Spring

January 30, 2008

I’ve been off blogging for a while. I’ve tried posting a couple of items but scrubbed them because I didn’t like them. My mood has been slightly hormonal and also I’ve been writing madly and am nearly halfway through ISHBM. Everyone else is very busy too, I can tell from ROMNA
and blogs. But I sniff Spring in the air here in the UK so…

I need to do a lot of research on the current book, It Should Have Been Me. The story involves a road trip in a vintage 1970’s VW Campervan so at Easter, we have hired this vehicle and are off to North Devon in it. Watch this space to see if we freeze to death!

(Can you imagine the tensions between two attractive but very self-opinionated people in this confined space? Come to think of it, can you imagine me and Mr Bennet in here?)

There’s another writing related visit I’m planning to do in North Devon that I hope to tell you about soon. However, I did discover that the recent BBC TV adaptation of Sense & Sensibility was also filmed there so I hope to go and visit the location which is Hartland Abbey and ‘Barton Cottage’.

I love doing research and I can’t even start a novel unless I have a very strong attachment to the setting. ISHBM is set in Devon and Oxford. When I wrote Just Say Yes, which is published in August 2008, my lovely ed (who knows I adore settings) told me to let rip with my sense of place. That book was set in Cornwall – an intensely sensual landscape. It was no hardship to imagine myself strolling on windswept beaches, walking on hot sand or poking round fishing villages.

I kick myself regularly for not writing fiction before. Until I went to ‘big’ school, I wrote all the time and when I was nine, I won a prize for one of my (non-fiction) stories in a national newspaper competition. I also used to write mini-brochures about places I’d been on holiday. Then I just stopped and decided to study English Literature instead. I was 41 when I started again.

Comments

1. On January 30th, 2008 at 6:32 am
   Duckface Says:
   

   Pip
   This has completely made my day. Looks just fantastic. V Jealous. Have a wonderful time.
   J x

2. On January 30th, 2008 at 6:57 am
   Jessica Raymond Says:
   

   It looks so cool! I didn’t know the roof came up like that.

3. On January 30th, 2008 at 7:25 am
   Phillipa Says:
   

   Julie, Jess. They have the beds in the pop-up roof and also ‘rock and roll’ beds in the interior. Our van is called Bill and he has a normal windcsreen but some of them have splitties.

   It’s a whole new world…

4. On January 30th, 2008 at 9:27 am
   Rosy Thornton Says:
   

   It looks so great! But I think it needs painting up in flower power colours with yin and yang symbols, or a big CND badge on the front.

   Rosy x

5. On January 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
   Steph Says:
   

   Eek! I’m so not a camper but I bet you’ll have a fab time. Just make sure you park near a good pub! Hope you get to Hartland Abbey, it’s gorgeous.

6. On January 31st, 2008 at 7:15 am
   Jessica Raymond Says:
   

   Hmm, “rock and roll” beds sounds a bit saucy! Are you going to wear flares and beads while you drive it? 🙂

7. On January 31st, 2008 at 7:24 am
   Phillipa Says:
   

   Er no – thermal underwear I think! And Ms B may be coming along so any research will be strictly to do with the scenery and engine of the vehicle. But I’ve just written a scene where the characters debate who gets the rock and roll bed.

8. On February 1st, 2008 at 5:23 am
   Jessica Raymond Says:
   

   Yes, thermals would be wise 🙂 The book is sounding great.