Meeting at
the Moles
Another
successful meeting of the Severn Valley Authors took place at the Moles’ (Chris
and Linda) home yesterday evening. Rob couldn’t attend because he was sunning
himself on a Spanish beach, Chris had to go to bed at 8.30 because of a very
early start the next morning and Annie, looking extremely unwell, slept through
most of the evening. We all hope she is feeling better now.
News
Jane: Jane was paid by Brit Mums for her
holiday blogs and was featured as ‘blog of the day’. Well done Jane. She also
told us about a blog called Rebel Mouse where she has volunteered to showcase
SVA.
Annie: Annie reports that she has learned a
lot about writing for children in her six week course at the Custard Factory.
She has been inspired by her tutor’s picture book Don’t Panic Anneka.
Linda: Linda has entered her short story Telling the Bees for the Bridport prize
and is awaiting feedback on her novel A
Head Full of Budgerigars.
Chris: Chris has recently given two talks
about his bicycle ride to China and has sold a record number of his book Why Don’t You Fly. William (Linda’s son)
has filmed one of the talks with a view to posting it on YouTube. Progress on Karl Marx and Careful Driving is slow at
the moment because of Chris’s heavy workload.
Tony: Tony has entered his short story The Idea of Marmalade for the Bridport
Prize, so hopefully one of us will come somewhere. Tony also had the great news
that he has been invited to Halifax, Nova Scotia to teach Family Therapy. No mother-in-law
jokes, Tony – they don’t get it.
Eating
the SVA cake
Reading: We were all excited to hear the first chapter of Tony’s novel – as yet
unnamed. This was an experimental piece to gauge our reactions. As usual we
were full of good advice! We were all a bit confused and Chris said it felt
like solving a riddle. Annie said there were too many unexplained mysteries and
rather too many characters introduced at one time. Jane felt the characters
seemed rather naïve. Linda said that she was intrigued by the mystery and like
everyone else wondered if it was set in the future. She also suggested there
might be a sense of underlying menace, particularly with regard to the intelligencers.
Tony replied
that it was all a mystery to him because the plot and characters were still
undecided. However he did explain that the story wasn’t set in the future but
in a parallel world where the Norman Conquest hadn’t happened and people were
still Anglo-Saxon, under the rule of King Edgar IV, hence the Anglish language. He answered our
questions about the intelligencers –
they are government spies. This is a really original and interesting idea and
we all look forward to reading more.
The
intelligencers
Sorry I couldn't be there. Tony's novel sounds innovative and challenging. There's been lots of if-Hitloer-had-won-the-war books but nothing on Harold not getting it in the eye and winning the Battle of Hastings. It's a long time for the parallel world to deviate from the one we recognise today - gives you lts of leeway, Tony.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine starting without a plan but plenty of published authors use this method. I'm looking forward to reading Ch 2.
Thanks for the encouraging comments, Rob. I heard an interview with the great Edna O'Brien in which she said it takes her about three years to write a book. With a full-time job and other commitments, I imagine it could take me three decades, so don’t hold your breath for Chapter 2!
ReplyDeleteI love the illustrations in the blog. Those intelligencers look pretty spooky.