Great Big Blog Party 24 - Anna Louise Lucia

The sky is darkening, the thunder is rumbling in the distance and the words that people around here are starting to dread - 'heavy' and 'rainfall' are being used on the weather forecasts. There are also even less appealing combinations of words - like rivers/ bursting banks - and power stations and flooded - being used as possibilities - so if I disappear off line for a while, you'll know why.

In the meantime I'll leave you in the capable and elegant hands of Anna Louise Lucia.

Along with Julie Cohen, Anna Louise Lucia was one of my very first, original virgins - the four from the eHarlequin message boards )where she is known as AnnaofCumberland - most often shortened to Annaof) who met up at the RNA Conference in Durham in 2002. We'd all chatted on the boards and the fact that we lived in the UK while most of the other posters came from USA or Canada linked us together. The thing I remember most about that first meeting with Anna is that in that first moment of 'Hello' she sank into a wonderfully elegant curtsey before me - much to the astonishment of many RNA members who were around at the time.

And like Julie, Anna has been a special person in my life ever since. From being Queen Kate - hence the curtsey - I have since become Cyber Mum as a result of an online chat where I, in a moment of mock sterness, told Anna to behave and she responded with 'Yes Mum!' Since then the BM has been prone to telling people that he has one son and several adopted daughters. And certainly no daughter could have been more welcoming on one occasion when - details not neccessary - the BM and I did not have the accomodation we thought we had one night (one very wet and miserable night) and Anna came to the rescue, providing bed and wonderful food in her home. Something for which I will always be truly grateful. And the special Pre Christmas Writing Weekends and Christmas dinners we've shared with Anna, Julie and - another 'cyber daughter ' who will be blogging soon - Brigid Coady - have been a delight from start to finish.

As a writer, I always knew that one day Anna would be published. The only problem was with which publisher. I worked with her on a NWS script and knew she had a distinctive, individual voice and a sense of drama and emotion that could lead her down several different paths but for a while her plots didn't quite fit. That all changed on September 26th last year when Medallion Press took the book we all knew as McWife and which will be published as Run Among Thorns in June 2008. This will be followed by Dangerous Lies in 2009.

Frankly, I'm not surprised - just delighted. And so looking forward to reading the book I've seen in a rough draft actually in a printed form at last. Unfortunately Anna's book won't be in print in time for her to offer it as a prize this time - but I plan on grabbing her first title for a Bag of Books contest in 2008.

Anna is someone who was born a writer -as the saying goes 'Writers write - everyone else makes excuses' - And when you read Anna's post, you'll see that she grabs any opportunity to do just that - to write.


So here's AnnaofCumberland - aka Anna Louise Lucia


I’m writing this at the top of Hartside, a high pass over the Pennines (on the way to the isolated market town of Alston) wearing a little golden heart that Kate gave me at her celebratory weekend.

The clouds are down – the windscreen in front of me is rapidly beading with moisture, and occasionally a gust of wind rocks the car on its suspension.

All this tells you three things. One, I like writing in odd places. Two, Kate’s the kind of person that begins a celebration of her achievements by celebrating yours, and Three, it’s summer in Cumbria.

Now, there’s not a lot I can do about the summer weather and Kate will forever be a Class Act, but I thought I’d blog about fifty places I’ve written…. And ask you about your favourite.

So here we go:

1.In a tree.
2.In bed.
3.In someone else’s bed!
4.In the bath (paper edits, I don’t drag the laptop in there).
5.In the car while driving (with a dictaphone, promise).
6.In the car while stationary (on an Alphasmart).
7.On a picnic.
8.In Brougham Castle
9.At work (but don’t tell anyone).
10.In a hammock. I just re-strung the hammock I haven’t used in two years only to find that its been a victim of our musty utility room and has been eaten by mildew…. Shock horror! Within 20 minutes of finding it was compromised, I had ordered a new one online. There’s nothing quite like swinging gently in the back yard, brushing against clematis blooms and lilacs, while the cats play like monkeys in the ivy overhead.
11.On my lunch break.
12.By the River Derwent in the beautiful valley of borrowdale.
13.At the library in Durham University. A distressingly modern building, but at least it’s a stone’s throw from the World Heritage Site of Castle and Cathedral.
14.In the Riverside café at Grange, where the lovely double arched bridge, built in 1675, crosses the Derwent.
15.In the wardrobe. It’s a long story.
16.At a cottage in Alnmouth on the Northumberland Coast.
17.In the Treehouse at Alnwick

18.At Mum and Dad’s house.
19. In the arbour in the front garden.
20.On a boat. Specifically a narrowboat on our recent family canal holiday. Harrison Ford hired his boat from the same company you know….
21.In a meeting. After a while, you just keep nodding and smiling, and plot out the final scene on the back of the agenda.
22.In the toilet. Last refuge of the harassed.
23.On a mountain. Any mountain will do, but it’s Castle Crag in Borrowdale for preference. OK so it's strictly only a hill but it’s a mountain in my heart.

24.At the Romantic Novelists Association Conference. Fabulous for inspiration!
25.In Sainsburys. On the back of a till receipt. I’m not kidding.
26.At Larch Cottage Nurseries, on the sun-drenched veranda overlooking the gardens.
27.In a small caravan near Southwold, Suffolk. Where I wandered into a second hand bookshop and bought Julius Caesar’s “The Conquest of Gaul,” and Kate Walker’s “Something Missing”, to the bemusement of the shop keeper and her cat.
28.In one of Kate’s workshops. Kate does marvellous workshops, and this one focussed on the The Big Why – the motivation of characters. Digging into the reasons behind my character’s actions sparked a lot of progress that day!
29.In a doctor’s waiting room.
30..In hospital.
31.On a plane to New York.

32.At the marvellous and secretive Plas Tan y Bwlch
33.At The Bewick Coffee House. I once left some paper edits there, and they looked after them and returned them when next I visited….
34.In New York’s Central Park.
35.At No 15, a trendy lunch place near work. They have really spectacular house plants…
36.On the beach at Warkworth
37.In the kitchen. Although admittedly if I’m in the kitchen, I’m usually cooking or eating. Or both.
38.Among the forests and fields of Galloway, looking for a longhouse like the one Kier uses in my first book, RUN AMONG THORNS.
39.In my office. Yes, in spite of everything, I do sometimes write like a normal person, at a desk.
40.In lectures. See, “In a meeting”.
41.In the Durham Travelodge.
42.In a mine. Well, it was raining, and the abandoned slate mine entrance was dry. Kids, don’t do this at home….
43.At Watendlath which I happen to know will make the BM very, very jealous.
44.Beside Ullswater.
45.On a train to London. Trust me, first class is worth it.
46.At a vegetarian cycle café in Keswick. The only place within fifty miles you can get eggs on toasted muffins for breakfast!
47.At Castlerigg Stone Circle. Outside the circle. Writing inside the circle seems somehow disrespectful….
48.At a gorgeous coffee house in Keswick. Home of the best hazelnut latte in Cumbria.
49.In the middle of the night on the landing. Insomnia is the writer’s friend.
50.At Kate’s house. I remember writing fairy stories and ghost stories in her lovely front room, and gazing in awe at her books on the shelves in her office.

You know, it’s only when you come to do fifty of anything that you appreciate what a real achievement it is. Let alone writing and having published fifty romantic, emotional, delicious reads like Kate’s books. Congratulations, Kate!

Now, for the prize.

GIVEAWAY:
To win a copy of a beautiful coffee-table book of Lakeland Views (many of which include places where I’ve written!) by the celebrated local photographer Val Corbett,
QUESTION:
leave a comment letting me know your favourite place to write, apart from an office or usual desk space. Are you a bathroom writer? Or do you escape to your local café? I’m looking forward to hearing about it!

Cheers, Anna