Calling book lovers in Belgium!

I posted a while ago about my upcoming book launch in Belgium and I'm pleased to say that I have all the details now!
NB There are going to be launch events in the UK too - details on those to follow!

As I have mentioned before on this blog, my new book, Silent Saturday, is named after Stille Zaterdag, the day after Good Friday, when the church bells in Flanders supposedly fly away to Rome to collect Easter eggs for the children! The opening scene takes place on Silent Saturday.
For that reason, it seemed like a great idea to be in Belgium on the weekend of Silent Saturday itself, which is 30th March 2013, to launch the book.

Here's where I'll be:

Waterstone's in Brussels (address: Boulevard Adolphe Maxlaan 71-75, B-1000 Brussels, tel. 00 32 2 219 2708) on Saturday 30th March 2013 (Stille Zaterdag!) from 15.00h.

Treasure Trove Books in Tervuren (address: Brusselsesteenweg 7, 3080 Tervuren, tel. 00 32 2 767 7476) on Sunday 31st March 2013 from 12.00h to 15.00h.

If you're a book lover based in Belgium, I'd love to see you! I'll be signing copies of Silent Saturday and I'll also be chatting to readers, so if you want to ask anything about the book or its inspiration, please do. The locations of the book include Montgomery and central Brussels, Tervuren (including Tervuren Park) and Oudergem, and you'll also recognise De Lijn buses, the number 44 tram and other well-loved aspects of life in Belgium! 

Above: Treasure Trove Books in Tervuren, where I'll be on Sunday 31st March. 

Above: a previous author event at Treasure Trove. 

Murder in the Maldives, anyone?

Someone wrote to me recently asking me how I go about researching my books - do I look things up as I go along, or do I try to do it all beforehand?
When I wrote my first book, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, I didn't think of myself as doing any formal "research" at all. The book is set in the real-life German town of Bad Münstereifel, and is crammed with references to the town's layout, its history and its local legends. However, I had been living in Bad Münstereifel for several years before I started writing the book, so I knew the town very well, and as I love folklore (especially creepy or bizarre stories) I had sought out as many local legends as I possibly could, long before I thought of weaving them into a story.
I suppose that if you are going to set a novel in a foreign location then the ideal thing is to go and live in that location for seven years (Murder in the Maldives, anyone...?). Sadly, however, this is not normally possible! I am currently in the middle of writing a trilogy set in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) and we only lived there for three years before moving on. I probably wouldn't have attempted setting a single book in Flanders if I hadn't tried to integrate into local life as much as possible when we were there: I took Dutch classes for three years, visited churches and castles, took part in local cycling event De Gordel, etc. However, once I started working on the trilogy, the gaps in my local information became clear, and that is where some extra research has come in.
I do try to build up as full a picture as possible of a book setting before I start writing. The second book in the trilogy, The Demons of Ghent, is (obviously) set in the Flemish city of Ghent, and in December 2011 I went over to Flanders to get to know the city in as much detail as possible (see pic above). I had visited Ghent before and fell in love with the city, but I was very aware that I knew little about it - for example, in what part of the city would my heroine, Veerle, and her family be likely to live? So I went over and spent days on end walking about the city, taking photographs, visiting churches, the castle, etc. Some friends who live in Ghent very kindly drove me about the city for a day too, telling me a bit about the character of each part of it - where the students live, where the rich people live and so on. I also bought a heap of books about Ghent, Flanders and Belgian culture and collected things like local tram maps and timetables.
All of this enabled me to choose the locations of the various scenes in the book with confidence, however, it was by no means the end of the story. For example, when the heroine gets up in the morning and wanders into the kitchen looking for breakfast, what is she going to find in the fridge? You can buy a lot of the same cereal products in Belgium as you can in the UK but she might just as easily have a waffle (what sort? the Brussels waffle? the Liège waffle? - check that too) or some cheese (check which ones are local to Ghent). 
After breakfast the heroine decides to go into the picturesque old part of the city; I've already decided where she lives based on what my Ghentish friends have told me, but how is she going to get from there to her destination? There are trams but actually if you look at the routes, she would be better off walking - it would be cheaper and probably as quick. 
Later on someone has an altercation in the street. If they stumble off the pavement into the road, is there a kerb? Are they going to stumble down or simply along? Haul out the photographs and take a look; check on Google Streetview too. 
Of course it is still possible to make mistakes, no matter how carefully you research. There are pitfalls you haven't even thought about! In Britain a good way of getting the heroine out onto the street is to send her out to get a pint of milk and the paper. In Belgium many people tend to buy long-life milk in bulk from the supermarket; she'd be more likely to be going out for fresh bread from the bakery. Thinking of making a bequest part of the plot? Check this is actually possible. In some countries (eg Germany) it is quite hard to disinherit family members; they may be able to apply for a compulsory share of the estate. 
Actually by this point I am marvelling at my own nerve in setting a book abroad in the first place...! 
To be honest, though, it wouldn't be much easier for me to set one here in Great Britain. I lived abroad from 2001 to 2011 and I'm still relearning life in the UK. I'm not sure I could tell you how much a litre of milk costs here (nor how high the kerbs in Dundee are, nor what Glaswegians have for breakfast). Perhaps it's a case of Life imitating Art: I need to do more research...

Urban Legends

Urban legends. Modern fairy tales. Whatever you like to call them, I love them. The Hook. The Hippy Babysitter. The Spider in the Beehive Hairdo. Shudder. Frisson!
Over the past few days I have been investigating Belgian urban legends for the third book in my upcoming Forbidden Spaces trilogy, set in Flanders. I finished the first draft of the second book, The Demons of Ghent, earlier this month, and it was my intention to plunge straight into book three whilst the writing engine was nicely warmed up, so to speak. The third book, appropriately enough entitled Urban Legends, is partly inspired by those gruesome modern myths, hence the research. However, as David Byrne wisely observed of Washington D.C. in Twisting in the Wind, "the further you look into it, the further things stick out";  the more research I do, the more I decide I need to do. The material is too fascinating. Let's find another online article. Let's order a book. No, let's go one better: let's decide on an out-of-print book by a Flemish academic that will require days of searching on second hand book sites and an extortionate bank transfer charge.
Well, I've ordered the book - at least I think I have. Waiting to see whether the bank transfer has worked properly and hasn't sent Thai baht by accident or something. (Drop-down boxes in online banking: asking for trouble.)
Meanwhile, if you are interested in Belgian urban legends, there is a great article about them here, by Aurore Van De Winkel, and translated by Jane Corrigan:
http://www.brusselsstudies.be/medias/publications/BruS54EN.pdf
My great favourite is the one about coin-operated toilets in the Brussels Metro. Supposedly women were vanishing inside them, sucked into a huge pipe and down into the sewers to meet some appalling unspecified fate. Investigation showed that the pipes in the toilets were too small for a human body to fit down them. It was then concluded that maybe the kidnappers had replaced the big pipes with small ones, because they had enough women...

Above: the Brussels sewers. Is something unspeakable going on down here? 

"Why ghost stories?"

I'm delighted to say that my ghost story collection, which has been available for pre-order since before Christmas, will be out shortly! The collection comprises seven supernatural tales.

Here's what publisher Swan River Press has to say about it: "In her first collection, award-winning author Helen Grant plumbs the depths of the uncanny: Ten fathoms down, where the light filtering through the salt water turns everything grey-green, something awaits unwary divers. A self-aggrandising art critic travelling in rural Slovakia finds love with a beauty half his age — and pays the price. In a small German town, a nocturnal visitor preys upon children; there is a way to keep it off — but the ritual must be perfect. A rock climber dares to scale a local crag with a diabolical reputation, and makes a shocking discovery at the top. In each of these seven tales, unpleasantries and grotesqueries abound — and Grant reminds us with each one that there can be fates even worse than death." 

(On that last point, my daughter says that one of them is "running out of chocolate"...)

I'm also pleased to say that Jason E. Rolfe has interviewed me about the new collection and asked lots of interesting questions such as "Why ghost stories?" which is a good question because my novels are not ghostly, although they often include apparently supernatural elements. You can read the interview on Swan River's website here: http://www.brianjshowers.com/interview_seachange.html 

Gravestones in the snow

I haven't blogged recently because I have been frantically trying to complete the first draft of The Demons of Ghent. In early November it was going so well, and I was convinced that I would have the book finished by early December, leaving me ample time to do a few edits of my own before sending it off to my editor in time for Christmas. It didn't really work out like that! Just before Christmas there are always a lot of things that eat into working time (like buying presents, bah humbug), and even worse, I realised towards the end of November that the ending of the book wasn't working. I deleted 9,600 words and wrote it all again, and I hope that the new version is much better, but better or not, it was certainly later.

I am pleased to say however that last Thursday I sent off the MS to my editor. Whilst she is reading it I am catching up on everything else. There is always the spectre of the horrible possibility that she may hate some aspect of it and I may need to do high-speed extensive rewrites, so I thought as well as catching up on admin etc this week I would also do a few things for myself whilst I have the free time. Which is a very long winded excuse for taking a morning off and visiting a cemetery (yes, I know how to have a good time...).

It is probably an appalling admission, but up until yesterday I had no idea that there was a very large cemetery in Crieff. It's on Ford Road, which is a dead end road on the other side of town, and I have never had any reason to go down there, which is why I had never stumbled on it. However, this week there was an article about it in the Strathearn Herald. I don't normally read the Herald either, but as it happens there was a photo in it this week of my recent visit to Morrison's Academy to run story writing workshops, so I bought it for that. I was intrigued to see a front page headline reading "The strangeness that is Crieff." Who could resist that?!

The article is all about local man David Cowan's research into ley lines, which the Herald is publishing in that issue (18th January) and the next one. Whether you are into ley lines and Masonic symbolism or not, it makes interesting and entertaining reading. My main reaction was, wow, there is a huge cemetery and I haven't seen it! I couldn't resist going down to visit it as soon as possible.

As you can see, it looks splendidly sombre, especially in the current deep snow. This more than made up for the fact that many of inscriptions on the gravestones were obscured with snow and ice. I shall have to make a visit in warmer dryer weather to take a proper look at them. I did see one belonging to a lady whose first name was Hughina! I've never come across that before.

I don't know whether the cemetery will ever feature in any of my future writings, but as I may have mentioned before, I love to visit atmospheric places - old castles, churches, graveyards - as often they do provide inspiration. I still have another book set in Flanders to write (Urban Legends, the final book in my upcoming trilogy set in Belgium), but after that I shall be looking for new locations, so you never know...!

If you are interested in reading the story from the Herald but are not in the Strathearn area, you can read it on their website here:
David Cowan article in the Strathearn Herald