her sexual and monetary problems, caused by her medication, with honesty and openness. I admire her it took courage to speak so.

I took a writing course at Chez Castillon, in the Dordogne.  www.chez-castillon.com   What a week that was!  It is a magic place and I cried when I left and longed to stay and to go back.

The other distraction has been getting my backlist up on Kindle.  I gave up in the end, beaten by technology and instructions which seemed to make it worse.  Fortunately I was told of a wonderful Indian company who are doing it for me.

Apart from my novel - working title “Illusions” - I am working on a How to book; a collection of articles I’ve written over the years; last, my autobiography.  I’m busy!

Publishing is having one of its periodic panic attacks.  Serves them right this time.  With Kindle and Smashwords etc. we can publish our own.  I shall certainly have a bash at it.

Janice Horton

My blog has been seriously neglected of late and I apologise but life has a habit of interfering with the best laid plans. However, my friend, Janice Horton has jogged me into writing of my interview with her.
Janice lives in Scotland and writes humorous contemporary women's novels which are inspired by the beauty of the heather-filled glens around her country cottage. When she’s not writing novels she writes lifestyle articles and has had work published in national magazines and regional newspapers. She’s also been involved in BBC Scotland's ‘Write Here Write Now’ project.

Have you always wanted to write?
Janice: I’ve had romantic notions about being a writer since I was a little girl. Enid Blyton was a favourite inspiration in the early days. I had a garden shed with ‘SS’ on the door in which I sat writing my own ‘Secret Seven’ books starring me, of course, and my brothers and friends. A few years later, I was still sitting in the shed, only writing pony stories inspired by Ruby Ferguson’s ‘Jill Books’.

Anita: Blyton was an extraordinary woman and despite the PC brigade still so popular. She must have inspired many.

How long have you been writing?
Janice: I began to write seriously ten years ago, and by that I mean with the intention of being published.

You are published in fiction and non fiction. Which do you prefer?
Janice: I really enjoy writing lifestyle articles for national magazines and regional newspapers but I absolutely love to write fiction. My first novel, When We First Love, was published in 2004 by a small publisher, which unfortunately went out of business just as I’d completed my second book, ‘Beneath Apricot Skies’ which I self-published. My latest venture is to indie e-book publish on Amazon Kindle with my novel ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’. I’m excited to explore this intriguing new publishing media.

Anita: I think everyone in the publishing business are fascinated by the e-publishing phenomena, I certainly am. Do let us all know how it goes.

You work, you write, you blog, you have a family, you have animals, I am exhausted listing them all. How and when and where do you find and make time to write?
Janice: I don’t write every day, although I’d love to. A typical morning for me is sorting out admin and doing accounts. I run a small graphic design company that I set up years ago. After lunch, except on a Thursday, I work in the village as a legal secretary. So after seeing to the family, walking the dogs, and attending to the hens, it just leaves a few stolen hours in the evenings and one afternoon to write – unless, for the sake of my sanity, I take Time Out. This means taking a couple of days when I sit with my laptop at the kitchen table in front of the Aga, or on the sofa next to the fire and make it quite clear to everyone, dogs and hens included, that I’m U-N-A-V-A-I-L-A-B-L-E. I will not cook. I will not answer the phone and I will write all day without any interruptions. I stay up late. In fact, I might not go to bed at all, but if I do, it will be for a couple of hours of my own choosing. Sometimes, as a writer, extreme measures are required or we might never write all the stories trying to burst out of our heads or record the cacophony of voices resonating in our ears.

Anita: You are so right. There has to be an element of ruthlessness when writing, I’m sure. However, I do believe this is a problem mainly for women writers. We lack that essential ingredient for having the time – a wife!

Tell us why you have chosen to e-publish.
Janice: For two reasons: the first was that having been previously published both traditionally and independently, I couldn’t resist the challenge of having a go at e-publishing with Bagpipes & Bullshot, especially on Kindle because distribution and marketing on Amazon are so well established. The second reason was that I unexpectedly fell in love with the Kindle my husband bought me last Christmas and wanted to have my own books on it!

Anita: It certainly seems to be the way forward. We are writing in interesting times.

Who has influenced you the most?
Janice: I don’t know if I’m influenced by anyone actually, because I’m pretty independently minded. I can be inspired and I can take advice, in fact I actively seek it, but I don’t think that’s the same as being influenced. I tend to adopt ideas only if they meld with my own mindset or help me to achieve a predetermined goal. I admire others and have great respect for people who can do things better than I - but I’d rather innovate than imitate.

Anita: I’m surprised by your answer. Most authors I know have someone. For me it is Dickens, I read him and I loved him and I wanted to try and create worlds and people like his, even if they are pale shadows compared to his genius.

What advice would you give someone just setting out?
Janice: I would say write from the heart and listen to your Inner Voice.

Anita: Oh yes, that voice the only one you can really rely on.

Can you tell us about your novel in one sentence?
Janice: Bagpipes & Bullshot is a contemporary romance novel which twists an everyday love story with a whole cast of village eccentrics into an entertaining play on rural life.

What are you planning in the way of promotion for Bagpipes & Bullshot?
Janice: Well, it’s very difficult to get a new e-book noticed by potential readers unless it features on one or more of Amazon’s Top 100 charts, but because of the way Amazon calculates its sales, just a few sales on one particular day can make all the difference in pushing it through the charts. I’ll be blogging and tweeting all day on Friday 1st April my publication day.

For direction to all of the other places I’ll be appearing on my Blog Tour throughout the day please visit www.janicehortonwriter.blogspot.com I’ll also be running a prize draw on my blog (Friday 1st April only) to win Kindle Beach Protectors (an essential and stylish accessory for every Kindle but alternatively you could always use it to protect your camera or phone!) All you have to do to be in with a chance to win one is go to my blog and leave a comment or ReTweet one of my tweets using the hashtag: #bagpipes.

Anita: Thank you, Janice. Let’s hope you have a resounding success, you should, you’ve worked so hard at the promotional side.