elizabeth Chadwick

Just to say I've put up a new post on my blog about what it takes to produce a novel. Url here if anyone is interested. http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/

The Marshals as a family have been fascinating, Lilywhite and at one time I would have said William Marshal, no contest, but since discovering his father John, I have been particularly interested. John Marshal has gone down in history as the callous father who went back on his word and when his son's life was threatened with forfeiture because of it, said 'Do as you will. I have the anvils and hammer to get better sons than him.' He's also seen as a man on the make and a bit of an adrenalin nutter. But, when you begin looking at the evidence, a very different man emerges and it was particularly stimulating to write against the grain of popular 21stC thought and actually go with the medieval mindset and really think about the clues that we've been left. Added to my conventional research, I use psychic research too and 'knowing' John Marshal from that side of matters too, I really wanted to set the record straight. I do enjoy meeting and discovering the wide range of characters from the medieval past though. Roger Bigod who is the star of The Time of Singing, due out in October, has been a real sweetie and although very much a man, he is made in a different mould to John Marshal. It's been interesting to see the differences between the two men and yet both are great in their own way. I have enjoyed researching royal mistress Ida de Tosney too, who has shown me that not all royal mistresses were willing temptresses. A lot of coercion went on and there were as many victims as vamps. Hmmm... I guess I just love meeting people from the past in my research full stop. There is a wonderful folk band called Show of Hands. They have a song called 'Roots' which says 'Without Our Stories or our songs, how will we know where we come from?' I kind of feel that's what I'm trying to give the readers too - the stories that have been forgotten.

The historical accuracy is non existent - many of the scenes could never have happened in that period - and some of the sex in it is very much 20thC male fantasy grope stuff (yuk) but I can recognise that it's a page turner.

Just hang in there Icecream and do what you can. I started writing my first published novel The Wild Hunt when my youngest was 18 months old and I got there - it was accepted by a publisher when he was 3. I used to work at the kitchen table and in the play room and snatch moments when he was at nursery school or when they were both in bed. It was difficult though...

The collected Ghost Stories of M R James Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte The Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle

Stephanie Plum and Inspector Frost! Oh, and John Harvey's Inspector Resnick. I'm always fascinated by his sandwiches!

Hi Icecream! I have to say that I don't have special places that inspire me to write. I have special places I love to visit, such as Wiltshire and Shropshire and Wales, but as far as writing is concerned, I can write anywhere. The special place is inside my head and it goes wherever I go. When I was first going out with my now husband, we were teenagers and he played darts for an inner city pub. I used to go along to the matches and sit there in the midst of the smoky fug, writing in my notebook. What I do need is my own space in my head to think my own thoughts. When I had a young family and my head was filled with toddler-scribble it was pretty difficult, but these days it's not so bad!

Hi Inver, Yes, I have a study that's our converted 4th bedroom and slightly out of the way, so I get peace to write. I write at least 1,000 words a day, 7 days a week, but it's not 9-5. I can't work solidly, but function in swift creative bursts interspersed with procrastination on e-mail etc. I tell myself it's filling up the creative sump! I've been out most of the day, showing an American friend around the area, so I'm working late now to catch up. I work better towards the end of the day and I'm a night owl, so sometimes I'll work until 2 in the morning - but I may not have done that much earlier on. I would say I probably work at least 50 hours a week. Some of it is the actual novel writing, but some is blogging and other bits and pieces to do with the job that aren't actually the main occupation so to speak! Back to the coalface - today is likely to roll over into tomorrow being as I was skiving earlier...

Ah, that's the thing! I rarely read stuff thinking 'this is a bloke's book' or 'this is a woman's book' I just take them on their merits for what they are and read across the board. Then again, I can watch The Good The Bad and the Ugly time and again and recently loved Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in 3.10 to Yuma. Also I confess to being thrilled with a cowboy outfit and 6 guns that was bought as my Xmas present when I was 6!

My favourite novel of all time isn't a Western as such - it's a book about the 'Native Americans' It's called Hanta Yo by Ruth Beebee Hill and it's about a tribe of Lakotah Sioux on the eve of the coming of the White man. Just brilliant. There's Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake on which the film is based. There's author Dee Brown who does a Native American slant too. Creek Mary's Blood. There's Marilyn Durham's The Man who Loved Cat Dancing Paint the Wind by Cathy Cash Spellman - which manages to pack in nearly everything about 19thC American history going and includes quite a bit of Western stuff. I loved that one. Also Will Henry for readable Western adventure. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/will-henry/ There's author Jeanne Williams - A Lady Bought with Rifles and others. Larry McMurtry as others have said too.

James Patterson is very canny in the marketing area and 'Misery Lit' as it is called is big on publishers' radar at the moment. The second title sounds as if it's from that genre and the first could be... Not my cup of tea personally.

I keep hearing about this one on different forums. Some readers are not at all happy with the ending although everyone seems to like the journey towards it. It's on my TBR

I found it a slow read, not in a derogatory way, but in a sense of being thoughtful and moving. I also didn't know much about the setting - ordinary people in WWII Germany so I found that engrossing too. I'd give it a creditable 8.5 out of 10 and a strong 4 stars were I to give it an Amazon ranking.

What's your most memorable encounter from the above? My most surreal moment was when I was first published. I had recently been filling shelves at a supermarket to make ends meet, and then suddenly found myself at Whitehall receiving a literary award from Prince Charles.... !! (didn't get his autograph though!)