keeping winter at bay

Beach at L'Espiguette with boats

Of course the best part about a holiday is actually being there – arriving on the TGV, lounging by the pool, sauntering along the Canal du Midi, trying to use a language you’re not entirely confident about. But the next best thing is remembering the holiday and looking at the pictures, especially if the holiday has been ablaze with sunshine and you live in a cold grey northern place like Edinburgh.
Writing a novel set in the south of France, I found, was an excellent way of bringing back those summer memories. I’d like to repeat both experiences in 2012 – both going to the south of France and writing about it later. Perhaps I’ll set the next novel in the Camargue, a weird and wonderful place…

Houses at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer

the age of steam

I visited Culross again at the weekend – you would almost think there was something drawing me back there – and I noticed the car park was very busy and there were lots of people on the path that runs beside the railway line towards Longannet power station.

Something quirky was about to happen – a steam train was due to come along the rarely used line, and the extra visitors were mostly train-spotters. Some had fancy cameras and some binoculars, in case they weren’t close enough to see all the fine detail, although in fact the path runs so close to the railway line that they were only about 2 metres away from it.

I may be wrong but I think the line is still in at least occasional use to transport coal to Longannet. Although it’s a single track line and the rails look a bit rusty, it seems to be kept in a good state of repair and there are signs by the crossing points to tell people to beware of the trains.

The railway line, or one very like it, already features in ‘A Reformed Character’ – I’m now wondering if I should add a steam train to my tentative list of ingredients for the next in the mystery series (working title ‘Death at the Happiness Club’). It does seem appropriately quirky!

filling out the plot

Now that I’ve finished with my Camp NaNoWriMo novel, the next task is to carry on with my edit of ‘A Reformed Character’, the next in the Pitkirtly series.

This is a story which revolves around the theme of whether people can really change. The main plot starts with a murder, said to have been carried out by a young man who already has a criminal record, and the question is whether he really is a reformed character.

I feel reasonably happy with the plot and sub-plots, but I do need to fill out the novel – it isn’t quite long enough, due to my concise writing style, and we don’t really know enough about some of the minor characters, such as the young man’s friends, and his girl-friend’s family. I hope to be able to work these details into the novel – the most difficult aspect of this is to be able to decide where to put them. I’m afraid I may have to resort to printing out chapter(s) to work this out! Printing is always problematic around here for one reason and another. Mainly because I have a very old printer and the paper feed mechanism has been destroyed by one of the cats, who hates the printer and likes to sit on top of it playing with the paper as it disappears.

I have a day off work tomorrow and hope to visit some of the towns that I have borrowed features from to construct Pitkirtly and take photographs.

enhancing the setting

We walked over to Cramond Island last weekend, and once we got there I realised again what a good addition it would make to the setting for a novel – especially a thriller or murder mystery. It is only accessible at low tide via a causeway, and because it was used in the Second World War to guard the River Forth, there are all sorts of old ruined buildings on it, including the one that obviously held a big anti-aircraft gun aimed at stopping planes from bombing the Forth Bridge.

I decided that I would give Pitkirtly an island a bit like it. How lovely to be a writer, with the ability to rearrange geography as you want. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone found a body in one of these ruined wartime buildings in the not too distant future.

I’m quite glad not to be on Cramond Island at the moment, because we’ve had one of these sudden tropical downpours that seem to be a symptom of climate change.

Geraniums in the rain

Happy New Year 2011!

Cecilia knits her way into the New Year

Just to prove I am a fitting writer of cosy mysteries (or ‘quirkies’ as I am starting a campaign to call them), this is what I was doing last night while other more foolish people were out in the cold watching fireworks. Sometimes untangling the wool is similar to untangling my plots!

And by the way, it wasn’t really worth switching the television on – 73 channels (or thereabouts) and nothing to watch on any of them.

The World of Cecilia Peartree

As befits a mystery writer, I live in a quiet suburb and have three cats. I like to write in the conservatory with soft piano music playing in the background. I have a season ticket for one of the theatres in town, where my friend and I attend matinees throughout the season, and when I retire I will very probably become a Friend of a local art gallery and meet people for tea in a long-established department store.

I never use bad language, not even when my Fiat Panda gets cut up at Holy Corner by one of these fiendish bicycle taxi contraptions. The characters in my mystery novels, therefore, don’t use bad language either. And there is very little blood, or at least very little that is visible in my writing. Sometimes bad things happen to the characters, but they suffer in silent dignity, without needing to have their suffering described in minute and sickening detail. Readers do need to use their imaginations sometimes, you know. This isn’t television or a film.

And speaking of television,why are there hardly any programmes worth watching? And so few films worth going to see? On television it’s a choice between so-called reality shows (depicting realities which Icertainly wouldn’t want to inhabit) and inferior drama, while at the cinema it’s either a meagre diet of cartoons or a feast of bad language and violence.

Well, you won’t find any of the above in my writing, that’s for sure!

A Welcome Message from Cecilia

Welcome to my world!

I hope you will find it a restful, civilised place where you can relax for a while away from the rush and noise of the new century. I will be letting you know about my world in subsequent posts, and, the wonders of technology permitting, perhaps even sharing some pictures of it to enhance your experience.