Rhys is thinking ahead: What Next?

 RHYS BOWEN: First a little show and tell: we arrived back from Arizona to find that the ARCs of this year’s book had arrived. Isn’t the cover fantastic?

I am currently in the throes of writing my next stand alone, currently titled THE NAMING OF THE BIRDS. 

When I am writing a book my thoughts keep drifting ahead to the next book I want to write.

This is especially true of the stand alone novels which are in such different times and places. I like to get a jump on the research in the months ahead of when I start to write so that I come to the project fully armed with the knowledge that I need and can also have a chance to revisit any place that might show up in the book.

My big problem is that I have far too many ideas. I could keep writing a book a year for the rest of my life and still leave a lot of stories unwritten. I keep a short list and when I’m about to decide which one to tackle next I come up with another, quite different, idea.

So I wanted to run some questions past you, my readers.

I have future book ideas set in very different locations:

1.Which would you choose to read:

Lake Como after WW2?

Australia in the early days of the colony?

Paris after WW1? (including a young woman who designs the first bras)

The Hippie overland bus to India in the 1960s?

The island of Jersey, a family saga over many years including WWII?

2. What attracts you to a book?

An older heroine?

A young heroine with some romance?

A mystery must be included?

Staying away from war stories?

3. What are some settings/locations you would always want to read about? And some you’d never read about?

I can see from the success of Mrs. Endicott that readers like the older heroine/female bonding part of the story.

I can see from the sales that the Tuscan Child and the Venice Sketchbook are my bestsellers. So Tuscany and Venice attract people. Why is that? Why does Vienna not hold the same pull as Venice? And what about Scotland, which is where this year’s book is set? Why is it popular ( at least I hope it's popular!) Where else?

I’d love to get your feedback. I don’t ever want to write about a place or a subject because it is IN, but I’d like to see which of my ideas immediately sparks interest with readers.

So do share your thoughts.

In Which Hank Hijacks What We're Writing Week for a Very Good Reason

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I know it's What We're Writing Week, and I am writing like mad, and getting ready to launch MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER --lookit that cover! (And we are still tweaking the final.) And you know you will hear all about that when the time comes.

But today I am turning over my day to our dear backblogger Diana. Because her post is--as we say--time-sensitive, because today is the only day this could be posted!

If you remember, she had mentioned in the comments one day recently that Deaf Awareness Week was coming up starting May 4 (although we celebrate that every day at JRW) and that April is Deaf History Month, and she asked whether we'd be doing a blog about it. Such a good idea! And I asked her to email me. Which she did, and turns out, her post was perfectly perfect, and especially perfect for today. 

As a result, I am delighted to turn the floor over to the amazing Diana.  (Here's her photo, too! Such fun to see!)

DIANA: Tuesday 21 April marks the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth. Queen Elizabeth II was born on 21 April 1926 to the Duchess of York and the Duke of York in London, England. The late Queen has several connections to Deaf history. 

 Her father, Bertie’s grandmother Queen Alexandra was congenitally deaf. Another connection is Her Majesty’s mother in law.

Princess Alice of Battenberg was born in February 1885 at Windsor Castle in England. No one noticed that Alice was deaf at first. 

 Once her family learned that she was deaf, to quote a relative who was interviewed in a documentary, they decided that they would not treat her any differently, meaning they expected her to follow the royal protocol. 

 Her family worried more about Alice’s deafness than Alice herself. Her siblings would converse with her without concessions. Princess Alice learned how to dance and play the piano. Despite her deafness, Princess Alice learned to lipread in several languages, including English and German. She also learned how to read and write. Her mother worked with her to develop her lipreading skills. 

 A relative remarked that “you had to be very careful what you said” because her lipreading skills were very good.

Princess Alice met Prince Andrew of Greece at the coronation of King Edward VII. They fell in love and got married in 1903. Their only son, Prince Philip, was born in 1921. Many years before Prince Philip met Princess Elizabeth, the heiress to the British throne, his parents Princess Alice of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece visited the Duchess and the Duke of York and the new baby, Elizabeth. Princess Alice was also known as Princess Andrew of Greece. 

 During the Second World War, she used her deafness to her advantage when she was sheltering a Jewish family from the Nazis. By the time her daughter in law became the Queen, she became a nun. At the 1953 coronation, she was wearing a grey nun’s habit. She spent the last few years of her life, living at Buckingham Palace. Princess Alice of Battenberg was a private person. 

 She is well known to the British Deaf community, who shared wonderful stories about her with me.

In addition to the late Queen’s birthday month, April is also Deaf History month. There is a book about the Princess written by Hugo Vickers, who also published a new book about the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers can be ordered from bookshop.org, Apple Books online (ebooks) or your local booksellers.

Hank: SO fascinating! And Diana has two questions for you, Reds and Readers.  Answer as you will!

Question one: Reds and Readers, did you surprise yourself by doing something that you thought you were not able to do?


Or question two: Reds and Readers, do you enjoy reading about history? Fictional History, Romantic History or Scholarly History? Or do you have a favorite story about a favorite historical character?

More info:

Bookshop link:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/alice-princess-andrew-of-greece-hugo-vickers/fd712f8743251138?ean=9780312302399&next=t

Queen Elizabeth II. By Hugo Vickers can be ordered from Blackwell’s at this link:

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Queen-Elizabeth-II-by-Hugo-Vickers/9781529355178

 

You can't make this stuff up...

HALLIE EPHRON: Kicking off What we're writing week...

When I read aspiring writers' stories, I often encounter the up-to-now plucky strong investigator who runs pell-mell into a burning building. Why? Because the author needs her to run into that building because a big fat CLUE (or victim) is waiting just inside.

Never mind that no one in their right mind runs into a burning building (certainly not a smart, plucky sleuth/protagonist). Sane people call 911. (Unless they know there's a mama dog nesting in one of the bedroom closets and giving birth to a brood of puppies (see my novel "There Was an Old Woman" in which two characters, decades apart run into two different burning buildings... and live to tell about it.))

I get a lot of wonderful ideas from the news. Stuff that would be hard to make up because people (in real life) do the most outrageous things that would never pass muster in a work of fiction.

Just this week, for instance, there's the story of the enterprising folks who staged fake bear attacks on their luxury cars (think Rolls-Royce) in order to collect over $100K in insurance payouts.

The best part of this story is the HOW.

It involved a person getting into a bear suit (yes, bear suits are available on Amazon), climbing into a fancy car, and scraping away at the interior with sharp kitchen utensils leaving scratch marks. Then filing an insurance claim.

The mind boggles at that clever ways one could work this scenario in a mystery novel. (What do they find when they pop the trunk??) (What happens if the horn gets stuck blaring while the "bear" is at work) (What happens if (real) bears emerge from the surrounding wood...)

But, as my reviewers comments taught me, Reality is no excuse. For a plot point to work in a novel, it has to be credible. The characters' actions need to be believable.

Most authors know: Just because something really happened doesn't mean readers will swallow it.

Are there moments have you encountered in REAL LIFE that, if someone put it in a book, no one would believe?