It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year...

It takes a special RNA member to not only enjoy our party but to go home and write about it for our blog. Thank you, Nikki Moore for your words and images.

If there is one thing I look forward to attending every year just before Christmas, it’s the RNA Winter Party - and this one didn’t disappoint. There may have been gusts of wind shaking the trees outside, but inside the Royal Overseas League it was warm, lively and fun. The wine flowed and everyone chatted, laughed and caught up with friends old and new while staff circulated with delightful tasty mini-canapés.

Welcome!

What made this Winter Party even better were the first Industry Awards superbly presented by Adrienne Vaughan, accompanied by glasses of champagne generously paid for by our lovely RNA President Katie Fforde (we thank you Katie!)

The runner-up for Bookseller of the Year was Michael Cole, who sadly couldn’t attend but whose bookshop always has a corner dedicated to romantic fiction. The winner was the marvellous Matt Bates of WH Smith Travel. What a great day Wednesday was for him! Giving a very touching speech about his long love affair with romantic fiction, he praised the RNA for their dedication, solidarity and passion and gave special thanks to Jenny Haddon and his mum.

Best Adaptation of a Novel runner-up Jamie Patterson (who directed Cally Taylor’s Home for Christmas) gave a witty, sincere speech and explained how he fell in love with his leading lady. The winner of the award was Debbie Horsfield for her adaptation of the Poldark series. Sadly she couldn’t be there due to ill health but her vibrant dialogue and feisty heroines received praise as well as rousing applause (and cheers for the gorgeous Aidan, star of the series).

The Romaniacs

Radio Gorgeous, champions of the romantic fiction genre and a station who regularly feature the RNA and its authors, were runners up for the Media Star award. However, it was a very special moment when the wonderful, hard working ladies of The Romaniacs were presented with the winning trophy. Described as a ‘Tour de Force’ they looked delighted with their win – and well deserved too.

Katie Fforde made the exciting announcement that next year the Romance Novel of The Year award in the RoNAs will be

New sponsor

sponsored by bookshop Goldsboro Books.  So thank you to them for getting on board and providing sponsorship.

Tracy & Elaine

A massive thank you and recognition has to go to Sally Quilford/Tracy Hartshorn who organised the party so brilliantly and tirelessly (truly something to be proud of) who was assisted by Elaine Everest on the door.

There wasn’t a single person I spoke to on Wednesday – be it author, agent or editor – who wasn’t having a great time. As I walked to the tube with aching feet from standing for hours on end and a sore throat from too much chatter, the only thought in my head was I can’t wait for the next RNA party...

I hope you can join us!

Thank you, Nikki, for your wonderful words. We too can't wait until the next RNA event. 

Would you like to write for the RNA blog? Contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

JEAN FULLERTON: The Romance of History

We are delighted to welcome Jean Fullerton who takes us straight into the world of Historical and Romantic Fiction with her first sentence

One of the questions I’m constantly asked at talks and events is ‘why do you write historical books?’ and I always give the same reply ‘because I haven’t got a time machine.’

I can pinpoint the moment I fell head over heels in love with history to the day as a child I watched Roger Moore as Ivanhoe gallop across our black and white TV screen on a white horse. 

My infatuation grew throughout my childhood fed on TV series like the Buccaneers, Robin Hood, The Forsyth Saga including a brief flirtation with the Wild West with Bonanza.  Dr Who, too, in its earlier days went back in time, who could forget one of his early companions Jamie McCrimmon?  I later moved on to the Onedin Line and of course, along with the rest of the female population in 1975, fell in love with Robin Ellis as he strode across the screen as the original Ross Poldark.

I just love the thought, feel and possibilities of the past. All my life I’ve fanaticised about broad-shouldered, chiselled featured men with piercing eyes dressed in doublets,  kilts, starched collars and cravats and redcoats, what woman hasn’t?

Of course I didn’t just watch historical fiction but I read it almost exclusively in books by Anya Seton, Mary Stewart,  Nigel Tranter, George Shipway, Dorothy Dunnett and Sharon Penman to name but a very few.  

The joy of writing historical fiction is also that the past isn’t just one point in time. It can be Nero’s Rome, Robert the Bruce’s Scotland, Revolutionary Boston or Lautrec’s Paris or for me, post-war East London.

It can also focus on major historical characters such as the Empress Matilda, Cecily Neville, Joan of Arc, or Marie Antoinette but it can also have more lowly protagonists such as Frances Nelson Lord Nelson’s long suffering wife or Elizabeth Fry, with her eleven children and bankrupt husband.    

Of course, you can have fictional characters, who inhabit a real time and place and who fall in and out of love but who aren’t constrained by actual events.

But that then leaves me with another question I’m often asked which is ‘Do I write Romance or History?’ and again my answer is always the same. ‘I couldn’t tell you; I just write stories?’

Fetch Nurse Connie

Connie Byrne, a nurse in London's East End working alongside Millie Sullivan from Call Nurse Millie, is planning her wedding to Charlie Ross, set to take place as soon as he returns from the war. But when she meets him off the train at London Bridge she finds that his homecoming isn't going to go according to plan.

Connie's busy professional life, and the larger-than-life patients in the district, offer a welcome distraction, but for how long?

Available from Orion Fiction on kindle, paperback and hardback on 4^th June 2015 

‘A delightful, well researched story that depicts nursing and the living conditions in the East End at the of of the war’ (Lesley Pearse)

‘…The writing shines off the page and begs for a sequel’ (Historical Novel Society)

‘…you will ride emotional highs and lows with each new birth and death. Beautifully written with some sharp dialogue.’ (THE LADY)

Great news to see yet another book in this wonderful series, Jean. Thank you for joining us today.

Links:

Amazon

Website
Twitter @JeanFullerton_

The RNA blog is brought to you by:

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write something for the blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

John Jackson: The Botallack, a Cornish Icon

Who knew the RNA had their own connection to Poldark? We welcome member John Jackson to the blog to tell us about his connection to the Bottallack Mine.

Most readers will have seen either the new series of Poldark, or remember the old series with Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees as Ross and Demelza. The old mine buildings at Pendeen, all part of the Botallack Mine, or Crown Lands, lie at the very tip of the toe of Cornwall, and they have been photographed more than any other major landmark in the area (with the possible exception of the Land's End signpost).

The mine produced copper, tin and other minerals for several hundred years but closed down in the early 1800s when the seams or reefs of ore ran out.

My great-great-great-grandfather, one Stephen Harvey-James, then took the lease on the mine and, with the help of investors, brought it back into production, becoming the Purser of the Botallack in 1836 (i.e. the head of the mine) and holding the position until his death in 1870. The post was then taken on by his son, also Stephen, who saw the reefs finally run out and production halted five years later. The elder Stephen was Purser when the Prince and Princess of Wales visited the mine in 1865.

At its greatest the mine shafts ran to a depth of 250 fathoms, or 1500 feet, and up to a quarter of a mile out to sea. In the height of a storm, the miners in the shafts and adits closest to the seabed could hear the sound of boulders and stoned being rolled around and crashing against one another in the waves.

The miners used to descend on wooden ladders, wearing leather aprons and a leather or felt hat with a candle stuck to the brim. This was their sole source of light. Miners did sometimes get lost in the maze of tunnels. Deaths were frequent in all the Cornish mines. The concept of “health and safety” didn't exist in those times.

The miners would hack out the ore and it would be taken  up to the surface in buckets or tubs, using blocks and tackles or pulleys in the earlier years. Steam power, when it arrived, allowed the mines to work deeper, as they could pump out the water that always leaked through the cracks in the rocks. When they developed winches they could pull larger buckets of ore out. The ore would be spread out on wooden tables near the head of the mine and broken up into small pieces by teams of women. After the rubbish had been removed the finished ore would be sent inland to the smelters.

Sporadic attempts have been made to restart production at the mine but, even with the massive rise in the price of copper and tin, so far it hasn't proved a practical proposition. R M Ballantyne, the late-Victorian author, wrote a book about the mines called “Deep Down”. It's free on Kindle and provides a very real picture of life in a mining community. Its also very readable.

Both the Stephen Harvey-James' mentioned here are buried in St. Just Church – the churchyard there is FULL of James' in particular. Later Harvey-James' tended to go into the Indian Civil service. My cousin, Justin is, I think, the last of the Harvey-James line.

John Jackson

NWS Member

John is a member of the New Writers Scheme and is some 75000 words into his first book, based on some family history. He Tweets and posts on FaceBook incessantly.

Thank you, John for a most interesting article.

The RNA Blog is brought to you by:

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman.

If you would like to contribute to the blog please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com