New reads in nail-biting times

Oh I enjoyed that sun while it lasted! :) We took three of my five children to Stratford upon Avon and had a marvellous afternoon, playing crazy golf, feeding ducks and geese, eating ice cream and chips.And a quick look around the bookshops. It was so good to get out and about and be dry :)

I bought this book:

Now if I'm perfectly honest this isn't my usual choice of read. I tend to go down the "literary" road, most of the time. But every now and then I want to read something just for the fun of it, to be entertained, and to relax. "Holiday" reading I suppose you could call it. I'm so looking forward to reading this. The cover is cute don't you think? And I'm not a snob when it comes to writing. Now that I've written a novel myself, I understand the effort involved. All writing takes a great deal of effort and hard work, regardless of the style :)

Oh, and another reason for choosing this particular book is that a certain agent is mentioned in the acknowledgements ...! 

My novel has been submitted to publishers. I'm trying not to think about it too much but of course I keep wondering if anybody will like it ... I hope they do :) I'm a tad nervous, naturally. But as I keep telling myself, if I don't get anywhere, I won't be any worse off, I have had a great experience writing this story and I now have a whole load of skills to take on to my next story, which is bubbling away in my head and my notebook. No worries! 

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Update

Silly me, just reading through my recent posts and I've noticed I've managed to leave out the Best Bit?!?!

I now have a literary agent. I'm so pleased and excited :) I've signed up with Hannah Ferguson from The Marsh Agency, who is a very nice person and I'm sure has sparklingly good taste in literature ; )

Now I just need to hope the novel is up to scratch and publishers like it. It's getting a bit scary now friends.

write-strong.com

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What's it about?

People keep asking me that question about my novel. I don't know how to answer it and if I'm honest I don't want to answer it. Is that normal fellow writers? 

"Well ... it's about  a woman, well, two women actually. Turns out that they're grandmother and grand daughter. It's a bit of a love story. There's a bit of war stuff. It's about motherhood and babies. Be warned, there's a sex scene. You can skip that bit." (The sex scene thing possibly needs a post of its own!).

I can't help but feel my half-hearted attempt at distilling my WIP into a sentence or two sounds so dull and boring. So please don't ask me "what's it about" because I don't know how to answer :)

Found this lovely bag in the Blue Cross charity shop:

   

I have  a red corduroy coat and I thought this would go well with it. I feel the urge to jazz it up a bit with a charm or a corsage. It's been a while since I've sewn anything. 

What are you reading at the moment? I'm currently re-reading The Great Gatsby, then I have these three lined up next: 

Look fabulous don't they?

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Novel extract ... just testing

Below is an extract from the story I've been working on over the last couple of years, if you get a chance to read it please tell me what you think, positive or negative, it's all useful :) This is from page 23, chapter 2 of the story, and my protagonist is expecting her first baby. It's January 1939, and war is looming ... I wanted to get across the sense of hope and optimism and the creative urge you can feel when in the second trimester of pregnancy, and that sense of switching off from the world and becoming very "internal"

The novel is called Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase.

While in town she also bought fabric and wool, she refreshed her stocks of threads and needles. Now was the time to make. Five months pregnant, and the talk of impending war was, to her, oblique and insubstantial like the first wash a water-colour artist applies to the naked canvas. War was obscure, it was obscured, and maybe it was happening a long way off, and maybe it was not even happening at all. She was pregnant, she no longer felt sick, and she had her energy back. This was all she knew. The baby would need cardigans, gowns, jackets, bootees, blankets, shawls. The baby would need a happy glowing mother, a capable and creative and provident mother.

      The suitcase slid perfectly under the bed, and Dorothy set to work on filling it straight away. Within a few delirious weeks she had two gowns in a soft cotton lawn, three knitted matinee jackets with hats and bootees to match, a knitted blanket in soft pale green lamb’s wool, and a white Christening robe. She showed nobody the fruits of her labours, not even Albert, who was aware of the industrious clicking knitting needles, Dorothy’s frowns and sighs and occasional exasperations, the satisfied smiles when the work was going well, as she sewed and knitted in near silence, each evening by the light of her oil lamp, while he read the day’s newspaper and told her about the war that he said was certainly coming. She barely listened, so involved was she in the impending birth, the motherhood that was within her grasp at last. Each indulgent stitch brought her closer to that moment, that new and mysterious state of being. Each stitch confirmed the reality of the baby in her womb. Each stitch brought her closer to the day she would leave behind, at last and forever, irrevocably, her girlhood. Every hope she ever had was invested in every stitch, in every click of the needles, in every pinprick to her fingers. The mother-to-be was satiated with life and vigour.

My Space

A few updated shots of the summerhouse which I have blogged about before. This is how it looks now! Not wildly different but changing bit by bit, as rooms do.

I now have an old Singer sewing machine in here! haven't used it yet but it makes a great extra worktop

Two old pieces of furniture, bureau belonged to my parents, they gave it to me ages ago, and the chest of drawers was given to us recently by Ian's mum

My little shelf unit with buttons, beads, candles, Sindys ... all those essential items

Easy chair in the corner, in fact a car seat covered in a knitted blanket my grandmother made for me. It's actually a very comfy seat

In this room I craft and write, more writing than crafting in recent times. Ian and I also sit out in here some evenings, will do so more as the summer comes on.

I went to see a lit agent last week! On Wednesday. It went very well, I think! But I was nervous. It was fabulous to be in London again, I always forget how "happening" London is, so much to do. I negotiated the tube with no problems and I found the agency offices with no hitches. Don't want to jinx anything so not saying too much about what was discussed but I came away feeling like I was in a dream. A bit of pressure too to write well and keep writing and actually start having my work shown to prospective editors. Scary stuff. I've been working hard since Wednesday to get my novel polished and edited to the best of my ability. Wish me luck Chaps!! Oh, and I now have 80,000 words which is more of an acceptable length I think :)

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Gifts and News

Hehe, my heading sounds like a tacky newsagent's name doesn't it?

I had lovely things for Mothers' day from my children - handmade cards, a seed in a pot which will be a surprise when it grows, a bunch of tulips, and a pink hyacinth plant that smells divine. Love that rich scent :)

And I got these too, from my one and only daughter - she knows me so well!

French fashion newspapers, one from 1925 and one from 1934. They are fascinating! And 3 vintage postcards, lovely.

Gorgeous pictures!

That's the Gifts, here's the News: I am going to meet a literary agent next week! Eek. It's just for a chat so I'm not getting over excited, well, trying not to, so we'll see how it goes. I am trying to figure out what to wear! I'll fret about that until I know what the weather will be doing.

Hope everyone is getting the sunshine today, it's lovely out of the chilly wind.

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World Book Day

It's March, woo hoo!! And World Book Day. I love World Book Day, a chance to really celebrate The Book. I was just on Twitter asking what was the first book for grown-ups that you read and loved? Mine was Jane Eyre. I was totally wowed by it! And still am. I'm in love with Mr Rochester and always will be. X. And Jane is such a strong personality, and a fabulous narrator. I read it every now and then, and never tire of it.

  

What are you currently reading? I'm on The Collected Short Stories of Eudora Welty. Really enjoying them too :)

That's it for now, no news yet on my Consultancy report and no word yet from the lit agent either.  Trying not to think too much about either of them, these things take time. And I'm not exactly twiddling my thumbs.

Enjoy the sunshine

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