Monday 26 June 2017

Now the Book Festival is Over...

The display of members'
published works...
I spent Saturday (24th) at the last day of the Lowdham Book Festival, with other members of Nottingham Writers' Club.

Sadly my cork board display was too large for the three-legged stand (height-wise), and if I'd had time to try it out the night before I would have realised- not that I could have done anything about it!

In the end the board rested against the stand by the table...

At least this year we were able to display flyers for books by a number of members- and not just mine.

There were a lot of small publishers in the hall this year, and out in the marquee there were plenty of second-hand books, but only a few were really old, so I didn't come home with any useful books this time.

But I did add to my postcard collection with a few old postcards. Two stable scenes; both postcards were images of painting by John Morland (1763-1804) and immediately appealed to the historical romance writer in me.

You can see the images used on the postcards here and here. Though the image had been coloured for printing, so the contents of the wheelbarrow becomes green and yellow, and the stable lad's face becomes very distinct, as does the jar on the window ledge.

The strange thing was that these two postcards had been sent to the same person by two connected individuals (sisters?) and sent from Plaistow in 1905 both on the 4.15 post on the 17 JU (June or July?).

The one from Beatie is affectionate but short with the lines well spaced- she's thanking the sender for the book she's sent, whereas the second, while neatly written, each line is close together. It mentions that 'Beatie is putting a new braid on the bottom of her dress'.

Postcard messages can be as inspiring as the image on the front. Over a century later their moment in time messages remain, leaving the reader to wonder, and the writer to create...




Monday 12 June 2017

Visual Inspirations...

Ideas come from everywhere.

Have you ever been somewhere and something you've seen sticks in your memory even if you forget everything else, but that 'something' is the inspiration for a story, or somewhere in the story?

Trails...
I was looking through my photos- from past holidays and research trips- and there are a few that instantly take me back to where I was at the moment I took it. I've no idea why that nagging voice in my subconscious thinks that capturing that image was important.

There have been times in the past, before I had a digital camera, I have a fleeting image of a specific place (a terrace of an old Georgian building in parkland somewhere for example, the garden gone and just grassed over) and I stood on the terrace and imagined a conversation between two unknown characters. I've updated it a bit and used it in my 1920's story...

So here's a few images of mine that might be a starting point or could appear in a story...
Phone box and Bins...

Have fun...


I Spy...
Up and Away...