Out Of Control?

The My Wonderful Life blog is having its first online Clinic on Friday. It's on The Stress of Feeling Out of Control. If you've ever felt stressed in this way, check in on Friday - or leave a Comment before Friday to ask a question, outline your problems or experiences, or offer some tips.

Guest post will be from Michael Lee, from Turn Stress Into Bliss, and Annabel Shaw (social psychologist and co-creator of My Wonderful Life) and I will also be posting and around to answer questions and give advice.

Thanks to Brigitte Morton and all the lovely people who filled (almost over-filled) Reepham Library last week when I came to talk about Kindred Spirits. Several people had already read library copies and were very complimentary about it; some even bought their own copy to hang onto, or to give to friends and relatives. That was my last talk about KS for the moment - I've been to about 10 libraries, a couple of WI meetings and had a book launch - and it's been an absolute delight to meet so many interesting people and get their feedback. Thanks to everyone who's helped organise the talks!

More Kindred Spirits at Wymondham Library

We have a splendid new library at Wymondham - my local library. Modern, airy, light and spacious, it sits very happily amongst the more ancient and traditional aspects of the town, and I was delighted to be talking about Kindred Spirits there last week.

There was a terrific turnout - including other writers, musicians and members of the local creative community. It was good to be able to incorporate excerpts from the book about past and present day Wymondham, such as my main character Mo's first impression of the historic market town (not unlike my own), and the Land Girl, Dottie's description of the "Invasion of Wymondham", a real wartime event where the Home Guard, Police, Fire and other services had to act out their plans for protecting the town, with the invading German Army played by local troops.

Librarian, Rachel Harriss, had brilliantly organised the evening, forgetting nothing from refreshments to evaluation surveys - which she offered to let me look at before I left. Not wanting to spoil the buzz of the evening, the interesting questions I'd been asked and the conversations I'd had while signing and selling books, I tried to refuse. But she insisted I look through them and then emailed me the uniformly positive comments from the audience so I could put them up here.

So, thank you very much, Wymondham library audience, for saying such positive things as: ‘Very enjoyable hearing the writer’s point of view. It really brought the book to life as well’; ‘Very enjoyable. Just the right length and structure’; ‘ Interesting talk by an excellent speaker explaining the process of writing and the very well read parts of her books’; ‘Lucy is a very good talker'; ‘I enjoyed hearing a writer’s perspective and how the ideas came about. Readings made the book more alive’; ‘Fascinating’; ‘Very interesting hearing briefly how the author’s life lead towards writing and hearing about Kindred Spirits’; 'Very interesting to hear how an author goes about planning her books’.

So glad you enjoyed it! I did too.

It was also a great pleasure to do an interview for Wymondham and Attleborough Talking Newspaper, a voluntary service which I know has immense value to people who find the written word a challenge for whatever reason. My father was blind for the last twelve years of his life and was helped immeasurably by services like this and RNIB Talking Books.

My next talk on Kindred Spirits is at Reepham Library at 2pm on Tuesday 30th June.

More Kindred Spirits

Since talking about Kindred Spirits at Long Stratton and Holt Libraries a couple of weeks ago, I've now done a spot at Attleborough Library and done a guest talk at the Women's Guild in my own village, Bunwell. More kindred spirits in both places!

A big audience at Attleborough, partly composed of the very active Book Group based there, who asked if I'd like to join for their next meeting. So I've taken a couple of the books on their list to read - The Cleft by Doris Lessing and Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann. Different to most book groups I've been part of, they have several books on the list for each month and people can read one, some or all. I'm sure it adds to the breadth of discussion and hope I can get through at least one.

Not because I don't read voraciously - I do. But I've also joined a new village reading group for which I'm reading Julia Gregson's East of the Sun this month, and I have a new novel buzzing in my head, for which I need to read both fact and fiction to get the plot out there and clarified.

I've just become a proper library member again - with my two little girls - and we're all finding it genuinely exciting to go in each week and choose up to 15 books each, not to mention Nintendo DS games, and run them through the wonderful automatic checkout machines!

It was lovely talking to the Bunwell Women's Guild about Kindred Spirits. Because my fictional village of Haddeston is not unlike Bunwell, both in the past and the present, they were interested in how I'd portrayed the local area. And many of them were children in the 1940s, when part of the action takes place, and actually remember events I've included in the plot, like the Christmas party at Old Buckenham Airbase, hosted by the American "Fly Boys" (including James Stewart and Walter Matthau) who were posted there for the end of the war years.

I'll be talking at Dereham Library next week - Wednesday 13th May - evening, I have to check the time!

I love Holt Library!

As I said in a previous post, I gave a talk on Kindred Sprits at Holt Library last Wednesday evening. I just received this wonderful email from the library manager, Meg Starling, who organised it so beautifully:

Dear Lucy
Thank you so much for your visit to Holt Library on Wednesday. I really enjoyed your talk and I know that the writing group in particular found your honesty about being a writer very interesting and I'm sure inspirational.

One of the ladies has written to the local papers letter page summing up the event rather well - I'm sure she wouldn't mind you reading it (copy below).

"Author Lucy McCarraher visited Holt Library on the evening of Wednesday, 22 April and held the audience enthralled as she shared her varied writing career as a journalist, presenter and business consultant, spanning both Australia and Britain. Lucy then went on to describe, events leading up to the publishing of her first novel, Blood and Water, including a visitation from the spirit world, and her research into the background of the spirit character which gave rise to her second novel Kindred Spirits.

"Lucy read passages from Kindred Spirits, a continuation of the story of the Mozart family, first met in Blood and Water, as they move from metropolitan Crystal Palace to rural Norfolk and find their move to an idyllic farmhouse places them in the midst of dark family secrets which date back decades.

"Lucy generously shared the process of her novel writing, how she wove her research into her novels and the route to publishing her books. After a break for refreshments Lucy answered a wide range of questions from the audience. At the close of the evening there was an enthusiastic round of applause and everyone agreed it had been a most enjoyable event."

Thanks once again and I'm looking forward to experiencing Mr Mikey's Ladies this weekend.
Meg Starling
Library Manager

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.