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Kathleen McGurl

~ Where past and present collide…

Kathleen McGurl

Category Archives: Writing

Shepherd Books and Travelling Readers

30 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

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Carpathia, Shepherd Books, The Lost Sister, The Storm Girl, Titanic, Travelling Reader

Recently I was featured on the Shepherd Books website, talking about my five favourite books about Titanic and Carpathia. As many of you know I wrote a novel a couple of years ago that feature Titanic (The Lost Sister) and recently I’ve been working on one that features Carpathia, the ship that picked up Titanic’s survivors. This one will be published in November this year.

I love the Shepherd Books website – it’s such a great concept, and a whole new way of finding books you like. I was delighted to see that author Gill Thompson featured my book The Girl from Bletchley Park in her list of books set in WW2 and featuring strong women. All her choices look like excellent reads as that’s a category of books I love too!

Do take a look and try exploring the site, searching for the kind of books or authors you enjoy and see what comes up. They put a huge amount of effort into this website and it’s turning into a wonderful resource to inspire readers.

Also in recent days, my book The Storm Girl was included in boxes sent to subscribers of The Travelling Reader book boxes. Another marvellous concept for those who love to read – each month you’re sent a box containing a book that’s set in a specific area plus a load of goodies from that area! The Storm Girl is set in Dorset and the box contained a Dorset tea towel, a box of Dorset tea, some soap made locally, chocolate biscuits also made locally, a bookmark featuring pictures of The Storm Girl’s setting and a letter from me to the readers, all beautifully packaged up.

I was particularly impressed by the selection of photos tucked into the book. The Storm Girl is set right where I live, and those photos might have been taken by me on one of my many walks in my local area (but they weren’t!) They are exactly the places that inspired my novel.

A subscription to The Travelling Reader boxes would be a wonderful present for someone. It was such fun to open it and see what was inside!

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A new departure

28 Tuesday Mar 2023

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

≈ 4 Comments

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Millie Bobby Brown, Nineteen Steps

Over the last year or so I’ve been working on a rather different kind of writing project. I’ve had to keep it secret until now, but there was a press release about it a few days ago so at last I can talk openly!

I was asked by my publisher if I would consider ghost-writing a novel for a celebrity, and after due consideration, I agreed to do it. The premise of the novel intrigued me – a tragic event during World War II, set in the East End of London, and inspired by family stories recalled by the celebrity’s grandmother. And it was a new challenge for me.

The celebrity in question? None other than the supremely talented Millie Bobby Brown, star of Stranger Things and the Enola Holmes films. I knew her work from Enola Holmes and of course then had to watch all of Stranger Things last summer. What a fantastic series!

I was sent a lot of research that had already been pulled together by Millie and her family, and plenty of ideas, and we had a couple of Zoom calls. And then I knuckled down and wrote the first draft. The book has been through several drafts since then.

Last week, Millie announced the book on her Instagram page, and there’s been plenty of coverage of it on various news and book-related websites. The book is entitled Nineteen Steps and is available for preorder as an ebook or hardback, to be released on 12th September. I’m delighted to have been involved with this project, and I hope both my readers and Millie’s fans love the book!

Preorder on Amazon UK

Preorder on Amazon US

Preorder a signed edition from Waterstones UK

Happy New Year!

31 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

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New Years Resolution

I hope all my blog readers had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all the best for 2020 – in fact, all the best for the new decade. I bet some of you still feel it’s only about two or three years since the Millennium. Where do the years go?

But then I look back on this last decade and realise how far I’ve come. Ten years ago I was working in IT, writing short stories, with little thought or hope of becoming a novelist. Now I am a full time novelist with eight novels published, two at varying stages of the editing process, contracted for another one after that and with a lovely long list of ideas for future books. Life’s been good, lately. I wrote a short Twitter thread reviewing the decade – you can read it here.

Untitled design (8)

At this time of year I always like to look back on last year’s resolutions and then make more. If I write them here I can easily find them again, also making them public means I’m more likely to stick to them!

Last year I resolved to:

  • Get The Stationmaster’s Daughter ready for publication Done – published August
  • Write two further novels (with no day job I ought to be able to!) Done – at least the first drafts
  • Work on thinning down the amount of stuff in the house, so that in a year or so we can downsize Done a bit of this but my word, why have we hoarded so much in the attic?
  • Go travelling in our motorhome Gertie for a couple of months Done – 10 weeks in the spring/summer and another 6 in the winter
  • Make the most of my time, and basically enjoy life! Oh definitely done, and ongoing!

 

And as for 2020, here’s my new resolutions:

  • Complete the two novels written last year. Both are slated for publication in 2020.
  • Write first drafts of two more novels.
  • Continue thinning down possessions, with a view to selling this house in 2021
  • Continue enjoying life!

 

In other news, in 2020 my three older dual timeline novels (The Emerald Comb, The Pearl Locket, and The Daughters of Red Hill Hall) will all be published in paperback at last. I’m delighted about this! They are all available for preorder on Amazon and will be published in the spring – Daughters comes out in February.

It shouldn’t be too long before I’m posting here about my next novel, which is also due out in spring, but for the moment I need to keep its title, cover and blurb under wraps. Just one tiny hint – it is set in France. Looking forward to finding out what everyone thinks of this one!

 

 

News and updates

19 Saturday Oct 2019

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

The Forgotten Secret, The Stationmasters Daughter

Well I may not have put much on my blog lately but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy! As regular readers know I gave up the day job in February this year and life’s been very full since then with lots of travel, lots of writing and lots of fun.

Here’s the latest news.

Firstly, The Stationmaster’s Daughter has now been released as a paperback and is available to buy from all online retailers. It’s done very nicely as an ebook and has some lovely reviews – see the book’s own page on this blog. (And at the moment the ebook is selling for just 99p in the UK for a limited period!)

perfect

Back in August, The Forgotten Secret was featured on a Bookbub deal in the US and imagine my excitement when it reached no 13 in the Amazon chart and was a US Today bestseller for that week!

 

 

Writing has been going well – I recently submitted another novel to my editor and am waiting to hear what she thinks of it and see how much work there is still to do on it. It’s scheduled for publication in spring 2020. I will, of course, announce further details as they are finalised, but there are a few clues about it on The WIP page on this blog. This is book 1 of a 3-book contract I signed in August.

Meanwhile while I wait to hear from my editor, I am pushing on fast with the novel after that (book 2 of the contract). This one’s very genealogy-based and is flying onto the page. Some novels seem easier to write than others and so far this one’s a joy.

I want to get it written quickly anyway, as I am very excited about my idea for book 3 of the contract, and have amassed a few research books to get me started on that one. Plus I already have some notes made for another book after that… I never seem to have a problem finding new ideas, long may that continue.

Update

26 Sunday May 2019

Posted by kathmcgurl in Campervan, Writing

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France, The Forgotten Secret, Writing Magazine

The last time I had a long gap between blog entries was I think back in 2017, when I spend 6 months travelling in our motorhome…

…and the reason for THIS long gap is that I am once again on the move! Since giving up the day job back on Valentine’s Day I’ve been away from home far more than I’ve been there. Several short holidays (Ireland, Lake District, ski trip, visit to son in Liverpool) and now a two month trip in France in our beloved Gertie.

writing small

But don’t worry – I am still writing while travelling. I have blogged about it over on the Novel Points of View blog – go there for more photos of me writing in the van. We are touring the south-east corner of France, the Alpes-Maritimes. Not entirely coincidentally, it’s where my current work-in-progress is set. So inspiring to be travelling in the area I’m writing about!

In other news, the paperback edition of The Forgotten Secret is now available to buy from online retailers. And a foreign edition of Mr Cavell’s Diamond is on its way – more on that later!

And the June edition of Writing Magazine features me talking about my first week as a full time author in Lynne Hackles’ column – in the shops now! I haven’t seen it myself as we’ve been away, but my lovely son (need to keep him sweet) bought me a copy and sent me a photo of it.

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Publication Day!

01 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Writing

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good news, The Forgotten Secret

HQDigital_9780008236991_OutNow_39

Back in May 2017 I was on a six-month motorhoming trip around Europe with my husband. We’d reached Sicily and were sitting in a campsite restaurant one evening, when we began talking through ideas for my next novel. I’d just finished a round of edits for The Drowned Village and was ready to start work on something else. I had this vague idea I wanted to do something around the Irish war of independence, and that my contemporary character would uncover a cache of old guns under a barn – that would be the trigger to set her off researching the past.

We sat in that restaurant and began thrashing out ideas. My husband’s Irish so of course he knew a lot more than me about this period in history. I jotted down a load of notes, kept mulling it over for the next week or two and ended up with a plan for the novel that eventually (after several title changes!) became The Forgotten Secret.

This one turned out to be the most difficult to date to write. Partly because I didn’t do enough research before starting to write. Partly because for some reason I wrote most of the contemporary storyline before the historical (usually I do them the other way round, so at least I know what happened in the past, and know what my contemporary character needs to discover). And partly because hitting the right note for the historical story was tricky. I wanted the novel to illustrate the premise that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. But I didn’t want it to be overly political or partisan.

I think I got the balance right. Early reviews are positive. I hope everyone enjoys this novel, and do let me know what you think of it!

Taking the leap

07 Friday Dec 2018

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 26 Comments

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day job, resigning

I’ve worked for the retailer John Lewis for over 30 years, almost all of it in IT: designing, building and supporting the many computer systems needed to keep a retailer of this size functioning smoothly and profitably.

For the last four years, I’ve effectively had two jobs – the IT one and the writing one. It’s been hard to fit writing around the day job, and I’m fed up with the juggling act. Time to drop one job and focus on the other.

Three weeks ago I handed in my notice, and I am due to leave in mid-February. Valentine’s Day, to be precise, will be my last day. I’m not old enough (quite) to take my pension so will live off savings, writing income and then in a couple of year’s time, my SIPP.

door-3143264_1920

Today I told the team I work with about my decision. They’re pleased for me, some are shocked and sad I’m going, some are excited for my future, some are figuring out how to persuade me to stay (6 months paid holiday every year and a 100% pay rise might tempt me…)

It’s a big move. A big change. I’ve been a Partner, as JL employees are known, for well over half my life. I’ve been to an extent defined by my job. On applications for credit cards, mortgages etc under Occupation I’ve put ‘IT Professional’ or ‘IT Technical Analyst’ for so many years.

But next time, I’ll write ‘Novelist’, and I will so enjoy that moment.  (Yeah yeah I get that it means I might not qualify for the credit card or loan or whatever due to the unpredictable income but hey.)

I’m planning to spend the next 30 years writing novels, to balance the time I spent in IT.  Wish me luck!

It’s all go, here!

08 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Holiday, Writing

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Promotion, The Girl from Ballymor

I’ve just returned from a lovely relaxing two week holiday in the Loire valley in France, in our motorhome. The days were spent cycling beautiful lanes between fields of wheat and vines, swimming in lakes or rivers, sitting drinking wine in the campsites.

Oh, and I also managed to get a lot of writing done! Somehow, possibly due to the laptop not being connected to the internet, I managed to get an average 1000 words a day written, which is more than I do at home.

And a complete idea for a new novel, set in France and featuring a chateau, arrived. Hurray!

I’m back at the day job tomorrow. And back to the Irish independence novel from today – it needs editing and returning to my editor in about a month so I need to crack on.

In other news, The Girl from Ballymor is on an Amazon Kindle promotion in the UK, and selling at just 99p. Hurry while stocks last, as they say! I’ve just received a lovely message from a reader about this book. It does seem to strike a chord with many people of Irish descent throughout the world. Hope the independence novel does as well!

twitter poster1

 

How I write my novels

27 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 8 Comments

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work-in-progress, Writing

I’m at that delicious between-novels stage. I’ve sent the first draft of my latest to a few beta-readers and to my editor, and am hoping they’ll take a good couple of weeks or more to get back to me with feedback. I have an idea for the next one, but I need to pull together various notes and try to make a complete story out of them, which will take a while. There’s also some research needed.

While first-drafting I tend to ignore everything else, including this blog. But now I’ve a bit of time to raise my head above the parapet and see what’s going on. Over a month since I posted here – shocking!

Anyway, I thought I’d do a brief post on how I go about writing my dual timeline novels.

Firstly, I start with the idea: a number of notes jotted over time on my phone, in notebooks, on backs of envelopes or whatever is to hand. Then I have to do some thinking to try to pull the notes into order, and see if I’ve got enough story. When I think I have, I’ll then have a go at writing a synopsis – about 300-500 words, outlining the novel.

After that I write character sheets for the main characters in both timelines, interviewing them. They tell me their deepest fears, what makes them happy, what they dreamed of last night, as well as boring stuff such as hair colour, date of birth, name etc.

Then I write a plan – a spreadsheet with a couple of sentences on what’s going to happen in each chapter. I aim for 90,000 words in each novel, and around 3,000 per chapter, but I need to begin and end with the contemporary story, which means there has to be an odd number of chapters. I go for 29 or 31. Sometimes there’s a prologue from the historical timeline, acting as a hook – depends if I feel the novel needs it or not.

Next it’s time to start writing. I’ve got two stories to write and interweave. I don’t write the chapters in the order they end up in the book, though. I will always write the first one or two from both timelines to get into it (and to send to my editor for approval if she asks for it), and then I usually steam ahead on the historical story right to the end, before going back to the contemporary story to slot around it.

One novel I wrote in sequence, alternating the chapters as they appear in the book, but this felt too choppy and I found it harder to get really immersed in each timeline and set of characters due to constantly changing.

This latest novel: stupidly I decided to write the whole contemporary story first. Mainly because I hadn’t yet done enough research on the historical period. Then when I got to the parts where my contemporary character needed to find out the truth about what happened in the past, I couldn’t write it, because I didn’t know myself what had happened, because I hadn’t written it! D’oh. Had to break off, do the research, write the historical and then finish off the contemporary.

So from now on, after the first few chapters, I am going to write the whole historical tale first. This definitely works best.

I write each chapter in a separate Word document. On my planning spreadsheet, I keep a word count per chapter and a rolling word count, so I can see whether the dramatic highs and lows are coming at the right point in the novel. Once all chapters are written I open a new document and copy all the chapters in, in the right order. That’s the ‘initial construction’ draft. I will then edit that, move scenes around if needed, fill in blanks, deal with my notes-to-self that I make in capital letters while first-drafting. Once that’s all done – that’s my proper first draft, and the first one I let anyone read.

There’s loads more work needed of course, as any novelist will tell you. My editor and beta readers will have opinions on what works and what doesn’t, and hopefully will provide ideas on how to improve it. I’d expect another couple of drafts before it goes to the copy-editor and then the proof-reader. But getting that first draft done and sent always feels like a great achievement. The novel may be far from finished but at least I’ve got something to work with now.

Delay…

10 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by kathmcgurl in Writing

≈ 1 Comment

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Girl from Ballymor

Unfortunately I need to announce a delay in publication of my new book The Girl from Ballymor. The book is ready – the delay has come from Sales and Marketing. There are only so many ‘slots’ available at retailers for the paperback and they want to give this book the best possible chance.

So publication has been put back to 7th September. I’m obviously disappointed by this but also keen to see the book on sale in as many places as possible.

Sorry to make you all wait a little longer. I hope you find the book is worth the wait!

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