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Category: Author Interviews
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AmeriCymru spoke to R T Berner about his book Wales Married To The Eye a photographic record of a recent trip to Wales. The book is available from Amazon and blurb.com.
Wales Married To The Eye on Blurb
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“The photograph,” Dylan Thomas once wrote, “is married to the eye.” The Welsh poet could have said the same thing about his beautiful country. From Mount Snowdon in the north to Mumbles in the south, the landscape of Wales is a photographer’s dream—and my wife and I overdosed during a nine-day visit in 2010 that came 17 years after our first visit for a conference at the University of Wales-Aberystwyth in 1993.
I am fortunate to have family in Wales and they were very helpful as we mapped out our trip. …
Where did we go? Besides Aberystwyth and Cardiff, we spent a night in Snowdonia National Park (Llanberis), Hay-on-Wye (where a yarn shop caught Paulette’s eye), Swansea, St David’s and Machynlleth, the birthplace of my maternal grandfather, Thomas F. Williams, and where Paulette took this photograph of me with the Western Mail. We also stopped in Aberaeron, Harlech, Brecon, Laugharne, Mumbles and Llangennith, the birthplace of John Morgan, a friend of ours whom met in China in 1994 and who spent his adult life in Australia. (See Now and Then: The Memoirs of John Morgan, available at www.lulu.com and in the National Library in Aberystwyth. ) We visited the National Slate Museum, the National Wool Museum, the National Library of Wales, the National Museum in Cardiff and the National History Museum, also known as St Fagans. We stopped several times just to take in the view (and photograph it).
St David''s Cathedral Interior ( Click for larger image )
Between us, we took nearly 3000 photographs.
In Swansea, we stayed in Dylan Thomas’ birthplace and slept in the room where he was born. In Laugharne, we visited the last place he lived and I was able, for a fee, to photograph inside the house and the shed where he wrote.
AmeriCymru: What photographic equipment did you use to take these breathtaking
shots?
My wife photographs with a Nikon D40 primarily to have something to aid her painting. I was using a Nikon D7000 at the time, which I had programmed to shoot multiple exposures that I could then process as high dynamic range photographs. The interior photograph of St. David’s Cathedral is an example of the detail one can achieve with multiple exposures.
Brecon Canal ( Click for larger image )
AmeriCymru: What is your most abiding impression from your trip to Wales? Where in Wales would you most like to visit again?
We want to spend more time in the north.
AmeriCymru: Where can our members and readers purchase the book online?
The book is available at www.blurb.com and Amazon.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
You must visit Wales at least once in your lifetime. We found it very easy to drive about. I would recommend nothing less than 7 days and probably 14 so you can take your time and hit all of the major sites. We would also recommend flying into Manchester, England, rather than dealing with Heathrow. It doesn’t take long to drive out of the Manchester airport and reach rural Wales.
Aberaeron Boats ( Click for larger image )
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AmeriCymru: Hi Marly and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. When did you decide to take up writing childrens'' fiction?
Marly: I created stories for my own children, Catrin and Gareth Owain when they were at primary school age, but it was not until my twin grandchildren Ava and Daniel arrived six years ago, that I really began to take the whole thing seriously.
AmeriCymru: Care to tell us a little about the ''Little Gam'' series?
Marly: My inspiration for the Little Gam series came from life with my partner Jeff, who is a seventh generation Gower farmer. While developing the stories, we created a ''Little Gam Model Village'', pictured first in Spring and later in Winter. Three films were made, in English and Welsh, complete with narratives, now showing on Youtube. Each book has a seasonal theme and are centred around the village, its unspoilt countryside,colourful characters and mischievous animals.
AmeriCymru: The books are set in the Gower peninsula, south Wales. Care to describe the area for the benefit of our American readers? Is ''Little Gam'' based on any particular Gower village?
Marly: ''Little Gam'' is based loosely on the very quaint village of Murton, in Bishopston, in an area of outstanding beauty. It is a typical Gower village with a post office, inn, bakery, farm, church on the Green, smithy, and school.There have been some changes.
AmeriCymru: You are also a poet. Can you tell us a little about your poetry?
Marly: Writing poetry was my first passion, and this occured earlier in my life. I wrote many poems and some were published.I took my inspiration from life.
AmeriCymru: Where can people go online to buy your books?
Marly: My books can be bought via my book website:- www.talesfromlittlegam.wordpress.com
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Marly Evans? When can we expect to see the next in the ''Little Gam'' series?
Marly: The next book is entitled '' Summertime'' and will be on sale in a few months.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Marly: In my books, I have tried to create a world, which illustrates Welsh village life with all its humour and daily goings-on. All the stories are true and in many ways, quite unique.
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh crime fiction writer and roving guitarist Andrew Peters:-
" I was born in beautiful Barry on June 21st many years ago. That''s the longest day of the year ("Bloody felt like it too" Mrs GE Peters) so I have always yearned for the sun. After looking for it in vain in the UK, I toured the world as a guitarist and finally settled in Spain in 2004. "
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AmeriCymru: Hi Andrew and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Can you tell us a little about your Welsh background and how you came to be living in the wilds of central Spain?
Andrew: I was born in beautiful Barry on June 21st many years ago. That''s the longest day of the year ("Bloody felt like it too" Mrs GE Peters) so I have always yearned for the sun. After looking for it in vain in the UK, I toured the world as a guitarist and finally settled in Spain in 2004.
My parents left Wales when I was 10 and insisted I accompany them, but I have returned often, since my mother''s family are landed gentry in the millionaire''s playground of Aberdare, and Mother now lives in upmarket Saundersfoot.
AmeriCymru: At what point did you take up writing crime fiction? Would you describe your work as crime fiction?
Andrew: I never wrote anything at all until June 2012, when I wrote a story about murdering my ex (every boy''s dream) in response to some banter with Facebook friends. Inside two months, I had forty short stories written, all brilliant, and probably dictated by aliens.
Most of my stuff is crime related, and definitely fiction, though I am not one for the meticulously researched police procedural, and there will be no ritual serial killers sending cryptic clues to drunk policemen with unsupportive bosses and troubled marriages.
Most of my stuff has a Welsh connection and my puerile humour, but I did write two "straight" crime novels (JOE SOAP & SUBTRACTION) from which all Welshness and every joke was carefully removed. People still claimed to laugh at them.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little about Otis King, Memphis'' Number One Welsh Blues detective?
Andrew: Well, The Blues Detective started out as just one short story in a collection, but has now expanded to twenty short stories, three Kindle novellas and two novels.
Otis K 
AmeriCymru: Care to introduce your character Retired Chief Superintendent Williams (the semi-legendary "Williams Of The Yard") for our readers?
Yes, I know...very far-fetched.
AmeriCymru: We learn from your bio that you share your place with two gorgeous local cats, more guitars than you can count and a fridge full of wine. Can you tell us a little about your guitar collection?
Andrew: Well.....one picture is worth 1000 words...
AmeriCymru: And,.... the all important question, are you a red or white wine drinker?
Andrew: Yes! But only to excess.
AmeriCymru: What are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?
Andrew: I don''t read much at all these days, much prefer the guitars and getting outside in the real world. I recommend Robert B Parker, Damon Runyon, Dylan Thomas & PG Wodehouse...all of whom are too dead to sue me for blatant plagiarism.
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Andrew Peters? What are you working on at the moment?
Andrew: I think my oeuvre is complete now, ten books seems a nice round number, and nobody''s offering me millions to churn out any more. Not written a word since August and have no ideas.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Andrew: Awfully nice of you to chat to me, everyone please buy all my books immediately and make me stinking rich, famous and more attractive to women. Failing that, never forget you''re Welsh and if you ever have any Blues-related cases that need solving, call Otis King 634-5789
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh author Cynan Jones about his contribution to the Seren New Tales From The Mabinogion Series - ''Bird,Blood,Snow''. In re-imagining this myth for a contemporary audience Cynan Jones has adopted for his hero the juvenile terror and scourge of a modern council estate. Read our review here
Author of Bird,Blood,Snow
Read our previous interview with Cynan Jones
Other Titles by Cynan Jones
Everything I Found on the Beach
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AmeriCymru: Hi Cynan and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Care to tell us a little about your latest book ''Bird,Blood,Snow''?
Cynan: Bird, Blood Snow is different. Bird, Blood, Snow is a bicycle kick. By that I mean the process of writing it was instinctive and spontaneous.
It''s a re-telling of an ancient Welsh myth. More accurately, an Arthurian myth. It''s part of the New Stories from the Mabinogion series.
Seren formally approached me with the commission in November last year (''11), then we had to wait for the funding process to run through before they confirmed in March.
The book was scheduled for October 2013, which would give me plenty of time. Then at the end of March, Seren asked whether I could hit the slot for this year. I said yes. Which effectively left me three months to deliver the book. That certainly fed into the eclectic approach I took.
AmeriCymru: The book is based on the Mabinogion Peredur tale. How would you describe ''Peredur'' for anyone who is not acquainted with it?
Cynan: I was the last author to be approached for the series and Peredur was the only tale left. There were good reasons why. It''s narratively disjointed, the imagery that thunders through most of the other tales is scant, and its allegories are uncertain of themselves.
It tells the tale of a youth bent on recognition in King Arthur''s court. He leaves the isolated home his mother has removed him to in the hope he won''t follow his father and brother''s into a violent life; then he tries to draw attention to himself through a series of violent acts in Arthur''s name. That''s it in its simplest terms.
AmeriCymru: How difficult was it to re-imagine for a modern audience?
Cynan: As I''ve said, it was a bicycle kick. That''s evidently a very difficult skill, but it''s something you do without thinking in some ways. You don''t think of the difficulty, or the physics of it. You just go for it. It''s in retrospect you think... wow. Ok...
If the time scale for delivery had not changed it''s likely I would have done something much more in line with my other writing. It was good I didn''t.
AmeriCymru: Peredur, as cast in ''Bird,Blood,Snow'', is not a sympathetic character and his ''biographer'' is dismissed for having attempted to romanticize him. Do you think he has any redeeming qualities?
Cynan: He is immune to mildness. That might be regarded a redeeming quality. And he is self aware. He is violent with great target, rather than disruptive. But he doesn''t want to be redeemed. He openly admits to living in his own little world. He''s not bothered about integrating himself into society.
It''s interesting to write a character who is essentially vicious but meanwhile make him compelling. You don''t have a sympathy for him but his honesty is magnetic.
AmeriCymru: You say in your Afterword that the Peredur story is an early unfinished version of the medieval ''questing'' tale. Care to elaborate?
Cynan: This is purely my reaction to it. The Mabinogion tales were originally oral stories. Given that, there would have been great opportunity to alter the tales, to introduce contemporary factors and influences.
I wonder to what degree the Peredur tale came about because of an emerging fashion for Arthurian myth. Storytellers would have been requested to relate certain types of story, so would need to react to new trends much in the way film makers nowadays do.
My feeling is the Peredur myth had not actually formalised into a set story at the time the tales came to be written down in around the 1300s / 1400s.
But once you write something down you essentially fossilise it. If that process happens wrongly, the fossil is imperfect, scattered. It has to be pieced back together by the reader. The fact there are several disparate versions of the Peredur tale supports the guess.
AmeriCymru: What is the ultimate goal of Peredur''s quest in ''Bird,Blood,Snow''?
Cynan: Acknowledgement.
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Cynan Jones? Any new books planned or in the works?
Cynan: There''s a new book in the mix. It''s ready to go to publishers.
Meanwhile, I''m looking forward to getting on to the next story. It''s gestating a the moment. Hopefully I''ll begin early next year. It won''t be as lunatic as this one.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Cynan: Thanks for the continued enthusiasm. Also, there''s a quest within the book. I''d like to invite readers to dig about in the story a bit, do some archaeology. I''ve buried several artefacts from other texts. Some more easy to uncover than others. But do get in touch if you think you''ve found something!
Interview by Ceri Shaw Ceri Shaw on Google+
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AmeriCymru: Hi Llwyd and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. All your novels have been written and published in the Welsh language. How have they been received by Welsh readers?
Llywd: Very well, in general, although some people don’t like them, of course. But that goes hand in hand with the kind of close-to-the-bone fiction I write. I’m a reasonable enough person to realise that my novels aren’t for everyone. And all my novels have an ‘Indecent Language’ warning on their back covers, to ward off the faint hearted!
AmeriCymru: Do you think that your novels have ''broken the mould'' in Welsh language writing? Care to tell us a little about the Eisteddfod controversy?
Llywd: I don’t think they broke the mould as such (novelists such as Caradog Pritchard, Goronwy Jones, Twm Miall, Owain Meredith and Gruff Meredith have all produced highly controversial novels before me), although they do seem to have opened the door for some like-minded authors – for example Dewi Prysor and Alun Cob – to produce equally exciting novels for a new generation of readers.
There really isn’t much to tell about the so-called ‘Eisteddfod controversy’ (my debut novel was deemed to go “beyond normal and safe publishing boundaries”) except that I’m glad I did not win the 2005 Daniel Owen Memorial Prize because it gave me the opportunity to a) take my pick of publishers, and b) refine and rewrite parts of the novel before it was published in March 2006. That said, it did help ensure a lot of publicity for the novel upon its release.
AmeriCymru: OK I have to ask...do you have plans to translate the remaining four Welsh language novels into English? If so, which one first and when might we expect see it made available?
Llywd: I have no plans to translate the others at present, although I’m certain that it will happen sometime in the near future. I translated Faith Hope & Love so that my wife (a Welsh learner who struggled to get to grips with the Welsh versions of my books) could see what I was up to. And after it was so well received, I decided to translate The Last Hit during a break between writing new fiction. I challenged myself to translate a chapter a week and released the results on my website as a work in progress.
Ame 
Llywd: Personally, I wouldn’t call it a ‘feelgood novel’, but I can’t stop people labelling it whatever they want because, post-publishing, the novel belongs as much to each individual reader as it does to me. I see The Last Hit as a homage to my favourite genre of fiction, namely hard-boiled thrillers as perfected by some of my literary heroes, for example Elmore Leonard and George Pelecanos. It also tips its hat in many ways to my one of my favourite films, True Romance .
AmeriCymru: Faith, Hope & Love sold more copies in the States than in Britain. What do you think is the books'' major appeal in the US?
Llywd: I have no idea why Faith, Hope & Love sold more copies in the US than in Britain, although I’d have to say that the novel’s themes are very universal, so that anyone – from Aberdeen to Atlanta and Aberdare to Adelaide - could relate to them. For example, almost everyone has lost someone close to them; everyone has been betrayed at some point; most people have experienced a broken heart; and everyone has a family with its own unique dynamic. And that is what Faith, Hope & Love is fundamentally about – family and loss, love and betrayal.
Ame 
Llywd : As it happens, the time I spent living in a place called Mission Beach in tropical North Queensland at the turn of the century had a huge impact on The Last Hit. It was here that I met the original, the real-life Tubbs, who became the fictional main character of the novel.
One evening during my first week at Mission Beach, sat around the communal campfire in the company of my new friends and co-workers at what was essentially a hippy commune stroke backpacker hostel, I heard whispers that ‘Tubbs’ was on his way. I had no idea who Tubbs was, so I turned to Trev, sat slumped and smoked-out next to me, and asked him to fill me in. In hushed tones, he explained that Tubbs was a ‘big bloody Bandit’, before passing out. Soon, ‘Tubbs’ was amongst us. A giant. A beast of a man. Six foot six. Twenty stone. Mean looking. Sullen. Serious business. The kind of bloke who could grow a beard from scratch in less than ten minutes. He was there on behalf of the Cairns faction of the Bandidos biker gang in his capacity as a merchant of magic potions and special herbs. Just the man I wanted to see as it happens…
I was introduced to this behemoth, who went through the motions as he weighed up my order:
“Where you from?” He asked.
“Wales.” I replied, which made him turn his head to look at me, his eyes twinkling in the fire’s glow.
“ Where in Wales?”
“Cardiff.”
On hearing this his frown turned into a panoramic smile, before he uttered the words that cemented the foundations of our friendship for the coming months.
“Bloody hell, mate,” he bellowed. “I’m from Dinas Powys!”
The Welsh-connection thrust me directly to the top of the hippy food chain and I soon learnt that Tubbs was born in Llandough in the mid-sixties, although his family moved to Australia before he was one.
Our relationship was a very simple one, thanks mainly to his calling and my girlfriend’s address. Each week, Tubbs would leave the Bandidos HQ in Cairns with a boot-load of ‘product’ and drive to Brisbane and back, calling at several prearranged locations along the way. Every week, he’d call to see his chums at Mission Beach before I’d accompany him in his light grey VW Polo with tinted windows (his secret weapon in his never-ending efforts to avoid incarceration) to Cairns where he’d drop me off at said girlfriend’s house. Along the way he’d regale me with seemingly tall tales about his life as an outlaw, and although it was hard to tell what was true and what was fictional, I lapped it up and stored it all away.
We continued in this fashion for approximately three months, until the time came for me to leave. On my last night in Cairns, Tubbs took a few friends and I to the Bandidos HQ in an undisclosed address in the city, where we were met at the entrance by two guards armed with Kalashnikovs. Of course, bikers in general, and the Bandidos in particular, have a nasty reputation, but what I experienced that night was possibly the best night-club on earth. The place was full of characters, mostly hairy, heavily-tattooed, leather-clad grease merchants with amazing stories to tell; while the barmaids were completely naked. But by that time, nothing in Tubbs’s world could surprise me.
A few years later, now an established author with an award-winning tome to my name, I decided to revisit my time in north Queensland and the relationship I had with ‘Tubbs’. And although I’m not for one second suggesting that the original Tubbs was an assassin (like the fictional one in The Last Hit ), he was a very dodgy individual who supplied the kindling, the firewood, the matches and the petrol that exploded in my mind to create this epic character and the world he exists within.
AmeriCymru: You have been described in the past as "....Wales’s anwser to Irvine Welsh". How do you feel about this comparison?
Llywd: It’s great to be compared to one of your heroes, of course; although I’d exchange it in an instant if my novels would be read by just 10% of Mr Welsh’s readership!
AmeriCymru: Other writers, notably Niall Griffiths who cited ''So Long Hector Bebb'', have acknowledged a book or author who influenced their early reading and perhaps subsequent writing style. Is there an author and/or book that especially influenced you?
Llywd: Two authors in particular have had a huge influence on me and my writing, namely Lloyd Robson and John Williams. Both Robson’s Cardiff Cut and Williams’ Cardiff Trilogy inspired me to write Cardiff-based crime stories. Their books put the city at centre stage, and this is something I have tried to do in my novels as well. As a Cardiff boy, I am proud of the city – both its triumphs and follies – and feel geographically and spiritually entwined with her streets and people. I realise that sounds extremely wanky, but it’s also quite true!
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Llwyd Owen? Are you working on anything at the moment?
Llywd: I am currently working on a new novel about an unhappy and bitter author called… ‘Llwyd Owen’.
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'The Last Hit' by Llwyd Owen - A Review
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"Not everyone deserves a happy ending."
Try as I might to avoid writing ''fanzine'' style reviews for this site it is difficult to avoid playing the role of ''cheerleader'' where Llwyd Owen is concerned. This is the second of his six Welsh language novels published by Y Lolfa to be translated into English and one can only hope that the other four will follow shortly. Whilst ''Faith, Hope & Love ( published in English translation in 2010 ) displayed all the hallmarks of a classic tragedy this book is much lighter in tone. ''The last Hit'' has been described as a feelgood novel and certainly there are happy endings though not everyone comes out of it well. In some ways it resembles a Welsh Western. Our hero Al Tubbs gets the girl and revenge against his evil stepfather in a final showdown in which he exacts ''moral'' retribution for the years of abuse and deceit he has suffered at his hands.
''The Last Hit'' boasts a full complement of sleazeball characters who would be at home in the pages of any Irvine Welch novel but it is not without humour. In fact it is intensely and darkly comedic throughout. Witness this brief exchange before Tubbs and his friend Boda visit Vexl, a Barry island pimp, to punish him for scarring his girlfriend.
"Be careful," Petra pleaded like the lead actress in a hammed-up Hollywood melodrama. "He''s off his ''ead and he doesn''t care about anythen."
"I f*****g hate nihilists," retorted Boda, while Tubbs turned to face her and looked down into her deep blue eyes.Earlier in the same chapter, shortly after meeting Petra for the first time we find Tubbs speculating that she might have been named after the famous Jordanian city and archaeological site. She responds:-
"Oh, Ok. I understand now," ......"But I dont think my pares eva went to Jordan. The people of the Gurnos dont get much furtha than Asda, down Murtha. Ponty at a a stretch. And anyway, I was named after the Blue Peter dog."
The many humorous touches enrich a narrative which moves at a breathless pace as it builds towards its grisly climax. A real page turner, this is a book that you''ll probably finish in a day and be left wanting more. An unreserved five star recommendation.
Llwyd Owen on Wikipedia :- "Llwyd Owen is an award-winning Welsh-language fiction author born in Cardiff in 1977. He lives in Cardiff with his wife and daughters and works as a translator when not writing fiction. As well as publishing 6 acclaimed Welsh language novels and one English language adaptation, he is also a published poet and photographer who presented his own television documentary on S4C on the Cardiff art scene in 2008.
His first novel, Ffawd, Cywilydd a Chelwyddau (Fate, Shame & Lies) was published by Y Lolfa in March 2006, and his second, Ffydd Gobaith Cariad (Faith Hope Love) in November 2006. Ffawd, Cywilydd a Chelwyddau was described by the judges of the National Eisteddfod of Wales'' Daniel Owen Memorial Prize as "close to genius" but was not awarded the prize. Critics have said that it goes "beyond normal and safe publishing boundaries" because of its disturbing content, swearing and slang, which is uncommon in Welsh-language literature. Publication of the book was delayed for a year due to its controversial nature." .... Read More
"Although Wales is where I was born, I feel such an affinity with Walthamstow, London, where I grew up, that the town features in most of my books."
AmeriCymru spoke to Jacqueline about her previous work and her current novel ''The Colours Of Corruption'' and about her future writing plans.
Buy The Colours Of Corrution here
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AmeriCymru: Hi Jacqueline and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. You currently live just outside London and were raised in Walthamstow. What is your original connection with Wales?
Jacqueline: I was born in Wales on a wild and snowy night in February. My father was an army instructor in Anglesey and he and my mother set up home on a pig-farm in Ty-Croes. I went back in my mid-forties to try and trace my roots and there they were: a hearth stone in the middle of a field! I still have relatives in Llantwit Major, Mumbles and Cowbridge.
AmeriCymru When did you first become interested in writing?
Jacqueline: I knew from a very early age that happiness lay in books. I was one of those very shy little girls, tucked behind my mother’s skirts or sat in a corner, sucking my fingers, watching and listening to the grownups’ chatter and storing it up for the future. Or I’d be reading ...
I could read at two-and-a-half and devoured stories of every sort. When I was ten or eleven I discovered the marvellous Louisa May Alcott and her book ‘Little Women,’ and identified immediately with Josephine March. I knew then I was going to be a writer. In fact, when the Beatles wrote ‘Paperback Writer,’ I thought they’d written it just for me! One of these days ...
But it wasn’t until my own children had grown up and left home, and my mother had died without fulfilling her own writing ambitions, that I finally decided that it was now or never. I joined a Creative Writing class and discovered that I could write short stories and articles and get paid for them. I even won competitions. The tutor said – ‘I don’t know what you’re doing now but give it up and write!’ Eventually, I did just that. I took early retirement from teaching and haven’t looked back.
AmeriCymru : We learn from your biography that most of your novels start as short stories and develop from there? Do you also write short stories and if so are any available in anthologies?
Jacqueline: I don’t write short stories now. I took a tip from Beryl Bainbridge who said she didn’t waste ideas on short stories when she could write novels. I need scenes where I can ‘act out’ the plot (I wanted to be an actress at one time), wallow in the words and show the development of the characters. By the end of any book the characters must have changed in some way and a short story doesn’t give them enough scope, in my view. I do have a story in Luminous and Forlorn , an anthology published by Honno Modern Fiction and in ‘ The Smell of the Day ’ (New Essex Writing) and in various small press publications that were around at the time (some 20 years ago, when I started my writing career.)
AmeriCymru : Your latest novel Colours of Corruption is set in Victorian Walthamstow. This was your first foray into the field of crime fiction. How did you enjoy the experience? Can you tell us a little about the book?
Jacqueline: A few years ago, I won a place on a writing scheme run by the Writers’ Centre, Norwich, called ‘Escalator’. The ten winners were awarded an Arts Council (East) grant which enabled us to have ‘writing time’, to do research and to have mentoring in a new fictional genre. My then agent had advised me to ‘go darker’ on the strength of two earlier novels (one still unpublished) so I decided on crime fiction. I have to say I didn’t read ‘crime’, though I loved watching it on TV with my husband, who is addicted to the genre. I didn’t want to write yet another formulaic book about ‘police procedurals’ or private detectives or forensics. There are other writers who do it better than I could, who have more experience of modern policing methods. I wanted to write from the point of view of ordinary law-abiding people caught up in criminal activities through no fault of their own. I love History and I love Art and I love Walthamstow so it was easy to combine the three in a story about a Victorian police artist, Archie Price.
This is Archie ( see gallery below ) – a photo by Julia Margaret Cameron. She called him ‘Iago’ but clearly he is Archie Price, an artist from the Valleys. If he hadn’t painted he’d have gone down the mines or followed his father into the butchery business.
Archie is quite taken with the looks of Mary Quinn. See above another photo taken by Julia Margaret Cameron:
Mary is a poor Irish cleaning woman, widowed and childless. After drawing, from her description, a man she claims to have seen near the scene of a vicious murder, Archie invites her to sit for him, thinking her an ideal subject for his new ‘realistic’ style. Reluctantly she complies but, in selling the finished portrait to a rich and portly ‘entrepreneur’ , Archie manages to involve them both in a web of intrigue, involving murderers, thieves and sexual predators and Mary is forced to flee for her life.
This is how ( see bove gallery ) I imagine Lizzie Kington, Archie’s first love, who chose instead, to marry Archie’s friend John, a tile-maker and the steadier of the two. Since receiving a head injury, however, from a couple of thieves, three years before in Epping Forest, John is now addicted to laudanum and making life miserable for his wife and their toddler, Clara. In trying to help the Kington family Archie inadvertently exposes them, too, to the gravest of dangers.
I certainly enjoyed writing the book, doing the research, exploring the characters, their secrets and failings, and plotting the story, deciding who was to live and who die, and bringing it all to a believable conclusion, helping Archie to solve the crime, in fact, with a little help from his friends.
AmeriCymru : Your first novel, Lottie was described by the New Welsh Review as being - "...something of an oddity, and all the better for it." How would you describe the book?
Jacqueline: They say a novelist’s first book tends to be autobiographical and ‘Lottie’ is just that. The characters are mostly people I knew at school and the story is based on a pact we made (and never kept) about meeting up in London every eleven years when the day, month and year were represented by the same numbers – 6/6/66, 7/7/77 and so on up to 9/9/99 and the new millennium. In the story the pact turns out to be cursed, and Fate (or the supernatural ‘Lottie’ named for the allotment where the blood-pact was made) makes serious trouble for any girl who fails to keep the appointment.
I tried to imagine the turns a woman’s life might take, given her personality, her ambitions, her loves, loyalties and superstitious fears. This story turned out to be a cross between a crime story and a fantasy, but ’incredibly prophetic’ according to one friend who recognised herself as one of the characters. The others aren’t speaking to me!
Yes, it is an oddity, not following the accepted format of any known genre. As such, booksellers found it hard to slot onto any particular shelf. And, though Beryl Bainbridge, Bernice Rubens and Ruth Rendall all liked its quirky character, had Honno not spotted its potential I doubt it would have been published.
AmeriCymru: Your 1997 novel Someone To Watch Over Me was a great success and led to a publishing deal with Piatkus for two sequels. Care to tell us more about this experience?
Jacqueline: I was thrilled to bits when Darley Anderson, the agent, agreed to represent me, on the strength of ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ and got me a two deal with Piatkus. I couldn’t believe my luck having , a few months earlier, had Honno publish ‘Lottie.’ ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ was the first (of three) books about the psychic Potter family and their experiences during and just after the Second World War in Walthamstow and in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where I did my degree and met my husband. I loved doing the research for these novels, learning such a lot about clairvoyants, psychic healers and mediums, and imagining the joys and pitfalls of being able to see ghosts and read people’s minds. In the last book about the Potter family, ‘A Lazy Eye’, I tried to put myself into the shoes of a little girl ‘with a third eye’ who finds it all so puzzling and upsetting.
Imagine my disappointment when the book-covers (in which I had very little say) reflected none of the trials and tribulations of being clairvoyant but showed sweet and pretty Mills and Boon girlie-girls. I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously at all. These covers were such a mistake, so misleading. People wanting Mills and Boon love stories would have been disappointed and people interested in psychic gifts would have passed the books over, thinking they were romances. Little wonder, then, that I went as dark as I could for the next book, so there could be no mistake about its subject.
AmeriCymru : Your 2004 novel Skin Deep is certainly a science fiction thriller with a difference. How did you become interested in cryogenics?
Jacqueline: There was a lot of interest at this time about freezing body parts for transplantation into bodies that needed, say, a new heart, a new lung, a kidney or even a face. I actually met a woman and her husband who have elected to be cryogenically frozen when they die in the hope of being resurrected when a cure is found for whatever killed them. It set me thinking about brain transplants. Who might benefit from them and who would have had the opportunity for such grisly experiments? Questions like these took me back to the war and the Nazi labour camps.
AmeriCymru : What are you working on at the moment? Can we expect another novel soon?
Jacqueline: I am writing a sequel to ‘The Colours of Corruption’ in which Archie confronts the combined problems of Victorian pornography and the miseries of being stalked. I also spotlight the question of euthanasia.
I do have, ‘in the bottom drawer’, so to speak, a contemporary crime story about a woman teaching art in prisons and her gifted student who has his own agenda. This is a finished novel but needs some work to make it publishable.
AmeriCymru : Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Jacqueline: I would urge any reader of AmeriCymru who is contemplating a writing career to get on with it. Don’t leave it, as I did, until you have more time. Make time. Put down your knitting and rug-making and write. Stop playing games on your Ipad. Write. Publishers like to invest in young authors. Experiment with the different genres early on, choose one and concentrate on that. Life is shorter than you think.
An Interview With Welsh Writer Lloyd Jones - Electric Sheep And A Small Mouse
By Ceri Shaw, 2013-08-25
Lloyd: The book begins and ends with Mog Morgan washing up at the sink on the morning after his fiftieth birthday. We go on a journey of discovery along the Welsh borders as Mog traces the history of his marriage to Meg. Using devices such as questionnaires, e-mails and postcards, Mog reveals a lot about his attitude towards women and love. Brought up in a children''s home, he is inept and frightened of life; he lives in a daydream and has a comical relationship with his psychiatrist. The book is a bittersweet and tragi-comic examination of the self in relation to one''s homeland and other people. I hope it''s rather sad and quite funny.
AmeriCymru: Y Daith is dedicated to Pol Wong and Carrie Harper from Wrexham "who were responsible for bringing to the public''s attention the Welsh Assembly and local authorities'' underhanded plans for destroying the beauty and culture of north Wales through unlimited housing development and the encouragement of immigration," Can you tell us more about the dedication and the campaign against the housing development?
Lloyd: This has been such a bad experience, and an illustration of the widening gap between the people and politicians of Britain. No-one was happier than I when the Welsh Assembly came into existence, but then a group of campaigners led by Pol and Carrie discovered that our politicians and councillors had been working covertly with English agencies to establish townships in North Wales which would be colonised by immigrants. I''ve nothing against immigrants, but desecrating Wales''s legendary beauty and killing off what''s left of the native culture is surely too high a price to pay. What really rankled was the sneaky way our ''leaders'' went about it. For instance, a bunch of venture capitalists want to build a huge greenfield estate by a lovely little Welsh village, Bodelwyddan , famous for its landmark marble church, so the Welsh Assembly went behind our backs and downgraded the land so that the plan could go ahead. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
AmeriCymru: You are also contributing a volume to the Seren New Tales From the Mabinogion series. Which of the tales are you ''modernizing'' and when can we expect to see it in print?
Lloyd: I''m writing a modern version of the third branch, about Manawydan, a nice bloke who has to put up with a lot of shit. It''s an honour to be involved, since the stories so far have been told by the cream of Welsh writing, and I''ve enjoyed their renditions. It''s all downhill from here folks! I think my version comes out next Spring.
AmeriCymru: Many people enjoyed your first collection of English language short stories My First Colouring Book . Do you have any plans for further collections?
Lloyd: That little book didn''t register on the literary richter scale in Wales. Not a blip. A very small mouse stifling a yawn in a dark hole three miles below Llanddewi Brefi would have had a greater effect on Welsh literature than My First Colouring Book. One the other hand, the Wales-inspired Extreme Sheep LED Art on YouTube has enjoyed well over 15 million hits, so the obvious answer is to write exclusively about sheep running around the Welsh hills, fetchingly adorned with fairy lights. I did consider writing a tract comparing the decline of the Welsh Mountain Sheep (rather gorgeous) in direct relation to the native Welsh (also rather gorgeous) but I was afraid I might attract the attention of the authorities again. Last time I got away with a fine and a warning, but I wouldn''t get away with it again.
AmeriCymru: For three years now you have generously agreed to be the judge for the West Coast Eisteddfod Short Story Competition. Do you have any advice for this years competitiors?
Lloyd: Be yourself, and just enjoy it.
AmeriCymru: What are you reading at the moment. Any recommendations?
Lloyd: I''m reading In the Shadow of the Pulpit by Professor M Wynn Thomas, a very readable book about the influence of the Nonconformist religion on Welsh literature. Together with a family history I did recently, it tells me exactly where I came from, and why I write the way I do. It''s very well written by a very nice man who knows his subject inside out. I''ve been wading my way through the Penguin Modern Classics recently and two American authors have made a distinct impression: I loved the rampant use of language in Don DeLillo''s Americana, and I was mesmerised by Walter Abish''s writing style in How German Is It.
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Lloyd Jones?
Lloyd: Over the years I''ve produced a couple of poetry chapbooks, featuring squibs and short light poems. I''ve taken it up a notch or two and I''m trying to write a decent book of poetry.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Lloyd: Hia!
Americymru spoke to Welsh writer Richard Rhys Jones about his published work and future plans. Richard is an ex soldier from Colwyn Bay, currently residing in Germany, who has published two horror fiction novels and is currently working on a short story anthology.
Buy Division Of The Damned here
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AmeriCymru: Hi Richard and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru. Can you tell us a little about your Welsh background?
Richard: Hi Ceri, well though I live in Germany now, I originally hail from Old Colwyn, Colwyn Bay, on the north Wales coast. My family''s roots sit deep around the region, with my mother''s side coming from Colwyn Bay/Mochdre, and my father''s from Deganwy/Conwy. I lived on a council estate until I was sixteen, then took the Queen''s Shilling and joined the army. I still go back once, twice a year to visit my family, who are all still there. I do miss my home town, and suffer terribly from homesickness, which is ridiculous in a way as I''m forty six and I left north Wales in 1983!
It''s a strange thing though, homesickness. When I did actually leave home, I never gave Colwyn a thought. Yes, I visited now and then but I was young, eager to see other places, meet other people and I didn''t have that empty locker in my heart where you put your memories. Life was exciting, and home was a place taken for granted and visited as a duty.
This all changed with the birth of my children. Danny and Chelsea were born in 1997, and in one swift lesson, I realised what I had given up on when I left Wales. My kids would never go to the schools I went to, they wouldn''t speak English as a first language, nor would they learn Welsh, (to my eternal shame, I am not a Welsh speaker. I''m so glad Welsh is now being promoted as an important part of the Welsh identity). To all intents and purposes, my children would be tourists to my home town and that does twinge a little.
I wrote a piece about my feelings on the matter in one of my more melancholy moments and put it on the net, with a picture of my hometown. The picture is taken from Penmaen Head, an outcrock of rock that overlooks the bay. If you''re interested, you can find it here:
The Boy From The Bay
Don''t get me wrong though, I don''t spend my days morosely pondering on what might have been if I''d stayed in Wales. I have a good circle of friends here, a steady job and my own little family. It''s just that I don''t feel German, I feel like a visitor who will one day still go home to Wales. Whether that will ever happen, I don''t know though.
AmeriCymru: You are currently living in Germany. How did that come about?
Richard: Simply put, I joined the army, was posted to Germany with my regiment, 1st the Queen''s Dragoon Guards, "The Welsh Cavalry", the finest regiment known to man. Once here I met a nice girl, and in January 1992, in a fit of recklessness, I stayed here when my unit left for Britain. I didn''t have a trade, couldn''t "speaka da lingo" and had no contacts to help me. However, in our youth we''re indestructible and I just knew I''d be alright... I know that sounds daft, but I did. Anyway, if things had gone badly, I could always have joined back up again; there was no cloud over my departure, so it wasn''t that much of a gamble.
As it turned out, things went alright. 1999 was the worst year and in January 2000 I asked Tad if there were any jobs going around The Bay area. However, an opening came up in the steelworks that dominate this region, (Salzgitter) and I''ve been there ever since.
AmeriCymru: When did you decide that you wanted to be a writer and what attracted you to horror?
Richard: Writing was something I really came to a bit late in life. I liked writing in school, but it was the lazy schoolboy type of interest; the sort that blasts off like a firework with a burst of ideas but then immediately turns to ashes when the class finished.
Although I read a bit in the military, I didn''t even think about actually writing until I left. I found a job with a crew of ex soldiers working as armed guards for the British army, and suddenly, with lots of time on my hands, I started to think about writing.
I wrote song lyrics, joke ditties for the guys, and I even tried my hand at short stories. However, the idea of writing a full length novel would only ever be a distant castle on the horizon with the writing tools I had at hand, an army typewriter, built around 1954, and the modest library in the camp for research.
This all changed when I was given my first computer, (well, I actually bought it for €50). Suddenly I had no reason not to write a book, I had no excuses; well, apart from the fact that I couldn''t type properly and didn''t have a cohesive plot for a story. However, that didn''t bother me, and with the internet at my fingertips, Microsoft Word guiding my spelling and punctuation, and the fire of inspiration in my blood, I set myself to the task.
I can still remember sitting at my desk for that first time, (which was actually a wooden board on two chairs), and simply going for it, writing the prologue in a flurry of one fingered, type-key hunting, vigour. In that initial burst, those first few months, I was a man possessed and I''ve yet to recapture that same zeal, that same passion as I experienced when I first started writing, "The Division of the Damned".
The first draft was 160,000 words , a massive rambling tome of a book that had everything I''d been interested in since my days as a soldier. The Third Reich, Teutonic Knights, Sumerian mythology, Biblical folklore, werewolves, the Eastern Front and last but not least, vampires. I was forced to cut it down radically, (I think Word has the word count now to be around 117,000) but happily I still managed to keep all the elements in that I wanted, AND hold the story tight.
Why horror or fantasy? Because basically I already had my ideas for the story, concepts that had gathered dust at the back of my consciousness for years, and I just needed a kick start to fire them all into life.
AmeriCymru: Your first novel Division Of The Damned feature s Nazi Vampires in WWII. How did you come by this idea?
The Third Reich is a fascinating story in itself, but a visit to any one of the concentration camps that are dotted around Europe puts it all in a different perspective. The true horror of Nazi Germany hit me when, as a young soldier, I visited Dachau concentration camp, just north of Munich.
It made me wonde r how the Holocaust could have happened, how a land could go from being one of the most cultured societies in the world to a country of uniform wearing automatons; slaves to the Party and executioners of all the inhuman acts it ordered done. I knew it couldn''t be down to the German people being simply evil, something else must have happened. So I started to read about it and the awareness of its fascination gestated in the back of my mind.
Years later now, and I''m working with a colleague who I always thoug ht was Bavarian. However, the more we spoke, the more I realised his accent wasn''t from the south, and so I asked him where he came from.
He told me that his family came to Germany from Romania when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989.
"So you''re Romanian?" I as ked him.
"No, German." he replied, and then went on to explain that the Transylvanian region of Romania is home to a very large population of Germans. The Siebenbürger Sachsen, (Transylvanian Saxons) used to live in Romania among the Romanian population, and yet apart. They went to separate schools, drank in separate pubs, worked in German firms and generally lived as Germans, in a foreign land.
It was like flicking a switch! A German colony living in the traditional land of the Vampire, a more perfect marrying up of elements I could not have wished for and that night, after shift, (I was working the 1400 - 2200 hrs shift) I set about putting down the plot for my book.
AmeriCymru: Your most recent novel The House In Wales features satanic rituals at a remote locat ion in north Wales. Shades of Dennis Wheatley? Care to tell us more?
My publishers at Taylor Street asked a couple of authors if they were willing to write about a haunted house. The reason being the series "American Horror Story" and the film "The Woman in Black" had done so well in the States, and they wanted to see if they could capitalise on that. " American Horror Story", with its bizarre characters and perverse undertones, and "The Woman in Black" with its ghostly ambience and sinister isolation, had turned the haunted house genre around in the public mind, putting it firmly back on the map.
When they ask ed if I was interested in writing a haunted house story I was plodding along with the sequel for "Division". The plot was weak and missing something, the characters seemed tired and it was turning into a chore, so they couldn''t have approached me at a better time.
I knew I simply couldn''t copy those two films; it had to be similar and yet far enough removed so as not to be too familiar. So, cunningly, (well not really, as we''d just returned from a family holiday in my home town), I decided to set in North Wales during World War Two.
The villain of the story is the house keeper, Fiona Trimble, a willowy, seductively attractive lady in her early forties. My problem was how could this slender, graceful woman force her will on the hero of the story, a rough seventeen year old lad from bombed out Liverpool? Surely not by womanly guile alone?
I liked the idea of someone physically frail using a large animal as their muscle, and what better companion than a big dog? However, I wanted to avoid the clichéd Rottweilers, Dobermans or German Sheepdogs, so I decided on an Irish wolfhound.
Irish wolfhounds, as lovable and trustworthy as they are, have always intimidated me by their size. A friend of mine has one, and though he''s friendly, and not particularly large for his breed, he always manages to elicit a tiny shudder of anxiety when he barks, (which he does to every guest before licking them to death). I decided they''d be perfect for the story and gave Trimble one to do her bidding
As I''m no expert on Satanism, though I obviously read quite a lot about it, I decided to concentrate on the characters and let them carry the story rather than let the props take the centre stage. "Division" was packed full of facts woven into a story that moved from Transylvania, Germany, London, Dachau, The Ukraine etc etc.
"House" is set in a village in north Wales, and doesn''t move from there, so I had to focus on the dramatis personae and their emotions a lot more than I did in "Division".
I''m afraid I didn''t think of Mr. Wheatley at all, which in hindsight is unbelievable to me now!
AmeriCymru: What are you reading at the moment? Any recommendations?
Richard: Truth be told, I could sit here and type five thousand titles as recommendations. If a book can take me somewhere else, then I''m sold and with my imagination, it doesn''t take much for a story to whisk me away.
So I''ll go for the last four books I''ve read.
The Martian by Andy Weir. I''ve just finished it. An excellent story, full of facts that slot in nicely to the story. I loved this book and ate it up.
Sliding on Snow Stone by Andy Szpuk. Andy''s father survived the man made famine in the Ukraine in the 30''s, the German invasion during the 40''s and the communists after the war, so he put it down in story form. Brilliantly researched, I loved it.
The Outlaw King by Craig Saunders. First book in a series of three by a very talented Indie author. Craig can write, I haven''t read one bad story by Mr. Saunders yet, and I''ve read most of his work.
Run by Blake Crouch. I picked this up on a freebie and what a find it was!! A riveting story that doesn''t stop right up to the end.
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Richard Rhys Jones? Are you working on anything at the moment?
Richard: I have an anthology of short stories coming out with Paul Rudd, a friend of mine and author of the very well received book, "SHARC".
Called, "The Chronicles of Supernatural Warfare", the idea behind the collection is as the title says, to chronicle the supernatural in warfare.
For example, the first story is, "The Vampires of Sparta". Imagine the 300 Spartans who held the pass at Thermopylae were in fact vampire warriors, fighting against Xerxes, the greatest vampire hunter of all time?
The second story is, "The Wooden Wolf of Troy" and, if you''re of the mind, you can read the first three, "chapters", (it''s more of a novelette actually) here: The Wooden Wolf Of Troy
The stories progress through ancient Greece, to Rome, then World War One and Two and then finally the future, with nine tales in all. They''re much more like "Division" than "House" and if any of your readers are of the mind to download it, I''d bear that aspect in mind.
I''m at the research phase right now for a book set in Las Vegas. The background is the fire at the MGM Grand Hotel. If you can imagine, "The Shining" meets, "The Towering Inferno"? Something along those lines.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Richard: In 1986, as a young soldier, I visited Fort Carson in Colorado and fell in love with the area. America is a magical place, with friendly, warm people who are so much more open than we are in Europe. When I found out about AmeriCymru on Facebook, I was electrified.
The Welsh/American link is something special, and I think sites like this, that promote that relationship, should be applauded and supported to the best of our collective abilities.
I''ll stop blathering on now, but I''d just like to thank you, the reader, for reading to the end, and to Ceri for being so nice and setting this interview up.
Hwyl.
Alina: the White Lady of Oystermouth - An Interview With Author Ann Marie Thomas
By Ceri Shaw, 2013-07-06
Buy ''Alina: The White Lady of Oystermouth'' here
From the interview:- " The ruins of Swansea Castle are right in the middle of the city, and I was looking up at them one day when I wondered what the castle was like when it was intact and in use. I went home and Googled it, as you do, and got fascinated by Gower medieval history."
"Alina''s ghost has been seen in the castle, and is called the white lady of Oystermouth."
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Ann: This is a local history book about Alina de Breos, heir to the Lordship of Gower in South Wales in the 14 th century. Her father was always desperate for money and tried to sell Gower to three different lords at once! He eventually sold it to King Edward II''s favourite, Hugh le Despenser the Younger. Alina''s husband John de Mowbray took control of Swansea Castle in an attempt to save her inheritance, and Hugh persuaded the king to intervene. The other barons, who were unhappy with the king''s behaviour and Despenser''s power over him, supported Alina and John. It led to civil war and eventually toppled Edward II from the throne. But Alina and John paid a heavy price: John was executed and Alina ended up in the Tower of London! There is a happy ending, and Alina spent the rest of her life at Oystermouth Castle in Gower. She built the chapel on the castle, which can still be seen today. Alina''s ghost has been seen in the castle, and is called the white lady of Oystermouth.
AmeriCymru: What inspired you to tell Alina''s story?
Ann: The ruins of Swansea Castle are right in the middle of the city, and I was looking up at them one day when I wondered what the castle was like when it was intact and in use. I went home and Googled it, as you do, and got fascinated by Gower medieval history. Swansea is famous for its industry in the 18 th and 19 th centuries, but before then I always thought it was a quiet backwater. It turns out that the medieval Lords of Gower were involved in every major event of British history for over 300 years after William the Conqueror. History in school was boring, but this was real people''s lives and it caught my imagination.
When I first wrote the history, I didn''t know what to do with it. Then I had a stroke which left me disabled. Preparing the book for publication and learning how to promote it, gave me a vital interest in the days that followed, and saved me from falling into depression at all the things I could no longer do.
AmeriCymru: How easy ( or difficult ) is it to get a book on medieval Welsh history published today?
Ann: A local publisher sat me down and explained why no publisher would touch it – because it is too small a market to justify the publishing costs. I wanted to tell the story, so I self-published. Because the market is principally locals and tourists, I needed a print book for people to buy on impulse, although there is an ebook as well. My judgement was right, as I have sold very few ebooks.
When I was medically retired by my employer I used money from my pension to pay for the printing, and expected not to recover my costs. To my surprise and delight I sold over 250 copies in the first summer season and not only covered my costs, but made enough profit to finance another print run and put money towards the second book!
AmeriCymru: Care to tell us a little about the illustrations in the book?
Ann: I felt the book needed illustrations but couldn''t afford to pay for them. My husband emailed the art department of the local university, and they ran a competition, with the winner providing the illustrations as part of her course work. She also sold prints at the book launch which raised money towards her studies. Carrie Francis is very talented, and has now graduated and set up as a freelance portrait artist and illustrator.
AmeriCymru: You are working on a second book at the moment. Can you tell us more?
Ann: Delving further into my research I found another story, set a century before Alina . This too turned out to have national significance. William de Breos was one of King John''s closest confidants, and he gave him the Lordship of Gower, and many other lands and titles. At the height of his favour he was one of the richest men in the kingdom. But when William''s wife blurted out John''s greatest secret, John turned on them brutally and hounded them to death. When the barons, already unhappy with John as king, saw how he treated William and his family, it was the final straw that led to Magna Carta. William''s sons and grandson turned to the famous Welsh leader Llewelyn the Great for help to regain their lands. So this story involves important events in Wales as well as Britain. The book is called Broken Reed: The Lords of Gower and King John, and is finished and formatted. I am just waiting for the illustrations, once again done by Carrie Francis, and hope to publish very soon.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?
Ann: These books bring to light little-known stories from Gower history. They are told in an easy to read, story-telling style, but are academically sound, with bibliography and endnotes, so can be enjoyed by everyone, including older children.
Alina is available as a Kindle ebook from Amazon US
Kindle ebook and in print from Amazon UK (with international delivery)
and all other ebook formats from Smashwords
The book has had 5* reviews at Ask David and Readers Favourite
My blog, which talks about all my writing and things to think about, is found at
Ann Marie Thomas, Author: Thinking Out Loud
Drop by, or follow me on Twitter @AnnMThomas80 and watch for the publication announcement for Broken Reed.
" I am interested in the demonstration of human resilience in the face of failure and in the saving grace of humour "
AmeriCymru spoke to Welsh author Bel Roberts about her writing, travels and future plans. Works by Bel Roberts:-
BOOKS BY BEL ROBERTS...
Bel: Whilst I was an undergraduate at Aberystwyth University (1959-62), I wrote comedy sketches and acted in them during annual Rag Week Charity Events. Later, as a qualified teacher, I taught English up to GCSE ‘A’ Level standard to pupils in 7 secondary schools in England and Wales over 30 continuous years and also achieved the position of Deputy Head Teacher in 2. In some of these schools, I contributed articles for school magazines and wrote pantomimes and sketches for end-of-term concerts, but it was only when, following spinal surgery, I retired prematurely from teaching in 1993, that I had time to write fiction with the intention of getting it published. My first short story, A Touch of Gloss, won second prize in a national open short story competition judged by novelist, Beryl Bainbridge and was broadcast twice on BBC Radio 4 during Armistice Week in 1995. Between 1995 and 2004, I won 5 national open short story competitions and further short stories were included by Honno Women’s Press in 3 of their anthologies, Catwomen From Hell (2000), Written in Blood (2004) and All Shall Be Well (2012). I have had several poems published in various anthologies. In 2000 I was awarded an MA in Creative Writing by Bath Spa University.
AmeriCymru: Can you tell us a little about your first novel ''A Discerning Woman’s Guide To Manhunting''.
Bel: T.V. sit-com series scriptwriter of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrrin and prolific novelist, David Nobbs, was my tutor on a Creative Writing Course in Ty Newydd in Gwynedd. He appreciated my robust sense of humour and encouraged me to write A Discerning Woman’s Guide to Manhunting, which took me 30 years as a serial manhunter to research and 3 years to write! It traces the desperate attempts of Geri, a retired sixty-year-old ex-teacher, to find an intellectually stimulating and sexually active partner. She is DISCERNING, so she’s looking for Mr Right – Mr Will Do just won’t do! The book is about starting again, re-defining self in middle-age and facing real limitations and challenges with a spirit of optimism. Geri not only becomes a mature student, studying alongside teenage students, but also acts as part-carer for her octogenarian mother who has the first stages of dementia but who adamantly resists going ‘into care’. Geri is typical of many middle aged women today who multi-task and get little acknowledgment for their selflessness but Geri is unusually head-strong, non p.c. and outrageously funny. She is not a defeatist, a whinger, or a dignified dear old lady. This woman is dynamite.
AmeriCymru: You have travelled and taught in South Africa and elsewhere. Care to tell us a little about your experiences there?
Bel: My partner and I first visited South Africa as tourists on a fortnight’s sight-seeing holiday at Christmas 2001. On the second day of our visit, we decided that we would like to spend our long, wet British winters there, so we invested in a small coastal shack in the Eastern Cape. Between 2002-7, we spent 6 months of the year there as ‘swallows’ ie fliers migrating to the warmth of an African summer; Chris becoming a typical ex-pat (ie spending most of his time on the Bowls’ Club green, or in its bar!), while I assisted in teaching school leavers English at two township schools. I also did a little relief work at peak holiday periods at a local AIDS & TB children’s clinic, but I had no specific duties to perform there.
I have travelled extensively abroad: New Zealand, Australia, Goa, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, W. Indies and sailed down the Amazon as far as Manaus. On my retirement from teaching and as a mature student of the German Language, I visited most cities in Germany as well as other European destinations in Italy, France, Portugal and Greece. Having the time to travel is the main advantage of old age. Despite the current inconveniences at airports etc, I feel a compulsive need to travel whilst I am still mobile. I have a weak back (supported by 2 titanium posts and 8 titanium screws) but I don’t allow it to stop me doing anything. I love seeing new places and meeting different people. I attend a gym every other day and I am full of energy and enthusiasm for new ventures and experiences.
AmeriCymru: You won a number of prizes for your short stories prior to the publication of your first anthology ''Opportunity Mocks''. How did it feel winning The Bill Naughton Short Story Competition amongst others?
Bel: In 1999 I was a runner-up in the Bill Naughton Short Story Competition and in 2000 I was awarded first prize and had a second story entry in the same competition highly recommended. The winning stories were published in ‘Splinters Winners Collection’ (Waldron Dillon 1999 and 2000) respectively. It was an immense honour to win successive Irish literary awards, especially those in honour of Bill Naughton, playwright and author ( 1910-92).
AmeriCymru: Could you tell us a little about ''Opportunity Mocks''? What can readers expect to find between the covers?
AmeriCymru: What can you tell us about ''Surfing Through Minefields''?
AmeriCymru: We learn from a recent newspaper article that you intend to donate to the Aber Valley National Mining Memorial Fund. Care to tell us a little about the fund and your personal reason for supporting it?
AmeriCymru: What''s next for Bel Roberts? When can we expect to see your next title in print?
Bel: I am currently working on a fictional novel influenced by my post-war childhood in the Rhondda. The MS needs to be double its present length and to give a more focused sense of ‘place’. If I were to cut down on my travelling, the book might be finished by early 2014. I am constantly torn between the two priorities in my life: writing and travelling. I am also re-editing half a dozen poems that have been lying dormant for a decade.
AmeriCymru: It is always of interest to know what our favorite authors are reading currently. Any recommendations?
Bel: I loved Hilary Mantel’s biographies of Thomas Cromwell: ‘Wolf Hall’ and ‘Bring Up The Bodies’ and eagerly await publication of the last book of the trilogy. By contrast, I’ve recently finished reading and reviewing Duncan Whitehead’s debut novel ‘The Gordonston Ladies’ Dog Walking Club’, a black-comedy crime story, which I found hilarious. Duncan is an English ex-pat now living in Florida.
AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?
Bel: I am pleased and honoured to be part of the cultural twinning of Wales and America through Americymru. I wish you full success with the Eisteddfod Poetry Competition and I look forward to reading more of the entries online. I will do my best to keep updating my membership page and to keep abreast of your news, so that I bolster my friendship with authors and readers across the mountains and The Pond that separates us. It warms my heart that there are readers so far from Wales who are interested in, and who appreciate, what I write. It makes the backache worthwhile. Diolch!
