Then and Now: Louise Phillips, author of Red Ribbons

For this month’s ‘Then and Now’ feature I am delighted to welcome crime writer, Louise Phillips, to the blog to share her ups and …. ups of the past twelve months. From many years of hard work to huge debut success, Louise is a fantastic example of how keeping going will reap rewards in the end. Over to Louise ….

Can you give an overview of where you were at with your writing this time last year.

This time last year, it was six months since I signed a 2 book deal with Hachette Books Ireland for Ireland, UK, and Commonwealth rights. The deal was negotiated through my agent, Ger Nichol of The Book Bureau, and I was working on the final edits of Red Ribbons. It was a challenging time because some restructuring was needed, and like all changes in a novel, especially in a crime novel, every change has an impact on the script. I had a publishing deadline, but I also had a family one. Our first grandchild was due early May. As my daughter was hoping Caitriona would arrive soon, I was hoping that she would stay there until I got the edits done! Thankfully, our new granddaughter was very obliging, managing to hold off until mid-May and the edits whisked themselves away!!!

What was causing you the greatest challenge/frustration with your writing?

Time is always the biggest challenge, because there is never enough of it. I work in the family business, so I need to split my time between working within the company and writing. Although our children are grown up, they’re a huge part of my life, not to mention my ever suffering hubby, so it’s always a juggling act. They say women can’t have it all – well none of us can. It is a constant struggle balancing your work and personal life, and many writers including myself find themselves writing into the early hours of the morning. But you wouldn’t do it unless it meant the world to you, so onwards and upwards with both the challenge and frustration!!

What important decisions did you make in the last 12 months?

Gosh that is a hard, because the last 12 months has been filled with one decision after another. Before I was published, I had no idea what was involved. I needed to get to grips with contracts, publicity, deadlines, decisions over cover options, the blurb, who you should thank in the acknowledgements, what kind of book launch would work best for you, do you take the plunge beyond blogging and create your own website, who do you purchase your domain names from, how many domains should you buy, will you create a book trailer, and on and on the questions and decisions went, until your head is somewhat frazzled. But then you remember – this is all a learning curve. No one faced into this knowing the right answers to everything. So you take one decision at a time, and between research and your gut, hope you make the right one.

What was the pivotal moment for you in the last 12 months? How did that come about?

The pivotal moment was my book arriving on a shelf, and funnily enough, it wasn’t a shelf in a bookstore, but my bookshelf at home. I guess that was when the reality of the dream coming true finally registered with me. There it was, a copy of RED RIBBONS sitting neatly beside a favourite author of mine. It was an amazing feeling, because since I was a child visiting the library, I have been in awe of writers and books.

I guess there were many things that lead to the publication of RED RIBBONS, initially learning my writing craft through workshops and becoming part of a writing group, entering short story competitions, doing well and not so well, realising that essentially I was a novel writer, discovering that dark issues interested me most, but by far the clincher moment that led to publication wasn’t a conversation I had with a writer, a publisher or an agent, but with my middle daughter.

I was writing away at the novel, stuck in what I call the ‘murky middle’, and she asked me what I wanted. It was a simple question and one with a simple answer. I told her I wanted to publish a novel. She then asked me what do I had to do to make that happen. I said, well first I need to finish it. It might not sound like a huge thing, but if that afternoon hadn’t have happened, maybe I might have lost heart, maybe I might have let self-doubt get in the way, but in the end, I decided to finish the novel, without that, I couldn’t have been published.

What was/were the high point/s of the last twelve months?

The high point had to be RED RIBBONS being nominated for the Best Irish Crime Novel of the Year 2012 in the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards. Even now, I have to pinch myself when I think about it. It was phenomenal to be up there with such writing giants, and beyond any expectations I had. The memory will stay with me always.

What is the most important thing you have learnt about your writing during the last twelve months?

I’ve learned that the more I write, the more I learn about writing, and hopefully the better writer I become. I’ve learned to trust myself. I don’t plot, so my writing is what they call organic. This can lead you into plenty of cul-de-sacs that fire up challenges!! My writing is primarily character based, with an initial understanding of the theme/themes I want to explore. Although it might be the longer route, I’ve learned it’s the best one for me.

What are your hopes for the next twelve months – and/or what do you definitely have coming up in the next twelve months?

Right now it’s the release of RED RIBBONS into the mass paperback market (that’s the smaller paperback version), and I’m thrilled, along with bookstores nationwide, that it will be available in both Tesco and Dunnes Stores. In the writing sense, my hopes beyond that surround two things: THE DOLLS’ HOUSE which is coming out August 2013 – I think I’m more nervous this time around. My other hope is to get into writing LAST KISS, which will be my third novel. I can’t explain how exited I am about both of the above, one novel nearly ready to go to print, and the other one growing in my mind by the hour.

At the end of the day, as a writer, the most important aim/hope should be to write the best book you can, so I plan to do that!

Any other good news, inspirational or positive experiences to take away from the last twelve months?

News from the last year can be found on the website www.louise-phillips.com and there are plenty of great pics on the site too!!

‘Never give up’, is a bit of a cliché, as is, ‘dreams can come true’, but clichés are clichés for a reason, so if there is a novel in you, then write it, irrespective of it being published, irrespective of what others might think of it, irrespective of everything, other than your love for story, and knowing you have one in you.

Check out the trailer for RED RIBBONS here and continued success to Louise – a very inspiring lady indeed.

Spinning plates: keeping my words moving

They say that women are great multi-taskers, and whoever ‘they’ are, I tend to agree (this, from a woman who is writing a blog post, while listening to the sounds of washing machine, dishwasher and bread maker whirring away, while encouraging children to colour inside the lines and repeatedly getting up to let the cat in/out and answer the door to friends asking if the boys are coming out to play).

But, that said, I think there is also a strong argument for the case that writers are even better multi-taskers. When we see an author signing their new book, we probably forget that they actually wrote the book over a year ago and will be returning home that evening to finish edits on the next one – and may also have started researching  or writing the one after that.  And that’s just the writing part of being a writer. It is most definitely a case of keeping those literary plates  spinning.

Take, for example, my current writing/plate-spinning, status.

1. I am currently working with a designer to complete the back page and spine of what will soon become a paperback edition of The Girl Who Came Home. This is both an exciting and daunting prospect and occupies a lot of my attention. Once the covers are finished, I will be back to the Createspace website to upload all my files and order a proof copy of the book before making it officially available on Amazon (and hopefully in a few bookshops too).

2. I am currently trying to claim my tax back from the US for sales of my Kindle book. This is causing me a ginormous headache and reminds me to emphasise how self-publishing is most definitely NOT the easy option next time I’m talking about it on a panel somewhere.

3. I am always looking for opportunities to promote (albeit subtly and gently) The Girl Who Came Home on Kindle – which is actually being showcased in Amazon’s ‘Romance Daily Deal’ this Sunday. Huzzah! This will involve plenty of social media razzamatazz (and all on a day when I will actually be at a christening).

4. I am currently waiting to hear from publishers who are reading my second novel. This involves lots of hitting of the ‘Refresh’ button on my email Inbox, checking two phones for potentially missed voice mails and keeping friends and family members updated on my ‘no further news’ progress.

5. I am also waiting to hear from an agent who is reading my second novel, with a view to representation if they like it. See above for hitting ‘Refresh’ button etc.

6. I am currently writing research notes and first ideas for a new book which is set during the period of the English Civil War. This is a completely new period of history for me so I have been researching which research books to use, ordering those books from the local library and Amazon and reading those books when they arrive. It’s an amazing period of history and entire days could easily be lost to reading about it.

7. I am also busy interviewing authors who have already got to that heady place I so long to be (i.e. in bookshops and with fab reviews in the broadsheets) and writing up feature interviews and reviews for other websites I write for.

8. (Not entirely writing related, but it all has an impact) I am supposed to be making Toad in the Hole for tea but I need to pop out to the shops to get eggs but I have to wait for Nana and Grandad to arrive (they are babysitting tonight) before I can leave the house because the boys don’t want to pop to the shops because they are ‘busy’ and I can’t leave them in the house on their own (can I?).

9. I am then going to the cinema to forget all about writing and watch Tom Cruise fly around a deserted planet earth in a futuristic space machine. It may even plant the seed for another book (although I suspect not).

10. Then I am going to collapse in a heap in bed, only to wake in the middle of the night to jot down a great plot idea for the new book which has chosen a rather inconvenient time to pop into my weary head.

So, yes, writers tend to have a lot of things on the go at once. This is a life which seems to come with plenty of uncertainty and more than the occasional wobble, but I wouldn’t swap if for the world and will endeavour to keep  those plates spinning as long as I possibly can.

Titanic II – fact, not fiction

I am clearly very interested in all things Titanic and when I learnt, earlier this year, that the plans of Australian businessman, Clive Palmer, to build Titanic II really were serious, I had to find out more.

With so much historical interest and deep human emotion attached to Titanic, it is inevitable that any proposal to build a Titanic II would always court more than its fair share of controversy. Two distinct camps seem to be forming already: those who are very excited by the prospect of not only seeing Titanic re-built, but sailing on the maiden voyage in 2016 which will follow the same route as Titanic did in April, 1912, and those who think this is an insensitive, ill-judged scheme. But as you look into this further, and as time moves on, it seems quite clear that Titanic II is far more than a pipe-dream of a businessman with money to burn. This is actually  happening; like it or not.

Having recently made contact with Helen Benziger, the great-granddaughter of Margaret ‘The Unsinkable Molly’ Brown, it is fascinating to get the reaction to the project from someone so close to the Titanic.  Ms Benziger, is looking forward to completing her great-grandmother’s voyage on Titanic II.

I have a feature in today’s Irish Examiner which provides more background and comment to this compelling topic. As you read this, it is certainly worth remembering that this day, 101 years ago, the Carpathia had only just arrived in New York with the Titanic survivors.

 

Ice people: a tribute to the Titanic victims

As we move towards the 101st anniversary of the sinking of Titanic on 15th April, I think this is one of the most moving tributes I have seen.

Last October, Brazilian artist, Nele Azevedo, placed 1,517 small ice sculptures of people on the steps of Custom House Square in Belfast: one ice person for each of the men, women and children who lost their lives that tragic night. The gathered crowds then watched as each ice person slowly melted and disappeared.

A report of the event can be read on the BBC News website but I think the images really speak for themselves.

There’s something about Titanic …

I often get asked why I am so fascinated by the Titanic. Why does this tragic event hold such interest for me? Why did I write a book about it? Many people presume I have a distant relative who sailed on Titanic, or that I have some vague connection to the White Star Line or the shipyards in Belfast.

I don’t.

In fact, there is very little to connect me to Titanic at all – other than a long held fascination with the story of the unsinkable ship of dreams and all its amazing stories of survival, unimaginable tragedy and heart-breaking loss.

But there have been other great disasters, other dramatic, historical events. So, what is it about Titanic in particular which continues to fascinate me – and thousands of others?

Liam Kennedy, Professor of Economic and Social History, Queen’s University Belfast believes that our fascination with Titanic is a combination of many things. ‘There is no simple answer because there are so many reasons for it. Interestingly, there are other events which have had much greater historical significance, but with Titanic, it is the human element which has such universal appeal. It is the contradiction between the arrogance of those who boldly claimed she was unsinkable and the almost unbelievable fact that she did sink.’

Perhaps one of the most interesting human aspects of Titanic was the manner in which it encapsulated the social class system which was in place at the time. ‘People are, of course, always fascinated by social class and it was shown so starkly on Titanic,’ comments  Professor Kennedy. ‘The passengers were layered according to income and wealth in a manner which saw absolute luxury and poverty co-existing. In many ways, Titanic was a floating microcosm of wider society, producing – for perhaps the first time – an incredible physical proximity of social classes.’ The fact that these social class divisions still held, even at the height of the disaster – determining who got into the lifeboats first and even the order in which survivors disembarked the rescue ship, Carpathia, – is unimaginable to us today.

The timing of Titanic is also vital in the fact that it continues to captivate us, happening, as it did, at a pivotal time in history. ‘There are many other maritime disasters which are much more intriguing and have far greater historical significance,’ comments  Michael Martin, founder of the Titanic Trail in Cobh. ‘The sinking of the Lusitania off the Head of Kinsale in 1915 didn’t get the same attention as Titanic because it happened during a war and there was another disaster shortly afterwards. In many ways, 1912 was a slow news year compared to what followed in the years after.’

Professor Kennedy agrees that the timing of Titanic is an important factor in its continued legacy. ‘Titanic happened at the time when radio communication was a relatively new invention. It was therefore the first major news event of the 20^th century, and the first to be broadcast around the western world. Similarly, 9/11 happened at a pivotal moment of US foreign policy. All disasters are dreadful, but some carry a heavier charge than others because of the time at which they happen.’

And of course it is also the ship itself which continues to grab our attention. ‘In Belfast, people were so involved and so proud of the ship and the achievement of the shipyards in building Titanic,’ comments Professor Kennedy, ‘and yet, it is the themes of humankind and technology which also play a part in our continued fascination with the event. Yes, the technological achievement of Titanic was progressive and liberating, but the sinking is a harsh reminder that technology can also carry dangers – something we have seen occur again and again since Titanic.’

Interestingly, Titanic wasn’t the first liner to be built to such high standards. ‘Titanic was a replica of its sister ship Olympic,’ remarks Michael Martin. ‘It was actually the Olympic which was the first ocean liner to set the new standards in engineering and ship building innovation. Much of the innovation created for Olympic was simply replicated on Titanic. The ship itself wasn’t anything particularly new, it is the tragedy and the fact that it occurred on the much-hyped maiden voyage that has made people fascinated.’

The Titanic tragedy has, of course, been recreated innumerable times in movies and novels. Just four weeks after the disaster, the first Hollywood movie was made, starring silent movie actress Dorothy Gibson who was on Titanic and wore the same dress for the movie as she wore on the night of the sinking.  ‘What has made Titanic so permanent is Hollywood’s preoccupation,’ comments Michael Martin. ‘Titanic also sank at the dawning of the film industry and the story has been told over and over again, utilising new technology as it was developed.’

This was certainly seen with James Cameron’s 1997 Hollywood epic which was inspired by his own fascination with shipwrecks. Cameron is quoted as calling Titanic ‘the Mount Everest of shipwrecks’. Interestingly, it was diving to the wreck  of Titanic he was initially interested in and requested Hollywood funding for, not making a movie about it.

Although many of us are fascinated by Titanic’s opulence, grandeur, size and the romantic notion of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, we forget that this was an extremely ordinary event in 1912. ‘Huge liners calling into Cobh was a normal, everyday occurrence at the time,’ comments Michael Martin. ‘Titanic’s was just another routine visit on an ordinary day.’

Ultimately, Titanic was the most tragic of accidents. We simply cannot believe that this really happened; that such a huge vessel sank with such a devastating loss of life. Perhaps we are fascinated by the notion of what we would have done in those circumstances. It is the ‘what if’ factor which events such as Titanic, 9/11, the Indonesian tsunami and even the recent Concordia ferry disaster, continue to show that tragedy on a massive scale, can and will continue to affect and fascinate us.

Whatever the many and varied reasons for our fascination with her story Titanic’s tragic allure will, undoubtedly, only grow stronger over time.

The Girl Who Came Home is available now on the Amazon Kindle store and will soon be available in paperback.

The Addergoole Fourteen: The real story behind The Girl Who Came Home

Sometime around May 2011, I began researching the Titanic. I knew I wanted to write a novel about Titanic – not so much about the ship itself, but about the people who sailed on her. I wanted to find out what happened to those who survived the tragic event. I wanted to find out how friends and families, especially those in Ireland, first heard the news that the ‘unsinkable’ ship had, indeed, sunk in The Atlantic. I wanted to find an ‘un-known’ story within this famous tragedy, which would be the inspiration for my fictional re-telling.

In survivor accounts and newspaper reports from the time, the same Irish survivor names kept coming up: Annie Kate Kelly, Delia McDermott and Annie McGowan. I dug a little deeper and discovered an incredible story of three young girls, travelling as part of a larger group, who had survived. One (she believed) took the last place in the last lifeboat and another jumped out of one lifeboat in order to return to her cabin to fetch the new hat she had bought in Ireland especially for her arrival in New York. Luckily, she was able to make a jump of fifteen feet to get onto another lifeboat as it was being lowered into the water.

Through further research, I discovered that Annie Kate, Delia and Annie were part of a group which has, in recent years, become known locally as The Addergoole Fourteen: a group of emigrants – friends and relatives – who had left their small villages in rural Ireland, travelled by cart and train to Queenstown in County Cork and boarded Titanic. Eleven of the group lost their lives in the tragedy. These three young women survived with miraculous stories to tell. I knew immediately that theirs was the story I wanted to tell in, what became my first novel, The Girl Who Came Home.

With help from Michael Molloy and others at The Addergoole Titanic Society, I began to understand the impact of the Titanic event on the Parish. I was so moved by the stories of parents waiting for days and days of news of their sons and daughters. I read about the wakes they held in their homes for the family members who would never be brought home. The event had a profound effect on the entire community and it is now remembered annually with a candlelit, bell-ringing ceremony. The local church now boasts one of only two Titanic-themed stained glass windows in the world.

For the people of Lahardane, the real Titanic village of my imagined Ballysheen, the memories of the fourteen who left their homes that spring day in April 1912, live on through the annual memorial service and through the plaques which recall the names of the fourteen and through the stained-glass window. The homes of some of the fourteen are still standing, although many are now just ruins.

With the Titanic centenary in 2012, the Addergoole story found a new audience. What I hadn’t realised, as I was writing The Girl Who Came Home, was that an Irish production company was in the process of filming a documentary about The Addergoole Fourteen. My novel was published in March 2012 and the TV documentary ‘Waking the Titanic‘ was shown on Irish TV channel TG4 to coincide with the centenary in April, 2012. For me, watching this was like watching my characters – and the real people who inspired the creation of them – come to life, and I will never forget how I felt as I watched it.

As we approach the 101st anniversary of the sinking of Titanic, we find ourselves faced with the prospect of a Titanic II being built. I have mixed thoughts about that (which will, no doubt, become a future blog post) but for now, I am simply humbled by the bravery and hope shown by those fourteen people – and hundreds of others – who left their homes and their families in search of a better life.

World Storytelling Day: Aesops Fables & Silly Stories

Today is World Storytelling day – a day to celebrate the art and the joy of storytelling and to celebrate this event I want to tell you about some wonderful children’s books from Miles Kelly Publishers.

Their Aesops Fables series is a wonderful collection of all the old favourite tales such as The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Fox and the Stork, The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Each book includes ten well-known fables which are brilliantly illustrated with vibrant, engaging images.

The Silly Stories collection is another series of engaging tales of – well – silliness! The collection includes titles such as The Hare-Brained Crocodile, How The Cow Jumped Over The Moon and How The Leopard Got His Spots and other well-known stories from Kipling and Lear as well as many others. Again, these stories are superbly illustrated with each book containing four ‘silly’ stories.

The books are roughly A4 size and are soft back and produced to a very high quality finish. They are great value – currently retailing at £2.99 per book on the Miles Kelly website. Both my 5 and 7 year old boys loved both collections. These are great books to keep as a series and would also make lovely birthday gifts.

To find out more about the fantastic range of fact and fiction books for children, visit the Miles Kelly website, or visit their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MilesKellyPublishing

Happy storytelling!