BlogNor09: The Halo Effect

Now writing about The Halo Effect for the self-help audio book "The Simpler Life" I'm writing with Annabel Shaw. It's really about first impressions - the traits you first recognise in people tend to colour your impression of the whole person. This is why attractive people are often believed to have attractive personalities and you believe that people who come over as competent in one area, the first time you assess their competence, to be competent in general.

Not always true, by any means. But what might it mean for bloggers? If the Halo Effect applies to blogs, how you come over in the first post people read will characterise your whole blog for them. But do we care? Probably not.

BlogNor09: Blogging from Bunwell

Driving from Bunwell to Holt yesterday evening to give a talk on Kindred Spirits at Holt Library, I couldn't have had a better reminder of how beautiful the Norfolk countryside is. It was a glorious sunny evening, and the gently undulating fields of rape and early wheat, angular pine forests and traditionally pretty villages looked simply stunning in the soft summer light.

Holt itself is an exceptionally attractive town and provided me with an interested and interesting audience of readers and writers who listened attentively and asked stimulating questions after the delicious snacks that Meg and Tilly at the Library had laid on.

The evening before I had had an equally enjoyable time talking at Long Stratton Library. The first time I spoke there was nearly three years ago when my first novel, Blood and Water came out. I mentioned then that I was thinking of writing a novel set locally during the Second World War, and a gentleman gave me some useful information about James Stewart and Walter Matthau, who both served as members of the USA Air Force based at Old Buckenham Air Base. I incorporated some of this material into Kindred Spirits, so I was very pleased to see the same man at my second talk, and thank him for his contribution.

Kindred Spirits got a very nice review from Keith Skipper in the EDP Sunday Magazine the weekend before last. He called me "An exciting new talent" and said the book was "...a telling fusion of teasing fiction and local history." Keith also commended me for setting "a perfect example to colleagues in (the tv) medium by employing plenty of authentic Norfolk dialect words and phrases. Perhaps she can pass on a few tips to the cast of Kingdom." What Keith didn't say was that I'd listed his own book, Larn Yourself Norfolk: a comprehensive guide to the Norfolk dialect, amongst my source material in the Bibliography of KS !

He did email me, though, to repeat how much he'd enjoyed the book and suggest that I submit it for this year's East Anglian Book Awards (sponsored my Jarrolds and the EDP) - which I have now done.

Today (23rd April) is BBC Norfolk's Blogging Norfolk Day, when they hope to create a snapshot of Norfolk life across the East Anglian blogosphere. I was in the Radio Norfolk studio on Tuesday, talking about my third novel, Mr Mikey's Ladies. Mr Mikey has his own blog - perhaps he should make a contribution, though he's hardly a Norfolk boy. A South Londoner, his current home is in Sydney, from where he dispenses Agony Aunt advice to any of his Ladies visiting his e-salon, and other celebrities besides.

Bunwell Book Launch, and more....

So much has been happening in the last few weeks I haven't even had time to update the blog.

First there was another appearance (well, an audio one) on BBC Radio Norfolk - this time as part of the Lunchtime Ladies discussion on Friday 13th March - Comic Relief day.

Then I gave a talk on Kindred Spirits at Diss Library on the 18th. A small group, but a very interested and interesting one - who would have talked on till late, had not the poor librarian finally managed to bring the dicussion to a close. It's amazing how talk of ghosts and spirits (kindred or otherwise) brings out all manner of experiences and opinions that people want to debate and share.

The Bunwell Book Launch of Kindred Spirits took place on Monday 23rd March at Bunwell Village Hall. There was a great turnout, despite hail, wind and rain, and I had a fabulous evening because it looked as if everyone else was enjoying it too. I was able to add all the local information to my normal talk, and I had the brilliant idea a couple of days beforehand, of asking the friends who I'd based characters on to read in their own dialogue as I read the excerpts. Kathy and Babs were brilliant - and Tony got double extra brownie points for appearing in costume, including fake moustache, as Henry Tinker!

The nephew of my ghost came to the Launch! I'd sent him an invitation, but he's a very old man now and I didn't know if he'd make it. At one point he hijacked my talk, telling us more about his uncle than I'd discovered before. Amazingly -- spookily? -- he said a couple of things about his uncle which I hadn't known before, and yet had written into Henry Tinker's story. One was that he came to Norfolk to buy local produce and sell it in rationed London on the black market; and the other that when "Henry's" father-in-law had died intestate, his property was broken into and money stolen. I thought I'd made up these elements of Kindred Spirits - but they were true anyway!

Then last Saturday I joined the North Norfolk Writers' Group to talk about all three of my novels - another very congenial evening!

Back to BLOOD AND WATER

A member of the Book Group from North Walsham Library emailed me to repeat that she had really enjoyed reading Blood and Water, which they had done as a group prior to my talk. Kindred Spirits is a follow-on novel to B&W, but is also a stand-alone read.

She writes a mini review of all the books they read and this is what she said about B&W :

"Thought it was very well written. Perhaps too many problems in one book, but it was lively and interesting . Glad there was a list of characters - I still got lost with the birth mother of the twins and the MP’s wife. Interesting that at the beginning of the book I thought the main character, Mo was a bit ‘away with the fairies’ and in the end she was so clever and innovative. It certainly was not a boring book and a good criteria is when you cannot put it down. I read it in record time. Definitely would like to read another of this author’s books."

In her email, she then said: "My last comment about reading the next book by this author is more of a compliment than you may realise, because I have not got a favourite author, I enjoy a wide range of books and for me to put that I would look for and read another book 'by this author' is accolade indeed!Your words about your young life struck a cord with me when you said to-day that you were brought up in a home with books. I remember so clearly and affectionately Sunday afternoons spent with my Mother and Father sitting round the fire in the dining room after Sunday Dinner, reading and enjoying our books. It started a life long interest and I was horrified when I heard, when my children were young, that there were homes where there were no books. I found it difficult to imagine such a place!!"

I hope she enjoys the next one as much. Thanks for letting me know!

Talking about KINDRED SPIRITS

In the last couple of weeks I've given my first two talks on Kindred Spirits, the first for the Wymondham Rotary Club, who kindly invited me to lunch and let me talk to them as their post-prandial speaker. Peter, who had asked me along, was a little nervous about the fact that I was going to tell them a ghost story, but in fact several sane-looking businessmen came up afterwards to tell me their house, or other place they knew of, was haunted, or they had had other psychic experiences.

Then yesterday I went to North Walsham Library to speak to the Book Club. It was a great turnout and many of the ladies had alread read Blood And Water, my first novel and the one that precedes Kindred Spirits - although you don't have to have read B&W to understand KS.

They were a great audience, enthusiastic and interested with some very pertinent questions. One was: which did I love most about the writing process: writing about the environment (the Crystal Palace area in B&W and Norfolk in KS), the characters, the historical research, or the intricate plotting. I had to think about that, as they all come high on the list of what I love about fiction writing. In the end I said that all my books take a house I have lived in as a starting point, but the characters are my greatest love and the historical research the hardest work - though also very rewarding.

The Bunwell Book Launch (Bunwell is the South Norfolk village where I live) is the next big thing I have to think about. With two and a half weeks to go (it's on Monday 23rd March, 7.30pm at Bunwell Village Hall - all welcome!), I've got my friend Kathy, a genius at marketing and event organising, in to help with the arrangements. The area is plastered with flyers, the kids have had great fun biking around the village posting invitations in letter boxes and there's a bit of an email campaign going. Hopefully a few people will turn up, and if they do they should have a good time. As well as launching Kindred Spirits on its home ground - the book is set in both the present day and WW2 in a South Norfolk village not unlike Bunwell, in a house not unlike my own - it will also be something of a celebration of the six years we've lived here, the real life kindred spirits I've found in this village and the vibrant and supportive community that is all we hoped for to bring our Russian adopted daughters up in.

Here's an update of dates and places when I'll be talking about Kindred Spirits (or other things) in the near future:

Friday 13th March, 11pm - BBC Radio Norfolk's Lunchtime Ladies

Wednesday 18th March 7pm - Diss Library

Monday 23rd March 7.30pm - "A Bunwell Book Launch" - local launch of Kindred Spirits, Bunwell Village Hall, The Turnpike, Bunwell Norfolk. All welcome. Enquiries: 01953 789951

Saturday 28th March 6.30pm - North Norfolk Writers' Workshop. Enquries: 07891 480247

Tuesday 31st March 2.00pm - Reepham Library

Tuesday 21st April 6.30 - Long Stratton Library

Wednesday 22nd April 7pm - Holt Library

Tuesday 5th May 10.15am - Attleborough Library

Any queries, please leave a comment on the blog or email me at lucy@lucymccarraher.com

Talking to Graham and Karen

I went into the studios of BBC Radio Norfolk to talk to morning presenters, Graham and Karen, about Kindred Spirits, the spirit who inspired the plot and other aspects of my life.

It was very relaxed and great fun - Graham and Karen are highly professional in the way that manages to make it all look so easy, and their three hour daily show is a mixture of music, info and chatting to a wide range of guests. I was in the studio for about forty minutes, and my interview was divided into three sections - the first about the book, the second about my time in Australia and involvement with the Lovers Guide, and the third about... my family and other animals.

I'm now up on the BBC website, and you can even listen to the three sections of the interview if you've nothing better to do with half an hour or so.

It seems that quite a few people did listen, as I had some emails, a phone call from the Diss Publishing Bookshop to say people had been in to order it, a complaint that Norfolk Libraries didn't have it in stock and I can see that my sales rating on Amazon has gone up this week.

I shall be back in with Karen at BBC Radio Norfolk on Friday 13th March for one of the weekly Lunchtime Ladies discussions, which is a sort radio version of Loose Women, fueled by a glass or two of wine - I'm looking forward to it!

BBC Radio Norfolk Interview

A bit of marketing work has resulted in a quick response from BBC Radio Norfolk. I'm going in next Tuesday morning (3rd February) to talk about Kindred Spirits and the ghost story which inspired it. I'll be on air sometime between 10 and 11 am.

The paras from my Press Release that interested them most, I think, are these:

Is this a real-life Norfolk ghost story?

When author, Lucy McCarraher, had recently moved from London into a 17th century, South Norfolk farmhouse, she was visited by a psychic friend. That evening, a spirit made contact, giving his name and position in the local churchyard. The man wanted Lucy, it seemed, to tell his story and “right the wrong” that was done to him in the 1940s.

Lucy was intrigued, if sceptical, but his gravestone was exactly where he had said and local research revealed, amazingly, that a man of that name (the “Henry Tinker” character in Kindred Spirits), had indeed lived in the village, married, had children and left under a cloud of family suspicion in 1946.

“His descendants gave me as much information as they could, but they were children at the time and all the adults now dead. But I had enough – a death, no will, missing funds, someone blamed, family divisions, lives blighted – to set my imagination, and sense of duty to my ghost, working. After my first novel, Blood and Water was published, I decided to write a second book combining some of my own experiences in moving to the country, with a fictional village of the 1940s – and of course World War Two was a great period in Norfolk history,” said Lucy McCarraher.

On the basis of my Radio Norfolk interview, I got on the phone to the Norwich branches of Waterstones and asked if they'd order in copies of Kindred Spirits, which they were very happy to do and I may get some signing events at one as well. It's nice that the managers are interested in supporting local authors - hopefully book buyers are too! I shall be ringing round as many Norfolk bookshops as I can, in the next couple of days, capitalising on this piece of publicity.