Research: In the Wake of the Vikings

What other way could I follow in the wake of a Viking longship except by cruising the Norwegian fjords? Ahem... well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

We were on a small ship of 550 passengers, a tad larger than the biggest dragon ships, granted, but its wraparound deck afforded fantastic views. And it was the views I'd gone for. I like to footfall the landscapes I'm intending to write about, and the majesty and drama of the fjords have to be experienced from the water.

This is an early morning glide along the Hardangerfjord heading towards Ulvik and Eidfjord. Even in June there was plenty of snow on the higher reaches, so in any fiction there'd be no moving grazing animals to higher pastures. The area is renown for its mild climate, its orchards growing 80% of Norway's fruit harvest. Mmm...

Atmosphere can be everything when writing fiction

The itinerary took us successively north, along the Sognefjord and into the Aurlandfjord, the Nordfjord and into glacier territory, and the Storfjord into the Sunnylvsfjord and the Geirangerfjord. Many of these are known to have been inhabited, if sparsely, long before the feared Norsemen launched their fabled ships.

Here we are heading inland along Gerangerfjord past the famous de Syv Sostre (the Seven Sisters), one of many sets of impressive waterfalls along the route: 

The "shrubs" are fully grown trees

We took one excursion off-ship, arcing across the high plateau from Vik in the Sognefjord to Flam in the Aurlandfjord. The scenery was breathtaking and alien to both the lush natural flora and the cultivated fruit farms by the fjords' edges. Cherries, anyone? Raspberries? Perhaps not here: 

Who would have expected bare-limbed deciduous trees on the banks of a still-frozen lake in June?

So what did I take from the landscape? The strata colours of the rocks; the warmth of the atmosphere despite the snow and ice; the noise and sheer volume of water in the falls creating rainbows in the sunshine; the surprising lack of a breeze; the even more surprising lack of birds in comparison to the UK. More than anything, the serenity. This, and more, is both noted and now filtering through my subconscious.

Other posts in this series:
Norway 2: Hopperstad Stave Church outside of Vik. Now I know where The Lord of the Rings drew its architecture.
Norway 3: Bergen's Bryggen and the Hanseatic Museum
Norway 4: Viking Ships Not From Norway - replicas that have sailed the seas.

Research: Spilsby's Quarter Sessions & Prison

For a novelist, research comes in all shapes and sizes. For my purposes I shuffle it into three groups:

• General - undertaken to test if an idea has legs
• Background - for usable window-dressing
• Pertinent – facts to feed with subtlety direct into the text to emphasise that my characters aren’t idiots

There is also a fourth – Serendipitous – where I happen to come across something interesting enough to be stored for some future reference that may never occur or, there again, may trigger the initial idea for a piece of work. In truth, serendipitous research is what novelists undertake every waking hour – keeping our eyes and ears open for something that snags our interest.

Visiting Spilsby in Lincolnshire fell into this latter category. It’s not a part of the near-country we drive through often. We were there on a genealogy trace for some of my husband’s ancestors, and a visit to nearby ruins of Bolingbroke Castle. When we’d driven in we’d passed a building so imposing that it seemed out of keeping with the nature of a small rural market town with a population of only 3,000 people.

With the church opposite locked, I decided on a closer look. It now houses the local independent theatre, and the two people tending its gardens out front took my request for information as divine intervention – or at least a good excuse for some respite from their weeding.

The theatre is the current tenant of the Quarter Sessions Courthouse dating from 1825-27, and despite its newer theatrical trappings, the original blue and gold painted ceiling still gazes down. Beyond the stage, the original cells provide surprisingly spacious single dressing rooms, and the Judge’s Rooms the bar area.

Until 1876 when it was demolished, the Courthouse fronted a House of Correction, as the accompanying gaol was referred to, which covered two acres and housed up to 80 convicts. Some were bound for prison ships and Australia, while others found themselves on one of four treadmills. The fact that a sketch-plan of the complex still existed I found fascinating.

click to enlarge

Will I be using this information in a future work? I've no idea at the moment, but it is sitting in my subconscious, being quietly nurtured. One day, probably out of the blue, the experience will connect with another and an idea will glow.

With many thanks to members of www.spilsbytheatre.com who took time out to show me round. Y’see, if you don’t ask...

Writing, Reading and Research Updates

When I updated the site I intended on updating my actual writing on a somewhat regular basis. But the best laid plans of authors... Better late than never.

Pilgrims of the Pool, the final novel in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy (see 'Chillers'), continues to have pages added - not as fast as I'd like, but a decent enough amount to prove that I am now well out of the mire in which I'd written myself, or at least written the luckless Nick and Alice.

On the reading front I've finished The Shield-Maiden: A Foreworld SideQuest by husband and wife team Michael Tinker, and Linda, Pearce. And I can heartily recommend it. I know nothing about the Foreworld series, but was drawn to this novella by (a) the cover, and (b) the fact that Michael is a sword-maker and fight choreographer and the author of The Medieval Sword in the Modern World, which I intend to look up. Would his background show in the fiction? It certainly did. The battle sequence and aftermath were superb.

Over the past few weeks I've also been beta-reading works by several members of support group, Hornsea Writers, to which I belong. It's always good to scrutinize works-near-final-polish as it makes me look at my own with a keener eye. We can always be blind to our own imperfections while immediately seeing similar problems in work by others. It's a way of restabilizing self-critical faculties.

Despite being way behind schedule with my own novel, I've played hookey twice over the past month, to Horncastle and Spilsby, and to Gainsborough, both in Lincolnshire. Days out are never simply 'days out' in our house; I always have half an eye on what might pass for research for possible future projects. 

In Spilsby the local theatre is housed in a building sporting a magnificent portico and columned frontage set back from the road. It turned out to be the region's Quarter Sessions and prison complex dating from 1827. I managed to wangle my way in and an eye-opener it turned out to be. Gainsborough was a dedicated trip to see the Old Hall dating from c1460s. There the medieval kitchen complex was a revelation. 

Over the next few weeks I intend to do posts on both, with pictures. 'Follow by Email' - see bottom of the page - if you would like these to be delivered to your Inbox when they become available.

For Want Of A Book Cover

Should a writer sit on a story or publish and be damned?

The theory is that an independent writer/publisher should know the genre, concept and the title of a work-in-progress so as to brief a designer of a cover for delivery at the same time that the text emerges from its final edits. That’s the theory.

Version 1 from Fiverr

The reality is that storylines can erupt from anywhere and produce a work of varying lengths, sometimes in short order. The Paintings is a case in point.

I was about to start the third in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy when a chance exchange with an artist friend dropped the idea for The Paintings, fully formed, into my arms. It was always going to be a novella, and they don’t take long to write, do they? And it didn’t. But that left me without a cover, and almost three months to a previously booked date with my cover designer of choice. What to do?

If Photoshop, Paint and Gimp are merely words without meaning, then you need a third party to produce a cover, and time should be spent on Amazon’s pages to gain an idea of what is expected within your chosen genre. Pink and fluffy with a curly font might be suitable for Chicklit, but it won’t sell a Supernatural.

After my own trials failed miserably I decided to try Fiverr – the website where time and skills can be purchased for US$5 a job. I chose a digital designer and gave her the brief. I paid extra to give her more leeway, and for the princely sum of $10.50 (£7.03) received a very reasonable starter cover. I wasn’t convinced over the blank canvas on the easel, so superimposed my own for atmosphere, and the novella was published as an ebook.

Version 2: Art By Karri

This week the appointment with my chosen cover designer rolled in and we discussed possibilities through a series of drafts, eventually settling on this one.

That it has more class is a certainty. Its design also fulfils the mood and content of the story that the Fiverr cover never would.

It's always better to engage a professional designer as you're paying for their skills, experience, and the hours spent not just working on the cover itself, but on the time spent finding elements that contribute to the design. This cover is an amalgam of three separate elements, not including the text.

Using a professional designer also brings side benefits. This ebook cover came in two sizes with an accompanying Facebook header and, for publicity purposes, two .png files showing the picture as a horizontal and vertical print book.

Professional book cover designers come neither cheap nor fast. Art by Karri currently runs a six month waiting list; there again, she has won awards for her work. I am also aware that some writers have extremely tight budgets. If it's a choice between an editor and a cover artist, pay for the editor, especially on the first few books; you're learning your trade, and words are your trade. Using Fiverr for a cover might be a stop-gap, but briefing one, or more, Fiverr designers is financially do-able for anyone.

Was I happy to use the starter cover instead of waiting for the final? Yes, I was. And I would do so again if I found myself in the same position. I promoted the novella on its original launch, and I now have a decent hook for promotion on its re-launch.

Did I mention The Paintings is a supernatural mystery about an art assessor who finds herself working in a surreal environment? No? Then please follow this link - THE PAINTINGS. :)