Tag Archives: The Drowned Village

Happy New Year!

01 Tuesday Jan 2019

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I should first say a belated happy Christmas. Sorry for the lack of a Christmas post – we had a family bereavement in December, a funeral in Ireland, and then were away on a skiing trip for Christmas week. All of which gets in the way of blogging.

But here we are, in 2019, at the start of what I hope will be a great year for everyone.

new year 2019

It’s certainly going to be a year of change for me, as I give up the day job in mid February and concentrate on my career as a novelist. I’m currently getting a novel ready to submit to my editor and beta readers – hope to send it next week. I have a stack of new ideas waiting to be worked on – never any shortage of ideas!

At this time of year I always like to look back on what I’ve achieved in the previous year and make some goals for the coming year. Here are last year’s goals which were essentially to complete The Forgotten Secret (done! Coming out on 1st March!); complete a draft of another novel (done! The Stationmaster’s Daughter is the one I’m about to submit to my editor); lose a few kilos and get a bit fitter (done, but put them on again and lost the fitness, isn’t that always the way?); and begin reducing the amount of junk in the house (made a start but didn’t get far).

And my goals for this year:

  • Get The Stationmaster’s Daughter ready for publication
  • Write two further novels (with no day job I ought to be able to!)
  • Work on thinning down the amount of stuff in the house, so that in a year or so we can downsize
  • Go travelling in our motorhome Gertie for a couple of months
  • Make the most of my time, and basically enjoy life!

Finally – The Drowned Village is now on a Kindle promotion in the UK, selling at just 99p. Grab yourselves a bargain – the perfect antidote to a New Year hangover!

preorder promo

So, happy New Year to everyone, thanks for all the support in 2018 and may 2019 be a year of happiness and prosperity for you all. Cheers!

 

 

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More drowned villages!

20 Tuesday Nov 2018

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I’m building up quite a collection of links to stories about drowned villages reappearing after long droughts. Here’s another one – Derwent under Ladybower reservoir which is visible now, though is pretty muddy. Some poor chap got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued. My characters in The Drowned Village thankfully did not get stuck (oops, spoiler!)

Edited 25th November – sadly it seems someone’s vandalised Derwent, while it was exposed… 

And here’s a lovely bit of video of a drowned village that’s still underwater, set to haunting music. Watch out for the gravestones.

 

Novel Points of View

13 Saturday Oct 2018

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I have recently joined six other writers to contribute to a shared blog, the Novel Points of View. 

Today it was my turn to post something, and I have written about the summer’s drought, and where the inspiration for The Drowned Village came from. Please do pop over to take a look!

Haweswater

Walking up the Old Corpse Road above Haweswater – inspiration for The Drowned Village

It’s a good and varied blog about all things writing-related, and a new post goes up every Saturday, or thereabouts.  Do come and join us!

Publication!

21 Friday Sep 2018

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I’m delighted to announce that The Drowned Village has finally been published, and is available to buy as ebook, paperback or audiobook. It’s available from all the usual online retailers, and is also in Waterstones and Foyles. I’m off to my local Waterstones tomorrow to see if I can catch a glimpse of it, out there in the wild!

Next week there’s to be a blog tour to promote the book. I’ll add links to the Drowned Village page on this blog, but meanwhile here’s the itinerary. I’ve completed an interview for one blog, and the others are reviews. Follow along to find out which actors I’d like to see playing the main characters, and what I’d choose as a theme tune. (Great questions, but had me scratching my head trying to answer them!)

Drowned Village blog tour

There’ll be other exciting book news coming along soon. Keep checking back to keep in touch!

The past revealed

18 Tuesday Sep 2018

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It’s been one of those summers, hasn’t it? The prolonged drought in the UK meant barely a week went past without there being news of some new historical or archeological remains being discovered. Ancient earthworks revealed when the grass or crops died, or reservoirs drying out to reveal long lost drowned villages.

Of course this all fascinated me, not least because my new book (out this week!) is called The Drowned Village and focuses on a dried-out reservoir revealing an old village, and the secrets buried within.

preorder promo

Here are some links to news stories about what was uncovered by the drought. All amazing stories, and I know for certain if I hadn’t already written The Drowned Village I’d be inspired to write such a story now!

Haweswater and Mardale (the valley my novel was inspired by)

A ‘lost valley’ in Cornwall

And not just in Britain – here’s a reservoir in Wicklow, Ireland that dried out

Here are some older, archeological discoveries made due to the drought

And more from Scotland

I’ve always felt the past is still there, just beneath our consciousness somehow. We only need scratch the surface and we are reconnected with it. If I pass through an ancient doorway, I’m always drawn to wondering about all the people who’ve passed through it before me…  I guess that’s why I love writing dual timeline novels!

Speaking of which – here’s the link to The Drowned Village, out on 20th September, available from online retailers or your local Waterstone’s.  I can’t wait to find out what people think of this one!

 

 

On rugby

10 Monday Sep 2018

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Those with keen eyes who’ve read all my books might have noticed they usually contain a little throwaway reference to Munster rugby club. You might have wondered why. I’m pretty sure my editor just rolls her eyes when she comes across them, but lets them go anyway.

The reason why is quite simple. I need my husband to read the book, usually in its first draft so he can provide some early honest feedback. He’s a huge fan of Munster, so the reference to the club is just a little carrot to dangle before him and get him into reading it.

Munster, for those who aren’t sure, is one of the four provinces of Ireland (the others are Leinster, Ulster and Connaught). It’s the south-west corner, and contains my favourite county, Cork (along with Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford). Munster rugby club are one of the best in Europe, and way back in 1978 managed to beat the mighty All-Blacks.  They were a team of amateurs then, but somehow their passion and pride allowed them to achieve the unthinkable. It’s said that although the stadium at the time held only 12,000 people, somewhere around 250,000 claim to have been at the match.

 

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With husband and son at Thomond Park before the match

It was easy including a Munster reference in The Girl from Ballymor – the Munster fans often sing ‘The Fields of Athenry’ at matches. It’s actually a song about the famine, so an odd choice of song for a sporting club, but there you go. We visited Limerick, where Munster’s home ground of Thomond Park is, while I was writing The Girl from Ballymor. And we were back again for another match just over a week ago at the end of our most recent trip to Ireland.

With just 10 days to go now until The Drowned Village is published, I wonder if you’ll spot the Munster reference in that book! Post a reply here when you do.

 

Life imitating art… again

18 Wednesday Jul 2018

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I love it when real life decides to imitate the plots of my books. It happened a few years ago with The Emerald Comb (see this post) and is happening again now with my new book, The Drowned Village.

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My book was inspired by a visit to Haweswater Reservoir in the Lake District. A  village, Mardale Green, was evacuated and demolished to make way for this reservoir. What if, I thought, a secret was buried in the village, then lost when the village was flooded? What if, in a period of drought, the reservoir recedes and the village and its secrets exposed?

Well look what’s happened, in our current heatwave! More fabulous pictures in this article. Whether or not there’s a real life secret to be uncovered remains to be seen, though.

But there’s definitely a mystery to be resolved in my book – which you can pre-order here.

 

 

 

Are you ready for a bit of summer?

05 Monday Mar 2018

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Here in the UK we have had a long, cold winter. Just as March began and we all thought spring was here, we were hit by snow and storms across the country. We even had snow here in Bournemouth, where it NEVER snows! Those up north are still suffering.

So it feels like a good time to officially reveal the cover of my next book, The Drowned Village, which has a gorgeous summery feel to it. The contemporary strand of the story takes place during a long, hot summer. We can but dream that that is what we’ll get this year!

You can preorder the book in either ebook or paperback. It’s due for release in September 2018.

Amazon UK link.    Amazon US link.

9_DrownedVillage