The Owners, Volume V:Eyon Rising

Well Volume V is nearly written. Two chapters, two full edits and a couple of proof readings to go...then lots of production decisions and it will be ready!

I can't believe I am half way through the series already...

But yesterday, a friend told me that she is currently reading Volume II: Storm Clouds and has not been able to put it down. Apparently her teenage daughter is waiting in line to get her hands on the book, so as you can imagine I was really pleased.

Anyway, here is a little bit from Chapter 22 of Volume V {I don't think it gives too much away}

As the silvery tinkle of the child’s delighted laughter continued to echo in his ears, Dan hoped against hope that it was a sign, a presentiment of how the situation could be peaceably resolved.

But as the child’s mirth melted away, the laughter was replaced by the hunting call of a bird of prey, echoing sharp and clear and sending a chill up his spine, as it scooped its unsuspecting quarry from mid-air.  And in his heart, lodged the fear that it was that particular sound which would prove to be the  true foreboding for what was yet to come.

Happy 4th July America.

It's that time of year again!

Have a great year everyone!

Failure to Launch!!!

I have just had my very own Failure To Launch moment!

Perhaps you remember the film? Its where Sarah Jessica Parker has a job that involves getting grown men to fall in love with her - so much so, that they decide the time has come to leave home and venture out on their own, in the process.

Now don't panic [I almost typed "Don't panic Mr Mannering" as for some reason Dad's Army sprang to mind], I am not talking about making my eldest leave home at the grand old age of 13.

What I am talking about is the pigeon. In fact what has happened since 4pm today has been so reminiscent of a scene from Dad's Army that has been strangely combined with an episode of Faulty Towers, that it is no wonder the apt phrase sprang immediately to mind.

You see, I had decided that today was the day! Today the pigeon would fly free! So after a quick examination, I released it into the garden. Where it proceeded to sit on the grass and regard me as if I was insane [it may have a point there, granted].

Unlike every other bird I have rescued and rehabilitated, this one did not want to leave! So I went indoors and watched it through the window.

It wasn't long before next door's cat had realised something unusual was afoot. Stealthily, it wound it's sleek, black, lithe body along the fence, watching the pigeon with beady eyes. The pigeon flapped its wings, fluttered and failed to fly off. It seemed that its flight feathers were not quite long enough.

Now normally I would have waited till they were equal in length to the ones on the other side but recently the bird seemed eager for the off, so I took it at its word, as it were. But clearly it could not gain momentum or enough height to scarper quick-smart. 

Well what's a girl to do? I couldn't let the cat have Fluffy [yes, I know, stupid name for a bird] for its tea. I hadn't looked after it for nearly three months just to fatten it up for the cat...

So there I was, chasing the cat off and racing round the garden in my crocs playing catch the pigeon, whilst the dogs watched me from the conservatory, huge grins on their faces, wondering what the game was and why they couldn't join in...

I tore around the garden, heart thudding in my chest, talking to this bird and telling it that it would just need to stay a little longer, for it's own sake. Luckily it listened and believed me and was easily caught once more. If anything, it seemed relieved when I deposited it back in its cage!

So if you are reading this and wondering if I am completely crazy, I have to tell you that sometimes, in the very darkest hour of the night, I wonder that too!

Anyway, for now the pigeon is back in its cage...let's hope the next time brings success ! If not, I may well be signing its name under all of ours on the Christmas card list this year....

WARNING!!!

Oh! Another section of The Owners, Volume V has just downloaded into my brain from wherever it is created, deep in my subconscious...

There are some nasty surprises in store...ones which leave a foul taste in the mouth and a quickening beat to the heart.

Watch out, the Owners Volume V is coming soon!

Thanks!

 

How lovely to be told by one of my best friends and also her young son, that they had both loved my books. Thank you to Mary Hilton and also Ryan Hilton. xxx

Burials!

The procession moved slowly forward until it reached the open graves. Each body was supported by three men, one at each shoulder and one carrying the feet. The pomp and ceremony that had marked traditional burials in the old world was gone but there was an increased feeling of dignity which surprised her.

Perhaps because their hands made direct contact with the body, rather than a wooden casket in which it was housed, the men were softer in their approach and more tender with their charges.

Using ropes strung over the open holes, the bodies were lowered one at a time into the receiving earth.

crying again

YES MORE CRYING.....

Here is the latest bit of The Owners, Volume V. I have removed the name so as not to spoil the plot...:)

**** placed her hands on her husband’s cold lifeless cheeks. His eyes were closed and there was such a peaceful look on his face that if she had not known better, Georgia would have thought that he merely reposed in slumber. But this slumber was to be an everlasting one.
Lowering her head, **** kissed him goodbye.
“Remember ****, from my heart to yours, this life and the next, nothing shall separate us in spirit. Look out for me ****. When my time comes I will be with you again.”

I have got to stop crying!

I have just written chapter seventeen, where one of my most beloved characters dies and I am heart broken. I didn't want him to die and I even tried to resuscitate him but his death was central to the plot and unavoidable.

And so I am grieving.

Unfortunately  this is not the only time in the past week I have cried. I watched the film District 9 the other night and it had me in floods of tears as well!

So now I have to add that to the list of film I can't watch without having a blubber. Here are my top ten...and in no particular order.

1. King Kong - I LOVE that hairy beast!
2. Truly, madly, deeply - the actors are so real and it gets me every time,
3. Dirty Dancing - I figure that's a kind of odd one here, but I cry!
4. District 9 - obviously!
5. Ghost - there's a definite Patrick Swayze theme here [ahem!]
6. The Lion King - yes I do know it's animation but when the daddy lion holds the cub up....
7. The notebook - oh my God I cried from start to end
8. I am legend - just because he is so alone [and the dog dies]
9. Schindler's list - they almost had to remove me from the cinema
 and finally,
10. Up - another animation which my children did not entirely understand in all its subtleties but I did.

There are of course many, many others, some of which have yet to be written.

But the hardest of all are the ones you write for yourself...

Have a great weekend and do something fun. I sure hope to.

Work? Or Play?

You know the saying about all work and no play making Jack a dull boy? Well today I took heed of it...

I love writing...not so much the actual doing of it but the result at the end of a morning, when I have filled previously blank pages with lines of text.

But not today. Today I took a day off and did something completely different. And I feel so much better for it.

So, now that I have had a little break and a little 'me' time, rest assured I will be right back on track asap.

The Owners, Volume V: Eyon Rising is coming soon...

TA DAH!

Right I am now officially past the halfway point. My head is splitting with an intense headache...do other writers have headaches when they write? I don't know.

If you are a writer, please let me know if you suffer for your art too. [Starving in an garret is of course optional, however I do sleep in the loft. Does that count?]

But I have composed ten pages in 4 hours so at least its productive!

Another day, another dollar...

Here is the very latest from Volume V of The Owners


“I aint’ gonna hurt you little fella. And I’m gonna’ make sure no one else tries to either!” he said over the lump in his throat.

Hesitantly, the creature shuffled in Aaron’s lap, plumping up its feathers and ruffling them as if preparing for something. Seth thought he saw something flicker in its eyes…as if some understanding of his words, or at least the meaning contained within them, had been recognised and accepted. Wings slightly hunched and shoulders tensed, the creature fluttered into Seth’s arms and settled there.

The Owners Volume V : Eyon Rising

Every lamp in the room was aglow but rather than the room be filled with light, so that all shadows were banished, the combined effect of light from so many different sources, seemed to make the shadows even more prolific and pronounced than they ought to have been.

Strange caricatures seemed to leap around the walls, stolen shadows of the people who stood so close but almost unmoving. It was almost as if the shadows had developed a life of their own, independent and separate from both the people who cast them and each other.

A trick of the combined lights, the dancing gloomy shapes made her feel quite unreal as though they sucked the life from her to use for their own devilish desires.

The Owners, Volume V: Eyon Rising

Well this book is coming along well and I am spurred on by my eldest son, who has just read Volume IV and can't wait to get to this one. But all good things take time...

Anyway, here is today's offering - I hope you enjoy it!

At once outside the scene and also within it, playing her own part, Georgia saw the fragility of the intertwined lives. As if they were all miniature characters, contained within a snowdome, their world only appeared solid from their perspective. From the outside in, she could see that if dropped, the scene would shatter into a thousand pieces, none of which could ever be put back together but which equally could not survive alone.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

    Do you ever get a glimpse of yourself in a mirror and not recognise yourself? I do it rather a lot. And yet the funny thing is, when I finally recognise myself, I never really know what it was that I expected to see there in the first place, reflected back at me.
    Do I think I am taller/shorter/thinner/fatter/blonder/greyer...[take your pick!] than I really am? I don't think so...but there is certainly something.
    I remember once asking my grandmother how she felt. It was her 90th birthday and we were all out celebrating at the local pub with her.
    She looked me clear in the eyes and in the voice of an excited schoolgirl declared, "do you know why I am here? It is my birthday. I am 44 years old today!"
   That tale still strikes me as both funny and infinitely sad. Sometimes lucid and sometimes not, I was glad that at least she was having a good time and perhaps it was more fun for her to think of herself as 44 rather than 90!
    But it was the loss of the memories of a life lived that saddened me. Trials and tribulations were lost just as surely as the joys and unfettered jubilation that those years undoubtedly rolled out in perhaps equal measures.
   And yet in a small part I feel that myself. I look out on the world with eyes that are as curious and wondrous as they were when I was a teenager and inside my head I don't feel any older...
   Perhaps it is this which catches me out when I pass a mirror. The next time I do, before I step in front of its critical gaze, I shall repeat the litany, "I am 46 and will look 46, I am 46...."
   Maybe then I won't get such a shock. ;)

Signing Event This Weekend

Here I am again, fingers poised on keys and head filled with the voices and situations of my characters but my mind is already on this Saturday.

If you fancy coming along to the Author's Fair on Saturday in Worcester, you can get your hands on signed copies of my books. Of course there will be other authors there, showcasing their work but I know who you really want... :)

Here is today's little peek...

“These might be no more than kids, messing around and angry at what went down earlier…” he cautioned. It was dark and these people were afraid, both for their families and also for their livelihood. Terrible things could be perpetrated in the dark when people were most afraid, he knew.

I have upset myself...

I have just had to write one of the most emotional chapters I have ever written and found myself in floods of tears, makeup streaked down my face, eyes red and nose running. Not attractive, I know!

But characters I have written are no less real to me, just because they take every breath and spend every waking moment on paper and are confined to the story they are written for. And some characters affect me more than others. I would imagine this is true for most writers.

Here's a little bit of the latest chapter.


    “Hush now Gemma,” Katie, patted the soft fur on the top of the animal’s head. And for one strange moment, one moment where time seemed to stand still and reality be caught in a vortex that she could neither see nor hear, but feel…it was not Gemma’s soft downy fur that was smoothed under her palm, instead it was soft but coarser hair, longer and shaggier and thicker.
    Katie closed her eyes and felt once more the velvet flank of
Roxie’s long muzzle, the arch of her forehead and the sweet spot behind the dog’s ears. Tears flowed unchecked and she wept for the loss of a dog that had been her companion, her friend and her very soul, for so long.

Now you know what I look like and can put a face to my words.

I have just had my sales reports for the first half of the year come through. :)

Glad you are all working your way through the series...happy reading and don't stress, Volume IV will be out soon and I'm already part way through Volume V.

What made me, me?

I am  watching Lonesome Dove and my heart is breaking just as much as it did when I was a child and I watched it first time around. The characters are so well drawn and portrayed but there is something more, that make this compelling viewing ...there is that emphasis on the Human Condition...that thing, that makes people tick!

I so want my heroes to meet their challenges and overcome their obstacles...I so want them to survive!

And I believe that there are real lessons to be learned from this seemingly facile tv programme...

Like for every act there is a consequence and every action provokes a reaction...

Mankind has always scared me. In fact the second syllable in the word itself, has always seemed to me, to be the very antipathy of what our sad species is all about... being kind.

We speak the words but do not carry out the deeds and believe me I am as guilty of this as the next person.

Please, please can we try a little harder to be kind to each other?

Because if we don't, there might just be no turning back! x

 

Emergency! Emergency!

There is now an emergency meeting being called over the UKs extreme weather conditions...I hate to say it but perhaps they ought to read The Owners, especially volume II : Storm Clouds!

Only a suggestion, mind!!!

I am beginning to think I may be a harbinger of doom!!!

Sex Education. Please!

I have just had a really funny conversation with my children who are 8, 10 and 13 respectively. They are all receiving sex education at school as per the National Curriculum and as a sensible, forward-thinking mother, I encourage them to discuss anything which concerns them, or which they feel may need more clarification.

It was for this reason that the following conversation took place.

Daughter : "Why would a boy want to have sex with you if he is having a baby with someone else? 'Cos he's already having a baby!"

Me : "It's not the baby that interests him!"

Daughter "OH!"

Eldest son : "Yes and anyway you don't want to have sex with anyone 'cos then you can get STDs and catch HERMES!"

Me : "Actually no! Hermes is a company who deliver parcels...I think you'll find you mean HERPES!"

Enough said!

Now you may be wondering why I am sharing this funny anecdote with you. So I shall tell you - Britain has one of the highest teenage sex rates and highest unwanted pregnancy rates worldwide. It is neither fashionable nor acceptable but it is true.

So talk with your kids and find out where they are at ...you might just live to NOT regret it.  And you might even learn where unwanted parcels come from... x