May 2010 Archives

The Flowers of Happiness

By Karen Ball on May 29, 2010 12:18 PM | 1 Comment

And so the work begins again with a day at the Royal Festival Hall, my space pictured left. I bumped into Jasmine Richards here, editor at OUP and author of a manuscript recently acquired by Harper Collins US as blogged about here. I told you the RFH was a haven for London's creatives!

I've had feedback from my agent on my latest revision. Good news - it's a thumbs up. (Phew. So my gladiatorial fight with the lions in the arena means that my life is saved for one more day.) I have some further revisions to do, but nothing that feels horribly major. For the first time on this manuscript, adjustments do not necessarily mean rewriting half the manuscript and throwing the other half out of the window. We have now moved on to a new part of the process - something that is more housekeeping than originating. Not quite crossing 't's and dotting 'i's but a process of revision that is akin to smoothing skirts down, patting hair and adjusting collar points. Oh, and making sure that every character's story is fully told. Even support characters need back story - especially support characters. (Almost without exception, I find that writers have the most fun with their secondary characters. These characters don't have to carry the full weight of the story, which means that there's often room around them to experiment.)

Of course, there's no such thing as a 'simple' change. It's like pulling a loose thread in your favourite jumper. Things unravel. One change requires another change, implicating this scene, meaning that paragraph needs tweaking and... Before you know it, there's a dangerous pile of words and sentences scattered around your feet as you hold aloft a manuscript that has morphed into a charming new piece of origami. I exaggerate, of course, but this really is not a stage for taking your eye off the ball. Every change has a ripple effect and either you keep an eye on these or run the risk of making your manuscript look shoddy and ill-written. One more final read-through? You betcha.

On a separate note, I must send out a thank you to Margaret Carey who recently shared this link. Oh my goodness, this blog post made me think! In the world today, we are bombarded by advice for would-be writers. Sometimes it can be easy to skim read a blog entry and think, 'Yes, well, helpful but nothing I didn't already know.' This one really stopped me in my tracks with Nathan's thoughts on 'a place in turmoil'. This literary agent's theory is that a great precinct is one that is in a state of flux or change. I've never consciously used this device, but when I thought back to my different works, I could see that on occasion I'd unconsciously applied this principle. A school play that throws the school into chaos, for example. But I can't say this is true of all my stories. Is a place in turmoil necessary? A great and thought-provoking device to consider, but essential? I'm going to say not necessarily. Like Nathan Bransford, however, I love a great setting. I adore the atmosphere that can be generated just by describing things. Kept succinct, scene-setting can be a fabulous shorthand. Want to know what a novel is about? Look at the way the author describes the sky. Or a couch. This, from my all-time favourite novel, The Great Gatsby:

'The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house.'

Want to get across the unavailability of your gorgeous, rotten, beautiful heroine? Put her on a floating couch! I still love that scene.

So, I'm off to describe me some things. Beyond my windows, the world is damp and grey. In my head, I'm embracing Cornish sunlight, seascapes and glittering waves. I keep promising myself a trip to Cornwall when this novel is finished. (Ha! Great timing, Karen.) Daphne du Maurier has a house there, and I'd love to visit. Have you read 'Rebecca'? It rocked my world. Continues to. Now, there's an author who understood her characters and settings.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Today is so - urgh! - that it has been no good at all for taking photos. Instead, I leave you with a snap I took yesterday of a jam jar of flowers left on my front door step by a neighbour. Wasn't that kind of her? Such a small gesture, and one that has generated so much happiness.

The Flowers of Happiness

Interview With An Author 4, Ellen Renner

By Karen Ball on May 20, 2010 8:24 PM | 1 Comment

I first met Ellen when we were both nervous newbies attending the Scattered Authors' Society summer retreat at Charney Manor, pictured above. Ellen was on the cusp of publication of her debut novel, Castle of Shadows, and I was anxiously working through my latest manuscript, prior to sending it to Jenny Savill as an exclusive first approach. Since then, Ellen has enjoyed a warm reception to her novel and Jenny agreed to take me on. We've both been working hard and, impressed by all the lovely people at Charney, we're going back there for a second retreat very soon.

Having heard Ellen read out an extract from Castle of Shadows, I was keen to get my hands on a copy when it was published in January 2010. Ellen is an impressive reader - I found myself charmed by her soft, lyrical voice and hanging on every word of the rich story she told. It felt only right, therefore, that after reading Ellen's novel I asked if she would kindly do an interview with me. She agreed!

Clothes are an important part of Castle of Shadows, from the housekeeper's whale bone and bombazine to Moleglass's dove grey gloves and the evil Prime Minister with his 'black cutaway frock coat, pale grey trousers and a silver and blue-figured silk waistcoat'. Our main character, Charlie, is liberated from petticoats and crinoline when she gets to dress up as a boy for the climax of the book. Which came first - the characters or what they wore!

In the Victorian period clothes defined you; they were incredibly important as a statement of social status. Also, women's clothes were diabolical - imprisoning body, mind and soul. No wonder Charlie hates her dresses! Men's top hats - with their long black crowns - were a symbol of the industrial revolution: think of all those factory chimneys.

The characters came first, of course, but the clothes were tools begging to be used for characterisation. Also, unlike Charlie, I do love clothes. If I had to choose one of my characters to dress up as, it would be Windlass. But then, who would want to wear black bombazine and a whalebone corset?

I happen to know you like fencing, Ellen. Dare I suggest that your sport influenced your fight scenes? In chapter 23 there's a moment when Windlass attacks with a sword and 'lunged until he was almost kneeling in the snow'. Did your fencing experiences help you describe the physical details of a good fight scene (something I struggle with as a writer)?

I confess to adding that scene in order to get some sword play in there somewhere. Although it is true that in the early Victorian period men did carry sword sticks as a transitional weapon of self-defence in between the eras of the short sword and the pistol. After all, one could be seen in polite society sporting a cane, whereas few men (outside the wild west) would actually carry a gun. I do like writing fight scenes; fencing is a martial art as well as a sport.

I was very impressed by how ambitious and original Castle of Shadows is. There is a significant amount of politics in this novel and even one very ripe swear word. Was your publisher always happy to push the boundaries with you, or did you have to persuade them?

Thank you for that! You're right in that it doesn't fit into an obvious niche. People have mentioned similarities to Gormenghast (which I don't know) and Joan Aiken's Dido Twite books (which I know very well). I'm flattered by these comparisons, but it is true that the books don't follow a trend: there's no magic, co-opted fairy tales or myths, no supernatural elements at all. The only fantasy element is the setting: an alternative Victorian world.

I didn't want to write a standard fantasy. Instead of a supernatural villain, I wanted my children to confront real evils: power and politics, bad parenting, powerlessness and not knowing whom to trust. My main villain is a politician. He does bad things for what he considers to be good reasons. Obviously, I needed to explore these themes within the context of a page-turning adventure. I wrote the book with levels in the hope that different people and age groups would get different things out of it. I'm very pleased that adults seem to be enjoying it too.

As for 'that word' (which is a term of abuse rather than a profanity), I did worry about it. I know kids hear much worse in the playground, but I would never use strong language casually. I felt it was necessary to the story at that point. Orchard never queried it.

The language of your debut novel feels as though it comes from a past time and there's quite a lot of vocabulary that will challenge contemporary readers. Hurrah! Do you feel that you are instinctively drawn to an era in the past?

This book was intended for 9+ readers, not beginners. I remember being that age very clearly. I loved finding new words in a book and figuring out what they meant from the context. Finding a new word didn't upset me, make me feel like a failure or make me stop reading! If you only print words children already know, how will they learn new ones?

The young readers I meet are loving the book. The adventure and characterisation are strong enough to pull them through. And again, each of the characters talks differently. Windlass has the most formal and challenging vocabulary. Tobias and Charlie's dialogue is much simpler.

As for being drawn to a particular era, no, I don't think so, although I have enjoyed researching the 1830s and 40s. It was a time of rapid social, political and technological change, with lots of parallels to our own time.

In chapter two there is a beautiful scene where the king adds the 37th tower to his house of cards. 'He glided from one scaffold pole to another, twisting between towers, skimming over crenellations.' This is such a vivid set piece - did it pop into your head well before the rest of the novel was written?

Yes it did. One day I was busy writing something else when the image of the king, hanging from scaffolding, about to place the last card on his enormous card castle, popped into my head from nowhere. Everything else followed. I love the king. He represents the failures we all feel ourselves to be sometimes as parents and adults. The image is so central to the book, in so many ways, that I still wish I been able to call the book Castle of Cards, although I understand the reasons behind the title change.

I was very impressed with your descriptions of a pneumatic railway in chapter 11 and other sections about a pneumatic messenger system! Did you have to research these and if so, what research resources can you recommend for other writers?

I heard something on Radio 4 some years ago about pneumatic and atmospheric railways and logged it away for future use. Brunel built the only atmospheric railway in Britain in the 1830s. It was in Devon between Teignmouth and Star Cross. Parts of it are in the Teignmouth museum. The railway only ran for a year. They couldn't get the seals airtight enough. They used leather and fat to seal the slot in the pneumatic tube, and rats kept eating the seals! If they had been able to use vulcanised rubber, which was invented ten years later, we might still be riding on pneumatic railways. In my world they did have vulcanised rubber.

Pneumatic messenger systems were widely used and are still in use in many places. I grew up with them: in the States you had drive in banks and put your deposits, etc, into capsules to send to the cashiers standing in their kiosks. Drive through MacBanks!

The internet was my main research resource. I researched enough of the politics, history, science and technology for my own purposes and let my imagination do the rest. That's the joy of alternative worlds.

***

Wow, Ellen, thank you so much! We've been given a fascinating glimpse of how originality, creativity, research and the mysterious - pop! - of an idea can come together to make challenging fiction that never talks down to the reader, creating a vivid world quite unlike any other I've read. I think Castle of Shadows is a great example of what happens when a brave writer is given a platform by a publisher prepared to think outside of the box.

It doesn't stop there. Ellen's follow-up novel, City of Thieves, is published in August 2010. I feel certain that Ellen already has a dedicated readership who will be queueing up to see what she does next. Good luck, Ellen, and see you at Charney!

Devil May Care

By Karen Ball on May 16, 2010 6:38 PM | No Comments

I'm just back from a week in Skiathos with my family. Aren't holidays essential? Especially after what feel like two very busy years in my life. Within moments of stretching out on a sun lounger my brain melted away to almost nothing. Thinking coherently became a needless chore and was happily abandoned. My netbook gathered dust* as my brain darted like a butterfly. The novel I'd brought out with me became quickly neglected as the hotel library sent out its siren call. Chick lit novels, non-fiction, celebrity biographies and sports memoirs, this rag-tag collection of books left behind by previous guests could only have been improved if it had been moved to sit next to the hotel bar.

I once took a copy of Samuel Pepys' diaries on a sun holiday. Urgh! It was cast aside in favour of my mum's copy of Jilly Cooper's 'The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous'. Superb and it rose to the occasion admirably. Jilly's sense of fun permeated every page and I was swept away to a place I hadn't visited since my teenage reading of bonkbusters. I still have that holiday novel; it sits on my bookshelf to this very day. It's gone down in family folklore as the book that got me an important job in my career. On my return to the UK, I was interviewed by David Fickling for a role as desk editor at Scholastic. 'What would be your perfect holiday reading?' he asked me. Gulp. Did I tell him the truth about my abandoned Pepys and yummy time with Jilly? I took a risk and blurted out the story of my recent holiday. He roared with laughter and the next day phoned to offer me the job. I learnt an important lesson there.

Still, that was all a long time ago (eek!) and not what I'm here to chat about today. Come on, Karen! What did you read on this holiday? I noticed Sebastian Faulks' version of a James Bond novel and prised it off the shelf. Within minutes of opening the front cover, I was incapable of conversation with anyone. I spent my last morning in Skiathos speed reading the last 50 pages. This novel is absolutely fascinating. Faulks turns his not inconsiderable talents to tackling a faithful representation of the ridiculous adventure of a Bond novel, along with the sexism and, I don't like to say racism, but pigeon-holed thinking. (Don't trust the French, we're told.) We have a feisty heroine, but she's constantly told 'Good girl' by James. The feminist in me bristled - exactly the effect Sebastian wanted, I'm certain. Faulks did an excellent job of adopting Fleming's voice and attitudes whilst bringing a spot of 21st century commentary to a series of books that has become a literary and cinematic institution. Most importantly of all, as I sensed with Jilly Cooper's novel, this writer had a lot of FUN. I think we all sometimes forget ... isn't that the point of it all? Why we do this? To have fun?

This novel could have been a disaster. I thought it was a triumph. (Okay, I didn't really buy the heroin plot thread, but still...) As someone who works for a packager of series fiction, where we often ask writers to adapt to an already established 'voice', I thought this novel was a brilliant example of the discipline and creativity that is employed in an area of publishing often under-appreciated - writing under an 'author profile'. We can all sound like ourselves - but to sound like someone else? Now, that's talent. As Kate Wilson of Nosy Crow comments in a recent blog interview, an editor can help a writer with plot and characterisation - but voice? Without that, you're in trouble. (Am I the only one who is watching Nosy Crow's development with avid interest?)

But back to the holiday reading. I sometimes abandoned Bond ('Bad girl') to dip into this:

This memoir is perfect for someone who is too full of sun to read with much serious intent. There's an index! Robert Downey Junior auditioning for Chaplin? Yes, please! Barbara Streisand insisting she should be cast in Shadowlands? Ooh, fab. I'd skim this, then regurgitate celebrity stories for my family's entertainment at the dinner table. We all enjoyed this one. Interestingly, Richard's memoir is openly co-written alongside a long-standing colleague. We move from one of his recollections of collecting an Oscar, to his friend's version of events. I thought this was a great dual perspective device and a really honourable way of admitting what many celebrity memoirs rely on and often deny: that we all need help remembering the details! This literary decision tells us many great things about an undeniably great man.

That's it! Phew. I thought this was going to be a quick blog summary of what I read on holiday. It's turned into a bit more than that, hasn't it? So, over to you. What do you like to read on holiday, what books do you have fond holiday memories of and ... have any of them helped change your life?

Come on. I know there are stories out there, just waiting to be shared!

I leave you with a view of Greek heaven, best seen when smearing baked feta cheese across a thick slice of bread:

* I tell a lie. I did break out the netbook and wrote a first chapter of a new project. Hurrah!

Not Waving But Writing

By Karen Ball on May 6, 2010 6:56 AM | No Comments

Pop by my entry on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure and learn how writers love to squeeze it all in.

Happy Election Day! (Ooh. That doesn't sound quite right, does it? Er. May things turn out how you... No. Okay, what about: I hope the right man gets your... No, no, mustn't influence anyone. Listen. Just go and vote, will you?)

The Dash Of The Thread

By Karen Ball on May 1, 2010 5:47 PM | 1 Comment

Look out world, I'm back! After delivering my latest draft, I am a free agent again. What does this mean? Well, I did this:

Stratford-upon-Avon Half Marathon

And went here:

Natural History Museum

Actually, I passed this museum to go to the V&A for their Quilts exhibition and Grace Kelly exhibition. Both were interesting in different ways. Gosh, quilts tell a story. The most impressive and moving were a quilt made in Wandsworth Prison this century and another by female convicts aboard a ship to Australia last century. Elsewhere, there were the usual romantic stories of love letters sewn into quilts, political messages in the design of quilts, scraps of black out curtains, pyjamas, ribbons - all sewn together by faceless men and women, their stitches still visible.

Even here, the world of children's books came creeping in: the original manuscript, don't you know, of Beatrix Potter's 'The Tale of Tittlemouse'. (A quilt is featured, I believe!) A very small manuscript in faded brown ink, with a watercolour illustration.

The Grace Kelly exhibition: what can I tell you? Lots of lovely dresses.

In other recent news, I went to the London Book Fair to attend Andrew Nurnberg's drinks reception. I met some other lovely authors represented by Jenny Savill and spotted Hilary Mantel nearby. Is that woman stalking me, after our recent encounter at Oxford? LBF has been a very quiet affair this year because of volcanic ash, would you believe? That didn't stop them from turning me away at the door to the YA talk on the Tuesday morning. Harrumph! Room full, apparently. I was left feeling very grumpy.

Next week I have my writers' group, so some early feedback on the new writing in this latest draft. But otherwise, I have been enjoying the serenity of Doing Very Little. Well, when I say very little I mean doing stuff other than writing. It's all good! It's still re-charging my batteries. If I keep running half marathons, I'll be glad to get back to writing. Far less exhausting.

Enjoy your bank holiday! We all deserve a break.

How I love my random photos!

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