Look and Listen

Biography

I have been writing for quite a while, but largely for myself and never possessed the courage to expose my work to public criticism. In a moment of creative madness, I submitted a short story I wrote to a critique group and there I met Lisa Yarde. A generous, lovely, lady with an old spirit who saw something in the story and encouraged me to work on it. She also suggested I submit my embryo novel to a Historical Critique Group she belonged to. I didn't like the sound of that at first, suppose the group hates it? I shall be so discouraged, I'll hurl it into a corner and never write again. But then, I rationalised, I no one would know it was me, so I applied to the group and my first submission attracted not only constructive criticism, but a lot of praise too. Far from wanting to discard it, I couldn't wait to get back to my laptop and implement some of the ideas and rules they gave me. The group moderator, Anne Whitfield, who is also a wonderful author herself, told me I had a good story, I just had to learn how to write it. Thus I ventured into the world of literary jargon where terms like PoV, active versus passive voice, gerunds, weaving backstory, how to avoid info dumps, dialogue tags, exposition, are bandied about amongst the initiated. Slowly, my manuscript went through an evolutionary process and Anne was right, the story is still there, but now benefits from some intensive polish. Now it reads like a proper novel! I learned so much from critiquing the work of the others in the group, all of whom submit a wide range of historical fiction from ancient civilisations to Regency England. I am convinced some of those novels will be published very soon - and I got to read them first!

Inspiration

Initially a painting in the National Portrait Gallery of James Scott, Duke of Monmouth set me to discovering more about his tragic life. My favourite authors are: Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Jean Plaidy, Michael Jecks, Anya Seton, Jane Austen, Anne Whitfield, Mirella Patzer, Lisa Yarde, Ginger Simpson,