- Home
- Books
- Personal
- Blogs
- Resources
- Gallery
- H2U
- Contact
- Site Map
- Search
Finally, click here for my new Articles section. I've called it MEA, as in mea culpa, Musings, Essays and Articles. I hope to add to this section every quarter or when I can think of something interesting to write.
Enjoy.
(The Articles section referenced here was migrated to Helen's various blog sites in March 2012 - use the Blog link in the Main Menu above.)
The trouble with our younger writers - they are all in their sixties.
Being very kind he took my suitcase, sat me down and told me I could travel with him as he was going in the same direction. Just as well. It turned out there was a bomb scare in Antwerp's main station which was now closed, so no through trains at all. I lost count of how many changes we had to make after the fifth one; haven't a clue where my hero bought me a cup of coffee and a cake - and as to where we went??
I know I ended up at Dordrecht waiting for the Eindhoven train and that I should have been with my charming host, Harry Kurt and his lovely wife Mary, by about 3 pm. We finally met up at 7:15 pm. My first talk was scheduled for 8 o'clock pm.
I was about half an hour late, but the talk went well. I think. So thank you to my Netherlands Railway Personal Travel Advisor and to my Guardian Angel for ensuring he was there to look after me. It is a bit alarming only knowing you are "somewhere in Belgium."
The rest of the trip went well, but was very tiring. I did talks in Groningen, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Deventer. I saw only two windmills, not one Dutch person wore clogs and I noticed only a few tulips. Just goes to show that stereotypical images of other countries are nearly always false.
I spent a couple of days in Amsterdam (being careful of the red light district. Jesamiah disappeared at this point, however. I suppose it does not take two guesses to decide where he went. What a rogue that pirate is!)
There is a full size replica of a Dutch V.O.C. East Indiaman called the "Amsterdam" in the docks, so I spent a happy few hours exploring her. Have put a few photos on my album for anyone who is interested.
I also met up with a "fan" of mine, Yolanda. I am grateful to her husband Phil for the meal - it was wonderful being with an ordinary, lovely, Dutch family.
And of course, thanks to all my hosts in Holland - and also to Wietske Jonker-taer Veld for sketching my portrait while I was doing my talk at Groningen. As soon as I can get the pictures scanned, I will upload them to the photo album.
My last night was spent in a luxury apartment overlooking the river at Zaandam. Wine and nibbles on the balcony with my hostess; a beautiful blue sky; the river and the marina. What more could a travel-weary author want?
Back home to England. To Nottingham now for the New Writer's UK Festival where I was one of the guest speakers. This is a recently formed group going from strength to strength, designed to give support, encouragement and advice for authors who, for whatever reason, want to self publish. I heartily applaud their objective and wish the group the very best of luck. Thank you to Julie and all the organisers for a fantastic weekend. I'm looking forward to the next festival on 29th September, which again will be near Nottingham.
My condolences to the family of producer Sydney Rose, who died 1st May. He was a firm supporter of our 1066 movie project and will be sadly missed by friends and all who knew him.
In the April newsletter I said that Pirate Code was nearly finished.
Honest Pirate, it is now even more nearly finished.
Apart from that exciting news, I was privileged to be one of the panel for judging Discovered Authors' annual literary competition. Harder than I thought to do, especially when it came down to deciding the best of three. I was pleased to find that the novel I chose from my preliminary Regional Judging came into those top three. Well done to the winners, I look forward to meeting you all at some point in the future, probably at 50 Albermarle Street, where my publisher, Discovered Authors, is located. This is where John Murray invited such literary greats as Lord Byron, Charles Darwin and Sir Walter Scott. How wonderful to sit judging new writing talent in the very room where Jane Austen once sat.
I have also been on holiday - and before you think it, I took my laptop and continued to work on Code, so no I was not shirking. Ron and I went to Devon, staying in the lovely village of Monkleigh. I can heartily recommend the Bell Inn Pub. Please use a Devon accent here; goodly food, goodly company, even goodlier wine and cider. If you are touring Devon, call in at the Bell and say that the author Helen Hollick sent you. While you are there enjoying your pint, browse the pictures on the walls. Local artist Chris Collingwood has several of his historic art paintings on view - go to my photo album for a glimpse of some of his pirate ones. I had the honour of using Chris's work for the first edition of the Kingmaking. A wonderful painting, I still cannot understand why William Heinemann decided to change it for one that was horrendous.
Two wonderful highlights. I had a "merry meeting" with Lizbeth who lives in Cornwall; thank you for the lunch, for the fantastic afternoon, and the view from your garden is to die for!
Ron and I also went to the 1646 museum in Torrington, another place to spend a fabulous afternoon. It is a "living history" museum based around the English Civil War battle at Torrington. The King's men hid the gunpowder in the Church, 80 barrels of it, then later, after Torrington fell, the Parliamentarians put the prisoners there. Gunpowder is extremely volatile. To put things into perspective; when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament, he only required about 35 barrels. I'll leave this explosion to your imagination.
We walked the dogs on the beach at Instow every day. Rum was uncertain of the sea at first, but soon decided paddling was fun - and then happened upon the doggy delight of seagull chasing. Ears flapping, tail wagging off he would go. splashing into the water, not realising the sea can be quite deep in places. Up he came for air huffing and snorting, doggy paddling after those darn gulls who just would not play fair and stay put!
Poor Rum. If only he had more than one brain cell he could be quite a bright dog. The older I get the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath
Met many of the members last April, so I am looking forward to saying hello again - especially to authors Karen Wright and Pam Littlewood, who made me feel so welcome. Karen has organised the event and is the founder of the group - which is dedicated to helping new writers who are becoming frustrated by the lack of interest shown in new and talented work by mainstream publishing.
Unless you are a chef, footballer, politician's wife or some sort of celebrity, it almost seems that the big publishing houses don't want to know. New Writers is a friendly, welcoming group, where aspiring authors can find advice and encouragement to get their books published. I am to give two talks: the one in the morning is about my books. That's easy I shall just chat about King Harold and Jesamiah, but in the afternoon slot I am supposed to be doing hints and tips for writers.
I was to have been working on what to say today, but have been chasing parcels all afternoon instead, so another late night burning the midnight oil to get some ideas jotted down. If I get finished you will find a hint of what I am to talk about it on my Articles page.
{Note : Articles Section was migrated to Helen's various blog sites in March 2012 - use the Blog link in Main Menu above.}
At least I have a title: Discovering The Diamond. I tell many new authors that writing a novel is often the easy bit. The rough draft is only the beginning, for a story starts as a piece of mud-covered rock. It has to be cleaned up and polished and polished, and, only then, does the diamond shine through.
Frustratingly, I did not look like I was going to have any copies of Pirate Code to take with me to Nottingham, as the UK delivery company had managed to lose them. Given that my address is the only one in the whole of London, this was unbelievable. Thursday afternoon was therefore somewhat fraught as I desperately tried to get an update on the parcel's whereabouts.
By six o'clock in the evening I was resigned. No books. Friday morning, a telephone call. They were found and on their way to me. Somehow, they had been taken to the right road but in a different town. Oh well, at least my assumption that pirates had purloined them was incorrect. I'd spent most of the night believing that someone, somewhere, was having a darn good free read. Fine - but I would have missed out on my royalties.
Kathy has now moved to her own apartment with husband Ian, so this place is full of empty spaces and silent corners. I miss her terribly, not just because she is my only daughter, but she is truly my best friend. As parents we spend years helping our children to grow up, then when they get to that stage we wish they were little again. It is very hard to let go, but I suppose I will just have to keep myself busy. No doubt Jesamiah will fill a few gaps with his mithering at me to get on with the next book.
The end of this month, October 31st will see the anniversary of the fire we had at our old place. My goodness has an entire year passed by? The stress, the anxiety and heartbreak has been almost unbearable at times, we lost quite a bit of stuff in the fire. Indeed I am not sure how I managed to get through some of those dreadful days, but get through I did; none of us were hurt and I managed to get Pirate Code written. Must admit, I don't know how. It was very hard to concentrate at times.
Despite the disappointment of lost books (and missing daughters - sorry that was a dreadful pun!) I have had a very exciting evening doing a radio interview with the U.S. based Bilgemunky Radio - pirate music and pirate musings for pirates everywhere. The interview will be aired on Monday 1st October 2007 in the evening USA time - check the website for full details - or can be listened to online. We chatted for about an hour, with Jesamiah whispering in my ear about all the things I had to remember to say. Gosh that pirate boasts a pirate-sized ego.
And don't forget I will be at the Battle of Hastings re-enactment in Sussex on the 13th & 14th October 2007. You will find me doing book signings in the English Heritage marquee from 12.30 - 2.30 p.m. on both days. And I will be at the Epping Bookshop in Essex at roughly the same time on October 20th - with pirates though, not Saxon warriors. That's if I don't get abducted by Normans.
And that's also if I can find my glasses so I will be able to see what I am signing. I know I put them down somewhere in my office; I have looked in, under, and around everything. No sign of them. I'm worrying now about what is going to go AWOL next . What's the betting I get lost on the way to Nottingham?
If I am not here for the November newsletter you will know why. Send out a search party.
Those of you who were concerned about my difficulties with vowels that kept sticking on my keyboard will be delighted to hear that I have a bright and shiny and squeaky-clean new one. The cat being sick over the old keyboard was the last straw, so I binned it! This keyboard has several exciting and fancy buttons - if I suddenly disappear you'll know I pressed the one marked "ejector seat" in error. It also came with a safety information booklet. I found that a little alarming - would I be needing a tin hat and seat belt, or fire-proof gloves perhaps? No, but apparently I have to do all sorts of exercises every few minutes to prevent repetitive stress syndrome occurring in my neck, back, arms and legs.
A pity there are no exercises for the repetitive stress called the Problems of Life. You know, those little everyday things like no money in the bank, the need to be extra patient with an elderly, somewhat exasperating mother and unanswerable questions, such as why does my husband not put his apple cores straight into the bin instead of leaving them on the coffee table, and why can't I think of a single word to write?
I had a superb weekend at Battle in mid-October where I sold over a 100 copies of Harold the King and met the very tall and very nice actor Ian Whyte and the wonderful Mark Lester, of Oliver fame. Both of them have parts in the proposed movie 1066; Ian as Harald Hardrada and Mark as King Harold II. The film is now officially in pre-production, although funding is not yet finalised, so it still might not happen . but let's be positive and optimistic, eh? See you at the Oscars folks! My thanks to English Heritage for their hospitality and to the Abbey Hotel, Battle, for a comfortable stay.
October also saw the launch of Pirate Code. We had a good day at the Epping Bookshop - once again my thanks for a warm welcome, and the get-together afterwards in the Duke of Wellington pub was a nice treat. There are some photos of myself and a couple of pirates who ambled along in the album. For those of you in the United Kingdom who are waiting for Amazon UK to deliver your copy, the delay is being resolved. Sorry, just one of those annoying technical problems that are as unanswerable as the questions above.
I am getting superb feedback for Pirate Code. Jesamiah's fans seem to be enjoying his second adventure very much - apart from my webmaster who said it did not have enough action in it.
Oh well, you can please some of the people some of the time as they say. I will have to get the typographical errors corrected though. Quite simple to do as my publishers, Discovered Authors, use Print On Demand, which literally means books are printed as they are wanted. When Pendragon's Banner was published by William Heinemann some years ago now, the entire print run was produced which meant there was nothing I could do about the 360 or so errors until the book was re-printed as a paperback six months later. One of the errors was Anglican, as in Church of England, instead of Anglian as in East Anglian pagan Saxon. Arghh! And I will never forget Arthur's beard-stubbled chin being printed as his bread -stubbled chin. The image of the noble King Arthur, sword Excalibur glinting in his clasped hand with croutons all over his face is just too hilarious for words.
My good friend, Raven Dane, author of the Legacy of the Dark Kind series (Blood Tears and Blood Lament superb books about Vampires with a difference. If you like Anne Rice you will love Raven Dane) was at the Whitby Goth Festival last weekend. She had a wonderful couple of days chatting with people strolling around that beautiful old Yorkshire coastal town dressed as fabulous Goths - and pirates.
Pirates! I wish I had known, I would have gone with her. I'll be there next year, that's a promise - I've already booked the hotel. Well, I will be there if I ever manage to write more than the first chapter of Bring It Close, the next in the Sea Witch series. A single chapter on its oncey is going to make a rather short novel. It does have a lot of action in that chapter, though, Mr Webmaster.
I am supposed to be writing Voyage Three, Bring It Close, but am momentarily stuck in thought and consideration. I know where I want to go with the story but am unsure of how to get started. Part of the hesitation is confidence. Even having written seven adult books and one children's book I am still concerned that no one is going to want to read my scribbles. But Jesamiah is my darling, the fictional love of my life, so when he has finally drunk all the rum and manages to stagger and swagger back into my office for long enough to nudge some ideas into my head I'll be rattling away at the keyboard like there's no tomorrow.
Except that it will probably happen when Christmas is upon us and I will be expected to shut up shop for the duration of the festivities. What? You must be joking! Once my presents are opened I'll be back in here typing away, with the candles in my variety of lanterns that adorn the window-sill next to my desk lit, mince-pie in one hand and a flagon of Christmas cheer in the other. Me, insane? Pah. Who wants reality? I don't.
All the best for the Christmas Season to you all.
Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.