APRIL - AN A-Z SUMMARY

I wasn’t going to enter the A-Z Challenge this year and did so at the last minute. My experience was like the Curate’s Egg – quite good in parts - there were definitely times when I wished I hadn’t succumbed! I am in the middle of a major rewrite of a novel, and having to put that aside every day to compose a blog slowed the work down considerably, but I try to finish what I’ve started, so I made it through to the end.

Last year I was relatively new to blogging and the thought of hundreds of other blogs to peruse drew me in. I found many interesting ones, some of which I still follow, and collected some more followers of my own.

The same happened this year - the number of comments on my own blog doubled and there were some kind remarks about my excerpts from my book. Real comments I welcomed, but not those that just said “Hi – come on over to my blog" - not very subtle!

Speaking of comments, here are a few of my own.

Firstly I must say I don’t know how the organisers manage to stay sane. Approaching 2000 entrants to read and sift and weed through – they must have spent all day every day at their screens. I only managed to visit between six and ten blogs per day.

I was particularly interested in blogs by my fellow forum members, Liz Brownlee’s drawings and poems are always a delight, and there were a couple of serials I followed. I also did my own lucky dip by scrolling down the list and clicking indiscriminately. I found some great blogs that way, including some lovely artistic and photographic ones, and tried to comment every time although sometimes it was difficult to see how. I hope the list stays open long enough to dip into at greater leisure.

But many blogs were still far too long – if I have to scroll down the page for ages I stop reading. Others were in very small and/or faint fonts – I gave up quickly on those as well, which was a shame because they might have been interesting. Am I the only person on-line with poor eyesight?

So in conclusion, as we used to write in school essays – well done to Arlee Bird and the other bosses, and to my fellow bloggers, and of course to me for getting there!

MAPS. MARIA & MONKEYS

MAP ONE.

Having decided to set my novel in North Kent I had to pick a town, but when I couldn’t find one that exactly matched my criteria I invented one …Oh the giddy power of being a writer!

Thambay is situated near Whitstable, and I have taken liberties with the local geology to build it in a bay capable of sheltering a long beach, a fishing harbour and the all-important pier on which stands the Helter-Skelter of my novel.

Then I had to draw a map – I couldn’t have Albie running across the Market Square on the way to the timber yard if that was the wrong way, could I? So here it is – the town Albie grew up in – and it feels so real to me that I’d move there myself if I could!

MARIA

.....Albie wheeled his bike into some woods to shelter under one of the big old trees. He had just pulled the wax packet of sandwiches out of his pocket when he smelled smoke, and his heart pounded inexplicably. Leaving his bike, he pushed his way through the wet tangle of undergrowth to emerge, with startling suddenness, in a clearing full of gypsy wagons………..One face in particular caught his eye…….. she was only a young girl – maybe fifteen or sixteen – but more beautiful than any of the girls in town, and those black eyes were casting a spell on him.

This is Albie’s first sight of Maria, and when she returns his love he is overjoyed. But to marry Maria and travel with her tribe would mean leaving Thambay where George, his ageing adopted father, wants him to take over the Helter-Skelter. Albie faces a difficult decision – until Fate takes a hand.

For your daily dose of Tenerife here is MAP TWO, of a MONKEY ZOO  near us.It’s not nearly as grand as the Loro Parque in the north - to be honest it's a bit scruffy - but the animals and birds do have room to move and you are allowed inside some of the cages. This entranced my grandsons – the tiny MARMOSETS and Lemurs took fruit from their hands and they stroked a giant turtle. My son had a long conversation with a chimp, and when the chimp eventually had enough he sprayed John with a mouthful of water. I wish I’d caught that moment on camera!

These two monkeys where photographed by my daughter-in-law in Costa Rica – sitting in your drinking-water is a wonderful way to keep cool!

LUKE, LABELS & LANGUAGE

LUKE FINCH is only seven when we first meet him in my novel Helter-Skelter. He is the brother of Bessie, the girl I mentioned yesterday who was scathing about Dot Smith’s kitchen.

Luke is a typical little boy, who lives half in the real world of Pinetree Farm and half in fantasy land, where he can be Charles LINDBERG flying solo across the Channel, or a racing driver breaking the world speed record. He is an Indian Scout when he tracks his sister and witnesses something that enables him to save his hero Albie from her machinations.

I was seven when my brother Luke was born. He was a doctor when he died 34 years later in a plane crash in Africa. I remember that Luke, of course, but I also remember him as a little blond boy, just like Luke Finch.

LABELS ARE LIMITING. What exactly does LITERARY mean in the writing world? We’re advised to check out an agent before submitting, and the word literary has always puzzled me.

Last year I completed a book about a young LABOURER who rescues an abused boy, and how that Strange Adoption changes both their LIVES. A professional critic called it “part psychological thriller, part a story of human growth.” If I can’t fit it into a category, how can I pitch it to an agent?

LANGUAGES. When we arrived here to live we had to learn Spanish quickly, because we were buying our apartment privately from a couple who spoke no English. If we were meeting Juan and Carmen to discuss our purchase I would write it all down in advance so I could read them my notes if we got stuck.

It was a tense time, renting in Las Galletas and knowing we’d shot our bolt financially if it all went wrong. I bought a set of flash-cards that reminded me of teaching my son to read, and we tested each other in the evenings. 

Ayuntamiento was our first long word – it means Town Hall, where we had to go for some of our paperwork - ( it also means sexual intercourse, according to my dictionary!) Many words have two or more meanings, and often only an accent differentiates between them. The OH learned the hard way to say “Feliz Año” – Happy New Year – with the ñ as in España. Without the accent, ano means arse! 

Aren't languages fascinating?

..... and for your LAST photo of the week, this is a LANTANA. They come in various colours, of which this is the most common here. When my daughter came to live in Tenerife 20 years ago, the first cutting I took home was a lantana, which flourished in my English garden, even through snow.

INSPIRATION, IDEAS & ICE-CREAMS

  INSPIRATION – A few years ago I wrote a short story about two people in their sixties. My characters meet at a fairground, and are mature enough to see past the differences in their backgrounds to fall in love.
Then I began to wonder about the man’s former life, as you do, and started writing Helter-Skelter. The trouble is, I went back to his boyhood, and taking him all the way to sixty would have made the book too long, so after this novel there’s a sequel!

IDEAS It’s odd what triggers a story. The first novel I wrote was inspired by the strange and wonderful rock formations on Tenerife, and the variety of rock colours.

A small book I wrote for my grandsons grew out of a drawing I did of their garden. Yet there are others that pop out of the ether seemingly at random, leaving me to wonder, “Where did that idea come from?”

ITALIAN ICE-CREAMS - I borrowed two children today so their parents could have a quiet couple of hours and I could be Nanny Liz for a while. We walked along the beach and had Italian ices. Mine was yogurt and mango, the six-year-old chose vanilla, and the three-year-old had – yes, you’ve guessed it - chocolate. They wanted to sit on the sea wall and the sun melted the ices quicker than they could eat. Quite a lot of the chocolate ended up on the wall.
When we went to throw a fist-full of wet wipes in the bin an elderly woman smiled indulgently; “The little one enjoyed her chocolate, didn’t she?” We had made her day!

HELTER-SKELTER & HORSES

   HELTER-SKELTER Anyone who has followed my A-Z blog from the beginning must have guessed this would be my H-word.
It is Albie’s fascination with the helter-skelter on the pier that first brings him to the attention of George, the owner. The ride influences the whole of Albie’s young life, and even in the midst of war the memory comforts him.

HORSES This is another thread that runs through the entire book. Gypsies have always been horse-traders, and Albie’s affinity with horses strengthens his belief that he might have gypsy blood.

And for your little taste of Tenerife, here is a photo of the HOOPOE that I sometimes see on my walks. Don't you just love his fancy HEAD-DRESS?

DUNKIRK

  DUNKIRK BEACHES, where Albie lies  half-conscious and dreaming about home in my novel Helter-Skelter, are described exhaustively by historians, which made my job of writing about them easy.

After that introductory chapter, my novel takes you back 15 years to the time Albie is remembering, and the story moves inevitably back to Dunkirk.

DIARIES  It is early in 1940 when Albie and his pal Bert cross the Channel as soldiers, but there is a dearth of information about those first months of World War 2. You can imagine my delight on discovering diaries on-line – real accounts written by actual soldiers about what happened to them. There was even a touch of humour here and there, and true incidents which I could adapt and work into Albie’s story.

The moral? Follow every thread, however tenuous – you never know when it might lead to treasure.

CORPORAL

CLOUDS covered Mount Teide went I went for my morning walk – not surprising after that wild windy night. I'm a tad weary today, too - when leaves the size of a man’s hand CLASH together they tend to wake me up! 

But I must stick with my blog theme – my novel Helter-Skelter, which I am re-writing this month alongside the A-Z challenge.

CORPORAL Albert Smith and the pitiful remains of his squad were heading for the coast, a scant hour ahead of the enemy, when Albie, from his seat in the cab beside Private Thompson, saw the helter-skelter. 

It was far off to the right, blackened and smoking rather than clean red and white stripes, but the truncated-cone shape was unmistakable. He clutched Thompson’s arm; “Tommy! Look at that – I don’t bloody believe it!”

 These are the opening lines of H-S. It is 1940, and the British Army is racing to reach Dunkirk before the Germans. Chapter two returns to 1925 and follows Albie growing up - I will give you more snippets of his story as we go along.

BERT

As I blog through the Alphabet this month, I shall also be working on what I hope will be the final draft of my novel Helter-Skelter and I shall give you more snippets of Albie's story as we go along. Do stay with me!

BERT – is Albie’s best friend. When they meet for the first time in the school playground they soon discover they have more in common than their shared name. For a start, both of their heads have been shaved to get rid of nits, and when Bert begs one of Albie’s sandwiches he reveals that he too is no stranger to hunger. The bond forged that day in 1925 is to last them a lifetime.

ALBIE

  This is the first of 26 posts this month, each one starting with a letter of the alphabet. There will be many exhausted bloggers at the end of April blaming Arlee Bird who started it all three years ago. – see his blog http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/ 

Read more blogs here:

   http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

ALBERT is a popular name in the early 20^th century, which is the time-setting for my novel Helter-Skelter. 

ALBIE, my main character, is only twelve when his mother turfs him out to fend for himself in the seaside town in North Kent where he was born.

As I blog through the Alphabet this month, I shall also be working on what I hope will be the final draft of Albie’s story, and I plan to give you more snippets of information from the novel as we go along. I hope you stay with me, and if you're a new visitor to my blog, I am this delighted to meet you.

A-Z CHALLENGE 2013

I’ve given in – I’m going to do it, starting tomorrow.

For those who don’t know, this is a challenge that hundreds of bloggers put themselves through each year – to blog every day bar Sundays throughout April using the letters of the alphabet as a guide. When I added my name to the list I was number 1559, so people who start at the top won't reach me!

My posts will be short, though not necessarily sweet, and my theme will be my current obsession -  the re-write of my novel Helter-Skelter – so you will have to bear with me.

And I love comments if they come with your name!