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Jera's Jamboree: Join In National Stationery Week 25th April - 1 Ma...

Jera's Jamboree: Join In National Stationery Week 25th April - 1 Ma...: You know by now how much I love stationery and there's one week in the year when stationery addicts can really indulge themselves :) ...

THE NAME GAME

It's been a great week away.  The weather was obviously the icing on the cake, bearing in mind UK

summers are notoriously fickle.  Sometimes holidays simply feel they are going to be good right from the start and this was definitely one of them.  I know I do tend to bang on a lot about South Hams which is where Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Totnes and Salcombe are situated. Having said that it is
 a wonderful place to be, especially if the sun is out.  Years ago we actually kept a boat on the south coast of the UK and spent most weekends there, so water and boats have always been a magical combination for me. Now, it's all just a warm memory with a collection of photos to back those cerebral imprints up. When I got home and began to download I was amazed that I'd taken 180 photos.  Digital cameras have turned holiday photography completely on its head.  No more dropping off a film with your local processor then having your bubble burst when you get them back as the results show you weren't quite the David Bailey you thought you were. No, now it's great.  You can weed out the disasters, download onto the computer and even print your own photos if you want to.  A complete revolution.

Moving on, I had a lot of time over the last week to think about a main topic for today.  In the end I decided it would be interesting to talk about fictional names. A new writing project involves many component parts - the story, the setting and, of course, the players.  Not only do these individuals need to have a bio so we are familiar with their personalities and backgrounds, they also require names.  So what triggers the decision on what to call your characters?  It's not something I have ever discussed with fellow writers, but I guess like everything else to do with the writing process, it's all down to personal choice.  As for me, my first rule is to avoid names I do not personally like. I also try and avoid using the first names of people I actually know. That's probably because if I did I would be visualising that person instead of the character as I wrote, which would be both distracting and a little surreal! It's also important for me to use a name which sits well with each character and feels authentic. I have to say 99% of my choices work first time around but I do tend to keep an open mind because there might be an odd occasion when as soon as I start writing the character/name combination doesn't feel right and will need to be changed. 

In the Little Court series which was spread over five books, there were a huge array of names (a cast of thousands one of my friends once amusingly remarked) so attention to detail when drawing up a character list for each new book was very important to avoid any embarrassing duplication. As you can imagine, the farther I got into the series the bigger the headache became in finding suitable names! This was because not only did we have the central families who had expanded over the thirty year span of the books, there were also secondary characters both in the village and the two provincial towns which were the settings for the stories.  A Herculean task and one I'm not sure I want to repeat! 

I have made a decision that my saga series days are now definitely behind me. There was a certain easiness in writing about people you already knew in settings that were familiar, but that was then and this is now.  Time for a change and a new challenge. My current WIP, Summer Moved On, has a smaller cast and I've actually managed to find not only names I've not used before but ones which I think really do match their characters.  The most unusual is Talún which is Gaelic but then there does have to be something special about that central character you hope all your female readers will fall in love with doesn't there?

Enjoy your week, back next Sunday.

Jo

ON THE HOLIDAY TRAIL...

This is my last post before I pack for holiday.  The thought of going away for a whole week is a great feeling.  In fact I have to admit I do love holidays.  OK I know what you're all thinking.  I quit my job last year, I'm a self-employed writer so I'm my own boss. That means I'm no longer tied into a nine to five. If I don't feel like working on a particular day I don't have to and I can organise a lunch meet or a day shopping with friends any time I want. In a nutshell I'm director of my own destiny.  So that must mean my life is almost like a permanent holiday right? Well, yes in a way I guess that is true. However, with this new life comes a level of responsibility.  I do have a time plan but it's not as fixed as when I was working for someone else.  I do still have to work though.   Therefore what I term 'proper' holidays are still very special to me.  It's the ability to get away from all that the normal stuff and go somewhere completely different to chill out, relax and take in some new experiences.

Since I've been a published writer I've drawn on some of my travel destinations for settings. I've found it's much easier to write about somewhere you have actually visited as you can call up the sights and scenes you've experienced and make everything feel much more authentic. Dartmouth, where we're headed this coming Friday was featured in The Other Side of Morning but I've also used Italy in three of  my five books. The Ligurian Coast featured in Love Lies and Promises. Venice in Between Today and Yesterday and for The Other Side of Morning  Lake Garda.

We holidayed in Garda last September, returning to the Regina Adelaide where we'd had a wonderful vacation in 2001.  Because we loved the lake and all the towns there so much we had decided it was time for a return trip. Booking into the same hotel again there was a moment when we wondered whether we might be making a mistake.  Our twelve year absence meant both the hotel and resort were now a bit of an unknown quantity.  There was the worry that so much might have changed and not for the better.  What crazy people we were worrying!  We found Garda exactly the same; friendly people, beautiful flowers everywhere and that laid back continental atmosphere each evening in its bars with their live music. Trips to Riva, Sirmione and Salo didn't disappoint either. And as for the hotel, well there was the same warm welcome and excellent service. And there was an added bonus  because not only did we have a fantastic holiday, I also sorted out a seemingly impossible problem I had been having with my current WIP.


Hotel Regina Adelaide


I had been struggling start the final chapter of The Other Side of Morning but the more attempts I made the more it refused to come right.  At the very beginning of the chapter I had to bring Marco and two of the key characters together.  I had a few ideas about where they would meet but every time I attempted to write something, I wasn't happy with it and I ended up deleting everything I had written.  Had I been using paper I'm sure the office floor would have been overflowing with my failed attempts! With the holiday imminent and rapidly running out of patience, I decided to shelve the whole thing, contenting myself with the fact that I would be a lot fresher to do battle with it when I got back.




That Inspirational Place

Our first morning in Garda saw us walking to neighbouring Bardolino.  After a wander around and some shopping we stopped for a glass of wine outside one of the hotels. It was a beautiful morning and the four of us sat under a large canvas sun shade watching people passing by and the ferries coming and going.  All of a sudden it hit me that this could be the place to begin that last chapter with Marco sitting here drinking wine just like us. The scene  started to come together in my head and I managed to hold it there until we returned to the hotel. I quickly scribbled down my thoughts and on my return home began to write - and everything fell into place perfectly!




Toledo with the Alcazar on the city skyline

During the 1990s we spent a lot of time in Spain.  Our friends owned an apartment just outside Marbella and we had some really good holidays there. Some years we would use it as a base and travel inland for stopovers in places like Granada, Seville and Herez.  The apartment was sold in 1998 which coincided with a milestone birthday for all four of us.  To celebrate we decided on a Spanish road trip.  We booked a flight to Madrid, hired an MPV and arranged three two-night stopovers in Toledo, Caceres and Cordoba.  This would take up one week of a planned fortnight and then we would drive down to the coast where, for the final week, we had rented

Mesquita, Cordoba

a friend's house.  It was an amazing holiday.  Toledo with its narrow

Caceres and its storks

streets, swords and suits of armour - a place where El Cid was reputed to have captained the garrison.  Then on to medieval Caceres with its storks and their nests and finally Cordoba and the fabulous Mesquita and Palace of the Christian Kings.   All three places held something special for us, whether it was joining in with the fiesta which was going on in Toledo when we arrived, watching the eerie flight of the storks at night as they circled over Caceres or embracing Flamenco in Cordoba. This was the real Spain and absolute magic!


We last holidayed on the Costa Del Sol in 2003.  A joint wedding anniversary trip with friends.  We rented a villa just west of Calahonda, minutes from the beach.  We had a great time, toasted our skin, ate and drank far too much and made our usual pilgrimage up into the hills above Marbella to Benahavis - the place for great Spanish food and hospitality. There was a boutique hotel there - the Amanhavis -  each of its nine rooms themed to celebrate either a period of the country's history or a famous Spaniard.  The Galileo room had a large telescope and a glass ceiling so you could lie in bed and look at the stars! Checking on line today the hotel is still there and receiving good reviews - an average of 8.5 out of 10. So if anyone wants an off the beaten track stay at a hotel with a difference then that's the place to go.



Cabopino

It's always a little sad when a holiday comes to an end; you've had a good time but now it's time to leave and return to the real world. That Sunday morning we vacated the villa early and on our way to the airport stopped off in Cabopino.  If any of you remember the ill-fated British soap Eldorado, Cabopino was used for the marina scenes in the series.  We had coffee there and then wandered out onto the breakwater where several elderly Spanish men were fishing.  I remember looking back in land and all I could see were cranes and building work going on. I remembered 1991 when we first made this coast a holiday destination. It made me realise not only how fast the urbanisation had spread over those twelve years, but given the extent of the current activity, how much more there was to come.  It was then I decided this would probably be our last trip here.  I simply did not want to return to this kind of holiday environment.  For me it was far better to hold onto those memories of what a good place it had once been - before the building tsunami had taken hold.  Yes, we all agreed as we climbed back into the hire car, it was definitely time to seek out new holiday destinations.


 Since then we've been all over Europe, Greece and Italy being the favourites. We did actually return to Spain in 2010 to a place called Tamariu just up the coast from Barcelona.  It's a small quiet coastal village, favoured by Spanish holidaymakers - in fact while we were there we hardly heard a British accent. It was early July and we arrived during the time the last matches were being played in the World Cup; evenings when the bars were full with enthusiastic locals watching on wide screen televisions.  We were eating out in a beach restaurant

Tamariu

the night Spain won.  The atmosphere was electric and the partying went on well into the early hours.

So now I'm  back in the present quietly sorting out what to pack and crossing fingers for some decent weather. Nothing, of course, is guaranteed in the UK.  We might hit a heat wave or we could well spend the week trudging around in wet weather gear, who knows? Whether it rains or shines though I'll be back with you all in a fortnight.


Jo




 

LOST IN WONDERLAND...AGAIN

So here I am a day behind schedule (yet again!).  There is so much of Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit in me lately, lost somewhere in Wonderland with a tendency to be playing catch up all the time especially where blogging is concerned.



So what's my excuse?  Well the reason for the delay has been a good one.  My latest book had been going so well last week that yesterday with the words still flowing I simply could not stop -when the muse is with you, you simply have to stay with it!  This is my sixth book and I have to say probably the most enjoyable I have written.  Maybe that's because it's a fresh project.  The other five were a series all linked to the same family. However, it's also got a lot to do with the way this current plot has come together  - like it's meant to be.  It's had the feel good factor since I first started typing and that has never left me.  I'm also loving these new characters I've created and this early on in the book that's unusual too.

Write about what you know the advice goes so my stories have always had their roots in village life.  Having grown up in one it's familiar territory, not only from a landscape point of view, but from kind of characters you find there. Of course since my childhood days things have changed dramatically. When I was growing up in rural Wiltshire there were very few 'incomers' from the town. People in those days weren't interested in living somewhere they perceived as being miles from anywhere. These days, however, it seems country life is the 'must have' for a good many people.  The area surrounding Bath has appealed to many with that dream. With good rail and road links to London there is the ability to have the best of both worlds: highly paid jobs in the capital and an enjoyable life in a pleasant village outside it.  There are some, however, who have gone the whole way and chosen to work as well as live here, deciding on a complete overhaul of their lifestyle.  This migratory trek west has been going on since the mid-80s and I think in some ways is responsible for the city we have today. When I came to Bath in 1981 it was a different place, provincial and quiet.  Now it's opened up tremendously; it has great shopping, excellent hotels, amazing restaurants, two universities and a definite cosmopolitan feel. Alongside this, of course, are the things it has always been identified with - the Roman Baths, the Abbey and the amazing architecture of buildings like the Circus and the Royal Crescent.  

Currently I live only three miles from Bath but if you look out of our windows in any direction you would never think you were that close to a city of  176,000 people. There are fields and woods all around.  A wonderful, peaceful place to live and only a short drive away from everything the great Roman City has to offer.



The Abbey

Pulteney Bridge and The Weir

Roman Baths



The Royal Crescent together with some of the Bath Lions

The Circus

Back to my WIP. For this new book the location has changed.  Saying goodbye to the West Somerset setting of my Little Court series, I have now moved to South Devon.  It's a place I know really well and somewhere I never tire of coming back to.  Dartmouth, which actually featured briefly in my last book, is in fact one of my favourite UK holiday destinations. I love that mix of boats and the water.  We stay right on the marina and the apartment has a huge window which gives great views of everything that's happening both on the river and the estuary. There's an amazing atmosphere there at night too.  Walking back from dinner at one of the many excellent restaurants in the town I never get tired of seeing that magical blaze of lights across the water at Kingswear.  This part of Devon is known as South Hams; a beautiful part of the British Isles and a perfect setting for this  new book.



Kingswear at night from Dartmouth

 

So that about it for this week.  Everything is going well I'm in a good place. I'm working on a topic for this coming weekend too so currently I'm ahead of the game. However I'm not sure with all the things I seem to pack into each day the White Rabbit tag is going to be one I can shake off very easily! I am trying very hard though, believe me!

 

See you  next week.

 

Jo x

 

 

 

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

25th May 2014

Well May has breezed through like a grand prix racing car, passing in a blur and now heading off into the distance towards June.  Being my birth month there's always excitement - although I have to say birthdays aren't quite what they used to be.  This year I had a joint Christmas and birthday present so when May arrived there was no anticipation of what I might be getting, it was already wrapped snugly around my wrist.  However, as usual, over that weekend we had a series of get together with friends.  The end result was far too much to eat and drink in what felt like one long running buffet over an extended weekend.  Not good.  In fact very, very bad.  What made things worse was that three days later we headed with more friends to North Devon for a mid-week break in Lynmouth.  More food and drink followed supplemented by a lot of walking in an effort to counteract the over indulgence.  Well, I'm home now and have survived that initial 'OK scales brace yourself' moment without too much trauma. So with the birthday week firmly behind me it's all about eating sensibly and getting rid of those surplus pounds - right?

My mother struggled with weight problems all her life. As a teenager I remember the diets she'd go on in order to lose those extra pounds. One of them involved something that looked like those kid's sweets 'Flying Saucers' - see below.  Only these weren't coloured they were white and looked totally unappetising - like, you're going to eat that?  Really?  Apparently once consumed they swelled up in the stomach and reduced the appetite.  Then there were the Energen rolls - for those of you who remember they were horrible brown things which looked as if they'd been inflated with a bicycle pump and tasted like cardboard.  Milk shake type drinks followed; tablets, the grapefruit diet, the boiled egg diet - an endless parade of weight loss attempts all with one thing in common.  They simply did not work.  As she got older, I think she recognised she was on to a loser, waved the white flag and decided enough was enough.  All I could think of was the time and money wasted not to mention putting her digestive system through some pretty dreadful experiences. And yet had she simply tried reworking her diet the outcome might have been slightly different.

I take after my dad's side of the family as far as build is concerned.  Actually that's wrong.  Dad and his brothers and sisters were tall.  I have to thank my paternal grandmother for my height. Now I have spent a good part of my life envying willowy friends, always yearning for longer legs and to be something more than my allocated five feet nothing.  There are so many drawbacks with being small.  Supermarkets are the worst places - you get overlooked when queuing at the deli counter and you always have to ask someone for assistance when you want something off the top shelf.  Also when I was much younger, I was always being asked for some form of I/D in pubs as no one believed I was over 18! 

Clothes are another contentious area.  Today the petite woman is well catered for but I spent years taking up dress hems and trouser bottoms and dealing with much too long sleeves on everything - so annoying!  Shoes as well - heavens, I'm really turning this into a bit of a soapbox moment today but it's so true!  My shoe size is 36 (3).  Actually I can even get in to a Size 35 (2) on occasions!  There are those who actually think having small feet is lucky; that I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to buying shoes.  Oh how wrong they are.  There is even one particular shoe store in the city where they don't sell anything smaller than a 37 (4), yes it seems as far as they are concerned I have the feet of a twelve year old!

I guess if there is one positive thing about being small, however, it's that you can fool people about your age.  At 18 my height worked against me, now it's a bonus!  Because you are vertically challenged people tend to think you're younger than you are.  I know this isn't always the case but personally I've found it does more often than not happen to me  - which can be quite flattering! Oh and there's a second reason to smile - high heels.  I absolutely love high heels - not the kind of skyscraper Louboutins that will land you in ED with a fractured ankle, but feminine heels you can actually walk in like these below which I happen to own a pair of. 

As far as diets are concerned, yes I've been on a few although I never got hung up on them the way my mother did.  Back in the 1990s I felt I needed to shed some weight. At the time I worked for the MD of a company where we did a lot of client lunches and regular intakes of food and wine were beginning to take their toll.   The problem is of course that when you're small every extra ounce shows.  You can't disguise it as well as someone who is, say, six inches taller than you are so drastic action needs to be taken.   The American weight loss company Jenny Craig had opened up in the city, I knew a couple of people who had gone there and been really pleased with the results. So I thought why not? After a consultation I was told it would take me three months to shift just under a stone, which is what they decided was required to reach my ideal weight. They set a weekly menu and provided all the food with the exception of fruit and vegetables.  There were some no-nos as far as I was concerned - for example I couldn't cope with omelettes made from powdered egg - horrific!  There was no meat either, it was all soya laced with shed loads of garlic! They used to do small tins of 'stew' and 'mince' as a replacement for weekend meals and Sunday lunches.  So for the time I was following this programme whenever we went out to dinner at friends I would take one of these tins along.  One of my girlfriends used to refer to it as my tin of Mr Dog, which was a pet food available at the time.  No one complained or threw a hissy fit, all those we ate with accepted this rather quirky menu change for me with good humour. Worse than the food though was the fact I was reduced to one glass of wine a week as well - it just fell short of having to join the Temperance League!

Once target weight had been reached there was a six month maintenance plan but unfortunately by the time I reached that point the UK branch of Jenny Craig was no more.  Yes the weight did eventually creep back on, but not all of it and it took several years.  I've danced about with weight loss on occasions ever since but am of the opinion that buying reduced sugar chocolate bars, crisps and milk shake drinks won't solve anything.  They sell the dream of achieving what you want with no effort and that is not only wrong, it's not possible.

 

Believe me the only way to lose weight is by taking regular exercise and eating sensibly. Simple!

 

 

Till next week.

 

Jo x

Problems, Problems...

Yet again Wordpress is proving problematical so I'm reverting to Blogger for my final post before I concentrate on pre-holiday organisation before going away for a short break.

It seems a lifetime since we were in Guernsey, although it's only a matter of weeks.  Then then weather was sunny but cold and the flight, although only 45 minutes out of Bristol was just a little lumpy on a return journey spent totally surrounded by grey cloud!  It was a good break with friends and and opportunity to shake off some of the residue of a dull, wet winter.  If there's one thing the UK does well its rubbish winters.  I actually found myself wanting it to snow this year, anything to take us away from the cold, wet stuff we seemed to have constantly thrown at us by the Atlantic.  Snow in the UK is, unfortunately, only enjoyable the farther north you go.  There it has staying power and the ability to hold onto its sparkle and beauty.  In the south of the country it soon gets churned up into a greying mess either side of the road or compacted into icy footprints on the pavement.  So if we do have snow I'm straight out with the camera to capture the moment before it loses that initial beauty. 

There are some places, both in the UK and abroad which I absolutely love and want to return to time and time again. Lynmouth, where we're headed this week, is one of those. Although it always looks like a peaceful fishing village with a few tourist shops it is a regular stop off for day trippers and a long term holiday destination for walkers.  Having said that, it is possible to find your own peaceful place here.  Our hotel, tucked high on the hill is certainly that, with owners Kay and Richard almost feeling like family now.  The countryside here is amazing too -  a place of contrast both in colo9ur and textures - from the lush greenery of the trees and the rush of river to the stark beauty of Valley of the Rocks just beyond Lynton. This makes it a great place for photography and although I'm no David Bailey, as on all breaks away, I tend to take tons of photos.

I've set out below a few shots of previous visits in the hope it gives you a flavour of the place.


VIEW FROM THE HEATHERVILLE HOTEL

Taken from the bedroom window showing how high above the village we are - the river can just be seen below through the trees. Great views from the rooms and very, very peaceful!

LYNMOUTH

 

LYNMOUTH-LYNTON CLIFF RAILWAY



AT LYNTON READY FOR THE RETURN TRIP DOWN TO LYNMOUTH - YES IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN!

 

WALK TO WATERSMEET

WATERSMEET RESTAURANT

VALLEY OF THE ROCKS

ROAD OUT OF LYNTON - NOT A CAR IN SIGHT!

EXMOOR PONIES

APPROACHING VALLEY OF THE ROCKS

VALLEY OF THE ROCKS

CLIFF WALK BACK TO LYNTON



 

So that's it, a potted view of our forthcoming break. I had actually planned to sit down and write about something completely different but time and problems with Wordpress threw my time plan out of the window.  Am now planning to stick to Blogger - it's much more user-friendly!!

 

Anyway that's me finished until next weekend when I return.  Tomorrow I'm off into the city to sort out pre-holiday stuff - three days away and it's like organising a military campaign, but hey that's us women for you!  What is worse I haven't even got around to decide what to pack - an even greater dilemma!

 

Back next Sunday!

 

Jo xx