‘Murder for Christmas’

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Christmas, country house murder, Francis Duncan, Mordecai Tremaine, Poirot, snow, whodunits

If you are so well-organised that you buy presents now for next Christmas, and there’s an aficionado of whodunits in your family, then how about Murder for Christmas, by Francis Duncan?

My daughter bought this for me this year and I’m very glad she did.   A snowbound country mansion; a mixed assortment of guests (with dark secrets) invited to spend Christmas in traditional manner by the genial owner of the house; mysterious footprints in the snow; a malevolent stranger standing outside the gate; and yes, the house has a secret passage! Then, Father Christmas is found murdered at the foot of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. What could be better?

Written in 1949, it features the amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine, a retired tobacconist who likes romance novels. (Why not? Why should a love of opera or of playing the violin be superior?)  Just like Poirot in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, he has been invited to join the Christmas house party (by the host’s secretary) because it is feared that something nasty is afoot. The guests include star-crossed lovers, a self-important politician, an irascible alcoholic, an angry scientist who dislikes Christmas, two femmes fatales, an alarmed niece, and an apparently nondescript married couple.

The clues are there, and theoretically the reader could work out the solution before Mordecai explains it. That clever reader would have to exert some powers of imagination, but I think it could be done. I didn’t manage it.

Francis Duncan wrote over 20 crime novels between 1937 and 1959.  This is the first one I’ve read.

It’s published in the Vintage Murder Mysteries series. ISBN 978-1-784-70345-5 RRP £8-99

Competitions to Enter Now

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Exeter Writers Short Story Competition, Fish Flash Fiction, Kelpies Prize, Plymouth Writers Short Story Competition, The White Review, Theatre 503 Playwriting Award, Writers & Artists Yearbook Short Story Competition

As the official bossyboots of our group, this is my reminder that there’s still time (just about) to enter the Plymouth Writers Group Writing Competition, deadline 1st Feb. They are looking for up to 2,000 words, on any theme. Prizes: £250 and £50. Entry fee: £5. Full details from plymouth-writersgroup.co.uk

The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition also wants up to 2,000 words, on any theme. Deadline is 15th February. Prizes: £500 and a place on an Arvon Writing Course. Entry is FREE, but you must register on their website. Details: http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/competitions.

Fish Flash Fiction Prize, wants 300 words on any theme, with prizes of: 1,000 Euros and an online writing course with Fish. Deadline 28th February. Entry fee 14 Euros online; 16 Euros postal. Details: http://www.fishpublishing.com/flash-fiction-contest-competition.php

Exeter Writers Short Story Competition. Up to 3,000-words on any theme. Prizes: £500, £250, £100 (plus £100 for a writer living in Devon). Entry fee: £6. Deadline 28 February. Details: http://www.exterwriters.org.uk/pl/competition.hmtl

Kelpies Prize – Novel for Children. Must be set wholly or mainly in Scotland.  Prize: £2,000 plus publication. Deadline 29 February. FREE ENTRY.  See website for full details, including suggested ms lengths for different age categories. http://www.florisbooks.co.uk

The biennial  Theatre 503 Playwriting Award offers a £6,000 prize, plus guaranteed production of the play at Theatre 503. Entries accepted between 1st and 29th February. Applications must be via an online form and must include a 200-word biography, a 50-word play synopsis and the entire play as a pdf.  Check more details on: https://theatre503.com/theatre503-playwriting-award 

And, finally, literary magazine The White Review will award £2,500 to the winner of its annual short fiction competition. This is for writers who have not secured a publishing deal, but who may have been published in magazines or journals. Entries may be in any genre, but they favour stories ‘that explore and expand the possibilities of the short story form’. Something a bit different, then. The winner will be published in The White Review and will be invited to meet literary agent Imogen Pelham. They want stories between 2,000 and 7,000 words. There is an entry fee of £15 and writers may submit only one story. Details from http://www.thewhitereview.org.

PLEASE double-check on the appropriate website in case any details have been changed.

Remember all those New Year Resolutions about writing more…

 

Congratulations to Frances Hardinge

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Costa Book o the Year, Penshurst Village, Short stories

We’d like to add our congratulations to all the others Frances Hardinge has received on winning the Costa Book of the Year Award with The Lie Tree.

Apparently Frances was born and raised in Penshurst Village, ten minutes’ drive from ninevoices’ country. I wonder if she ever found inspiration for her other-wordly stories from the ancient tombstones in the churchyard of Penshurst Church? There is one there, embossed with flaming torches, which tells of two men, father and son, who died from the foul air in a well – one having gone down to try and rescue the other. The stone also commemorates the mother, who died within the year, no doubt of grief.

Apparently Frances started writing seriously after winning a short story competition in a magazine. Let that be an incentive to us all…

‘Delayed Reaction’

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Amersham, King's Cross, Short stories, Trains, writing groups, York

The latest publication by a writing group to adorn my shelves is Delayed Reaction, the work of the Just Write writing group from Amersham in Bucks. This collection of short stories is ingeniously put together: they all take place on the 15-08 train from King’s Cross to York, which comes to a halt because of a broken-down train ahead of it. It sits in the Cambridgeshire countryside for over an hour. The delay materially affects the lives of the protagonists of the 10 stories – some for the better, some …

They are free-standing stories but some characters appear in more than one.   Why is the Essex boy banker so agitated and so concerned with his briefcase? Why is the woman sitting opposite him so unhappy, and why does she ask his advice on how to commit fraud? What have the expensively clad businesswoman and the slatternly dressed woman in flip-flops got to say to each other? Will the 16-year-old schoolgirl finally change into the frilly pink dress she hates so much? Why for the young man could the delay be literally a matter of life and death?

Leave the last story to last, is my advice. Talk about a twist in the tail …

The writing group must have had a lot of fun at the meetings where they worked out how their characters interlocked!

Delayed Reaction is produced in aid of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. ISBN 978-0-9931222-2-4 RRP paperback £6-99 e-book £5-99   Go to http://www.delayedreaction.org.uk/ for purchase details and other details about the Just Write group.

Scenes from Domestic Life

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Cryptic crosswords, Pride and Prejudice

‘Why haven’t you done that one?’
A husbandly thumb jabs at one of the cryptic crossword clues.
‘Simple.  Because I don’t know the answer.’
I take a bite of my granary roll. We’re having a snack lunch and passing the paper back and forth. I’ve craftily done the easy ones before giving up and handing it over.
‘Oh, come on…this is designed for you.  Think about it:  Being biased, booked with pride.’  The paper is waved under my nose. I rack my feeble brain, but inspiration won’t come.         ‘You do it, if you’re so clever.’  Embarrassing, having one’s stupidity pointed out by one’s other half.                                                                                                                         There’s an exasperated huff from across the table.  ‘And your favourite book is?? Tell me??’    

Red face.  ‘Oh, of course. Now I get the answer. Prejudice.’ 

 

 

War and Peace – best and worst

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Alan Dobie, Anthony Hopkins, BBC, Middlemarch, Philip Hensher, The Guardian, Tolstoy, War and Peace

War and Peace has the worst opening sentence of any major novel ever, says Philip Hensher in the Saturday 23rd January review section of The Guardian.

He goes on to say that the proposition in its closing sentence – also one of the worst ever – is nonsense.

But none of this is relevant because what is in between is ‘not just great, but also the best novel ever written – the warmest, the roundest, the best story and the most interesting.’

I devoured War and Peace after watching the BBC 1972 serial. Schoolgirls like me up and down the country were all doing the same thing, inspired by adoration of Alan Dobie playing Andrei Bolkonsky and Anthony Hopkins as Pierre Bezukhov.

But the aspects of the novel that excite your interest and sympathy when you are young change when you read it later in life; everything you feel about the characters is different – and will change again on another re-reading. Rather like Middlemarch…

You’ll read it in ten days, maximum, says Philip Hensher, and by the time you reach the end of the First Epilogue you’ll wish it could go on for ever.

 

Jane Eyre for the 21st Century

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Jane Eyre, National Theatre

I went to see a National Theatre ‘Encore’ streaming of their production of Jane Eyre at the weekend. It was rather a feat of endurance, since they’d condensed what were originally two consecutive evening performances into one three-and-a-half-hour performance. But it was worth the cramped knees.

With a relatively limited cast, and a minimal set, they made the story sing. The acting was superb but the huge advantage of experiencing a live performance on a big screen is that you see every gesture and facial expression in way that is impossible in a conventional theatre performance.

I loved it – even if Mr Rochester disappointed slightly by being red haired – but best of all I have started using my mental picture of the skills the actors used in my own writing. Their body language was like a master class in ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’- not least that of the wonderful man playing Pilot, Rochester’s dog. (No, not in a silly dog-suit, but by acting as a dog. He was brilliant.)

Two for the Diary?

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British Library, Shakespeare, Somerset House

Shakespeare in Ten Acts.

There will be an exhibition at London’s British Library to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death which will explore the impact of ten significant moments – from the first production of Hamlet to a digital-age deconstruction for the 21st century.  Together with paintings, photographs, costumes and props you will be able to see rare printed editions, including the First Folio, and the only surviving play script in his own handwriting.

Running from the 15th April to the 6th September this could be something to include in your plans for the spring/summer.

Details from: http://www.bl.uk/bl.uk.whats-on

P.S. An invaluable research tool for writers, the British Library has a free email newsletter at email@email.bl.uk

In addition, By me William Shakespeare : a Life in Writing is being held at Somerset House between the 3rd February and the 29th May. Among many documents on view will be his last will and testament. Tickets and details from: http://www.bymewilliamshakespeare.org

The Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing, 2016 – £7,500 to be won!

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Food & drink, Mogford, Oxford, prize

There’s a massive prize of £7,500 to be won in the 2016 Mogford Prize for Food and Drink Writing.

In the words of the website at http://www.oxford-hotels-restaurants.co.uk/the-mogford-literary-prize/, “Food and Drink has to be at the heart of the tale. The story could, for instance, be fiction or fact about a chance meeting over a drink, a life-changing conversation over dinner, or a relationship explored through food and drink. It could be crime or intrigue; in fact any subject as long as it involves food and/or drink in some way.”

Entries should be unpublished work and up to 2,500 words in length. One submission is allowed per person, and the closing date is 6 March 2016. Anyone can enter.

The prize will be awarded during the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival, to be held from 2 to 10 April 2016 (see http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/) .

This is the fourth annual Mogford prize competition. The winning entries from the previous three can be found at the Oxford Hotels website listed above. 450 entries were received in 2015.

The Rejection Diaries

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Henshaw Press, Norwich Writers, Olga Sinclair, rejection, The Bridport Flash, The People's Friend, To Hull & Back, Women's Weekly, Writer's Forum, Writing Competitions, Writing Magazine

I’ve written more short stories in the last year than in the previous decade – and doing so has curiously somehow increased my productivity. As well as the short stories, I’ve managed to draft a pretty awful poem (my first since primary school), finished my romantic comedy novel (Douglas Dodd’s Women) and written the first 6,000-words of another, in a very different genre.

It was a fascinating exercise. Entering 9 competitions earned me: 1 first prize, 2 short-listings and 1 commended, as follows:-

Bristol Short Story Competition – no placing
Writing Magazine Crime Story – no placing
Writer’s Forum Competition – no placing
To Hull & Back Humorous Short Story Competition – Commended
Headway 500-word Competition – no placing
Bridport Flash Fiction Competition – Shortlisted
Henshaw Press Competition – 1st Prize
Writer’s Forum Competition – no placing
Norwich Writers Olga Sinclair Competition – Shortlisted

In addition, I sent a short story to, firstly, Women’s Weekly, and then to The People’s Friend. Both bombed.

I have four other entries ‘out there’ with results due in February/March. In case they are all rejected – which might stop me writing for days/weeks/months while I lick my wounds and whine about my work being only fit for the recycling bin – the plan is to send out a handful more in the next weeks, to keep the pot boiling.

As my husband tells me, if you fall off a horse you’ve got to climb straight back on and keep going.