10 Thursday Feb 2022
Tags
cover reveal, historical mystery, Sapere Books, The Road to Murder, The Tom Walsingham Mysteries
And for the first time in nine years, I leave aside my beloved colour scheme of black, grey, red and white, because really, this one you must see in all its splendour… The lovely people at Sapere Books sent me my cover – the first cover for the Tom Walsingham Mysteries…
03 Thursday Feb 2022
Tags
British History Online, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, historical novel, primary sources, swashbuckling
After finishing Draft 0 last Monday, I’ve spent this past couple of days up to my chin in primary sources, thanks to the wonder that is British History Online. Continue reading
27 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in History, Scribbling
Tags
Historical fiction, languages, names, naming characters, research, spelling, Tom Walsingham Mysteries, writing
Yesterday I spent a good deal of time perusing lists of names of Guild members in 16th century Bruges. It’s one of the many wonders of the Internet that you can find this sort of thing for the asking… and, as I said, I ended up spending a good chunk of the afternoon going through list after list, copying the promising ones in my notebook – one column for given names, one for family names – trying them out for size, and even involving a Dutch-speaking friend for a sense of how a few of them would be pronounced… Continue reading
20 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in Scribbling
I’m not sure whether it truly qualifies as stepping out of my comfort zone – but I’m definitely trying something different with what we’ll call, for now, Tom Book 2 – or, even shorter, TB2. Something I’ve never done before. At least not the way I’m doing it now… Continue reading
13 Thursday Jan 2022
Oh, I don’t know…
This is in part because, after two years, I’m very much missing London. And besides, I’m working on Book 2 of the Tom Walsingham Mysteries, so I’m up to my ears in research…
Do you mind if I share a few lovely things I’ve found? Continue reading
06 Thursday Jan 2022
Posted in Scribbling, Things
So here we go – New Year and all… and let me say that I’m slightly surprised at myself. And I’m slightly surprised because, for once and for a wonder, I don’t seem to be suffering from January Blues – or at least not much.
More than slightly, perhaps, especially when you consider the times we are living in… but still. Continue reading
30 Thursday Dec 2021
Another year very nearly gone, you see? Another year in this strange, unsettled era of ours. Another plague year…
Did you do what you had set out to do this year, o Readers? I find that I hadn’t set out to do too much. Well yes, I hazily meant to write more, to step into my new director’s shoes, to move a little – oh yes: and to write one cheerful thing. I suppose that, at some level, I found it safer to play it by ear? Continue reading
24 Friday Dec 2021
02 Thursday Dec 2021
Posted in Scribbling, Theatre
Once upon a time, December used to be a rather non-writing month, all given to Christmas preparations. Crafting ornaments and decorations, trimming trees, baking Lebkuchen, making the pudding, searching for presents, listening to carols… this sort of things.
I just believed – in all naive honesty – that there was no time to write in December… Continue reading
25 Thursday Nov 2021
Posted in Theatre
Tags
dress rehearsal, Noises Off, Opening Night, Philip Henslowe, Shakespeare in Love, stage superstitions, theatre
Us – after dress. Or tech. Or whatever it was.
So the play opens tomorrow night.
We had dress rehearsals, last night – or perhaps not quite… I mean it in that Noises-Offish way, you know: if this is tech, when do we do dress? And if this is dress, when do we do tech?
Yes, well… Continue reading
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