Remembering...

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Flanders meets the High Street
by Jan Jones
 
Standing in Waitrose at eleven o’clock
All life suddenly suspended
 
A woman reaching for cereal
An old man gripping his wire basket
Me with my trolley as
Thousands of cheerful, too fast soldiers
March before my eyes in jerky shades of grey
 
PALs
Joining up together
Fighting together
Dying together
A village wiped out. A community blasted.
So wrong.
 
The cashiers sit down
People move
 
Two minutes of life, gone in the blink of an eye.
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The Lion

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And here it is...

My quirky, lively story about a pampered cat, a put-upon niece, lack of amenities, artists' block ... oh, and a lion.

It is in the new Woman's Weekly Fiction Special (6 Nov-5 Dec), and I had enormous fun writing it.

This isn't a lion, by the way, it's Archer. And he isn't pampered at all, oh no.
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Mansfield Park

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Yesterday I went to see a new adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park for the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. This is going to be a challenge, I thought. A four-hundred page book by one of the wittiest writers I know featuring a largely internalising heroine that takes me well over a day to read even knowing it so well - distilled into a two hour stage play.

But it was BRILLIANT.

A very few characters had melted away, a lot of thinking had been précised down into salient-point speeches, but what was left was pure, rich, essence of Austen. In a lot of ways, the very paring down of the text brought out the humour in the book. It certainly contributed to an instant identification of who each character was and what they were like.

Mr Rushworth declaiming

With a very clever, elegant set designed to suggest the Georgian era, the play flowed effortlessly from one scene to the next. The actors brought masses of energy and realism to their roles and I believed in each and every one of them. One of the lovely things was that the parts had necessarily to be doubled now and then, and it was evident how much the actors really enjoyed the light relief of portraying the raucous, shambolic Portsmouth household for a few scenes after the intense, restrained Mansfield Park itself.

Fanny Price

I can only applaud the stupendous acting from all concerned, the sympathetic direction of Colin Blumenau and the writer of the adaptation, Tim Luscombe. I didn't want the evening to end.

All in all, this was a fantastic production - it's on tour later this autumn, so go and see it if you possibly can.
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Gone visiting...

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I'm off visiting my good friend Kate Hardy today to congratulate her on her 50th book for Mills & Boon.


I shall be talking about serials and offering a slightly different prize...

See you there.
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Life Imitating Art

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One of the features of the Romantic Novelists' Association Conference is the annual Chairman's competition for the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy. This is only open to members of the RNA attending the conference, and usually takes the form of a chapter of a novel or a short story.

The 2012 competition was for a short story in which an animal played an integral part.

Being up to my eyes in conference administration without a single animal idea in my head, I decided to leave it for this year. But then this insane first line crept stealthily into my head...

Any writer will know what happened next. I abandoned the admin and wrote. And I have to say I felt MUCH better once I'd finished, even though it was a completely mad story.

It didn't win, but it did come fourth (after Alison Maynard, Judy Astley and, er, someone I've forgotten, sorry). So I expanded it a bit, polished it some more and sent it off to Woman's Weekly, who bought it.

So when you read the opening line, just remember that I WROTE IT FIRST

Pardon? You don't understand? What am I talking about? Oh, silly me...

The insane first line in question is:

"It's about the lion," said the woman on the doorstep.

and what was in the news on the bank holiday weekend just gone? That's right, a lion sighting in Essex...

Life imitating art, see?

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summer song

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Summer has reappeared and taken me by surprise. After a wonderful Romantic Novelists' Association Conference - of which more anon, since I have no photos of my own and will have to borrow from my pals, I have a poem for you...


SUMMER SONG by Jan Jones

Warm breeze on my skin
watering the garden in the last slow light
of evening

a dog barks
a child cries
the stallion in the field tempts the mares
still watching long-legged, awkwardly adolescent foals

and I am slow
and warm
and stupid from working through the haze of the day
half in my created world
half in summers long past
when I was invincible and laughing and willing
and the stallions came whistling

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Silly Sunday

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The internet is a strange and wonderful beast. All the witty, wise and thoughtful words I have written over the years - and what gets the most retweets on Twitter? This... (enjoy)

See my lawn
It is shorn
All that long grass,
It is gorn

Written on the Wind - the finale!

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The final episode of Written on the Wind is out today.

In which EVERYTHING is solved, sorted and explained. Hope you enjoy it!
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Written on the Wind - part three

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The third part of my North Yorks moors serial is now out. Annie is still trying to settle into Moor End House, but is hampered by not knowing what Luke and Rob are up to.

She finds a degree of peace amongst the trees in the grove, visits old Joe in hospital, and shows that she is determined to build her own life here.

Warning: features trees.

Birch, alder, willow, oak. Holly, hazel, apple, beech.
And the ivy to bind and the yew to watch.

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Written on the Wind - part two

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This week in my North Yorks moors serial, Annie is baffled by beautiful Luke and reacquaints herself with Celtic trees.

I love the illustration for part two: the way it waterfalls down the side of the page and pools in the bottom corner.

What Annie doesn't ever get to have - in print anyway - is one of my favourite things from Whitby: Botham's gingerbread loaf. Firm, dry but soft, melts in the mouth and intensely gingery. Exactly how gingerbread always used to be. Much consumption went into the writing of this serial.

13th March issue should be on sale Wed 7th or Thurs 8th this week.

In Praise of Books

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Old Books by Jan Jones

soft feathery pages
fat with words
overflowing with memories

how long since I read you
since I absorbed you into my consciousness
to be gently, insidiously, edged to the archive shelves of my mind

you fit easily to my hand
fall open as I blow off the dust
I smile
and curl into the library chair
melting back in time
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Gadding about!

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Goodness me, I am all over blogland today.

First you can catch me on the sparkly new Robert Hale Ltd blog talking about romance and my #RoNAs shortlisting.

And then head over to Historical Romance UK where I sigh wistfully over Dan Snow and contemplate the Painted Hall at Greenwich.




Comments on both sites - or even here - welcome!
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Written on the Wind - part one

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Hooray! The first part of my new serial for Woman's Weekly is out this week!

Written on the Wind is about Annie Farrow - an artist who makes beautiful, stylised mobiles. Her dream is to create larger installations whilst supporting herself with her artwork, but this seems unlikely until her great aunt leaves her a house on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors.

However, Annie discovers that the wild seclusion of Moor End House doesn't quite provide the uncomplicated lifestyle that she'd thought it would.


Issue is March 6th 2012 - on sale 1st March!

(And yes that IS David Essex on the cover)

Interview at RNA blog

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Today I am being interviewed over at the Romantic Novelists' Association blog. See you there!
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RoNA Rose Shortlisting!

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The Kydd Inheritance shortlisted for the RoNA Rose 2012!



The news is now out and I am so, so, so thrilled to be able to announce that I have been shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association awards for the third year running!

This year, the awards have a new logo and a new name: the RoNAs. There are six awards being made - Contemporary, Epic, Historical, Romantic Comedy, Young Adult and the RoNA Rose for category and hardback-only romance.

The Kydd Inheritance is a Regency love story set amidst secrets and skullduggery. Nell Kydd has to outwit her dangerously creepy uncle, reinstate her dangerously adventurous brother and come to terms with his dangerously attractive friend, Hugo Derringer.



The winners in each category will be announced at a wonderfully posh "Bubbly and Bites" event at One Whitehall Place on Monday 5th March. It would be a terrible waste not to buy a new frock for it, yes?


I'm delighted to see so many of my friends on the 2012 shortlists. The full lists are as follows:

Contemporary:

Chances, Freya North, (Harper Collins)

Christmas at Tiffany’s, Karen Swan, (Pan Macmillan)

It Started with a Kiss, Miranda Dickinson, (Avon (Harper Collins))

Summer of Love, Katie Fforde, (Arrow (Random House))

The Untied Kingdom, Kate Johnson, (Choc Lit)

To the Moon and Back, Jill Mansell, (Headline Review)

Epic Category: 

Crimson China, Betsy Tobin, (Short Books)

Jubilate, Michael Arditti, (Arcadia Books)

That Liverpool Girl, Ruth Hamilton, (Pan MacMillan)

The Kashmir Shawl, Rosie Thomas, (Harper Collins)

The Lantern, Deborah Lawrenson, (Orion)

Historical Category: 

A Gathering Storm, Rachel Hore, (Simon & Schuster UK)

Daughter of Siena, Marina Foriato, (John Murray)

Highland Storms, Christina Courtenay, (Choc Lit)

Perhaps Tomorrow, Jean Fullerton, (Orion)

The Noble Assassin, Christie Dickason, (Harper Collins)

Romantic Comedy Category: 

Lizzy Harrison Loses Control, Pippa Wright, (Pan MacMillan)

Please Don’t Stop the Music, Jane Lovering, (Choc Lit)

The Look of Love, Judy Astley, (Transworld - Black Swan)

Who’s Afraid of Mr. Wolfe?, Hazel Osmond, (Quercus)

Wrapped Up in You, Carole Matthews, (Little Brown Book Group - Sphere)

Young Adult:

Angel Fire, L. A. Weatherly, (Usborne Publishing)

Artichoke Hearts, Sita Brahmachari, (MacMillan’s Childrens’ Books)

Dark Ride, Caroline Green, (Piccadilly Press)

My So-called Phantom Lovelife, Tamsin Murray, (Piccadilly Press)

RoNA Rose: 

Flirting with Italian, Liz Fielding (HMB Riva)

A Christmas Knight, Kate Hardy (HMB Medical)

Ordinary Girl in a Tiara, Jessica Hart (HMB Riva)

The Kydd Inheritance, Jan Jones (Robert Hale)

The Dangerous Lord Darrington, Sarah Mallory (HMB Historical)

Winning the War Hero's Heart, Mary Nichols (HMB Historical)

Further information can be found at the RoNA Awards site and the Romantic Novelists' Association.