Tag: Inspiration

Presenting Jan Baynham’s Debut Novel

A secret left behind in the summer of ’69 …

Secrets buried like treasure in novels always tempt me. When I discovered Jan Baynham’s novel, Her Mother’s Secret, I wanted to find out more. Set in Greece in 1969, Her Mother’s Secret is the just the ticket to travel to glorious Greece.  I invited Jan to tell me more about her debut novel and why she chose to bury a secret in the pages.

I have always been intrigued by family secrets and the fact that these sometimes do not come to light until after a person has died. I read of someone who was sorting through her mother’s things after her death and found a diary. In there, the young woman learned about a part of her mother’s life she knew nothing about. The ‘what ifs?’ started in my head and Her Mother’s Secret started to evolve. At the time, I’d been reading a novel where the rustling in the trees sounded like whispers and inanimate statues took on the form of ghosts of the people they represented. Perhaps the whispering could show the presence of a past family member. Always fascinated by the bond between mothers and daughters, this was basis for my story. Very often, the close relationship between mothers and daughters means that they would know things about each other no one else would. I wanted to explore how my character, Alexandra, would feel when she found out about her mother, Elin’s secret life. How could her mother have kept this from her? How would she feel? I needed Elin to have been able to keep her secret from everyone, even her own mother, until she died.

Having visited many times and being struck by the wonderful palette of colours seen in every landscape, Greece was my obvious inspiration

I decided that Elin would be an artist, having just finished art college. She travels to Greece to further her painting skills and while there, something happens that she never mentions again. I chose a setting where the colours would be more vibrant and intense perhaps than in her home country of Wales. Having visited many times and being struck by the wonderful palette of colours seen in every landscape, Greece was my obvious inspiration. Elin’s daughter, Alexandra, arrives on Péfka, a small island off the Peloponnese in Southern Greece, to follow in her mother’s footsteps to find out what happened there twenty-two years earlier. No wonder you loved it here, Mam. The colours alone make it an artist’s heaven, she thought. Péfka is purely fictional and is not based on one particular place; it’s an amalgam of areas I’ve visited – a beach or street here, a taverna or workshop there where I’ve met characters when getting out into Greek villages. Every holiday has inspired me with contributions to create characters and settings that are hopefully authentic showing the climate, the vivid colours of the sea and the flowers as well as the warmth of its people.

Every holiday has inspired me with contributions to create characters and settings that are hopefully authentic showing the climate, the vivid colours of the sea and the flowers as well as the warmth of its people

More about Her Mother’s Secret

It’s 1969 and free-spirited artist Elin Morgan has left Wales for a sun-drenched Greek island. As she makes new friends and enjoys the laidback lifestyle, she writes all about it in her diary. But Elin’s carefree summer of love doesn’t last long, and her island experience ultimately leaves her with a shocking secret …

An artist travelling to Greece in 1969 evokes endless opportunities for secrets.  I can’t wait to escape to Greece with the promise of Her Mother’s Secret. I wonder what Alexandra, Elin’s daughter, will discover when she visits Greece twenty two years later…

Her Mother’s Secret will be published by Ruby Fiction on 21st April and is available to order now.

Jan Baynham

Meet Jan Baynham

After retiring from a career in teaching and advisory education, Jan joined a small writing group in a local library where she wrote her first piece of fiction. From then on, she was hooked! She soon went on to take a writing class at the local university and began to submit short stories for publication to a wider audience. Her stories and flash fiction pieces have been longlisted and short listed in competitions and several appear in anthologies both online and in print. In October 2019, her first collection of stories was published.  Her stories started getting longer and longer so that, following a novel writing course, she began to write her first full length novel. She loves being able to explore her characters in further depth and delve into their stories. She writes about family secrets and the bond between mothers and daughters. Set in the last year of the 60s, ‘Her Mother’s Secret’ takes you to sun-drenched Greece, her favourite holiday destination.

Originally from mid-Wales, Jan lives in Cardiff with her husband. Having joined the Romantic Novelists Association in 2016, she values the friendship and support from other members and regularly attends conferences, workshops, talks and get togethers. She is co-organiser of her local RNA Chapter.

You may find out more about Jan here:

Twitter: @JanBaynham  https://twitter.com/JanBaynham
Facebook: Jan Baynham Writer  https://www.facebook.com/JanBayLit/
Blog: www.janbaynham.blogspot.co.uk

 

The Tenacity of Lesley Field and her Writing Journey

Lesley Field posting her letter

Discovering an author’s writing journey always intrigues me.  I met inspirational Lesley Field at the Romance Novelists Association Tea. Lesley gave me the courage to pursue another adventure for my own characters. It is an honour to present Lesley’s story.

Every journey starts somewhere and mine started with a cup of tea, a magazine and a short story I’d just read. I thought, I could do that.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lesley Field at the RNA Tea.

A short while later I came up with a story-line, sat down at the laptop and started to write. It was supposed to be a short story but it soon became more. In May I was in our local Smith’s and there was a lady doing a book signing. I hovered, as one does, and eventually plucked up the courage to approach. She asked if I wrote so I told her about the book I had finished and submitted to Mills and Boon. I asked if this was her first book, she kindly told me no, it was her 18th. That was my foot in mouth moment. It turned out the lady was Val Wood, Hull’s answer to Catherine Cookson. She gave me a lot of lovely tips and said to let her know how matters progressed. A rejection came from Mills and Boon, I had no idea of what publishers required back then. I e-mailed Val Wood to let her know. She told me not to give up and to keep submitting.

Val Wood gave me a lot of lovely tips and said to let her know how matters progressed.

About 6 weeks later I received an e-mail from Val inviting me to attend the next meeting of her Romantic Novelists Association Chapter, The Flying Ducks. I learned about the New Writers Scheme (NWS) and managed to get on this in January 2013. By this time I had written a further contemporary novel, so submitted this for critique. When the critique arrived I thought, well this is it. If they say its rubbish I know I can’t write. But they didn’t. I had a very good critique, and the reader commented I had the tenacity to succeed.

So, I could write contemporary, but could I write historical? I sat down and had a go. I submitted that book to MuseItUp publishing and in 2014 received a contract from them. That novel, “Dangerous Entrapment,” was shortlisted for Historical Novel of the year 2016 by the RNA.

Saunders-Lies and Deception is set in Banff in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

You may wonder what happened to the first novel I wrote in 2012. Well, in 2013, while on a coach tour in America, the plotline for a sequel to that book came to me. In fact it wouldn’t leave me alone. So I wrote that. Then a third plot line came along. I now had three books in a series, which is my Saunders series. The first book, “Saunders Lies and Deception,” was published in May 2018.

With 4 books published and 4 more contracted, my journey continues…

Biography

Lesley Field is an award nominated author of Romantic Novels and should not be confused with any other writer of the same name.
Lesley lives in North Yorkshire, often described as “God’s own county.” Before retiring she spent her working life pursuing personal injury claims. Now at a time when she should be thinking of early nights and cocoa, she finds herself writing somewhat “hot” novels. Her first published novel “Dangerous Entrapment” was her first historical novel. She also writes contemporary novels which are usually based in Canada, which she calls her “heart home.” Having achieved publication so soon after starting to write she hopes that, “Dangerous Entrapment,”(1st book in the Duchess in Danger series) is just the beginning.

About Lies and Deception

This is the background for “Saunders-Lies and Deception” and the adventure that inspired the writing journey

Set in Banff in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. A magical place in the winter and a hub for tourists in the summer. Come and meet the Saunders family. With prestige and money you would think they had everything, but a dark secret lies hidden, a secret that is about to be uncovered, and the lies and deception will change the family forever. Follow Sarah and Jeff’s journey in Book 1. Sarah had everything, a handsome loving husband, a young son, then suddenly it was all snatched away. Defeated by outside forces, she made a new life for herself. But never forgot the life she once had. Risking everything if she was discovered, she returned to Canada, and crept back into Banff like a thief in the night. The last person Jeff thought to see was Sarah, but walking down the aisle at his son’s wedding, he saw the one person he had never expected to see again. When his eyes met hers shock quickly turned to anger. Tracking her down was easy, then he had one question. Why? The answer was not what he expected, nor one that he could believe. Or could he? He was everything she once wanted, and he gave her everything she needed. Except one thing, trust. Could she believe what he said now? Could she risk being hurt again? Can the lies and deception be overcome? Book 1 in the Saunders Series, “Saunders-Lies and Deception.”

 

Please see all my guests’ posts at Mail from the Creative Community and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com. 

Inspiration for a Tuscan Girl

I am honoured that Angela wrote a letter to explain the inspiration behind Tuscan Girl. Sit back and enjoy a writer’s tour of Italy.

Bestselling author, Angela Petch, released ‘Tuscan Girl’ last week.  I started to read the novel on a stormy Saturday night and awoke at dawn to finish the book.  Lost stories of war, hidden treasure and buried memories gripped me. As a writer, I wanted to learn how this talented author manages to weave such captivating stories. I am honoured Angela wrote a letter to explain the inspiration behind Tuscan Girl.  Sit back and enjoy a writer’s tour of Italy.

In the Tuscan Apennines, where I spend six months of every year, I can step out of our front door straight into wild countryside. Our area is less populated after post war exodus, when people left for work abroad and in big cities and so I come across many ruined houses along the mule tracks that crisscross our hills and valleys.

Each abandoned dwelling holds a potential story and my imagination goes into overdrive, trying to guess what might have gone on within these walls, now strangled with weeds.

Many of the old houses are being eaten up by old man’s beard

When I was seven years old, my father accepted a job in Rome as deputy head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They were formative years and I picked up Italian like a little sponge. I’ve wheedled out stories behind these houses by chatting to elderly friends and through my research. We are lucky to have the national archive of diaries in nearby Pieve Santo Stefano and I’ve spent hours poring over handwritten resources.

Bruno sitting outside the house owned by his son, who had just returned from collecting wild mushrooms.

One of my friends is Bruno Vergni, one hundred years old last January 13th. I met him seven years ago on one of my hikes. I stopped to chat as he pruned an apple tree and, to my huge surprise, he responded in English. He explained that he had been a POW in Nottingham, having been captured in Libya early in the war.

I researched more about Bruno’s war and he is now one of the main characters in “The Tuscan Girl” (albeit tweaked with my own ideas). He now lives with his son, but in my story I have placed him in one of the semi-deserted hamlets called Tramarecchia.

Pieve Santo Stefano holds Italy’s collection of diaries – a wonderful resource

A favourite walk is up to the beautiful Alp of the Moon, (1,400 metres). We stopped to picnic by a pile of stones and read a sign posted by the local partisan association.  Up here, in the summer of 1944, a group of young men planned their resistance missions. After researching and meeting a local historian, Alvaro Tacchini, more ideas for my book were gleaned.

An abandoned chapel, two houses on the outskirts of the village, empty because of a brothers’ squabble, the outline of a Medici fortress… all ruins waiting to be written about in future books.

Angela’s explanation connected me to Alba who treks around the remote Tuscan villages and rebuilds the ruins in her paintings.  She discovers ‘The paths…like arteries leading to the heart of new stories.’  I enjoyed treading these paths with Alba and look forward to more stories.