Cecilia Peartree - woman of mystery

Different voices

mccallumogilvy — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:38:20 +0000

I’m now getting right down to the final edits of ‘Death at the Happiness Club’. The most difficult part about this is getting enough distance from the novel to read it as if you’d never seen it before. I did manage this past week to look at the first chapter in this way and I realised I might have used the wrong voice. Because I usually have three point of view characters in this mystery series, I like to try and give each of them a distinctive voice, but this is sometimes quite difficult. I’ve noticed for instance that Christopher and Amaryllis are beginning to sound a lot more like each other as the stories go on.

I found it quite encouraging when I tested part of each of the sections of the novel using a website called something like ‘Who do you write like?’ I found each of the three point of view characters came out as someone different. The best thing was that Amaryllis’s section was like Ian Fleming – but I suspect this had something to do with the fact that the chunk of text I pasted in mentioned the CIA several times. The Maisie Sue section, which I’m currently working on, came out as being like Dan Brown. But I think Ican put that right if I work hard enough! Christopher’s section turned out like Jane Austen. I’m not sure his ramblings are worthy of that! Though I suppose he usually likes to move at the pace of a Jane Austen character.

Talking of voices reminds me that one day I hope to persuade my son, who has a lovely voice, to help me create an audio-book version of at least one of the Pitkirtly mysteries (he doesn’t know this yet). I might start him off on one of the short stories so that we can see how long it takes and what the results are like. I just know he has the right voice for this!

Trains, boats, planes… cars, buses, camper vans…

mccallumogilvy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:36:46 +0000

It didn’t occur to me until I was editing ‘Death at the Happiness Club’ but there is an awful lot of transport in it. People frequently hop on buses and go to the next town, or see a Porsche zipping past, or get on and off planes and boats. One of the most exciting scenes in the book (in my humble opinion) takes place on a boat trip from North Queensferry to Inchcolm, an island in the Firth of Forth where there’s rather a romantic old abbey. My son once took part in a video there with some other members of his orchestra. I don’t know if they actually played any instruments on that occasion or only mimed, but if they did play then the sound was probably carried away on the wind immediately.

Another pivotal scene takes place in a camper van, which is not at all romantic or old. it’s a useful thing to have in a book, though – it doesn’t have to stay in one place as a house would, but can either be a means of transport or a home. It’s used as both in this story.

One of the main characters in the series, Amaryllis, makes her entrance in this novel by plane, flying in from Newark and hoping not to be arrested on the way through customs (don’t ask). Another, Christopher, acts on impulse, which is quite uncharacteristic, when he catches a boat to go somewhere different. And right at the end of the novel a steam train arrives in Pitkirtly with some unexpected passengers – unexpected, that is, to Christopher, who hasn’t been paying attention.

I hope all this movement will carry the novel along at a fast pace. Certainly that was the case when I wrote the first draft. In fact I wrote so fast I almost forgot to put in the murder.

Naming names

mccallumogilvy — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:42:02 +0000

Until someone mentioned the name Amaryllis in a review this weekend, I had almost forgotten about the trauma of choosing names for characters (thanks for reminding me, Chris G!).

In some cases, a first name arrives with the character and it’s impossible after a few pages to imagine using a different one. Several of the Pitkirtly crowd fall into this category: Christopher, Amaryllis, Jock, Dave. I don’t think Jemima Stevenson had a first name when she appeared, but it wasn’t too long until she invented one for herself. I had a bit of trouble with Maisie Sue, although most of the early attempts involved combinations of similar elements: Ellie Mae, Susie Mae, Mary-Ann, Susie-Ann and so on. Once I had thought of Pearson MacPherson I couldn’t not use it, no matter how silly it was!

I usually use the name I initially think of for a character, but if that doesn’t work then it often takes several attempts to choose something that seems right; I have been known to consult baby naming websites, particularly if I need something unusual or a name from another culture. On occasion the name is too right, in the sense that the character turns into someone I know who has the same name. This happened with a character in ‘Reunited in Death’, but I’d better not say which one. In any case, I changed it as soon as I noticed the increasing similarities.

In this vein, I once wrote a short novel (novella length) that actually had real people as characters, with their real names. This was great fun to write and would be impossible ever to release into the wild. Even when I let one of my sons read it, he took exception to the way I had portrayed him, and in other cases I think the people involved, particularly the one designated as murderer, would probably sue! As well as making me laugh a lot, it completely defused the fury I had been feeling about something one of the characters had done, and allowed me to move on from there.

But this kind of thing is writing as therapy and not writing for publication! I find it easier to remember the difference after consciously setting out to do it on that one occasion.

Characters in a landscape

mccallumogilvy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 10:56:53 +0000

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to understand this, but I now realise that when I go wrong in my writing it is usually because I start from the setting for a novel and not from the characters. The setting, no matter how lovely or sordid or exotic or homely, has to be subordinate to what the characters do there. I have somewhere on one of my computers a whole comic novel about a museum curator, which I abandoned because the museum setting had completely swamped the story. Similarly, if there’s a theme or ‘moral’ (to use an extremely old-fashioned word) in a novel, which I think there should be, it has to be appropriate to the set of characters, otherwise it won’t make sense and will stand out like a knit row where there should be purl, or wool of a different dye number in a batch used to knit a jumper!

Needless to say I am often tempted to break my own rule – what else are rules for, after all? – when a particular setting appeals to me, so I suppose my New Year resolution for 2012 has to be to learn from previous mistakes and not to give into that temptation. Even as recently as the end of November, in the wake of NaNoWriMo, I had an idea for a whole series of thriller novels set in interesting places across Europe. But during the mulling over phase that precedes planning in my case, the idea seems to be gradually morphing into something quite different. I am still strangely drawn to the idea of writing something set in Berlin, but I know that’s mainly because it’s a place where huge world-changing events have taken place and there would be lots of scope to put characters in danger.

Meanwhile ‘Death at the Happiness Club’ is taking shape. In the case of my Pitkirtly mystery series, the characters have well and truly taken over the asylum. Although they have been formed to some extent by the small town they inhabit, I like to think of them as having wills of their own. I just shape their stories, imposing a kind of order on their messy lives.

[yes, I know some of them would definitely object to their lives being described as messy!]

Developing characters – how far to go?

mccallumogilvy — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:37:01 +0000

I’m in the middle of editing my fourth novel in the Pitkirtly mystery series, and I just wonder how far I can go in developing the characters. I don’t want them to change beyond recognition (and see also ‘A Reformed Character’ which rehearses some of my own views on this before coming down firmly on both sides of the fence!), but it’s good to be able at least to illustrate different sides of people in different situations.

In ‘Death at the Happiness Club’ I have slightly surprised myself by choosing to highlight aspects of Maisie Sue MacPherson and Inspector Smith, both of whom, I think it’s fair to say, started life as rather stereotypical characters. I’ve become more interested in them in the course of writing the series, and although I will never tire of chronicling the ups and downs of the rather strange relationship between Christopher and Amaryllis, it’s good to be able to explore facets of people who are different from either of them.

Just as in real life I am particularly guilty of instinctively disliking someone about whom I know very little, I do take a dislike to some of my fictional characters too. And as in real life, I often find this initial reaction to be unfair. So Maisie Sue, whom I’ve been rather unkind to, has a turn in the spotlight this time, and Inspector Smith is seen to be almost human for a while.

A New Year message

mccallumogilvy — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:04:13 +0000

Happy New Year!
I had some idea of doing a review of 2011, but I’ve left it a bit too late for that and I really prefer to look forward, so here are some predictions for 2012 in Pitkirtly.
Maisie Sue McPherson is due to have a more exciting life than she ever planned.
Christopher will be reunited with a family member who caused him a lot of trouble in the past.
Amaryllis’s activities will lead her into danger again, and not just because she finds out Inspector Smith’s first name.
Jock McLean’s pipe will cause a catastrophe, and Jemima’s and Dave’s relationship will enter a new phase.

And as for me, I will continue to plan other people’s lives for them, which is very much easier to do in fiction than in real life!

au revoir

mccallumogilvy — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:03:35 +0000

So it’s ‘au revoir’ from me as we come to the end of French month on my blog.
I’ve enjoyed revisiting some holiday destinations and I feel inspired to use France as a setting again in future, especially when the weather here in Scotland really gets me down!
I am hoping one day to spend a whole holiday cruising on the Canal du Midi, but I also hope not to run into trouble the way Isabelle did in my novel.

first impressions, or how we invaded France in the first place

mccallumogilvy — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:08:28 +0000

I was retrieving all the files from an old laptop this afternoon when I came across some pictures of my family visit to Disneyland Paris, which was actually the first time my sons had been to France and only the second time one of them had been outside the UK (the first time was a trip by ferry to Amsterdam, which started well but ended rather badly thanks to the North Sea and certain people’s refusal to wear anti-seasickness wristbands until it was (a) the middle of the night and (b) too late – but I mustn’t go on about that).
The trip to Disneyland was fairly successful, although the consensus of opinion in our family was that it wasn’t as good as Alton Towers. It was quite an unthreatening way to encounter France for the first time. My command of French, however, was tested to its limits almost as soon as we changed trains at Lille, when not only did I have to buy a phone card but use a public telephone (this kind of thing has caused me problems wherever I go, even where the local language is English) to tell the manager of our holiday accommodation we were running late. My son later used the telephone card vocabulary I had demonstrated to buy a card so that he could ring his girl-friend, with whom he was having a long-distance tiff that lasted right through our stay in France, much to the annoyance of the rest of us.
Another serious test of my French-speaking ability occurred when we went to Paris for the day and got stuck in Les Halles Metro station because our tickets wouldn’t work in the automatic barriers. For a little while I thought that was all we were going to see of Paris, but luckily we managed to explain ourselves eventually and made our escape.
I think these were the experiences that encouraged me to take a second Open University French course instead of just the one I had intended to take! But overall our experience was a positive one, and when I noticed that the train we got off at Lille was heading further south, I realised it wouldn’t actually be that difficult to reach the Mediterranean sunshine.
The rest is not exactly history, but it’s ceratinly the foundation of some of my fiction, if nothing else!

A day in Paris

mccallumogilvy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:46:38 +0000

Louvre pyramid

I noticed Lonely Planet tweeting earlier today about an article advising people what to do on a day in Paris.
Of course there is so much to do in Paris that a day just can’t possibly be long enough, but I didn’t agree with their choice of things to do, so here goes with mine. Note that these activities are geared towards people who have a vague sense of history and culture, but no in-depth knowledge of or special interest in paintings, for instance.
First of all, should you be lucky enough to be staying in a litle hotel near the Gare de Lyon as we once did, you will probably be quite close to the Seine. You can either cross a bridge to catch a batobus at Jardin des Plantes or walk along to Notre Dame Cathedral, which isn’t too far. Once there, it may be enough to sit outside and admire the architecture, or you might want to walk round the interior and/or go up to the top of the tower. Just being around the place where the Hunchback of Notre Dame operated will perhaps be enough!
You can go on towards the Louvre from there either on foot or (if the day is getting warmer and your companions grouchier) by batobus.
I suggest the Louvre as the best museum to visit because (a) it is awe-inspiringly massive, (b) it has some extremely famous things in it and (c) ‘The Da Vinci Code’. You can download a ‘Da Vinci Code tour’ from the Louvre website before going there. It takes you to some of the most famous works of art in the museum including the Mona Lisa.
WARNING: DON’T TRY AND SEE EVERYTHING IN THE LOUVRE!
Lonely Planet suggests the Musee d’Orsay instead, but this museum was not a hit with my family – the only things they seemed to like being the old station features and the roof terrace from which you get a great view of the Seine. They weren’t impressed by the Impressionists!
It’s a good idea to have lunch at this point in the tour.
After lunch and perhaps a wander in the Tuileries gardens, I offer a choice of activities for the afternoon
One is a cruise down the Canal Saint-Martin from the Parc de la Villette to the Bastille, and the other is a visit to the Eiffel Tower. The canal cruise means travelling up to the Parc de la Villette by metro. There are other attractions at Parc de la Villette which could occupy some time if you have to wait for the canal cruise to start. The cruise itself involves plenty of locks and tunnels, although the canal boat moves fairly slowly and small children could get impatient.
To get to the Eiffel Tower you can catch the batobus again. If you spent the afternoon at the Eiffel Tower, you might be able to fit in an evening cruise on the river or canal as well, if available. We’ve found it helps get round the queues if you book a special trip to the Eiffel Tower with a tour guide who explains how the lift works and describes some aspects of the way the tower was used as a signalling station.
To round off the day, an amazing thing to do is to take a batobus from the Eiffel Tower to the Jardin des Plantes at sunset. The view of Notre Dame cathedral silhouetted against a blazing red sky is lovely, and will make you want to re-visit Paris again and again – as if you didn’t already…

Joyeux Noël!

mccallumogilvy — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:35:20 +0000

In an unseasonal gesture, I thought I would write a little more about the Camargue and why I would like to set a novel there.
It’s a wild place that’s different from anywhere else. There are big exotic birds that fly overhead at sunset, matching their colours to the sky and yet standing out against it. There are lots of waterways, large and small, great piles of salt, long empty stretches of flat land, long enticing beaches and a little fringe of very small towns along the coast. There is Aigues-Mortes with its ancient walls, views in all directions and cramped little souvenir shops. On the coast, the pyramids and minarets of La Grande Motte form a strange, alluring skyline, while sleek white catamarans skim to and fro on the sea. The small town of Les Saintes Maries de la Mer sits on its own, miles from anywhere, its existence based on a legend and sustained by tourism. I am not sure if the story I would write would be a mystery – the landscape lends itself to ghost stories and fantastic quasi-medieval tales. But then, I suppose the same could be said about Scotland! Maybe that’s why the Camargue fascinates me and yet I know I will never understand it.