Hostage to Fortune Time

I am making good progress with the Richard III novel; in fact I think the hard work is done and all I need to finish it is write the other half and edit the thing. This latter task, because of the fragmented method of working I'm experimenting with, may take some time.

Anyroad, as we say in Lancashire, I reckon the manuscript will be finished in 2010, and that is the target I'm setting myself. I'm keeping the exact target month to myself.

Next project up is likely to be my long-projected work on Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, which has the working title of This New Spring of Time. I have started research on this - you could say I started about 35 years ago - and my current bedside reading is The Westminster Chronicle. I did make a start of the writing a bit back, but that proved abortive.

Bookies are offering very short prices on guest appearances by Constance of York and her family, while Philippa Mohun will almost certainly return by public demand.

In case anyone is wondering

what I am doing these days, given the long gap between posts...

It's OK, I'm not ill or anything, there is no domestic crisis, and the house hasn't fallen down. I'm writing, albeit not as productively as I should be, and trying to avoid temptation to start even more stories. (I don't lack for ideas, just the persistence to turn them into MSS.)

I have just submitted an article about Constance of York which will be published in The Katherine Wheel, the journal of the Katherine Swynford Society. While I was at it I gave them a second one about the fate of Richard II.

I'm also awaiting more feed-back in relation to The Arrivall, the short story that appeared in the Ricardian Bulletin. I know from the letters published in the same issue that some members are horrified by the idea of historical fiction polluting the sacred pages of their journal, so it may not all be sweetness and light! You know, it's a funny thing. I'm a member of various societies and often find some of the contributions in the publications (or even whole publications) pretty uninteresting. However I've never been moved to complain, as I appreciate that the said societies are not just run for me, but for their membership as a whole. Ah well, I suppose it wouldn't do for us all to be the same!

Do go and have a look...

I urge you to visit Alianore's Edward II Blog as there is an exceptionally brilliant post on there about characters mistreated by fiction. An excellent read, as that particular blog always is.

All Quiet on The Blogging Front

You may have noticed it has gone very quiet around here. That is because whatever entity it is that drains my energy has been draining it again, leaving me with very little focus. The little spare energy I have has been committed to the writing, on which slow progress is being made. T'other day I found that I'd put one piece of action in the wrong season, so I need to change things around a bit! I'm also scrabbling round for the chronology of the Fitzhugh rebellion, in which young Francis Lovel was involved.

An interesting side effect of all this is that I have I have thought of even more ideas for new books. They spring into my head practically every day, and if there was a market for such ideas I'd be well off. Unfortunately there isn't, and really having the idea is the easy bit. It's the writing that's hard.

Medieval Princesses Are Wimps????

There was an interesting article in the Daily Mail t'other day in which Hilary Mantel explains the popularity of the Tudor era.

Speaking of earlier periods she says: 'It's because women -apart from a very few outstanding individuals - make no mark on it.' (History, that is.)
'They are passive princesses, to be married or given in marriage. We know little about their personalities and it's hard to imagine their feelings.
'Then with the age of Henry VIII everything changes. Women come to the fore as never before, and indeed as rarely since - no longer just love or lust objects, they become power players.'

Really? Well, I'll see your six wives of Henry the Butcher and raise you Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville, Cecily Neville, Margaret Beaufort, Margaret of York, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Yolande of Aragon, Isabelle the Fair (Edward II's wife), Empress Matilda, Queen Maud (King Stephen's wife) and Katherine Swynford. These women all (in their own ways) made a significant mark on history, and we know at least as much about their personalities and feelings as we do of those of (say) Katherine Howard, about whom we know virtually nothing.

Among the lower ranks? There were plenty of formidable matrons running businesses in 15th century London for a start. We've Margery Kempe the visionary. My personal nomination would be Margaret Paston. A woman who could defend her home from a small army with the same casual aplomb she applied to ordering herrings for Lent.

You may say these only add up to 'outstanding individuals' as charged. My answer is that this is true in any age, and by the way it covers men too. For every Field Marshal Montgomery there are an awful lot of Tommy Atkins focused on beer, fags, women and football and leaving very little mark at all, except in the hearts of their families.

I think we shall have to find another reason for the popularity of the Tudors. I must admit, it baffles me, but I'm rather pleased too as I'd hate to see what TV would do to the York family!

Hilary Mantel has published a new novel Wolf Hall set in Henry VIII's reign - natch. I've had a glance at it and it looks interesting if you're into that era. One thing I particularly noticed was that it follows the modern trend of placing direct speech in the present tense. So you get this sort of effect:

'It is a very strange way of writing,' says Alianore.
The Duke of Gloucester says, 'If it was our normal writer, I would think he was taking the piss to some tune.'
'Aye, my lord,' Alianore says, 'but this appears to be serious historical fiction.'
'No doubt it is a new fashion, like short doublets that reveal the top of one's hose,' says the duke.

I notice that Philippa Gregory has done the same thing in The White Queen. I think it's meant to give a feeling of immediacy or something, and it might be appropriate in a contemporary story, but immediacy is not really the thing for historical fiction. In my opinion, anyway, but obviously my opinion is not shared in some high editorial places.

I can only say that if I ever write HF in this style (other than in parody) you may call me 'Muller'.

Talking lamp posts

I had a strange experience in Llandudno the other day. A lamp post spoke to me!

I mean Joan of Arc had her saints, and Bernadette had the Virgin Mary, while Derek Acorah gets half of Southern Cemetery - I get a lamp post.

To be precise, it told me that this was a 'safe area' and that I was being monitored by CCTV. Why it picked me out for this revelation I have no idea. If I'd been swinging a chain about my head while wearing a swastika armband there might have been some justification. I was simply tootling along minding my own business, and although I'm rather large I don't think my aspect is particularly threatening these days.

The UK (that is the united Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is actually one of the most surveillance-intensive countries in the world. That includes all countries, including ones run by tin-pot tyrants of one stamp and another. Scary, isn't it? After all, it's not as though Llandudno High Street is a secret naval base or something. (Or if it is, the camouflage is superb.)

The Government probably thinks it makes us feel safe. It doesn't, it makes me feel spied-upon, and I don't like that one bit. What would make me feel safe would be some substantive action against the terrorists and other criminals that throng our country. But that, I suspect, would involve rather more effort, imagination and finance than arranging for a lamp post to shout at a balding scribbler on one of his days off.

A break through?

Yesterday, apart from being my wedding anniversary, was something of a break through for me. For the first time in a long time I worked hard enough to produce what a normal, sane, professional writer would consider a day's work. What's more, I enjoyed it!

It's quite a while since I've enjoyed writing. Occasionally my little comedy scribblings have given me a grin, but to be writing a serious novel and enjoying the process, rather than feeling like I'm writing another boring report for work, well, that's a step forward.

I have mentioned by new technique, haven't I? Having drawn up a plan for the book, I am writing the bits I feel like writing on a particular day, not banging away consecutively from the beginning to the end. This will take a lot of editing when it's finished, but novels take a lot of editing anyway.

If I can only keep up this progress all will be well.