MEET MY MAIN CHARACTER Blog Hop.

I have been tagged by my friend Paula Lofting, author of Sons of the Wolf, to take part in the Blog Hop: Meet My Main Character. You can read Paula's fabulous Blog Hop here.

This is my first venture into writing historical fiction, it has been my preferred subject for reading for many years. My first book Future Confronted was a memoir/biography of my son Rob, which was published in December 2013.

St. Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland

I am finding that researching my historical fiction novel is an absorbing process, I love the research.  Now to define my main character which is somewhat of a 'This is Your Life' moment as I try to answer the questions that each of us on the Blog Hop have been given.

1. What is the name of your Character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

The name of my main character is Nychol Granger, and he is a totally fictional character, but caught up in the historical events of the time.

2. When and where is your story set?

My story begins in Edinburgh, Scotland in the year 1400 during the times of The House of Stewart (Stuart) with all its political intrigue.

The Rosslyn Chapel Scotland

3. What should we know about him/her?

Medieval Stone Masons

He is the youngest son of a stonemason, and will, therefore follow in the father's footsteps, as will all his brothers, as is the tradition. He has a good head for ciphering, and an artistic eye. He has watched his father from a very young age, and has learned that it takes a lot of concentration and strength to do the stone work. He has great ambition and drive to be the best. 

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

The main conflict is that my main character doesn't want to stay in Scotland and work with his father. He still wants to be a stonemason, but wants to work on many different buildings. His father thinks that travelling to different places will hinder his craft, but Nychol doesn't see it that way. His father tries to talk him into staying, but fails. His mother is so distraught because her son is leaving and cannot accept that he will actually go. Nychol is her youngest, and holds a special place in her heart because he was a sickly child and was not expected to survive infancy.

Canterbury Cathedral Kent England

His other brothers are always trying to bring him down, and this causes animosity between them. This rift between he and his brothers is another reason why he wants to leave. Nychol's leaving creates a brutal divide between them all except his sister. She understands her brother well, and she stands by his decision to leave. Can the rift be healed? Will Nychol return? Will Nychol achieve his goal? He meets many conflicts on the way, and discovers that life isn't simply a case of black and white - right and wrong, there are different shades of both in between. His travels take him from his home in Edinburgh to Florence in Italy, and all places in between. His adventures are many and varied and I am enjoying taking this journey with him.

5. What is the personal goal of the character?

My character's personal goal is to be the finest stonemason he can be. During his travels he seeks out stonemasons where they are building or repairing cathedrals. He offers to work for little money in return for being taught the finer skills of their art. It's a profession where one is always learning, honing skills acquired over many years. His main ambition is to work on one of the finest cathedrals of his time.

Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore Florence Italy

6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The working title for this novel is The Touching of Stones, and more can be read about the writing process here on my blog.

7. When can we expect the book to be published?

I have really only just started to write the first draft, but I am hoping it will be ready to publish in a year, well that is my plan, so it is head down, and carry on writing...

I have tagged the lovely Tinney S. Heath, the author of A Thing Done to follow me on 22nd April. You can find Tinney's blog on this link.

My Writing Process - Blog Tour

MY WRITING PROCESS - BLOG TOUR

Simon A. Stirling has tagged me in the Blog Hop talking about our writing process. I only know Simon through Facebook, and enjoy his posts very much. I am also a great admirer of his books, 'Who Killed William Shakespeare' and 'The King Arthur Conspiracy' - very interesting books indeed. Simon posted about his writing process on his own blog last week, and you can read it here.

So, now it is my turn to answer the questions that we have all been invited to answer as part of this fascinating blog tour.

1. What am I working on?

At the moment I am doing research for my next book together with the story-line and character development. I love to make lists, so this is how I start with my research. One list for names, one for architects of the time that I will be writing in, and a list for the 'everydayness' of that period. For example, how people would be living. What were their homes like? How were they furnished? What would they be eating? How would they cook it? What were their clothes made from?

My WIP which has the working title The Touching of Stones, is about a family in the 15th Century whose men folk are stonemasons carried on from generation to generation. My novel will be featuring The Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin glen, Scotland, St. Giles' Kirk, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Chichester Cathedral in Chichester, West Sussex, England, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England, and the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiori in Florence, Italy. Beautiful buildings, each one unique, with stone work so magnificently tooled, and stained glass windows which demonstrate the ultimate art of storytelling.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My first book Future Confronted was a biography, so this will be my first venture into writing historical fiction, so I am going to endeavour to be original. It is a story that I have had roaming around in my head for some time, and the main premise, as I said earlier, is about a family whose men folk are stonemasons working on churches and cathedrals. I love the history of stone-masonry, and the people whose ideas have come to life that we now see in the cathedrals around us, one of the most extraordinary examples of the intricacies of their art being in Scotland, and it is The Rosslyn Chapel.

The Apprentices Pillar, Rosslyn Chapel

So from that point of view, I think my novel will travel a different road from others. I envision it being at least a three book series, maybe more, running from the 15th century through to the 17th century, following the generations of one particular family.

3. Why do I write what I do?

The love of history, the love of history, and the love of history, it's as simple as that. I have always been fascinated by history, and the people of different times. I have my favourite periods, which are wide ranging, going from the ancient Roman period through to 12th and 13th century  England, and 12th to 15th century Mongolia, having studied Genghis Khan and his descendants. I also love the period that I am writing about at the moment. I love the architecture of this time, as always, architecture is an exemplar of the era, a bookmark if you like, of how the world was during that time.

Churches and cathedrals have their own special styles, their own special...fingerprints if you will. There is so much to consider when building a church or cathedral. Apart from the time it takes to build, some taking longer than 100 years! There is the hewing of the stone from the quarries, the transporting of that stone, the gathering of people, the craftsmen for the different aspects, the stained glass windows, the dressing of the stones, the flooring, and the arches. It leaves much for the author to play with. All the lives involved, all the different paths the story could take. It's almost a carte blanche situation, as long as the history isn't tampered with.

4. How does my writing process work?

Well, I get an idea, I write it down in my 'Ideas Book' which I keep by my bed. I am very often awake for a few hours in the night, so I am either reading or writing down ideas. I then transfer the idea to my WIP book. Here I do spider-grams of all my ideas. For example, I would have my main idea in the centre circle ( and I am not talking Google+ here!), and from that I draw spider's legs with more circles. These circles will have the 'cast of characters'. From there I would take each character and have him/her in the centre circle with the spider's legs radiating out each with their own circle, and so on. When I am happy with that, I give each character a life. This is something that I learned to do at university when I was studying creative writing. We were taught that if you give your characters a three-dimensional life before you write about them it makes them feel like real people. So I give them traits, for example how they would speak, what they like and dislike, give them their little idiosyncrasies, you get the idea. I'm sure this is common practice for many writers.

I like to have pictures of the places that my story will visit. I have them pasted in my Ideas Book, together with maps of the towns that my story will visit. Going to the places that I am writing about also helps. It helps with the research, as does taking many photos. It gives more of an atmosphere to the writing process. The visits evoke the senses, and the imagination.

I like to write straight on to the laptop, and just keep going. I try not to take notice of mistakes as my priority is to get the basic idea down without double checking myself, there will be plenty of time for the editing process later. Sometimes I am totally surprised where my story is taking me. Who knew? So then I have to carry on writing, just to see what happens! I like to make sure the history part is correct, I can't change history, but I can change my story to fit.

For me, the research is most enjoyable. I love it, just love it. Sometimes I go off on a tangent just through the reading, and wonder if I can perhaps fit that piece of history in as well...So, that is me. That is my writing process.

Following me on The Writing Process Blog Hop Tour is Rob Bayliss whose blog can be found here. I know Rob from the Facebook group The Review Blog page where I am on the Admin team, and where we both review books. Please meet Rob Bayliss!

My name is Rob Bayliss. In all honesty I've always been a bit of a history geek, and a sci-fi and fantasy nerd. I've recently discovered the joys of writing and I'm currently working on a clockpunk fantasy series. I also review books for the Review Blog, which is a great way of expanding my reading experience.

Researching My Next Book

THE NEXT STEP

Well, it's almost three months now since my book Future Confronted was published. It has been some what of a journey I have to say. The learning experience is something I wouldn't have missed, it has been a real eye opener, what with the proof-reading, and the copy-editing. I have had some lovely 5 star reviews on amazon.co.uk which have touched my heart, and I thank all those who took the time to write one. I am hoping to get my book into libraries, and because I have had some great feedback on the book, I think it will serve me well, and I look forward to seeing it on the non-fiction shelves.

WHAT AM I UP TO NOW?

More than two years before I finished Future Confronted, I had started researching a story which I longed to write, one mainly set in Italy during the 15th century, but included a long journey. I love this era in Italian history, it's so varied, so interesting not only politically, but with the church and with art. I had a germ of an idea grow while I was daydreaming looking from my bedroom window out across the sea. The boats in the marina were bobbing up and down, swaying from side to side in the wind, their ropes clanking on the masts. Before I knew it, I had an outline in my head which tucked itself away for a rainy day. The idea surfaced, and I tinkered with it, and tucked it away again while I got on with Rob's story.

WORKING TITLE: THE TOUCHING OF STONES

So, I'm no longer daydreaming about this long thought of novel, I'm doing more research, a most enthralling process. I love making lists about my research, so there's a list for serious notes, one for doing spider-grams for my story-line, one for researching names, architects of the time, the 'everydayness' of the period. Working out what these people in my imagination would be eating, drinking, laughing about is taking over my thoughts.

Rosslyn Chapel

My novel will be featuring The Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin Glen, Scotland, St. Giles' Kirk, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Chichester Cathedral in Chichester, West Sussex, England, Canterbury Catherdral, Kent, England, and the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiori, in Florence, Italy. Beautiful buildings all. Each unique, with stone work so magnificently tooled, and stained glass windows which demonstrate the ultimate art of story telling. 

St. Giles' Kirk

I have long been fascinated by cathedrals, the messages that their stone work tempts us to unravel. The lives of those who worked on them. How they lived, their families, their fortunes, their misfortunes. The life of the stonemason must have been a really hard and a difficult one. The art and technique of shaping stone into a three-dimensional form is a magnificent gift. To be able to portray one's ideas from mind to paper, from paper to stone, is a process that I have often admired. I have never been to Rosslyn Chapel or St. Giles' Kirk, but I have seen with my own eyes the splendour of the other cathedrals. I will be visiting Scotland later, and will be visiting both the Rosslyn Chapel and St. Giles Kirk, and I am looking forward to it very much.

Chichester Cathedral

The Cathedral at Chichester is just twenty miles from my home. I visit several times a year, because it holds a special place in my heart. A magnificent building standing tall with its now unused bell tower standing off from the main building. The spire can be seen from the bridge that connects Hayling Island, where I live, to the mainland. It stands out like a beacon, as it must have been all those hundreds of years ago when it was first built.

Canterbury Cathedral

In Kent there is the world famous Canterbury Cathedral, the place where Thomas Becket was murdered. A place of pilgrimage for generations. Its magnificence is breathtaking. Its history, although well known, must still hold secrets. There is much literature about Canterbury, the stories, the mysteries, the lives that have been consumed in the building of it.

Basilica Santa Maria del Fiori

Then there is the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiori in Florence, Italy. My word, my word what a wonderful building. So much architectural knowledge in the building of its magnificent dome. The Basilica is so very different from the other cathedrals in Scotland and England. It is an icon of design. It provokes in the imagination the wonder of how it was first conceived. How the impossible became possible. The other cathedrals are magnificent, each in their own very special way; but The Duomo, as it is commonly known, can be recognised from afar, even by those who have never seen it before with their own eyes. Its iconic terracotta brick dome, the largest ever constructed, its Baptistery, and Giotto's Campanile are superb. The coloured stonework and the statues that are placed in and around the walls of the building are staggering in their detail. When I first saw it, I was spellbound, rooted to the spot in awe. The stories of the lives of the people who were instrumental in the construction of the Basilica can only be imagined...the hardship, the sacrifice, the hard labour.

So begins my novel. From here, from my imagination, I will tell the tale of one person who travelled from Scotland to Italy... and when there..... Well now, we will have to wait and see where the story takes us.....for I have no doubt, no doubt at all that even I do not know where that will be....

Four Weeks Since Publication!

I can hardly believe that it is now four weeks since 

my debut book 

FUTURE CONFRONTED 

was published.

The book has now gathered eight 5 STAR reviews. I am astounded by what people have had to say, and it has truly touched my heart. When I first set out to write Rob's story all those years ago I hadn't even given reviews a thought. Now I have eight after only four weeks of my book being for sale.

I never realised before how important getting reviews would be. It is a genuine way of letting the author know just what you think and how you feel about the book that you have just read. It also shows potential readers what to expect when they purchase book, or borrow it from a library. 

Now that the rush of Christmas and New Year is over, and the decorations have been taken down, I can resume my writing. I will be in the process of moving from my office in the house (Rob's old bedroom), and into the beautiful garden office that Dave bought me last October.

The Garden Office

It's going to take a little while as the office has yet to be insulated and have electricity connected. I am looking forward to being in the new office as it marks a new beginning for me. I finally feel that Rob's room can now be returned back to a bedroom. It is the biggest single step forward that I have been able to make. I think that finishing the book and getting it published has been the catalyst in that process.

There are many things that I am looking forward to this year. I am doing my research for my first Historical Fiction novel. It is a story that has been roaming around in my imagination for quite some time, and it is only now that I can really start to think about it. Some of the research I can do from books and the internet, but luckily some research will require me to travel to Venice and Florence in Italy. Oh yes! This I am looking forward to so much. It has been almost seven years since I was last there, so I am really excited. Not sure just when I'm going yet, only that I am going. 

I took this picture as the plane made its way to Marco Polo Airport

The Arno River looking towards the Ponte Vecchio in the distance
Notice the rather ornate lamp posts!

Venice looks absolutely gorgeous from the air. As you can see, it's not a very large place. Yes, you can get an idea of Venice in a day's visit, but truly you need to spend a few days to get a measure of its layout, of the people, of its history and architecture.

Florence is so different from Venice. It's like walking around in an open air museum. There are statues and fountains and all kinds of art whichever way you look. It is the place to go to let your imagination go wild! You can almost see yourself back in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The beautiful statue of David by Michelangelo is a must-visit for any tourist. 

I will also be making a short visit to Edinburgh this Spring. I've never been to Scotland, and there are many places that I would like to see. Who knows, Scotland may even be making an appearance in my new book.

I am also a book reviewer on The Review Blog on Facebook. So please drop by and have a look. We are an extremely friendly bunch.

A MEMORABLE DAY

4th DECEMBER 2013 - BOOK LAUNCH DAY

It's funny how things turn out. It has taken me sixteen years to write Rob's story. Sixteen years of writing a little, leaving it for months, then writing some more, only to end up having FUTURE CONFRONTED published on Rob's birthday. It wasn't my plan to be published on his birthday, but as everything started coming together it seemed a real possibility that this date could be achieved. 

I have the good fortune of having made some very special friends on a Facebook group to which I happily belong -  https://www.facebook.com/thereviewgroup - A fabulous group of like-minded people. It was here that I received great encouragement, as I had started to doubt that I could ever get the book published at all. One person in particular, Paula Lofting, historical author and B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree for her book Sons of the Wolf, has helped me immensely, and I am going to use this blog to sincerely thank her for her faith in me. She offered to read the first two chapters. She came back and said that she loved it. The confidence that this gave me was immeasurable. Later on she asked me if I had a proof-reader yet, or an editor, which I hadn't. My thoughts hadn't strayed that far as I doubted that my book would ever come to fruition.

Paula introduced me to Michelle Gent of http://www.gingernutbooks.co.uk/., who, apart from being a published author and film-maker, is a proof-reader and editor. She is another special lady, who has now become a special friend. Paula, Michelle and I had a three-way conversation on Facebook PM. Well, all I can say is this: it was the most interesting and exciting conversation that I have had in a long time. At the end of our conversation I not only had two proof-readers, Michelle and Paula, I also had my editor, Michelle.

The editing process for me was extremely difficult. I found that the only way that I could cope with it was to put my ego on the shelf and leave it there. The revelation was, that after I had accepted the edits, my work read so much better, smoother. It had been improved.

I knew that I wanted to go the independent publishing route, and had planned to go with Amazon's KDP. I had even downloaded the free books that Amazon provide for those wishing to do this. Yes, they were very instructional. Yes, the books take you through stage by stage, with pictures for those (like me) who need to see what it is that they have to do. Great. Well, it is if you have the confidence to take the leap. I, on the other hand had not the confidence. I would have been happier if there had been someone beside me showing me what to do. I learn better that way. During our three way conversation on Facebook PM, Michelle said that they were an independent publishing company and could publish my book if I didn't want to go down the KDP route. Well, over the next few days I gave it great consideration, and decided to go with Michelle's company Gingernut Books. I am so pleased that I did. Straight away all the stress that I had been experiencing had gone. I handed my manuscript over to Michelle and Paula lock stock and barrel. After they had gone through it, and I had accepted the changes, it was down to Trevor Gent of Gingernut Books to do the publishing. Although Gingernut Books do book cover designs, I had already had my cover designed by a special person whose impressive work I had seen earlier in the year, Dave Slaney. He made me a beautiful cover, and I am totally overjoyed with it.

4th December drew closer and closer, I was getting not only excited but apprehensive. A few telephone calls, and Facebook PMs and things were settled, et voila, magically FUTURE CONFRONTED was published. It was totally painless, in fact it was an amazing feeling.

Paula Lofting arranged an amazing book launch for me through The Review Group. It was outstanding. There were shared posts throughout the day, messages of encouragement, messages from people who had experienced the same devastation as we had. There were also messages from people just to tell me that they had purchased my book. I was so overwhelmed, and humbled. I had a message in the early evening from someone who had bought it earlier in the day, and had finished it in one sitting simply because he found it difficult to put down.

What a week it has been already, and it is only Thursday. By the end of the week I shall have some paperback editions of my book delivered to me. That will be the tangible evidence, for me, that I indeed have had my book published. I will be able to hold it, flick through it, and place it on my bookshelf. For me it will be the full stop to all the hard work over the years to get Rob's book written and then published. All the tears, all the crises, all my doubts came to an end on 4th December 2013.

Thank you to everyone who made this mammoth task possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The Trials of Writing About Loss

When I first started the task of writing FUTURE CONFRONTED, I didn’t really know where to start. I had many scenarios in my head. Should I start from when Rob was born? Should I perhaps start from when he first became ill? I knew that I needed to engage the reader from the first paragraph, but I wasn’t sure quite how to do it.

After many false starts over the years I eventually decided to start with myself as a young girl in London where I lived with my brother and mother and father in the house that my Grandfather had bought back in 1927. This house had survived bomb damage during World War II, and because it had survived, I always felt safe and content there. I decided to compare a particularly happy childhood memory with our devastating memory on Butser Hill, some forty years later. To me it felt as though the comparison embedded the sadness and devastation of our loss.

It’s difficult to find a voice when describing the events of losing a child. It would have been easier to just relate the facts without a human voice, but that wouldn’t have conveyed the strength of Rob’s determination. I love to talk, so to this end I decided to write it as though I were actually having a conversation with someone who didn’t know me or any of our family. This imaginary person was sitting across the table from me waiting to hear what I had to say. It worked for me because I had a visual, an anchoring point to which I could pin myself.

As time went on, this person sitting opposite me began to grow into a real person. I looked forward to talking to her. In my head I had given her a name, she had a life, and that is when I found that I could freely open up to her, and tell her Rob’s story. She didn’t interrupt, she didn’t have an opinion; she just listened to me. It made the telling, the writing, less traumatic. It was excruciating sometimes in the reliving, I would dissolve into tears as the details crowded inside my head. Sorting them out was difficult. I needed to put them coherently so that what I was trying to say didn't get smothered. It was quite frankly one of the most difficult tasks of the writing.

I have a real need to write. I have always kept a Diary and a Journal. In my Diary for May, June, and July 1997 there were no comments, just times of appointments for clinics and a funeral, written in an even hand.  Whereas in my Journal, the details of those 49 days from diagnosis to passing away are scrawled, sometimes in large writing, sometimes so small it is difficult to read. I had not taken notice of the ruled lines, I had just scrawled my feelings in many directions, as though I were shouting, or whispering. I know now, looking back, that the large writing was when I was angry, and shouting and the small writing was when I was whispering, and dared to hope. In the beginning we had hope, but over those few short weeks it became evident that there was no hope, nothing to hang on to.

Back in 2004 I sent part of my original MS to several publishers to see if I could get the book published. As many of you know, they don’t always answer very quickly, if at all. The MS of all those years ago, when looking at it now, is nothing like the finished version; and I am not surprised that they turned me down, albeit gently.

This year, having just retired, I decided it was time to complete Rob’s story. So it went through a complete rewrite. I had my sensible head on and went through it methodically. It was draining. I reread my Diary and my Journal and tried to put Rob’s story into some sort of chronological order where possible.

FUTURE CONFRONTED is now with the proof-reader and the copy-editor. I was going to try and do it all myself, as erroneously I thought that's what self-publishers did. But after some really good advice, I chose to let my work go to someone who could do a much better job than I. Also, after receiving good advice, I decided to have my book cover professionally designed, and I am so pleased that I did. It looks really lovely.

The plan is to publish the book before Christmas. I am proud to say that I am self-publishing, through Amazon, but it is a decision yet to be finalised, as other avenues are also open to me. I don’t feel that I am a lesser author for self-publishing; I see it as just another route to getting the book out there. After all, the main reason for writing is for someone to read your work. How you get it out there surely is up to you.

I now proudly see myself as an Indie Author, and look forward to writing more books. The stories in my head are now pushing forward, and it’s just a case of choosing which one I will tackle first.

WRITING - NOT A HOBBY, A WAY OF LIFE.

WRITING - NOT A HOBBY, A WAY OF LIFE

 

Hi, my name is Louise, and I have a love of reading, and a love of writing.

Louise E. Rule

I have always had a love of reading and a love of writing, and I have always kept a journal and a diary. I have a need to write down what I need to do, and what I have done throughout the week. It is because of this, and the traumatic events, that I was able to recall all the events that appear in my first book entitled FUTURE CONFRONTED.

The book is about our youngest son Robert Charles Rule, and how he and we coped with the terrifying news that he was suffering from an inoperable brain tumour. He was only twenty, and died just 49 days after being diagnosed.

Robert C. Rule

My reasons for writing Rob's story are many. The main reason is because Rob had shown great fortitude when he first found out that he had a brain tumour and demonstrated great resoluteness and dignity when he found out that he was going to die.

Rob was cremated. We scattered his ashes on Butser Hill on the South Downs in Hampshire, a beautiful and green open space with 360 degree uninterrupted views. It is an exhilarating and magical place to be, and it matches Rob's ideals perfectly.

I needed to tell Rob's story, our story, in the hope that it may encourage those who have suffered the same as our family that it is possible to survive, to carry on; to overcome.