STORYWORLD

One of the nice things about writing a book is that you get to dedicate it to someone special or significant in your life. I have a story about the dedication in my latest novel, BUSTED OUT, my first novel set in Canada. The novel is about teens trying to find their way through personal and family conflict. It's also a tragic story that touches on abuse - physical abuse, alcoholism and gambling addiction. In a way, the story really underlines the courage and resilience of these kids, and their ability to survive. But sometimes the obstacles can be just too overwhelming, and some kids don't survive. That's why I dedicated the book to four young people I worked with many years ago who didn't make it. They were trying to turn their lives around by going to school to get their Grade 12, but they all met tragic ends. Mike C was an energetic, handsome young guy and a great leader. He was a guide up north during the summer for hunters and fishing trips. He was fatally st...

I'm so happy to give you a sneak preview of my new YA novel BUSTED OUT. It's available on Amazon Kindle today and the paperback will follow soon. Here's the blurb: On her morning run, seventeen year old Katie discovers a frozen body lying on the snowy forest trail.   The story goes back three months to trace the events leading up to the tragedy.   Who is the victim?   Is it Mike , the import car fanatic who worships his older brother, Frankie , a hotshot graduate who’s gone East and developed big spending habits fuelled by poker winnings? Is it Jay - the budding musician whose father wants him to be an NHL player even though he hates hockey? Is it Kim , the math whiz and talented artist whose mother recently died and left her alone with a cold and abusive father? Is it Nick ?   Forced to be a parent to his two young sisters while his single mom goes off for days at a time and drowns herself in booze . Gambling changes their lives until events spir...

I had to change my blog background today from a blue, rainy effect to something bright and cheerful. Partly because of the cold, snowy weather we're experiencing here but also because I'm so delighted that THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER has just cracked the Top 20 bestseller list in three categories in the UK store. It's #16 in Kindle Literary Fiction and #21 in Women's Literary Fiction. When you realize that people are actually responding positively to a book that took many years to reach a point where it was really ready to be launched, it's a very humbling experience. Especially since this book has such personal relevance to me. My mother was a pitman's daughter, my sister and I were too though my Dad was only a miner for a few years before he became a dairy engineer. All my uncles on my mother's side were pitmen which makes my many female cousins pitmen's daughters as well. I always knew this story should be told and even though I put it aside ma...

It's official - I'm in the company of my idols! My novel THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER has reached a couple of Amazon bestseller lists. The first one is the British and Irish literary fiction where it's at #30 just above Malcolm Lowry and just below the likes of Penelope Lively and Ian McEwan, two of my favourite writers - oh and 10 places behind David Copperfield!!! It's a weird thing this digital marketplace! It's also hanging in at #99 in the British Literary Historical Fiction in the solid company of C.S Forester, Agatha Christie and Ken Follett! Nice company to keep! You can check the lists out on Amazon here  and  here And if you're still thinking about buying a Kindle or paperback version you could just keep me from slipping out of that precious top 100! Just a thought!

Just a quick newsflash to everyone. THE PiTMAN'S DAUGHTER will be featured on Kindle Countdown Deals starting on Friday 15th November at 8:00 a.m. Check out my product page for details. It's a great deal and a chance to get your copy of the book for a low, low price!

People often ask how I get ideas for stories. I addressed this in an earlier blog but I'd like to focus on one really important source of inspiration: gorgeous places. Take a look at this picture: This is Kirkby Lonsdale in Cumbria. With its quaint streets, winding river, pale stone buildings, market place and wide selection of local shops it's one of the loveliest places I've visited. Every year there's a Victorian Fair held in September when the whole town is transformed and everyone steps back over a hundred years in time.  You'll notice one of the streets is called Salt Pie Lane. The story goes that there was a bakery there and the enterprising baker had an arrangement with the landlord of the nearby pub. The baker put a lot of extra salt in the mutton pies so after eating them, customers would need to drink a great deal of beer to quench their thirst! Here's a picture of the Market Square and the traditional Morris Dancers. I've visited th...

Ask most fiction writers when they last wrote a poem and they'll probably look up from their laptops and shrug. Writing poetry and even reading it isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you're trying to develop a novel. You're far more likely to get into tutorials about plot structure, "sign post outlining", story arcs and plot points. But it's too easy to get bogged down with all this and forget about the beauty of language and the excitement of risk-taking with vivid imagery and adventurous metaphors and similes. That's what poetry is all about. Maximum impact with minimum words. Reading poetry and experimenting with it yourself can sharpen up your own writing and make it fresh, bold and original again. I'm not claiming to be a great poet but I've used it in several ways to help me along with novels. It's like giving your story a shot of adrenalin. here are some ways it helps: It can sharpen up a setting and make the atmosphe...

I can't think of a better way to spend a sunny fall afternoon than revelling in the intelligence and wry wit of one of the greatest literary icons of our time, the great Margaret Atwood, who appeared at McNally Robinson Bookstore yesterday. This iconic author, recipient of the Booker Prize, the Giller prize, the Arthur C Clarke award and numerous other s has been a major influence on my writing career. Books like The Edible Woman, Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, The Blind Assassin,  the chilling Alias Grace, the groundbreaking Handmaiden's Tale, the brilliant Oryx and Crake  helped me to see that a writer shouldn't pigeonhole themselves and that science fiction is probably the most exciting and important genre around today. A huge crowd turned out to see her and I even overheard a young twentyish woman say, "A bunch of us skipped out of work to see her. She's like the Beyonce of literature!" Terry McLeod of CBC Radio interviewed her mainly about Maddad...

"What inspired you to write this book?" is probably the most frequent the question an author is asked. And the answer is that inspiration and ideas come from many sources. Ideas and possibilities present themselves daily and many authors record them in a journal for future reference. I got the idea for THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER when I travelled back to Durham County in the 1980's. I stood at the top of a hill I'd travelled down as a child in my dad's old Commer van and I was struck by the total change in the landscape. What was once a black expanse of slag heaps, heavy machinery tracks and coal mines was now a clean, green valley. That's when I came up with the character, Rita, an ambitious girl determined to leave the poverty of the  street and find success. She ultimately discovers that she may have travelled far but the place and the people were always with her, drawing her back to face the painful memories she'd tried to leave behind. At t...

New books on my shelves: Feature and Follow Friday #168 New books on my shelves include: Creepy, suspenseful thriller with unexpected plot twists The second book in this exciting series Love all the Gillian Flynn books. This is her first novel but the last one of hers I've read. I hope she comes out with another one soon! WHERE DO I LIKE TO READ? Here's a beautiful spot in the park where I like to take a book sometimes. It's a Japanese garden. Very peaceful!

I thought I'd share with you a little more background info on life in a mining village during the 19th and first half of the 20th century. This will give you an insight into the world of THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER. In my grandmother's house I always remember a tin bath hanging on the wall because of course there wasn't an actual bathroom in most colliery houses. The toilet was outside (a flush one thankfully by the 1940's) and most washing was done at the scullery sink. Often the tin bath was kept out in the yard. Pit baths were available for miners after a shift was done, which really eased the workload of the miners' wives but some miners preferred not to use them.  Info from The People's Collection of Wales reveals that   some miners refused to wash the coal dust from the small of their back because they thought it would diminish their strength.   Most often bath night was on a Friday. It took place in the kitchen - the nerve-centre of the house. The tin...

Miners' wives hang out the washing(1940's) # 1 - Thank you for all your support with my new release THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER! Sales are really starting to take off, particularly in the UK (Thanks to all of you in the North-East) with some in the USA, some in Canada and some actually in Germany! This has also improved sales of THE FOREVER ONES. Also, I made some enquiries, Amazon.ca has lowered the paperback price of THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER"to a more reasonable one. #2 - OOPS! If you ordered a paperback version of THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER, you may or may not have noticed a typo on the back cover. It reads "Their relationship is complicated by the tragic Maggie, abused wife of seven children and Ella, the childless street gossip with her nose in everyone’s business." No it's not THAT kind of story. It should read, "Maggie, abused mother of seven children." My apologies for that oversight. It's being corrected as we speak but...