A Special Request!

My debut novel, The Eighth Circle of Hell is up for the People’s Book Prize at present.

As you may well have read in previous posts, this is a special novel for me personally as it got me literally from one day to the next during a very difficult time in my life. But more importantly, it also tells the story of some of the forgotten victims of the dark side of the Victorian era.

It wasn't written for profit, or even for publication when I began, but just for the story.

I would be really, really grateful if you would lend your support and vote for the book at:

http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=919

Many, many thanks!

Livin' the Dream

They say the two greatest moments in an author’s career are when they have their first manuscript accepted for publication and when they get the first copy of their book land on their doormat.

The first happened to me the day – in fact the very minute – my father died, and I will admit to cringing at the second – in the same way as I cringe when I hear myself on a recording or see my image in a photograph.

But boy, I'm making up for it now!

Last week, completely out of the blue, I got a phone call at home. It was an actor, now a producer/director, with some pretty hefty credits to his name. We talked, and he requested a synopsis of The Eighth Circle of Hell, suggesting that we meet up in a few days. And we did – at the famous Betty’s Tea Rooms of Agatha Cristie fame. 

As it happens, he liked it - very much. He liked it so much that he is going to work with me to transpose the novel into a screenplay and hopefully...hopefully...HOPEFULLY, turn the whole thing into a 5- or 6-part television series.

AND, not only did I finally get to go to Betty’s (despite living in Harrogate for most of my life) but I got to meet a thoroughly decent bloke with a social conscience who wants to make a difference.

Third time lucky, eh?

Kindling “The Eighth Circle of Hell”.

Ever since my debut novel The Eighth Circle of Hell was published in October 2012, I’ve been continually asked how I came to write about such a grim subject matter as 19^th Century child sexual abuse. It’s an interesting story so I thought I’d write a blog post about it.

Around six years or so ago, there were a number of difficult elements in my personal life; severe illness of close family members, hardship and death. I began creative writing purely as a catharsis to these and as a form of escapism.

One day, I was visiting my father in the care home where he lived when one of the other residents, an elderly lady who was also in the end-stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, suddenly cried out, begging some uncle to stop, screaming that he was hurting her. This particular lady was in her early eighties and it made me begin to imagine what sort of horrors she must be reliving. That very soon sparked the idea behind The Eighth Circle of Hell.

Another conversation which fed into the storyline was one I had with the senior nurse at the time. He explained that my father (who was by then incontinent) was violently resisting intervention by the nurses to bath him. That was hardly surprising, he told me, since my father couldn’t remember who the nurses were from one hour to the next. To his mind, several burly men were suddenly grabbing him and forcibly removing his clothes. No wonder he fought back!

The plot for the novel that began to form in my mind needed to predate dementia drugs or even modern mental health services, and living in Harrogate – essentially a Victorian town – I decided to set it in the 19^th Century.

Which is when I happened to stumble across the Defloration Mania.

The Defloration Mania was a period during the Victorian age when adolescent, mainly virgin girls were bought, duped, kidnapped, or otherwise procured for rich, so-called gentlemen to rape. It was a time of soundproofed rooms, illicit sedatives and straps and the rape was carried out on an almost industrial scale. The pioneering journalist WT Stead eventually exposed it in 1885 in a series of shocking articles entitled The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.

The articles outraged a Victorian public and it outraged me, especially as I remembered the terror in the old lady’s screams. It was this anger that seemed to crystallise onto my laptop screen as the manuscript for The Eighth Circle of Hell.

Everything I describe in the plot, from the horrific baby farming to the Annexe, from the procuresses to the Gentlemen’s entertainment was real and typical to the Mania.

The most amazing thing about the period was that despite the 1885 scandal and the riots that Stead’s articles ignited, virtually no one these days, even in England, has heard of it. The government of the day hurriedly raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16 years and the whole thing died away – in the public’s consciousness at least.

The ongoing scandal over celebrity child abuse in Britain today demonstrates clearly that outside that consciousness, it continues even today.

Adult – Young Adult: What’s the Difference?

I have written a novel for Young Adults. Well, strictly speaking Red Dragon-White Dragon (May, 2013, Thames River Press), is an historical crime novel for adults, but it was written to appeal to the next generation too. The Eighth Circle of Hell with its emotionally dark and brutal writing is, to my mind, strictly for adults only.

The body count in Red Dragon-White Dragon is over double that of The Eighth Circle of Hell, the writing much more graphic and the protagonist savage and remorseless. So why do I consider it suitable material for younger readers? What are the differences between adult and young adult novels?

Well, this is how I see it:

The theory goes that young adults have a rather limited attention span and are far too impatient and impulsive to read through an adult length novel of 80,000 words plus. I don’t necessarily believe that, (or rather believe it to be an over-simplification, as long as the story is engaging.) Most of the Harry Potter series exceed the suggested 60,000 maximum by some margin and Red Dragon-White Dragon is just over 80,000 words long. I have however deliberately used shorter sentences and paragraphs to make the writing seem less daunting and easier to comprehend.

There is greater freedom in young adult writing for the use of hyperbole. Everything, from the characterisation, to the narrative voice and the dialogue can be larger than life since that is how young people see things. The characters can almost be spoofs of a purely adult offering. Conversely, in a crime or mystery novel such as Red Dragon-White Dragon, young adults (reared on a diet of television) need to have the details of the reveal laid out in more detail than would be required for a seasoned adult reader.

Another suggestion for YA writing is to relax the grammar, thereby creating a more 'youthful' quality to the work. I'm afraid I couldn't quite bring myself to do that; Red Dragon-White Dragon is historical and therefore not wholly suited to relaxed grammar except in idiomatic speech. Besides, it's not really in my nature.

So far as content is concerned, young adults can take a great deal of straightforward violence completely in their stride and even rather glory in it. (Psychological, emotional and especially sexual violence is another matter entirely.) I have duly obliged the former; Red Dragon-White Dragon is a veritable blood fest!

Unaccustomed as I am...

A little (ahem) while ago I was honoured to be nominated for a Liebster Award by Mr Martin Cosby.

This is what I have to do

1)     List 11 random facts about me.

2)     Answer the 11 questions posed by the person who nominated me.

3)     Nominate 11 other people.

4)     Come up with 11 new questions.

5)     Paste the award logo onto my blog.

Here therefore, are 11 very random facts indeed about me:

1)     I am a qualified horticulturist.

2)     I eat raw oats for breakfast every morning and have done for years.

3)     I almost failed my English Literature ‘O’ Level examination at school.

4)     (Like most people I suppose,) I support Newcastle United Football Club.

5)     I used to play Rugby football as a wing-threequarter.

6)     I rather enjoy having bonfires.

7)     As a small child I was afraid of leaves, although I don’t mind them in the least now.

8)     I’m pretty much immune to cold.

9)     I once saw an adder in my parents’ back garden in Gateshead when I was very little. They didn’t believe me.

10)  I am apparently in Ravenclaw House at Hogwarts School.

11)  I would quite like to be an accountant some day.

My 11 nominees (and I'm very sorry if you’ve already been nominated before, or if you are irritated by this nomination,):

1)     Juliet Brough

2)     Graham Smith

3)     Robert MacLean

4)     Kevin Swarbrick

5)     Linda S. Taylor

6)     Mary Cavanagh

7)     John Dolan

8)     Michelle Browne

9)     Regina Puckett

10)  Rebecca Sutherland

11)  Dee Weaver

1. Do you write your first drafts by hand?

By hand? Goodness me, no. Everything is done on a laptop computer, from research to planning to drafts. I think I’ve forgotten how to write by hand.

2. Do you follow more than 10 blogs?

At the last count, I follow around 30.

3. Do you play a musical instrument?

I used to play the Trumpet quite seriously in my younger years. Unfortunately I smashed my lip up playing rugby and that rather put an end to it.

4. Given the choice, which opera would you attend?

Probably ‘The Magic Flute’ by Mozart. The Queen of the Night arias are magnificent. Having said that, I’ve always wanted to see Handel’s Rinaldo. It was a very early ‘English’ baroque opera.

5. e-book or paper book?

Paper book every time. There’s something about the feel and smell of a book that really can’t be replaced by a screen.

6. Do you use an electric blanket?

I’ve never used one. I am pretty much immune to cold. It’s probably something to do with coming from North East England. Apparently ‘Geordies’ and Scots have biologically thicker skins.

7. Do you write in cafes?

I have on occasion, but rarely. I find them too distracting and I get nothing worthwhile done.

8. Is there a film that has influenced you greatly?

Good question. I’ve enjoyed plenty of films without them influencing me especially. Books have influenced me much more. I suppose one film that has had a big influence on me in hindsight is ‘The Lord of the Flies,’ (the 1963 version), which was an adaptation of a novel of course. It brought home to me just how close we all are to the beast.  

 
9. Do you keep a diary?

I’ve quite often started to keep one, especially when I was younger but it rarely lasted more than a day or two. That reminds me, I must start to keep a diary.

10. Which foodstuff do you like the least?

I really, really hate Twiglets. I’ve tried them loads of times but alas, each time is always as bad as the last.

11. Do you listen to music while you work? If so, what?

I do quite often listen to music whilst I write or research. Usually it is classical and usually it is baroque – typically Vivaldi or JS Bach.

And finally, my questions to my own 11 nominees are:

1)     When you start a new piece of writing, do you prepare a plan first? Be honest now!

2)     At what time of day or night do you write most effectively?

3)     Have you ever found yourself secretly trying to use ‘The Force’? (Perhaps to open automatic doors or suchlike.)

4)     Which Hogwarts House could you see yourself being sorted into?

5)     What was your favourite subject at school?

6)     If you could spend a day as someone else, who would it be and why? (Please keep it clean, except for John Dolan who has a disclaimer on his blogsite already.)

7)     Who is your favourite living actor and why?

8)     Which creature are you the most afraid of?

9)     Whom would you give this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to, and why?

10)  What is the first word that comes into your mind...NOW? Please write it down. (I guess you’ll be okay again, John.)

11)  Which part of your body are you most happy with?

Thank you very much indeed.

The New Paupers and the Rise of the Sub-Human.

“They’re just like us!”

That was an observation commonly made by those coming into contact with enemy combatants during and after the World Wars.

We smile wryly at comments such as those and wonder how naive those generations must have been, but before we do, we must remember this:

Like many animals, human beings have deep and instinctive aversion to killing our fellow kind. To make the ‘necessity’ of doing so in time of war a little easier, we might begin to think of those on the other side as being somehow different – perhaps wholly evil. We might think of derogatory names for our enemy, perhaps based on racial or cultural stereotypes that make them seem a little less human, a little less like us. It is a regrettable part of human nature.

Even in peacetime the same phenomenon occurs. Those we rail against for whatever reason, we might regard as different – as somehow inferior or less noble than ourselves. Racism is an obvious example of that sort of aberrant thinking. Another is social or socio-economic prejudice, because yes, it is raw prejudice that we are talking about.

In the 19^th Century, the very poor were generally referred to paupers. Especially after the inauguration of the Poor Law in 1834 they were increasingly regarded as idle, indolent and feckless and indeed wholly responsible for their own situation. In my recent novel; The Eighth Circle of Hell, a wealthy, supposed philanthropist makes this observation:

                “Those creatures are paupers...from the poor-law workhouse. They have come to clear that tree for firewood.

“I want you to look hard and pay heed to their misfortune. Workhouse paupers are the most miserable wretches in Christendom. They are naturally idle, indolent and feckless.”

He goes on to describe how attempts are made to drive “the more godlike qualities of industriousness, abstinence and humility” into them by means of austerity and forced labour.

Victorian Britain was a society of great opposites, of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ and its rapid industrialisation meant that great swathes of society were regarded as nothing more than resources to feed the demands of industry. Worse; some of the most vulnerable – young virgin children became victims of the horrific Defloration Mania, which I have described in detail in previous blogs.

Modern Britain, by and large, is a society tolerant of religious and racial diversity. That is exactly as it should be, of course. However two great prejudices remain: The first is against those with mental health disorders, the second is against those claiming welfare benefits.

Outrageously, it is the government itself that seems to be stoking the fire of the second of these. It talks in broad terms of ‘shirkers,’ of ‘skivers’ and of ‘scroungers’, making them seem somehow sub-human and introducing an us-and-them divide. How easy then for them to slash benefits and throw them into deeper hardship, perhaps in an attempt to drive more godlike qualities into them maybe.

I know a great number of people who claim welfare benefits and almost all of them are strivers – either striving to get off welfare-dependence or striving against severe emotional and psychological issues. Guess what; far from being idle, indolent and feckless, they are just like everyone else.

WHAT'S IN A NAME, or, Angst and ‘Andles.

They say that an author and a publisher will never agree on two things: One is the choice of cover image and the other is the title of a novel.

I imagine that is very often true.

If, like me, you are a traditionally-published author, this may, (or may not), be the case, but either way, you will certainly benefit from the editorial, publicity, marketing and sales experience of the publishing house. If you are self-published, then, fellow writer, it is all down to you.

So what makes a good title for a work of fiction?

It should link to some extent to the contents or theme of the book – quite obviously. But more than that, it should, in conjunction with the cover image, play a major role in actually selling the book. That is perhaps where a publisher’s experience will usually trump the author’s.

Unless your book is a classic, at the point-of-purchase, where the majority of decisions to buy are made, your book has a very limited time in which to grab the consumer’s attention. By limited, I mean a few seconds at most. This is particularly the case when the consumer is browsing online. Few people will study your title to analyse how clever it might be so, together with your cover image, it needs to create an immediate emotional reaction.

That reaction can be curiosity or puzzlement, intrigue, enchantment or even outrage, but in every case the prospective book buyer should be induced to want to know more.

For example:

·         The Childtaker, (Conrad Jones). This is an exceptionally powerful title, which together with a simple but dreadful image of an empty playground swing generates strong emotions of anger and outrage.

·         The Other Boleyn Girl, (Philippa Gregory). This is more curiosity and intrigue. Most of us know a little about Anne already, but the other one?

Authors can often be too close to the detail of the plot to see this bigger picture. My novel The Eighth Circle of Hell had the working title of Victorian Maiden for a while. That may have been quite effective for a Nineteenth Century romance, but a powerful tragedy needed something more direct and forceful, yet intriguing. Similarly the working title for my second novel, Seven Gifts of Madness was rejected by Thames River Press in favour of the stronger, Red Dragon – White Dragon.

 For those without the benefit of a publishing house committee, book stores are also good sounding-boards for potential title–image combinations. Even more so than the blurb or arguably even the contents, the title of a book is probably its most important selling tool.