The weather is unusually warm for this time of year and I'm loving it. I'm here in my brother's apartment in Souborg-Vlissingen working on my third novel. One of the flies in the ointment, I didn't bring any summer clothes with me.The weather is exceptionally warm and sunny for this time of year and I'm having to borrow t-shirts from my brother that are far too big, but
at least they're cooler than the jumpers and sweatshirts I brought. The other fly is that with all this sunshine I've been struggling to remain in front of the computer. However, I've allowed myself a couple of hours off each day with a walk, or just a trip to the canal, to sit and read a book in the sunshine. It's going well and the weather hasn't disappointed me. How often can you say that?
I'm trying out a new genre, the detective novel, which I freely admit to knowing very little about, except being a fan of the form. My other two novels do have a very loose connection with the genre in that there's a bit of a mystery to solve, but now I've taken the bull by the horns, so to speak (cliche, I hear you say ) and am attempting the real thing. I've got my main characters, a plot, sub-plot, detectives, bodies galore and a twist. Now all I have to do is write the damn thing and be convincing. I've probably set myself up for a fall deciding to use a cultural aspect I know nothing about but hey, we've got the internet, right?
So far I've written scenes and not continuous prose. I have flashes of something and get them down, then move on to the next. I was hoping to use Scrivener to assemble all the bits but (as usual) forgot to subscribe and have left the Idiot's Guide at home because it was too big to carry in my tiny suitcase. All is not lost and I'm finding writing in fragments a lot more liberating than I thought it would be. As long as I can assemble all the fragments at the end.
You might want to check out my daily blog that is charting my progress as I navigate this new way of working.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Friday, 20 September 2013
Readings
Hello again.
Things have been pretty quiet on the blogging front as I've been finishing off my second novel, Monsoons and Marigolds. Set in Nepal, it is the story of a young woman volunteer who is trying to escape into a new life. She is idealistic, naive and misunderstands cultural differences with disastrous consequences. Having worked as a volunteer in Nepal 1997-8, a lot of material has been used from my journals. If you don't already keep one I can highly recommend it. I also keep a small notebook in my handbag or beside the bed, to jot down those nuggets that come at inopportune moments and are lost unless written down.
On Wednesday I appeared at The Basement Coffee House at their open mic event. It was a profitable evening; I read from my poetry pamphlet The Language of Crows and sold 2 copies before I'd sat back down! Tonight I'm at Newton Stewart Library appearing as one of Take Four, a group of writers and storytellers who are performing and reading our new work. I shall be talking about my time in Nepal, how it influenced my writing, and reading passages from the new novel.
In October I am on retreat for 4 weeks hoping to make a substantial start on my third novel, a murder mystery this time, set in China, Hong Kong and Dumfries and Galloway. Never one to shy away from challenges I think this one will stretch me in ways different to the first two novels, which were heavily based on person experiences.
In November Take Four take to the road and will be performing on 5 November at the newly refurbished Stranraer Library and on 24 January at the Ryan Centre, Stranraer. More dates and venues are in the pipeline, so watch this space.
Things have been pretty quiet on the blogging front as I've been finishing off my second novel, Monsoons and Marigolds. Set in Nepal, it is the story of a young woman volunteer who is trying to escape into a new life. She is idealistic, naive and misunderstands cultural differences with disastrous consequences. Having worked as a volunteer in Nepal 1997-8, a lot of material has been used from my journals. If you don't already keep one I can highly recommend it. I also keep a small notebook in my handbag or beside the bed, to jot down those nuggets that come at inopportune moments and are lost unless written down.
On Wednesday I appeared at The Basement Coffee House at their open mic event. It was a profitable evening; I read from my poetry pamphlet The Language of Crows and sold 2 copies before I'd sat back down! Tonight I'm at Newton Stewart Library appearing as one of Take Four, a group of writers and storytellers who are performing and reading our new work. I shall be talking about my time in Nepal, how it influenced my writing, and reading passages from the new novel.
In October I am on retreat for 4 weeks hoping to make a substantial start on my third novel, a murder mystery this time, set in China, Hong Kong and Dumfries and Galloway. Never one to shy away from challenges I think this one will stretch me in ways different to the first two novels, which were heavily based on person experiences.
In November Take Four take to the road and will be performing on 5 November at the newly refurbished Stranraer Library and on 24 January at the Ryan Centre, Stranraer. More dates and venues are in the pipeline, so watch this space.
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Kindle
At last, after lots of attempts, the Kindle version of In Desolate Corners, Shadows Crouch is available from Amazon. However, it still is not without problems.
When you log on to Amazon, type in the title of the book and it appears in both versions. However, if you click on 'Look Inside' to get a preview, the text does not appear properly. Chapter headings are not at the top of the page, some of the speeches or subsections are not indented correctly and despite complaints to Amazon the matter still is not resolved.So iIf you want a preview of the novel, don't click on the side arrows to move the pages, just scroll down.
Hopefully this does not put anyone off buying the Kindle version, as the version I proof-read has everything in the right place, it just seems to be a problem with the preview book.
Happy reading.
When you log on to Amazon, type in the title of the book and it appears in both versions. However, if you click on 'Look Inside' to get a preview, the text does not appear properly. Chapter headings are not at the top of the page, some of the speeches or subsections are not indented correctly and despite complaints to Amazon the matter still is not resolved.So iIf you want a preview of the novel, don't click on the side arrows to move the pages, just scroll down.
Hopefully this does not put anyone off buying the Kindle version, as the version I proof-read has everything in the right place, it just seems to be a problem with the preview book.
Happy reading.
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Brew and Blether
I was invited to take part in the 'Brew and Blether' events in liraries all over the region. On Friday 14 June I gave a reading from my novel In Desolate Corners, Shadows Crouch alongside Jayne Baldwin, who was reading and talking about her new non-fiction book about the last public hanging in Scotland, of Mary Timney, and Patricia Comb whose e-book Cafe Paradise has recently been published on Kindle. Jayne's book is not published yet but she hopes to have it out by Septemeber, just in time for the Wigtown Book Festival.
A lively group of people turned up at the library for free tea, coffee and home-made cake and the conversation about our books, publishing, local history and the debate about e-books as opposed to paper books was intelligent and rewarding to be part of. Many thanks to the Library Service for the invite and to all the people who turned up and got involved. It's events like these that get writers through the hard times.
A lively group of people turned up at the library for free tea, coffee and home-made cake and the conversation about our books, publishing, local history and the debate about e-books as opposed to paper books was intelligent and rewarding to be part of. Many thanks to the Library Service for the invite and to all the people who turned up and got involved. It's events like these that get writers through the hard times.
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Narrative Non-fiction
As a writer narrative is an important part of my work and finding new ways of driving it is often a challenge. I'm always up for new ideas and help, also old ideas that I've forgotten or not used for a while. I deal mainly with fiction but have always been intrigued by autobiography and biography and did a dissertation on Margery Kempe's autobiography for my BA. I believed then, and still do, that most of our writing is fiction anyway because we select the incidents and shape them to suit our purpose. So when a non-fiction workshop was organised by Booktown Writers in Wigtown at The Urr valley Hotel, Castle Douglas on Friday 7 June 2013 I went along.
It was an excellent workshop run by Stuart Kelly and the participants were entertained, informed, stretched and enagaged by Stuart's delivery and wealth of knowledge. The main thrust of the day was to look at ways of writing narrative/creative non-fiction and the group were posed an important question to consider before writing -
ie what is so special about you (authority/knowledge) and why do I want to read about this? (topic)
After a few enjoyable exercises re-writing the narrative order of the Wizard of Oz and writing positive and negative obituaries for people like Jimmy Saville and Margaret Thatcher, it was concluded that non-fiction differs very little from fiction. It requires narration the same as fiction and choices have to be made as to whether the narrative is linear or chopped up. To be successful it should also be written from a point of authority, be empathic, sincere, original and enthusiastic. Tone is equally important as it conveys the narrator's attitude to the story and characters, and this is determined by word choice.
So what does all that mean for me and how does it inform my fiction writing?
It gave me lots to think about again regarding my own characters - how much do I like/dislike them? How do I show this? Are they 3-Dimensional and paradoxes? Does my narrative reveal too much too soon? Does it 'flow' even though it has a chopped up sequence of events? What makes it original?
All of these things any good writer would consider but what I find about attending workshops is not so much in what new things I learn but what I remember about what I already know. It's good to be reminded every now and again.
Further reading was recommended:
Stuart, a Life Backwards by Alex Masters looks at narrative moving backwards in time
The Trouble with Tom by Paul Collins is an example of presenting a well-know character, Tom Payne (The Rights of Man)
Samuel Foot by Ian Kelly is the story of Samuel Foot as well as the story about how Ian Kelly found his story
It was an excellent workshop run by Stuart Kelly and the participants were entertained, informed, stretched and enagaged by Stuart's delivery and wealth of knowledge. The main thrust of the day was to look at ways of writing narrative/creative non-fiction and the group were posed an important question to consider before writing -
Why are YOU telling me THIS?
After a few enjoyable exercises re-writing the narrative order of the Wizard of Oz and writing positive and negative obituaries for people like Jimmy Saville and Margaret Thatcher, it was concluded that non-fiction differs very little from fiction. It requires narration the same as fiction and choices have to be made as to whether the narrative is linear or chopped up. To be successful it should also be written from a point of authority, be empathic, sincere, original and enthusiastic. Tone is equally important as it conveys the narrator's attitude to the story and characters, and this is determined by word choice.
So what does all that mean for me and how does it inform my fiction writing?
It gave me lots to think about again regarding my own characters - how much do I like/dislike them? How do I show this? Are they 3-Dimensional and paradoxes? Does my narrative reveal too much too soon? Does it 'flow' even though it has a chopped up sequence of events? What makes it original?
All of these things any good writer would consider but what I find about attending workshops is not so much in what new things I learn but what I remember about what I already know. It's good to be reminded every now and again.
Further reading was recommended:
Stuart, a Life Backwards by Alex Masters looks at narrative moving backwards in time
The Trouble with Tom by Paul Collins is an example of presenting a well-know character, Tom Payne (The Rights of Man)
Samuel Foot by Ian Kelly is the story of Samuel Foot as well as the story about how Ian Kelly found his story
Spreading the Word
On Monday 3 June 2013 I was thrilled to read from my first novel, In Desolate Corners, Shadows Crouch, to a group of writers and readers in NonaLou's Tearoom, Dumfries. Coffee and cakes were free - always a good incentive for people to turn up - but what was best of all was the encouragement and support of the audience who came, when I'm sure they could have been doing other things. The event was supported by Carolyn Yates, Literature Development Officer for Dumfries and Galloway, and this was greatly appreciated too.
The book is set in the wild places of Northumberland and Cumbria, drawing on my own experiences of living there. The story is one of loss, family conflict, and redemption and it uses the plot of a missing child and subsequent manhunt to explore some deep, dark issues. Doug Watts of Jaqui Bennet Writers' Bureau says of the novel,
"A seam of jet-black humour runs through the narrative. It feeds on the pathos and painful details..."
and one of the reviews on Amazon states,
"Kriss Nicholl has written a page-turner of a novel whose characters draw the reader in. There's a convincing curve of suspense too, and the book, with its complex and ambitious emotional background, becomes also a tightly written crime novel. If I had to pick, then I'm not sure present tense all the way totally works, it's so hard to keep the momentum, and it forces certain vivid events to be recounted rather than lived. But it really isn't critical. I'd recommend this as an authentic, involving Good Read."
The book is set in the wild places of Northumberland and Cumbria, drawing on my own experiences of living there. The story is one of loss, family conflict, and redemption and it uses the plot of a missing child and subsequent manhunt to explore some deep, dark issues. Doug Watts of Jaqui Bennet Writers' Bureau says of the novel,
"A seam of jet-black humour runs through the narrative. It feeds on the pathos and painful details..."
and one of the reviews on Amazon states,
"Kriss Nicholl has written a page-turner of a novel whose characters draw the reader in. There's a convincing curve of suspense too, and the book, with its complex and ambitious emotional background, becomes also a tightly written crime novel. If I had to pick, then I'm not sure present tense all the way totally works, it's so hard to keep the momentum, and it forces certain vivid events to be recounted rather than lived. But it really isn't critical. I'd recommend this as an authentic, involving Good Read."
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