Archive for the ‘Spirit Willing Flesh Weak’ Category
September 22, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
As a fiction writer I love the idea of creating illusion and belief out of thin air. As a romance writer I believe that even illusion can reflect profound human experience.
For Spirit Willing, I did quite a bit of research for writing Rosie Fox, who’s a fake spirit medium, and this research tended to fall into two camps: researching “real” psychics, and researching “fake” psychics.
For the “real” side, I attended several services at the Spiritualist Church in Reading. Although I’m not a religious person I find religion of any sort very interesting, and the people at the church were consistently welcoming and kind, with a strong faith. I’d like to thank them, even though they didn’t know they were harboring a writer in their midst.
The history of the Spiritualist movement is, in many ways, the history of the emotional life of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and as this is a special interest of mine (I wrote my MPhil thesis on this period), I spent a lot of time researching it. (And named my heroine after the Fox sisters, who helped start it, pictured on right.)
I also went and had my tarot cards read. This was an immensely enjoyable experience for me. The reader was warm, interesting, and engaging, and it was totally worth the money to have a nice person talk entirely about me and my problems for an hour. It was sort of like therapy. She taped the session and I’ve always meant to check back over her predictions to see if any of them have come true, but the tape won’t work. A lot of what she said was wrong, and a lot of what she said she could have deduced easily from my manner, clothing, and the information I gave her. But I liked her an awful lot and I would probably pay to talk with her again.
When I was, briefly, a reporter for the Brown Daily Herald, I went and had my palm read for an article. That woman was terrible, and I’ve looked back at predictions she made and not one of them has come true in any way at all, nor are they likely to. My predominant impression of that reading was that her young son came in and kicked me in the middle of it.
I also spent several happy hours watching “psychic” Sylvia Browne on the Montel Williams show. I can’t write my opinion of Sylvia Browne here, because I think it unwise. Let’s just say I don’t think I’d pay money to talk with her. I’d rather be kicked by a small boy.
Although I enjoyed my time with the “real” psychics, my book is about a fraud, and my heart lies with the joyful fakers, the illusionists, the entertainers, the rational magicians.
I thanked some of them specifically in the book, particularly Ian Rowland. His book, The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, was invaluable to me in learning how a fake psychic does it. It’s an outstanding book and I recommend you buy it.
My female readers may like to know that Ian is single, entertaining, could “possibly be considered non-hideous”, and enjoys the finer things in life such as treating females to exquisite food and wine. I can vouch that he is charming and an excellent writer. And hey, magicians are inherently sexy. That’s why I made my hero, Harry, good at sleight of hand.
Speaking of sexy magicians, I also spent a lot of time staring at Derren Brown, and reading about Harry Houdini, particularly Ruth Brandon’s The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini. Many people will think I’m weird to consider Houdini sexy, but the man escaped from manacles. Good God.
I am also consistently amused, challenged, and informed by the weekly newsletter and forum at James Randi’s website, www.randi.org.
When I was doing my M.Phil. thesis, I did a whole chapter on the Cottingley fairy photographs. Although I didn’t use any of this case, per se, in Spirit Willing, I did use a lot of its elements. The photographs were faked–rather obviously so–but a combination of circumstance, social expectations, and very strong desire made many people believe they were true.
Finally, after I finished Spirit Willing, I read a book that made me so jealous I could hardly think straight. I love it, love it, love it, and it is called Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. It’s about magicians, trickery, and the redemptive power of love.
Any obsessions, recommendations, experiences, thoughts to share? Or would you just like to comment on The Great Houdini’s thighs?
September 21, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
I’m a guest blogger on The Midnight Hour today.
The Midnight Hour is a blog for writers and readers of paranormal romance (including Lori Handeland, Linda Winstead Jones, Kathy Love, Stephanie Rowe, and Michelle Rowen) and I’m blogging about how I’m not a paranormal author, even though my book has paranormal elements.
Sort of.
I’d like to follow up that blog with a few posts on my own blog about paranormal experiences in general. Tomorrow I’ll be in London with many of my fellow Mills & Boon authors having a swanky lunch and a swanky reception, but while I’m gone I’ll post a bit about the research I did on “real” psychics and “fake” psychics for Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak, and then on Saturday and Sunday I’d like to try to start a little bit of a discussion about what you guys think is important about “supernatural” experiences.
Please tell me what you think over on The Midnight Hour, and come back this weekend to talk about spooky whoo-whoo stuff!
September 16, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
Thanks to everyone who wished me a fun signing! It was a good day.
Here are a few photos:
Anna attacking dessert at our posh lunch
Biddy in sugar-induced ecstasy
Don’t worry about the book! Get the cleavage in the photo!
Pretending to be a famous author
After the festivities, I came home to find a phone message from my agent, saying that Spirit Willing has gone into reprints…ten days after the release date! Hooray!
September 14, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak, about me
Today is the day of my book signing for Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak. I’ve lined up a whole bunch of my friends to come and see me, so it looks like I won’t be facing my worst nightmare: sitting alone at a table with a bunch of my books next to me, while shoppers conspicuously avoid meeting my gaze.
The promotion frenzy has already begun. I received a call from the Reading Evening Post yesterday, just as I was going in to teach year 10, and did a telephone interview with them after my lesson had finished, whilst hiding from the students in my head of department’s office. Then it was a short trip to the Reading Writers meeting to threaten my writing friends with death if they don’t come along to Waterstone’s and make me feel like I’m not a loser.
Then Anna arrived from the Lake District, and she has, as usual, been soothing my very neurotic brow with her serene presence. She stayed the night so she was here this morning when a photographer from the Post turned up to take pictures of me sitting between my computer and my books.
Typically, the first thing she said after the photographer was gone was, “Those pictures really make the most of your boobs.”
Hooray!!
Biddy is coming along a bit later and we are going for a posh lunch at this place, which I love for the food and also the fact that the chefs often wave and smile from their upstairs window when you walk by.
Then there’s my signing, which is (if you’ve somehow missed all the worldwide publicity) from 5-7 at the Broad Street Waterstone’s in Reading.
And then I, my friends who I have coerced into coming, and any bystanders unfortunate enough to be caught up in the mania of publicity and glamour, are all going to the pub.
September 9, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
I’m all about helping the readers of this blog to get some free cool stuff, so if you go over to the Little Black Dress website and answer a very easy question, you can be entered to win some Benefit cosmetics.
While you’re there, you can take their quiz about which Little Black Dress title is for you. It was an amusing experience for me to take the quiz…especially the second question. (Regular readers of this blog will know why.)
Speaking of free stuff, the winner of a copy of my Spanish release El amor de sus suenos is Alicia Manjarrez. Thanks for emailing, Alicia!
Now where did I put that turquoise eyeshadow…?
P.S. Come to my book signing at the Broad Street Waterstones in Reading from 5-7 pm this Thursday, 14 September! (Yes, I’ll be putting that at the end of every blog post this week.)
September 6, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak, about me
I just found out I’ll be chatting with Henry Kelly on BBC Radio Berkshire tomorrow (Thursday 7 September) from about 11.10 am.
You can listen live online here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/local_radio/
I don’t think there’s a playback feature for this show, but I will ask. I’ll most likely be talking about Spirit Willing and trying to promote my book signing (which is Thursday 14 September from 5-7 at the Broad Street Waterstone’s, Reading.)
Honestly ususally my life is pretty boring but right now things seem to be happening very quickly.
I am sure I will embarrass myself totally on live radio so listen in and laugh at me!
September 4, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
Today’s the official release date for Spirit Willing, and Amazon says they only have five copies left in stock!
That’s pretty darn cool.
Edit: they have more in now. The “only five more copies” message lasted just long enough to give me a sense of satisfaction.
August 30, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak
Spotted by Anna in Penrith today:
August 8, 2006 | Spirit Willing Flesh Weak, about me
Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak is up on the Little Black Dress website…there’s a blurb, the cover, and an extract of the first two chapters up.
In other news, I haven’t disappeared…I’m just still on holiday. I have a bunch of photos to put up and lots of stories and stuff, but I have succumbed to the phenomenon our family calls “CRS”.
“CRS” stands for “Can’t Remember Shit” and it is a syndrome that affects people when they are on holiday in proximity to a large body of water. You tend to spend large amounts of time gazing at the water, or watching storms move across it, or marvelling at its tranquillity, or spotting creatures in it, or swimming or wading around in it, or finding interesting rocks in it, and your rational mind sort of drains away, and you forget about normal daily concerns like not tracking sand into the house or writing blog posts or indeed, getting dressed.
Tomorrow I fly to Maryland, to see Kathy and Lisa again, and then I fly to the UK on Thursday night, and then on Friday afternoon I have my ultrasound scan, so I will be back on Friday, most likely with news, hopefully good.
If the CRS has abated by then, that is.
