Author Guest Post - Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn - The Piano Player's Son - Blog Tour

Today I am pleased to feature a guest post from Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn, author of The Piano Player's Son.

The Importance of Settings in Novels by Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn

There's a tendency in modern fiction to neglect setting for fear of boring the reader. Writers in the past had no such worries. We've only got to think of Hardy's descriptions of Dorset, the wild moors of Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights', and the London that Dickens evoked. But the argument that today's readers are not interested in descriptions of place and will either skip those bits – or worse abandon the book altogether – is enough to frighten writers off.

But I think this is a mistake. Characters need to be rooted in place, as 'real' people are. Whether we're by the sea, on a mountain peak, in a kitchen, in an operating theatre, in a hot place, a cold place, a prison, at an airport, in conflict with or at home in our setting, our moods will be different. Different things will happen to us. We will meet different people. We will be different people. Without a strong sense of place, it's hard for a writer to fully realise character, and to achieve suspense and excitement.

So, how have I used setting in my novel ‘The Piano Player’s Son’? There are four main places in the novel, all ones I know and love. I was brought up in north London, and I decided to make the family home in Highgate. I went back to the area and identified the house where they lived. Not sure what the people who really lived there felt when I started taking photos of their house!

Some years ago, I spent time in Penzance and Northumberland and think they are both wonderful places, so I decided I wanted to make each ‘home’ for two of my characters – the eldest son, Rick, lives in a beautiful house in Rothbury, and the youngest, George, runs an art school in Penzance. Again, I went back to each area,‘found’ the houses where they live and took photos. Obviously I had to make up the insides! At a book group I visited recently, I was delighted when several people said they ‘knew’ the house in Rothbury as well as if they’d been there.

However, perhaps my favourite setting in the novel is Ischia, an island in the Bay of Naples, Italy, known for its health-giving hot springs, but often overshadowed by its more famous neighbour Capri. I've spent several holidays there, and it didn't take me long to decide one of my characters in 'The Piano Player's Son' would live there.

The character is Grace, one of Henry's four grown-up children. At the beginning of the novel, Henry dies, and gradually secrets emerge which overturn the family's view of the past and their parents' relationship. Grace wasn't there when her father died - she hadn't made it back from Italy in time - and she struggles to cope with this, especially when she returns to Ischia, where she and her Italian husband run a ristorante.

The ristorante looks out over the sea towards Castello d'Aragonese, a dramatic and compelling place with a rich history which Grace is fascinated by. This is almost the view of the castle from the ristorante.

(proximacharter.com)

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The following extract from 'The Piano Player's Son' describes the morning after Grace's return from England where her father's funeral took place:

Chapter Ten

When Grace woke, the shutters were ajar and a sliver of light slanted across the room. She stretched, easing her limbs into the cool reaches of the bed. There was no sign of Franco.

She turned on her back and listened. The ristorante was gearing up for another day. The familiar sounds calmed her, like waves breaking on shingle. She slipped from the bed and crossed to the window. She pulled back one of the shutters. The sun was shining and the light glinting off the sea was sharp and clear. It was a shock after the leaden skies of England. She drew a cardigan over her flimsy nightdress and stepped out onto the balcony.

Her eyes sought Sant'Anna's rocks, sturdy tuffs rising steeply out of the sea. On summer mornings, while it was still quiet, she liked to scramble down the steep path to the beach and swim across to the rocks. Franco had attached a rope to one of them so that she could haul herself up. She'd found a spot, where the sea had washed the rock smooth. She could sit in it, almost like an armchair.

She lifted her gaze from the rocks to the castello, her favourite place on the whole island. Like something from a fairytale, it stood on its cone of volcanic lava, mysterious and compelling. Grace had lost count of the number of times she had crossed the bridge and climbed up to the remains of the castle cathedral, where in the sixteenth century the poet, Vittoria Colonna's wedding was celebrated. She always took her copy of Vittoria's poetry with her and read in the shadows of the high vaulted arches. To her it was the most romantic place in the world, but Franco scoffed at her obsession with that old ruin.

***

Thank you, Lindsay, for the opportunity to talk about ‘The Piano Player’s Son’, and in particular the settings in the novel. I’ve really enjoyed remembering all those lovely places, and it’s made me want to return to each of them as soon as possible!

www.lindsaystanberryflynn.co.uk

Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn

Website: www.lindsaystanberryflynn.co.uk

Blog: http://lindsaystanberryflynn.co.uk/blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindsayStanberryFlynn.Author

The Piano Player's Son on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/The-Piano-Players-Lindsay-Stanberry-Flynn/dp/1907090932/

SilverWood Books: www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk

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Janey Fraser - Author Guest Post

Today I'm pleased to feature a guest post by author JANEY FRASER, whose latest novel is called AFTER THE HONEYMOON. Plus, see the end of Janey's post for the chance to win some goodies!

Vanessa Calls! by Janey Fraser

The email popped up unexpectedly in my Inbox. It was from my PR at Random House. Would I do an interview for Vanessa Feltz on her radio show. Would I? Just try to stop me!

As a journalist (before becoming a novelist), I’d interviewed Vanessa on a couple of occasions for various women’s magazines. I’d always found her to be warm, bubbly and generous. At the time, I was freelancing from home with three small children and she was very understanding when I had to pause the telephone interview for a few minutes while I sorted out yet another squabble.

However, there was only one catch with this radio interview. It was on a Bank Holiday Monday.  I moved to Devon some years ago so it’s not always easy to get into London on high days and holidays. I also had to be there for 9.30am. I’m not a motorway driver (for some reason, it brings me out in a cold sweat to approach the Entry lane) so I took the sleeper. So exciting! In fact, it would make a story all of its own but I want to tell you about Vanessa.

The BBC is a sprawling mass of buildings nowadays. I was heading for the bit behind Top Shop (an important landmark for my daughter) but even my taxi driver wasn’t sure of the exact spot. Eventually, I made my way to the right building where – wow! – there was actually a uniformed BBC man at the door.

‘Are you a guest?’ he asked.

To be honest, I almost felt like an intruder. At this time of the morning, I am normally running my dog along the beach and thinking of the next plot.  Still, my name was on the list so they must have been expecting me.

Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of security at the Beeb. I wasn’t exactly frisked but you have to sign things and get a badge. After that, because I was so early (thanks to the sleeper), I had to wait a bit on the ‘state of the art’ sofa in the lobby in front of a giant TV. It was so comfortable that I almost forgot why I was there!

Suddenly, Vanessa’s lovely assistant breezed in and whisked me off for a coffee. Honestly, I could get used to this. Yet at the back of my mind was the thought that in a few minutes, I was going to be chatting on air. From previous experience, I know that the strange thing about live radio is that you are lulled into a false sense of security. It feels as though you are talking to a mate because the presenter is normally friendly (unless you’re on some horrible political programme which I would never be on because I’m  hopeless at that sort of thing). So it’s very easy to say something you don’t mean or stumble over words – and then you can’t take it back.

Vanessa wanted to talk to me about honeymoons because that’s what my new novel is about. So I’d made a few notes. But when I found myself being ushered into a smallish room with THE Vanessa on the other side of the desk, all my ideas went out of my head. Vanessa in the flesh is just like the kind of woman you’d want to have a chat with. She looked very glamorous with that lovely hair of hers but don’t be fooled. She was also very professional.

We kicked off with the fact that – according to a recent survey by the travel firm Kuoni – 12 per cent of brides would like to ring their mums when on honeymoon. ‘Don’t most girls want to do that?’ asked Vanessa who has two grown up daughters.

I agreed. When I got married the first time, I queued up for hours in Greece to ring my mum/ ‘No mobile phones then,’ said Vanessa chattily.

Too true. Then we had a good old natter about some of the brides I’d interviewed – including a couple whose damp confetti fell out of their clothes on their wedding  night. It stained the marble floor and they spent hours trying to get the marks out of the floor so they didn’t get billed. It rather put paid to any newly-wed intimacy if you get what I mean...

In between chats, Vanessa played tracks but to be honest, I couldn’t have told you what they were. We were too busy having little chats ourselves. ‘Look at this,’ said Vanessa, proudly holding up a shopping bag which had a picture of her first grandchild on it.   It was really heartening to see a normal proud granny behind a public face.

Another interesting bit were the number of emails which came in from listeners who wanted to describe their own honeymoon experiences.. They were handed to Vanessa swiftly over the desk by another assistant and she read them out on air. It just goes to show that it IS worth getting in touch!

I was on for nearly half an hour but it felt much shorter. In fact, I was sad to go. ‘Would you like to come to my launch party?’ I asked Vanessa boldly as I left.

‘Send me the invitation,’ she replied chummily.

I don’t know if she’ll turn up – but I’ll let you know......

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Please send me (Janey) your honeymoon stories – and you could win a bag of books or a Champneys goodies parcel. Email them to me at janeyfraser@gmail.com

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About the novel...

AFTER THE HONEYMOON by Janey Fraser. 

One honeymoon destination. Three couples. Six secrets.

Emma never wanted to marry Tom, let alone go away without the children. But then the girls at work give her a honeymoon voucher. Enter Yannis, the local lothario...

Winston is the nation’s Keep Fit bachelor darling. Newspapers are agog when he marries Melissa, newly-divorced mother of two. But when her teenagers disrupt their honeymoon, his past is revealed....

Rosie was homeless and pregnant when she arrived at the Villa Rosa, sixteen years ago, but now she’s the owner. Winston might not remember her, but she’s never forgotten him…

By the end of the week, none of their lives are the same.  But what happens after the honeymoon?

Published by Arrow (Random House) on May 22.

Amazon UK link

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About the author... (in her own words)

Janey Fraser is the pen name for journalist Jane Bidder who also writes as Sophie King. You might have read some of my previous novels such as THE SCHOOL RUN and THE WEDDING PARTY which was short listed for Love Story of the Year 2010.

For many years, I was a journalist on women’s magazines and until recently, edited the family page of Woman. Now I write ‘ MUM LIT’ novels about the ups and downs of family life.

I have plenty of experience with my own three – remind me to tell you, one day, about the time that my youngest gave his friend a pudding-basin haircut while my back was turned for three minutes or when my eldest bashed me on the head with an empty lemonade bottle while driving because of an over-heated car game.

A Woman's Choice - Annie Thomas - Author Guest Post

I am very pleased to welcome Annie Thomas, author of the novel A Woman's Choice, to the blog today and to share with you her brilliant guest post, below, discussing historical fiction. 

Who wants to see history in a great historical novel?

by author Annie Thomas

What is it that separates a magnificent historical novel from the rest?

The answer lies not in superb writing, compelling plot, characters we can believe in, and a book that reveals some truth about the human condition – although all of that is of course a pre-requisite for magnificence.

It’s the history.  The history that we don’t notice but which we absorb with every word we read.

We recognise that the world we have entered is entirely authentic, while remaining unconscious of the research that made it that way.  This is not about accuracy of historical detail – right food, right clothes, right transport - that just has to be a given.  It is about understanding that the past is not always a foreign country, as L.P Hartley believed in ‘The Go-Between’. Sometimes they may do things differently there, but there are also times when they behave and think very much as we do.

It is the history that gives us the social and political context, the public landscape in which lives are lived. Historical fiction brings us vicarious experience; we can read about the impact of anti-German rhetoric and prejudice in early 20thC America on the lives of individuals we have come to know and care about, for example. It tells us something about the human capacity for bigotry, while the ways our characters respond to that tells us something about the strength of friendship.

Anne Fine, UK Children’s Laureate in 2002, described ‘The Seeing Stone’, Kevin Crossley-Holland’s wonderful historical novel, published for children but read by all ages, like this:  “a world so real that you can run your fingertips over its walls, feel its morning frost bite at your throat, and remember the people who lived there for a lifetime.”

What a testimonial.

As a relatively new writer, I know the temptation to expose rather than conceal the research.  So many hours are spent reading and thinking, making notes and making connections between the imaginary world and the real one.

Sometimes I have come across a contemporaneous description of an incident or place, and instantly seen my characters there. I know just what they would have said and done, and have even written whole chapters of many hundred words to add texture and credibility by putting them there.   It is a hard learned discipline to go back over the draft; recognising the slowing of pace, or the inconsequential diversion, and cut, and cut again, until the story is released to flow again as it should.

However, it is also undoubtedly true, that sometimes the research helps to shape the narrative.  In my own novel, set in New York, the books and newspaper accounts about the lives of emigrants at the turn of the century, (particularly women), became translated into the lives of my characters.  Sometimes they even helpfully provided the inspiration for a pivotal moment in the plot.

Philippa Gregory has described the period when Jean Plaidy, Anya Seton and Georgette Heyer were at their peak as a ‘golden age’ of historical fiction.  She is now herself part of a group of contemporary writers which could rightfully claim to be leading a new golden age.  Others include Elizabeth Chadwick and Hilary Mantel, and now Eleanor Catton.  All have very different styles and approaches.  All have that necessary lightness of touch, that deft ability to interweave narrative and context that creates the best in both popular and literary historical fiction.  All are wonderful storytellers, but never at the expense of the history, so we come away even more enriched by our reading.

As a reader I want to feel enthralled and fulfilled.  I want to unconsciously absorb a perspective about the times and the humanity - and to do that through the imaginative leap of seeing through the eyes of another person.

As a writer of popular rather than literary fiction, I want to get it right, to be a good historian – and then to conceal that scholarship with creativity and an absorbing read. Popular fiction may not bring readers a profound truth.  But it can bring insight, perspective, and a measure of understanding, in a cracking good story.

I guess that’s something we all keep striving to achieve.

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About the author...

Annie Thomas is a British writer, and the author of ‘A Woman’s Choice’.  Brought up in London, after a degree in English and History she now works in an English university, and lives in a rural converted Victorian converted pub where rumour has it that Tolkein and C.S.Lewis once stopped for a beer on one of their many walks together.

www.anniethomasbooks.com

About the novel...

Set in the vibrancy of early twentieth century New York, the story follows the young emigrant Clara and the people she meets on the way, through tenement living and sweatshop labour to success. But as the horror of World War One in Europe threatens to engulf America, Clara learns that personal lives cannot be lived apart from public events, and finds that the people she has loved, and who love her, are not always what they seem. All the incidents in ‘A Woman’s Choice’ are based on what really happened to many thousands of emigrant families. It is a compelling saga of friendship, love and ambition.

Amazon/AWomansChoice

Unravelling Oliver - Liz Nugent - Author Guest Post

I am very pleased to welcome author Liz Nugent to the blog today!

Her first novel, Unravelling Oliver, is published by Penguin Ireland on 6th March 2014

I asked Liz what drove her towards this genre and subject matter, and how her other writing - drama/theatre - does or doesn't impact her novel writing style. Her response is below.

Author guest post by Liz Nugent

Thanks so much Lindsay for taking such an interest!

I’ve always been very interested in flawed male characters in literature: John Banville’s Freddy Montgomery in the Book of Evidence, Sebastian Faulk’s Engleby, and of course Heathcliff. On television too, Tony Soprano and Walter White from Breaking Bad fascinated me but when I started writing this novel, it didn’t occur to me that I was writing a genre. I just wrote the kind of story I’d like to read and the result is something that isn’t quite crime or thriller or noir- I think the best description of it so far was that it was a story of ‘psychological suspense’ but I know that’s not exactly a genre.

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The first chapter was a stand-alone short story about a dark character, but I wrote him from the outside as simply a ‘bad’ man. When I went on to develop him, I realised that there must be some humanity in him, there must be reasons for his darkness, so I listened to him and he just very gradually revealed himself. I find it hard to accept that people are born bad. More often than not, it is environment and circumstances that mould the man. Oliver did not have a good start as he was socially isolated, neglected and all but abandoned. Because I lived in Oliver’s head for so long while I was writing the book, I really empathised with him by the time I was finished and found myself quite offended when readers told me what a monster he was!

The other characters who relate Oliver’s story only see the surface, but each of them sees a different side - vulnerable, charming, successful, tortured, industrious or confident. His fraudulent nature is not apparent to them- except for Eugene, who despite his learning difficulties, sees through Oliver from the start. Eugene is the prophet of the story.

********

Writing for radio and tv is entirely different because it is such a collaborative process. Even if you write the script, you can’t really call the finished product your own work. The layers of editorial input, the directors, the production values and the actors all bring something to the script- and sometimes take something away- but it really is no longer ‘your’ story.

Writing a novel is your work alone until you think you’re finished and then your publisher appoints an editor. But maybe as a result of that collaborative training, I had a great relationship with my editor Patricia Deevy. You have to trust that your editor wants your book to be the best it can be, so you are working together towards the same goal and there is only the two of you. The writer has the final say and I could have objected to a lot of her suggestions but you should at least try them and see if they work or not.

Also, working on a soap opera taught me a lot about hooking your audience/readers. I don’t want them to book the book down so I hint and tease about what might come and try to leave every chapter with a cliff-hanger. It’s a great discipline.

About the book...

'I expected more of a reaction the first time I hit her.'

Liz Nugent's gripping novel of psychological suspense, UNRAVELLING OLIVER, is a complex and elegant study of the making of a sociopath.

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the leafy suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and puts her into a coma.

In the aftermath, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decades. What unfolds is a story of shame, envy, breath-taking deception and masterful manipulation.

Only Oliver knows the lengths to which he has had to go to get the life to which he felt entitled. But even he is in for a shock when the past catches up with him.

About the author...

In her early career Liz Nugent worked as a stage manager in theatres in Ireland and toured internationally. More recently, Liz has written extensively for radio and television drama. She has been shortlisted for the prestigious Francis McManus Short Story Award. She lives with her husband in her native Dublin. UNRAVELLING OLIVER is her first novel.