What a Busy Time!

I can't believe that it was July when I wrote my last blog! There just are not enough hours in the day. In the weeks running up to the Sherborne Literary Festival I was getting up at five in the morning to get everything done. There was an incredible amount to do for the Festival, even though we had a committee and we were all working flat out, but it was hugely successful and we got rid of over 1,000 tickets for the events. That was pretty good for a first effort! People came from as far away as North Yorkshire and Guernsey which was very impressive. I think we achieved what we set out to do and brought people into our historic town where they could discover the beautiful abbey, browsein our many independent shops and  boutiques and choose where to eat from an impressive selection of cafes, restaurants, bistros and pubs.

Now it is a few weeks before Christmas and I am writing features for 2013! How fast this year has gone! Plans for next year are well in hand and I shall make my usual New Year's Resolution to write blogs - and tweets because I am pretty hopeless at that too - regularly! But next year I might make it, especially if I continue to get up at 5.00am!

The Literary Festival Takes Shape

So much is happening and there is so much to do that I am still wanting more hours in the day! At least things are taking shape for the Literary Festival in October and this is good news. We have a first class line-up of authors and I have made sure that there is a good variety of people who will appeal to everyone. We have a wonderful writer of commercial women's fiction who will interest the younger people of the town, a military biographer to entertain our retired army and navy gentlemen, and a whole host of fascinating authors and poets who will be talking about their work in various venues in Sherborne. As well as authors we are lucky to have Lorna V coming to enthuse people, with her wide knowledge of writing and publishing. Check out her website. And author and broadcaster, Peter Hobday (remember him on The World at One?) is coming to chair a debate.

Joanne Harris gave us an excellent talk on 12 July despite being in a marquee and it bucketting down with rain.  She wrote and said how much she enjoyed it and that bodes well for the Festival.

And now the sun is shining at last, and promises to shine for several days. So we will all start moaning about having to water the garden and the water companies will threaten hosepipe bans. But that's what living in England is all about!

Not Enough Hours in the Day

All week I have been getting up at five in the morning so that I have time to do everything I need to do. Not only is there 'the day job' which at times can go on well into the evening, there are all the the things we are doing for the Sherborne Literary Society.  The Literary Luncheon with Penny Junor on 21 June is presently concentrating my mind. It is the little details, probably quite minor, that are so important.

How time flies. It seems like yesterday that the south-western branch of The Society of Women Writers and Journalists came to my house for the spring meeting yet it was three weeks ago. There were about 27 of us all together and I managed to have everyone sitting at a table for lunch albeit spread through three rooms. The cook and her helper ate in the garden! The cook is a good friend and a trained chef and she offered to do the meal so I said yes at once! These days I don't have time for the luxury of cooking.We had a lovely day. I asked Frank Kibblewhite of The Sundial Press to come along and talk about publishing and Val Singleton joined us so you can imagine the conversations that went on. Some members have been very successful recently and had books and articles published. I even reviewed Eve Bonham-Couzen's novel a few months agoin my column Reading Matters (well, it does, doesn't it?!)

Since then I have been to Yorkshire, walking in the Dales and to Much Hadham, recovering! Now I must get back to work, make new lists of jobs to do and people to call, and finish writing up my interview with the wonderful Philippa Gregory.

Literary Luncheon, Bellinis and Spring Visitors

Such a lot is happening down here in Dorset! Our Sherborne Literary Society has certainly captured the town's imagination and a huge number of people have signed up for membership. We are holding our first membership meeting on Monday night and so many people want to come we have had to arrange two sessions - one from 5-6 and one from 7-8.

We shall be able to give details of our major events in June and July: a Literary Luncheon with Penny Junor talking about her new book on Prince William and then an evening event with Joanne Harris. Her new book is called Peaches for Monsieur le Cure so we are serving Bellinis and canapes that evening. Do look at our website www.sherborneliterarysociety where we have much more information and try and come along if you are near enough and you are free!

The Literary Festival is in October and plans are well advanced for that. There are some very interesting authors books - but more about that later.

Now that spring is here I am getting my usual influx of visitors which is great fun and makes me take time off from work to enjoy myself. I am running out of ideas on where I should take them but usually a trip to Lyme Regis is on the cards. Then we might go to Bath for the day and perhaps, if the weather is decent, to my old stomping ground on Dartmoor. I so love being back in the south-west of England!

Decisions, decisions

I am becoming very cynical. It's Mothering Sunday on 18 March and I have told my son not to send me flowers this year. For the past two years they have been very poor specimens and I have telephoned the stores and complained. Admittedly, they have replaced them but that's not the point. Had I not telephoned, my son would have paid a lot of money for flowers that were well past their best.

This year he asked me what I wanted instead of flowers and, d'you know, I can't think of anything. Maybe perfume - Amarige or Hermes Caleche - or...or... What I'd really like is a breadmaker but somehow that doesn't sound quite the right sort of present. I shall have to ask friends for help but time is getting on.

I suppose he could come and visit me, getting his wife to bake me a Simnel Cake which is a traditional present but somehow that is not likely. For one thing he lives in Japan and for another, his wife is Japanese and I doubt if she knows about Simnel Cakes. Ah, well!

Luncheons, Soirees and a New Literary Society

I realise I should be ashamed. It is over a year since I posted my last blog and most people I know are blogging twice a week at least. I am sure I am not busier although there is so much going on in west Dorset. In Sherborne we are starting a Literary Society - 120 years after the Macready Literary Institute, that operated from the stables at Sherborne House, closed. I'm busy searching through the Minute Books to discover the sort of things they did. It seems they had various lectures including A lecture on the mode of taking the wild elephant in India and Books as a Means of Self Culture. We have quite a standard to maintain.

Through our new Sherborne Literary Society, for which we are holding a Membership Evening on World Book Day in April, we are running a variety of events to whet the appetite of everyone. This year we are holding a literary luncheon, various talks, soirees, author events, competitions and book-related days as well as a festival in October with some really interesting authors. More about this in due course.

Our wonderful bookshop, Booklore, closed at the end of January but a new one has opened in Cheap Street - Winstone's. The owner, Wayne Winstone, has been around in the book trade for many years and he has opened a very attractive shop with a neat little coffee area which is always busy. He is involved in our festival, too.

The other day I interviewed Joanne Harris about her latest book, Peaches for Monsieur le Cure, which is a sequel to Chocolat, and she is coming to Sherborne to talk about it in July. It should be fascinating and we have plans to make it a very special event. Watch this space.

Some things I just cannot do

I was reading Andrew Croft's blog (because I've just joined him on Linkedin) and he wrote about interviewing on Skype. Now I love to use Skype to talk to family and friends but to use for an interview - no way! I know I am always banging on about getting the best interviews when you talk to someone face-to-face but for various reasons, in the last couple of years I have reluctantly become fairly adept at telephone interviewing. The real joy of this is not only is it pretty quick but it really doesn't matter what you look like! I have done long and serious interviews over the telephone while wearing a bathrobe and a towel around my wet hair. Nobody knew this but me!

Another thing I can't do is Facebook. I did belong once but there were so many people who wantd to be my friend and I didn't know any of them. Someone suggested they had probably written books and wanted me to interview them. All these things are very complicated and seem to take hours to set up and then hours to keep in touch with people. I've too much to do!

As for Twitter... One day I hope someone will explain to me how authors and politicians and really busy people get the time to tweet. Some people seem absolutely glued to their computers. I'm not sure that is healthy.

BUT... I am connected to people on Linkedin and when I get time I may connect to more. Time is the thing. I have just been reminded that my last blog was in October.

Reading, writing and making lists

It was really good to go to the launch party for Ken Follett's latest book, Fall of Giants. Once again, this is a huge book but keeps the reader turning the pages to find out what is going to happen. Ken is very good at this, but then he works hard. Planning a book takes him a good year and his research is always meticulous. He shows no sign of slowing down, either. His book,Pillars of the Earth, has been made into an eight-part series for Channel 4 and starts on 15 October so I must try and sit still long enough to watch it.

There seems so much to do these days - writing, researching, transcribing (I hate transcribing even though I have a machine that speeds things up), pitching ideas, sourcing images. It's never ending and there are so many other things to do. I seem to be making longer and longer lists.

October is turning out to be quite warm. I have just been into Sherborne to see what is going on at the annual Pack Monday Fair. I think most people in the area decided to do the same thing!

The swallows have gone - and so has the summer

The swallows went on Monday. About nine-thirty in the morning there was a terrific racket going on in the garden and I thought they must be terrorising the cat again. All summer gangs of them have been dive-bombing her from every direction so she could only get to the bottom of the garden by working her way underneath the rose bushes and the shrubs. The reason, I discovered, was a nest built in the wood store at the end of the barn. My poor little cat has never caught a bird in her life but clearly the swallows were keen to stop her even thinking about it.

When I heard the noise they were making on Monday I rushed outside and there were masses of them. They soon began to line up on the electricity wires and gradually the noise subsided. It went very quiet: the birds were looking this way and that, as if they were waiting for a signal. There was a strange tension in the air for a minute and then suddenly they were off, swirling up into the sky in a huge mass and circling the house in farewell before turning west and disappearing over the hills. I'm glad I was there to see them go.

It's the end of summer when the swallows leave. Time to start preparing for winter which is depressing for some people but when you think about it, autumn comes first and this can be the best season of all.

Time and frustrating printers

It's about time I added a new post! Some people seem to write regularly but usually when I've finished a day's work, that's it; my mind closes down. Yet it's good to know that so many people read my blogs and moan at me when I haven't added a new one. I think I must be a bit like a newspaper because what has happened in the previous days is old news and I forget. Some people tell me they make notes so that when they come to write a blog they have everything to hand. There seems to be so much else to do. As for Facebook and Twitter... When do people find the time?



This morning I have been struggling with a new printer - and I hate it! I bought it because it was on special offer, and now I know why. I really needed a printer, copier and scanner all in one because normally I use a simple laser printer but this thing is dreadful. It's noisy, slow and only prints out half a page. In desperation I am calling in a lad who lives up the road to see if he can improve things.

Life Goes On

I was sad to learn of the death of Dick Francis. I think I was one of the last people to interview him. He was very frail but helpful and courteous. He will be missed especially for his books but his son Francis will continue his legacy.

Work at the moment is a bit like the London bus system; nothing and then everything happens. It is so important to prioritise and make lists so that the right deadline is hit on time. I had a long chat with Sylvia Kent the other day and she is so positive and proactive that however gloomy I might feel at the beginning, I am refreshed and invigorated by the end. It's good to have friends like this.

I really couldn't do without Aimee Fry, my webmistress, either. Somehow she makes things seem so easy when I have turned to her in desperation after struggling for ages with my computer. Another bonus is that I have had so many compliments about my website and it is all due to Aimee. We talked about what I do and what I wanted on my site and she came up with some really interesting ideas. The only major thing I changed at the end was the coffee cup on the Links page. She put in a thick white cup and I told her I'd never drink from that so she quickly found a china one!

All creative people can get a bit low, especially at this time of the year. The cold and grey days don't help but then there are the snowdrops and aconites appearing. Spring is almost here.

That said, I have to get on. Three new commissions today. The problem is, which shall I start first?

Coming to the end of the year

So much seems to happen down here in Dorset that there is never a minute to spare! For some reason my deadlines all seem to arrive at once, however hard I try and spread them out. And so many friends come to stay. They realise I have to work and are not upset when I shut myself away in the study. That is part of the deal!

I have a little wood burner in the study that I have lit a few times when it is really cold weather and it makes such a difference. When I am sitting writing my feet and ankles can get really cold. The woodburner is a great help on a bitterly windy day. All the wood, which is a mixture of oak, ash, beech and sycamore, is stacked neatly at the end of the barn ready for whatever winter has in store.

Now I have to think about Christmas and the new year. It will be a hectic time as usual and then in January I have been asked to run a writing course in Dorchester. I'm really looking forward to it as I love being with other writers. Am I right in believing we think differently from people who are not writers?

Dick, Deadlines and Racing Down to Paignton

It has been such a busy time. Apart from being totally obsessed by the weather - something that is natural as I am English - all my deadlines seem to have come together. It was a foul day when I had to drive down to Paignton to interview Dick Francis and his son Felix. Dick lives in the Cayman Islands and was on a regular family holiday at the same hotel he had been staying at for well over 50 years. I read a couple of his books before I went and remembered how much I enjoyed them. There is a background of racing but the protagonists are usually in entirely different professions. Felix, who now writes the books with his father, made an interesting comment. He said his mother taught him about the importance of rhythm in writing and that sometimes he would work for an hour on a sentence to make it sound right.

After leaving the Francis family I called in for lunch with very old friends in Bishopsteignton. I have known them since I was three and I was their bridesmaid! It's lovely to know people for so long because they become as close as family. As you might expect, we picked up on conversation as though we had been chatting away yesterday. Then it was back on the road with heavy rain and wind making driving home a miserable experience.

Rain

This weekend is the Glastonbury Festival - which is not that far from where I live - and of course, it's raining. Not gentle rain but determined, strong, wet rain. Glastonbury festival-goers will love it; it's part of the fun, slopping around in mud. I'm glad it's raining because it means I don't have to water the pots or the new fruit trees I put in a while ago. Watering is currently the bane of my life. I do it each evening with a watering can and it's quite an effort carrying a gallon of water to the end of the garden. I really should get a hosepipe.

The sheep seem to have eaten all the grass in the field and so now have moved on. We miss them looking over the gate . I think the younger cat does, too. She didn't quite know what to make of them as she had never been so close to a sheep but it was clear she didn't want them in the garden. Neither did I - but for different reasons.

There are so many things going on in the country at this time of the year. We have a local magazine - we have several - that lists all events everywhere. It covers a huge area. Friends from Somerton suggested a trip to a specialist plant sale near Salisbury that they'd spotted in the magazine. We went on a Sunday and it was there I found new garden furniture. I had been looking for about a year with no luck. As with so many things, when you are not looking you find what you want.

And the rain still falls. Ah, well. I'd better get on with some work. Procrastination is the thief of time, I am told. Yet sometimes, for a writer, it's good because it clears the head of rubbish.

Warm Mornings, Interviews and Journalism.

One of the reasons I really enjoy working from home is that I have unexpected visitors. Because I start very early, it is a welcome break when someone drops by at about ten o’clock and I can stop for coffee. On warm sunny mornings we sit out in the garden and put the world to rights.

Since I moved to Dorset I have done more telephone interviews. I hate them with a passion! You have to look someone straight in the eye for them to trust you and know that you are only going to ask questions about writing and not about murky love lives! There is the problem of ‘the pause’, too. If there is a pause, is the interviewee waiting for the next question or thinking? But, as many other journalists have told me, I can do the interview sitting in my bath robe with wet hair and no-one is any the wiser!

It was almost a disaster when I interviewed the popular American crime writer Michael Connelly. First of all, the telephone developed a loud buzz on every handset so I had to use my mobile to re-schedule the time. Then, when we started to talk he was giving me one word answers. That was probably my fault because I was tired and not asking sensible questions that cannot be answered in a word. It was the end of the day and I think he was tired too but again, this is the trouble with interviewing on the telephone. However, it developed into a really good interview and I enjoyed writing it.

I went to Bridport the other evening to hear my friend Katie Fforde give a talk in the lovely library they have there about her new book, Love Letters. There was a good turnout and some very interesting questions. Afterwards, we went for dinner in The Bull Hotel and Charlotte, the publicity director who was accompanying Katie on her promotional tour, bought us champagne to mark the end of a successful trip.

It reminded me that I am giving a talk about my life as a freelance journalist in a month. I seem to get myself in all sorts of scrapes when things should be so straightforward but I have met some very interesting people over the years.

Welcome To My New Blog!

Today it is raining and everything is a depressing grey. I keep thinking how good the rain is going to be for the garden and I shall be spared the chore of watering. Watering takes me about half an hour which is not long but I find every excuse not to do it until the last minute when it is usually getting dark.

The farmer has put sheep into the field at the end of the garden. They are pretty inquisitive and keep staring at us over the gate. I think we are going to have to get a proper fastening for the gate. At the moment it is held together by string and if the sheep keep pushing at it is going to open and they will all crowd in and cause mayhem! I can’t bear the thought of that happening particularly as I have been working hard in the garden to try and keep it in some sort of order.

Life is very hard at present because we are opening up the inglenook fireplace in my study and putting in a wood burning stove. If we have as cold a winter as last year it will be wonderful. Meanwhile, I am camping out with my laptop in the dining room and this is working quite well – until I need something from the study which is currently swathed in dustsheets making most things inaccessible. But in another two weeks it may be back to normal.