Dear Great Aunt J, (mother of pup’s vet)
Mummy said to write and tell you of my latest adventure, but I don’t think it was an adventure. It hurt and I got very frightened.
I got bitten by a BEE today… or a jackjumper ant. Not sure which. But Grandmother T. chases bees and she never gets bitten and it looked such fun!
I’ve discovered Twitter.
Lest you think I’ve been in an oubliette for the last however long, let me say I knew Twitter was there, it’s just that I have been slow on the uptake. I had to learn about FB and blogging first, and then about Wattpad. And now finally Twitter.
To be frank, whilst I have a rollicking great time with each tweet, I am not sure I am really the right kind of person for it. For a start I am a writer given to long sentences. One of the editors who works with me takes sabres to my sentences. If Richard Armitage were reading one of my books for Naxos Audiobooks, I swear he would have to practice free-diving to stretch his lung capacity before beginning. 140 characters is seriously like putting me in a chocolate shop and saying pick two!
I’m not sure what sent me to Twitter last week, but when I arrived, I found the cast of Spooks were tweeting. 
Supposedly. I opted to follow them. Imagine my surprise when an email popped up saying Lucas_North was following me. What else could I say but ‘Unnerved. Are you *following* me or following me?’ Then SirHJPierce followed me, talking about my roast lamb, then RosMyers and she told me to ask SirHJPierce where he put her jeans and leather jackets because I asked her what it took to earn a black leather jacket on the Grid. And finally, my hero, MalcolmWJ, the techno-whizz, so calm and gentle and who appears to be having hell’s own trouble with his Welsh mum, Mullered Melia, who has attacked Lucas and left lovebites or similar on SirHJ’s neck to which RuthEvershed is reacting badly. A lot of alcohol is consumed on the Grid (well, they are saving the UK after all) and Lucas and Dimitri and John Porter (Strikeback not Spooks) spend ages worrying about the pub, bollards and CCTV cameras.
It would be wonderful to think that it was the stars of that most superb TV series having some fun. 
http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/09/spooks-characters-on-twitter/
But I am noticing a pattern, a tone. They all sound similar. I found Guy of Gisborne on Twitter too, although I am not following him, but his tweets read just like Lucas_North’s. Well, I suppose it could be Richard Armitage, but wouldn’t he be too busy doing all the things he does and particularly rushing round shooting Captain America just now?
Whatever the case, it’s all highly amusing. I have tried feeding them lines in the hope that they’ll take up a story and run with it in 140 characters, thereby building a flash-fiction of sorts, but so far they have their own agenda. Fair enough too!
All this prompted me to take note of Twitter and the writer. How serendipitous then that this week, I find a few blogs talking about just that.
http://jamigold.com/2010/09/twitter-is-a-writers-bff/
http://jamigold.com/2010/09/twitter-love-story/ This second a guest post from Mercedes Yardley of http://abrokenlaptop.com/
Now if all this fun could lead to agents and to publishers and to an increased readership if our writing is already out there, it makes all the delicious time- wasting worthwhile. Like sneaking the third chocolate from the chocolate shop while no one is looking.
(Please note: this writer in no way advocates shoplifting by the use of that last sentence.)
Recently my friend Lua, from Bowl of Oranges, did the most extraordinary interview on her blog between herself and one of her characters. I thought it would be a really hard thing to do and wanted to have a go. The difficulty is that with the book Paperweights/Glass Flowers at the submission stage, I had to be careful just how much of the story and the character was revealed, which makes an interview really hard. In this instance however I was really lucky because Finnian is like a closed shop.
Before I add another chapter to The Masked Ball, this time from myself, I must tell you that my Niccolo de Fleury is a mere caricature, a light pencil sketch, even a cartoon. He was loosely inspired by the real Nicholas van der Poele, alias Niccolo de Fleury, who is one of the most extraordinary creations in the world of Historical Fiction. Nicholas van der Poele, (de Fleury) is a blonde Renaissance man from Bruges with a stupendous intellect that enables him to range across all the political, economic and cultural demesnes of Europe in his time. Dorothy Dunnett wrote 8 books about him and I love every single one of them and would like to say without fear of correction that I believe she is the greatest historical fiction writer the world has ever seen. Equally my Sir Percy is a caricature of the most excellent Sir Percy Blakeney of The Scarlet Pimpernel and if either of my characters prompt you as reader to dash off and read of the real characters in the afore-mentioned books then I will, quite simply, have done my job. Having said that, if ever there was a movie made of The House of Niccolo, I can actually imagine Richard Armitage in the role as he has proved himself time and again through North and South, Robin Hood, Spooks and no doubt with his upcoming and more contemporary TV dramas that he could pull off the convoluted and intricate character that is Nicholas van der Poele. I must also add, if anything has really inspired me in this whole Masked Ball story, it’s the perfect creations from Bo Press Miniature Books
‘I’m bored, Percy, and restless.’ I took up a stiletto and flicked it in the direction of the especially erected target in the salon. ‘All the ladies do is gossip and giggle and spend hours discussing lengths of lace and flaunting the provenance of their escorts.’ I took up another stiletto after the first had gratifyingly entered the painted face of my target, the next punctuating the chest and damn near hitting X marks the spot. ‘And Gad, what have I to offer? My escort appears to be a figment of my imagination.’ I sighed. ‘Take me falconing Percy, I’ve a wish to get away from the canals.’
I have a huge deadline of manuscript editing today for Paperweights if I want to truly stand a chance of publication. Thus I am unable to compile a competent blog, so to keep you entertained and no, I shouldn’t do it but I will anyway, I thought I’d share what blew into my email this morning. I really do think I shall ask RA to be my ‘virtual’ partner for the ‘virtual’ Masked Ball here in May! Sorry Ladies, beat you to it! Just don’t tell the love of my life . . .
Sometimes the thought of working on the WIP is really hard. You know why? The novel I’ve just finished, the one that is being assessed right now, had the perfect protagonist. In a literary sense that may be a moot point, but in the physical sense, after watching Robin Hood for various seasons and Spooks most recently, I had no choice but to cast Richard Armitage as my protagonist.
