C is for Chaos

April 3, 2013 by sharonsant

Chaos is what this A-Z challenge has become for me already. And we’re only on C!

Secretly, though, I love chaos. I’m never happier than when I’m up against a deadline, or a project is driving me insane because I can’t make it work or I’ve got too much to do. I thrive on nerves. I love spontaneity and unpredictability. Secretly, my brain is a world of chaos all the time. It’s a miracle that anything I do ever gets finished. I can’t help flitting from task to task like a little project butterfly.

If you’ve ever seen the video to Fireflies by Owl City, then you’ll have a pretty good idea what the inside of my brain actually looks like (forget all that hippocampus and synapse stuff that you read in biology). And if you haven’t seen it, here it is (the video, not my brain.. although they do look the same. Did I already say that?).

The letter C also stands for cheat. I’ll make it up to you with a real academic post for D, honest….

B is for Bravery

April 2, 2013 by sharonsant

Bravery comes in all shapes and sizes. There’s the big Prince Arthur sword-wielding warrior variety, and then there’s the quietly-in-the-background-doing-magic-under-pain-of death Merlin variety. That example was completely random and had nothing to do with any sort of Merlin obsession whatsoever. Nor was it an excuse to include a beautiful photo in this post. Honest…

Sometimes bravery is nothing more than stepping out of your front door when you feel like the whole world is against you. Or self-publishing a book when you’re terrified that, at best, no one will want to read or, at worst, they’ll read and then tear it apart in a scathing review.

However it comes, you can’t have a hero without it. The most boring heroes I’ve ever encountered in a work of fiction are those with no fear. How can you be glorious and courageous if nothing scares you? How can you command the respect and awe of others if you’ve no terrors to overcome. There’s no emotional risk in that, even if the physical risks are still present, and emotional risk is what moves the receiver of the story.

Eleanor Roosevelt said: ‘Do one thing that scares you every day.’ I love that advice.

So, be scared, dear reader, be scared so that you can be brave. Step out that door, wield that sword, flash that magic. Put your book out if the story burns to escape the confines of your mind. Give us the tale of your terrified hero, the one that will face their fears and be all the more glorious when they finally do.

I, for one, can’t wait to hear it.

A is for Alternate Reality – It’s day one of the A-Z challenge!

April 1, 2013 by sharonsant

Scratch beneath the surface of reality and there’s some pretty weird stuff going on. Take quantum physics, for example. I don’t pretend to understand it fully, but I know that the microcosm seemingly flouts the laws of the macro in ways that are mind-blowing. Yet it’s all part of the reality that we think we know. I love that idea – that in an apparently ordinary setting, extraordinary stuff can be happening. I love the juxtaposition of domestic and fantasy worlds, ordinary people and magical powers. It’s why I love to read magical realism texts and stories with a slightly skewed reality. Many of my favourite TV shows and films, such as Misfits and Being Human, employ the same tropes. Even The Doctor likes his fishfingers and custard! Shakespeare had it pegged it when he wrote that famous line in Hamlet:

‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’

So you can imagine how much I love things like parallel worlds in literature, and why I often end up writing them myself. To be honest, most of my family think I inhabit one all the time anyway! But I just can’t look at a situation without seeing something surreal in it. Even if you ask me to write a work of realism, I guarantee that at least one of the characters will have some weird idiosyncracy. Either that or they’ll develop a super-power while putting the recycling out. Then again, I seem to get powers of invisibility when our recycling needs to go out…

And before I go, a huge thanks to Arlee Bird, whose name begins with A and who also began the A-Z challenge. Cheers, Arlee!

Clare Marshall, author of The Violet Fox, talks kitties, anxiety and hot chocolate

March 29, 2013 by sharonsant

I’m really pleased to welcome Clare Marshall onto the blog. Her novel, The Violet Fox, is on my never ending TBR list and I can’t wait to see what it’s about. I thought you might fancy getting a peak at what makes her and her characters tick. So, without further ado…

If you don’t already know, what star sign do you think your main character is?

Hmm, well disregarding the fact that The Violet Fox is set in a fantasy land with a different star map, Kiera Driscoll is probably an Aries, maybe a Leo. She’s got a hot temper and often acts on impulse and has a bit of an ego. But when it comes to her mission and her people, she’s got a soft, selfless side that could be associated with Pisces.

If you could be friends in real life with any of your characters, who would it be and why?

I like to think I’d be friends with a lot of my characters. Kiera would be fun to be friends with, even if she gets out of hand sometimes, at least she’s not afraid to do anything. Laoise, Kiera’s best friend, is more level headed and would keep us in check before we went off to do anything dangerous.

Have you ever written a character that you’ve disliked so much you’ve scrapped them from a work?

No, I don’t believe so. Not every character is perfect or likeable, and if I don’t like them, I at least try to understand why. Just like real life!

Which of your characters would frighten you if you met them in real life?

The Advisor in The Violet Fox would make me wary, because it’s impossible to know what his real agenda is. In my other YA supernatural thriller set in Halifax, Within, is a character I would not want to meet at all: Edmond, the serial killer. He definitely takes the cake in creepiness. He manipulates well-adjusted people into doing horrible, awful things for him.

Describe your book in one word

Adventure.

Describe yourself in 5 words.

Creative, passionate about compelling stories.

Do you ever consult friends when you’re stuck with a plot?

Not really. Sometimes I will tweet about it (@ClareMarshall13) if I’m trying to work something about. If I don’t do that, I will write out a synopsis of the idea/the scene in a separate document. This lays it out for me, and usually alternative ideas surface that make the scene even better!

What’s your personal kryptonite?

Anxiety about things that one should not be anxious about!

If you could converse, a la Dr Dolittle, with one type of animal, which would it be and why?

Kitties! All kinds of kitties. I love kitties. They are the cutest.

Tea or coffee?

Hot chocolate? I treat coffee like a desert because I have a lot of natural energy. I drink jasmine tea when I need to relax.

Find out more about Clare at the following places:

Facebook:

Twitter: @ClareMarshall13

Website:

Amazon:

Smashwords:

A to Z blogging challenge 2013

March 27, 2013 by sharonsant

Ok, so I said I wouldn’t do this because I don’t have time, etc, etc, but then fellow blogger, Rebecca Bradley (Murder Down to a Tea) persuaded me that it was a good idea. I may not be so fond of her once April is over!

The idea is that you post for each letter of the alphabet every day (except Sundays) during the month of April. So watch me crumble, guys. Point and laugh as I unravel trying to keep up with the challenge and still work on manuscripts. But at least check out the posts first.

As you might expect, A is up April 1st. I’m thinking Aliens or Agents. Maybe I could write a post that proves they are one and the same? Ok, maybe not…

Check out the challenge for yourself or sign up here.

World Book Night

March 26, 2013 by sharonsant

Here is the list for 2013 World Book Night. To my shame, I’ve only read one of the books on this year’s list. I probably shouldn’t admit to that. I wonder if you can guess which it is *cough, Treasure Island, cough*

I have a good friend who seems to have an uncanny ability to get her favourites on the list, or maybe that should be that she predicts that her favourites will be on the list. Joking aside, World Book Night is actually enormous fun. In 2011 my friend voted for Beloved by Toni Morrison. It made the list and she was sent a gorgeous haul to give away. We spent the evening at Stafford Gatehouse theatre pouncing on unsuspecting theatregoers and confusing them with gorgeous free books. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who wouldn’t take them because they thought there must be a catch! It was a lovely feeling, though, like being the magical book fairy, spreading beautiful literature to everyone.

Looking at this year’s list, I feel rather guilty and badly read that I’ve only managed one. I guess my TBR list has just grown to massive proportions. I’m thinking of hollowing it out and moving my family in.

Operation Spitfire

March 23, 2013 by sharonsant

Last night I was privileged to be invited to a special fundraising dinner, along with a writer friend, as a guest of The Sentinel newspaper. For those of you who might not know, the creator of the Spitfire plane, Reginald Mitchell, hailed from Stoke-on-Trent, where my father was born and where I live now. The Spitfire played a crucial part in the Battle of Britain, and in helping the allies win the Second World War. In 1969 the city of Stoke-on-Trent was gifted one of the last remaining Spitfires as a memorial. I can still remember, as a child, passing the glass house that it used to sit in and staring at it in awe. It is now housed in the Potteries museum in Hanley for people to visit. The purpose of the fundraising dinner last night was to help raise money for its upkeep, and to build a new, more fitting way to exhibit it for future generations, something that would keep its memories and significance alive.

So, regular visitors to my blog will wonder why I’m being so serious about this when I’m usually casually flippant about most things. Well, last night was a special night for more reasons than a posh dinner. The guest of honour was a 94 year old ex-pilot who flew a Spitfire during World War II. We were shown actual footage of a mission he flew on. To be in a room with such a man was humbling. It is true to say that, without this man, who risked so much for people he had never even met, and thousands of his comrades, I would not be sitting here writing this post now. My maternal great-grandparents were Polish Jews and, had the war taken a different path, our family would have almost certainly been wiped out.

The funny thing is that, as I sat laughing and chatting with the people at my table (getting a bit squiffy, if truth be told), none of this really occurred to me. My great-grandparents are dead and gone and my grandmother doesn’t really talk of those times much, despite the fact that there are many more stories to tell (her family narrowly escaping a blast during the blitz once they had fled to Britain is just one of them). And my life now is full of such current concerns that I don’t really think about how fortunate I am to be here, how so many lucky coincidences conspired to enable my birth at all. It was only when I got home last night that it really began to hit me.

Being in the same room as that gentleman is something I will remember fondly. We will never see his like again, and I sincerely hope that we never have to.

If you’d like to find out more about the Spitfire at The Poterries Museum, click here. And if you’d like to learn more about the Spitfire renovation project, click here.

Desert Island Books are back. And this time it’s personal…

March 22, 2013 by sharonsant

The moment you’ve been eagerly awaiting… drumroll please… five more of my desert island books. Ok, so maybe you haven’t been eagerly awaiting this moment. Maybe you just stumbled on this blog by accident looking for dessert recipes. Ah well, I’m posting them anyway…

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The first time I read this book, aged about fourteen, I stayed up the entire night (and I’m not exaggerating) to finish it. It’s long, like all of Dickens’ tomes, and takes a fair bit of commitment before you start it, but I’ve still managed to read it a couple more times since. And if I’m marooned, then at least with books this long I’ll never get bored. Most people will be able to quote the iconic opening line (I say line, some might call it a novella). Most people will be able to quote the closing line too:
‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’
Unless you’re like me, because I’m usually too distraught to be able to focus on the closing line! Either way, you can’t deny that the man knows how to tell a story.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

I know, I know, another Dickens. At uni I had a reputation for being slightly odd as the only girl who actually read them for fun. I adore Oliver, truly, and maybe, if I think really hard, I can trace my love affair with young adult protagonists back to him. Everyone knows this story, even people who’ve never picked up a book, even people who’ve never seen one of the hundreds of adaptations, and this is a testament to the endurance of the tale and the vividness of the creation.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The trouble with this choice is that, although I love the book and would happily read it forever, I adore the film and have watched it practically every six months since I can remember. Since the film is only a fraction of the complexity of the book, I forget things when I’m telling people about the book. The main difference, for those who don’t know, is that while the film is a story within a story, the book is a story within a story within a story. The addition of a dysfunctional narrator undergoing some kind of mid-life crisis whilst searching for an elusive copy of his favourite book adds another, sharper, more contemporary layer. But, for all that, you still have to love Inigo, the vengeance obsessed swordsman, the best.

Island by Jane Rogers

This book, aside from being fantastic, has special meaning for me. I make no secret of my obsession with BBC’s Merlin, and the recent film adaptation of this book starred one Colin Morgan, who plays Merlin in the TV show. I was lucky enough to attend the premiere in Glasgow and to meet Colin and the film’s producers. Sad as I am, I took my well-loved copy of Island along. Now it’s even more precious, containing the autographs of Colin and the film’s producer/director/screenwriter. I take it to bed every night and hug it as I sleep. The book is a dark tale of one young woman’s unravelling mind. She travels to a remote Scottish island to track down the mother who abandoned her to a life in care, with the intentions of killing her in order to exact revenge. What she finds on the island is not only her mother, but a strange half-brother who shows her a new way of viewing the world. While the ending is far from happy, its uplifting message, that salvation is possible for anyone, stays with you weeks after you’ve closed the book.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

I love this series, except for the first book, which drives me insane! Luckily, I began reading the Dark is Rising first (the book for which the series is named) and, in my opinion, this is the best one. It can be read as a standalone with no problem. It’s full of ancient British mythology and magic, and a great protagonist in Will Stanton. I just wish someone had done a Harry Potter with it, instead of that awful film version that we ended up with; it could have been the start of a franchise to rival the best of them.

The Curse of the Light Bulb

March 20, 2013 by sharonsant

I call myself a light bulb writer, which means my brain lights up at the tiniest flick of a switch. This happens a lot, and if I don’t get my thoughts down straight away, I lose them. Which also means that I can have half a dozen or more unfinished manuscripts around the place at any one time. I’m bursting with ideas; so many that I’ll probably never find the time to write all those books. People ask me where the ideas come from. The truth is, half the time, the trigger was so small and insignificant that I can barely recall it. Like Sky Song; I have no idea what sparked the original idea for that, only the thought processes that came afterwards. The Memory Game came from a short story, the idea for which came from a photograph of a bike. I started a novel a few weeks ago set off by a random remark on Twitter. It can be song lyrics, paintings, snippets of conversation, or a just a book title I’ve thought of. Runners was a dream I had. I woke in the middle of the night, grabbed my notebook, and six fully-formed characters just came out of my head. I have notebooks crammed with opening lines, vague premises, plots and character sketches.

Don’t panic, though. I won’t be bombarding you with novels. In fact, for all these ideas, I doubt I’m any more productive than my writing colleagues. Because, as fast as I start a novel, I put it aside to make way for a new idea. That’s the curse of the light bulb. The rarest piece makes it to completion, so maybe that says something about the actual quality of most of my ideas! One day with discipline, I may become a steady, reliable gas lantern, slowly cooking away, one idea at a time. But don’t hold your breath.

Jack Croxall, author of Tethers, talks about sword-fighting and all things chocolatey…

March 18, 2013 by sharonsant

I make no secret of the fact that I love Tethers (and Jack a little bit too) so I’m chuffed to bits that Jack is back on the blog to talk a bit more about what makes him tick.

If you don’t already know, what star sign do you think your main character is?

I do know actually! Karl is a Libra (just like me), although I don’t really know anything about star signs so I have no idea if Libra suits him.

If you could be friends in real life with any of your characters, who would it be and why?

Hmm, tough one. Maybe Harland because I would love to learn to fight with a sword and he could teach me. Also, he’s got an awesome boat.

Have you ever written a character that you’ve disliked so much you’ve scrapped them from a work?

I don’t think so, no.

Which of your characters would frighten you if you met them in real life?

Laurent Dufor is a pretty scary guy but there’s a character in the second Tethers book that terrifies me so much more …

Describe your book in one word.

Treacherous.

Describe yourself in 5 words.

Curious, persistent and always hungry.

Do you ever consult friends when you’re stuck with a plot?

No, never. I usually wait for a solution to present itself and this usually happens just as I’m trying to get to sleep – I often text it to myself so I don’t forget by the morning!

What’s your personal kryptonite?

Probably the internet. I’ve made a strict no internet rule for when I write (unless I need to Google something) and that’s helped a lot!

If you could converse, a la Dr Dolittle, with one type of animal which would it be and why?

That’s easy, definitely my chocolate Labrador, Archie. He’s always looking at me like he wants to say something, I’d love to know what it is!

Tea or coffee?

Hot chocolate.