Why it is important to remember.

Be that a war 70 years ago or further back.

19^th May marked the 479^th anniversary of the execution of Anne Boleyn. On that day in 1536, courageous and proud to the last, she stood before her enemies on the scaffold on Tower Green, pledged her love for Henry VIII and commended her soul to God.

As writers of fiction, our constant, and probably favourite, game is “what-if?” What if Anne had not lost the two boys she miscarried? What-if Henry had continued to love her? What if she had outlived him?

These were the questions I played with when writing The Tudor Enigma series. I also added a dash of magic to the mix because Anne had frequently been accused of being a witch. What-if she were? But I didn’t want her to be a wicked witch, because, in truth, she was not a wicked person, but one who was deeply religious and looked after those for whom she was responsible. If you want to know how this worked out in my books, go to http://amzn.to/1HTBmqZ .

Anne was rare in a world ruled – some would say still ruled – by men. Furthermore, men who found women to be convenient scapegoats for any reverses. For me she stands with two other queens, Edward II’s wife, Isabella of France and Henry II’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. All three had strong logical minds. All three fought for what they wanted. All three suffered, although only Anne paid with her life. Each time I go to the Tower of London, I stand for a few moments at the place where she was executed – in front of the Wellington Barracks and not where the guards would have you believe – and say a prayer for her soul.

You can find out more about April Taylor here:

Website & Blog   www.apriltaylorauthor.com

Facebook           https://www.facebook.com/britwriterapriltaylor

Twitter             https://twitter.com/authAprilTaylor

New Cover for 'The Paintings'

Linda Acaster's supernatural mystery, The Paintings, is sporting its new cover.

Across on her website she discusses the merits of using a temporary cover from Fiverr, the $5 marketplace for creatives, while waiting for a slot with her professional cover designer Art by Karri.

Join her to discover which cover you prefer.

Crime on the rails

Hornsea is not an area well-served by trains, though go back a few decades and things were very different. It had its own station bringing holidaymakers aplenty.

This lack of rail track doesn’t keep trains out of Hornsea writers’ books. The First Hull Trains company, running services between Hull and London, recently shared a Facebook post about the Annie Raymond mysteries – a series of private investigator / police procedural thrillers that began life on board a train.

The first book in the series sees Annie arrive on one of their trains. She comes to the city reluctantly and without expectations, simply hoping to make the best of things, but mirroring the deceptively calm sheen on the Humber estuary on a summer day, she finds treacherous currents just below the surface ready to suck her under and never let her go.

It takes two whole books before Annie leaves the area, and when she does, it’s on with the backpack and on to a train again. When she makes another visit in a later book, a more prosperous Annie comes by car – but even more reluctantly this time because now she knows what to expect.

It's interesting to see these things pop up - like the Annie books on Hull Trains' Facebook page. Has anyone else examples of their books cropping up in unexpected places?

Announcing a New Edition

Some of you will have read my science fiction novella, The Methuselah Strain, but many of you have yet to try it. My publisher, Dan Grubb of Fantastic Books Publishing, read the book and was so impressed that he wanted to publish the book himself. We had a brief discussion and I added a new section, which gives a little more backstory to the female protagonist, Luce. Dan organised a lovely new professionally designed cover and added some nice touches to the interior design. And, before you could say 'Azimov!' the book was published.
At present, it's available in digital form only and you can obtain a copy by clicking this link. It's our intention to publish in print form shortly. Watch this space, those of you who prefer paper to screen.

Writers on writing – part 2

Hornsea Writer Stuart Aken with novelists JRR Tolkein, Isaac Asimov and Michael Moorcock share their thoughts on writing.

Meanwhile, Hornsea Writer Penny Grubb travels into the murkyworld of street crime and copyright theft.

Writers on writing – part 1

Hornsea Writer Linda Acaster with novelists Stephen King, Agatha Christie and Barbara Taylor Bradford share their thoughts on writing.

Meanwhile, Hornsea Writer Penny Grubb finds the birthplaceof Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.

Spring Cleaning: Three Authors' Websites

Yes, it’s that time of year. The wall might be peeling behind the desk, but which writer wants to dig out their writing space to add a lick of paint? The act of removing all those research tomes, notebooks of jotted ideas, bits of half-discarded envelopes carrying insightful quips and snatches of pithy dialogue... Who would get to the actual prepping with so much to rediscover? Far easier to give the old author website a revamp.

Three members of Hornsea Writers have done just that. And here are their excuses... sorry, reasons:

Noted word-wrangler, Stuart Aken, decided to swap Blogger for Wordpress as he wanted more control over his site.

‘Blogger is a great free platform, but is subject to Google's sometimes arbitrary decisions and doesn't give the writer the availability of a website. Wordpress, especially if you use the hosted option, gives the writer complete control, allows for multiple pages like a website, and is a crowd-sourced platform free from the commercial considerations of any one company.’

It isn’t though, an afternoon’s job. It is taking him a while to get the site the way he wants it, but he considers it a work in progress. Check the new look: http://stuartaken.net/

April Taylor, known for her Alternative Tudor Mysteries, decided to go the whole hog and move from a blogging site to a website with an internal blog.

‘There comes a time in each writer’s life when they look at their site and realise it just won’t do. I really didn’t want the hassle of building another, so took a couple of weeks to research the various programmes out there, growing more despondent by the minute. However, it was a task I could no longer put off, so when I had girded my loins with a couple of gins, I plumped for Weebly. 

‘The process is easy and very flexible. In fact, once I plunged into the icy waters of creation, it only took me a morning to build the new site. The secret is to plan – on paper – what you want each page of the site to look like and what kind of information each needs to convey. After that, building the new site is a doddle.’

The site is open for viewing and you can tell her what you think via the contact page: www.apriltaylorauthor.com

In contrast, Linda Acaster plumped for the easier option and scrubbed up her Blogger site.

‘I’m a slow writer and not a daily blogger so wanted a site with a free-standing landing page. The Blogger framework can be fairly flexible if you don’t mind twiddling with a bit of html. Of course, what I know about html can be written in large script on the back of a postage stamp, but that’s why YouTube was invented. Someone, somewhere, has done it all before and will happily walk you through it.

‘I’m treating the current incarnation as a halfway house. When I finally stop messing with its width I’ll go about designing a new header image. Besides, as a displacement activity to writing the current novel it is infinitely better than scrubbing the kitchen floor with a toothbrush.’

Cast a wry eye over her design technique at www.lindaacaster.com

Real settings merging into fictional

Hornsea Writer, Penny Grubb, charts some facts about York, the setting for her police procedural series.

"A pub for every day of the year ... what's not to like?"

Det. Supt. Martyn Webber's murder investigation collides head on with private investigator Annie Raymond who thought she was tracking an errant spouse. And in the aftermath of a flash flood, something nasty washes up.

Buried Deep is available as an an ebook or paperback.

Read a review here.

It's Not Always Writing...

Yes, we do crawl from our separate garrets occasionally - meetings, conferences, litfests, research, supermarket - and sometimes to support a fellow writer at a Library Event Near You! 

Recently a few of our members did just that, swelling the ranks of a reading group, library users, and interested citizens to hear Stephanie Butland chat and answer questions about her debut novel Letters To My Husband. Or... Surrounded By Water. Or... The Secrets We Keep. Or... Omringd Door Water. You guessed it, the title is dependant on the country and sometimes even the retailer, something Stephanie admitted confused even her at the outset, but became a great topic for discussion.

Linda, Madeleine & Karen with a laughing Stephanie

Stephanie was as enthusiastic as her audience and a great evening was had by all. Both the library staff and Stephanie asked for photographs, and we, of course, obliged. Except we're all trying to look nonchalent and failing, after laughing in the scrum to show the different covers of her book.

The event in Hornsea Library was a joint venture sponsored by Wordquake, Read Regional, and East Riding of Yorkshire Libraries. Let there be more!