For example, she writes movingly about Davy the page, who would stand with his back to the door while Madeleine and the other manicurists sewed or darned their stockings while singing No,No, Nanette, Lady Be Good or Yes We have No Bananas.

“Davy never stopped.  When the bar was open customers would send him off for cocktails; others wanted cigarettes or theatre tickets.  The cashier sent him to the A.B.C with a tumbler for her afternoon tea.  Hew used to race back across the busyStrandholding the steaming glass in a serviette, dodging in and out of the traffic, diving under the nose of our tall commissionaire, then balancing his precious cargo on the tips of his fingers, push through the swing doors.  We all liked him.  Fifth or sixth of a very large family, he had a passion for a baby sister to whom for Christmas he had given her a perambulator, costing twenty-two shillings for her doll.  He would have liked to buy a bed for the doll and he was saving his sixpences and shillings, but the Strand was full of temptations when he and Georgie” another page “ would glue their faces against the windows of bicycle shops, the shops that sold photographic apparatus and the postage stamps and all the other things dear to boys so that the money Davey had set aside for his little sister’s doll’s bed was broken into sometimes, and a conflict raged between brother and growing man.

“Both boys were tiny.  Their delicate limbs and faces whitened by the slums were their chief asset in life, their charm, their stock-in-trade They looked like plants brought up in hot-houses….”

Mrs Robert Henrey’s books are alive with memorable people who populated her world.

She also makes her most mundane experiences interesting. 

“As there was no cloak-room attached to the shop, my colleagues and I had the right to use the very luxurious one reserved for the famous grill-room.  The woman who guarded this fortress did not arrive till eleven, so that all the morning, or at least for the best part of it, this palace of marble or white porcelain and tall mirrors with its Niagara of hot water was almost my own….The tall mirrors caught me, handing me from one to the other.  My little black dress was poor, but my magnificent shock of blonde hair shone like a ball of fire under the myriad electric lights. ….Now for the wash basins with the gallons and gallons of hot water….was it not reasonable to wash my stockings?  Soon, being of a practical nature, I washed my lingerie.”

Madeleine’s blonde hair, energy, enthusiasm and French accent attracted many admirers at theSavoy.  Amongst them was a Hollywood film magnate who sent photos of her to the studio and arranged for her to go toAmerica.  However, she met Robert, her future husband at theSavoy.  On the following evening he took her out to dinner and kissed her in the taxi.  Madeleine chose love instead ofHollywoodand, after a long illness when she fought against death in the Pyrenees, she returned toEnglandhoping her mother was wrong when she said that Robert would have forgotten her.

 While travelling by car in France, Madeleine and her companions passed through “…small white villages scorched by the sun.  …one did not see anybody except an occasional little old woman all in black sitting on a cane chair, her feet in black stockings and black shoes on a footstool, a cat asleep behind geraniums on the window-sill, and hens pecking around her.  How happy she must be!  I seldom saw such a wizened old woman without thinking this, and hoping one day to be contented and happy… Yes, she (the old woman) must be happy!  May I end my days with the orange cat, the geraniums and the pecking hens!”

Cured, Madeleine returned toEnglandwhere Robert met her at the railway station.  Before long they married in St Georges,Hanover Square.

Mrs Robert Henrey’s biographies and autobiographies fascinate me.  I plan to read as many as possible and share some of them on my blog.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

New releases from MuseItUp

Tangled Love set inEnglandin Queen Anne’s reign 1702-1714 27.01.2012

Sunday’s Child set in the Regency era 06.2012

I have mixed memories of my life inKenyafrom 1961 to 1982.  On the plus side are my happy recollections of the coast with its golden beaches, the grasslands teaming with wild animals, the lush green highlands.  On the minus side I was always a stranger in a strange land. I missed my family and friends inEnglandand in spite of a privileged lifestyle wanted to live inEngland.  In fact, one of the happiest days of my life was when I returned toEuropefor good.

Although Kenyan life was not one I embraced, I enjoy reading about the country.  Karen Von Blixen’s Out of Africa and Elizabeth Huxley’s Flame Trees of Thika are two of my favourite books.  I also found The Lunatic Express about the building of the railway interesting, and shuddered at the thought of the man eating lions the workers encountered in – if my memory is correct – Tsavo on the way fromMombasa toNairobi.

I am now reading The Bolter the biography of Idina Sackville by Frances Osborne, about which Valerie Grove of the Times writes:  ‘A corker of a subject, Idina’s behaviour…probably inspired The Bolter in Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love.  Osborne’s richly wrought descriptions of glitteringParis nights and lush mountainous landscapes ofKenya’sHappyValley are fabulous…A breakneck-paced, thoroughly diverting story.’

Apart from the account of Idina Sackville’s life are evocative descriptions ofKenya– the land, its people and settlers.

Idina and her second husband, Charles, won a 3,000 acre farm in a government lottery.  When they reached their land: “…ahead of them the Aberdare Hills rolled dark green in the setting sun; from them fell ice-cold brooks, swollen by the recent rains.  Below these their virgin farmland glowed with luminescent grassland and thick, red soil.”

Although the land had been developed by the time I lived inKenya, there were many such views in theHighlandsand always the rich red, fertile soil.  When Idina settled there “Each bush throbbed with creatures large and small.  Elephant, giraffe and antelope rustled through breaking out and swaying across open land.  Leopard and monkey hung from trees reverberating with birdsong….at night when Idina and Charles sat outside they were surrounded by lookouts watching for wandering elephant, big cats or buffalo – its long, curved horns the most lethal of all.”

All this I can relate to but if I regret anything it is the goldenMombasabeaches on the undeveloped, idyllic south coast where we rented a house during our children’s school holidays.  We played in the surf, swam in the warm sea and searched for shells at peace with the world.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

http://rosemarymorris.blogspot.com

From Highgate Hill to Kindle

When my mother was a small girl, my grandfather, Charles, stood holding her hand on Highgate Hill.  Together they watched one of the first aeroplanes fly overhead.  He looked down at Mother and said: ‘Nothing will come of those flying machines.”

Born within the sound of Bow Bells, the eldest of eight children, Charles was a scholarship boy atWestminsterBoysSchooland sang in the choir at Westminster Abbey.  Unfortunately, due to his father’s death, Charles had to leave school at the age of fourteen and find a job so that he could help my great-grandmother financially.  Nevertheless, he acquired a lifelong love of reading, and I believe he would have been very enthusiastic about Kindle and other such devices.

Grandfather was fortunate to be born in time to benefit from the liberalism of the Prime Minister, Gladstone.  Many people were opposed to mass education because they feared it would teach the workers to think for themselves, decide their lives were unsatisfactory and revolt. (The upper classes were always frightened of revolution.) However, the Education Act Reform Bill allowed schools to be set up by the Education Department in any district where provision was either inefficient or suitable; and from 1880 onwards it was compulsory for children to attend school until they were twelve years old. 

When there were insufficient schools for the number of children a School Board was created and required to provide elementary education for children from the age of five to twelve.

Although parents had to pay school fees in the Board paid poor children’s fees.

By 1873 40% of the population lived in areas where education was compulsory.  Fortunately for my grandparents they both lived in such an area, Charles receiving an excellent education and Annie’s a good one.

Annie’s father had been a rich man but he ‘took to the bottle’ and brought his wife and thirteen children to the ‘breadline.’  My great-grandmother earned a living as a midwife and Annie, her eldest daughter, was expected too help.  However, my great-grandmother always found the pennies for her children to go to school but, (almost unbelievable to modern ears) one of Annie’s teacher’s said:  ‘Oh, Annie, if you always come to school with a baby strapped to your back, your back will become crooked. Can you imagine what would happen today if a primary school child arrived in her classroom with a baby on her back?  Leave aside IT studies, the world of e-books and print on demand, it is obvious there is an enormous gulf between schools for poor children in those days and modern day schools.

Annie valued her rudimentary education, and she always enjoyed reading, as she put it, ‘a good novel’, the more she cried over the sad or heart-touching parts the more she enjoyed it.  She wept bucket loads over Little Nell in Dickens Old Curiosity Shop and admired Sir Walter Scot’s hero, Ivanhoe and wept over Rebecca’s unrequited love.  Not bad for a child who carried a baby brother or sister on her back to school.   

Had Annie been born earlier she might not have attended school until she was twelve years old.  I think she would have learned the three r’s at school, but once she mastered the basics great-grandmother would have kept her at home to help.  Fortunately, Annie mastered reading, writing and arithmetic, was taught domestic science and enjoyed gymnastics and art and crafts.

Annie could not have imagined future advances in education but I wonder if she valued her schooldays far more than many children do today.  InEnglandthe powers of schools to expel unruly students have been eroded. Teachers’ means to discipline children have been reduced to the point at which disruptive children regularly prevent the rest of the class from learning.  (I am not the only one who thinks that the abolishment of corporal punishment is praiseworthy, but in theUnited Kingdomteachers should be allowed to restrain violent pupils.

Most of today’s children enjoy far more material benefits than Charles and Annie could have ever hoped to enjoy, but this does not automatically mean their lives are either happier or more enriched.  Certainly, good conduct as well as the attainment of academic standards was stressed and valued when Charles and Annie were at school. It was taken for granted that all children – unless they had a learning disability – would be able to read when they left school.  I do not have statistics to prove it but believe those children who completed their elementary education unable to read were a tiny minority.  Sadly, this is not true today.  There are frequent articles in the newspapers and mention on television news broadcasts about children who leave secondary school unable to read at the age of sixteen.

The following gives me an idea as to the basic education Annie received.

I assume that my paternal grandparents, George andFlorence, were expected to achieve the goals set out above.  However, George was a younger member of an old established West Country family of landowners.  He received a superior education, enjoyed reading the Bible and studying politics newspapers, magazines and journals.  He pasted cuttings about topics of national importance and the First andSecond Worldwars in large leather bound scrapbooks.  Yet his country roots always remained with him. By the time he married, he had moved toKentand owned no more than a large back garden where he enjoyed keeping chickens and grew fruit and vegetables.  Possibly, he would not have been deeply interested in computer technology. On the other hand, he might have enjoyed downloading articles, printing them and sticking them into his scrapbooks.

Florence, daughter of an architect, received a reasonable academic education at school, and, at home, a thorough education in deportment, social airs and graces and all matters domestic including sewing. Florence’s skill with the needle was much appreciated; she sewed for herself, her family and for church bazaars.  One of my happiest memories is sitting on a stool at her feet stitching bugle beads onto chiffon.  ‘Fairy stitches, tiny fairy stitches,’ she used to say to me.  Thanks to her, I have always enjoyed sewing and knitting.

Today, ‘liberated’ women have a multitude of modern conveniences, career opportunities, access to television, computers, the world wide web, e-mails, Amazon, kindle etc., but, by and large, are they  as contented as my grandmothers, who had the love of good men and took pride in their domestic skills?  What, I ask myself, would they have made of modern technology?

In 1902, seven years before my father was born and eight years before my mother was born, the School Boards were abolished and Local Education Authorities replaced them.  For the first time, secondary school education to the age of fourteen became compulsory.  Would my grandparents have enjoyed further education?  Regardless to the answer, I know Charles would have been as amazed by online publishing as he would have been by modern aircraft, although he stood on Highgate Hill with his small daughter’s hand in his and told her: ‘Nothing will come of those flying machines.”

 Rosemary Morris Historical Novelist

rosemarymorris.co.uk

I spend eight hours or more writing and dealing with matters related to writing. 

While writing there is no one to metaphorically hold my hand, encourage me and help me to improve my work in progress. 

From my first draft of a novel or article I try to write to the best of my ability and avoid the many pitfalls which plague authors.  By the time I have written several drafts, revised and edited my work I know it inside out, upside down and back to front, and that is the problem.  I reach the stage when I no longer see typing errors and other mistakes because I am so familiar with my typescript – faulty punctuation, writing from the author’s point of view instead of the character’s and telling the character’s story instead of showing the character’s actions.  No matter how interesting my novel or article is these unprofessional mistakes might result in an agent or publisher rejecting my submission.

Fortunately, there is help available.  I belong to Watford Writers, which meets every Monday evening with the exception of Bank Holidays.

On manuscript evenings I read approximately 2,000 words from my work in progress and receive helpful comments.  Someone might point out a weak spot in the plot, an awkward phrase or something unnecessary for which I am very grateful.  After all, to achieve my goal of having more work published I need to constantly improve my craft. 

Apart from manuscript evenings Watford Writers invites guest speakers or guests who conduct workshops.  Last year I handed in my non-fiction article titled Baroness Orczy and Her Muse at a workshop.  The feedback was invaluable.  The article needed to be divided into two.  I accepted the advice and used the material to write two articles, the first titled Baroness Orczy and the second titled The Scarlet Pimpernel.

At Watford Writers I heard about Vintage Script, a small press magazine devoted to past times.  I submitted Baroness Orczy and the article has been published in the magazine’s first edition.   

I’m so busy researching my novels and articles that I rarely venture into other fields.  However, Watford Writers holds flash fiction competitions in which I have recently participated.  So far, I haven’t won anything but writing something very different to my chosen field challenges me to ‘think outside my box’. 

Recently, Watford Writers invited its members to submit a 500 word competition story.  The theme is The Blue Door.  To enter it I had to dig deep into my imagination to find what I hope is an original plot.  My entry is called Paradise Lost and even if it is not placed I will still be pleased to have taken part.

Last week was one of the four social evenings held every year.  A member organised a quiz – which dismayed me because I know so little about some subjects – for example sport and pop music. 

Somewhat nervous I arrived at Café Cha Cha inCassioburyParkon the quiz evening.  It was a hot with a hint of thunder so we sat outside the café looking out over the beautiful park with drinks and plates of food from the buffet to which we all contributed.

I was pleased when I knew the answers to questions relating to gardening and literature but dismayed by the 25 questions about pop music.  

Our group lagged behind but we had a stroke of luck.  The organiser did not know that one of the ladies in our group had been a disc jockey inSouth Africa.  We scored 50 out of 50 on that final round and won prizes.  Mine was a writing magazine and a very useful computer dictionary.

So, if you can find a constructive writers circle that will welcome you, I suggest you visit it and amongst other things make new friends.  If you live in or nearWatford, Hertfordshire, do drop in at one of out meetings at 7.30. p.m. on Monday evenings. You will be very welcome,

All the best,

Rosemary

Tangled Love set in Queen Anne’s reign 1702-1714 to be published by Muse It Up on the 27.01.2012 (Previously published as Tangled Hearts.)

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

http://rosemarymorris.blogspot.com

I always enjoy visitingSt Albans.  Yesterday I visited a treasure house of items from times past at a Retro Centre, which I will visit again, and I shall attend the Retro Fair next weekend. 

The Retro Centre is divided into sections where different sellers arrange their wares. China, glass, curios, soft furnishings, clothes and a treasure house of books.

As I went round I yearned to own a country cottage with oak beams which I could decorate with colourful china, lace edged throws, embroidered tablecloths, traycloths, framed tapestries and embroidered or tapestry cushions. Having admired, picked up and put down various items I found the book section after I rummaged through clothes and admired costume jewellery.

This is the year when I’m supposed to be saving money but I couldn’t resist three books by one of my favourite historians, Arthur Bryant, Samuel Pepys The Man in The Making, Samuel Pepys The Years of Peril and Samuel Pepys The Saviour of The Navy.

I have collected a number of Arthur Bryant’s books and always enjoy his style.  Samuel Pepys, The Man in the Making begins: – “North of Cambridge lie theFens.  The sea from which they arose laps at their northern boundaries, and north and east great rivers lazily wind across them, drawing black cattle to drink among the sedges at their brink.  This land would be one of silence were it not for the innumerable company of larks, of bittern, coot and moorhen, of sedge warblers and reed sparrow, which ever provides it with a faint and not discordant music.  In summer it is still, as the monk William of Huntingdon remembered it, a land of clouds and orchards and golden corn.  Yet it is so only by right of battle waged ceaselessly by its invading armies of water.  Whenever civilization has receded – when Roman legion fell back or monastery bell was silenced-the waters have taken back their own.  Salt tides have swept in with winter gales through forsaken walls, and the rivers have flowed out, cold and remorseless, over the fields and houses of man.

“.…On this land came the Pepys’s.  For centuries they had grazed and ploughed, haggled at markets over country wares and peered at the Fen skies…”

Although Samuel Pepys was first published in 1933 it has not dated and is full of fascinating information, and I the preface very interesting.

“…Samuel Pepys was the creator of three remarkable, and still surviving things.  The first, in the order of their making, was his Diary.  The second was the civil administration of the Admiralty-the rule –and order that still give permanence to the material form, fighting traditions and transmitted knowledge of the Royal Navy. …Lord Barham testified that there was not a department of the Admiralty that was not governed by he rules Samuel Pepys had laid down in the 17^th century.  It was Pepys who made the scabbard for the sword that Nelson, and the heirs of Nelson used.

“Pepys third creative achievement sprang from the second.  He has bee described as the father of the Civil Service.  Here, too, his orders hold.  The rules he laid down and the administrative principles he elucidated have become part of the continuing life of his country…”

I am writing a light-hearted novel set in the Restoration period when Charles Second came toEnglandafter his exile which followed his father’s execution. I always try to ensure that my novels are as well-researched as possible and Arthur Bryant’s trilogy about Pepys will be invaluable.

Forthcoming release. Tangled Love 27.01.2012 Muse It Up Publisher.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

http://rosemarymorris.blogspot.com

Trencarrow Secret by Anita Davison

For readers who like a twist in the tale which takes them by surprise, I recommend Trencarrow Secret by Anita Davison. 

I had the privilege of reading this novel by an accomplished author prior to publication and thoroughly enjoyed it

You can find out more about Anita and her novels at Anita’s beautifully designedblog:http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.com

Isabel Hart is afraid of two things, the maze at Trencarrow where she got lost as a young child, and the lake where her brother David saved her from drowning in a boating accident.

With her twenty-first birthday and the announcement of her engagement imminent, Isabel decides it is time for her to face her demons and ventures into the maze. There she sees something which will alter her perceptions of herself and her family forever.

Isabel’s widowed aunt joins the house party, where her cousin confides she is in love with an enigmatic young man who surely cannot be what he pretends, for he is too dashing for homely Laura.

When Henry, Viscount Strachan and his mother arrive, ostensibly to use her ball as an arena for finding a wife, Isabel is determined not to like him.

As more secrets are revealed, Isabel begins to doubt she has chosen the right man, although her future fiancé has more vested in this marriage than Isabel realizes and has no intention of letting her go easily.

Will Isabel be able to put her preconceptions of marriage behind her and take charge of her own life, or is she destined to be controlled by others forever?

Shadows by Jen Black

Shadows is a must for those who enjoy romance combined with ghosts by Jen Black a very accomplished novelist.  When I finish reading her novels a deep, satisfied sigh escapes me.

Melissa thinks she’s taking a huge risk in going on holiday with Rory Hepburn. He may be gorgeous, but she only met him three days ago. But when she sees the old watermill in ruralFrance, she is delighted. Within ten minutes of her arrival, she sees the man in black, but thinks nothing of it. Concentrating more on keeping her secrets and sleeping alone, she is shocked when ghosts disturb her first night at the mill. Not just one ghost, but two. When Christophe arrives at the mill, the chic Frenchman regards Melissa as his soul mate, and Melissa knows she’s in real trouble.

A chilling tale, written with humour and drenched in the sights and perfumes of the ruralDordogne, this is a must-read tale for those who like a romance with a ghostly twist.

Shadows is available as a Kindle available from Amazon, the publisher, Sapphire and elsewhere.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

New release Tangled Love set in England in the reign of Queen Anne on 27.0.2012 Muse It Up Publisher. (Republication of Tangled Hearts)

For thirteen years Helen worked as a library assistant at Chingford library.  During those years her interest in and passion for King Arthur and the Dark Ages grew.  As a result she wrote the first of her trilogy, Pendragon’s Banner, which Heinemann accepted three days before her 40^th birthday in 1994.

As Helen explained at the Chapter Meeting, she intended to write Guinevere’s story but realised it should be Arthur’s story – the tale of what might have happened, an interpretation of what we think we know.

Helen moved onto the Saxons.  She brightened up Harold Godwinson’s story and while doing so visited Waltham Abbey where he walked.  She also visited Battle Abbey, the site of the Battle of Hastings.  While there she sensed that if she turned round she would see the battle, but she could not force herself to look.  I wish she had taken a peep, I would love to know what she would have seen.

While writing Harold the King her hatred of William grew.  She wrote the novel from the Saxon viewpoint and presented Harold as a popular, dynamic leader who gave his life to saveEngland from invasion.

After the publication of Harold the King, Helen’s agent suggested she should write about pirates.  Doubtless, the agent had the popularity of The Pirates of the Caribbean mind. 

One day, Helen went for a walk along the beach and the whole story of The Sea Witch came to her. 

Helen settled on a rock and looked out to sea and saw her pirate.  (*This incident reminds me of Baroness Orczy who, while waiting for the train that Emmuska saw her most famous hero, Sir Percival Blakeney, dressed in exquisite clothes.  She noted the monocle held up in his slender hand, heard both his lazy drawl and his quaint laugh.  Emmuska told her husband about the incident and within five weeks wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel.)

Unfortunately, Helen’s agent didn’t like Sea Witch but Helen was not deterred.  She wrote three more pirate novels and recently completed the fourth, which will be published in the autumn.   Her determination has paid off, all of Helen’s novels are being republished by Sourcebooks in the U.S.A and Silverwood in theU.K.

The rejection was a serious mistake.  Helen’s many fans relish her imaginative, well-written tales.

I have been one of Helen’s fans for a long time.  Her novels have never disappointed me; and her talk did not disappoint me; it inspired me to write to the best of my ability and not to become discouraged.

Thank you,

Helen.

Series.  Pendragons Banner

The Kingmaking

Pendragons Banner

The Shadow of the King

Seawitch Chronicles

Seawitch, Pirate Code, Bring It Close, Ripples in the Sand.  Autumn 2011

Novels.

Harold the King. aka. I am theChosenKing

A Hollow Crown aka. The Forever Queen

Children’s Fiction

Come and Tell Me Be Safe Be Sensible.

*My article in the first edition of Vintage Script a subscription magazine devoted to Past Times

It was a pleasure to attend the London Chapter Meeting of the Romantic Novelist’s Association on the 21^st May, 2011, at which our guest speaker was Helen Hollick, whose novels I enjoy.

For thirteen years Helen worked as a library assistant at Chingford library.  During those years her interest in and passion for King Arthur and the Dark Ages grew.  As a result she wrote the first of her trilogy, Pendragon’s Banner, which Heinemann accepted three days before her 40^th birthday in 1994.

As Helen explained at the Chapter Meeting, she intended to write Guinevere’s story but realised it should be Arthur’s story – the tale of what might have happened, an interpretation of what we think we know.

Helen moved onto the Saxons.  She brightened up Harold Godwinson’s story and while doing so visited Waltham Abbey where he walked.  She also visited Battle Abbey, the site of the Battle of Hastings.  While there she sensed that if she turned round she would see the battle, but she could not force herself to look.  I wish she had taken a peep, I would love to know what she would have seen.

While writing Harold the King her hatred of William grew.  She wrote the novel from the Saxon viewpoint and presented Harold as a popular, dynamic leader who gave his life to saveEngland from invasion.

After the publication of Harold the King, Helen’s agent suggested she should write about pirates.  Doubtless, the agent had the popularity of The Pirates of the Caribbean mind. 

One day, Helen went for a walk along the beach and the whole story of The Sea Witch came to her. 

Helen settled on a rock and looked out to sea and saw her pirate.  (*This incident reminds me of Baroness Orczy who, while waiting for the train that Emmuska saw her most famous hero, Sir Percival Blakeney, dressed in exquisite clothes.  She noted the monocle held up in his slender hand, heard both his lazy drawl and his quaint laugh.  Emmuska told her husband about the incident and within five weeks wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel.)

Unfortunately, Helen’s agent didn’t like Sea Witch but Helen was not deterred.  She wrote three more pirate novels and recently completed the fourth, which will be published in the autumn.   Her determination has paid off, all of Helen’s novels are being republished by Sourcebooks in the U.S.A and Silverwood in theU.K.

The rejection was a serious mistake.  Helen’s many fans relish her imaginative, well-written tales.

I have been one of Helen’s fans for a long time.  Her novels have never disappointed me; and her talk did not disappoint me; it inspired me to write to the best of my ability and not to become discouraged.

Thank you,

Helen.

Series.  Pendragons Banner

The Kingmaking

Pendragons Banner

The Shadow of the King

Seawitch Chronicles

Seawitch, Pirate Code, Bring It Close, Ripples in the Sand.  Autumn 2011

Novels.

Harold the King. aka. I am theChosenKing

A Hollow Crown aka. The Forever Queen

Children’s Fiction

Come and Tell Me Be Safe Be Sensible.

*My article in the first edition of Vintage Script a subscription magazine devoted to Past Times

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

By 6.20 I was checking my e-mails and replying to some of them.  Recently, junk mail has been appearing.  How do I get rid of it? I changed my password for one e-mail address but it hasn’t helped.  What satisfaction do people derive from wasting other people’s time?

An hour later, I applied on line critiques to my mediaeval novel set in the reign of Edward II.  The novel is part of a planned trilogy.  I finished the first draft several years ago and sent it to the Romantic Novelist’s Association New Members’ New Writers’ Scheme for a reader’s report.  The report was incredibly useful.  I applied all the suggestions and put my novel, Dear Heart, aside while I wrote my new release Tangled Love (formerly published as Tangled Hearts) set in Queen Anne’s reign.

My critique partners thought the chapter I submitted for their opinion lacked emotion.  In retrospect, I agree and now know how to add depth to the chapter.  The good news is that they can identify with the characters’ dilemmas and enjoy my descriptions of places.  In the chapter the hero has returned from the Battle of Bannockburn.

“After all that Nicholas had endured on the battlefield, he could scarcely believe in the reality of this oasis with its luxurious furnishings, a cradle for the babe yet to be born, a loom, a spinning wheel and a prie-dieu.  Glad to see everyday things, he gazed at the items on top of a coffer – the box Harold gave Yvonne for a wedding gift, her ivory-framed looking glass, a pair of gold embroidered gloves, a baby’s gold and coral rattle next to a tiny, half-stitched coif.”

I applied some suggestions, corrected grammatical errors and inserted notes about revision in the text.

In between applying critiques I turned off the hose and make breakfast – freshly squeezed organic orange juice and porridge.  While I ate breakfast I watched the news and decided what I would do in my organic garden.

After breakfast I critiqued a chapter of an intriguing historical novel set in the Bronze Age.  It will be the first novel I’ve ever read set in this period.  By then it was 10 a.m. time to set aside my writing activities until the late afternoon and early evening.

I had a quick shower and went into the garden.  The redcurrants hang on the bush like glistening jewels.  I picked half of them with the intention of making a raspberry and redcurrant pie.  Today I will pick more to make redcurrant jelly and – if there are enough – redcurrant cordial.  The jelly is delicious in cream cheese sandwiches, added to a serving of my homemade yoghurt or in creamy rice pudding.  The cordial is refreshing and the pie will be delicious.

Next, I planted out beetroot which I grew from seed in the greenhouse and sowed turnip seeds and white radish seeds.  The leaves and long white radishes make a delicious curry.  I then did some weeding.  By then it was very hot so I had a drink made with homemade yoghurt and cold water and a pinch of salt.  It is a very refreshing drink on a hot day.  I sipped it while leafing through a vegetarian cookbook and deciding what needs to be done in the garden on the next day, a Sunday. 

On Sundays I feed my tomato plants which I grow in pots and hanging baskets.  Last year Idli tomato plants  provided masses of succulent sweet, yellow cherry tomatoes, which my grandchildren ate like sweets.  I decided that other urgent tasks would be picking the last of my broad beans, potting up bush basil and leeks that are growing in the greenhouse and sowing some more French beans.  And, of course, there is the never ending task of weeding and pruning.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

Show Don’t Tell

One way to make your work fascinating is to use the active rather than the passive voice.

Passive

Passive designates a form of the verb by which the verbal action is attributed to the person or thing to whom it is actually directed: i.e. the logical object is the grammatical subject.  E.g.  He was seen by us.  Passive.  The opposite of active.  Active: We saw him.

In a grammatically active construction, the subject is performing the action.

eg Jack ate the chocolate. (Jack is the subject, he’s performing the action, the chocolate is the object.)

Exposition

At the beginning of a play the dramatist is often committed to giving a certain amount of essential information about the plot and events which are to come.  He may also have to give information about what has ‘already happened’.  All this comes under the heading of exposition.  A skilful dramatist is able to introduce material without holding up the action of the play and with recourse to the obvious devices of narrative.

Exposition is also a subject which other fiction writers need to consider.  A writer might do well to remember that in Writing Circles, was, were, had, feel, felt and feeling are often considered to be passive words which tell instead of showing.  A writer should also remember that modern editors and publishers tend to shy away from exposition.

***

I could have begun my published novel, Tangled Hearts, like this:

Richelda Shaw was in her nursery when Elsie, her mother’s maid, told her that her father had summoned her.  After she had delivered the message, Elsie had followed her to the great hall where her father was waiting.

This tells my reader what happened but is not interesting.

Instead, I began.

“Richelda Shaw stood silent in her nursery while thunder pealed outside the ancient manor house and an even fiercer storm raged deep within. She pressed her hands to her ears and, eyes closed, remained as motionless as the marble statues in the orangery.

‘Nine years old and you’ve not yet learned to be neat!’ Elsie, her mother’s personal maid, pulled Richelda’s hands from her ears. ‘Come, your father’s waiting for you.’

Richelda’s hands trembled. What was wrong?  Until now Father’s short visits from France meant gifts and laughter. This one made Mother cry while the servants spoke in hushed tones.

Followed by Elsie, Richelda hurried down the broad oak stairs. For a moment, she paused to admire the lilies of the valley in a Delft bowl.  Only yesterday, she picked the flowers to welcome Father home.  After she had arranged them with tender care, she placed them on a chest, which stood beneath a pair of crossed broadswords on the wall above.

Elsie opened the massive door of the great hall where Father stood to one side of the enormous hearth.

This shows the heroine acting in a way consistent with her situation, instead of telling the reader about it.

However, as for ‘telling’ being wrong, it is not. Was, were, had, feel, felt and feeling are part of the English language and if I showed every single event in a novel it would be too long for publication.   

It is how I use was, were, had, feel, felt and feeling which matters, not whether or not I use them.

I need the skill to decide when telling is too much and when I should stop telling and start showing. 

Characterisation

In Tangled Hearts, I could have written the following to tell my reader that Chesney, the hero, is handsome:-

“Chesney had the classical features of Adonis.  He was tall, had perfect proportions and was in good health.”

Instead I wrote:-

“…‘Who is that Adonis?’ A high-pitched female voice interrupted Chesney’s thoughts.

Chesney looked round and saw a powdered and patched lady with rouged cheeks staring at him.

‘I don’t know, I think he’s a newcomer to town,’ her companion, a younger lady said in an equally strident tone.

Unaffected by their comments he laughed. Since his youth women remarked on his height and his perfect proportions. He did not consider himself vain, but unlike some members of his gentlemen’s club, who took little exercise and overate, he fenced, hunted and rode to keep his body fit.

The older lady inclined her head, the younger one winked before they went about their business.”

Of course introspection is a form of telling but it is effective and reveals the character.

In Tangled Hearts it was not enough to tell my reader that Chesney is brave.  I needed to show him in action.

“Chesney rushed to the cottage. ‘Keep back, Richelda,’ he shouted, ‘the thatch will ignite like tinder.’

Taking no heed of his instructions, she ran after him and followed him down the short corridor to the kitchen where smoke poured from beneath the door. ‘I think Elsie is in there,’ Richelda screamed above the roar of the fire.

Every trace of an indolent nobleman vanished. Chesney snatched off his periwig, wrenched off his coat and swathed it round his head.

‘Go outside! Your clothes will burn like kindling.’ He disappeared into the kitchen.”

***

I believe that I must strive to grab my reader’s attention from the first line to the last, and that passive writing – or telling – weakens the prose.

When I revise my work I use the search and find facility on the computer to highlight the words which tell and decide whether or not I can improve the text.

To be a writer not only do I need to be an artist, I also need to craft my work.  Words are the tools which I use to write a page turner for my readers. 

Flashbacks

Chesney lived in France with his father etc., is exposition in conversation.  “Do you know I lived in France at the court of James II in St Germaine etc.,” is description.

A flashback reveals something that occurred in the past as though it occurs in the present.

Even if the reader needs to know about my character’s past I am cautious as to how I reveal it. 

Frequently, flashbacks are often badly written and they jerk the reader from the present to the past. 

The knack is to slip in essential facts without disrupting the story – memory of something that happened in the past, the reply to a question, a letter or an entry in a diary

Tangled Hearts is set in England in 1702 at the beginning of Queen Anne’s reign.  In order to avoid flashbacks full of historical detail to I began with Author’s Notes.

“When the outwardly Protestant Charles II died in 1685, he left a country torn by religious controversy but no legitimate children. The throne passed to his Catholic brother James.

It was an anxious time for the people, whose fears increased when James II, became so unpopular that he was forced into exile. In 1688, James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, became the new king and queen of England.

Some English Protestants, who had sworn allegiance to James II, refused to take a new oath of allegiance to William and Mary and joined him in France.

When James’s younger daughter, Anne, inherited the throne in 1702, many Protestant exiles returned to England. Others declared themselves Jacobites and supporters of James II son, James III, by his second wife, Mary of Modena, and stayed abroad. They believed James III should be king.”

In my rough draft of Tangled Hearts the scene in the manor house when my heroine, Richelda, is a child, (quoted above) was a flashback.  When I revised the novel I realised it was too long so I scrapped it and began with a prologue that contained the essential information.

Conclusion

Words are a writer’s tools.  Avoid dull narrative, boring flashbacks and unnecessary exposition.  Write stylishly.  Words should sparkle and grip the reader. 

I have gardened organically for the last twenty years in Hertfordshire, England.  When I moved into a house with a medium size back garden overgrown with blackberries, thistles and nettles I knew I must invest time and money.  So, I decided to make my money work for me.  Instead of concentrating on ornamental plants I planted fruit trees.  I now have a wild plum tree, a cooking apple tree, three eating apple trees, two pear trees, two plum trees and one cherry tree.  And believe you me I have made mistakes.  My Hertfordshire Russet Apple is in the wrong place – too close to a lilac bush that forms part of a living screen to filter the wind round the garden. And I’ve just realized that the cherry tree is not self fertile.  I need another cherry tree for pollination but where can I plant it?  I’m running out of space and also covet a peach tree.  Apart from this, my investment paid off.  This year the bullace provided a magnificent crop. The fruit is small a little bigger than large grapes.  It can be eaten fresh or made into jam, chutney, pies and crumbles. 

I thinned the plums in early July and looked mournfully at a large bucket of hard green fruit.  However, this gave good results.  The tree is loaded with plums as large as apricots.  The pear trees a Conference and a Sweet William are a little disappointing because the fruit is on the small side but I’ve no doubt it will be delicious.  The small crop from the Bramley Cooking Apple tree disappointed me this year.  I think the tree needs a thick layer of organic manure in the autumn and organic fertiliser in the spring.  The eating apple trees are heavy with fruit that will be ready for picking in late September and early October.  When I first planted fruit trees I did not know that to avoid frost decimating the blossom in spring it is best to plant ones which belong to group three of four because they flower in late spring – hopefully after the last frost.

This year, I have been using fruit in season.    My strawberries grown in a sunny spot in well-manured soil yielded a bowlful a day and enough to make strawberry ice-cream.  Next came summer raspberries – a disappointing yield – but the autumn raspberries look promising.  In 2011, I might dig up the raspberry canes and the strawberries and swap beds using new stock.  It is said that strawberries do produce well for more than three years. 

From the redcurrant bushes hung strings of red fruit as bright as jewels.  As a result there is a row of jars of redcurrant jelly in the store cupboard and two containers of the fruit in the freezer with which I might make redcurrant cordial.  Next to the redcurrant bushes are gooseberry bushes.  These were star performers this year.  Luscious yellow-green fruits bursting with sweetness to be eaten fresh and hard three-quarters ripe fruit for chutney and jam as well as a full container in the freezer for the delights of fruit fool or a pie.  And now I’m eating the bullace – a small bowlful every morning as part of my five a day fruit and vegetables.

In addition to these fruits the rhubarb is growing well and I harvested enough to make pies but not enough to make chutney.  Fortunately I have a couple of jars left over from last year.

Although I regard marrows as vegetables not fruit I have two giant ones. With one I shall make marrow and ginger jam with crystalised ginger as soon as possible.  The other I will stuff and bake in foil.

Apart from fruit from my garden there are wild fruits such as blackberries which I eat raw, preserve and use with cooking apples to make pies.  Elderberries make excellent cordials and various hips and haws such as rosehips from which jelly or a syrup can be made.  Apart from free food it is very pleasant to forage in the country.

I enjoy growing and eating the fruits of my garden as well as preserving, pickling and cooking them in various ways and always hope for bumper crops.

Every year I like to try something new.  This year I grew a virus free strain of strawberries from seed.  They have flourished and are planted as an edging to a long flower border along the path in the back garden.  To encourage them to root well, I have picked off the pretty pink flowers and hope for a bumper crop next year.  I also planted Cape Gooseberry seeds.  They sprouted. I transplanted the seedlings but they did not flourish and died after two months.  I shall try again next year.  And – possibly – plant a peach tree .

Growing my own fruit, herbs and vegetables is rewarding and provides excellent exercise after spending many hours at the computer or sitting still while researching.

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

Tangled Hearts set in the reign of Queen Anne 1702 – 1714 received 5* reviews can be ordered from bookshops and is available from Amazon & elsewhere.