The delights of book hunting

I’ve been hunting for books today, not in a shop or a market or even on the Internet, but here at home.

I was looking for my anthology of Dorothy Parker’s verses and short stories, and my collection of Ogden Nash’s poems. There were quotations by both versifiers that I wanted to track down…yes, I could have looked on the Internet, but I fancied browsing through the books themselves. They were not where they should be, with the other poetry books. And you know how it is, the more elusive something proves to be, the more desperately important it becomes to find it.

So I rooted around among all our bookshelves – and we have a lot of bookshelves – but in vain. I’ve mislaid both of them, probably lent them to somebody. If that somebody is reading this, could you let me have them back please?

Oh well, as Parker and Nash are long-time favourites, I can remember some gems. “One Perfect Rose” is among the best from Dorothy Parker, culminating in this perfect last verse:

“Why is it no-one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no. It’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.”

With Ogden Nash, (and did you know Nashville Tennessee is named after one of his ancestors, because I didn’t till recently,) it’s the short verses one tends to recall. “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.” But I can remember a few bits and pieces from longer comic sagas, like the conclusion of his poem about Christopher Columbus:

“So Columbus said, Somebody show me the sunset and somebody did and he set sail  for it,
And he discovered America and they put him in jail for it,
And the fetters gave him welts,
And they named America after somebody else,
So the sad fate of Columbus ought to be pointed out to every child and every voter,
Because it has a very important moral, which is, Don’t be a discoverer, be a promoter”

Having failed to find the titles I was hunting, I started dipping into some of my other favourite books that I encountered in my search: books I know I like, but haven’t in fact looked into for ages. It’s more than time I re-read some of them. Not straight away…I can’t just drop either of the two mysteries I’m reading at the minute. You shouldn’t ever drop any good story, and with a mystery it’s absolutely out of the question, you forget all the clues. But I must make a rule that every so often I turn aside from the quest for novelty, and look up an old friend.

Which old friend to start with? A collection of short stories? Some Sherlock Holmes, for instance, or some Kipling – I’m a devotee of both. No, I think I’ll begin with a novel, COLD COMFORT FARM, by Stella Gibbons. I couldn’t resist spending ten minutes looking through this, when needless to say I was supposed to be doing something else, and I shall certainly read it properly again very soon. If you’ve missed this 1930s comic masterpiece, do give it a try. You can discover why London girl-about-town Flora Poste descends on her rustic relatives, the Starkadders, on their Sussex farm…what she makes of cousins Seth and Reuben, the beautiful Elfine, the alarming Aunt Ada Doom…what happens to Meriam the hired girl every time the sukebind begins to bloom…and how Flora finally brings order to the chaos of Cold Comfort Farm. I’ll be astonished if you haven’t laughed inwardly, or even out loud, by the time you reach the end.

Can anyone else recommend an old favourite book that they plan to re-visit? Try hunting through your bookshelves…I bet you’ll soon discover one.

Writing advice born of experience

We’ve got a big finish for this celebration of National Crime Fiction Week 2010. I’ve invited all four of this week’s guests to give us the benefit of their experience as writers. What tips would they pass on to budding mystery authors? These are for all of you out there who have ambitions to write crime fiction; maybe you’ve just started, or maybe you’ve made a beginning but got stuck part-way. I can’t possibly rank these gems of wisdom in order because they’re all diamonds, so I’ll follow the order of our guest bloggers…

From Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the Jack Haldean 1920s series (and now I see where Jack gets his enthusiasm for cars!)
I was watching the Canadian Grand Prix on Saturday and was struck by two different camera angles. The first camera focused on Mark Webber’s face. We were looking at him from the outside. The second camera was attached to the front of the car, seeing the track as Mark Webber. Use both angles. See your characters as others see them, but get inside. Look through their eyes. Think their thoughts, experience their emotions and, when you’ve become them, describe it as well as you possibly can.

From Ruth Downie, who writes about Ruso’s adventures as a Roman army medic:
I’d give this advice to anyone writing any sort of novel: stick with it!
Much of writing is simply getting on with it no matter how well or badly you think it’s going. You can’t judge the standard of a piece while you’re working on it – at least, I can’t – so plough through till the end, then put it away for a long time. When you bring it out to edit, you’ll be able to see more clearly what works and what needs fixing. Alternatively, take a short cut and find some nice writer friends who will tell you – tactfully, I hope.

From Donna Fletcher Crow, author of the Monastery Murders series, with their fascinating switches between present and past:
Write from your passions.
Write what you love to read.
Read the Classics. You may never write as well as you read, but you’ll certainly never write better. “Man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”
P.S. from Jane: there’s an on-line recording of a talk on writing a novel that Donna gave last year to a writers’ conference. It’s excellent. It’s at:
http://idahopewriters.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/donna-crow-structure-of-a-novel/

From Amy Myers, whose novels include the adventures of Victorian chimney sweep Tom Wasp, and whose short stories sometimes take us back much, much further:
Remember Theseus? The poor chap only escaped from the Minotaur’s labyrinth with a guiding thread provided by Ariadne. Theseus stands for your protagonist whose job it is to hang on to the thread, your plot. Interesting detours (such as a trip to King Minos’ wine cellars or an overlong cuddle with Ariadne,) that can’t be seen to advance the plot, slow the pace – which in today’s fast-read world can mean losing the reader. Plot-based red herrings are fine provided the thread remains in Theseus’ hand. You want your readers to finish the novel satisfied that he can now drop it. (Of course, he also dropped Ariadne but that came in the sequel.)

I’ll exercise a host’s privilege and add my own two penn’orth. Whatever you’re writing, however long it takes to find recognition, don’t give up. Sometimes you will feel like quitting; push on through it, like battling through a hailstorm, till you come out the other side. Which you will. I know. I’ve been there, so have most published writers. It’ll be worth it in the end, as long as you don’t, repeat DON’T, give up.

Has anyone out there got writing tips to share? Of course you have. Take a few seconds from your busy weekend and tell us what they are. We want more mystery writers. This is your chance to help push our bandwagon along.

My Friday guest: Amy Myers

Amy Myers is one of my oldest friends among mystery authors – oh sorry, I mean longest-standing friends, of course! She not only writes terrific books in several series (including one she’s currently doing jointly with her husband James about a car detective;) she also gives them amazing titles. Take her latest Victorian mystery, TOM WASP AND THE NEWGATE KNOCKER. What on earth??? Be patient, all will soon be revealed. The book  came out last month in the USA from Five Star Publishing; I hope there’ll be a UK version soon, but meantime, thanks to Amazon’s two branches (.co.uk and .com) the rest of the world can buy it now on-line. Tom is an intriguing character, and a chimney sweep, an unexpected trade for a sleuth. Here’s Amy to tell us how such an unusual creation came about…

Tom Wasp, Victorian chimney sweep, has been appearing in short stories for the last ten years, and was delighted when his first full length novel appeared in 2007, Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner. He was eager to continue his trade in both forms, and the Newgate Knocker is its successor.

In the opening scene Tom visits his friend Eliza Hogg in Newgate Prison on the day before she is to be hung for murdering her husband. Although the name Newgate Knocker referred to a particular curl of hair sported by the East End underworld, Eliza had acquired the name because a knocker was both a handsome-looking person (which Eliza was) and someone known for sexual over-enthusiasm (which she wasn’t.)

Eliza gives Tom the only thing of value she has – a pawn ticket. Ned, Tom’s twelve-year-old apprentice, is disappointed when the redeemed item is only a scruffy sailor doll. But it has a hidden secret, which pitchforks Tom into facing two notorious East End gangs and pursuing a murderer in the midst of a tense international situation at a time when the Prince of Wales is about to marry a Danish princess.

Why choose a sweep? In fact, Tom chose me. I was stumbling my fearful way towards a lecture hall where I was about to deliver a speech to my peers. I heard myself muttering that ‘My name was Tom Wasp’ – goodness knows where the name came from. I didn’t know I was a chimney sweep until a week or two later when on holiday in Yorkshire I walked across the black-smudged rocks that had inspired Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies. That’s how I knew Tom’s trade, although he was a master sweep, not a child, as Kingsley’s was.

I’d long been drawn to the Victorian era, because my parents had a book celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, whose pictures and captions fascinated me as a child. Still do. When I came to write my first crime series (Auguste Didier, master chef) I gravitated to the period because I couldn’t see myself making a success of a modern police procedural or dealing with a modern amateur sleuth. I pondered whether Tom Wasp’s trade would inhibit his detection skills, but decided to go ahead anyway! In fact neither his trade nor low social standing has seriously restricted him. Aristocratic sleuths have problems disguising their origins to pursue their cases in the underworld, where Tom can move freely. Tom also has access through his clients to the upper strata when needed. I admit he occasionally needs a bit of help, but I have my methods!

A sweep’s life in Victorian London was very hard. Although in theory the use of climbing boys had long been banned by 1863 when this novel takes place, and a new law was soon to be passed, the terrible practice still continued with children dying or being maimed for life. Fortunately Tom Wasp, a former climbing boy himself, is kind-hearted, and Ned is devoted to him (and to meat pies). Tom is not based on anyone, because I find it impossible to transpose the characteristics of people I know on to the written page. Much more fun to let characters emerge and speak for themselves, and Tom enjoys relating his cases.

Visit Amy’s website at www.amymyers.net

My Thursday guest: Donna Fletcher Crow

I’m delighted that Donna Fletcher Crow from Boise, Idaho, USA is our guest today She’s stopping by as part of her virtual book tour to tell us about her latest mystery, A VERY PRIVATE GRAVE. It’s the first in her Monastery Murders series, and is published in the UK this month by Monarch Books, Oxford, and in the States later in the year. It’s set in England, and is one of those fascinating tales that starts in the here-and-now but whose powerful historical elements transport us back into the past, in this case the seventh century AD. Donna has written 35 books to date, mostly novels dealing with British history, so it’s no secret that she loves writing about the place, and travelling here too…

Jane, if I were a few thousand miles closer to you I would love to be spending National Crime Fiction Week speaking in libraries and doing book signings between drinking pots of tea and strolling down green country lanes. Life is always so much more romantic in the imagination. That’s why I write fiction— it only rains when it suits the plot. But back to reality, I am truly delighted to be visiting with you and your readers today.

Well, the potted answer to “Tell us what your book is about” is that Felicity Howard, a young American studying for the Anglican priesthood at the College of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire, is devastated when she finds her beloved Father Dominic brutally murdered and Fr. Antony, her church history lecturer, soaked in his blood just shortly after Father D gave her the journal of his recent pilgrimage following the steps of St. Cuthbert.

From the moment Felicity, with characteristic rashness, insists that she’s the proper person to decipher the journal which must be the key to the mystery of the treasure Father D seems to have discovered, Felicity and Antony race from one ancient holy site to another— a race against time and treachery.

Oh dear, condensing just under 400 pages into two paragraphs does seem to make it sound too easy, but I don’t think Felicity and Antony found it easy. And I’m afraid I found all the blood and terror a lot of fun to write. From the first time I heard about St. Cuthbert when visiting Durham Cathedral many years ago I knew I wanted to tell his remarkable story. I actually did tell it first in a never-published pilgrimage book of my own. It took several frustrating, unpublished years for it to dawn on me that nonfiction simply isn’t my forte and that there was more than one way to tell a story.

And I shall let Felicity and Antony continue on with my pilgrimage adventures as I develop The Monastery Murders series. Book 2, A Darkly Hidden Truth uses Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe as background figures which gives me a whole new historical and geographical setting to work with. For me, setting is one of the most important elements in a book. And it’s certainly the most fun to research because I get to spend time tramping over every inch of ground my characters later race through being chased by dark villains.

Felicity is particularly good at fleeing because, not only is she young and energetic and headstrong, but also she is extremely tall and long-legged with years at the ballet barre and keeping up with two older brothers for training. Whenever I set a contemporary novel in England I use an American heroine because no matter how careful I try to be, I will make cultural mistakes and this way it can all be part of the characterization. Felicity started out being modeled on my daughter who, like Felicity, studied ballet, grew up with older brothers, studied classics at Oxford, disliked teaching in London, went to study theology at a monastery in Yorkshire….But I quickly found that making her too much like Elizabeth in anything other than background was producing a very flat heroine. When I gave Felicity her own personality characteristics she came alive for me and was much easier to work with, although Elizabeth is, thankfully, much easier to live with.

Visit Donna’s website at www.DonnaFletcherCrow.com

My Wednesday guest: Ruth Downie

Ruth Downie writes about one of my favourite historical periods. No prizes for anyone who doesn’t know Ruth yet and has to take a guess: her books are set in the Roman Empire at its height, second century AD. Her mysteries feature Ruso, a Roman army medic and reluctant sleuth, and give a terrific insight into Roman medicine, the military life, and also into how Romans and natives co-existed in the Imperial provinces of Britannia and Gaul. The third in the series came out earlier this year in Britain, the States and Canada, and is published in Australia this month. In Britain and Australia it’s called RUSO AND THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS, while across the Atlantic the title is PERSONA NON GRATA. Here’s Ruth to tell us more…

Ruso has been serving in Britannia and formed a partnership with a local girl called Tilla. Now he gets a call to rush home to the south of Gaul, where he finds his family even more dysfunctional than usual. His brother-in-law is missing at sea, his half-sisters are demanding dowries he can’t afford and a corrupt neighbour is threatening to bankrupt them.

It’s all quite baffling for Tilla, who has arrived unintroduced and disrupted his stepmother’s plans to marry him off to the wealthy widow next door. Just when it looks as though things can get no worse, the corrupt neighbour drops dead and Ruso is accused of poisoning him. There are also gladiators, snakes, Christians and lots of wine.

We often hear the Romans’ views on barbarians. I thought this time it would be fun to explore Tilla’s impressions of ‘civilisation’. I’ve wanted to write about the relationship between Romans and Britons ever since a trip to Hadrian’s wall a few years ago, where I learned that the soldiers ‘weren’t allowed to marry, but they were allowed to have relationships with local women.’ There seemed to be lots of scope there for tension and conflict – and humour.

I’m also fascinated by the way Roman society seemed so modern, with its underfloor heating and complex administration, and yet so alien in its acceptance of slavery, its beliefs in the gods and its casual use of violence. The violence, of course, is partly what makes the Romans good material for crime novels. That, and their lack of CCTV, mobile phones and DNA testing.

I love doing the research, and at this rate it’s possible the Ruso series may come to an end when their author is found in her work-room crushed to death by an overloaded book-case.  Every summer I get back to basics, though, and can be found deliriously happy while grovelling in the mud on a Roman villa dig.

People often ask why I chose to write about a doctor. To be honest it was a happy accident. Ruso emerged from the back-story of something else I was trying to write, and he and Tilla were clearly much more interesting than the main characters. As it turned out, he’s in an ideal position to investigate crimes because he comes across the victims in his professional life. And since the Romans had no investigative police force, he doesn’t have to take a back seat to anybody else.

He made his first appearance in a three-chapter entry for a ‘start a historical novel’ competition, so I had no qualms about the fact that I didn’t know anything about Roman medicine – anyone can bluff three chapters! Of course a whole novel is a different thing altogether.

With no expectation of being published, I didn’t dare to approach any experts in person for advice. I found a fascinating book on Roman medicine by a respectable-sounding author – he worked for the British Museum – and read a lot of Hippocrates in translation on the Internet. It must have been okay because after the first book was published I was contacted by an academic who was really positive and encouraging, and sent me lots of new sources and suggestions.

That’s how I know that frogs’ ashes smeared on with liquid pitch was an ancient remedy for bald spots. Strangely, I haven’t yet found anyone willing to test it.

Visit Ruth’s website at http://rsdownie.co.uk/

My Tuesday guest: Dolores Gordon-Smith

Dolores Gordon-Smith writes the Jack Haldean mysteries set in the 1920′s. The fourth in the series, A HUNDRED THOUSAND DRAGONS, is just out in Britain and the USA, published by Severn House. Dolores describes her books as “Agatha Christie-style”, and indeed, as with Dame A, there are plenty of ingenious puzzles and interesting characters, including ex-WW1 air ace Jack Haldean himself.  There’s another compelling dimension: under the glitter that veneers the  “world fit for heroes” lurk the disturbing shadows cast by the First World War, woven into the lives of Jack and his whole generation.

Dolores is here to tell us about Jack’s latest adventure, starting with its intriguing title…

I have to confess to a feeling of quiet pride about the title of A HUNDRED THOUSAND DRAGONS. My original idea was to call the story Ozymandias after the poem by Shelley (you know the one: “I met a traveller from an antique land…”)  as that comes into the story as well.  It’s a brilliant poem that’s inspired at least one Star Trek title (“That which survives”) and all sorts of science-fiction-y stories, as it has that mysterious feel to it.

I thought better of it, though, when it turned out that my Dad, who’s usually sound on poetry, had never heard of Ozymandias and was very hesitant about saying the word. It’s the Z and Y that do it and I have to admit, if you don’t know the poem, it does sound a bit like a Russian football team. And that really wasn’t the effect I was after. Add to that the idea of a title that a prospective reader couldn’t bring themselves to say with confidence, and I was back to square one.

Now although I usually confine myself to prose, I can, when necessity demands, whack out a rhyme. In the course of the story Jack discovers a book in the Savoy Hotel, abandoned by the mysterious Mr Madison. Madison has written a poem on the fly-leaf:

“A hundred thousand dragons lie
Underneath an Arabian sky.
The Silent Ones, when asked, will measure
The hidden way to dragons’ treasure.
With a body once so fair,
A princess guards the dragons’ lair.”

I don’t think I’m suffering from false modesty when I say that the astute reader will notice this isn’t up to Shelley’s standard. Shelley, for reasons best known to himself, didn’t actually write a poem that tied in perfectly with my plot. (Yup, I know, you just can’t get the staff!) So, I  had to content myself with quoting Ozymandias and turn to and write the thing myself. And there, when Ozymandias poofed out on me for titular purposes, was the perfect title within Madison’s poem.

Jack, when he finally unravels what the dragons and the princess and so on and so forth means, leaves London and pops off to Arabia, in search of a lost city of the Nabateans. There’s more to the story than that, of course. There’s a car crash and a fire (based on a real car fire I was once in,) corpses, mystery, secrets and the healthy suspicion that things are not as they seem.

And as it’s set in the 1920’s, you don’t get some spoilsport of a forensic scientist spoiling everything with DNA. It’s a great time to set a story and, I imagine, part of the reason why detective stories were so popular between the wars. There’s enough science and method to make a logical investigation credible but not so much that intelligence becomes swallowed in procedure. And, maybe because there’s room for individual brilliance, the amateur detective could flourish and take on really knotty problems with the best of Scotland Yard.

And that’s exactly what Jack does. Even if he doesn’t like the answers….

Visit Dolores’ website at www.doloresgordon-smith.co.uk

National Crime Fiction Week

Welcome to this special week, (Monday June 14th to Saturday 20th,) a nationwide British celebration of crime and mystery fiction. There are mysterious events everywhere, from talks, discussions, and readings, to more sinister-sounding gatherings like Murders in Libraries, Bodies in Bookshops, and Strawberries and Crime at village fétes. To find what’s happening near you, check out the full list at http://www.crimefictionweek.co.uk/

But don’t go dashing off there yet. I’ve organised my own celebration here, with a star-studded list of mystery authors joining me as blog guests throughout the week. Ruth Downie, Amy Myers, Donna Fletcher Crow, and first off, Tuesday’s author, Dolores Gordon-Smith.

They have three important things in common: they write mysteries with very strong historical connections, they’ve got new books out, and their books are unputdownable.

They’ll be telling us about their work, their settings and characters, the fascination of the eras they’ve chosen…and that’s not all. Do you know what the Romans believed they could cure with frogs’ ashes smeared on with pitch? Can you guess what, or who, was the Newgate Knocker? Drop by during the week, and you’ll discover the answers.

My four guests, like most crime-writers, love reading mysteries as well as creating them. So I thought  I’d find out why. Remembering those complete-this-sentence competitions beloved of Marketing Departments, I gave all four of them a sentence to finish off, which they’ve done in great style, despite a conspicuous lack of “magnificent prizes to be won”.

So, here are their conclusions to the sentence: “I love reading mysteries because…”

Dolores Gordon-Smith answers: “…because by the time the detective solves the case, I feel as clever as they do!”
Amy Myers replies: “…they’re like Sudoku buried in chocolate.”
Ruth Downie declares:  “…because unlike life, I know that when I get confused, somebody else is going to work out the solution for me.”
Donna Fletcher Crow reckons: “…I guess I was marked at birth by a mother who always said, ‘Divorce never; Murder, maybe.’”

Well, readers….how would you finish off that sentence? Let’s hear why you love to read a mystery. There are still no “magnificent prizes”, but after all, if you can’t tell the world your reasons during National Crime Fiction Week, when can you?

They’re here for the beer

I promised to tell you what goes on at Hunmanby Grange, which Richard and I visited yesterday.  The answer: they brew beer. For this is the home of the Wold Top Brewery, our local producer of real Yorkshire ales.

Their beers couldn’t be more Yorkshire. The barley is grown at the Grange on the farm, and they have their own water supply too, from a borehole in the chalk of the wolds. They are at pains to stress that this is no overgrown “home brew” hobbyist outfit; it’s absolutely professional, using the latest hi-tech equipment, combined with traditional ingredients and flavours – and above all, the traditional ambition to make distinctive, tasty beers. Which, in our view, they succeed in doing.

We were impressed by the setup, and of course by the ales, many of which we already know and like. Needless to say, like all the visitors, we paused at the bar during  our wanderings around, and sampled two different beers that we haven’t tried before, including Wold Top, their most popular. Sitting on top of the wolds drinking Wold Top…what better way to spend time on a summer’s day?

We brought home some supplies too (well what would an Open Day be without a decent discount on the produce?) including our favourite of all, a bitter called Falling Stone. It’s named after a famous meteorite which landed in these parts in 1795, and caused quite a scientific stir. More about that anon: let’s stick to beer for now.

Beer-making in Britain goes back thousands of years, to before the Romans conquered here in the first century AD. The Romans themselves didn’t go much on beer, presumably because they could produce wine around the Mediterranean. But in more northerly latitudes, the Celtic peoples of Britain, France and Germany brewed it, and continued to drink it even when the Roman conquest gave many of them the chance to get a taste for wine as well.

Especially in the army. By the time Rome invaded Britain (43 AD – sorry, I’m a historian, so I’m allowed the occasional date,) troops were mostly men from inside the Empire, but outside Italy, and the various tribes of Britannia, Gaul, and Germania were among them. They saw no reason to give up their favourite tipple.

One of the letters found in the famous cache of correspondence at Vindolanda, a fort on Britain’s northern frontier line, includes a request from soldiers on patrol for further orders, finishing with the plea, “We have run out of beer. Please send some.” So the tradition of the beer-drinking squaddie goes back at least two millennia. May it last another two.

Congratulations to Wold Top, and small independent breweries everywhere. More power to them!  After all, we value wines especially highly if they come from a particular region, and their taste is distinctive. We should value our beers in the same way.  Especially when they originate so very close to home.

Guess what they do here

I’ve had a really good day, especially this morning. One of our local big houses, Hunmanby Grange, opened its lovely gardens to the public, and Richard and I went to look round. I always love the chance to admire other people’s gardens, and the Grange’s stately trees, colourful flower-beds, winding paths, and wide lawns were all looking their best on this gorgeous June day.

But the gardens are only part of Hunmanby Grange’s claim to fame, and only part of the attraction that draws visitors to the house and grounds. They run a flourishing and very interesting business there. I’ll tell you all about it…but not right now. It’s late, and I’m on the point of falling asleep in front of my computer.

I’ll give you a hint, in the form of one of my favourite Czech proverbs – OK, I confess it’s the only Czech proverb I know, but it’s a good one.

“A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it’s better to be thoroughly sure.”

And so to bed…tune in tomorrow, everyone!