Romantic Novelists' Association Blog

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Clare Flynn: The Green Ribbons

RNA Blog Team member, Ellie Holmes invites you to read her interview with author, Clare Flynn.

Welcome to the RNA blog, Clare. Please tell us about your latest release The Green Ribbons.

The book is about good intentions and bad decisions. The heroine, Hephzibah Wildman, is young – orphaned at eighteen and left with no one to offer help and guidance as she makes her way into the

world after a sheltered life. Catapulted into Ingleton Hall to work as a governess to the young daughter of the lecherous Sir Richard Egdon, nothing in her past life as the daughter of an Oxford academic has prepared her for what lies ahead.

You use modern themes in a historical context in your novels. What are the particular challenges in doing that?

Most of the issues we face today in personal relationships are perennial. It's the way we respond to them that's different. One of the challenges is to allow the characters to act in a way appropriate to the times they lived in, yet relevant to the concerns of readers today. Problems don't change but the ways in which they present themselves and the social and cultural context in which people respond to them do.

I try to avoid inappropriate heroine feistiness. Readers love strong independent heroines (who doesn't?) but the pitfall to avoid is having them behave like women today. At the time of The Green Ribbons women couldn't petition for divorce, all rights were vested in men. Only in 1923 were they able to petition on grounds of adultery and only in 1937 was this extended to other grounds such as cruelty. Husbands, regardless of their own culpability in the failure of a marriage, were automatically granted custody of children. All this caused women to be disadvantaged compared with today and conditioned how they behaved.

At the time of The Green Ribbons, pre-nuptial pregnancy among the working poor was a common custom. Men earned more when they were married and wages increased with children, so there was an economic pressure to breed and a tendency among men to check out their future wife's fertility in advance!

If you could go back in time, which period of history would you choose to visit and why?

A Medieval village so I could witness how ordinary people lived. I'd like to get a vivid impression of the smells, movements, sounds, colours – everything. One caveat! I only want to spend a day there, just enough to take it all in, but no risk that I could get burned as a witch or stuck in the stocks!

The first draft of your novel A Greater World was lost when thieves burgled your home and stole your computer and the laptop which held the back-up copy. You must have been heartbroken. How did you go about recreating the manuscript?

Yes I was heartbroken. I was numb for months and more or less decided to give up writing. Then I read that TE Lawrence left the manuscript of Seven Pillars of Wisdom on a train and wrote it all again from scratch. It only took him three months to produce 400,000 words from memory – so how could I not rise to the challenge! I sat down right away and started writing and I'm convinced it came out much better second time around.

You have travelled extensively and have used your travels as a source of inspiration for your work. Where are you off to next?

France in September, for a week, to paint. I hope it will be less eventful than my last painting trip - in May to Montenegro when I tripped on the way to breakfast on the first day and broke my wrist. As you may have gathered by now I am not one to take setbacks lying down, so I painted very shakily with my left hand.

My inspiration for the next novel is here at home though – Eastbourne in WW2. Also Ontario, Canada so maybe a trip there will be in order! Eastbourne was the most heavily bombed in SE England and was home to three regiments of the 5^th Canadian Infantry Brigade for three years of the war. Around 150 women went to Canada as war brides from the town.

Facebook or Twitter? Which is your preferred promotion tool?

I use both. But I prefer Twitter for promotional purposes as there's less risk of boring the pants off my friends and family.

How do you relax when not writing?

I quilt and paint when I have time. Right now, having recently moved house, I'm busy overseeing home improvements. And of course I read voraciously - for pleasure but also as background research for my books. I also shout at politicians on the telly a lot these days.

What’s next for author, Clare Flynn?

The next book. I'm only two chapters in and am mostly reading around the subject. I'm also looking forward to the Historical Novel Society Conference in Oxford in September, where I'll be catching up with a lot of RNA author friends since I couldn't make the RNA conference.

Links to:

Facebook

Twitter

Blog/Website

About Clare:

Clare Flynn writes historical fiction with a strong sense of time and place and compelling characters. She is a graduate of Manchester University where she read English Language and Literature.

After a career in international marketing and consulting , working on nappies to tinned tuna and living in Paris, Milan, Brussels and Sydney, she now lives in Eastbourne where she writes full-time – and can look out of her window and see the sea.

Book Blurb:

"Two men will love you. Both will pay the price for it."

In 1900 Hephzibah Wildman loses both parents in a tragic accident and is forced to build a new life for herself. Penniless and only eighteen, she must leave the security of the Oxford college where her stepfather was Dean and earn her living as a governess.

On the recommendation of a man she has never met, Merritt Nightingale, the parson of Nettlestock, Hephzibah finds herself at the impressive Ingleton Hall. The latest in a long line of governesses, she soon learns why: her employer Sir Richard Egdon has a roving eye and turns his unwanted attentions to her. Hephzibah has no choice but to leave – until a chance encounter with Egdon's handsome son, Thomas, leads to her eloping with him.

Marriage to Thomas Egdon is not the dream Hephzibah had envisaged. More interested in training his racehorses and losing money at gambling, Thomas has little time for her and she begins to suspect he is having an affair. When Sir Richard threatens to disinherit Thomas unless the couple produce the requisite heir, Hephzibah makes a desperate decision that will put the lives of both Thomas and her friend Merritt Nightingale on the line.

Thank you Clare and Ellie. Good luck with the book, Clare. We look forward to reading it.

If you have a book due to be published and would like to be featured on the RNA blog please get in touch with the Blog Team on elaineeverest@aol.com

Sunday, July 17, 2016

RNA Conference 2017 - We Were There!

It doesn’t feel like a week has passed since we started to pack our suitcases and prepared to travel home from the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Conference. This year we visited the wonderful Lancaster University in Lancashire. Our congratulations and thanks must go to Jan Jones for finding this star amongst the many conference locations.

Rather than fill the RNA blog with photographs, as by now they would have been shared by members all over social media, I chose to ask a few delegates what they thought about certain aspects of the weekend. Who better to commission than the ladies who shared my dinner table on the first night of our exciting weekend?

We Arrived! – Elaine Roberts

Six of us travelled by train to Lancaster and met a dear friend at the train station. After much

The Room!

hugging and chatter we secured a mini bus to take us to Lancaster University. Being highly intelligent females we then became very confused. We thought we had to pick up our room keys from the George Fox building - but were wrong. Out came the maps and we set off to walk all over the very large campus before we finally picked up our keys from Barker House Farm. Luckily for us, a lovely young man took us to our block!

We soon settled into our apartments, which were clean and complete with wardrobes and desks. The en suite bathroom had a shower, toilet and hand wash basin. We were also given bath towels, mini shower gels and shampoo. Nestling on the desk, next to a mug, was a bag of tea, coffee, sugar and sachets of milk. Personally, as a non-coffee drinker, one teabag is not enough to get me through twenty-four hours so thank goodness for the university shop!

Kitchen - Party!

The kitchen, that serviced eight flats was a lovely size with two large fridges and freezers, ours soon filled up with wine for our after dinner drinks. We did spent hours sitting around the table chatting and laughing. A good time was clearly had by all.

First Timer – Catherine Burrows

OK, I admit I accidentally on purpose forgot to hand in my name card at the close of conference. I

couldn’t be parted from it (I gave the lanyard and sleeve back, of course). The pink, sparkly flower was my passport to feeling extra special, marking me as a first timer. I’m going again next year and I won’t have my floral name card but it won’t matter because I was overwhelmed by how friendly and relaxed everything and everyone was. It was a whirl of one to ones with agents, workshops, networking, making new friends and catching up with familiar faces. Everywhere I looked I saw smiles, laughter, and words of support or shared knowledge. I came home with a bag filled with goodies and a mind filled with memories and fresh inspiration. My one big regret? That I waited this long before going to my first RNA conference.

Conference Virgin!

Gratefully Received Feedback – Sarah Stephenson

The 121s provide a fantastic opportunity to have ten minutes with someone from the industry; agents, editors, publishers representing a wide variety of agencies and publishing houses.

The slots would disappear fast as enthusiastic writers snapped them up when the conference packages arrived. Occasions like this don't often arise. When do writers, unpublished, and many published, get the chance to have feed back on the synopsis and first chapter of their new manuscript?

The queue for appointments, were filled with anxious authors sharing their fears, grabbing those who'd just come out. Fishing for reassurance and information. 'Was he nice? What did she say?' Many had been asked to send in their full manuscript, others provided with helpful ways to move forwards and always masses of encouragement.

I must pick out one member of the industry for a special mention; Kate Bradley from Harper Fiction. Kate specially asked all those she was seeing to send her not just the first chapter but the first three chapters.. She felt it would give her a better idea of what they were writing. And when she met one member of the RNA struggling with her plot suggested seeing her for an additional thirty minutes on the Sunday, so she could help her sort it out. Kate Bradley is not only a very generous woman but totally dedicated to her job.

Food Glorious Food – Natalie Kleinman

I was lucky enough to arrive at Conference a day early and the first meal began with a lovely starter

Thursday night starter!

of melon, mango and sorbet. The meal continued with a very acceptable buffet and though as a vegetarian I couldn’t sample a lot of it, the nut roast was a good alternative. Chocolate brownie dessert – what’s not to like? This held promise for the rest of the weekend, a promise that was sometimes fulfilled and sometimes not. Breakfast was extensive and well-presented though long queues sometimes formed when dishes were not replenished swiftly when they ran out. The Gala Dinner was a huge disappointment for vegetarians. That said, there seemed to be an endless supply of

tea and coffee, cakes and biscuits and the catering staff were engaging and very helpful. My strongest adverse comment is that there was inadequate seating at lunchtime. Otherwise, seven out of ten.

Fantastic Opportunities - Vasiliki Scurfield

You know that moment when you’re caught between hopeful anticipation and crawling dread? That!

It’s called the One to One.

The moment when the hidden flaw within your work is exposed.

Or not. Perhaps it is the moment all the blood, sweat and tears invested in your product garner the accolade of a Request for Full (or more).

Both of these happened at RNA Conference 2016. Some people were left disappointed knowing they have to go back to the drawing board and start again, while others spent the rest of the weekend in a little bubble of joy. Many, like me, landed somewhere in between; in a keep-at-it-it’s-not-quite-there-but-it-could-be, kind of place.

As usual the conference organisers provided a wonderful cross section of editors and agents, the meetings were well organised and they continue to give RNA members rare access to a fantastic opportunity to use editors and agents as a resource, a learning aid and a doorway into the business.

Gala Night – Rosemary Goodacre

Saturday evening found us assembled in an array of glamorous dresses for the Gala Dinner. We enjoyed a cheese and tomato starter followed by chicken garnished with bacon, and panna cotta. Naturally there was wine and chocolates!

Cheers!

There was applause for our Chairman, Eileen Ramsay, who announced the results of the annual Elizabeth Goudge Award. This year the theme for a short story was on the theme The Joy of the Snow, taken from the title of Elizabeth Goodge’s memoirs. Eileen had received 23 entries, including some amazing interpretations. There were commendations for The Adventuress, by Adrienne Vaughan, All Will be Well, by Jan Jones and Like a New Beginning, by Samantha Bentall. Third Prize was awarded to Rae Cowie, for The Ice Opera, and Second to Jane Lovering, for Holding Florence. The overall winner was Chrissie Bradshaw, for Such Small Moments, which was inspired by her son’s medical trips to Syria.

Finally there was much cheering and applause as Jan Jones was presented with a beautiful bouquet for all her hard work organising the conference.

Thank you for your thoughts and opinions, ladies. We all agree that a fab time was had by all thanks to Jan and her team. See you next year at Harper Adams for #RNAconf2017

Friday, July 15, 2016

Competition Monthly with Francesca Burgess

Welcome back to Francesca Burgess with another in her very helpful series about writing competitions. Have you entered any lately?

How can you make a good impression with your competition entry? Although not all competitions

stipulate a writing font and size, it's a good idea to stick with something easily legible, like Arial or Times New Roman size 12. Anything that makes it hard to read isn't going to warm the judge to your story. Apart from which, it doesn't look very professional. If you're entering by post, don't use old yellowed paper you've found at the back of the cupboard, or coloured sheets. Neat, white paper is the order of the day.

One of the competitions this month is for a story written only in dialogue. It sounds like quite a challenge to convey all the necessary information in that manner. However, if you happen to have the August copy of Writing Magazine, take a look at page 62 for a good example of this kind of story.

Good luck, everybody.

Writing Magazine 1,000 Word Short Story Competition

Theme: Open. 1,000 words

Prize: £200 plus publication in Writing Magazine. Runner up £50 plus online publication

Competition deadline: 15 August 2016

Entry: £5 / £3 for subscribers

Details

The Creative Competitor Historical Fiction Writing Competition 2016

Theme: Use the picture of the horse and carriage provided for inspiration. 1,200 words max.

Prize: £500 / £300 / £200 / £100

Competition deadline: 30 August 2016

Entry: £3.50

Details

Park Publications Article Competition 2016

Theme: 'My Writing Day', 1,000 – 1,500 words

Prize: £50 / £25 / £15