What Kate Did Next

The Detective's Daughter

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:30:00 +0000

How are you all? Today I'm delighted to welcome author Lesley Thomson to WKDN, hope you enjoy the interview below, and I highly recommend Lesley's new novel which kept me reading late into the night. Now, over to Lesley ... and have a great weekend.

Lesley Thomson grew up in Hammersmith in London, and the borough features in her novels. A Kind of Vanishing won The People’s Book Prize for Fiction in 2010. Lesley combines writing with teaching creative writing and now lives in Lewes with her partner. She is working on a new Stella Darnell mystery. Her new novel, 'The Detective's Daughter' has just been published by Head of Zeus:

Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many.

Her murder shocked the nation. Her husband, never charged, moved abroad under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his only daughter. The young Stella Darnell grew to resent the dead Kate Rokesmith. Her dad had never vowed to leave no stone unturned for her.
Now, thirty years later, Stella is dutifully sorting through her father's attic after his sudden death. The Rokesmith case papers are in a corner, gathering dust: the case was never solved. Stella knows she should destroy them. Instead, she opens the box, and starts to read.

Welcome, Lesley - and congratulations on the publication of 'The Detective's Daughter'. It's a terrific book - I loved 'A Kind of Vanishing', and this feels even more accomplished. Can you tell us a little about the inspiration for the story?

I wanted to write about a woman whose father dies and for whom the weight of this loss is not clear. Due to pressures of work and her parents’ divorce when she was a girl, Stella’s relationship with her father has been remote; they apparently share little in common. While not autobiographical – I was close to my father and he wasn’t a police officer – I live with the loss of my parents and the changing form of this loss. I was interested to explore this in fiction.

Alongside this, I had read a book about children losing a parent through murder and this led me to wonder how this experience would affect them as they got older.

Where would you place your work? It has been compared to Kate Atkinson's - do you think there are similarities?

I read Behind the Scenes of the Museum when it first came out, but nothing since. After I was compared to Atkinson, I read Life after Life and absolutely loved it. She is an accomplished writer, it’s so clever and absorbing. While mindful of Atkinson’s skill, I can relate to the comparison: she writes with compassion about people, adroitly portraying difficult characters with psychological truth and humour. I too try to do this. My characters are not necessarily ones readers (including me)would want to have to dinner more than once, but I hope we see why they are the way they are and can greet them with curiosity and understanding.

In terms of crime fiction, whose work do you admire?

The list is long and ever growing. I came to crime fiction through Ruth Rendell. I was particularly excited when I discovered her psychological thrillers written as Barbara Vine. I have read Sue Grafton from A to the latest letter; she only gets better and better. Embarking on a series condemned to numbering 27 by virtue of the alphabet was brave but Grafton does not tire. The novels are rich and have gained depth over the years. Respect! I like Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Henning Mankell, I discovered with joy Fred Vargus and Elly Griffiths. I often reread Patricia Highsmith – I wish I had written Strangers on Train! On and on...

The first thing that always comes to my mind with your writing is the way you conjure a sense of place. Psychogeography is fascinating - can you tell us about your process in developing your locations. Do you use an A-Z, or Google Street View, like Jack?

Yes. Or rather these days less the A-Z as the maps and print in my several old dog-eared copies are now too small! I gave my own absorbed trawling of Street View to Jack, I am fascinated by how taking journeys on Street View affects my perception of place. If I go to places I have visited on Street View I feel I have been there before. This is not the same as seeing a photo of a street and then going there – the action of ‘walking’ along the road on screen translates to a ‘felt experience’ and becomes a memory.

I recently read the Lights Out for the Territory by Iain Sinclair using Street View and the internet. I followed Sinclair’s routes, some twenty years after him, looking up his references as I went along, many unfamiliar, this deepened my experience of the text. The highlight was ‘arriving’ at the park where Rachel Whiteread’s House had stood in 1993. I compared pictures then with Streetview now – the house has gone. Another absence. All the while I was on the sofa.

I choose places I know well. I grew up in Hammersmith so my experience of the streets, roads and pavements, the river and parks was formed in childhood. Children have a more tactile relationship with place. They are closer to the ground and use it in play. In Hammersmith there were ramps I roller-skated down, paving where I played hopscotch, rode a bike, crouched down to play with marbles, jacks etc. I use these visceral memories to recreate a landscape for fiction. The places take on magical proportions so when I have revisited them in real life (and on Street View) – I think not only of my childhood, but of the fictional events that have happened there.

I think we're both fans of Gaston Bachelard - the way you created tension in the story through basements, attics, the quirks of the houses was wonderful. As I said in my review, you have the enviable knack of crafting a chilling sentence - I really did double-check our doors were bolted the night I sat up reading. How do you plan out your domestic spaces?

Yes, I was very excited by Bachelard. One thing that has stayed with me is his description of how birds form the space within their nests by pushing their chests against the walls so that in effect the inside of the nest reflects inversely the shape of the bird. The bird and its living space are in direct relation. Saying this now makes me think of Rachel Whiteread’s House again – the space turned inside out. Rebecca Silnot talks about how by walking we mould our landscapes – a footprint is a trace of a human presence and paths are formed by many of presences. Empty spaces fascinate me, filled as they are by absences of presences. Evidence of lives lived. I always want to know about those lives.

The house in The Perfume Garden is has stayed in my mind – the lost room. What a terrific idea. I am also interested in spaces that are occupied less than others like attics and in the next novel after The Detective’s Daughter there is a basement. When planning these domestic spaces, I choose real buildings that I have only seen from the outside, and invent the inside . I revisit it so often in my mind it takes on a reality.

While we're talking about planning - do you plot your stories carefully before writing? The way you handled the storylines crossing time and place is fluid, but anchored by touchstones that appear in the past and the present - the steps by the river, the sculpture. Was this a deliberate choice?

Photo: Lesley Thomson. Where Kate Rokesmith's body was found ...

Yes it was deliberate. I write what I like to read. I love books where place has as great a part to play as the protagonists. I want to give readers a topographical familiarity which allows them to make the places their own. The Detective’s Daughter is the first of a series – many of the places (the sculpture and the river ...) will feature again. I have a rough plan before I start writing, fuelled by a theme or an image. I know the ending. I continue to map the story as I write as well as map where I’ve been so that by the end I can see the whole novel. On a redraft I’ll seed clues or connections into the chapters, even move chapters if necessary. The plan is only complete when the novel is finished; rather a counter intuitive process!

There's a great psychological depth to the characters. I've been reading up on sociopaths for a new story, and found your handling of the killer's character fascinating and accurate. Do you do a lot of research?

I did an enormous amount of research. For The Detective’s Daughter I read articles, books and talked to psychotherapists. In addition to this the subject is an abiding interest – how someone crosses a line, why and then what happens - so I had already read much. I studied John Bowlby’s works on Attachment Theory – this looks at how children are connected to their parents and what happens if that connection is threatened or broken.

However, I only ever include about 5% of what I gain through research. I am careful to ‘wear this knowledge lightly’. My intention is to write a compelling story that engages, intrigues and perhaps stays with the reader for a while. That’s the kind of story I love. The research is to bolster plausibility not sink the story with a weight of information.

Does the starting point for the characters come from people you have met in 'real life'? What's the spark?

No. The characters build themselves in the course of the story. I might take notice of a particular behaviour and be interested to know its cause or the motivation, but actual people are fully formed, they leave no room for me as a writer to invent them!

I found the relationship that develops between Stella (the 'detective's daughter', and owner of a cleaning company), and Jack (a driver on the underground), really kept me guessing right to the end. Both have chosen solitary lives, both are obsessive in their particular ways. Are you interested by people on the margins of society?

Yes, outsiders have always interested me and attracted me, anyone who forges a life against odds or against the grain. These two are outsiders for different reasons that I hope tell us something about ourselves: what we are and what we are not.

What was it like revisiting characters from 'A Kind of Vanishing' in this new story?

It was stimulating. In the case of Mrs Ramsay I felt her story was not done. She lingered on in my imagination. This question brings me back to your question about place. This story is set close to where Mrs Ramsay lives, I wanted those readers who recognised this to make the spacial connection and become more familiar with the area – they have been there before in fiction as they might on Street View. We experience place through memory and associations as well as in the present, I want to write fiction that reflects this.

What's next for you - will we be hearing more from Stella Darnell?

Yes, I have just completed another novel in which Stella features and I am doing the research and reading for the third.

Thank you, Lesley. If you'd like to read 'The Detective's Daughter' it is available here. You can find out more about Lesley's work at www.lesleythomson.co.uk

Something for the weekend ...

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:55:00 +0000

Exciting to see that Piper have just published 'Der Zauber ferner Tage'.

This is a free ebook, so please download and share:

Germany: http://www.amazon.de/Der-Zauber-ferner-Tage-ebook/dp/B00DCMRFIS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371102502&sr=8-1&keywords=kate+lord+brown+das+zauber

US: http://www.amazon.com/Der-Zauber-ferner-Tage-ebook/dp/B00DCMRFIS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371102482&sr=8-1&keywords=das+zauber+kate+lord+brown

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=das+zauber+kate+lord+brown

I really am going off to get on with writing now:) Enjoy the guest posts, and the ebook.

Have a great weekend x

The Story So Far ...

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:43:00 +0000

Home Sweet Home - Shamal sandstorm 11/6

Celebrating Five Years of W'Kate'DN with Ben Folds Five

How are you all? We're in the middle of shamal sandstorms here - 72kph winds, mid 40s and humid. On the road, it's like driving in dense white fog. Standing in the garden is like being in the middle of a sandblaster, and the frangipani tree was ripped up by its roots. As a friend joked, it saves on exfoliating cream.

Housekeeping first: apologies to those of you who subscribe to the blog - Feedburner went bonkers over the weekend and sent out old posts. Everyone has 'challenges' to cope with and WKDN was set up as a global writers' group to be entertaining and help you with your writing. Negative posts are dull (and inadvisable) - the key to surviving as an expat is looking for the positive each day, and the blog is usually edited to reflect this. So, whoops - apologies, a post that was 'cooling off' before editing was automatically published, and one from a year ago. Any advice from the technically minded of you? Feedburner has no customer helpline... (which isn't very helpful). From what I've learnt this is a regular glitch. Maybe we've been lucky before now - hopefully it won't happen again.

WKDN has - incredibly - just passed it's 5th anniversary. Five years blogging, sixteen years married this week, (happy anniversary, Mr Pilot in Guangzhou ...). The blog tour finishes at Luxury Reading today, and there's a giveaway. Thank you to all of you who have read the posts over the last five years, reviewed the books, and entered the contests. I hope you've all enjoyed the last few months touring the blogosphere. It's been interesting taking some time out to promote 'The Perfume Garden' - a lot of 'firsts': first festival, first book column, first TED video, first time publishing a short ebook (first Amazon #1) ...

Now, back to work. This is just the beginning. Setting aside the personal, five years ago I was an unpublished writer with two novels under my belt. In those five years, I've signed with a great agent, published two subsequent novels, and I'm writing two more. With six novels behind me, I know what I want to write next, and where I want to be in another five years. Julia Hobsbawm posted this on Twitter today:

"3 key words for working woman: Ambition, Success and Achievement: no masking with self deprecation or worry that this means She-Devil"

How about you? What do you want to achieve in the next five years?

It may get a little quiet around here, but there are some great guest posts coming up, and I hope you'll enjoy discovering some new writers. In the meantime, here's a few photos from my own 'perfumed garden' and the last couple of months.

Thank you. Here's to ambition, success and achievement - and happy writing x

The Story of Before

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Today I'm delighted to welcome Susan Stairs to WKDN. 'The Story of Before', her debut novel, is published today:

Q Welcome, Susan - and congratulations on the publication of your debut novel. How does it feel?

Thanks so much, Kate and thanks also for inviting me to contribute to WKDN. Publication brings with it conflicting emotions. Excitement laced with anxiety! But hopefully excitement will win out and the nerves will take a back seat. It’s also a little surreal. I dreamed this day would come but for a long time it was just that – a dream – so it’ll take a while for the reality of it to sink in.

Q Can you tell us about 'The Story of Before'? I love the title by the way - was it always called this, or did you find coming up with the right title difficult?

Thanks! Everyone seems to love the title, which is great to hear. No, it’s not the original title. After deliberating on many titles while writing the novel, I eventually settled on one which I was happy with. My agent wasn’t sure about it though, so we began coming up with alternatives. After many emails over many days, The Story of Before was one we each came up with separately, so that was a good sign, and we both really liked it.

Q What's your publication story - is this the first novel you've written? How did you get your publishing deal?

I’ve been writing for a long time - books on Irish art and artists – and also two unfinished novels. I began The Story of Before while I was studying for my MA in Creative Writing at University College Dublin and spent eighteen months working on it after I graduated. When I finished it, I began submitting chapters to agents and was fortunate to be offered representation by two of them. I chose Lucy Luck of Lucy Luck Associates and she got me my publication deal with Corvus Atlantic.

Q You worked in the arts for a long time - how do you think this has informed your writing? Do you write very visually?

I like to think I write visually. When I’m reading, I must be able to imagine the setting, ‘see’ the characters etc if a book is to engage me and I hope I’m able to achieve that in my own writing too. I was involved in the arts for a long time – as a child, I was constantly drawing, I studied Visual Communications at art college, opened an art gallery with my husband, researched, wrote and published several books on Irish art – so I suppose it’s inevitable that all that has found its way into my writing. I’m constantly amazed at the power of words – how they can be used to conjure up imaginary worlds that are vibrant and believable. When I’m writing, I like to think I’m painting a story with words.

Q At WKDN we often talk about the constant juggling act between creative work and family life. As a mother of four, what would your top tips be?

It’s different for everyone. I don’t think there’s any magic formula or ‘best’ way to do it. You just have to find a way that suits you, whether that be snatched half hours here and there, one full day a week, or writing when the rest of the house sleeps. My youngest has just turned 18, so at this stage, I don’t have the demands of a very young family. But while I was writing The Story of Before, two of my children were still at school and I had to deal with all that that entails. When you’re writing at home, you’ll find distractions everywhere you look, but you just have to try and focus on the writing and not worry too much about keeping the house clean etc. It isn’t easy when you have dependents. There were many times I was in full flow but had to break off to bring one child to football training, another to a medical appointment or simply to go to the shops because there was no food in the house! If you want it badly enough, you’ll find the time and whether it takes a year or five it doesn’t matter. You get on with it, you keep going and one day you realise you’ve actually written a novel.

http://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/The%20Story%20of%20Before

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Before-Susan-Stairs/dp/0857899074/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367485284&sr=1-1&keywords=susan+stairs

http://www.lucyluck.com/authordetailpages.aspx?pgid=2&recid=65

Home

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 30 May 2013 06:53:00 +0000

How are you all? Here's a question for you - where is home?

"Your home is within you, you carry your place in the world." This line from The Perfume Garden is going viral - some property company in the US started a meme advertising their services using it, and it's now popping up on threads all over the place. So is 'perfume is the key to your memories' - perfume sites and enthusiasts seem to have picked up on that one. It's intriguing that they resonate with people. Maybe I should forget writing novels and go into advertising ... After a flying visit to the UK, the truth of the first is bittersweet.

Walking across the bridge to the South Bank to see James Salter interviewed, I could see my old college, the Courtauld Institute, which is housed in Somerset House (left of the picture, above). I walked this route hundreds of times from our studio in Kennington. (To show how green I was when I arrived in London as a teenager, I thought I was going to see a surprisingly cheap studio in KenSington when I answered the ad in the Evening Standard).

Salter was wonderful - how great is it when your heroes live up to your hopes? Amusing, present, self-deprecating, distancing himself politely from the fresh interest in his work - and you sensed the drive, discontent and ambition that has kept him writing all these years. Esquire's assessment as 'the only 87 year old sex symbol' was also on the nail. I'll treasure the signed copy of 'All That Is' which sits on my desk with the pile of books from the UK. It will be a talisman to keep writing, and keep writing better work.

So, London was one home that I escaped to as soon as I could leave Devon. In the continuing Pinteresque weirdness that is living on a claustrophobic gated compound in the Middle East, friends here are now looking at a house in the remote Devon village I grew up in (other friends here have just bought in the village I rode in every day with my best friend). Happy for them ... life's sometimes too strange.

During last week's whistle-stop tour of the UK, I was also in Suffolk on the East Coast - another home. Here, I saw 'The Perfume Garden' in the wild for the first time - it was quite a moment seeing it on the shelves of Waitrose supermarket alongside Santa Montefiore's latest:

Suffolk was beautiful, wild, and rainy - magnolia and lilac in full, heady blossom in the garden. The lawn had grown knee deep as no one had been in the house for a few months, and the night I arrived it was a vivid, fresh green like a scene from a Kurosawa movie.

Maybe there's something restless about this time of the year, too? It's wonderful seeing our goddaughter finishing up exams, with a whole summer of firsts ahead - first love, first driving lessons. Glory days. I remember it all vividly - maybe you're the same, where does the time go? Daft Punk soundtracked the hundreds of miles I drove last week - it reminded me of that summer of exams 'back in the olden days' as my daughter says, listening to Chic and Sister Sledge (yes, you are officially old when Nile Rogers and Giorgio Moroder are on these new tracks as vintage legends). Remember that sense that life was just beginning ..?

This summer we are closing down three houses, three homes and moving on. It is, as I said, bittersweet. My 96 year old grandmother lived in her house in Warwickshire her whole adult life - right now the garden is a riot of bluebells, the orchards are full of apple and cherry blossom. I found out over the weekend that the house is the oldest in the village, the same vintage as the pub which bears the legend '1607' over the lintel. That permanency is exotic and beguiling right now - even global nomads need roots somewhere.

So, a week of mixed emotions and memories - which is maybe why some US property company filching that line about 'home' resonated. We don't belong there now, and absolutely don't belong here. There is nothing like being surrounded on a day to day basis by what you are not to clarify what you are. I appreciated simple things last week - being able to walk hand in hand with your partner, to wear what you want, seeing happy dogs snuffling around in public spaces, pub lunches, the age and beauty of the country. However, as an expat you have to make the best of where you are, and 'plant your trees'. This is home for now. Maybe you do carry your 'home' within you - I believed it when I wrote it. All of these incredible places and people you have loved shape you. It doesn't make it any easier saying farewell.

It was touching, hearing the memories of my grandmother from friends and family (all the Celtic clans descended from miles around for the service, mighty voices belting out 'Love Divine' and 'Jerusalem'). The tributes and readings - John O'Donohue, especially, were touching. And I loved it that our remarkable Mamgu, the matriarch of the family, who barely came up to my waist towards the end, quietly left the same Joyce Grenfell poem to be found, and read at her memorial, just as my paternal grandmother had:

"If I should go before the rest of you,
Break not a flower nor inscribe a stone,
Nor, when I am gone, speak in a Sunday voice,
But be the usual selves that I have known.

Weep, if you must, parting is hell,
But life goes on, so sing as well."

Have a great weekend. Happy writing - and singing x

Having It All ...

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Mon, 27 May 2013 09:32:00 +0000

How are you all? Just back from London here, exchanging Spring rain and bluebells for searing heat and dust. It was a great trip - but more of that later. Today I'm welcoming fellow writer and expat Liz Fenwick to WKDN, where she shares her tips for the great juggling act all writers with families face. Over to Liz ...

Being a writer, an expat, a mother, a wife and a friend doesn't leave a lot time spare in my average week. In fact because my children all go to school in the UK and I live with my husband in Dubai it feels at times like I live on a plane or more truthfully in between places, never quite where I want to be except when I am finally in Cornwall where we have out permanent home. This morning here in Cornwall it is unseasonably cold but the sun is shining and the sky is blue, but not the blue of Dubai or even London. On this bright crisp morning it is a watercolour wash of cerulean blue which will intensify as the day progresses into a deep cerulean as the sun rises higher in the sky.

And that's the thing... it's hard to find the time to notice the sky's different shades, my children's accomplishments and making their favourite foods, write the next book, listening to a friend's triumphs. I'm not entirely sure how I do it or sometimes even if I do it at all. Some days it feels like I am fire fighting and not doing anything well. What I call my bounce disappears and I need something or someone to help me back on track. This week on Thursday my second book A Cornish Affair was out. I woke in the morning with zero bounce. I had spent the day before in Manchester with my oldest child and doing research for book 3. I arrived back in London at 11 PM. It had been a wonderful day but left me very tired on launch day. But the huge support for me and my book on Facebook and Twitter lifted my step and allowed me to bounce through the day.

So what are my tips...I don't have many to be honest. I try prioritise but I'm hopeless. I tend to fall back on what I did in university when the tasks in front of me seem insurmountable...begin with the easiest and then once I've started I keep going and I begin to feel good because things are happening...My family always comes first, but it can be touch and go when deadlines strike!

For my writing...when all else fails I use an egg timer set to twenty minutes and that seems to unlock the words. Twenty minutes is easy and so it proves to be.

A CORNISH AFFAIR

Running out on your wedding day never goes down well. When the pressure of her forthcoming marriage becomes too much, Jude bolts from the church, leaving a good man at the altar, her mother in a fury, and the guests with enough gossip to last a year.

Guilty and ashamed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a crumbling cliff-top mansion in Cornwall, where she takes a job cataloguing the Trevillion family's extensive library. The house is a welcome escape for Jude, full of history and secrets, but when its new owner arrives, it's clear that Pengarrock is not beloved by everyone.

As Jude falls under the spell of the house, she learns of a family riddle stemming from a terrible tragedy centuries before, hinting at a lost treasure. And when Pengarrock is put up for sale, it seems that time is running out for the house and for Jude.

You can find 'A Cornish Affair' here and at all good bookstores.

If you haven't discovered Liz's great blog, I highly recommend it. For sheer professionalism, and how to handle the business side of being a writer, Liz's advice on social media and marketing your work can't be beaten. I first 'met' Liz several years ago through the Romantic Novelists' Association blog, and assumed she was a published author. It has been great following her path to publication, and lovely to catch up with her at Emirates Lit Fest earlier in the year. Thank you, Liz - and wishing you every success with 'A Cornish Affair'.

America

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Sun, 19 May 2013 07:47:00 +0000

How are you all? I have some wonderful news to share - 'The Perfume Garden' is going to be published in the US by Thomas Dunne/St Martin's in 2014. I am over the moon. When the news came in, the pilot was in Bangkok, so I took the children to Johnny Rocket's diner to celebrate - it is about as close to a real US diner as you can get here, with jukeboxes on the table and the thick shakes they love that give you brain freeze. The culture here is at least a cosmopolitan one - being able to do your grocery shopping at Dean & Deluca's, or take the children for apple pie a la mode is a saving grace.

The children have grown un-English living here for three years - they both have American accents, all their cultural references come from the US. It's probably become obvious over the years of this blog that I love America. I've just written a book set in the 1970s and gave the ten year old girl all the exotic obsessions I had - growing up in the UK I loved Nancy Drew, DC Comics, desperately wanted 'sneakers' like the Three Investigators rather than Dunlop Green Flash pumps.

We've been lucky enough to explore the country many times. Our road trips around New England, California have been some of the best of my life. We travelled around the world with hand luggage, and I loved the US leg of the trip - the liberty of setting off with only the vaguest idea where you're heading, not sure where you'll end up that night. There is still a romance to Route 66, to diners housed in old Airstream Caravans, to hummingbirds in Ojai, to eating fresh lobster on a beach at night with an ocean stretching between us and 'home'.

The pilot's parents lived in New York for many years - I still remember the first summer there after graduating. One day we walked the length of the city from the World Trade Centre back up to their apartment near the UN. It was a great day - one that sticks in your memory and your heart. I still remember passing the iconic Flatiron building, and to think that 'The Perfume Garden' has found a home there with such a great publisher is - well, it's wonderful. New York was everything I hoped it would be - jazz clubs, and cigar bars, MoMA, Zabars. I loved the road trips up to the Hamptons and Cape Cod, listening to the same few tapes over and over again - Simon & Garfunkel's Central Park concert, the Steve Miller Band. As I wrote in my first (unpublished), novel ‘In America, even the road names have a sense of possibility,’ he used to say, ‘highway, freeway …’

So, thank you to all the American readers of this blog for your support, and to the publishing professionals who have made this possible - I am beyond thrilled that this book is going to be published in the US. And thank you to all of you who downloaded the free prequel - over the weekend it was #2 in the UK, #2 in Canada, #1 in Germany and #17 in the US in short fiction. I've been trying to think of a way to keep it free for those who want to read it (the Amazon promotion only allows 5 free days as an author - from Tuesday it's going to click up to the minimum price I could set, 99 cents). Once the tie-in period is over, (Amazon likes to keep it exclusive ...), I'll publish on Smashwords for free to make the Amazon price come down to zero. Meanwhile, I've put 'The Last Rose of Summer' on this blog, and on my main website as a free downloadable pdf - so read, share, enjoy - and thank you.

This week, Historical Fiction Virtual Tours takes over the book tour, and the links are all here. There are some great sites taking part, so do join in. Meanwhile, I'm flying to London to hear my great literary hero, James Salter, talk at the literary festival on the Southbank. Can't wait - and shall report back. Have a great week, and happy writing x

Thank you ...

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:44:00 +0000

If you feel like escaping to Spain this weekend, I have a small 'thank you' for you all. 'The Last Rose of Summer' is a prequel to 'The Perfume Garden' that my German editor suggested writing. It's coming out as a German ebook next month, but I thought it would be a good way to say thanks to you all for your support if it came out in English too. The short story is free, here for a couple of days:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Rose-Summer-ebook/dp/B00CSH8X48/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1368709819&sr=8-5&keywords=kate+lord+brown

It's also up on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kate+lord+brown+the+last+rose+of+summer

So please download, read, share and enjoy while it's free.

Thank you - and have a great weekend x

Location, Location

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:52:00 +0000

Photo: Valencia, Piers Garnham.

Spain's 'third' city - this plaza is at the heart of 'The Perfume Garden'.

Wouldn't you like to be sharing tapas, or enjoying a celebratory

glass of Cava here? I would ...

How many books do you think you read each year? We've run out of bookcases, again. Even with Kindle, books seem to multiply in this house. Three years ago I arrived with a handful of paperbacks for the MA, wondering if even these would make it through the censorship department. There are no real or second-hand bookstores here - just a handful of blockbuster books in Virgin, a careful selection of English titles in the mainly Arabic bookshop/stationers. Somehow though, through trips home, research books via courier, and the thriving expat second hand market there are over 300 physical books at home, (plus another couple of hundred on Kindle). How did that happen?

I miss browsing bookstores, but the way we discover books is changing. I love book bloggers, and the grass-roots network of book review sites. For many of us you hear about a great new book or writer online first. Maybe you download the Kindle sample. Then, if you are anything like me, you end up buying the best books on Kindle and in real-life (I'm looking at the gorgeous box set of Edward St Aubyn's 'Melrose' novels beside me). That's how the 500+ books in three years happened. But what about the huge numbers of people whose reading isn't influenced by online sites? I remember the last time we were home in the UK I overheard two shelf-stackers in Sainsbury's supermarket whispering furtively about '50 Shades' - to go viral, you still need to hit that tipping point where a book leaps into the collective consciousness. How do you think that happens - word of mouth? paper reviews? availability in real bricks and mortar - whether that's supermarkets or book stores?

Restacking the shelves here yesterday, I came across these images taken for 'The Perfume Garden' by a friend in Valencia. As we've said many times before, the 'method' approach to writing - surrounding yourself with images, music works. Now, instead of printing out photographs and making mix CDs (like back in the olden days - oh, two years ago), I use Pinterest and Deezer to create the storyboards and playlists for books, and you might find that helpful too. I put up a tiny part of The Perfume Garden's playlist here - each one of the songs has a Pavlovian effect (Sarah McLachlan, Eva Cassidy, Beth Neilsen Chapman = the poignant, reach for the Kleenex parts of the book, The Foals = the battle sequences).

Seeing those photographs of Valencia made me want to jump on the next plane. The location of the book was central to the story - the continuity of the ancient architecture, the beauty of the mountains, the sea, the orange groves, provided a link between past and present. The story's twin-timeline has divided people, so I was pleased when Leah over at Chicklit Reviews and News asked me to write about this for the blog tour. The subject also came up on one of the histfic groups on Goodreads, and someone pointed out this list of past/present stories. How many of these have you enjoyed? As I said over at Leah's, I love twin timelines, and it's interesting to note how many of the top 100 have been made into blockbuster movies (The Help, The Notebook, The Hours, Sarah's Key, Time Traveller's Wife ...). These are great, complex stories that made the leap off the bookshelves and into everyday life - the titles are familiar, part of our collective culture as films and books.

So here's the thought for the day - the old mantra about 'location, location' still counts 100% for physical property, businesses, but do you think it matters with books? Every author is aware of the need for platform, discoverability - but does it matter how people find you, as long as they do? What do you think is the 'x-factor' that allows a story to cross over from the world of hard-core readers to every day culture? Answers on a postcard, or in the comments below. x

The Great Escape

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Tue, 07 May 2013 08:20:00 +0000

How was your weekend? I found these beautiful orchids on my desk when I sat down to work today - a gorgeous surprise from Bangkok. Here, the sun's out, the garden is blooming after the freak storms (including hail), and our resident pair of mynah birds are chattering and nesting. I loved hearing from the UK that the Bank Holiday was bright and sunny, and seeing people's photos of familiar parks and bluebell woods blazing with colour. It was a 'normal' weekend here - pilot in Thailand, two visits from the tooth fairy, a sick child finally back at school today. And work. I love the truth in this pin: 'a writer never has a vacation. Life consists of either writing or thinking about writing'.

There is no 'day off'. Writing and reading is as necessary as breathing to a writer. As you fall asleep, and the moment you wake, images and lines for a new story bloom in the quiet spaces of your consciousness. It's hard to imagine not having half your psyche filled with the chatter of fictional characters.

Only when you are reading do you escape. Even then, half the time, you are noting how the writer did this, or that, and how to conjure up the effect. But reading is the great escape. This is why I was so glad to support 'Laysh?' a local initiative by TEDx to support literacy. It's something I feel passionately about - as I do about libraries. It's fun seeing 'The Perfume Garden' appearing on more and more sites, but the best one I have seen lately is a county library site in the south of the UK that has 80 copies, and a long list of 'on loan', 'on loan' ... Libraries have been a lifeline to me at various times of my life - as a broke student with an expensive reading habit, as a young mother where Saffron Walden library's children's section preserved a shred of sanity. I love libraries, and I love the idea that maybe these books are holding out that lifeline to someone who needs it now. There's been a lot of debate recently in the UK after 'Horrible Histories' Terry Deary said libraries have had their day. I'm with Julia Donaldson - libraries 'create readers'. As a non-resident Brit, I don't earn any PLR fees from these loans, (though bizarrely you can earn Irish PLR, and ALCS fees). It would be helpful, but I care more that the books are out there being lent and borrowed, and engaging readers.

Meanwhile, congratulations to all those who have won copies of 'The Perfume Garden', including: Aimie, Julie, Loise, Emily, Frankie, Claire, Marie, Natalie and Tasneen. Thank you to all of you who have entered. The blog tour continues today, at Liz Fenwick's blog where we are talking about 'running away'.

So, here's the thought for the day: have you ever run away? Comments below, or at Liz's post. Do you 'run away' into books, escaping into fictional worlds? Do you think libraries have had their day - or can they, and books, be the great escape?

Happy writing - and reading x

PS if you have young children, and would like to foster a love of reading, here's a tip: I convinced my children early on that going to the library was a treat. Being allowed to choose their own books, and borrow them was a *reward* for good behaviour. It works ;)

Save Nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:59:00 +0000

Thank you, pilot

It feels like Christmas. Hot off the plane from Washington, I have the new James Salter sitting on my desk beside me as I write, bathed in sunlight. Have you read it yet? Forget #amwriting, #amreading for the weekend. It was top of my wishlist, (it's a bit like receiving aid parcels when the pilot gets home from the US - his flight bag explodes with all the things you can't get here - books, magazines, favourite sweets for the kids - and last night, bicycle inner tyres and a dog bed). Thank you, pilot. It was genuinely more thrilling than if he had clicked open his flight bag and handed me diamonds from Tiffany's.

'All That Is' is a thing of beauty, a deckle edged hardback. Ebooks are a necessity, but there is nothing - nothing like the promise and beauty of a new hardback with an unbroken spine from one of the finest writers of our era. I haven't started reading yet - Salter's first novel in thirty years needs to be savoured. His work, above all, I love. There are writers and books you adore, and re-read again and again, (Ford, Boyd, Shields, Trapido, Sagan, Nin, Colette ... 'The Little Prince' ...), the intellectual equivalent of a crutch, or a shot of adrenaline, or a comfort blanket perhaps, depending on the writer and how you are reading at that moment. Then there's Salter.

It's a little like admiring an Olympic athlete. His body of work is present and focused - lean, fluid, and beautiful. In one of his notebooks, Salter wrote the instruction to himself: 'Save Nothing'. There's that too, the sense of someone at the top of his game pushing himself even further each time, to the raw limits of his ability, constantly striving for gold. Anyway, you get the picture - I admire the man and his books more than I can say. If you've never read Salter, you're in for a treat. The first time I read 'A Sport and a Pastime' it was narcotic. 'Light Years' is still my favourite book of all time. When I found out via Twitter that Salter is going to be speaking at the South Bank in London at the end of May, I booked a ticket. Now just to figure out the logistics of getting there from the Middle East ...

Meanwhile (I feel like Wayne and Garth genuflecting: 'we're not worthy, we're not worthy ...' tagging this on to a post about Salter), 'The Perfume Garden' tour continues over at Female First. Have a great weekend, and if you, like me are putting the lid on your ink pen and reading not writing - enjoy. If you are writing, remember that instruction from a great man:

SAVE NOTHING.

Cover Reveal ...

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:23:00 +0000

That's a lovely surprise. Just come across the beautiful Polish cover for 'The Perfume Garden', aka 'The Smell of Bitter Orange'. It's out 23/5/12, which is exciting.

In other news, congratulations to Rhian, winner of the audiobook - it will be in the post to you tomorrow. Thanks to all of you who entered.

All the links to the blog tour are here. Next stop, Female First on Thursday.

Happy writing ... x

The Time is Now

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:36:00 +0000

How are you all? I'm being interviewed over at Jera's Jamboree today, with advice for aspiring writers, and a giveaway.

I was just listening to some Ella to celebrate what would have been her 96th birthday. We've spoken often about her on WKDN, she's one of my all time favourites, a musical and modest genius - remember her 'it's the song not the singer' line? I came across 'Heart and Soul'. Hands up who can play that on the piano? It's one of those melodies, along with Chopsticks and Fur Elise, that anyone who touched a piano as a child can still play. It's the only duet my daughter and I can play - yet. She's learning piano for the first time, I'm re-learning. She has a wonderful Russian violinist from the Qatar Philharmonic teaching her, meanwhile I'm picking up where I left off, mooching around with jazz songbooks and Oscar Peterson's scales, with considerably less skill than my eleven year old.

But it's fun. Giving up music was always a regret - so I've started playing again. As was giving up French after school - so I'm having lessons to become fluent. They're both things I love that got lost somewhere along the way. The number one lesson I have learnt in the last year it is that life is short, and fast, and far too sweet to have any regrets.

Second Lesson: whatever it is that you have dreamt of doing, that time is now. Start making it happen - today. Break it down into achievable steps if you have to, but do it. Want to write a book? The only difference between all those millions of people who 'have a book in them' and the ones who write them is that writers sat down and wrote. They had the guts and determination to sit down day after day, month after month and write their hearts out. Next to raw talent, determination and perseverance are the single most important characteristics of a writer. Add patience to that. Not my strongest virtue, but you get used to it. Submissions to agents, publishers, take weeks, often months - everyone is busy. The best advice I can give is to get on with new work - do not, and I repeat from bitter experience six, seven years ago, do not pin all your hopes and dreams on one piece of work. The hope, the waiting nearly kills you.

So, Third Lesson: If you have work out there, go, write something fresh and new, and try and forget about it. Do not check emails compulsively, do not sit by the phone waiting for it to ring like a lovesick teenager waiting for 'him' or 'her' to call. These things come in good time. This morning I was looking through the file of work I have 'out there' before sending new work into the wild. There are articles and editorial planned and being published, new novels and ideas afloat, but a couple of short stories are still under consideration after months of waiting - since June last year. (I checked, they haven't got lost, it genuinely is taking that long ...). *Deep breath* repeat after me: 'patience is a virtue ...'

If you too have the patience of a grasshopper you have my sympathy. I wish you the ability to keep your eyes front and get on with writing new work, and not get distracted by all the hoo-haa on the internet. My new favourite Twitter stream is @dontgotogoodreads. You might enjoy the great tongue in cheek advice, like: "Just keep telling yourself that GR is for readers. If they wanted you around, they'd call it GoodAuthors. Go write your book."

So. Here's the question for the day: what do you love that you've left behind? What could you re-learn, or learn anew that would bring joy and fulfilment? If you feel like sharing, do comment below. And don't forget the copy of 'The Perfume Garden' audiobook giveaway - still a couple of days to enter, see the box below.

Let's finish with a thought for the day from the great Ray Bradbury: “Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The word is love." Perhaps the best lesson any of us can learn. If you need your faith in humanity restored, this via Buzzfeed, is a great collection of everyday miracles, and examples of love in its purest form. Have a great weekend, and happy writing x

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Word of Mouth

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:50:00 +0000

Something rather wonderful has been happening the last few days - this line from 'The Perfume Garden' is taking on a life of its own, popping up on perfumer's sites, perfume fanatics' Twitter feeds and Pinterest pages. One beautiful young French perfumer is even considering it as a tattoo. I don't know how, or why this particular line is taking hold -but it's great. I've always embraced the idea of readers making a book their own once it is out of the author's hands. To celebrate I designed this last night, using one of the gardenias currently blooming in our garden. If you like it, take it - feel free to copy the jpeg and post it wherever you like.

It's odd being so far away from home at a time like this. With the London Book Fair, and the excitement of all the deals and prizes being announced over the last week, you can feel rather ... isolated. However, a kind friend pinned this to my Facebook wall, (thank you Katie) - the first sighting of TPG in the wild at Heathrow Terminal 4.

It's a big moment - even at a distance of thousands of miles - to see this. We were talking last night about how things spread by word of mouth. Well, to be precise, I was apoplectic on behalf of the authors whose short stories I'd been looking at on Amazon, who had racked up stacks of 1* reviews from people who resented the fact that *free* stories by well known authors were short. Many of you might agree that short stories are hard - if not the hardest - fiction to write. It seems you can spend months getting them perfect only for the wrong type of word of mouth to come back at you. I said "I just don't get it. Who are these people handing out 1* reviews? What's the point? I only review something if I've loved it." "Well," the pilot said cautiously, "you're ... unusual." Which I think is the diplomatic way of echoing his lovely mother's words: 'neither of my children married normal people'.

What do you think? If you like something, do you bother to comment? The pilot tells me that when he worked as a headhunter, during one training session they were told that people are far more likely to speak up if they have a negative experience. In other words - people are hard wired to complain. Do you think that's right? Leave aside trolls and sockpuppets (my own favourite at the moment is the writer of historical fiction who has given TPG both a 1 and 2* on Google books using the same text, to bring down the overall rating as much as possible - *deep breath*). As we've said before, the best option - the only option - is to accept with good grace the good and bad reviews. So - question of the day: is there something about online reviewing that brings out the best and worst in people?

There's still time for you to win a copy of the new paperback of 'The Perfume Garden' over at Goodreads, and there are more guest posts coming this week, which I hope will introduce you to some great book blogs. There's also a giveaway widget on the blog for the copy of the audiobook which is up for grabs here - do enter before the end of the month, please spread the word :)

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Rise

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:04:00 +0000

Waking to the news from Boston, and my heart goes out to you all in America. There are no words. I was just thinking about Maya Angelou's great poem 'Still I Rise':

'Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise ...'

The rest of the poem is here. Its defiance seems like the right response this morning. Terrorism - the clue's in the name - wants to spread fear. I hope we all meet this latest atrocity with the opposite: strength and anger. My seven year old son went off happily to school this morning, but in Boston there is an empty space at a school desk where a little guy only a year older should have been this morning. Senseless, heartbreaking - I don't know where you even begin. But one thing I know for sure is that you rise up, and stand up for what you believe - and anyone with a shred of morality is standing side by side with the family of that little boy, and all those injured last night.

So, before checking the news streams this morning, I was out watering the garden at daybreak with the pug and the cat lolling around in the early morning sun. The gardenia is in flower, and the desert rose, and the scent is heavenly. I was thinking about work, and the updates coming in from the London Book Fair. I'd retweeted a couple of the most interesting points made by Neil Gaiman:

'We don't find the authors we love in a bookshop, we discover them, encounter them for free first'.

and

'Dandelions don't care who spreads their seeds. What matters is that the seeds are distributed'.

In the digital age, this makes perfect sense to me. The distribution of books is becoming more like music. For example, I listen to the local (only) English station every morning on the way to school - mainly because we like Bernard the Irish presenter, who sings along with the songs, the newsreader is a school Mum, and the city is so small you normally recognise a couple of the people who have phoned in requests. Yesterday they played Josh Groban - (see today's video). I'd never heard of him (sorry, any fans), but what a voice. I heard that first song for free - but have I paid to download several? Yes.

Free 'tasters' or samples are the way forward - it makes sense to me, and I'm going to start figuring out how to do this. Another interesting point picked up from LBF was: there are no gatekeepers any more, there are signallers. This is 'word of mouth' taken up to the next level. It is tweets, and likes, and blog reviews, and readers' Amazon/Goodreads rankings. Maybe some of you have seen this image posted on several authors' pages and streams:

This jpg came from here, but as Mr Baxter says, pass it on. These things matter - a lot. If you're not reviewed, and liked, you don't get picked up by review sites' algorithms - you don't 'rise' out of the millions of books online.

WKDN was set up five years ago as a virtual writer's circle, and in that time it has created a tribe spanning the globe, with hundreds of thousands of hits, and I hope it's doing what it set out to achieve - to inspire and help you with your writing. Each tribe, each circle overlaps - the internet at its best is a collective consciousness, and in an ideal world that's what we can do - support and help one another to rise up.

'The Perfume Garden' is newly published, and I'm trying to think of ways to help spread the word - any ideas, you know where the comment box is. If any of you have work coming out over the next few months, get in touch - guest posts and interviews are always welcome here. Today, I'm delighted to be over at the Historical Novel Society, being interviewed about family, secrets and Spain.

Today, in the spirit of sharing work for free, I'm going to try an experiment. 'The Perfume Garden' is a new book - it has a handful of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. If any of you have read it, or your friends have read it, and you would like to place an honest review or rank it on either site, I would be grateful. If you tell me the name you've posted under, or post the link to your review, tweet, Facebook comment or blog post, in the comment box below, at the end of the month I will put all the names of new reviewers in a hat, and send one copy of the audio book to the winner, anywhere in the world, dedicated to you as a thank you. You can hear a free sample, here. Or, if you don't do audio, I can send you a signed author copy of the paperback - let me know which you'd prefer.

Thanks. And in light of yesterday's events, it only seems fitting to end with the words Dad used to call after me every morning as he dropped me off for the school bus:

'Don't Forget to Smell the Flowers'

Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:02:00 +0000

The book tour for 'The Perfume Garden' continues over at Best Chick Lit today, where I'm talking about fragrance and memory, and there's a chance to win a copy: http://bestchicklit.com/?p=2438 Their review has to go down as one of the absolute favourites so far, because it begins:

'Let me start this review by saying I am not a fan of war books or stories revolving around historical moments. Until now. '

I know, I know - you're not supposed to read reviews, but one of the changing aspects of being a writer now is that it is impossible to avoid them. If you use Amazon, or Goodreads, or any online book site as a reader your reviews are there. (Weigh today's good review against the 2* corker I see every time I'm on Amazon: "Peseta Dreadful: I feel cheated out of £6.90". Sorry about that 'London Matron' - I don't think any writer ever sets out to deliberately cheat their readers).

If you can resist the temptation to read on to the reviews when you are checking your book stats on the author dashboards, you are a stronger person than me. Lisa Jewell wrote a fantastic post about book reviews recently that elegantly summarised this new part of the writing life. For what it's worth, I think the best advice is to take it on the chin - you can't please everyone; take a deep breath - don't be tempted to engage, or enlist your thousands of followers to go on the offensive; take a look at the other reviews this person has given - if you are their only review, there's a good chance they are a sockpuppet or troll and that the review has - as one editor put it - a distinct whiff of frustrated author about it; if they have given low ratings to other authors you love in the same genre, ditto - and take comfort that you're in good company. Just keep moving forwards, and keep doing better work. (There are some great quotes about reviews, here. My favourite is Iris Murdoch's: “A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.” ). Just get on with your work, and leave the reviewers to theirs.

Today was a good review day, however, and I'm grateful for it. Changing the mind of your reader, bringing something new to them, is one of the great treats of seeing your work published. I found out this week that 'El Jardin de los Perfumes' has just been published in Spain - that the story is coming 'home' is an incredible feeling, and I'm curious to see the response. At the end of a challenging week, which should have been a holiday, I am grateful for all these good things. It's the weekend, the pilot is back on his feet, the sun's shining. In your writing, it's not a bad practice to think each day of three small things you're grateful for - they add up, and over time add perspective. It changes you, cultivating a sense of thankfulness.

The last months have pulled a lot of things into sharp perspective, and now my lovely 96 year old grandmother passed away a few days ago. She stayed independent and in her own home right to the end, and her grace, faith and Celtic strength of character are examples I intend to carry with me. That's her legacy, and this is the blessing my sister chose for our father's funeral last year. I send it across the miles to my grandmother - and to all of you who could do with a little grace in your life this weekend:

ACeltic Blessing

Deep Peace

of the running wave to you

Deep Peace

of the flowing air to you

Deep Peace

of the quiet earth to you

Deep Peace

of the shining stars to you

Deep Peace

of the gentle night to you

Deep Peace

to you

Four-legged Friends and Fragrance

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:08:00 +0000

What is it like being a writer's muse? Today, Oscar is honoured to be Liberty London Girl's Foreign Correspondent: http://www.libertylondongirl.com/2013/04/03/dog-of-the-day-oscar-the-fawn-pug-in-association-with-dogs-trust/

Meanwhile, over at One More Page, I talk about the research that put perfume into 'The Perfume Garden' - and there is another giveaway.

Enjoy: http://www.onemorepage.co.uk/?p=9292

The Call

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:08:00 +0000

Easter 2013

If you've ever wondered what it is like to get 'the call' that your book is going to be published, why not head on over to Novelicious, where we are talking about 'book deal moments'. They are also giving away ten copies of 'The Perfume Garden' - enjoy:

Book giveaway! 10 copies of The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown up for grabs: http://www.novelicious.com/2013/04/my-book-deal-moment-by-kate-lord-brown-plus-a-massive-give-away.html htt

Come into the garden ...

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 07:37:00 +0000

Happy Easter to you all. It's publication day of 'The Perfume Garden' in paperback, and to celebrate I'm planning a month of giveaways. To begin with, Atlantic are generously giving away ten copies on Goodreads to UK readers, here:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Perfume Garden

by Kate Lord Brown

Giveaway ends May 01, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Life

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:04:00 +0000

How are you all? Today marks three years living in the Middle East. The pilot had gone on ahead, so three years ago I packed up our life into a container on a farm in Hampshire alone, (it is still there in storage - our life, I mean, not the farm. Though let's hope the farm is too). Heartbreakingly, we bade farewell to the Hound (who was on the 'banned dogs' list - what's an Afghan Hound going to do to you? Savage you with her elegance?). We left behind beloved friends, family. I had received 'the call' that all debut writers long for the night before I flew out with our small children. 'The Beauty Chorus' had found a home with the great team at Atlantic. A fairytale ending, (or beginning, depending on how you look at it), which if you read it in a novel you'd find hard to believe.

Now, three years on, where are we? The Emirates Lit Fest came at a good time - it is the creative equivalent of sticking your fingers in a socket. When I was at school, I had a cutting pinned above my desk: 'if you mix with talented people, you become talented'. Mixing with good, positive people is absolutely the key to survival as an expat. And for a writer, getting to spend time with some of the best writers on the planet was sensational.

To be honest the thought of a week with far more established, successful authors was humbling and daunting - but it was inspirational. My theory about the modesty of genius held out - the most brilliant writers were also the loveliest. Tan Twan Eng, for example, who was on the reading group panel, just won the Man Asian Literary Prize a couple of days ago. I first met him at one of the relaxed lunches, when the poet to my right, (who turned out to be the brilliant Jeet Thayil), casually mentioned they were up for the same prize again. I only later found out it was the Asian Booker Prize.

Moments that really stick out for me are these incredible conversations. With Antonio Carluccio about whittling walking sticks. With Tony Buzan about the importance of punctuality. With Geoff Dyer and his lovely wife about John Berger and photography. With Artemis Cooper about writing and family life. It was exhilarating to be around all of these extraordinary people at the top of their game. I feel lucky to have been part of it. So, now that I am back to desert, dust storms, 5am alarms, two hours a day of white-knuckle driving on the school run and real life - what to do with all these new ideas?

Are you a plotter or a pantster in life? In my teens and twenties I predictably read a lot of MBS books - awash with Deepak Chopra etc, earnestly setting off travelling around the world trying to figure out the meaning of life, world religions and philosophy. If any of you knows the answer, you know where the comment box is. One of the best books was Shakti Gawain's 'Creative Visualisation' - maybe you've read it? I used to be good at sitting down each year and projecting ahead - do you ever do this? What do you want to visualise and achieve in one, five, ten years? For the first time in ages I sat down last week and looked back - what have the last five years brought? Why don't you take five minutes and do the same - and if you feel like sharing some of your writing or life triumphs (or losses), comment below?

I think a lot of people are feeling like they are running on full throttle at the moment just to stand still. It can be good to step back and really see clearly what you have, and haven't done. For me, 5 years - the Good: a wonderful agent, publication in 7 languages so far, an MA, that this blog is still growing five years on, that our family is still together ... The Bad: well, there have been some interesting times, not least losing three parents ... When you see things in black and white it explains a *lot*.

These are the 'descansos' that the Jungian psychologist Clarissa Pinkola Estes talked about - the crosses on the road your life has taken. Daily Writing has a great post about how to mark these life events using her techniques. Why not have a go yourself, today? It's cathartic. It makes you appreciate all the day to day 'small' things, (healthy family, somewhere to call home - if not the home you carry in your heart, work, the fleeting miracle of being alive at all ...) When you see these marks on the paper, things start to make sense and it gives you perspective. As Estes wrote, there comes a time when you make a choice whether to give up or move on. Which choice are you going to make? Someone once said: falling down is part of life. Getting back up is living. Or take the zen route: fall down seven times, stand up eight.

For me, I just wrote a new five year plan yesterday that's ambitious, and inspiring. It involves crafting new books into the best shape they can be, new ideas, writing in new media - and unpacking that container on the farm. It's starting with the publication of 'The Perfume Garden' in paperback next month, and a brand new ebook - more of which soon. I've had Judy Dench's voice in my mind for the last couple of months writing Liberty's story, (and what a voice - don't you love today's quote?). So much so that reading the new story now, I hear and see Dame Judy, like a play. Do you find that happening with your characters? We had an interesting discussion on Facebook about who could play her attractive, silver fox ex - top votes were for Richard Gere, Alan Rickman. Think I'm still with Terence Stamp ... Enough boondoggling. But before settling down to your writing, why not enjoy today's video? Here's ~~Liberty~~ Dame Judy reading Sonnet 43 - enjoy.

TODAY'S PROMPT: I wonder sometimes about young celebs 'writing' memoirs in their teens. Do you think maybe it takes until midlife to get some perspective on anything, let alone yourself? Memoirs show how someone made sense of life. Exercises like the descansos can be useful triggers for writing from your own life experience. Why not try this - or borrow your children's coloured crayons as I did - and make a mindmap, brainstorm what you want to achieve in the short and longterm? Do you buy into the idea attributed to the Dalai Lama: "Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck." Or are you creating the world that you want? Happy writing.

Oasis

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:13:00 +0000

Spectacular is the first word that comes to mind thinking of my week in Dubai with the Emirates Festival of Literature. World-class is the second thought - a breathtaking location, some of the best writers in the entire world, and an event run with a staggering degree of professionalism and charm. Think desert camps, with poetry under the stars, graced by a visit from HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum:

Think feasting in the gorgeous surroundings of an old Dubai house, writers reclining on cushions in the majlis with a breeze from the windtowers cooling the midday heat. Imagine young girls offering incense and rosewater before you dine:

Then, cruising leisurely along the creek in Abras, a flotilla of writers:

Chris Cleave and Barry Cunningham

Kate and Greg Mosse, Anthony Beevor

Ben Okri and Jeet Thayil

Then there were the events. I may have been spoiled for life - my first panel ever was with award winning writers Chris Cleave and Tan Twan Eng, and it was an honour that 'The Perfume Garden' had been chosen for the Festival reading group along with their remarkable books. It was, as you can see, also great fun:

Photos: Emirates Festival of Literature

The days went by too fast - seeing beautiful Dubai, teaching workshops, being interviewed ...

I had the privilege to spend a three hour car journey to Abu Dhabi with Tony Buzan, the genius who invented mind maps - that was some conversation. Then, at an American Academy I spoke to five schools, a full auditorium of kids who posed some of the smartest questions I've ever heard about writing:

Every time you walked into the Green Room, it was like a 'who's who' of authors. At the dinners and events I found myself looking around the tables simply blown away by the talent that the Festival had gathered. When I wasn't working, I crammed in as many sessions as possible - heard Anthony Beevor, Artemis Cooper, Deborah Moggach, Simon Sebag Montefiore. It will take some weeks for all the new ideas to process but to say the week was inspiring is an understatement.

Lynda la Plante and Liz Fenwick

Photo: Liz Fenwick

The most heartening thing of all was to see people of all ages there, and loads of children. This was the book store at the beginning of the week - I have no idea how many thousands of books were sold but the Festival was buzzing with energy and huge crowds. People were queuing round the block for the signings, (for some writers like Jeffrey Archer they were signing for three hours - as an 'emerging writer' there's nothing like signing on the same table with literary stars such as Ben Okri, Kate Mosse and William Dalrymple to keep your ego in check:)

And then, in a suitably dramatic ending, the Festival ended with a bang when dhows moored opposite caught fire. Hopefully no casualties but it was a strangely poignant end to the week watching the charred carcasses of the old boats engulfed by flames ...

As I said, spectacular. I am immensely grateful to Emirates Airline, and to Isobel Abulhoul and her remarkable team. It's been a week of new contacts, friends, ideas - and as a writer/mother the sheer novelty of being able to leave papers on your hotel desk and discover them in exactly the same place when you return to writing can't be understated. If you get the chance to attend or participate in the Festival next year - jump at it. It truly is an oasis of creativity in the Middle East and the world. What a week. And then, to be greeted in Doha arrivals by a great whoop of delight and two small people racing through the barrier to throw themselves at me for a hug was a great end to Mother's Day. Happy writing to you all - and Happy Mother's Day x

Heart-Strong

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 05:22:00 +0000

How are you all? Getting ready for Emirates Festival of Literature in Dubai, here. Hopefully there's little chance of it being rained off, like the Festival of Historical Writing I was booked for last summer, when Roman legions and WW2 re-enactors had to be rescued from the flooded site and the author tent collapsed under the weight of water. The thought of a week away from home surrounded by writers and writing is exhilarating, and I can't wait. The pilot is gallantly hanging up his uniform and stepping up to childcare duty - the children think they are in for a week long party, the only concern 'what will we eat'? We'll see.

The Festival author list is sensational this year - maybe you can spot some of your favourites there. I'm really looking forward to the panel interviews, and the Masterclass has sold out, which is great news. The best workshops I've done have been busy, interactive, challenging, and I'm hoping this one will be too. What have been your best writing class experiences? Love to hear your ideas.

I'm teaching a workshop in Abu Dhabi to 100+ kids at an American school too (which I imagine will make the adult class look like a cakewalk). The practice run here was a hoot - heckled mercilessly for an hour by 7 - 11 year olds. It was worth the prep - I have reached the 'gah Mum you're so lame' stage here and I wanted to check I didn't come across as totally uncool (which in itself is probably an excruciatingly uncool phrase to an 11 year old ...). Sometimes I think being a parent is absolutely the best thing for keeping any remote sense of ego in check.

I'll report back in a week with all the latest news, tips and advice on writing. Everywhere I look at the moment on You-Twit-Face are comments like: 'hold your nerve'. It's not an easy economic time for anyone, and the publishing game is changing rapidly. But I'm a big believer in simply doing the best work you can, constantly striving to raise your game. (A great tumblr I saw the other day said: ~~Good things come to those who wait~~. Good things come to those who work their asses off and never give up).

This is just the beginning. Keep your head up, keep heart-strong - and keep writing. x

Traces of Love

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:31:00 +0000

'The only thing of importance when we depart

will be the traces of love left behind'

-Schweitzer

Happy New Year - how are you all? Raring to go, resolutions in place? It's unusually cold in the desert. I write with a pug on my feet and a cat wedged behind my back on the desk chair - I like to think it's love, but they are probably trying to keep warm. The shamal is whipping through the palm trees, sand snaking across the road like djinns. I've just done a photoshoot for the local equivalent of 'Hello' - less 'welcome to my gracious home' than 'oh Lord, where can I hide all the Lego and will they notice there's dog hair all over the sofa'. My daughter said to me 'it's not a bikini photoshoot is it?' - something even I hadn't thought to panic about. Fortunately, not.

So how were your holidays? We were in the UK for a couple of weeks over Christmas, the first time in three years. It was peaceful, rainy, cold - muddy walks, slow-cooking stews and soups, building a log fire each night - the perfect remedy for a tough year. I finished the first draft of the new book, (there's something zeitgeisty about the 70s setting - Bowie's new single, the Glam Rock exhibition in London, a Hockney retrospective ...). Do you buy into the idea of synchronicity - of the signs that the world throws at you if you're on the right track? I've lived with a hero who is like the lovechild of David Bowie and Terence Stamp for the last months - entertaining but high maintenance. Now pop culture seems to be having a 70s moment.

Writing historical fiction about an era you've lived through has been interesting - not only fact meets fiction, but personal history. In Dad's papers, I found some photographs of the house in today's picture. It was the house I almost grew up in. For him, it was the one that got away, a ghost house that haunted him - and I hadn't realised how much it affected me until I saw the photographs and realised it's always, always the house I have in mind writing, the domestic protagonist. I still remember vividly walking through its empty rooms, the slumbering outbuildings. Maybe that's something to think about with your work too - do you think the people you love shape the ghosts that haunt your writing, do they form the 'bones' that give it strength?

Now, back in the desert, back to school and to work the decks are temporarily clear. I'm glad to be looking forward, at a new diary, empty(ish) pages full of possibility. There are publication dates marked up - the audiobook of 'The Perfume Garden', has just come out, the Spanish and German editions coming soon, and the English paperback. In March, there's the Emirates Lit Fest - still have to pinch myself when I look at the author list. But apart from that, the future looks bright and clear. The poignancy of transferring dates - important birthdays, people no longer around to celebrate them this year, was tough. I miss them, it's that simple. Every day. But something interesting has happened - the 'traces of love' Schweitzer described so well in a passage I read over Christmas are stronger, burning brighter than ever. That love is a new strength, a new determination to make those people proud, to live up to their memory. Here's to success. Let's make this a good year.

TODAY'S PROMPT: Why don't you tell us about your writing resolutions? The variables - the recession, the market - nothing you can do about that, but what can you do to up your game and write the best work you can? Three wishes - three things you're determined to do, in the spirit of 'if you build it they will come'. Let's start the ball rolling: I'm going to write a short e-book. I'm going to edit two novels for publication. I'm going to write something contemporary. Now, your turn ...

Back to Life

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 06:10:00 +0000

Waterlogged books - more crimping than a New Romantic Convention

How are you all? This is a quick hello, (NaNoWriMo month, daily word count to hit) - I'm writing over at Huffington Post Books each week, in case any of you are also taking part in the fun. Come and join in, buddy up (I'm on Nano as Kate Lord Brown). How are you getting on?

Nano has been a good motivator this year. I had 20,000 of something new, and I'm aiming to finish the first draft by 30th November. It's about 80,000 words in, and at that glorious point where I would rather be in the world of the story than here (when 'here' includes a flooded air conditioner that soaked three years' worth of research books, you may understand why ...). I can cope with a lot of things here, but my usual zen like calm was tested by seeing carousels of sodden books. Anyway, the characters are up and running, infiltrating dreams, chattering away when I'm stuck in a traffic jam, and I'm loving being in the story so I hope that's coming through.

Back in the real world, it's cooling down, and the desert rose is blooming (pic below in case you were wondering what one looks like), the frangipani's shedding its flowers, the nights are long and lavender ... everything is coming back to life, slowly. Work is good. I've come out of some dark days with renewed determination and impatience. Losing one, two, three beloved people in a year has changed me. Writing about love and loss doesn't take much imagination right now. Grief leaves you permeable, skinless. There's a sense very much that it's our turn to step up, the front line generation that has to make it all come out right and find our happily ever after. Maybe you've found the same thing? Perhaps the single best thing about writing - nothing is ever wasted in your life. All of that love and experience can be filtered and transformed into something good.

Do you know that saying by Malamud: 'Teach yourself to work in uncertainty'? It seems more relevant than ever now. Write on spec, write because you love it, because you have to, write the best damn book you can. I'm really looking forward to appearing at Emirates Lit Fest next year. By then this book will have gone through several further drafts, been polished like a gem stone, and submitted. By then I'll be more than ready to meet some wonderful writers, and hopefully a few readers too. Writing is a marathon you run alone, and you have to believe you can reach the finish line, (there was a tweet this morning, the jist of which is talent is useless without perseverance). Nine days to go - come and say hi over at NaNo, and I'll be cheering you on to the end. You can do it.

Over and Out

noreply@blogger.com (Kate Lord Brown) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 06:05:00 +0000

It feels like two of the brightest beacons guiding us home have gone out. In the space of four months we have lost both our fathers. Dad, after a ten year fight with cancer, my father in law unexpectedly, heartbreakingly, a few days ago. I am quite sick with loss - if it weren't for the practicalities of getting the children half way round the world for the funeral, I would happily crawl into a dark room and stay there. But the pilot is away for two weeks, meeting us in England, and so the daily routine of lunchboxes, school runs, plane tickets and kennels, and meals and coping on, and on - goes on. You carry on. Life goes on. But nothing makes sense right now.

It does not seem possible that this man, this remarkable man has gone. He was a diplomat, a polymath. When I first met him nearly twenty five years ago, he was not much older than I am now. Within an hour I realised he had forgotten more about philosophy than I had learnt in a year of undergraduate study. He had one of the most brilliant minds I've ever come across, a deep and considered knowledge of any topic you cared to discuss - but he carried that brilliance modestly and generously. His working life in Africa, Russia, Japan, the UN reads like something from a Le Carre novel both good and bad - he watched his family thrown out of Uganda by Amin's troops, and marched onto the plane with a machine gun pointing at the head of his infant son. When he retired, he was decorated by the Queen. But more than that - more than all of that, he was the most noble, genuine man I've ever known. I grew to love him for the kindness, the decency and true heart hidden behind that imposing exterior. He loved his family. He loved his home. He adored his wife, gave her a bouquet of flowers every Friday without fail. His study was lined floor to ceiling with literature, art, but also framed paintings and photographs from all his grandchildren. He loved us all, supported us 100%, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have him in my family, to look at my sister and husband, at all our children, and to see him there. I feel lucky, and grateful, and I am going to miss him more than I can say. We are all heading home from around the world, quite sick with loss, to mourn, and to celebrate this man. I've been looking, and searching for something to make sense of all of this - all the usual suspects, C S Lewis, W H Auden - none of it makes any sense. The line that keeps coming back to me is this, from Gibran:
'The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain ...'

He goes on:

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight ...
I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

To all those who are sitting with sorrow, I wish you well and may your joys soon awake. For now, it's over and out. If anyone has any wisdom to pass on and share, you know where the comments box is. Take care x