The Official Evelyn Hood Blog

Friday, 4th April 2008

Where did March go? It seems to have whipped past. I have just seen two replies to my last blog – one from American friend Becky – Hi, Becky! – who lives in Paisley but, sadly, is returning to America soon with her husband Tony. Lovely to see you at the WH Smith’s signing in Paisley, Becky, keep in touch!

And there is also a response from another Evelyn also from Paisley but now living in England. Yes, the house in McAdam’s Women was based on the famous five-shilling mansion and although I hated tampering with the truth, I had to move the mansion to Castlehead because I wanted my main character to live there, but knew she would never be able to afford one of those grand houses.

I was brought up in Corsebar Road, Meikleriggs, and knew the Morar Drive area well. Yes, Paisley has changed a lot, and not for the better. Sadly, once Paisley’s own council was replaced with Renfrewshire Council, Paisley was shamefully neglected. Many Paisley Buddies have more or less lost hope, but I trust that they will regain that soon and join those still fighting to regenerate our home town.

Enough of the soapbox. Earlier this month I enjoyed a really stimulating and invigorating time at the Scottish Association of Writers’ annual weekend seminar. I was given the task of adjudicating the main competition, the Constable Trophy, which consists of the first 10,000 – 15,000 words of a general novel. To my astonishment and, somewhat, my alarm, I got 31 entries. I put them all in a cardboard box for safekeeping, and it was too heavy to lift! But time-consuming though it was, I enjoyed the task, and hope that my comments helped the entrants.

One of the themes being discussed both informally and during a general question-and-discussion period concerned the future of writing and writers. I myself am wondering if what I see as a lack of interest in teaching sentence structure and punctuation in schools might result in a decline in writing, though there were many there who disagreed with me – I am glad to say.

But on a wider scale, there was general agreement that with Britain becoming a multi-cultural society, and with political correctness poking its (unwanted, in my view) nose in everywhere, changes are a-coming. One conclusion was that the rich mix of cultures within our shores will help to nourish writers and will lead to an exciting and challenging future, and another was that, as always throughout the ages, it is up to writers to highlight important points and help to right wrongs and injustices as well as entertaining and informing.

As I said earlier – a very stimulating weekend. On Wednesday morning, April 9th, I am going to WH Smith’s in Argyle Street, Glasgow at 11 a.m for half an hour or so to do an informal signing of copies of my new paperback, BIRDS IN THE SPRING. ‘Informal’ means that I’ll be signing copies to go on the shelves, but if anyone who reads this wants a personally signed copy, they can either pop in to see me, or buy a copy in advance from Smith’s and tell the staff what they want me to write on the book.

Have a lovely April, everyone,

Evelyn Hood

It’s Leap Year, so today is an extra day - what to do with it? For a start, I’m going to catch up on my blogging. But first, best wishes to a librarian friend, Claire, who is getting married today. Claire, the weather is horrible but I know that the wedding will be fantastic. All the best! Be happy, always, you deserve it.

And thanks to Allyson, my first, and so far only, blogging friend. Where are the rest of you? Allyson, I would love to know how the presentation went, and what book you featured. And please keep in touch. Unfortunately, it seems that book sellers are not so keen on family sagas these days, but there is such a thing as reader-power, so if anyone reading this wants to see more family sagas from me, why not contact my publisher and tell them? And pester the bookshops, too.

By the way, the paperback of my latest Evelyn Hood novel, BIRDS IN THE SPRING, comes out next week, on March 6th. I’m signing copies in Paisley’s WH Smith’s on Saturday March 15th between 1.30 - 2.30 p.m.at lunchtime. It is a sequel to ANOTHER DAY and THE DANCING STONE and I decided to write it because someone told me that although four years had passed since she had read ANOTHER DAY and THE DANCING STONE, the character of Rose Hamilton in those two books had stayed in her mind. She had never, she said, been so impressed by a fictitious character. And she wanted to know what happened next to Rose.

So did I, so that is why I wrote BIRDS IN THE SPRING. If there are any would-be fiction writers out there, they might be interested to hear that I brought Rose back into my mind, and more or less asked her what was new. And she told me. If you create a character well enough, this can and does happen. And do you know what? It’s a fantastric experience, like meeting up with an old friend.

Right now, though, I am keeping busy with another ’string to my bow’ - writing plays. Several of my one-act plays are being performed all over the world each year by amateur drama groups, and I’ve been wanting to get back to writing plays for some time. Then a friend, a nurse in the Mental Health sector, asked for my help last year. He wanted to write a play for Mental Health Week in October about the people he works with, who are struggling courageously to cope with mental health problems while at the same time getting on with their lives.

He knew about the subject, but not about how to structure a play, whereas I knew how to write a play but nothing about his subject. But dear readers, we did it and the play was performed during Mental Health Week and was well received.

By one of those incredible coincidences that happen in life - well, in my life anyway - not long before the play was performed I was doing a book-signing when I met someone from SAMH, the Scottish Assciation for Mental Health. He came to see the play, and now SAMH is interested in recording it on DVD as they say that it really does ‘tell it as it is.’ Ross wants us to set up a play-writing partnership, SAMH, I think, would be interested in future work from us, and I suddenly I find myself going off on an interesting and exciting new journey.

That’s life! Bye for now, have a lovely Extra Day - do something special!

Evelyn

Where are you? No response as yet to my first shot at blogging. For those of you who read my books, the current news is that I’m taking time off to work on short stories, talks, workshops, adjudicating competitions and tutoring. Otherwise, not doing much at all!

The main project is a return, at last, to writing drama. I love drama, it’s the nearest thing I can do to poetry. In novels you can splash all over a large canvas, in short stories, you have to be more precise, and in drama, as in poetry, you really have to work with very fine brush-strokes. No wasted words allowed.

Also, drama is the one aspect of writing where the writer is only the beginning. No matter what readers think of, or get from, my fiction writing, it is always mine, whereas drama starts with the writer, then leads on to the director, the stage manager, the actors, who have to be able to feel ocmfortable with the dialogue they are given, and free to express themselves with it. And finally, the audience. I’m talking about stage plays here - a stage play is never complete until it has been performed before an audience.

A year ago a friend, Ross, asked me to help him to write a play that, he hoped, could be performed as part of Mental Health Week in October. The play was to be about the sort of people Ross works with, people with various mental health problems. The idea was to point out to the general public that mental health is something that can affect any one of us, and often does. And to illustrate the need for all of us to understand and sympathise rather than cross to the other side of the street.

I know a bit from first-hand experience about things like depression and agoraphobia, but working with Ross I learned a lot, while he learned how to write a play. I never thought that we would do it in time, but PIECES IN A JIGSAW had a two-night run at Ayr Gaiety Theatre, and the cast that Ross put together really enjoyed performing it. In fact, they are back in rehearsal even as I blog because the play is being performed in a non-competitive capacity in the Scottish Community Drama Association’s One-act Festival in Kilmarnock’s Palace Theatre on Saturday February 23rd.

It has attracted quite a lot of attention because of its subject matter and the fact that the stories of five people with problems is told with humour and a strong sense of survival.
And Ross and I plan to wrote another play together.

Watch this space….

Hi, Evelyn Hood talking – I mean, blogging. I’ve never done it before but there’s always a first time. So – hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I’ve got my New Year Resolution on the go already – there are only 363 shopping days to next Christmas and I swear on all I hold dear, including husband Jim and my laptop, that that this time I am going to start early and have all my gifts bought long before the panic date arrives.

Not only bought, but stored all together in a place I remember so that I don’t lose them. Half of this year’s presents are around somewhere but I don’t know where, so I had to rush out and buy more. I can only hope that when the original gifts turn up, they will still be useful for next Christmas – providing I don’t lose them again.

2008 is going to bring changes for me as a writer. After publishing 35 books, most of them family sagas, I am taking a break. They say that a change is as good as a rest, and my change involves concentrating for a little while at least on getting back into writing plays and short stories, as well as doing more tutoring, which I love.

I also have plans to use this website to try to make Britain a better place to live in – and heaven only knows that it’s time someone did that since our politicians and councillors don’t seem to me to be making much of a job of it. Whatever happened to common sense? Let’s bring it back into fashion, say I, and I hope that you agree with me. Unless, of course, you happen to be a politician or a councillor.

So watch this space for news and views. And if you want some advice on writing – ask me and I will try to give you answers.

In the meantime, all the best for 2008, everyone.

Evelyn .

A former journalist, Evelyn Hood is best known for family sagas mainly set in her home town of Paisley (Renfrewshire) and on the Clyde Coast, although she is also the author of ‘Forward by Degrees’, a history of the University of Paisley. The history was commissioned to mark the University’s centenary as a place of further education and was published in April 1997.

Evelyn has also published six one-act stage plays, a Scottish pantomime, a children’s musical and a number of short stories and articles. Unpublished but performed stage work includes a full length play, three pantomimes, six children’s musicals, and a large number of monologues and sketches.

Her hobbies include reading and amateur drama, and she lives in West Kilbride, Ayrshire with her husband. They have two grown sons.

An adjudicator, lecturer and tutor on most aspects of writing, Evelyn’s current novel, entitled ‘Voices From The Sea’, is now available, published by Time Warner Books.

Sign up to Evelyn’s mailing list to receive news on forthcoming releases, press coverage, book signings and talks. Click here to join.