A short post today as I am off on my holidays. We are going on a canal boat from Aldermaston to Hungerford. It will be our third canal boat trip and I can't wait - especially as it appears a heat wave is predicted. You never know, I might even get a bit more of the novel done, in between locks.
In writing news, this was a good week magazine publication wise, as I had two historical stories in The People's Friend Summer Special and a modern one in the weekly. I'm getting to like writing historicals more and more. I choose a subject, choose an era, do my research and then start to think up a story.
Other times, as with my story, The Snake Stone, set in Lyme Regis, it will be the illustration that I've been given that will start the creative juices flowing - how could I resist writing about this man created by one of my favourite illustrators, Andre Leonard.
If you are thinking of writing a historical story for The People's Friend magazine, it might be worth reading what fiction editor, Shirley Blair, says about getting facts right here... it appears that there are some very eagle-eyed readers out there!
It is often the more recent past, which people might have lived through, or places where readers have lived, that catch people out if the writer doesn't know the area well. To get around this, I will often create a fictional town in a real county. That way nobody can say, "There was never a Woolworths in Carpet Street in Lidbury."
I set my Quaker story, Finding the Light, in a fictional town. This is the beautiful illustration Ruth Blair did for it. The green checked waistcoat is just as I described (you see it's not just the writers who have to pay attention to detail).
Having said all this, I like to hope that a reader will forgive small errors of factual accuracy if they are enjoying the story enough!
My story, 'Speed Dating' in the weekly is, once again, slightly autobiographical. Not that I've speed dated! In fact the story isn't about speed dating at all, but about a woman who finds she has a two hour limit on everything she does - shopping, dinner parties... you name it. I am just the same and it amuses my friends greatly. Whatever I'm doing, I'm fine for up to around two hours and then that's it... I just want to be back home. Alone.
This, of course, will make the RNA conference that I'm going to in a couple of weekends time very interesting. I am really looking forward to it but how will two days test my two hour tolerance? I could well be the one dropping her glass slipper or turning into a pumpkin on the stroke of midnight...I'll let you know.
Now, though, after a post that wasn't so short after all, I'm off to pack my shorts as the Kennet and Avon canal is calling. When my husband and step-son miss me after two hours, they'll know where to find me.