Next Big Thing - Blog Hop

A fellow blogger and member of Authonomy, Audrey Bennett, has invited me to join in The Next Big Thing blog tour. The idea is to hop from blog to blog to discover exciting authors and their books we might not have heard about or that are still Works in Progress (WIP).  This is Week  23.

The hop rules require me to answer questions, and then at the bottom of my post, to list links to authors who will answer the same questions on their blogs next week. 

So, the Q&A part:

1) What is the working title of your book?

My latest manuscript is called The Glass House.

2) Where did the idea come from for your book?

I love gardening and inherited a glass house from my grandmother. I write women's fiction and I wanted to write a story about judging people on first impressions and the dangers of doing so. I took inspiration from the old phrase, 'People In Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones.' That gave me the idea to make my main character a gardener and from that the story revolved around a Victorian Glass House that she discovers and restores.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Women's Fiction with a hint of crime/thriller.

4) Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?

As the story is set in Northern Ireland, preferably natives of Northern Ireland or at least someone who can do a plausible Norn Iron accent. Three women and three man are pivotal to the plot so there are a few roles to fill. I recently watched a film called Cherrybomb, set in Belfast. Rupert Grint plays a lead role and I was pleasantly surprised at his Northern Irish accent. Robert Sheehan is also in it and, although from Co Laois, he can also do a good accent. He would make a great Stuart. Homegrown talent in that movie is in the form of James Nesbitt and I could see him in the role of Tom.

5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A sanctuary. A Workplace. When a blackmailer finds a use for it, what secrets will the glass house cultivate?

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I hope it sits well within the realm of women's fiction. It has a surface plot of romance, deception and blackmail. The underlying issue of judging people on impressions develops throughout the story so I hope it will have commercial appeal. I intend to submit it to agents and see what sort of reaction it gets. So far the feedback, on the sample chapters, on two writing sites has been positive and encouraging.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I started the story and wrote the first few chapters about a year ago. Then I turned my efforts to editing my first MS, Twisted Truth. Feeling that I've done all I can with it, for now, I returned to The Glass House and wrote the rest of the first draft within two months.

8) What other books would you compare this story to?

I read a lot of chick-lit and women's fiction but can't think of another one that combines gardening and blackmail in this manner, or that is set in Northern Ireland. Hopefully that all makes up for a unique selling point.

9) Who or what inspired you to write the book?

This answer mirrors that to question two. My own love of gardening and the phrase, 'People in Glass Houses.' One of the characters in the story is too quick to judge people on first impressions. Combine that with a stubborn mind and it's a recipe for trouble.

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I hope the Northern Irish setting will appeal. I've used my blog to try and highlight this corner of the world and I hope the book could do the same. Caitlin gets a role presenting a gardening show which takes her around Ireland. The glass house is near the village of Sion Mills, which has some very unique architecture and parts of the story are set in Belfast, which provided an opportunity to show the changes and development but also reflects our history and ongoing problems.

Next Wednesday, you can visit the blogs of friends listed below to read the answers on their 'Next Big Thing.'

Melanie Jones - Melanie's debut novel will be released next year and you can also follow her on Facebook.
SJ McClanahan - a husband and wife team who write together and can also be found on Facebook.
Gail Cleare - Gail writes women's fiction and runs a critique group on Authonomy for those who write in the genre.

Glass House/Greenhouse

One of the inspirations behind my new MS, The Glass House, was my own love of gardening. I was given my Grand-Mother's greenhouse after she died. I have lots of memories of her working in her garden and growing her own fruit and veg and I'm happy to think she passed that hobby on to me. Her greenhouse had lain unused for some years, when her health failed, so when I moved it to my house, got it cleaned up and back in use, I'd like to think it would please her to see another generation get the benefit of it.

It's not a grand Victorian Glass House, like Caitlin's but I do enjoy spending time pottering around in it and get great satisfaction from the produce I can grow in it. So, I thought I'd share some photos of it.

The photos are taken in different summers and in different locations as I've moved house once since I gained the greenhouse and, of course, there was no way I was leaving it behind.

The snow covered picture, shows it looking all together different, during one of the worst winters I can recall.

Crom Walled Garden

I'm in the midst of a new manuscript, The Glass House. The main character, Caitlin, has inherited her grand-parents property, near the village of Sion Mills, and their love of gardening. On clearing a wild corner of the walled garden, on the property, she discovers a door that leads to a dilipadated Victorian Glass House. With the help of local handy-man, Jack, she restores it so that it becomes the centre of her burgeoning horticultural business. The Glass House contains other themes that run through the story.

I had already drafted the second chapter, in which Caitlin's glass house is first described but I was thrilled when I discovered the walled garden and derelict glass house at Crom Castle. I'm grateful to the staff member who told me about it. This glass house, like Caitlin's, is in a very sorry state. It doesn't exactly match my vision or description but does show the remains of pipes, brick walls and benches. It's a ghost of the beautiful and functional building it must once have been. The National Trust staff also told me when they cleared some of the wall and area round the glass house last year, they revealed marks along the wall. These show where other houses and structures once stood. In the barn building that the Trust use at Crom, there is an information centre. Within it they have an excellent plan of the walled garden from early in the 1900's, which includes the walled, circular rhododendron pool at the centre of it. Today only one corner of the garden is in use as allotments.

National Trust: Crom
Discover NI: Crom
http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/enchanting-walled-garden-of-crom.html

Mount Stewart

Another National Trust owned house in Northern Ireland. This one is on the Ards Pennisula and is located in an area with a micro climate that provides for a spectacular garden. The house is undergoing a huge renovation project.

Scrabo Tower in Newtownards, built as a memorial to Charles Stewart.

The Sunken Garden (side view of house).

Italian Garden towards the Dodo Terrace

Spanish Garden

Italian Garden

Tir nan Og - the family private burial ground which looks over the lake.

The Glass House - extracts

A few snippets from the work in progress.


From Chapter Two:

        A deep, satisfying warmth filled Caitlin, once again safe in her sanctuary. Her glass house. No ordinary structure of glass and aluminium, but a perfect piece of Victorian architecture and engineering, sitting at the edge of a walled garden, in a property once owned by Caitlin's grandparents. Now in her ownership and care, it looked stunning, with its dwarf brick walls, sparkling glass and white, cast iron frame, topped with a ridge of fleur-de-lis, but it was a very different picture when she first inherited it. Caitlin’s heart had swelled with sympathy when she first glimpsed the rusted framework, most of the glass broken and what little remained so black with dirt it was unrecognisable, crumbling brickwork, overgrown with nettles and layers of mud so thick they could have sent a geologist to heaven.

From Chapter Twelve (a little steamier and names removed to protect the identities of those involved - you'll have to wait unit some fabulous publisher decides it's brilliant - or at least until I put these chapters up on Authonomy - to find out who they are):

         She had a moment to take in the walls of glass, overlooking Queen's Island before the pair fell to the leather sofa. Kisses bruised lips, hands brushed over clothing. He shrugged off his suit jacket. She sought the buttons on his shirt and opened them, pulling it free from his trousers and pushing it off his arms. She unbuckled his belt and opened his trousers. His legs pressed hard against hers, his weight pushing her against the leather which warmed and moulded to them. His hands found the edge of her dress and raised it over her thighs, revealing the line of fine lace that edged that day's most thought about purchase. His fingers traced the line, his weight shifted sideways, as he followed it across her thigh and between her legs. As his knuckle grazed her she lifted her hips and parted her legs. His hands moved up, over the delicate black lace shorts, pushing the dress higher, over her waist.

        'I want to see the rest of this,' he said, continuing to reveal the matching bustier.

She sat up, turning round so he could unzip the dress and remove it. Keeping her back against him, he kissed her shoulder, her neck, he traced circles around her nipple. Slipping the bustier straps off her shoulders, he began to unhook it, freeing her breasts to his touch.

        

        Standing in front of her, he pushed his trousers and underwear to the floor. She took him in her hand, teasing him first with her tongue and then her mouth, only stopping when he pulled away from her and brought her to her feet. 

        The lace shorts skimmed down her thighs and over her knees. She began to remove the shoe but his hand held her ankle. 'Keep them on.' 

        She halted and he eased the shorts over one foot, then the other. Discarding them he kissed her ankle, the inside of her knee, then her thigh. His fingers began to tease and probe until she brought him back to the sofa and he once again pressed against her, her hips answered his movements, while he held the heels of those twinkling shoes.

From Chapter Thirteen (during a tour of Titanic Belfast):

        In complete quiet, Caitlin watched as the camera relayed video of the broken ship and Dr Ballard's voice discussed the finds. Recalling the splendour they'd witnessed throughout the tour, the hopes the ship had generated, the effort taken to build her and the pride so many people of Belfast had felt in her, their devastation at the loss of her and so many lives, she began to see what the new building symbolised. More than just a tourist attraction, a sign of the still fragile peace that claimed the country but an acknowledgement of the city's role, the possibility that it could reclaim what it had once been, have pride in it's accomplishments and itself again.

....and that's all...for now.