There’s a social media group I belong to which is for writers, editors, agents and publishers. The majority of members are like me, writers, but among us scribes there are members of all sorts – beginners, old hands and hacks, published and experienced, young and mature. There are those who think they know everything and don’t mind blabbing on about it, and timid souls who can easily be disheartened by the blabbers. I very rarely post anything, but do comment, trying to be supportive and encouraging. Some people know they want to write but haven’t started yet and others will offer advice. My advice is pretty much always the same, write, write, write, practising your craft, and be observant. In particular I mean observe people around you so your characters will be realistic, see how they engage with others – or don’t, and what happens when they do. Imagine who those strangers are, their characters, their history, their desires.
When I began to write the story which became ‘Lucky Portbraddon’, I was a big fan of a particular band and would travel all over the place to see them. I loved their music, I loved seeing them perform of course, and I loved to observe their interaction. I began to create a story – not about them, but about four people based on my imaginings. They would be brothers – no not brothers, cousins, they would be cousins! As I’ve mentioned here many times, I have a very close relationship with my own cousins, and we try hard to keep that relationship strong.
So my characters, now seven cousins, all heading towards middle-age, have very different and sometimes conflicting personalities. Antoine is the eldest, one of twins, but tragically his brother died many years ago. Nick and Tyrone are also twins, dissimilar to each other in many ways but with an almost telepathic intuition between them. James, and to a greater extent his older brother, Garry, are a feckless pair; James plays an important part in the novel, Garry just has a walk-on role. The youngest cousin is Alex, a charismatic and successful writer – everything he touches seems to turn to gold, but he fears he is never destined for true happiness. There are wives and partners, girlfriends and children. The story of a decisive year in their lives is told through the eyes of Ismène a fiancée, and outsider, who is linked to them through a near-tragic incident in the first chapter.
There are numerous story-lines, of course, and to try and make the characters believable came from years of observing people. I watch strangers, on trains, in pubs, on the street, see them having conversation and arguments, having fun, being silly, squaring up to each other, and they become characters. I play with them in my imagination, creating relationships and difficulties, solutions and disappointments.
This is the blurb for the book:
“Lucky Portbraddon… a rather rascally ancestor of my late husband, or so family legend has it, was a favourite friend of the Prince Regent, apparently, but Lucky made, not lost, his fortune…”
A few days before Christmas, as the Portbraddon family gathers at their grandmother’s big house up on the moors, the last of the cousins drives through a blizzard to join them. Their near-death experience en route does not seem an auspicious start to their family get together, but the cousins determine to celebrate as they always do.
However as the old year ends and the new begins it seems their good fortune is about to run out. An unexpected death, a descent into madness, betrayal… and as the year progresses other things befall them, a stalker, attempted murder, a patently dodgy scheme for selling holiday homes in a dangerous part of the Caucasus…
Maybe the Portbraddons are not so lucky… except there is also love, a new home, reconciliation, a spiritual journey, music.. .One thing remains true, whatever difficulties arise between them, whatever happens, family is family, family first… “They’re like a big bunch of musketeers, all for one and one for all!”
Here is a link to ‘Lucky Portbraddon’, available in paperback and as an e-book:
Lois Elsden 