A couple or so days ago I mentioned that I had been reading one of my novels, ‘Loving Judah’ which was about someone dealing with the loss of a much loved step-son and another character who blamed himself for the death of their best friend. I guess if I was forced to pigeon-hole it into a genre I would have to say family relationships, friendship and love. It was interesting to read what I’d written, how I’d written and knowing what had inspired me in particular scenes.
It nudged me into reading another book I’ve written, ‘night vision’ which had a very specific trigger – a stunted tree growing out of a cliff face! Pigeon-holing again is difficult, it’s about the relationship of a couple, and how his unfounded jealousy affects their lives. It’s also about a platonic but deep friendship between one of them and another person. This theme arose from my own relationship with my closest and oldest friend, the writer Andrew Simpson. There’s also a mystery in’night vision’ – the remains of a person who disappeared thirty years ago is found buried beneath an old wreck of a boat in a boatyard. There’s a boatyard near where I live, and there used to be several derelict old craft there, and I imagined what might be buried beneath!
‘night vision’ starts with a woman climbing a tree in the middle of a wood, and is shocked to discover someone has already climbed and is perched higher up. She only realises as she tries to take a photo, leans out balancing dangerously on a branch and nearly falls. The person above manages to grab her and save her from a dreadful descent. While I was still in the early stages of writing this, I shared the opening paragraphs in an on-line writing group. I was horrified when some-one made sneering comments about it obviously going to be a romance between the faller and the grabber. Absolutely not! They become friends but there is zilch romance between them! It was a good lesson to me in how to write beginnings, readers are entitled to make assumptions, and sometimes them making erroneous assumptions is good as it leads to surprise revelations. However it’s really not good if it makes them discard your book and even disparage it!
Here is a link to ‘night vision’ if you want to find out whose was the body beneath the boat and who was responsible for putting it there, and also find out how the climbing tree itself becomes an important character!
and here again is the link for ‘Loving Judah’
… and a link to Andrew’s fascinating blog:
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/
Lois Elsden 