The Importance of Books: My List

I’ve just made a list of books I've read in the last year.  

Stephen King, in his seminal book On Writing declares how important it is for anyone who aspires to write that they should read. A lot.

We should read all kinds of stuff – deep, shallow, funny, serious,

tragic comedic. Stephen King lists the great number of books he had read in a year. Interestingly he includes in the list the many books he has read in audio form. For some people – not me- this might be seen as kind of cheating, an  easy way.

But I have this friend who consumes books on audio every single day while he is working at more manual tasks. He points out that with an audio book you listen to every word. You don’t skip. Every word counts. As it should.

I once gave a talk to a reading group for people of all ages who were sight-impaired. The discussion was vigorous and interesting . These readers had an unsurpassed grasp on the detail, the characterisation and the narrative of the novels we were discussing – all read on Audio Books.

And, like audio books, reading on Kindle, Tablets and Phones is sadly sniffed at in some quarters. And yet, my inside source tells me the 46% of books are read in this form. Thank God they do. Some of those are my books and perhaps yours.

It’s been my lifetime delight to curl up with a good book, seduced by the smell and feel of new paper and the sight of great prose. But now as well as this I also love listening to stories on my iPod, and racing through novels and research sources on Kindle and on the internet. So the modern way works brilliantly for this reader and writer.

So this is why this morning I made a list of the books I’ve read in the last year. I’ve read them all with appreciation and enjoyment. It’s not been intentional but probably my list signifies my preoccupations as a writer as well as a reader. Perhaps your book is there! On my list there is – as there should be – lots of fiction there as well as sources of information and research for my new and my  earlier book. The books  range from the serious to the light hearted, the trivial to the serious, from the poetic to the informative.

Do you have your own list? Let me have it with a 50 word bio. and I’ll post it here on Life Twice Tasted.

So anyway – here’s my list:

1. Sometimes a River Song  Avril Joy
2. Phantom Notes Brian  Turner
3. Partners  John Grisham
4. Bonjour Darling  Heather Francis
5. The Last American Martyr  Tom Winton
6. Wake  Anna Hope
7. The Ballroom  Anna Hope
8. The Dark is Rising  Susan Cooper
9. A Murder of No Account  Julia Underwood
10. Twin Piques  Tracie Bannister
11. The Story Sisters Alice Hoffman
12. Solem  Clive Johnson
13. Hadrians Wall Path Walking into History: Jane V Blanchard 
14. Decide Where to Go  Eileen Elgey
15. Lazy France in Marseillan Laurence Phillips.
16. Noonday  Pat Barker
17. One of Ours  Willa Cather
18. Parades End  Ford Maddox Ford
19. Five Children on the Western Front  Kate Saunders
20. Plainsong  Kent Haruf
21. The Last Ballad  Helen Cannam
22. Ill Met by Moonlight  W Stanley Moss
23. Night Soldiers  Alan Furst
24. The White Venus  Rupert Colley
25. The Last Englishman  H.L.Carr  Byron Rogers
26. The Lost Guide to Life and Love Sharon Griffiths
27. Mushrooms .Collins Gem
28. Dip  Andrew Fusek Peters
29. Zone of interest  Martin Amis
30. The Diary od Adam and Eve Mark Twain  
31. The Risk of Reading:  How literature helps us understand ourselves and the world.  Robert Waxler
32. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase  Joan Aiken
33. New Grub Street  George Gissing
34. Wild Swim  Kate Rew
35. Swimming Home  Debora Levy
36. A Month in the Country  H.L. Carr.
37. Waterlog   Roger Deakin
38. 12 Years a Slave  Soloman Northup
39. A King in Yellow  H.P.Lovecraft
40. The City and the City   China Miéville
41. The Judas Goat  Robert P Parkerf
42. The Last Iceberg Anne Ousby
43. Jamaica Inn  Daphne du Maurier
44. The Centauress  Kathleen Jones
45. Death at the Castello   Erica Yeoman
46. Ring of Clay  Margaret Kaine
47. The Book Thief  Markus Zusak
48. The Blackbird House Alice Hoffman
49. Robert Graves: Life on the Edge   Miranda Seymout
50. On Writing: a member of the craft   Stephen King
51. The Secret Life of Bees   Sue Monk Kidd
52. The Birds and Other Stories  Daphne du Maurier
53. Dear Life ( Short stories) Alice Munro
54. How Fiction Works   James Wood
55. It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again Julia Cameron 
56. The Avenue A Newcastle Backstreet Boyhood        Samuel W Herbert

  

  

It took  a hundred books to

research The Pathfinder

Houses As Inspiration

 Houses can  be very inspiring.They can sometimes become characters in fiction. I think of my favourite Daphne Du Maurier’s Manderley. My own Victorian house has featured - in disguise  - in several of my novels. My novel The Lavender House was inspired by a very unusual house in North London, And my novel Writing at the Maison Bleue was set in a

house inspired by a house I know very well in Agde France.

In Paperback 

And on Kindle 

So I was delighted when my friend Kathleen Jones emailed me about a poem saying 'I came across this poem in the Poetry Review (summer issue I've only just opened!)  and immediately thought of you.  It has a lovely, elegiac feel and resonates with your novel.  So I thought I'd send it.'

 So for you, here is an extract from Graham Mort’s Poem. (Read all of it in The summer issue of The Poetry Review).

La Maison Bleue

Before I died, we rented a blue house

on a narrow street that twisted down 

to a river bridge's leaping arch.

The house had photographs of a family 

just like mine: the parents happy back 

in time, looking sideways to the future,

...

© Graham Mort (See link below)

You can read all of this great poem in the Summer Issue of the Poetry Review.

And here, from Writing at the Maison Bleue, is the first time Francine sees  my own  Maison Bleue:

  

... The Maison Bleue is half massive old stone and half rendered, peeling plaster; its garden sprawls down to plane trees that line the Canal du Midi. The window shutters are pale blue, framed in dusty white. There are nine windows – two on each side of the door on the ground floor, two on the first and second floors and one at the top under the white-painted arch of the roof. All of them, even the small one at the top, have narrow balconies. On the rendered walls the pale blue paint is dusty and peeling and quilted with dozens of cracks, gauzy as spider’s webs…

        When we reach the old woman’s salon it’s completely bare except for one great armoire with glittering mirrored doors and a long narrow buffet table against a wall.  Thick curtains seal out the sun. My nose itches with the faint smell of disinfectant covering something much worse: something to do with age and failing senses. The walls, though, are newly painted in a white that’s slightly off, like the skin on top of milk that’s been boiled and left.  
         Aurélie  flicks a switch, flooding the room with cold, white light.  She nods with such vigour that a strand of hair escapes from her severe chignon. ‘Electricity.’ she beams, ‘thanks to those Boches who stole this place in the war. Still works. That’s something, is it not, whatever other nasty things happened here in those days?’ She sets about opening all the tall windows and the clean warm air of the morning seeps into the room, chasing away the foetid evidence of its last occupant.

We check out the other large salon and move onto the big square kitchen with its two great dressers, its one square Formica topped table, its one small stove, something begins to gnaw away at me, like hunger at the pit of your stomach. I am hungry for this house. Hungry! Just as once I was hungry for the Foxe house.

          As I walk around I begin to realise that only the very big armoires, the great wardrobes and tables - all too heavy to move, too big to sell - are left. The intricate detritus of the old woman’s daily life is  gone.  I am disappointed. ‘Everything else has gone?’ I say...

Question: Do you have a house that inspires you? Let me know 

Links :

Find Kathleen HERE

Find Graham  Mort's Poem  HERE

'Graham Mort’s eighth collection Cusp is a rich, visceral tour-de-force that rides the cusps of life and death, animal and human, love and hate, winter and spring with the ambition and craft of someone engraving a razors edge...'

Find The Poetry Review HERE  http://poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-section/the-poetry-review

Find Writing at the Maison Bleue HERE/

Writer Interview: An American in London: - Julia Platt Leonard

Today my guest is Julia Platt Leonard, a talented and upcoming writer  in the field of children's fiction: a name to look for. 

Julia  lives in North London but has meaningful roots  in Tennessee and Virginia in the USA. And Santa Fe in New Mexico. Like her namesake, the legendary Julia Child, our Julia is a dedicated  and talented cook. When we met for tea and cakes there was an  air of celebration in Julia's very urban kitchen, because it had just been fitted with a much

desired Aga...

Reading corner in
Julia's kitchen 

Wendy: What is the primary joy of writing in your life?

Julia.I love the eureka moments when I suddenly get it – when I understand a character or figure out how to solve a niggling plot point. And there are times when I become so absorbed that I lose track of time and find myself lost in the story. That is bliss.

Wendy: Does being American writing in England have an effect on your approach to writing?

Julia: I think it does. When I wrote my first novel Cold Case, I thought long and hard about where I would set it and chose Santa Fe, New Mexico because it’s a place near and dear to my heart. I didn’t feel ‘ready’ to base a story in London but when I started my second book, Stealing Time, I felt I was ready to have London as my setting.

Wendy: Do you have a specific feeling for the nature of your audience.

Julia: That’s an interesting question. I’ve been told that Cold Case appeals to boys and reluctant readers because it’s very fast paced with short chapters and lots of action. But it’s got a strong girl’s audience too – possibly thanks to Oz’s female sidekick Rusty –  so hopefully there’s a bit to appeal to lots of different readers.

Wendy: Have any books inspired you in the process of becoming a writer?

Julia: I was a voracious reader as a kid and still am today. I love lots of different types of books – mysteries and thrillers especially. The books I remember from my childhood with incredible fondness include To Kill a Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time, the novels of Daphne Du Maurier and Rumer Godden.

Wendy: When did you first know you were a writer?

Julia: I don’t remember a moment when it hit me – I suppose it was a gradual process. It started with a love of reading and that magical feeling when a book transports you. I can’t count the number of times I’ve missed my stop on the train or tube because I’ve had my nose in a book. At University I was an English literature major in the U.S. so I did a lot of reading and writing. And my first job after graduation was as a television reporter.

Wendy: What other aspects of your life find a place in your writing?

Julia: When I decided I was going to write a kids’ book I decided I wanted it to include things I love. I came up with a short list of three: 1) it had to be a mystery because I love reading mysteries, 2) I wanted it to include food since I’ve worked as a chef and, 3) it should be set in Santa Fe since that’s a place I love. The book I’m working on now has a lot of references to Charles Dickens who is probably my favourite author.  

Wendy: Do you have a writing routine?

Julia: I find I work/think best in the morning so I try to start writing as soon as I get back from the school run. If I can write for two straight hours that’s a success. I’ll tend to read through what I wrote the day before and make revisions and changes and then write another chapter. My chapters tend to be quite short

Julia in her study

so it’s doable if I keep myself off email and Amazon!

Wendy: What role does editing play in your writing process?

Julia: It’s funny because when I finished my first draft of Stealing Time, I thought ‘I’m done.’ But that’s a short-lived sense of satisfaction because to be honest, the hard work is ahead of me. The first draft basically gets the bones down on the page but then both the plot and characters need to be fleshed out.

Wendy: What is the best advice that you have received about your writing and who advised you?

Julia: I was lucky enough to take Children’s Writing classes at City Lit here in London. It was the best investment I ever made. I was taught by both Elizabeth Hawkins and Sophie McKenzie. The message from both of them was that writing is a job and you’ve got to put in the time to see the results. The difference between what gets published and what doesn’t is often sheer tenacity. And I find that the more time you spend with your story and characters, the better and richer they are.

Wendy:What advice would you give to writers in the first stage of writing their novels?

Julia: Get a rough idea of your plot before you dive in. Can you write a book without knowing where it’s going? Probably but you’re making your life as a novice writer even harder. Second, dedicate time during your day for writing. If you’ve got another job – like I do – or family – again, that’s me – then this can be difficult but it’s really essential.

Wendy: How long does it normally take you to write a novel? Has this changed?

Julia: It feels like forever! I’ve been working on Stealing Time now for a couple of years. Part of that is because I’m balancing writing with other work and a young daughter. But at some point, I think a book has a life of its own and you have to climb on board and stay with it until it’s done.

Wendy: What are you working on now?

Julia: I’m working on Stealing Time, an 11+ novel about a girl named Flint Dreadnaught who inherits a mysterious watch from her aunt. When a nefarious man named Witherwick steals the watch she risks her life to get it back. There’s a bit of time travel, a Victorian boy named Wilkie and a cameo by the novelist Charles Dickens.

Wendy: Tell us about your latest published novel.  

Julia: Cold Case was my first book. It’s an 11+ murder mystery about a boy named Oz who goes into his family’s restaurant early one morning and finds a dead body in the walk-in refrigerator. When his brother is accused of the crime, Oz must find the real murderer. There’s a great girl sidekick who helps him named Rusty

Wendy: What, for you are the best characteristics of a good editor?

Julia: A good editor finds the points where the reader stops being immersed in the story because of a flaw with the plot or the characters. He or she points those out, offers suggestions but doesn’t try to re-write it for you.

Wendy: Do you see any difference between American and British writers?

Julia: I’m sure there are but writing and reading has become so global that as a reader, I’m most interested in finding a good story – one that I can sink my teeth in.

Wendy: If possible can you give us a few biographical elements about Julia Platt Leonard and her life?

Julia: I came to writing after careers as a television reporter, advertising executive, and professional chef. I'm from the U.S. – a Tennessee native with stops in Ohio and North Carolina before going to college at the University of Virginia. I've lived in New York and Boston but have called London home for the past 16 years where I live with my husband and daughter and our cheeky collie-pointer cross, Olivia. I write (occasionally) about writing at www.coldcasetheblog.com as well as on my food blog www.myagadiary.co.uk.

Thank you Julia. There is so much here with which I - and other writers, I feel - will identify. I too have always rated Rumer Godden and Daphne du Maurier for their great story-telling skills and their insight into the inner child. And I have just published a novel whose heroine is called Olivia. But she's not a dog.

I loved Cold Case and am so looking forward to reading Stealing Time. Flint Dreadnaught sounds like a great heroine...