Undertaking Love: Kat French

I've mentioned in previous posts that I belong to some online writing communities and one of them is the Harper Collins owned Authonomy.

It's a review site where writers can upload as much or as little of their work as they like, subject to a 10,000 word minimum. Readers can also join up. The site also comes with a forum, where several critique groups can be found. I've found them to be one of the most valuable aspects of the site. At one stage I ran the Romance Crit Group and I'm one of the original, participating members of the Women's Fiction Crit Group, run by Gail Cleare.

Previously, there was a lively critique group for chick-lit. Some of the chick-lit writers have since formed Vanity Case Books.

One book, which I first came across in the chick-lit group, is Undertaking Love. I've had the great privilege of reading and reviewing a brief sample of this story, at an earlier stage of its life, and was thrilled when the news came that Harper Collins had picked it up and would publish it. The book is available to pre-order. The release date is 25th April 2013 and I can't wait to download my copy so I can find out what happens to Marla and whether the wedding chapel and funeral parlour find a way to co-exist and live in harmony.

Good luck Kat and I'm sure you'll have a whole new legion of fans very soon.

Post Love Comment

As a full-time mum and blogger, I joined BritMums blogging network and had the privilege of meeting some other very busy blogging mums. One of whom, Victoria Welton, blogs at Verily, Victoria Vocalises.... Every Friday Victoria runs a linky called Post Comment Love and this week I finally got round to joining in. So, if you'd like to view any of the variety of posts added to the linky please check them out on the links above. You'll also find them on twitter with #PoCoLo.

Seaforde Gardens

Near the village of Seaforde in County Down a balmy oasis shelters some stunning butterflies. Seaforde Gardens is home to a tropical butterfly house, two joined glasshouses, one containing butterflies and the other reptiles, fish and birds.

We've visited lots of times before and on other occasions we've visited the grounds and maze, as well as the butterfly house. There are separate charges for anyone thinking of visiting. Today we stayed in the warmth of the tropical houses, apart from a brief sojourn for the kids to clamber around the play area. The butterflies are free flying and were quite happy to land on their visitors. The kids always enjoy checking on the cabinets of cocoons and today we saw a recently freed butterfly drying its new wings.

The other highlight are the peacocks and peahens which wander freely around the gardens. They were out in force today, the boys doing a great deal of showing off for the girls. The rustle of their showy tails could be heard all around as they vibrated them.

A butterfly making the most of the oranges dotted around the butterfly house

Enjoying a bowl of nectar

A peacock showing off for the peahens

If you click on this photo you should be able to see another peacock with his tail feathers on display in the background

      
http://www.seafordegardens.com/index.php?id=1

Flash Fiction

I love the challenge of Flash Fiction. I posted this story on SkyPen, meeting the challenge of a story on any topic, in any genre, in 99 words.

Snowy Mourne Mountains

Wednesday 27th March and we woke to a good covering of snow. Between sick children and the last day of school, the kids didn't get out to enjoy it and by the time school was over it had melted. The dogs did enjoy rolling about in it.

Whilst it didn't last long in my area, I live near the Mourne Mountains and can see they are still completely white and covered with snow. Friday night, avalanche warnings were given out for some of them. The roads are clear and the mountains are now passable so we took a drive through them on Saturday afternoon. I've included some photos, below, showing our journey, heading for Spelga dam, via Hilltown and down to Kilkeel, driving back through Bryansford.

The contrast between the green lower lands and the pure white of the high Mournes, as they meld with the sky was spectacular. We had some fun with snowballs and watched the sledgers and snow-boarders making the most of the remaining snow.

There has been a lot of news coverage about the hardships faced by so many throughout Northern Ireland in this unseasonal cold snap. The height of the snow pushed to the sides of the road and still covering some houses, brought home how difficult it's been for some people.

The wall of Spelga Dam

Partially Frozen Dam

Ice In The Dam

Sledgers By Spelga Dam

The mountain ahead was covered in sledgers and some snow boarders. Photo also shows the height of snow pushed off the road.

Mountains, dam and sky melding

Tops of a snow covered fence

Irish Sea and Kilkeel in the distance

Near Bryansford & Tollymore

Opening Lines

I've read a lot of writing books, tweets and blog posts saying how important the opening line to a story is. Writers must work hard to avoid cliches and grab the reader with it.

I know the first sentences are probably the most often changed in my own novels.

When I write a novel, my first draft usually contains too much backstory and character building as I develop an understanding of my characters and their stories. This means the first draft doesn't open where the story begins and I'll end up cutting my first chapter, weaving elements of it into later chapters as I edit. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

No matter which draft I'm working on I keep going back to the initial lines, trying to hone them. I want to draw the reader in, get them interested in the setting, plot or characters (or better still all three) but it's very difficult to achieve.

So, here are the latest versions of the opening paragraphs for The Glass House and for the rewrite of Twisted Truth (now Finding Us). 

The Glass House:

Caitlin ground her teeth in rhythm with the ice machine in her sister's oversized, glossy fridge-freezer. It whirred and cracked, spitting shards of ice into the glass Niamh held under it, before filling it with purified water.

'Sure you don't want one?' Niamh turned, holding her glass up to Caitlin.

'We live in the West of Ireland and it's January. Freezing cold water isn't going to warm my bones.' Caitlin shuffled the gardening manuals spread across the island in her sister's kitchen, wishing Niamh would have the sense to offer her a hot drink.

'More fool you for choosing a career that leaves you outside most of the day.'

Caitlin rifled through the pages, marked with sticky notes, to find the next one she'd highlighted.

'Look, just tell me what you think about these.' She gestured towards the page. 'What about the Clematis montana, this honeysuckle, maybe the winter flowering jasmine and an evergreen cistus?'

'I've no idea what any of those are.' Niamh flicked her hand backwards across the books. 'You choose.'

'Won't you at least look at the pictures?'

'As long as you get rid of what's out there and plant something new I couldn't care less what it is. Besides, I trust you.'

'Sometimes I despair of you,' Caitlin said, pushing a stray curl back into her pony-tail. 'I'm never going to convince you gardening is good for the soul, am I?'

'You inherited those genes,' Niamh replied, holding up one hand, the sparkling, well-tended talons on display. 'I much prefer nail extensions to green fingers, thank you very much.' Setting the glass down on the gleaming surface, Niamh pushed the gardening manuals closer to her sister. Caitlin accepted them, revealing her stubby finger nails. The skin on her hands coarser than Niamh's and stained from the green and brown of plants and soil, the tools of her trade.

'Lucky you found a rich man to marry then.' Caitlin tucked her hands between her jean clad, legs, shifting on the uncomfortable bar stool, watching her sister bristle as she grabbed the edge of the granite.

'Ah for God's sake, don't get on your soap box again.'

'My little sister marries some divorcee, with a daughter closer to her age than he is, and I'm just supposed to shut up and accept it.'

'Honestly – yes. It's my life, I've made my choices and it's about time you learnt to respect that.'

'Respect. That's a laugh. Not a word I'd link with your husband and his finances.'

'You can be such a judgemental cow,' Niamh said, slapping the books laid out before her. 'And don't forget, it's Tom's generosity paying for your services.'

Caitlin opened her mouth to reply that he hadn't paid for anything yet but the noise of the phone ringing stole Niamh's attention.

Finding Us:

This is what happens when your best friend disappears, your mother's driving you loopy and work's taking over your life. You go out with a group of crazy friends, drink far too much, especially when it's only mid-week, and wake-up to find you aren't in your own bed and all you're wearing is yesterday's make-up and some hairy arm.

Trying to peel the offending arm off her stomach and roll out off the bed undetected, Charlotte cursed Katie for lining up all those shots and herself for not making a 3 am flit.

Retrieving her dress and underwear she tip-toed from the bedroom, steadied herself against a sofa and dressed. Searching the combined kitchen and slob-out room she stumbled over her shoes, stabbing her toe with the spiky heel.

Charlotte tried pulling on the hem of the dress but couldn't make it reach her mid-thigh, never mind the knee length suitable for work. Releasing the security chain and teasing the door handle downwards, she slipped out of the stranger's flat. What to do now? Make the walk-of-shame into work wearing last night's clothes or a mad dash home to change. Over-stuffed Tube or a taxi stuck in rush-hour traffic? Charlotte closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her choices all lead to one thing; she'd be be late, the last thing she needed.

The Glass House is women's fiction and deals with the difficult relationship that has developed between two sisters, exploring how rumour and bad judgements can alter perceptions of people. Caitlin is the earthy type, preferring the sanctuary of her restored Victorian Glass House to the sparkling, modern home and material items Niamh adores. I hope the opening lines set the tone for the tension brewing between them, whilst showing they are everyday women, the reader can identify with.

Finding Us is also women's fiction but has lighter elements of romance and chick-lit. Charlotte's a workaholic solicitor with a phobia to commitment. Her best-friend's pregnancy is a surprise but it brings a bigger shock into Charlotte's life; Mark Porter, her first and only love. He disappeared, from their town in Northern Ireland, thirteen years ago and now he wants a second chance. Charlotte's tempted but she has a secret to protect and finding each other could risk revealing it. 

I'm still not sure whether I've cracked it with these beginnings and I think I could spend the rest of my life rejigging them because I know how important it is to get them right.

If you'd care to share, I'd love to hear some of your first lines and how you go about deciding the best way to open your stories.

For anyone who wants to read some of those articles I mentioned, here's a selection of links to get you started:

Darley Anderson: How Not To Start Your Novel
Writers House: Chapter One
Emma Darwin: Finding The First Line
Writing.ie: Worst Opening Sentence Ever
Writing.ie: Opening Lines
Moodywriting: Beginnings And Their Endings

Getting Published

A subject dear to the heart of so many writers. Is my writing good enough to be published? If yes, do I seek an agent who will help me find a publisher, submit directly to a publisher or do I self-publish? In either situation do I pay for a writing course, a literary consultancy or an editor before submission or publication?

Writing a novel is only the beginning. There are so many other issues to consider after you've written the ending and, as an unpublished, unknown, it feels like breaking through is almost impossible.

There are countless stories on the internet of the struggles some authors have gone through before being published, all of them telling you not to give up on your dreams. Then I read books like Carole Blake's From Pitch to Publication and there are some reality checks in it about how far down an agent's list of priority the unsolicited manuscripts are.

All of this is going on within the shifting publishing landscape.

I blogged recently about the need for an online presence and how necessary it is even for unpublished writers to build their own brand. I think this blog post from Authonomy, a Harper Collins owned website, expressing the view that self-publishing is 'a powerful incubator for writing talent' is a step on from that discussion.

The Authonomy post could be saying that publishers are not taking risks on new authors. They aren't going out looking for them and they want writers to do their own publicity. They want an author to make a name and a success of their books before they will invest, putting their name behind the book. Now, there's nothing new in an author having to do some marketing and publicity. How many authors have to do book tours, signings, interviews, workshops and readings? That's always appeared to be part of the job to me. The difference here is that Authonomy appear to be saying that new writers need to do all their own editing, publishing, cover design and marketing to sell a few thousand copies in order to attract an agent or a hundred thousand sales to get a publisher's attention. So, if a new writer can only get noticed by spending all this time publishing and marketing their own book to the point that they sell in these figures why do they need a traditional publisher at all and how much time will that leave them for actually writing?

The Authonomy article cites the success of writers, such as E L James, Amanda Hocking and Nick Spalding. Closer to home Leesa Harker signed with Blackstaff Press after she created a noise on social media with her Belfast based parody of Fifty Shades.

I'm still digesting this latest news and trying to decide where it leaves new writers like myself but one thing it has shown me is that publishers are even more reluctant to take on new writers than I previously believed. It looks like they want to avoid all risks and you have to show yourself capable of grabbing readers and sales before they'll consider adding their logo to your book in return for a cut of the cash.

So, do we give up on the dream of traditional publication? Do we self-publish instead or do so hoping that it will still lead to traditional publication?