Euxton (pronounced ‘Exton’) is a small village in Central
Lancashire. The main road in the village was the Roman road called Watling
Street which ran from south to north through Lancashire and on toHadrian’s Wall, the border with Scotland. In
the middle ages this road became the main north-south packhorse route, and
there is still a packhorse bridge near to where the modern road crosses the
River Yarrow.
Prior to World
War II, a large Royal Ordnance Factory was built at Euxton. It became one of the
largest munitions filling factory in the world, employing over 28,000 people at
the height of the war. It’s said that the bouncing bombs used in the Dambusters
Raid were made there. Safety precautions involved twenty feet high grass
embankments to deflect any explosion skywards instead of across to any adjacent
buildings. There were also extensive underground armament magazines.
Which brings me
to my personal link with Euxton. In 1942
my father, who was serving with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during the war, was
posted to Euxton for about a year. As my mother lived in their home town of
Preston, only a few miles away, he was able to visit her when he was off-duty.
That could explain why I was born the following year!
There's an excerpt (with a sizzling kiss!), and I answer Elise's questions about my writing and about me! You can also enter the 'Rafflecopter' for a chance to win an e-copy of my book!
Free (virtual) cakes and drinks, and lots of party balloons! Let the fun begin (and it's going on from today, Tuesday, until Friday)
Another six sentences from my new novel, 'Changing the Future' which was released earlier this month.
Blurb: Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?
This six comes straight after Lisa has caught sight of Paul for the first time on the college campus and made an excuse to avoid meeting him.
Maybe she’d imagined it, maybe it
hadn’t been him at all, but simply someone who looked like him - walked like him, tilted his head in the same way, pushed back the hair from his forehead with the same mannerism.
Her shoulders sagged. No, of
course it was Paul.
Bringing hands up to her cheeks,
she shook her head as she tried to think. Why on earth was he here in the Lake District? It was light years away from their
apartment in North London, her job with the BBC and Paul’s high-profile
research at London University; light years, too, from the life of love and
laughter they’d once shared, until it had all gone wrong.
'Changing the Future' is available at $3.99 on Amazon
Many thanks to everyone who visits my page each Sunday :-)
Downham
is a small village at the foot of Pendle Hill (more of that in a later post when I look at the story of the 'Pendle Witches'). It’s claimed to be one
of the loveliest villages in Lancashire, with a real ‘village green’ complete
with a small stream, and stone cottages. When I was a child, my cousin and I loved to
splash about in the stream near the old stone bridge.
Downham
Hall has been owned by the Assheton family since the 13th century. A large
stone by the entrance to the Hall is said to mark the grave of two Roman
legionaries who died on the Roman road during trouble with the local Celtic
tribe of Brigantes. The Asshetons were also responsible for building new homes
in the village in the 19th century, restoring the church and providing a school
for the children.
The
present owner of the hall, Lord Clitheroe of Downham, does not allow any
overhead electricity lines, aerials or satellite dishes in the village. This
makes it a popular place for filming period dramas. The original “Whistle Down the Wind” was
filmed here in the early 60’s with the child-star Hayley Mills. Children from
local schools played other parts in the film and endeared themselves to the
cinema audiences everywhere with their broad Lancashire accents!
Another six from my new novel, 'Changing the Future' which was released last week!
Blurb: Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?
This six comes straight after Lisa has caught sight of Paul for the first time on the college campus.
Dimly she heard Millie call out
something about coffees in the cafeteria. The world had receded and she
was aware only of the painful pounding in her chest. Shock mixed with
incredulity, and her mind simply refused to believe what her eyes had seen. When she reached the Old House,
she went straight to the ladies’ room. To her relief, no one else was there.
She didn’t dare think, didn’t dare allow herself to feel anything, not until
she’d managed to control the trembling which was shaking her whole body.
'Changing the Future' is available at $3.99 on Amazon
Many thanks to everyone who visits my page each Sunday :-)
Last week, I asked you for questions, either about my latest release, 'Changing the Future' or about writing in general. I was delighted to receive so many interesting questions, in fact too many to answer in just one blog-post. So I've divided the questions into two sections.
Today, at Heroines with Hearts, I'm answering those specifically linked to 'Changing the Future', and tomorrow I'll be answering the more general questions about writing and getting published.
Hope you'll drop by to see my answers - http://heroineswithhearts.blogspot.com
Just as a teaser, here are some of the questions about my novel:
The volcano itself is a powerful image. Can you give us a few hints of
how you used the symbol throughout your new book ‘Changing the Future’? What attracted you to the idea of making your hero a volcanologist? How did you research what volcanologists do? And do such experts share
certain characteristics which you could show in your novel?
What was the hardest part of writing ‘Changing the Future’, and what was
the easiest?
Tomorrow's blog will contain my answers to these questions (and more):
Your writing career has spanned decades. Aside from the obvious (electronic
publishing, small presses, etc.) what do you feel has changed most about the romance
genre in that time?
When you're working on a new book, do you outline ahead of time, or write
as you go along? Why do you write contemporary romance
versus other types of romance, and would you consider expanding into other
areas?
Clitheroe is a small market town in the Ribble Valley and is
a base for tourists visiting the nearby Forest of Bowland, designated as ‘an
area of outstanding natural beauty.’.
One of Clitheroe’s ‘claims to fame’ is that its castle is
reputedly the smallest Norman keep in England. The land between the rivers
Mersey and Ribble was granted by William I to one of his supporters, Roger of
Poitou, who may have built the keep around 1086. It seems more likely, however,
that it was built by Robert de Lacy about a hundred years later, as the centre
of estates in the area. On one side is a large hole which according to legend
was the result of a giant hurling a huge boulder from Pendle Hill. A more
prosaic explanation is that the during the English Civil War, the Royalists
deliberately damaged the castle, so that it would be of no use to the Parliamentary
forces.
Another link to past royalty was the ill-fated Lancastrian
King Henry VI. On the run after being defeated by the Yorkists at the battle of
Hexham in 1464, he was recaptured near to Brungerley Bridge which spans the
River Ribble on the outskirts of Clitheroe.
My personal link with Clitheroe is because of the Girl Guide
Training Centre, called Waddow Hall, which stands on the opposite bank of the
river to the town. I’ve lost count of how many training weekends I attended there.
Probably my most abiding memory, however, is of a
Commonwealth event ten years ago. We had several hundred girls from all over
the world camping there – and it rained! Not just a few showers but almost
non-stop rain for over a week! The campsite became a sea of mud and the girls
had to be evacuated to the house, where their sleeping bags and rucksacks covered
every inch of spare floor.
During that event, too, we had a guest speaker
who just happened to be Canada's first woman astronaut. One afternoon I took her
into Clitheroe as she wanted to do some shopping. Believe me, nothing seems
more surreal than driving down Clitheroe’s main street with an astronaut in
your car!
My new contemporary romance, 'Changing the Future' is released today! Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul
Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite
their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the
magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is
still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son.
They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them
change the future?
Without a word, he took the book from her hands and put it on the bookcase, his eyes never leaving her face. For a long moment, he gazed at her, and then leant forward, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.
Her instinctive reaction was to
push him away, and she brought her hands up to his shoulders, but her mind
suddenly stopped working.
His mouth was soft, his tongue tenderly explored her lower lip and she couldn’t think. She was aware only of
the surge of need, quivering down her spine, igniting every nerve ending, and
flooding her with warmth.
Helplessly, she parted her lips and his tongue slid inside, still infinitely tender, probing, seeking, and finding hers. Her head swam, her knees started to give way and a small gasp escaped from her throat. His arms tightened around her, pulling her firmly against him. Their tongues met in a sensual entwining which melted every bone in her body. She let her head fall back when his mouth moved across her cheek to her earlobe, alternately nibbling and kissing. His tongue trailed a line down her neck and she writhed at the delicious sensations which heated her skin.
She gripped his shoulders and made no resistance when he moved one hand to stroke her shoulder and then her upper arm. As his hand folded around her breast and his thumb and finger caressed the hard nub of her nipple through her thin blouse, a hot flame shot through her. Her body arched against his and she felt the warm dampness between her legs.
Desire ran riot through her. She yearned for him, longed to see the look in his eyes as he made love to her, to hear his breathless gasp of her name when he reached the edge, and then to lose herself completely with him in the ecstasy of completion.
"I want you,” he whispered, his mouth still nuzzling her neck.
Reality returned like a pistol shot. Panic-stricken,she pushed him away. “What the hell are we doing?”
On Thursday, I will be at KMN Books, telling you how this developed from a story written over 30 years ago to today's published book. Believe me, it's gone through a lot of changes from that first story!
And on Friday I shall be at our group blog, Heroines with Hearts, answering the questions which were posted here last weekend when I asked for some questions! Wow, I got some amazing questions, particularly about my volcanologist hero, and also about Lisa's son.
Hope you'll join me at those two events - and maybe ask some of your own questions!
This blogfest is the idea of Alex J Cavanaugh, one of the hosts
of the A-Z Challenge. There are 144 bloggers taking part so please visit some
of them at http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.co.uk
The Blogfest challenge is to write about our first loves –
first movie, first song/band, first book and first person, so here goes:
First Movie
The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was Cinderella, and that was when
it was first released (yes, I’m old enough to remember that!). I was six at the
time, and my aunt was going to meet me after school and take me to the cinema.
I was so excited and when it got to afternoon playtime, I went to collect my
coat and was standing waiting for my aunt at the school gate. I didn’t
understand why everyone else was still in the playground and not leaving for
home, until I eventually realised it wasn’t yet hometime! I had to curb my
excitement and impatience and go back into school for the last lesson of the
day. Anyway, hometime finally came, my aunt was there waiting for me, and off
we went into town. The movie completely lived up to all my expectations, and I
loved it. In fact I think I was singing Bibbity-bobbity-boo
for weeks afterwards.
First Song
Again we go way back into the past. Although I grew up in the
50’s and ‘saw’ the birth of rock and roll including Bill Haley’s Rock Around
the Clock, and of course Elvis with Heartbreak Hotel, it was actually a ballad
in 1958 which became my real first love – A Certain Smile by Johnny Mathis. I
won’t tell you whose ‘certain smile' it always reminded me of, since that is
buried in the past too, but I only had to hear those first soaring sounds
of the intro, and my heart would do a double-flip!
First Book
I was a voracious reader from a very young age. We couldn’t
afford books then (they were all hardbacks when I was a child), so my Mum took
me to the library each week, where I could choose two books. I loved school
stories especially those by Enid Blyton, and also Ruby Ferguson’s pony books.
The one book I loved most though was called ‘The Swish of the Curtain’ by a
14-year-old writer, Pamela Brown. It was about seven young people who formed an
amateur theatrical group and put on their own shows. I think I was already stage-struck
when I read it, and it cemented my on-going love of the theatre. It’s recently
been re-released in paperback (and slightly updated, so I understand) but I
still have my original copy which I could never bear to throw away!
First Person
Leaving out the obvious first people you love i.e. your
parents, I’ll go for my first ‘young love’. We were both 9 and he was called
Edward. He lived in the big house just inside the gates to the park near where
I lived. His dad was the park keeper or ‘parky’, as we called them then, whose
job was to patrol and supervise the park. If you behaved yourself, you had
nothing to fear from the parky but his appearance anywhere near the children’s
playground made everyone nervous in case he caught us doing something we
shouldn’t.
Edward hated being the parky’s son. He and I often walked to school
together, and he said he could never play on the swings or slide because the
other kids thought he would go running off to tell his dad if anyone did
anything they shouldn’t. He was very shy and that was made worse by the taunts
of other kids at times. I was teased, too, about Edward being my ‘boyfriend’.
Our school had a Rose Queen Festival every June, and our
class of 9 and 10 year olds did the maypole dancing at the
Festival. Edward and I were chosen as the lead partners, so we go to know each
other really well during all the rehearsals. On the big day we
were both very nervous, but we managed to do all our dances correctly and didn’t
get the ribbons tangled!
We were friends for over a year, until at 11, we went off to
different High Schools and lost contact when his father got a different job and
they moved away from the park. I sometimes wonder what happened to him!
Another six from my new novel, 'Changing the Future' which will be released in three days' time (May 15th - woohoo!) by Rebecca J. Vickery Publishing. Thank you all so much for your fantastic reponses to my first excerpt last Sunday.
Last week, Lisa was incredulous when she realised the man walking across the college campus was Paul.
For an insane moment, she wanted
to run towards him, be scooped up in his arms again, see the laughter in his
blue eyes, feel his soft and sensual mouth against hers.
Stunned by her reaction, by
feelings she thought she’d totally suppressed, she stopped abruptly. Another
thirty seconds and they’d come face-to-face. Total panic made her heart thump
against her ribs.
“I-I’ve just remembered—er, I
need some—some class lists.” Without waiting for Millie to reply, she turned
and half-ran back towards the Old House.
Here's the blurb for 'Changing the Future':
Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?
Next Friday, on our Heroines with Hearts blog, we are doing something a
little bit different. We usually have a Friday Friend i.e. a guest blogger (and
if you would like a guest spot at some time, please let me know!) Next week, however, I am going to be the 'Friday Friend' so I need some
questions to answer! If you would like to ask me something (just one question
is all I need!), please send it to me as a comment here. It can be about any aspect of my writing/books. Maybe this blurb from
'Changing the Future' (which will be released next week) will give you a idea
for a question!
Lisa
Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into
her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious
break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction
between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the
present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change
that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?
If you asked anyone in North West England (and probably other places too) to name a Lancashire town starting with
‘B’, the chances are that most of them would say Blackpool. There are quite a lot of Lancashire towns starting with 'B' but Blackpool is the most famous.
It's the main seaside resort in North West England
and has been a ‘seaside playground’
ever since the railway came to the small town in the 1840’s. This provided a cheap and easy way for the workers of Lancashire and Yorkshire to take a break
from their long hours in the cotton mills, especially when the mills closed
down for a week each summer. By the 1880’s, Blackpool was a booming resort with
a promenade, piers, pubs, fish and chip shops, and donkey rides on the beach.
The Tower was built in 1894. Nearly 500 ft high, it was
inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and resembles the upper part of that
tower. Beneath the tower, there is a leisure complex, with restaurant and
entertainment venues, including the famous Tower Ballroom with its huge
Wurlitzer Organ.
At the southern end of the promenade is the Pleasure Beach,
a large amusement park dominated by Britain’s largest roller-coaster, known
simply as the ‘Big One’.
With the advent of cheap air travel in the 1960’s,
Blackpool’s tourism figures declined, but it still remains Britain’s favourite
seaside resort. The extra attraction of ‘Blackpool Illuminations’ brings in
thousands of visitors at a time when most seaside resorts’ tourist seasons are
coming to an end. The Illuminations (or ‘Lights’ as they are often called)
consist of a series of lighted displays and tableau, stretching along the
entire sea front (about 7 miles), from dusk until midnight, usually from the
end of August to the beginning of November. This often results in spectacular
traffic snarl-ups on the promenade and on all the roads leading to it too. I’ve
been stuck in those snarl-ups several times!
This week's topic at Facebook Group GB2: Blog On is 'Parody'. Well, I'm not sure whether this is fits the topic- but it's a kind of parody of a rejection letter to an author, using (and adapting) some of the phrases I once got in a rejection letter and adding other comments that an editor might give.
I wrote a shortened version of this for GB2 about a year ago, so some members of the group may remember it, but I'll offer the newly rewritten version and hope you enjoy it.
Dear Jane
Thank you for submitting your novel.I enjoyed your depiction of manners, morality
and marriage among the landed gentry.Your
writing is assured and capable, and your character development is strong.However the romance between the hero and heroine
was very slow to develop.I would venture to say, too, that your hero is somewhat unlikeable, being a proud and disdainful character for much of the novel. His first proposal to the heroine is so laden with insults as to her lowly status, compared with his, that our readers will not find him an attractive hero at all. Another problem is that other issues,
subplots and secondary characters received more attention than the romance, and
this is not what we are looking for right now. You devote far more time to the heroine's sisters (and, indeed, her friends, cousins and other relatives) than is appropriate in a romance novel. I would also like to make the point that your first sentence 'It is a truth universally acknowledged' etc etc is not a very memorable opening for a novel. This is you, the author, making a vague statement, whereas your opening paragraph should take us straight to the thoughts or actions of one of the main protagonists. One final point: if you wish to submit this story elsewhere, may I suggest that ‘First
Impressions’ is not the best title, and that you might consider the hero’s
pride and the heroine’s prejudice instead? I wish you every success with your work. Unfortunately, it does not meet our current requirements. Yours faithfully (etc, etc)
This month, I'm giving you some sixes from my new novel, 'Changing the Future', due for release on May 15th by Rebecca J Vickery Publishing. Here are six from page 2.
As Lisa’s gaze moved to the man
walking across the lawn with Fiona, she frowned. There was something familiar
about the tall, slim figure—the way he walked, and the way he tilted his head
as he listened to Fiona. Don’t be stupid, she told
herself, but still couldn’t take her eyes off him. As the gap between them
lessened, her blood started to run cold. It wasn’t—it couldn’t possibly be… The man lifted his hand to flick
back a stray strand of light brown hair from his forehead and she knew it was
Paul.
Here is the 'blurb' for Changing the Future:
Lisa
Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into
her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious
break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between
them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not
least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past,
but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?
Thank you for all your comments on my previous excerpts. Hope you'll enjoy these new ones!
As promised, following my ‘tour’ of the Lake District during
the April A-Z blogging challenge, I’m extending the tour to cover other interesting
places in North West England. It’ll be another A-Z tour, but with a new one
each week, rather than each day! So hope you’ll join me on my ‘Thursday Tour’
of this part of England.
We start today at Arnside,
a small seaside village in South Cumbria, where the wide estuary of the River
Kent enters Morecambe Bay. From the promenade, with its small shops, you can
look across the bay to the Lakeland hills.
When I was a child, we had several holidays at a guest house
at Arnside. It operated on a ‘house-party’ basis, with a ‘host’ who arranged
social activities during the day and informal entertainment in the evening.
Often the same people came each year, and so we renewed friendships each
summer. One summer, my parents acted as hosts for the week, and I felt very
important when they let me give out quiz sheets, or when I was given a part to
play in an evening concert.
I used to love playing on the beach and paddling, buying
ice-cream at one of the small shops on the seafront, and watching the fishermen
on the small stone pier.
It was exciting, too, to watch the steam trains (this
was in the 1950’s) going along the stone viaduct across the Kent estuary. The
viaduct, built in 1857, is over 500 yards long and has 51 arches. The trains
always travelled slowly as there used to be a 30 mile per hour speed limit on
the viaduct because of the danger of wind tunnels into the river valley.
We used to go for guided walks during the day, often in the
woods on Arnside Knott, a 520ft flat-topped wooded hill which overlooked the
village. If the weather was clear, the view was fantastic.
One walk also took
us to the ‘Fairy Steps’ where legend says that if you can get up or down the
steps without touching the sides, the fairies will grant your wish. As the
steps are so narrow at the top, I doubt the fairies have to grant very many
wishes!
The tide comes in very fast from the bay into the
river, and sirens go off before high tide each day. Sometimes, if there
was a very high tide, especially in spring, we saw a spectacular tidal bore
coming up the river.
I was going to have a day off from blogging today - but how can I when this morning I received the final version of the cover of my new novel, 'Changing the Future', due for release on May 15th by Rebecca Vickery Publishing. Cover design by Miss Mae.
Here it is:
And here's the 'blurb':
Lisa Marshall is stunned when celebrated volcanologist Paul Hamilton comes back into her life at the college where she now teaches. Despite their acrimonious break-up several years earlier, they soon realise the magnetic attraction between them is stronger than ever. However, the past is still part of the present, not least when Paul discovers Lisa has a young son. They can’t change that past, but will it take a volcanic eruption to help them change the future?
'Rest' is this week's topic for the Facebook Group 'The Writers' Post'.
Rest = Refreshing
ease or inactivity after exertion or labour
After a month of daily blogging for the A-Z April Blogging
Challenge, I need a rest! It’s not just the blogging, since I researched and
wrote about half of the blogs before April began. I’ve spent far more time in
April visiting other blogs, probably about 20-30 each day and leaving comments
on most of them, as well as replying to comments on my own blog.
Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoy visiting blogs, and have made a
lot of new friends during April as a result. However, it’s very time-consuming.
Also, I like to do my main ‘networking’ in the mornings but, as many bloggers
are American, their blogs don’t go live until the middle of my day or even
later. With a daily blogging schedule, I have to catch up with the blogs in the
evening – which is usually my main writing time (i.e. working on my novels) so
my ‘normal’ schedule has been disrupted. I did intend to have Sunday as my
‘rest’ day but then found I couldn’t resist taking part in the Six Sentence
Sunday blog hop! So no rest there either.
Rest = period or
interval of inactivity, repose, solitude or tranquillity
Yes, that sounds very good – but at the moment it seems like
a complete pipe-dream. For one thing, I now need to keep up with my new
blogging friends. For another, my current novel has not been receiving my full
attention during April and I must give it some much-needed care and thought.
And thirdly, my new novel ‘Changing the
Future’ will be released mid-May, so I have to start on the promotion trail
again. Not much chance, then, of any 'period of inactivity'.
So no rest for me, it seems. But I’m not complaining. Too
much inactivity and I get bored anyway!
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