From reality to fantasy

I see that Hampton Court Palace is hosting a "sleepover" for one night this weekend @ £100.00 per person. I am sad on two counts. Firstly that I don't have £100 at the moment and secondly because I am at the other end of the country and can't actually get there.

I have, as readers of this blog will know, always had an emotional link to the Tudor Hampton Court Palace, so I suppose I should be partly mollified to see that this sleepover is concentrating on the Georgian history of the building. How I would love to see the parts that we mere mortals don't get to see! I asked one of the state warders about the number of rooms out of bounds to the public. Her reply was that we get to see about one tenth of the place. High on my list would be Katherine of Aragon's chamber, which is where I believe Jane Seymour gave birth to Edward VI. I'd also love to explore the young prince's set of rooms, too. And I don't need to add that I wish William III had retained Henry's apartments. There is a staircase behind a door in the Georgian palace that is all that is left of the Tudor building in that section. I often wonder if it was the stairs that led down to Henry's wardrobe.

Henry's great passion was, of course, Anne Boleyn and together they stayed in Hampton Court as often as they could. I've always believed that Anne was framed by Thomas Cromwell, although she didn't help her cause by her behaviour to the King and everyone else. Thinking about her last months, I feel so very sorry for her. She must have been almost paralysed with fear after the final miscarriage, knowing that Henry's eye was straying and the high court officials hated her. I truly believe Henry VIII regretted executing his second wife. That is one of the reasons I resurrected her for The Tudor Enigma series.

The books are historical fantasy, set at Hampton Court, but in an alternate Tudor universe where Henry IX, Anne's son now reigns over England, helped by his beloved mother. The first book, published by Carina Press is out on 26th May in digital format. My hero is the local apothecary, who is also an elemancer - an elemental magician sworn to work for the good of all. Luke Ballard is ordered by Anne Boleyn to find out who is conspiring to kill her son, an order he dare not disobey but which causes him all manner of dangers.

The book is available for pre-order from these sources.

http://ebooks.carinapress.com/AEE18D5D-7ECA-4DD4-9E1F-78E98970009A/10/134/en/SearchResults.htm?SearchID=10971211

http://amzn.to/1eQ3bFl

http://amzn.to/1hFTxzo

http://bit.ly/QjCaic

You can find me on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/britwriterapriltaylor

and on Twitter here - https://twitter.com/authAprilTaylor

Interview with crime writer Lesley Cookman

I'm very happy to welcome Lesley Cookman to the Luke Ballard elemancer blog today.

Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed, Lesley. As a fan of the Libby Serjeant murder mysteries, I stand in awe of someone who is publishing her 13th book in the series. 

1.     Tell us a little about yourself, please.

I started writing for computer and business magazines when my older two children were small, after a varied career which included actor, model, air stewardess and recruitment consultant. I met my late husband while I was working for The Observer and he was working for EMI. Then we both had brainstorms and went self employed – he as a musician and me as a writer. The four children have all become musicians, and one is also a writer.

2.     Talk us through your writing process. Are you a pantser or a planner?

What usually happens is that I have a title and have to find something to fit! Then I’ll have a setting, or a situation, often suggested to me by my eldest son, whom I’m beginning to think I should pay, and I go on from there. I don’t start to make notes until I’m some way in and have to write down timelines or relationships. I frequently don’t know who the murderer is, and it’s likely to change right up until the last minute, so I’m always slightly doubtful when readers say “I knew who it was right from the beginning!” Lucky them. I didn’t.

3.     Tell us about your new book.

Murder In A Different Place is the thirteenth in the Libby Sarjeant Mystery Series, and in response to requests from readers, this time I’ve taken Libby and her gang away from home to the Isle of Wight, one of my all time favourite holiday destinations. Also in response to requests, we learn far more about her friend Harry and his background. 

You can find Murder in a Different Place here - http://amzn.to/1iAlZnd

4. How do you come up with your titles? 

They all have to have “Murder” in them, so we (publishers, sales director, children) come up with a phrase that looks good. As scientific as that.

5. Which books have had the most influence on you as a writer? 

Monica Edwards Romney Marsh series, and later Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Dorothy Sayers. Not Christie!

6. What advice would you give to other writers? 

Keep going – and read. Read as much as you can, particularly in your own genre so you learn what works and what doesn’t, how dialogue is written, what sort of pacing is necessary and how much description is allowable. I re-read a lot of my favourites – see above – and it’s surprising how things have changed. Back in “The Golden Age” of detective fiction you could have pages of description – no paragraphs and no dialogue. An editor would have a field day today!

Writing the book was the easy bit!

At last, and after much discussion with the fantastic Art Dept at Carina Press, I can reveal the cover for Court of Conspiracy. This being the first book in The Tudor Enigma series, everything about the process was new. I am so lucky to have the amazing Kerri Buckley as my editor. She is very supportive and has made the book ten times better than it was.

So, publication date is 26th May. Get your e-book readers charged and ready and save up $2.99.

England is the prize. The death of a young king is the price.

King Henry IX, son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, holds the very balance of power in Europe in his adolescent hands. The nations of Catholic Europe view Protestant England as a bargaining ploy against their neighbors. Henry’s numerous enemies have cast greedy eyes on his crown and will stop at nothing to usurp the throne.

Luke Ballard, the unassuming apothecary  in the Outer Green of Hampton Court Palace is the Queen’s last hope. He treats the poor with balms and salves but is careful to protect his greater gifts. For Luke is also an elemancer with powerful abilities, one of the blessed few able to harness elemental powers for good. When Queen Anne commands him to hunt down the traitors, he knows he must obey.

Beset on all sides, Luke mobilizes his arsenal of magic and ingenuity to conquer the enemy. But as the stakes are raised in the uneven battle of good vs. evil, he knows this is only the first skirmish of a lifelong war. The welfare of the Tudors—and England—depend on him alone.

Book One of The Tudor Enigma

Hampton Court Palace - my favourite place...

... and an endless source of inspiration.

A close friend and I walk our dogs daily around the park or down to the sea. I tend to witter on about what I'm writing, how far I've got, plot difficulties and Hampton Court Palace. So it wasn't surprising that we decided to have a couple of days in London to visit my favourite place and where I feel so at home.

I am fortunate in my friends and even more fortunate that another of them lives 4 miles from the palace so we had a bed for the night and a fabulous dinner waiting for us at the end of the day.

When we walked into the Great Watching Chamber, we discovered "Katherine Parr" debating with her aunt about the marriage proposal she had just received from "Henry VIII". A thought provoking debate on the views of those times about what marriage really meant. Love didn't enter into the equation at all, but what Katherine could do to be a mother to Henry's children and the advancement of her family were very high on the list. At length, Katherine asked the spectators what we thought. Nobody seemed anxious to reply so I jumped in with my opinion that she would be a true helpmeet to the King in his difficult task of running the country. Encouraged by this, the discussion broadened into the personal - how would she put up with Henry's ulcerated leg and what about the wishes of her heart. She agreed to think on it. We began to disperse, but Katherine's aunt button-holed us and said that the King himself wished to consult with us in an hour on the matter.

Meeting Henry, even though I knew he was an actor, was quite scary. He explained that he needed us to talk to Katherine and persuade her that he loved her. I got landed with this bit along with two other ladies, one of whom had to say what a great mother she would make to Henry's children and the second how much he could advance her family. We all entered into this with gusto and I especially loved using the language of the period. Well into my stride, who should interrupt us but "Thomas Seymour" - the man Katherine really loved and who she would marry when Henry died. He was trying to persuade her to marry him instead of Henry. I loved this and immediately got into an argument with him about how he 'had ever been a schemer and spent most evenings in the tavern soused in drink'.

The final scene was when we were summoned to the Council Chamber where Henry asked Katherine to come and speak to him. He explained that he must be sure he had the people on his side in asking her to marry him. Katherine was brilliant and extremely emotional when she said yes. Thomas Seymour was the gentleman in attendance on Henry so he heard her decision and was suitably heartbroken.

I must pay a huge tribute to Hampton Court and Henry, Katherine and Thomas for making our day so memorable and enjoyable. I know my Tudor history quite well and I have always had a flair for the dramatic, so I just went with the flow. One of the other ladies paid me the tremendous compliment of saying that my involvement had helped make the day very special for her.

Needless to say, as we walked round, I pointed out to my friend the places in my Luke Ballard series, shortly to be published by Carina Press. Where my apothecary lives, where the secret passage between the palace and the Royal Mews begins, where the water gate is, the river path Luke often walks when he is troubled. There is a conduit under the palace and there was a water gate, but the rest lives in my imagination and on the page.

In between the scenes with the royal couple, we looked around the rest of the palace including the amazing kitchens and the suite that had been occupied by Cardinal Wolsey when he owned it and the Chapel Royal. I wished, as I always wish when I see this fantastic Tudor building, that we could still visit Henry VIII's apartments. His Great Watching Chamber is still there, but just imagine how incredible it would be to walk through his Presence Chamber and into his Privy Chamber. I would love to see the room where Jane Seymour gave birth to Edward VI. I believe there are around 1000 rooms in the palace and only about 100 of them are open to the public. Alas, most are too fragile to have so many feet tramping through them and, as always, the health and safety of the public cannot be compromised. So I have a Plan B. If the Luke Ballard books take off, I'm going to ask Hampton Court if I can join their re-enactment staff and move south.

Post Draft Blues

It's one of those moments you long for with a passion akin to little else. The moment when you have finished that first breathless headlong, don't stop to judge, romp through the first draft of the book. The moment when you can put 'END'. The only thing that has kept you going has been the mantra that you have to write something to edit it. That and the fact that you have a deadline with your editor.

What then? Then, you promise yourself, you will have a few days off. To catch up with the housework, or fetch out that embroidery you half remember starting, to go and see other humans and confirm that you and the dog are not the only beings on the planet. Anything but sit in front of the screen and sweat blood as you churn out those first all-important but usually rubbish words.

So that was me a week ago. The first draft of "Croaking of Ravens" was done. I determined I would have 7 days of doing precisely what I wanted to do, the things I dreamed of when I was tied to the keyboard in the 30,000-60,000 patch soggy slump. So, what have I done with this wonderful freedom? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I've had to fight the habit of finishing my breakfast coffee and walking up the stairs to my office. I've read several books, all the time feeling guilty that I wasn't pounding the keyboard. A week is a long time not to write. I've managed 5 rows of the back of the cardigan I started 2 years ago. Tried to listen to some audio books. Been trapped because my other half needed my car for the week. But would I have gone out if it had been available? Probably not.

The truth is I want to start the first edit. I'm bored although I haven't resorted to daytime television - probably because the telly room is in the basement and I would have to decide that I actually wanted to watch telly. Which I don't. Found the cross-stitch but not the threads, which is just as well because at 36 count linen, the light is nowhere enough to see properly. Even the dog has caught my mood and has had his naughty head on for every walk we've not enjoyed this week.

So, what to do about it. Today, I thought, I WILL do something. Until I saw the weather. I may be bored but I'm not stupid enough to get soaked and chilled. What are my choices, I wondered? And then it hit me. The whole thing about this week was that I should do what I wanted. I want to begin editing "Croaking of Ravens". So I will. Here we go again. Wish me luck.

Going in several directions at once!

I know I’ve written in general terms about the Lincolnshire Uprising before, but now I am at the part in “Croaking of Ravens”, Luke Ballard’s third adventure when the nitty-gritty begins to matter.

The whys and wherefores of the plot lie in the 1536 uprising, 18 years before the action of the book. Luke is sent by Anne Boleyn to his home county to recover the kidnapped Prince of Wales, Arthur. Luke does not want to go for several excellent reasons – at least they are excellent in his opinion. He has just encountered the incredibly beautiful Blanche Oliver, who seems equally taken with him. He hasn’t seen his home or his father for seventeen years.

So, what is he going to find when he arrives at the Heneage estate in Hainton, a few miles from Louth where the uprising began in October 1536? The three Heneage brothers each played some part in the action.

Sir Thomas Heneage was Henry VIII’s Groom of the Stool, a position of great importance if one wanted to ask the king a favour.

Thomas’s brother, George was Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, which was chosen by the “commons” (the peasants) and “gentlemen” (the local landowners) to meet and discuss what they were going to do.

Plain Mr John Heneage, the third brother, had the most exciting time, if you can call being pulled from your horse, threatened with death and forced to take an oath of allegiance to the commons exciting. John later escaped the mob and rode to London with a letter and report for the King from the gentlemen. He stayed only long enough to be sent back, but it would be logical to assume that he might have met with his elder brother.

Those are the facts. I’m having a wonderful time playing “what-if?” with them. What-if Luke's father played a hitherto unknown part in the uprising? What-if the nuns/monks of local houses that were closed down are determined on revenge? What-if the prospect of spoils in terms of gaining forfeited lands proved too much for some? And what-if the Lincolnshire uprising has been chosen by sunderers specifically so that they can target Luke and his family?

To find out how the twists and turns play out, you will have to wait a while until the book is published by Carina Press, hopefully in 2015.

Playing pretty

I've been writing at white-hot speed for the past week and added about 10,000 words to "The Danger of Destiny". Today I sat in front of the screen, my mind blank, so I decided to surf - but surf with a purpose.

Last night I read Chapter 8 to my writing group and, despite my reading it aloud earlier in the day, I was horrified at the number of repeated words. White-hot speed has its drawbacks! There had to be software to help with this, I thought. And there is.

Pro Writing Aid is FREE. You copy and paste the text you wish to be analysed into the online box and press the button. Numerous reports are available. Repeated words, pacing, overused words, grammar, writing style, sticky sentences - want to explore that one further, cliches and redundancies, even homonyms. For Windows users, there is a Word add-in and for us Mac users there is the promise of a similar add-in for Word for Mac.

If you want to splash out $35 (£23)/pa, you can 'go premium' with a few added benefits.

So, instead of writing, I've been playing and I've learned a lot about my writing style, some of which is sobering. The big advantage of this is now I know about my particular weaknesses - well some of them - and I can allow my subconscious to give me a nudge while I am writing.

And the pretty? Another feature is the ability to 'Word Cloud' the input text. The analysis highlights the most used words and Word Cloud creates a picture. To show you, here is the Word Cloud of Chapter 20.

See what I mean about pretty?

The added advantage for me this morning has been that the results of the short break from the heat of creativity has motivated me to crack on and write some more.

Better get on with it......