Summer 2006

June

And here's part of what I call my prairie garden, which requires hardly any water at all.Strictly speaking, tap water is not really allowed on the garden, of course, so we save all waste water, even cold tea, which my roses love. Here's a picture of one to prove my point. Who's for Tetleys?

The thing about weeding in Spain is that it's not supposed to be necessary once we reach the middle of June, but apparently the Levant winds have got mixed up with something else and we keep having flurries of rain. Don't get me wrong, we're delighted to have it, our reservoirs being desperately in need of a refill. Most of our water comes from beneath the mountains so no one quite knows how near they are to empty. So long as it still comes out of the tap. We are obsessed with saving every drop.

Every Tuesday and Friday I attend an exercise clinic run by a delightful German lady who is so fit you wouldn't believe it. She can jump up and down and tell us what to do at the same time. No easy feat. I'm too busy trying to catch my breath to even count, let alone talk. We start off with a sort of choreographed routine which lasts about twenty minutes and after ten we know we can't do another step, yet nor do we feel able to stop because nobody else does. Then we do fifteen minutes with weights, (small dumb-bells actually, but heavy to swing about when you're jumping up and down, right?) After that, we fall on our mats and strive to beat off the urge to curl up and go to sleep, but she's changed the music and we're off again doing stretches, press-ups, push-ups, leg-lifts and heaven knows what else. About half way through I feel sure I'm about to expire from exhaustion, not least from the sweat that is dropping off me. But by the end the blood is pumping and I feel great, certainly self-righteous. Now if I could just discover an exercise that would make me grow an inch or two, at least past five foot.

Don't you just love builders? They arrive unexpectedly, work like mad for a week and then disappear off the face of the earth. We're having a corner terrace covered over to make it part of the lounge and give us a dining area. While we wait for the plasterer, and the electrician, and the man with the windows to finish the job, I am battling against invaders. A pair of swallows have decided that my future dining room would be an ideal spot for their nest. I've asked them, isn't it rather late for nest building? But they are totally oblivious to my protests, being far too busy flying back and forth with their beaks full of my garden soil, bits of grass and feathers and sticking it on the rough brick. I strung up some old CDs, hoping the glinting of these discs in the sun would put them off. No chance! They soon flew past those, so I finally found a less high-tec solution by screwing bits of newspaper onto string. Works beautifully. I think they've decided my windows are full of white crows and they'd better stay clear. Sorry about that swallows, but once the windows are in, hopefully next week, you could hit problems.

Events:
We flew to the UK on the last day of June and enjoyed a quiet weekend in Cornwall with friends before gathering my energy for the events to come. Got off to a bang with a great event at Plymouth Library on Wednesday afternoon. What fantastic staff! So friendly, and the tea and biscuits wasn't half bad either. I did my stuff for an audience of around 40, which was excellent. Thanks also to Roy York and Anne for coming along to support me. Roy and Anne act as host and hostess at Swanwick Writers’ Conference every August. Roy often does courses himself on writing comedy. If you haven’t tried Swanwick yet, give it a whirl. You’ll come home filled with inspiration.

Wednesday afternoon found me in Windermere, helping to launch St Mary's Church new improvements. They've put glass sliding doors along the side aisles to make the church warmer and create meeting rooms and new toilets easily accessible for the handicapped. I must say it looks marvellous, and so practical. They presented me with a wonderful basket of flowers which graced the stage of the RNA weekend conference, scenting the entire room. Thursday evening I was in Hale library talking to a small but attentive audience, and the following morning in Urmston library with a very lively group. I love meeting readers. Some of these library events work really well, others get less support. I think maybe afternoon events are more popular, but I enjoy it anyway, whatever the size of the audience because it's good to escape the computer for a bit and also to get feedback. Novelists don't get much opportunity to meet their audience, unlike a playwright.

Romantic Novelist Association Conference
By Friday afternoon I was due in Penrith to attend the Romantic Novelist Association Conference. I was on a panel answering questions on the saga, which was great fun, though not easy to analyse how you do things and answer off-the-cuff. On the Saturday morning I gave a talk on creating a sense of place through character. The conference took place at Newton Rigg, which was once an agricultural college and is now part of Lancaster University, specialising in outdoor pursuits and country matters. It is set in the Eastern Fells which are one of the Lake District’s best kept secrets. Quieter than the other fells and with softer contours but once up on the tops you can enjoy panoramic views of the whole of the Lakes.

We had some great speakers including Kate Fenton, who was both witty and entertaining as well as giving an insight on how to write humour. Not as easy as it might sound. Penny Jordan, the doyenne of romance, answered any number of questions for the better part of an hour, her answers being articulate, carefully considered and, as always with Penny, modest. A delightful, pretty lady who deserves her success. Diana Birchall, a story analyst, came all the way from Hollywood to tell us about her life's work, which was fascinating and depressing all at the same time, in that there seems little hope of any of our work being picked up and filmed any time soon. Marina Oliver gave a talk on Building Your Synopsis with her usual professional skill. Katie Fforde discussed how to write a brilliant first page, and Rachel Summerson detailed how to create a strong villain. Since I love writing villains I lapped it up. My conference concluded with two fascinating talks: Michelle Styles talking about making historical fiction come alive. She writes romances set in Roman times for Harlequin, sort of gladiator romances. Try it, sounds fun. And finally How to Write Magazine Fiction by Sue Moorcroft who has sold hundreds of stories to magazines in 14 different countries. And I can tell you from experience that it isn’t as easy as it looks. Nevertheless, I feel she inspired us all to have a go.

There was plenty of time to enjoy a drink at the bar and chat among friends, the food was excellent and the staff friendly. The RNA welcomes unpublished authors on to its New Writers' Scheme, and the conference is as good a place as any to get plenty of advice on the art of writing. So if you're an aspiring writer looking for advice, check out my links page for how to access the RNA site and join.

July/August
You’ll be pleased to know that the builders have finally completed our dining room extension, well almost. We still need windows but that’s par for the course in Spain. There’s obviously work here for anyone who can a supply a window in under three months. Come to think of it we need more plumbers too. Who doesn’t? Anyway, the swallows are thoroughly peeved as the walls are now smoothly plastered with nowhere to latch on to for nest building. Too late! I told them. They swoop over our pool drinking on the wing, which is really rather clever of them. We also have a flock of bee-eaters calling here regularly every evening, hopefully eating all the wasps. They sit on the overhead wires and chatter to each other. Beautiful. We also spotted a Woodchat Shrike the other evening. It has a white chest, black and white wings, and a red crown and nape, the female somewhat duller in colour than the male. Makes a sound like a dry rattle. Found in most Mediterranean islands but is known to visit Britain. Watch out for it. It's beautiful.

To celebrate our return, and in an attempt to escape the heat, we drove inland to the mountains for lunch last Sunday. We went over to the Embalse de Negratin, a large reservoir beyond Baza. The prettiest way to it is on the A92N from Velez Rubio. Once past Baza you turn on to the A315 Zujar road.

We had lunch at a delightful Spanish restaurant overlooking the huge dam. The chef must have been equally hot as he cooked the meal outside, not exactly on a barbecue since it was fired by wood not charcoal, but it was huge and the food tasted delicious. It was 42 degrees on the coast, our own little village 20km inland was 38, and unfortunately this was no cooler, but it looked it. Even when we arrived home in the early evening it was still 36. Far too hot.

Audio Books
Had one of life's strange coincidences this week. Received the audio tapes and CDs of For All Our Tomorrows and it was read by a young actress called Emma Powell. She is the daughter of a former secretary of my husband when he worked as a solicitor in Kendal. Her parents left Kendal to live in Padstow where they ran the Bird Gardens until Padstow was taken over by Rick Stein and his fish restaurant. You couldn't make it up, could you? Weird! But I must say she reads it superbly so check it out in your library. Perfect summer listening. You can also listen to me reading the first page of Putting On The Style on my website. Now that was a learning curve, converting .wav and mp3 files. But it's up there and working, I hope. However, my voice is not the one on the audio version you can get from your library. Largely, I prefer to leave it to the professionals, but putting a snippet on the website was fun and I may do more. Maybe I'll persuade David to read one for me.