Authors Electric

  October is a month for sprits, ghosts, phantoms, ghouls and witches. This October for me is also the time for an angel – the Ice Angel to be precise. She is one of the characters in the eponymous final story of my series of children’s books “The Adventures of Letty Parker.”   Set in an alternative Victorian Bristol, Letty and her Associates solve mysteries and seek the missing, but this time Letty must travel out of the city where she has contacts and support and into the Land of Ice where she will have to face her angelic opponent on her own. Stories, like books, start with a seed of inspiration, or an idea which grows into a final product. Unlike fruit, however, books don’t grow by themselves, they need beta-readers and editors and proof-readers and in my case someone to format the publishable copy. A writing group that gives feedback and support is invaluable and if you’re very lucky, like I am, there is also an artist who has produced the picture for the cover and th...

  This month I will finishing “The Ice Angel” the last book in my series “The Adventures of Letty Parker.” Aimed at readers between 8-12 and set in an alternative Victorian England, the stories were originally intended to be a trilogy. As time went by and I became more and more absorbed in the world I had created , Letty and her Associates ended up having so many cases to solve and missing persons to find that what should have been three books became six. I have, however, finally come to the end. Right from the very start I had decided that there was a point at which I was going to stop and that was when Letty got to the age when she would fall in love. I didn’t want to write romance, but I knew that my readers would want to know what happened on an emotional level to Letty and her friends in their future and as the books went on I seeded enough hints as to who would eventually end up with who without specifically saying so. In “The Ice Angel” some narrative threads come to an ...

  Once upon a time, everyone came to us for Christmas, the kids and their partners, their half-brother, my ex-husband, his wife, my sister and brother-in-law. It might have meant eating on our laps but we opened the doors between the sitting and dining rooms and squeezed everyone on in. It was great, everyone brought a contribution to the meal so there was no panic about getting it all ready and we ate and drank and once or twice even made it to the mid-night service. Then the kids grew up and had their kids and their own houses and our roles changed. Instead of being hosts, we were guests. For the first few years this felt strange and a little sad, then gradually I became aware of the advantages. I was no longer the one who organised everything, nor did I have to worry about cleaning the house, or making sure there was enough cutlery, crockery, crackers and paper napkins. This year will be different again. It will be just the two of us. Mike is having a hip operation in Ja...

As a writer, when things get too difficult, I can escape into another world. Recently I have spent a good deal of time with Letty Parker, in an alternative Victorian Bristol. Like its nineteenth century model this is a place of stark contrasts between rich and poor. The Downs are lined with the mansions of the rich, while the threat of the workhouse looms over those who can barely scrape a living to feed themselves and their families. Letty starts off making a living selling pies. She is twelve years old and prides herself on being an independent business woman. Her friends are the street children. They are the pickpockets, the burglars, the runners for the criminal gangs that are operated by Miss Liddy and The Bear. Having divided the city between them, the gangs keep to their own territory. To stray over the boundary is to risk a stabbing, or to be thrown into the river for the eels to devour. The eels that slide up from the river to coil in dark corners awaiting th...