MORE ABOUT CHARACTERS

MAKE READERS CARE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS

The book I believe is my best writing has a large cast of characters, ranging from baby Daisy, who looks like Harry Hill without the spectacles, to the various old people who inhabit Sundowners Retirement Home. Plot is important but if readers don't relate to the characters and care what happens to them, why bother? Here are three from ME, DINGO AND SIBELIUS: Charlie, my main character, a 30-something 'ugly duckling' who inherits a fortune and buys a retirement home, and two of the residents, Jenny and Freddie.

Here's Charlie herself: We went to Alma da Cuba, an amazing place, converted from a church. It has this incredible lighting, the alter glowing scarlet and blue, lights everywhere like huge candles, and a mezzanine restaurant above the bar and dance floor. It was gobsmackingly beautiful and I was as gobsmacked as anyone else, until I'd stood around for an hour or more, pretending to admire the architecture, snapping my fingers to the music, making fake calls on my phone. Playing wallflower. After that I escaped to the restaurant and ordered something laced with chillies. I blamed the chillies for my tears, but that was just an excuse I made to the waiter.

Jenny: "I'm such a silly idiot. Scared of my own shadow, my husband used to say. But - I can't help it, I can't - "

I knew Jenny's story. Abused for years by a lout of a husband, who'd recognised from the start a woman he could dominate completely. Jenny must have been a beauty in her youth, even now there's still the shadow of that beauty. But she also bears the marks of that violent relationship. Old breaks. Scars. A malformed cheekbone. There were no children. She had become pregnant once and her husband had punched it out of her. The only good thing he'd ever done was to leave her a reasonable fortune when he died, so that she could find a haven for her remaining years.

And finally Freddie: Freddie was a bank manager in the days when bank managers were always available and happy to be of assistance. He wore sober suits, crisp white shirts and his old school tie, and only his closest associates knew that he was a cross dresser. Even his wife had been unaware until the morning she found him posing before her dressing table in an eau de nil silk Teddy and a pair of her best ten denier tights, at which point she had selected a solicitor from Yellow Pages and commenced divorce proceedings.

Believe it or not, there's a happy ending for two of these three characters. The third - well, I had to have some tragedy, otherwise I might be writing for Mills & Boon!

ME, DINGO AND SIBELIUS is one of my books available on Amazon, and I will be donating all my royalties from October, November and December sales to our local hospital's Radiotherapy Unit Appeal and my local church's repair fund.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

BOOKER PRIZE JUDGES

SLAM-BANG BEGINNINGS!

An incredible avalanche of books are submitted for the annual Man Booker Prize. How do the judges manage to read them all?

One judge is said to read only the first eight lines of each novel and if they don't grab her she moves on to the next.

Anyway, that made me reconsider the opening sentences of my work in progress, which is about a boy who runs away to the circus so that he can learn to fly. I  moved a few sentences around, cut out others, and ended up with this:

Just before midnight on the 8th December 1941 a bomb fell on Number 23 Deremont Street.

It killed Jamie Bird's Mum and Dad instantly, and it buried Jamie beneath tons of rubble.

Five minutes earlier when the air raid siren began its warning wail his Mum had rushed to the kitchen to cut sandwiches and fill a flask with hot cocoa, and his Dad had rushed upstairs to collect thick jumpers and scarves to keep them warm in the street shelter.

They had told Jamie to wait inside the family's Morrison shelter in the dining room, which was supposed to be safe. But it didn't feel safe. The thunder of bricks, the screech of metal, the groaning of timbers, the hiss of water escaping from fractured pipes terrified him.

'Mum! Dad!' he cried.

Where were they?


Ten minutes' work but I think it 'grabs' more fiercely. 

CIRCUS LIFE

THE BOY WHO COULD FLY

This is the children's book that's been on my back burner for months. It's about two boys, one real life and one fictional, and the flying trapeze. The real life boy was my great uncle, a circus star billed as 'Una The Human Fly' who tragically was killed at the age of 16 while performing in 1891. The other boy is a (fictional) descendant half a century later (1941) who longs to join the circus and become a trapeze artist.

Having only visited a circus once in my life (far back in time when I was 14) I think I must be insane to tackle something that requires not only research into circus life but also research into the restrictions and problems of life in Britain during WW2. But there you go.

Meantime, though, can I ask your help regarding the book's title and cover? Originally I called it THE BOY ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE. I've changed that to THE BOY WHO COULD FLY, and I've just designed a cover with that title.

I'd really appreciate your comments on both title and design. Thank you in advance.  

HOW TO WRITE FICTION

A NEW GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

Having now published ten novels, I decided to take a break from fiction writing and put together all my teaching material from nearly three decades as a creative writing tutor.

The result is How to write FICTION, which you can now buy on Amazon as a Kindle e-book for £1.29.

It's full of guidelines and encouragement for beginners, and covers everything from how and where to find ideas, creating characters that come to life, and planning and plotting to get yourself organised so you don't lose the plot!

I hope you enjoy it.

CABBAGE BOY! AVAILABLE FROM TODAY ON AMAZON

A WARM AND FUNNY NEW BOOK FOR TEENS, YOUNG ADULTS - AND THEIR PARENTS

I'm delighted that my new book, CABBAGE BOY, was published today and is available on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle.

I don't usually believe in coincidences but it just so happens that I was writing the final chapter on the day that a new form of manure was introduced into the 80 acre field behind my house - and probably elsewhere in my home town, which also happens to be the setting for my book.

Without giving the plot away, manure plays an important role in the story of teenage Nick, a worrier, with more than a dash of OCD. Almost sixteen, he longs to be taller, braver, more athletic, more popular with the girls, more one of the guys. He also suspects that he's the only one in the class who's still a virgin.

Life brightens when he finds a girlfriend and falls in love with her. They've been together for four weeks and he's kissed her eighteen times, according to his notebook.

But when Nick meets a strange and scary mutant and is forced to protect and hide him, his life becomes unbearable. Who can he turn to for help?

Mum and Dad are busy line dancing, big sister Becca has lost interest and his girlfriend Chloe has moved on to a handsome six-footer who's captain of the school football team. As for friends, Nick doesn't 'do' friends. Or rather, they don't do him.

Full of humour, warmth and tragedy, CABBAGE BOY can be enjoyed by both sexes.

By the way, I'm planning to send a copy to our local Borough Council's Environmental Protection Department!

THE CABBAGE BOY SAGA

PATIENCE, PATIENCE!

Charlston, South Carolina. This is where my latest book, CABBAGE BOY, is being printed. A beautiful city where life is just s-l-o-w and easy, judging by the number of weeks it takes to ship a proof copy to me!

It's a place that's been on my bucket list forever but one I've never managed to visit.

Seems strange that in recent years my connection should be a literary one, but better than nothing.

FUNNY? NOT FUNNY?

HUMOUR - WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

I love to include humour in all my books, whether for grown-ups or children but I can never be sure who will find it funny, as when I tell a joke that makes me fall apart it's often met by blank bewilderment.But I came across this quote from an old radio show today (THE GLUMS, Frank Muir and Denis Norden). Maybe it will amuse some of you (I'm still on the floor!)Name me one thing she went short of!Well - food. Clothes. Coal . . . Teeth.