Adrienne Dines

Balls in the air…

Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:57:21 +0000

..and I have no juggling skills

Isn’t Christmas wonderful?

Best wishes to all….

Stephen King and me

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:34:10 +0000

So it’s not just me. Have any of you read Stephen King’s latest offering (www.stephenking.com)? We’re not the only Meg Gardiner (www.meggardiner.com) fans, are we? He is profuse in his praise. My dinner companion would have been MOST impressed (you can get SK in hardback).

By the way, I don’t own Meg money either.

Paperback Writer

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:33:58 +0000

An experience to ponder – and I welcome your comments.

On Tuesday evening my husband and I had dinner with some colleagues of his and their companions. In the company was a woman I had never met before. When we sat down to talk, she leaned across the table and said, ‘I hear that you’re a…..wri-ter.’
She said the word slowly, struggled with both syllables and I had the distinct impression it was giving her mouth ulcers.
I said, ‘Yes, I am.’
She shook her head to clear her ears and then scanned the restaurant for the Bonjela nurse. ‘But…I’ve never heard of you.’
Neither has the pope. I do not doubt his credentials for a minute.
As nobody appeared to have a solution to this mystery, we started on the breadsticks.

After the third one, she had it figured out. ‘Em, are your books hardback?’
‘Apart for the large print editions, no, paperback.’
‘Ah ha!’ she said, wrinkling her nose in digust at the physical proximity to a person whose book cover bends. ‘That’s it – I only read
hardbacks. That’ll be why.’

I am a pacifist and generally save my ire for situations when it can actually do some good. Nevertheless, it was on the tip of my tongue to mention that Big Brother is so confident of its sales that all the spin-off books are in hardback, to my knowledge, and don’t require reading. All you have to do is look at the pictures. I don’t think that’s what she meant.
Instead I said, ‘Oh.’
Wuss.

After that, the food came and I have seldom seen a starter so assiduously chewed by grown men. They kept their heads down, I chewed my lip, she pontificated.

When the main course arrived she had another go.
‘So have you met Stephen Fry?’ she asked smugly.
I think the correct response to this is Omigod! You’ve met Spephen Fry, tell me all about it but the wine was lovely and the waiter was refilling so I just said. ‘No.’
‘Umm,’ she said. ‘I don’t suppose you move in literary circles.’
(Stephen Fry – if you’re out there I’m sorry about this. I think you’re very literary and I love Twinings Tea but she’d pushed it too far with the tone. )
I said, ‘Goodness, do you consider Stephen Fry literary? I always think of him as an actor/entertainer who writes rather than the other way round. And I love his tea commercials.’
(Stephen – I really am sorry – you’d have found her difficult too.)
I don’t think she’s a tea drinker. She said, ‘So who have you met?’
Ha! In the interests of brevity because we didn’t have all night (and I just knew we weren’t going to be invited back for a nightcap)
I offered just a few names.
‘At the Guildford Festival in October, I met Sarah Dunant, Nicholas Evans and Patrick Gale…’
She didn’t move a muscle.
‘…and Elizabeth Buchan, Santa Montefiore, Katherine McMahon…
Not a twitch.
‘…Harry Bingham?’
Nope.
‘Jane Yardley?’
There was deadly silence. For goodness sake – are any of you in hardback?
My husband, who doesn’t read fiction, ever, but can read people to within an inch of their last indiscretion, leaned forward and said, ‘Have you read Meg Gardiner?’
Alleluia! Her face cleared, her demeanour lightened and she beamed. ‘Ah, yes, I like Meg Gardiner.’
I didn’t pretend she is a friend of mine -that would have been pushing it.
I’ve read her books – that was enough.

For the rest of the meal we discussed Meg’s Evan Delaney series – the thrills, the high-octane action, the humour.
Even the men joined the conversation.

I didn’t have a dessert or a coffee.
I had Lady Gray.
A lively little number.

Oxford Bookcrossing

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 17:48:13 +0000

Do you know what bookcrossing is? For the uninitiated it’s a way of sharing books across continents’ You leave a book where it can be found, read, commented on and passed on…..

On Saturday there’s a joint Transita/Bookcrossing day in Oxford Town Hall from 2-5. Tomorrow I’ll post more details…

Chatting up Chaps on the train..

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:57:17 +0000

Yesterday should have been devoted to preparing for a talk I’m giving on Thursday as the final event of The ELmbridge Literary Festival (Vera Flethcer Hall, Ember Court Road, Thames Ditton 8pm.) but instead I had to go to London. I boarded the train at Weybridge to find only one seat available – opposite a young fellow with earphones and a woolly hat pulled low over his face. Other passengers regarded him suspiciously as he had a way of twitching every so often, pulling his neck upwards and wincing.

I sat opposite and watched (casualty of the job – writer’s curiousity) and realised I’d seen that movement before.

At breakfast.

My sons, 17, 16 and 13, are all keen canoeists and the day after a really tough workout they wrap scarves around their necks and twitch and agitate if they’ve got stiff muscles. H was too lean for a canoeist: they have a very particular shape – broad shoulders/chest, narrow waist. And they tend to be mesomorphs. This chap was tall and lean.

He noticed me watching.

‘Rower?’ I asked.

He leaned forward, beaming. ‘No – water polo. I’m off to see my chiropracter. I’m a tri-athlete – professional.’ And he sounded so proud.

If I’d been his mother, I would be proud too; it was the quickest journey to Waterloo I ever had.

Alex Lewis is training to be fast enough to get onto the Olympic Team for the 2012 Olympics. He’s bright, friendly, very personable and talks to strange women on the train.

I said I’d keep my fingers crossed and cheer him on when the time comes. So if he makes it – and I sincerely hope he does – please cheer him on too.

He deserves it.

dovegreyreader….

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:11:47 +0000

This is a name that crops up on the Transita website a lot. This weekend I finally got round to checking out all the sites/blogs I’ve wanted to look up for a long time.

That was a good idea.

The bad idea was opening them all at the same time so that when I decided to write to some I got the messages mixed up and so there are computer savvy folk the length of the country staring at their screens saying things like, ‘Whaaashe on about?’ and ‘Oh dear, who hasn’ t been taking her fish oils then?‘

Me. Sorry.

Dovegreyreader’s blog is one of the nicest. She reviews books and she posts pictures so that her blog is gorgeous to look at . And I know her real name too. She was very kind about The Jigsaw Maker before it came out and just as kind since. Thank you, Lynne. I hope we’ll meet in the flesh some day.

By the way, if any of you are taking your flesh to Oxford on 9th December. Transita is hosting a Transita/Bookcrossing event. Buy two books, set one free to travel the world. It’s a novel idea – in every sense of the world. More on this later…..

Hitting the ground running

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:57:08 +0000

When I was eight, we lived in a small town in County Kildare in Ireland, called Monasterevin. It’s where most of the enduring impressions of my life were laid down and are now emerging as inspiration for stories. It’s also proving rich picking for a talk I’m giving next week as part of the Elmbridge Literary Festival. Linda Gillard and I started off that festival giving a weekend workshop and I end it by giving a talk. The ladies who wrote the blurb for it did a great job. They’ve promised ‘an entertaining and humour-filled evening.’ They’re opening the bar at 7 and when the attendees are nicely pickled, I’ll stand up, STONE COLD SOBER and talk for an hour about how I came to be a writer and how I always wanted to be a storyteller. A full hour, no stopping for breath, no deviation, no repetition.
It reminds me of Monasterevin. When I was eight I used to go for long walks with my parents and I liked to tell them stories – all the way around. My mother sometimes asked when the story would end.
I’d tell her, when we reach home.
She’d be quiet for a while then she’d say, ‘Pet, will we walk a little faster?’
As a treat, she’s even let me run sometimes – all three miles.
So Monasterevin is very alive in my head just now.
The talk is entitled, ‘Hitting the Ground Running…’

Purgatory and the Prose Pincher….

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 13:00:47 +0000

An interesting thing happened on Friday.

A local primary school was having its Christmas shopping night and I decided to have a table so that the literate could buy their grannies a book for Christmas, signed by the author. At 3.00 all the stallholders set up – making their tables look as attractive as possible and then scooting home for tea before returning at 6.00. I came back at 10 to – I was <em>keen.</em> Writing is a solitary pursuit so any opportunity to meet old friends (drink mulled wine) sell books (drink mulled wine) and generally socialise is welcome.

My 13 year old son, being a fastidious fellow, checked when we got back that all was in order. He displayed the posters, checked the float and then counted the books…

There were two missing.

TWO MISSING!

Someone had actually gone to the trouble of pinching a copy of Toppling Miss April (with the new cover – maybe they didn’t realise it was the same inside) and Soft Voices Whispering. They’d obviously read The Jigsaw Maker. How do you react to that? As a practising Catholic at a Catholic Primary School fundraising event in the church hall, I really didn’t expect to need security cameras. I said so.

On my right, the Pampered Chef representative looked aghast and checked her table – all present and correct. The Murano Glass Jewellery rep on the other side checked hers - fine too.
All around the large hall folk ascertained that their supplies were in order and it emerged that I was the only victim….

RESULT!

Mine was the only stall deemed worthy of the effort, worth the risk of some serious explaining at the pearly gates. What a compliment (albeit backhanded).

So if anyone’s having difficulty getting his/her hands on a copy of either of the aforemnetioned books, hang fire. There are copies in purgatory and I won’t be pressing charges. It kept me going all evening.

I didn’t need the wine.

Romance Novelists and Mechanical Engineers

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:18:57 +0000

Is it me or there something very wonderful about the notion of the Romance Novelists’ Association having their Winter Party in the library of the IMechE in London?The building is imposing and very masculine and seems an odd venue for romance writers to get together.

I wondered if there was a dress code. I’d come from a meeting at my sons’ school and was greeted by a bevy of beautifully groomed ladies in proper party dresses – oh dear. There were kisses and haloos as uniformed waiters offered around trays of canapes. Everyone looked for the one person she hoped would be there and the atmostphere was charming.

Then I noticed the books.

The walls are lined with them. After the first few glasses of wine they were lined with ladies too – sipping, chatting – and it would have made for perfect photographs if it weren’t for the titles.

Who thought of leaving Coupling and Joints at eye level behind the Mills and Boon writers? As a very attractive young woman with an LBD sticker greeted her friend, I hoped she didn’t realise that her left shoulder was lined up with a hardback copy of Shaft Alignment and two volumes of information on the Strength of the two-Stroke. At first I thought it was my age. Maybe I’ve finally reached my prime and become fruity but I soon realised that there were other, more prestigious RNA members peering along the shelves and smiling broadly. I smiled all the way home.

Whoever thought of that venue – ingenious!

Thank you.

Transita bloggers

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 09:08:53 +0000

Last week Transita had a (square table) conference and it was decided that we would have a blog on the website – www.transita.co.uk. I agreed and am now in the position of having two blogs. Whoop de do.

Next the website. Watch this space.