Behind-the-Scenes: a writing tag, answered

Hi, Kids! Still obnoxiously in the land of NO WIFI (can I scream like the first-world woman that I am?) so posts are still scarce as pre-boiled hens eggs, but I'm here at Starbucks again and I'm going to post by crikey. The Spindle & The Queen runs apace. I still haven't thought of a better title and I'm still angsting over getting all the details correct but I am happy with how it goeth.
There is much happy news in my land. My friend and editor, Rachelle Rea, has had published her second novel, The Sound of Silver! My friend, the ever-inspiring Mirriam Neal, has landed a contract for her wonderfully unique Paper Crowns and I'm pacing like a caged tiger to learn more details about it. I want to know by WHOM and WHEN we'll get to read it and all of that jazz. Patience. Bah.
I was also tagged by Elisabeth Foley to do the Behind-the-Scenes writing tag. I don't usually participate in tags but I figured that it could not possible hurt to help you peer into the foggy mist that is my writing process. It will help you cheer me on and that's something. Questions, then!

a blessing on your head, mazel tov, mazel tov.

Is there a certain snack you like to eat while writing? Hazelnut in dark chocolate. It began as my editing chocolate and is basically Nutella, deconstructed. I solemnly swear there is something in the molecular structure of this particular chocolate that is conducive to word-count and general productivity. It seldom, if ever, fails.

When do you normally write? Night, afternoon, or morning? Night. I would naturally prefer writing in the morning, but having a "real job" negates the possibility of morning or afternoon writing, except on Wednesdays which I have off, on principle.

Where do you write? Wherever is nearest to an outlet, as my mother's laptop (which I'm using till I buy a new on on Cyber Monday) cannot operate off-charger.

How often do you write a new novel? Ha. Hahahahahahaha.

Do you listen to music while you write? So rarely as to be a firm "no." If I do, it is instrumental, as I can't listen to someone else making words while I'm trying to.

What do you write on? Laptop or paper? Laptop, generally. I have fewer excuses if I write on Google Docs, which I can access anywhere. If I write on paper, there is far too much leeway for leaving it someplace like a car trunk for weeks on end (ahem).

Is there a special ritual you have before or after you write? Nope.

What do you do to get into the mood to write? Read someone else's work. Wish I could write like that. Decide I never will if I don't keep writing. Then I write.

What is always near the place you write? My inspiration journal, in which I keep all my research notes.

Do you have a reward system for word counts? Getting to stop without shame?

Is there anything about your process that others might not know about? I have a hard time tacking down plot. Characters, setting, dialog, writing itself are so much more natural to me than plot. I basically have to chase my story down a dark alley and buffet its head before it will respond with plot.

I tag Meghan Gorecki, since this tag has already been pretty well around my blogging circles. Cheers & stuff.

Challeng'd my Bookshelf

Those who hang around The Inkpen Authoress long enough realize that I almost never participate in tags. I do, however, make exceptions for tags that actually interest me and that contain questions I have an interest in answering. Also, if the tags come from a reputable source, I am more inclined to give them credence as more than just another chain letter. ;) My old-faithful, Elisabeth Foley of The Second Sentence, tagged me in this thing she calls "The Bookshelf Challenge". This tag is quite nontraditional, containing absolutely no mentions of coffee or tea or any of those questions one comes to dread in interviews. Therefore, I participate:

Is there a book you really want to read but haven't, because you know that it'll make you cry? I am going to use my Get Out of Jail card and say that The Book Thief by Markus Zusack is one such book. I am halfway through, but making exceptionally slow progress. Death as a narrator is brilliant but heavy, and since I have seen the movie and know to what certain death we are careening, it puts a bit of damper on my headlong fling toward the final pages.
Pick one book that helped introduce you to a new genre: For this, I would have to say Sarah Sundin's With Every Letter. I had never read a Christian historical romance, having a creeping suspicion that they were all fluffery and stupid characters, but when I won Sundin's novel in a giveaway, I was taken in by the gentle, steady way the author weaves her story into the real facts of WWII.
Find a book you want to reread: Easy. Plenilune, by Jennifer Freitag. Cannot wait to have a copy of this baby in my library (October 20th, October 20th, October 20th). Also, the Hawk & Dove books by Penelope Wilcock.
Is there a book series you read but wish that you hadn't? Abram's Daughters by Beverly Lewis. I got got three-quarters of the way through and gave it up as a bad job.
If your house was burning down and all your family and pets were safe, which book would you go back inside to save? My Wodehouses and A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken. Also, Winnie-the-Pooh.
Is there one book on your bookshelf that brings back fond memories? Doesn't every book? But to answer this, I should probably say The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. There are many others, but I will never forget the sensation of not knowing anything at all about it and delighting over the first read.
Find a book that has inspired you the most. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken
Do you have any autographed books? Actually, yes. I won the first two books in Sarah Sundin's Wings of the Nightingale series in two separate giveaways and both happened to be autographed copies! Also, I have quite a few from indie authors.
Find the book that you have owned the longest. Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne. I believe Mama gave me this book when I was five and I remember wanting to be able to say with Christopher Robin, "Now we are six!"
Is there a book by an author that you never thought you'd read or enjoy? Hmmm. Well, I had quite a prejudice against The Wind in the Willows for some time. Quite unfounded. And when I finally read it at the age of twenty-one, I realized I had been missing out on charm for years. On the other hand, perhaps I enjoyed it all the more because I was grown up and could understand the watercolored nuances. :)

Since Elisabeth tagged three authors, I will do the same. I tag Jennifer Freitag, Mirriam Neal, and Katelyn Sabelko.

The Utterly Baffled Tag

All right! No blog party is complete without a tag that you can take back with you to your own blogs, so I've concocted a tag for you with quite a lot of intriguing questions! The rules are simple: Fill out the questions of your own blog and come back here and comment to tell me you've done your post so the rest of us can run over and check it out! Also, thanks a million to all those who have entered Chatterbox! We have 13 entries to this blog event in its first month of life so I think it's been a rousing success! Now, on to the questions. I have answered them below as well!

1.) You are writing a mystery novel and decide to base the detective off of one of your writing friends: who do you choose?
2.) If you and the best of your writing-blog friends were living out a mystery, which of you would be most likely to end up as the victim?
3.) If you decided to write a mystery (or if, on the other hand, you do write mysteries) would your style fall under thriller, terror, literary, historical or cozy?
4.) Who is your favorite mystery-author?
5.) What is the best mystery you've ever read?
6.) If you were going to be in charge of solving a mystery, where would you want it to be set and what would the circumstances be?
7.) You walk into a library and find a body on the floor. Your first reaction:
8.) Your second reaction:
9.) What do you say when the policeman tells you that you are the prime suspect in the murder?
10.) How does your answer effect the powers that be?
11.) Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle walk into one of those Solve the Murder Dinner Theatres and sit down and start to spoil the fun by solving all the mysteries before anyone else and shouting the answers to the crowd: do you retaliate and if so, how?
12.) Post a quote from your favorite mystery//mystery author:

1.) You are writing a mystery novel and decide to base the detective off of one of your writing friends: who do you choose? This is actually an uber-easy question. I would choose Mirriam Neal because come to think of it, she would be a truly original personality for a sleuth. Actually, she'd make an awesome detective - one everybody would love to read about because she's just a mixture of Too Darn Cute & Impossibly Clever. Abigail Hartman would be a close runner-up because she's methodical and observant and rational which (as far as the method and perhaps rationality goes) Mirriam is not.
2.) If you and the best of your writing-blog friends were living out a mystery, which of you would be most likely to end up as the victim? Oh! Let me think for a sec....hummm....there would probably be an attempt on Jenny's life first, but I think that she'd surprise the villain by being rather unkillable. Thus, I think the first victim would be Katelyn Sebelko (poor darling!!) because there is no reason anyone would want to harm her, and that would make the mystery so complex.
3.) If you decided to write a mystery (I am) would your style fall under thriller, terror, literary, historical, or cozy? Cozy, definitely. Also loosely historical. I doubt it will ever become strictly historical albeit the mystery happens in the 1930's, but it will likely deal loosely with historical events as they pop up in the natural timeline of my character's Life & Times.
4.) Who is your favorite mystery author? Oh gee. I have really enjoyed what of Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey stories I've read and then again, the little of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels, but as far as being able to speak authoritatively on a broad scale, I'll have to stick with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
5.) What is the best mystery you've ever read? Hmmmm. I would have to say The Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because I kinda have a thing for unsolved mysteries. And as far as being somewhat of a mystery, though not really qualifying, I adore The Scarlet Pimpernel and I didn't know the YOU KNOW WHAT was YOU KNOW HIM in the final scenes. So it qualifies in my book.
6.) If you were going to be in charge of solving a mystery, where would it be set and what would the circumstances be? Oodalolly. It would be set in...in...the Lake District of England/Scotland and the circumstances would be that a body was found in broad daylight sitting upright in a rowboat moored in the middle of the lake. It would seem easy to solve except for the fact that there was a fishing competition that day and not a single person of all 50 competitors saw the boat moved into place. Furthermore, news footage of the event doesn't show it either.
7.) You walk into the library and find a body on the floor. Your first reaction: I would freeze on the threshold of the room and get very quiet. My heart would sink and I'd tip-toe over and probably prod the body with my foot (assuming it was facedown) to try to see who the heck it was and whether he was really dead or simply in a swoon.
8.) Your second reaction: I would perch on the edge of the desk, heart pounding, trying to sort out who to tell and how on earth the murder was committed. Then I realize the murderer might still be in the room and I scuttle off to phone the police.
9.) What do you say when the policeman tells you that you are the prime suspect in the murder? "Murder I might write, but I would never commit murder. I'm a christian, first of all, and secondly, I'd never be brave enough. Besides--I don't hate him; I don't even know him!" (Notice I would be flustered and not thinking coherently or cleverly."
10.) How does your answer effect the powers that be? Oh, they'd think I was sassing them and lob me off toward the station. Abigail Taylor would bail me out because she always does bail me out of everything else, and eventually my name would be cleared even though evidence of my shoe had been found on the body. (Note to self: never prod a prostrate form with your foot, okay?)
11.) Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle walk into one of those Solve the Murder Dinner Theatres and sit down and start to spoil the fun by solving all the mysteries before anyone else and shouting the answers to the crowd: do you retaliate and if so, how? I would at first be annoyed, but upon recognizing who it was, I'd probably sit there laughing helplessly and thinking what a fine blog post it would make, and then I'd edge closer and strike up an acquaintance and possibly go out for icecream with them afterward.
12.) Post a quote from your favorite mystery author:(AH! So many from which to choose!)
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Well that was jolly good fun. I hope you join in, as I'm eager to read your answers to these questions. Toodle-pip and cheers, everyone. I've got to go be useful now since breakfast is almost ready.

Tagged, bagged, and incorrectly labeled

 

My good friend, Meghan Gorecki has started the most nobby little affair I've ever seen: Every Good Word: a blog for writers by writers. One of the things I love about Meghan is her precision. She's a precise person and calls herself a perfectionist, but that has served her well on her personal blog and I am looking forward to her organization, vision, and sense on Every Good Word. To celebrate the launch of this new blog, Meghan has concocted a wonderful tag to help everyone get to know other writers! I thought I'd participate, so there you have it. Be sure to go take a wander on the blog; it's going to be a wonderful place.

What was your first-ever piece of writing? Poetry, I should think. As far as stories go, the story that is still somewhat nameless and that I refer to as Ella & Cornelia. Funnily enough, that story actually made it to full-novel status, albeit useless as far as content goes. I suppose that is peculiar for starting authors. I was only twelve at the time.

How old were you when you first began writing? Poetry began as soon as I realized rhymes existed - and it was terrible. Then it improved. Then it was rather good for an eight or nine-year-old. And as I said, my first story and, hence, my first novel was written at the sagacious age of twelve.

Name two writing goals. One short term & one long term. Short term goal: Finish The Baby by the end of the year. (copy-cat, I know.) Long term: be a realio-trulio published author and become trademarked for my charming, unique style in whatever the genre is. I want people to be able to read one of my books and not even see the name on the cover and think, "This sounds like Rachel Heffington", and then flip the book over and see that it is mine. 

Do you write fiction or non-fiction? Oh my. Well, I suppose you can say both since I do blog, but I consider myself almost exclusively a novelist.

Bouncing off question 4, what is your favorite genre to write in? This is a sticky and complex subject for me, as I don't style myself as any particular kind of author. I dabble in it all and enjoy it all. I have fantasy, historical fiction, inspiration-romance, children's fiction, YA and now mystery under my belt. Rather than being stylized by a genre, I prefer to bring my own twist to whatever genre I choose. I love diversity so I enjoy working in many different categories. 

One writing lesson you've learned since 2013 began? There is something to be said about plotting beforehand instead of pantsing, as I tend to do. (Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-ing.) This lesson was learned only by coming to grief first, I warn you.

Favorite author off the top of your head! C.S. Lewis. Oh, that's boring because everyone chooses him. Oh well. I would still have to say Lewis is tops. He's just...argh. He's just him and if you don't know what that means, you're missing out on something immense.

Three current favorite books. (Remember what I said about precision? Thanks, Meghan, for choosing the word "current".) A book I just picked up at the library and have fallen in love with already: P.D. James Talking About Detective Fiction ; fascinating read. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy might be sensational, but that woman could write, by Jove! It's been a favorite since I first read it. Anddddd....I will go out on a flattery-limb here (because it's true) and say Jenny Freitag's mysterious novel, Plenilune, which isn't published yet but taunts me eternally with beautiful snippets. It's a favorite of mine before I've even read it. So there.

Biggest influence on your writing {person}. Hrm. This is difficult. There are so many people who have influenced my writing... Speaking of modern people, not deceased authors, I would have to begin way back at Diana Sharples (author of soon-to-be-released Running Lean), who have really tough critique but built me into stronger stuff than I had yet been. Jenny Freitag is always an inspiration to keep red blood flowing through the veins of my characters. Rachelle Rea has given me gentle but pointed critique as well. My grandmother, as well, who is a terribly well-read person and thus not a flatterer when it comes to reading my work. She is my Alpha-Beta-Reader.

What's your go-to writing music? I don't usually listen to music when I'm writing, actually. My characters demand center-stage and music can be distracting. I do, however, like to listen to Andrew Peterson or Kate Rusby if the volume is low. Their music soothes my soul.

List three to five writing quirks of yours. I have to be barefoot to write. I make faces in accordance with whatever dialog I am writing. I talk about my characters as if I had nothing to do with their creation. (Do I?) I always begin my stories on paper; the feel of the pen inspires me to no end.

What, in three sentences, does your writing mean to you? A chance to see the world the way I see it and to cause other people to look at it in a way they may never have before. A chance to give to literature what literature has given to me: beautiful, timeless, charming stories that cause one to yearn for the onward and upward. A chance to conduct words into a living, breathing current of whimsy no one has read in the exact same pattern before.

I've Joined the June Crusade! *SAVE ME*! ;)

I have done something I may or may not regret. I've joined the June Crusade over at Scribblings of my Pen and Tappings of My Keyboard. It's NaNoWriMo but in June. Check it out! :) My novel I'll be using will, of course, be Fly Away Home. The goal is to write 50,000 words by June 30th. That means 1,667 words per day for 30 days. Think I can do it? Maybe. I'm trying at least, since I had been wanting to get back onto an accountable writing schedule. Yesterday's Word Count? 2085. Not bad. Not bad at all. I will be getting up early in the mornings to accomplish this. Think I'm crazy? Yeah. Probably. But I might as well try, since several of my writing buddies are doing it. :) To kick it off, The Anne-Girl (hostess of this event) has provided a fun tag:

What is the name of your novel?


Fly Away Home

Are you doing the book in a month challenge?


Well, I'm doing the 50k word challenge. I hope my book is longer than that. :)


Name your three main characters.


Eh....Calida Harper, Mr. Wade Barnett and Nickleby, the cat.


Give a basic summary of the plot line. Sort of like a back cover blurb.


Calida Harper graduated from journalism school and set out to win the title of World's Best Reporter. But now, a few years later Callie is chained to a desk drubbing out obituaries, ads, and the occasional theater-review. So she feels it's a big break when her boss assigns her to start a new magazine with journalism-hero Mr. Wade Barnett. It seems like the stroke of luck Callie has been waiting for. But life isn't all a bowl of cherries. Especially when one's measure of success, glory, and a life lived well oppose your employer's at every turn. Callie isn't sure she likes Mr. Barnett's old-fashioned ideas. He isn't certain she has her head screwed on right. Then the magazine-venture begins to fail and Callie risks losing her job, and the heart of the only man she has ever felt safe with. What will be the end of it all? Only time will tell if Callie is willing to fly away home.


Which character is your favorite so far?


Mr. Wade Barnett, of course. Actually--guilty confession--I am writing him as a character I'd be certain to fall in love with if it was a published book I was reading. You know--the next Mr. Knightley? ;)

Do you believe in assigned word counts and deadlines, or just writing whenever you feel like it?

I believe a self-imposed deadline or word-count can be rather beneficial in  getting the first draft done. However, I do think there is some wiggle-room. :)

What's your books theme song?


Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" or else "The Way  You Look Tonight" :)

What inspired you to write this?

My short story: "How About Coffee?" :)


Have ever read or seen Les Mis?


Read the entire, huge, thick, monstrous unabridged version, and have listened to much of the music and loved it. I'm planning on seeing the movie this December (*squeal*) and watching it on the Broadway tour next spring! :)

What author has inspired you the most? 


Gracious. Different people at different times. E. Nesbit, Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse, L.M. Alcott, Jenny Freitag, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, A.A. Milne...lots of peeps. :)

Well...sing ho! I've joined the June Crusade!!!! :)

"It's my Hundred-and-Elevendieth Birthday!" ;)

I generally don't go in for the whole tag-business, but when I was tagged by The Anne-Girl, with an "11-themed" tag, it looked like so much fun that I thought I'd go ahead and do it. :) Without further ado:

We begin with 11 random things about myself:

1.  I do not like breakfast food
2. I wish I had deeply rich, red hair
3.  I am scared.to.death. of rabid animals (And the possibility of a rabid mosquito. O.o)
4. I get the shivers when I walk on top of spilled sugar
5.  Blogger and I are not on speaking terms at present
6. I am periodically seized with what Mr. Woodhouse calls "wander-lust" and I feel that I'll split if I don't travel somewhere.
7.  I nickname all the guys on my cousin's baseball team...let's see. There's "Peter Pan," "Goatee Man," "The Duckling," "Jesse" "Ernest T"...yeah. :D
8. I speak all my most serious, innermost thoughts in a British accent.
9.  I have an extreme aversion to all things that remotely resemble Summer Heat
10. I have Dutch Royalty and Davy Crockett in my blood. Oh yeah. :)
11. I have queer sympathies with characters everyone else hates...Frank Churchill, anyone?

Now I get to answer the 11 questions from the Anne-Girl!

1. Who is your favorite animated character from a movie?
Oh my! I think I'd have to say Flounder or Scuttle from The Little Mermaid. :D (I hadn't seen that movie in like....12 years or something and watched it again recently and it is so ridiculous! But I used to be in love in Prince Erik.)

2. If you could have any part on a Broadway show, what would it be?
This opens up so many parts... (and assuming I had a Broadway-worthy voice...) But I'd have to say either Galinda of Wicked, Laurie of Oklahoma! or Eponine of Les Miserables.Or Mary Poppins. :D

3. Describe your ideal villain:
Can a villain be ideal? Okay. Then Cold, Cruel, Handsome, Scheming, inordinately brilliant.


4. What is your favorite non-Austen period drama?
Either North and South or The Young Victoria.

5. Who is your favorite literary role-model?
Hrm....either Esther Summerson or Amy Dorrit--both from Charles Dickens' books.

6. Do you have a least favorite hero?
Marius Pontmercy of Les Miz. I think he was supposed to be a hero and I kept wondering why.

7. Are you compulsively clean or comfortably messy?
A happy medium between the two.

8. How do you drink your coffee?
Plenty of cream and honey. :)

9. Do you ever read the last page first?
Never. That is sacrilege.

10. P&P '95 or '05?
'95 as far as casting, integrity of the story, over-all-ness, but '05 for film quality and soundtrack.

11. What is your favorite Broadway song?
 Oh dear. I really can't choose just one, but I'll leave it at select songs from Oklahoma, Wicked, Phantom, Les Miz and Fiddler.

Now I make up 11 questions of my own for y'all...

1. What is your favorite flavor of jellybean?
2. Dancing in the rain or walking with an umbrella?
3. Pens or Pencils?
4. Shoes or bare-feet?
5. Hammock or tree-house?
6. Ideal summer day: Describe it.
7. If you could look a certain way, what would it be?
8. Would you ever get a haircut above your shoulders?
9. Funniest person of your acquaintance:
10. Do you like chunks of stuff in your ice-cream?
11.  Mint and Chocolate or Cherries and Chocolate?

And lastly I tag some friends.  :)

Abigail Taylor
Sarah
Katie
Ashley
Elizabeth Rose
Miss Georgiana Darcy
Felicity Deverell
Rachel Hope

First Impressions: A Getting-To-Know-It tag :)

I am one for liking to know tid-bits about every one else's stories. I love reading Katie's scribbles of story, and the priceless peeps Jenny and Abigail give us into their books. But how is one to entirely immerse oneself in a story if you don't know much about it? So that is why I've designed this "First Impressions" tag. It will [hopefully] explain some things about The Scarlet-Gypsy Song, and give you a better impression of what it is I am scribbling.

1. Who are the main characters?
Cecily Woodruff, banished princess of Scarlettania, who is spending her banishment as a nanny in our world. Also, Adelaide, Bertram, Charlotte, Darby, Eugenie, and Fergus Macefield (her charges) who stumble into Scarlettania and find they can no more get out of that world than Cecily can get out of ours. And last but not least, the villain: Randolph Fitz-Hughes. And, as a fairy-tale would not be half so satisfactory without one, I am thinking a Prince is in order, though he hasn't come into being yet.

2. How did you get the idea for this story?
The only correct answer for this question would be the other way round: The story got me. The first line popped into my head: "There was Nannykins to begin with..." and suddenly I had Darby, and after him I got Miss Perdue, and then Cecily and the rest of the children. I nearly always begin with characters.

3. What genre is this story?
I suppose most would call it fantasy, though it's rather a mash of a classic Nanny-tale and a Fairy-tale. I am writing it as a pretty, winsome, charming, satisfying story intended for readers between the ages of  8 and 12 with clever things to make adults laugh as they read it to their children. Strange goal, that. You must keep me updated on how I'm doing.

4. Describe your book in three thoughts:
Cecily Woodruff: a princess banished to the world of naughty children Who Need Nannies. The Macefields: Children who stumble into her fairy-tale and cannot find a way out. Life may or may not ever be the same again.

5. The bit that describes an obscure piece of real life best:

 It is queer, how the entrance of a stranger into our midst can put a new face on things we have stared at for years on end. The dear old nursery seemed to have hidden itself behind a company-curtain, and Darby saw little bouquets of red flowers on the wall-paper instead of lumpy old men, and a water-stain on the ceiling where he was accustomed to seeing a lion with a humped back. He disliked this sensation of everyday things turning their backs on him, and he crossed his eyes so as to easier see the lumpy old men. Ah. There they were, as usual. He straightened his shoulders and poked his tongue out at the water-spot which would not look like a hump-backed lion again despite his efforts.

6. The funniest line said by a side-character thus far:

 “Children,” he [Mr. Macefield] said, fingering his limp cravat and beaming. “Miss Woodruff here is to be your new nanny. Never thought a newspaper ad to be quite so effective. Glad I put it all in capitals, despite the expense.” 

7. Your favorite piece of description:

        The mirror, having been for years in the habit of reflecting Nannykins’ wrinkled face and then Miss Perdue’s warts, was so delighted to see the beautiful  image of Cecily Woodruff that it grabbed sparkles of sunshine from the window and threw them across the new nanny and the children so they stood in a shower of light almost like fairy-dust.

8.  Your biggest fear in the writing of this story:
That I'll lose the quaint, saucy flavor of the prose before the end. It isn't easy you know, being clever for the length of a novel.

9. Last full sentence you wrote:

As this time was the one hour of the day in which Mr. Macefield emerged from his scribbling, he presided over the snack and poured tea, leaving inky fingerprints on the handles of all the tea-cups, and blotting-sand in the biscuits.

10.   Favorite character thus far:
Oooh. Hard one. I'd have to say Darby, as he's such a duck.


11. What books have been written or have you read that are similar in style and flavor to your novel?
Umm...I don't exactly know....Mary Poppins for one, then Nurse Matilda, then The Ordinary Princess...and hmmm. Maybe Five Children and It? I haven't really read any that combine the two worlds in the way my story is doing.

12. If it was destined to become a book on tape, who would you wish to read it?
Easy. Sophie Thompson. Gotta love her voice for a dry, humorous tale. :)

There you have it! I hope you are a little better acquainted with my story by now! The rules of this tag are:

• You must fill out all the questions and post it on your blog.
• You must tag four-six more authors to do it.
• You must then let me know if you've done it so I can read all about your tales!

That being said, I must now tag my people:
Katie from Whisperings of the Pen
Abigail from Scribbles and Inkstains
Jenny from The Penslayer
Miss Georgiana Darcy from the same :)

Thanks a million and have a lovely day. ~Rachel