Writing from Life - and some news at the end!

If you are new to my blog and have found me through Surrey Life you might like to take a look here: Surrey village people

'Writing from Life' was a title suggested to me once as a theme for a writing workshop and it got me thinking about how much I use real life in fiction.

Real life setting ...

For my first two novels I am rooted in my local area, but before I could begin to write Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served, I needed to do a lot of research and groundwork relating to the culture and history of a particular group of people. I invented Appley Green, but it is very much based on real Surrey and Hampshire villages – as it straddles the county boundaries. Now I am writing about real village people both for LoveaHappyEnding Lifestyle magazine and Surrey Life.

With Shades of Appley Green, I used real life experience as a Community/Information Support Worker, firstly supporting teenage single Mums who needed information and emotional support; and secondly people with Parkinson’s. Both these jobs involved going out to see people in their own homes and it was rewarding, satisfying work that gave me an unusual insight into people’s private lives.

Be assured I do not use real people in my novels, at least never a whole one! But any fiction writer will tell you, I think, that they observe and pick up their struggles, attitudes, mannerisms and other character traits. These are stored away either in some brain compartment or a notebook and present themselves as you compose your story.

But the way Steph works is very much derived from my experience of working in the community and I could not have written it without this direct knowledge. Also my upbringing in the small town (some would say large village) of Tetbury inspired the whole community theme running through my novels and magazine columns.

As for Secrets in Appley Green, set in the Sixties, I have memories of being a teenager in that decade, and newly married in the Seventies. However, I had to study the so-called Swinging Sixties, reading fiction, factual books and magazines; browsing numerous websites and listening to music. It was great fun piecing together real-life memories, current affairs, fashion, pop music and the rest. I also read through my page-a day diary kept as an 11-going-on-12-year-old – sometimes squirming with embarrassment.

Coming up is something new and yet not new! Rings on Our Fingers, available to pre-order on Kindle now but not to download until 5 May, is a compilation of love stories I had published in magazines in the Eighties.

They are romantic, having appeared in Romance, My Story, True Story - and Christian Herald! But they also reflect real, everyday life of young people. More about this later, but if you’d like to take a look here is the link:   Rings on our Fingers on Amazon  A snip at £2.08 / $2.99 !  Another volume will follow in a few weeks’ time.  

Happy reading!

Amazing statistics!!

This is just a short, but astounding, follow-up to my post on Parkinson's Awareness Week.

Parkinson's UK thanked me for helping to spread awareness, which was really nice of them. Their marketing department also shared some astonishing statistics with me.

 

During the week, this is what happened on their website and so on. They had:

·       48,276 visits to their website

·       21,000 people engaged with them on Facebook

·       2,000 new likes on Facebook

·       More than 100 people shared pictures of their shoes on social media

·       Over 5,000 video views on Youtube

·       226 events nationwide

 

        Well done and many congratulations on this massive success!

 

       My book, Shades of Appley Green is not just about Parkinson's, by the way, but I do hope it helps people to see what it can be like to be elderly with Parkinson's. As someone pointed out in the comments left on my post some younger people sadly contend with the condition, too; then called 'young onset' Parkinson's, but my character, Jackson Jeffrys, celebrates his 90th birthday in the story. He lives an apparently affluent and comfortable lifestyle, but various health and personal circumstances have conspired against him. Loneliness is his greatest problem - and, hey! something can be done about that!

 

       Awareness and understanding go a long way towards encouraging those with Parkinson's to perhaps go for a walk, have a pub lunch, enjoy shopping or even join a choir. Being deprived of such simple pleasures can lead to depression and, with some people, can be worse than the physical symptoms.

 

       Next time you see someone who may have Parkinson's, please, please, remember this. I know you will. Of course you will.

 

How much do People need People?

Shades of Appley Green is about the lives of individuals but it is also about ‘community life’. This is what I often say, but what does that actually mean? Different things to different people, I expect, depending on your interests, age and general circumstances. How much do people need other people? Are they necessary to give you an identity?

You may know I was brought up in Tetbury, a small Gloucestershire town of about 4,000 inhabitants; it gave that sense of belonging, where you felt connected.

Now living in Surrey since 1977, and many more places before that, I have never forgotten that feeling, where you could go down several roads and name each family who lived there. Here in 2012, it is a different world, where former villages have merged into something of a suburban sprawl and acquaintances are nationwide, even global.

Look on any map of Great Britain and you see an enormous mass of villages, but in towns, and even in the London metropolis, there are pockets where you can spot the hub of a community – an old ‘village green’ or park, a church, community hall, a school and a small parade of shops – where residents find a local identity.  

Before retiring in 2008 I was working as a Community Support Worker – a modest kind of job that involved supporting people with information and a listening ear. For two years I was with an organisation that helped teenage mothers, often lonely, who had little help from family or friends; and following that I went out, armed with a lot of empathy and leaflets, to see people with Parkinson’s. If you read Shades of Appley Green you can see and feel the pulse of village life, and strong characters who struggle and overcome on the one hand, single parenthood and on the other, the loneliness that can come with Parkinson’s. It is, I hope, an uplifting book, not a miserable one, but it does look at the downs as well as the ups of life!

Homo sapiens is hard-wired to be tribal – that is my belief. There is a basic instinct in us that drives us to belong – whether to a family, friends,neighbourhood, club, profession or via the Internet – social networking! ‘No man is an island’ – who said that?  Birthdays, weddings, and funerals are usually celebrated or marked in the company of our ‘tribal group’. In evolution, there was strength in numbers, co-operation was key to survival. Lone individuals or nuclear families proved inadequate to defend themselves or their territory. They needed back-up and, later, division of labour.

Of course, there are introverts and extroverts, requiring company and solitary hours in varying proportions. Personally I happily spend hours alone absorbed in what I am doing, but always in the knowledge that I regularly meet up with friends and family. I know gregarious people who can scarcely bear to spend five minutes on their own. I have visited (and been welcomed!) by people living alone insisting they are quite happy and do not need people at all; but then it slips out in conversation that they are on anti-depressants and wonder why they have a constant feeling of anxiety hanging over them.

I was wondering how the rest of you feel on this? Would you be one of those who claim you would be fine on that ‘desert island’? Or, are you a socialite who needs constant interaction? Are you able to achieve the optimum levels of company/solitude or is this something you don’t even think about or aim for? I’d love to know.

I was going to write about things I get up to in my patch of Surrey that help me, now that I do not work, with community spirit, but clearly that will have to wait until next time. Enough, already … !

Amazon UK Paperback and Kindle
Amazon.com (Kindle only)
 

Review of Shades of Appley Green - a great honour, in my book!

I could not be more delighted with this brief but perfect review of Shades of Appley Green that appears in a magazine today.

To have this endorsement from such a highly regarded organisation is an accolade of which I am very proud. The Parkinson is the Parkinson's UK quarterly magazine that reaches out to all UK members: friends, family, carers, professionals as well as people who have the condition.

page 34 of The Parkinson
Thanks to Parkinsons UK

It reads:

'Written by a former Parkinson's UK information and support worker, this is a delightful story with an unexpected ending. It truly captures village life, while in no way distracting you from the main theme of one person's quest for happiness. Through her work with a local charity, the main character Steph is helping a former architect with Parkinson's to regain his social life. The references made to the condition are very accurate: careful research must have been done. While reading, I found myself making a mental note of the priorities involved in caring for someone with Parkinson's. The story gently reminds you that Parkinson's doesn't just go away and, as time passes, decisions and changes have to be made.

Reviewed by Alicia, whose husband has Parkinson's.'

The novel is about many things - life in a village with a diverse mix of characters, one of whom is an elderly gent with Parkinson's. He represents the plight of so many people who are virtually housebound and often socially isolated. The main character, Steph, passionately believes that if something is done about the loneliness, life can be made more bearable.

I drew on my experience and knowledge from working in the community with what was then called the Parkinson's Disease Society and is now Parkinson's UK. During the two years in this role, I met some wonderful people, who led rich and fulfilling lives when they were more able and soldier on with great courage to make the best of it.

As with my first two novels, Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served, I touch on sensitive subjects where there is always the wish not to offend, and more positively, to be validated. Someone said that I do not 'shy away from thorny issues' which is why on Twitter I am a 'village with edge' novelist. For me, 'edge' does not have to be murder and mayhem; it can also be everyday yet disturbing aspects of life that resonate with readers - but with a positive slant.

I hope Shades of Appley Green will be enjoyed by people whose lives are affected in some way by the condition; I would love to hear from them. Jackson Jeffrys is such a 'dear old chap'!

(Note: By the way, I did have permission to reproduce this page!)

Available from Amazon as paperback and also as a Kindle ebook

Also from Waterstones bookshops.

A new novel for the New Year!

UPDATE! Of course Shades of Appley Green is now available as a paperback too! From Amazon

Waterstones Book Launch in March

'Steph is a special, but troubled young woman. Chosen by the most venerated man in Appley Green to fulfil his mission, she feels publicly admired rather than privately loved. She certainly does not trust men!

In helping a once famous, elderly architect with Parkinson’s regain a social life, she finds herself taking personal risks, fending off objections, blind to danger. We wait for the moment when it dawns on Steph what is driving her deep-seated obsession; for only then can she find the happiness she deserves.

Appley Green is a charming English village. Everyone says so. But people are still people. With the emotional turmoil that comes with love, birth and death, a close-knit community can harbour betrayal and guilt, as well as joy and laughter.'

Launching an eBook prior to the printed version is rather odd. I can but sense your best wishes and imagine the audible cheers as you raise a glass of wine or two! (or cup of coffee ...)

Shades of Appley Green is my third novel and, unlike the first two it has nothing to do with Gypsies or Travellers. It is, however, set in the same village; people seemed to like this place. Readers also told me that they enjoyed the storytelling with lovely clichés like ‘couldn’t put it down’ ‘page-turner’ ‘riveting’ ‘I tore through them’ ‘compelling’ and so on … (happy with comments like that!)

Thus encouraged, I decided to begin a new series of Appley Green novels and this is the first. Each one will focus on different characters with a few popping up in each book. If there is a ‘village genre’ then that description fits; not romance, fantasy, thriller or comic fiction – but I think I can fairly claim that Shades of Appley Green does have a love story, a rich mix of people in a desirable setting, suspense, emotion, psychology and a light humorous style. If that is not the case, I am sure someone will soon tell me! 

Shades of Appley Green embraces social realism - motherhood, money worries, marriage, old age, Parkinson's, birth, death and love but all set in a place where the reader might want to live, for there is a strong sense of community. I think sometimes people like to relate to a story where they find themselves saying ‘I know someone just like that’ ‘That’s exactly what happened to me’ ‘This bit describes how I felt’ and so on. Yes, there are problems and heartache, but I hope by taking readers through the main character’s struggle, they will feel the absolute wonder of her ultimate joy. I make no secret of the fact that the ending is a happy one! It is how she gets there that makes the story.

You can already take a peek inside Shades of Appley Green on  Amazon.com Kindle  and also purchase on  Amazon.co.uk Kindle

I hope you enjoy it - and that this story in my sunny English village may brighten up this dark, wet windy January day.

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2012.

PS I feature on  The Famous Five Plus blog and for TODAY Shades of Appley Green is the Book in the Spotlight.