An Evening with Peter V Brett

Yesterday evening, I had the privilege of meeting and chatting with Peter Brett, author of The Demon Cycle books. As you may have gathered so far in this blog, I am a very big fan of his, so it meant a lot to me to finally meet the man himself. 

Peter Brett is currently on a UK tour, which started yesterday at Waterstones Deansgate in Manchester with the event 'An Evening with Peter V Brett'. The date was added as an extra to the tour due to high demand, and I think I can safely say Peat did not regret it. The turnout was great and the event sold out. Peat told us it was his biggest crowd so far (from the US tour). 

Rob and I with Peat

Rob and I made a day of it, took time off work and headed to Manchester around lunchtime. We spent a lot of time in Forbidden Planet geeking out, and of course, in Waterstones. It is an impressive bookshop, far bigger than our one in Hull; it even has 3 floors. 

I found myself in my element, sat on the floor in the philosophy section flicking through books. I love a good bookshop. It’s just not quite the same, visiting Amazon and clicking a few buttons.

We were lucky enough to get front row seats. I say lucky – we had been lingering on the first floor of Waterstones for an hour and a half. We had spotted many other lingerers clutching copies of The Daylight War, so were slowly edging our way towards the door. There was a point at which a collective decision was made. We needed a queue. Things were not quite tidy enough, and a queue materialised in a matter of seconds. Rob and I were third in the queue, and thus, we ended up in the front row. Forgive me, but as a Brit, I love a good story about a queue.

We got chatting to some of the people around us – one guy called Robert had come from Germany, though it had been a happy coincidence as he didn’t know about the signing before. It was lovely to be around so many of Peat’s fans.

When Peat arrived, he seemed very excited that so many of us had turned up and took a picture of us all on his iPad to show his Mum he had a ‘real’ job. You can find this picture on his Facebook page (though unfortunately, rob and I were cut out.)

Myself with Peat

Then he did a Q and A, which was absolutely brilliant. Everyone asked decent questions, and he gave fluid, detailed answers to each of them. Questions ranged from ‘What do you like to read,’ to ‘If, God forbid, anything happened to you, who, if anyone, would you trust to finish your books?’

I would love to break down each question specifically and detail his responses, though this would a) take hours to write and read and b) require a much higher memory capacity than the one fitted in my brain. I guess this is why I am not a journalist.

So I will instead give an overview of what I remember and what I took away from his answers.

Peat began by speaking about what books he likes to read, and told us how George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series had changed a lot about the way he looked at writing.

Brett uses several different points of view in his books, and he spoke a little about how this came about; the story was originally from one POV only, and it became clear that this would not work for the story. It helps keep the story going to introduce a fresh perspective every now and then, and also gave him a break from each character as he wrote.

He also spoke about some of his other works, including the novellas, Brayan's Gold and The Great Bazaar, The comic Red Sonja:Unchained, and a short story featured in an anthology called Unfettered, put together by Shawn Speakman. This is due to be released in the Spring, which I am very excited about. There are many other great authors in there too.

Peat was also asked some questions about how he writes, which of course had me listening very intently. He explained how much detailed planning goes into each of his books, including bulleted summaries of each chapter and an ending in mind. He always knows where it's going, and will not set out with a story until he does, because he finds that free writing presents the danger of 'writing yourself into a corner'. He made it very clear, however, that this is how it works for him; there are those for whom free writing works, however it has been his experience that the key to a story is knowing what it is leading up to. 

Signing

I plucked up the courage to ask him a question myself. Rob had challenged me to come up with a good question and ask him. Sounds simple, I know, but this is the kind of opportunity I have often missed in my life through hesitation and nervousness. This time, I did myself proud. 
The question I asked him was this; 

'Do you remember the point at which writing became more than just a hobby - the point at which it all became real for you?'

He had been writing for a while and had a few pieces in the works including draft of a novel. Working in publishing at the time, he became friends with an agent, who, upon hearing he had work he hadn't shown anyone, thoroughly told him off. 'You don't decide if something's not good enough, I tell you if something's not good enough,' he had said. So he looked over Peat's work and did just that. The novel draft got completely rewritten and, though I am cutting out some of the story, is now The Painted Man. 

I think he must have twigged why I asked, because he went on to give some writing advice; don't be put off by the rejected work that will never see the light of day. It is not wasted time, it is practice. The key to any craft is practise, practise, practise. It will be hard work, but by the time you do get published, you know it will be good quality because of the hard work that got you to that point.

Hearing advice like that from someone you respect and admire has a way of making it really sink in.

Peat signed books after that, making time to have a nice long chat with each person too. He is such a humble, down-to-earth guy, but 100% confident in his work. Someone asked him if he had any regrets about any of his work, and he said he wouldn't have let it go to print if he wasn't 100% sure about it. Quite right too. 

I took every single book by him that I own, and bless the man, he signed them all. What a lovely man. 

I have been so inspired by meeting such a great writer and a wonderful man, and have taken so much home with me (as well as all my signed books). This has been the boost I've needed.

So thank you, Peat, for an absolutely brilliant evening.

You can check out Peat's blog about the event over at his Peephole. 

Me in my 'jamas with all my signed books. This was a good night.

* All photos taken by my lovely husband Rob on his iPhone (except the one he's in, taken by Topher Knowles.)

Pushing Forward

My manuals, which thudded through the door...

Last time I spoke about reassessing my life; well the biggest outcome of that reassessing is that writing has been brought very much into the foreground again. There was a moment a few years back at which I declared to myself  that I was serious about writing; that it wasn't going to be 'just a hobby' as everyone had always told me it would. Well, I may be into the second wave now. 

Why should writing be a footnote to my life while I work a 'real job'? 

So I have been writing something every day, not just on my novel, but gathering ideas for short stories, composing letters to companies and that sort of thing as well. I have been making sure I have time for me every day, even if it is sat up in bed with my laptop. 

But, perhaps the biggest outcome of this reassessment is that I applied to a Chapterhouse course for Proofreading and Copy Editing. Some of you may have heard of them. The course came through my door with a thud and it's all very exciting. 

You see, I figure at the very least, I will come away from the course having learned how to refine and improve my own writing. But other than that, it's a starting point for applying for jobs in the publishing industry, which you can't just walk into. 

Does anyone have any experience of this course? If so, how have you found it? 

I'll let you know how I get on.

Sky Arts

I have discovered the Sky Arts channel. After hearing that I had failed my interview for a permanent contract with my company, where I've been for a year and a half now, Google and I sat down to reassess my life. This, of course, needs background telly. 

I flicked through the channels, hoping to find something other than endless repeats of Friends (though there is nothing wrong with endless repeats of Friends), and I noticed a program called 'Screenwriting Lecture Series'. I stuck it on.

It was really interesting and helpful - BAFTA and Sky Arts had got together to create a series of lectures by various screenwriters, sharing their experience and giving advice about screenwriting. The first was lead by William Nicholson (writer of Gladiator), and his words were very interesting and inspiring. 

He talked about the role and responsibility of the screenwriter, bursting the illusion that they 'just write dialogue'. He spoke about the importance of knowing characters well in order to really capture their emotions and let us in on his personal trick of always knowing the ending before he starts to write. He spoke very strongly and passionately about the discipline of writing, which I really needed to hear.

The series was actually first broadcast in August last year, but it looks like they are repeating it on Thursdays. I thought I would mention it, if anyone has access to Sky, and hasn't already seen it, it might be worth a look. 

Re-emergance

Hello all. It has been a very long time. Unfortunately, in the big juggling game called life, the ball that gets dropped the most is writing. I've decided I'm not happy about that. So I'm trying to fix it.

For the past few months, my writing has been a bit of a wasteland, writing one or two lines a week on my novel if it's lucky. I'v decided I'm going to do something I did last year for a while - committing to writing for 10 minutes every day. It doesn't sound like a lot, which is why the psychology is good. When it's a word count, or a longer period of time, I am less likely to do it because there is so much other stuff that *has* to be done.

10 minutes is easy. And it's progress. So in the sight of whoever has not yet given up on my blog, I declare my commitment to 10 minutes writing per day. No going back now.

I have good news, though. In the wasteland of my writing mind, today I found an oasis. An idea has been trickling through my thoughts for a few weeks now, and today it crystalised into a story. I have been writing for 3 hours, and I now have a first draft of a short story. This rarely happens for me.

I want to tell you the story of the story. I walk to work most days, and a fair few of my shifts require me to go down The Avenues. These are a series of interconnected streets between Chanterlands Avenue and Princes Avenue in Hull. As I was walking one morning, I noticed some rosemary on the path. Not just a little bit, as if someone had dropped some, a lot of rosemary. It trailed along the path for a long stretch. there were heaps of the stuff about as well, all over the avenues.

I couldn't stop thinking about the rosemary. I found it really odd. Why would there be a trail of rosemary? There must be a story behind it. I've seen trails of blood down Newland Avenue before, and it doesn't take much imagination to work out the story behind that. Sometimes you see a trail of sand or compost, where the bag must have torn without anyone realising.

But rosemary? I couldn't imagine anybody carrying enough rosemary to drop that much. Rosemary isn't something one generally carries about by the armful.

I imagined somebody carrying a rosemary plant down the avenues and started to think about what would drive somebody to do that. Today, a story was born.

It sounds odd, I know. It may not even be any good. But I wrote it, and I'm proud. it ha been far too long.

Anyway, I will try to blog more often, to let you know how my 10 minute writing plan is going, and if anything becomes of this little story.

Bag Books: Beyond Paper and Words

Our experience of reading is quite straightforward - we go into a bookshop or library, buy or borrow a book, find a comfortable chair and immerse ourselves in the world created by the words.

However, for many people, this experience is not easy or straightforward. For people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, the words read from a book alone mean little. For some, even the pictures hold no interest. So, should we write off books as an experience some of our fellows just can't have?

'The Captain's Hat'

I was made aware of a charity called Bag Books through an appeal on radio 4 back in May. Bag Books have a team of people creating a different kind of storybook for those who cannot enjoy a traditional book. The books themselves are unbound large pieces of card, each page with a different object that represents that part of the story. Specially trained storytellers read each page, whilst involving each person individually with the object. This can mean assisting someone to push a button, feel a texture or produce a sound.

Through this wonderful charity, children and adults with learning disabilities can experience the world of a story in a way that is engaging, fun, and encourages personal development.

The other day, I was reading a story to a client. The book had pictures, which she was quite interested in, though her eyesight hindered her a little. So I encouraged her to feel the textures of the pictures, used different tones to communicate the atmosphere of the story and made some of the sounds in the story. She loved getting involved with the story using her other senses. It's amazing how the way in which you present a story can have such a profound effect on how it is received.

This experience made me realise just how important people like Bag Books are. They provide awareness of the needs of those with learning disabilities whilst also providing for them and bringing alive the story telling world. Visit them at www.bagbooks.org and see for yourself the wonderful work they do.

Foody Friday: Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

This soup is a good winter warmer, and a 'feel-better' soup that will kick the cold right out of you. Sweet potatoes contain beta carotene which is good for the immune system, and red pepper also contains vitamin C, well known for it's antioxidant qualities.

These quantities can be varied according to how much soup you want. I'm a big believer of making soup in bulk, then, once cooled, freezing it in portions for a quick, easy, late-home-from-work meal.  

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

1 Red Pepper, sliced and seeded

1 Medium Sweet Potato, peeled and diced

Half a large onion (or 1 small one), finely chopped

Vegetable stock

Oil to fry

Paprika

Chilli powder

Black pepper

1. Prepare the vegetables s directed.

2. Heat the oil in a big saucepan and fry the onions for about 3 minutes, then add the pepper. Fry for a further 4-5 minutes.

3. Add the diced potato to the pan and fry just for a couple of minutes while you make up the stock in a jug.

4. Remove the pan from the heat before adding the stock to the pan, to avoid spitting of hot, angry oil, burnt pans and fires. I speak from experience.

5. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a low heat and leave to simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent anything sticking to the bottom.

6. When the vegetables are tender, turn off the heat and leave to stand for a few minutes. Blend in a liquidiser until the soup is smoothe.

7. Season with pepper, chilli powder and paprika to taste, depending on how spicy you want it, then blend it again.

8. Transfer back into the saucepan and heat again for a few minutes before serving.

Best served with some nice crusty bread, or brie toast.

The Modern Rewrite

How cute is my dragon?

One of the most used exercises in creative writing classes is the modern rewrite - taking a classic story, myth or legend and rewriting it in a modern setting. We were given this as one of our first tasks at University, and I still have the half-written story I came up with. I wrote about Argus, the giant with a hundred eyes, as a modern-day security guard. With this sort of story there is naturally some level of humour in the principal, which I found by giving Argus a short, tubby, ordinary human partner. He offers charisma. And doughnuts.

Of course, there have been several rewrites and modern interpretations of old myths and fairytales in the film world recently; There was Red Riding Hood, Mirror Mirror and Snow White and The Huntsman, and Beastly.

I write about this because I am currently working on my Local Preacher Course unit assignment, which calls for us to write a parable of sorts, reviving the modern message that can be taken from a Bible passage.

We have also previously studied Narrative Sermons, which is one of my particular favourites. You take a story from the Bible, choose one of the characters (the least noticed or thought about the better) and rewrite the whole thing from their perspective. These go down really well in family and evening services.

Anyway, I digress slightly. One of the books on our reading list for Uni was 'the Seven Basic Plots' by Christopher Booker. Now a lot of people were outraged, even offended by the suggestion that most if not all stories written follow one of 7(ish) basic plots. Surely we are more original than that?

But we can't deny that most of our stories have a particular structure to them, and a lot of the tried-and-tested basic plots that work well crop up again and again. Detective novels do it quite shamelessly. 

Because the fact is that so much can be done within the basic structure, and if the basic structure works, why not use it? 

And this, I believe is why many of these classic stories keep rearing their heads - because they work. They capture storytelling at it's best. 

Do we need to keep updating these classic stories? Surely, they are classic for a reason, and work best in the setting in which they were first written. However, kept as they are, many modern-day readers/film watchers would not be able to relate or understand the true meaning or depth of the story. This, of course, is most prominent when talking about modernising parables. We modernise them to introduce the ideas, messages and lessons into the world in which we live, not one we only read about. It brings the story to life for us.

So, what do you think?