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Early Days
When the majority of my books – around 15 - came to
life my only contribution was to take an intense year to research and write each novel and
deliver my completed manuscript to my publisher on November 30 ( the date agreed
in the commissions). I dealt with two major publishers - Hodder & Stoughton and then Headline
– now Hachette.
I posted my precious
manuscript – which some writers may tell you becomes like a baby in your
life – to my talented editors, Anne Williams and later Harriet
Evans (now a successful novelist
herself). I would get it back from them by Christmas. complete with some changes inspired by their insightful comments.
Interestingly enough Anne always insisted that they
were suggestions, not instructions. Through time I had great advice from both Anne
and Harriet which has entered my permanent writing process.
After that I returned the amended manuscript to my editor who entered it into post- editing production involving formatting and cover design processes. I don't think I was aware then that it
takes more than a village to raise a
novel. Since I have started going it alone I am very aware of that.
The production safely in process, I would then begin to
prowl around my shelves, my growing pile
of heavily scored notebooks - and
in the busy universe of my mind - to ponder an arena of people, life and history that would be the
basis for my next novel. This was - and is still - my professional habit and
routine through a many years.
By the time the novel appeared in the Spring I would
be writing again, always voyaging into very different territory. In the meantime
my publisher's marketing department took
care of the (rather limited - I wasn't famous after all...) promotion
process.
The novels were well reviewed - mostly in provincial
presses across England and in some
magazines, although they never reached the magisterial heights of the literary
broadsheets. I was from the North, after all and I had come from a working, rather than the literary background. I notice that this issue of being ‘from
the working class’ is quite a trend nowadays. When I was first writing I
was distinctly pre-trend: there were no literary festivals therefore no
platforms for my kind of writing. There was no Internet and no metropolitan
networking - this was strictly for already established writers. I had no
contacts – my novels were published, as it were, out of the blue by Headline in
its earliest days. I have my then editor Anne Williams and later Harriet Evans to thank for that.
As each book came out I would write some articles
about the ideas underlying it, I would do a few presentations.
But really I was free to get on with writing the next - very different - novel. This was, of course, as well as working
at my full-time job, as well as being a companion for my hard-working husband
and nurturing my two children. Of course they are very big people now. Bonjour @lickedspoon
When i became a professional writer, the writing of popular novels was a virtual
cottage industry before it became corporatised and monetised, with - it seems to
me - increasing distance from the intense personal creative activity which had been all about dreaming up stories and writing them down. In had became clearer that my thriving career could not survive, based as it was on instinct and a powerful storytelling imperative, rather than the somewhat rigid and perhaps stereotyped perceptions of The Market.
Going It Alone?
I had always made a living alongside my profession but
never expected to make a fortune through my writing. (I think people tend to hope
this nowadays…). The professional and artistic satisfaction for me was always
the possibility of seeing the novels out there being read, and hearing readers
response to my stories.
And this is why and how – my children grown and flown
- I began to explore ways in which I could still write my novels and shepherd
them into the market myself. So I started to write novels for myself,
creating a very tiny imprint called Damselfly Books in order
to locate them.
So I proceeded to publish Paulie’s Web – a novel
emerging from my seminal experience as writer in residence in a women’s prison.
I wrote The Pathfinder – a novel exploring my inner
fascination with my Celtic roots which keep re-emerging in my philosophies and
ideas - and in my novels. This always seem to me to be begging for some
fictional expression. I went on to write the novel called The Bad Child, focusing on my work as an educator and the fact that
middle children – (I myself was one and I was observing my niece, also a middle
child, as another) – could be independent, rebellious and self-activating –
rather different from their siblings. This is how my very special Demelza
came to life in this novel.
Becoming Alice emerged
from my increasing professional interest in the complex connections between
what appears to be pure fiction and what seems to be true memoir. This novel
was to be the first of three novels set in the arc of public and private life
between 1941 and the Millennium. It is no accident that this time-span just
happens to be the arc of my own life fully realised in the life experience of a girl
called Alice. At the moment the second and third novels in this
trilogy are just at the brainstorming/note-writing/plot-planning stage now.
I was now realising just how much the focus throughout
my writing life had been - rooted in my own life experience - transformed through fiction - eventually
appeared on the page. But I realised that my life experience was not unidirectional
or set in a neat narrative; rather it was fragmentary – incoherent shards and fragments
which took different shapes depending on how I cast my story-net. This, I thought, was rather like
the toy kaliedescope that has sat on my mantelpiece for more than twenty years. Now I
had my title! This was when I began to write and publish some short stories
which reflected this concept more directly.
The Workshops
So it was that last Spring -
one year ago - I presented a series of workshops on the connection
between memoir and fiction. The participants were both enthusiastic and
inspiring. That was when, in serious earnest, I began to pull together my
stories and to write new ones which would illustrate an original fusion of objective truth and pure
fiction. This was why and how I wrote the stories one by one over this last
year. And then laid them out and then I surveyed them to see just what I had created.
And now I turned to
Damselfly to publish this new collection to be called Kaleidoscope -
Stories from the Frontier. This subtitle – like the nature
of these short stories – was inspired by a good deal of reading, especially the
work of Diana Athill and Jean Rhys. I was particularly engaged by
Diana Athill’s insightful comment on the late work of Jean Rhys, with whom she
worked in the last 15 years of Rhys’s long life. Athill remarked on
Rhys’s writing ‘from the ‘frontiers of old age’ as being of her
very best. So I had my sub-title.
In my publishing process I’ve used the services of
Word-2.Kindle to ensure the technical standard of the text. This company were both patient and
helpful, which is just what I needed as I was going it alone. Inspired by the Kaliedoscope on my
mantelpiece. For the cover design I joined forces with my artistic, literary
friend Avril Joy and we designed the cover together.
The blurb on the cover of Kaliedoscope took some
thinking about. It has so many functions for any new reader. Referring to
oneself in the third person is truly odd. Anyway this is what I ended up with:
In this collection of short stories
Wendy Robertson acquaints us with the life of career writer Ruthie Evans -
rooted in the North, travelling from Ireland to Singapore and Soviet Russia,
featuring characters who reflect their Twentieth Century times. In the stories
Ruthie emerges triumphant – complex, highly intelligent, conflicted and full of
joy: a unique and special memoir, exploring the relationship between memoir and
the short story.‘…truth and fiction like two hands clasping… A rare glimpse of
what it’s like to be inside the process of writing… ‘Kathleen Jones:
biographer‘More than just a memoir… a masterclass in the writing process.’
Sharon Griffiths: Columnist & Author‘A powerful writer.’ Mail on Sunday.
I truly hope you enjoy reading Kaliedosope. If you
like the idea of this adventurous combination of memoir and fiction you might
be inspired to write a story yourself - a story which could leap out the truth of your own
experience. And then another. And another.
It seems to me now that this present lock-down situation
could be perfect for anyone, writer or not, to embark on such a self-enhancing and satisfying project.
Also read two earlier posts where I discuss the complex relationship betweem Memoir and Fiction.
If all this has made you curious about the stories. Here for you is the contents list:
Kaleidoscope: The Stories
Keong
Sak....................................................................
1
This
Working Life...................................................... 44
Patchouli................................................................... 53
Brown
Velvet.............................................................
83
Governess...............................................................
118
The
Fox House.........................................................
165
Story
Teller’s Apprentice......................................... 179
Big
Issue..................................................................
212
Tiananmen..............................................................
231
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