Virtues

One needs skills to be an author. Everyone knows more or less what they are. Few deny that without some skills, success is limited.

There is no denying one also needs virtues. In today's world, youngsters are not instructed directly about virtue. They have no real idea what the concept entails. Which means they have no idea how useful virtues can be.

A sport coach or two might put virtues in their training terminology, and Sunday School might give them a mention, but writing manuals? Literary consultants? I don't think so. Let's define a few, and see how far we get. We are told there are seven identifiable virtues: abstract concepts that can be hard to grasp or apply to the crackpot world of publishing or the stretchy occupation of authoring books. It's worth an attempt to those who are disciplined enough to have written a few books to define what they feel are the character traits or habits that help rather than hinder their career. They must understand that they have a few qualities with merit without which they would not have been able to put together that last book.

patience

 kindness

love

humility

diligence

Here they are!

I have tinkered with the four cardinal virtues, the three theological virtues and the seven heavenly virtues to come up with five of my own, which I think as an author, I cannot afford to ignore. They all seem to be self-explanatory, and all who read this might be able to see how they are applicable to authors and the life they lead, the habits they form and the principles to which they would like to adhere.

Image from twostep.com

I am patient to a fault: that one's the easiest virtue I find to follow, but diligence and love? Hm - some work needed there. I certainly do not always love what I do, and do not always work as hard at it as I'd like to be able to. 

What about other writers? What about you - do you find your list shorter or longer than mine? Are you good at waiting? Do you feel a pang of envy or humility every time a colleague publishes something fantastic that sells the instant it's out?

Perhaps all authors should make a list they think they should adopt, and without which they might feel at a disadvantage compared to those who have chalked up some sort of success. Or written about a topic they have longed to treat. Or changed genres to one they really always wanted to work in.

Ha! Perhaps this is what all writers should be doing instead of finding more means of exposure on the social media!

Tell me which virtue you feel has recently contributed to some of your success.

Will they come if you build it?

Anyone who has ever written a whole book will tell you it's tantamount to erecting a baseball or football stadium. Planning, summoning the courage, gathering resources, funding, finding time, seeking like-minded individuals for support, all the figuring out of markets, and then ... publicity and promotions.

And that's where the similarity ends! People flock to stadiums because it's where sport enthusiasts, athletes and participants must meet. I have yet to hear of a sports stadium that never hosted a match, perhaps some sort of stellar event, weekly games, or even a few humble training sessions. I do not think there's such a thing as a stadium that got ignored. It was built, and they came.

Image via WikipediaBooks are different, and so are writing careers. One can build all one likes, but one can never rely on there being an audience. It's a spooky fact that no one might come. The books can very well remain unread, unrecognized, unnoticed. There is no career with books that are unread.

A lot of advice about publicity and promotions for authors is very strange. It all seems to start with Step Two. There are behests to "Send people to your landing page", or "Direct people to your books on Amazon", or "Your blog should invite people to read: have a call to action". All these things require people to address. It's not possible to send people anywhere, or get them to do anything, without having their attention first. Many have asked me about this. And I have asked myself a number of times: where does one find that initial knot of people willing to try a new author out; willing to take an action; willing to read a blog; willing to try out a first chapter?

Unlike a huge stadium, a book has a mountain of competing books among which it is completely hidden. Buried. Overwhelmed. Placing a book on Amazon, starting a blog, setting up a website or ordering a box of paperbacks are all great steps, but they take place in pitch darkness. No 'people' can see them. There are only a few people to tell, but they are not nearly enough to fill your 'stadium'. You might have built it, metaphorically speaking, but who will come? How can they come if they don't know about it? How do you tell the crowd out there? Putting a new book on an unknown blog is like never having done a thing.

They say that all one needs is a thousand true and loyal fans. That makes it easy, because each will tell seven friends, and your books will become popular through word of mouth. Until one tries, one has no idea how difficult it is to gather a thousand readers. If you are reading this and nodding, agreeing that even two dozen sales was a phenomenal result, after a superhuman effort you don't think you could summon again, you are not alone. All the world's new authors are nodding with you.

It is monumentally hard, for most new writers, to gather any interest at all for their work. The hardest thing ever attempted, they start to understand, is to get anyone to read anything you have written. There are many, many books on Amazon that have no ranking - which means no one has ever bought a single copy from the Amazon site. The author might hold a roaring sale at every writers' club meeting or shop signing, or university workshop, but Amazon registered no sales. There are millions, literally millions, of Amazon titles with a ranking over 2,000,000. This means very infrequent sales.

Why does this happen? Where are the people? Why is having a title on an online shop not enough? It's not enough, because new books by new authors are virtually invisible. Someone must tell people they exist. But who can the author tell? How does one address a market? Where are the readers of your book? They are strangers, almost impossible to reach.

It doesn't matter how fancy your blog is - if no one sees it, it matters little what's on it, or whether you promote your books or not. All those clever instructions you keep reading require an audience you cannot understand how to obtain in the first place.

Here are a few suggestions to create that knot of people who might become your first readers.I hope you find a thousand!

- Join an online discussion group concerned with your genre
- Join a number of interactive social media sites
- Comment regularly on a set number of relevant blogs: don't be random
- Seek authors who successfully formed a fan base, and observe what they do
- Be prepared to offer advice and interesting commentary
- Seek out avid readers in your genre
- Start small, but start

These activities will befriend you with a number of like-minded authors, readers, and curious people. If you have enough to offer and you are interesting enough, acquaintances might very well grow into friendships, which you must nurture. Generate a list of email addresses you can use (with permission), and formulate a method of keeping in touch infrequently, with interesting observations or news. Those who do not like this kind of contact will soon let you know. The list will evolve into a fan base.

You might start with five, which might grow to fifty-five in about a year. Remember we dreamed about a thousand? Yes - it takes years, and there's no time to start like the present. It's a new year, the industry is becoming more and more amazing. Go out there and instead of building a stadium, start a game of marbles in the dust, and see who will come out to play.

Are you creating a fan base? A knot of loyal readers? Tell me what you do.

Are you a loyal reader? What do you like about the activities and work of new authors you find?

That's all there is: there isn't any more

 

                                       Image via Wikipedia    This year, 2011, proved to be a most extraordinary one for me as an author.

I am sure that those of you who have followed its progress, in one way or another, as reader or author, have realized the changes that have taken place in the industry, this year, right under our noses. What is significant to note is that some of the shift was instigated, supported and promoted by a different set of people, for a change.

Rather than the powerful conglomerates affecting change, it has been the individual author, but much more importantly, the individual reader, to direct the way the publishing world has flowed. Authors on their own cannot - and will never be able to - cause or manoeuvre a paradigm shift the like of which we have witnessed since October 2010. Readers have flocked to the works of independent authors and small publishers like never before. Now, to determine which came first is a chicken / egg dilemma people are deciding for themselves. But something happened to book pricing this year. Something happened to the way readers read. Something happened to WHAT is being read, and something big enough happened to change bottom lines.

More able writers than I have addressed the shift and there are some very good blogs to be read that sum up 2011 in a masterful way.

Here, I am going to put down a few sentences on how my career has shifted, in just twelve or so months. My second novel was launched by BeWrite Books in March. In April and May, I started to independently publish my back list of short story collections, with the latest, Encore, coming out a few weeks ago. This has swelled my available titles to ten. But that's not all. In the middle of the year, BeWrite Books accepted my third novel, Camera Obscura, which will be launched in 2012. And I also released a number of short stories for quick reads at affordable prices.

What this has meant to sales of my titles must be seen to be believed. Royalties cheques from BeWrite have never been this good. Sales on Kindle and Createspace for my indie titles are also amazing. They cannot compare with some of the newsworthy hits and their authors who have made the headlines, but for me, they are nothing short of astounding. Not a day goes by without some sales happening somewhere on Earth. This - until this year - was the stuff of dreams for small-name authors, unagented and without the backing machine of a large corporation.

I end 2011 with much hope, and with wishes of the same for the many authors I have met along the way. Many have helped me to make decisions, and to formulated plans of attack, and without them I would still be floundering. Without naming them individually, they include colleagues on LinkedIn discussion groups, who have argued, advised, tried, tested and reviewed until they were blue in the face. Colleagues on ANZauthors, which comprises authors from the Antipodes with a wealth of experience, from which I benefit every day without fail. Colleagues on the much-maligned Kindle threads, whose humour and good nature showed me how to - and how not to - go about discussing my fiction. Individual bloggers who have interviewed and hosted me and my titles on their sites, introducing me to a host of new fans. Editors who have published me previously, in journals, anthologies and as publishers - they have participated and helped. The marvelous team at BeWrite Books, without whose innovation and far-sightedness, According to Luke and Death in Malta would never have seen the light of day.

I must also mention family, friends and those on my emailing list, who receive my missives and act upon them. They include old colleagues from places where I have taught, authors I have met along the way, academics I have worked with, struggling poets, childhood friends and supportive family members. The friends I have made through my children's schools and hobbies, their teachers... so many came to my signings, launches and bought my books. I do mention Robyn Varpins by name - she is the artist who painted a large number of icons and reverential works for my launch. Without her input, the launch would not have been half the wild success we enjoyed.

I doubt there will be another year like 2011. It's been impossibly hard work. I have written the equivalent of two novels in blogs, posts and comments, but it's been more than worth it. Although I do not measure success by numbers of book sales, it does count that I have never sold so many books before, in just twelve months. It is the stuff authors dream of. But it's over now - in the words of Ludwig Bemelmans, there isn't any more. We are all going to have to devise new ways to keep up with the changes, and new writing to supply the canny readers to whom we owe so much.

Thank you one and all - a last comment, perhaps decribing your year, would be most welcome.

Plus ça change ...

                                       Image via WikipediaAlthough things seem to change very rapidly in the publishing arena, little has altered in the reader's world, except the sheer volume of choice.

Examining the statistics seems amazing to those who know little about the machinations of book publishing. Who on earth is going to read all those millions of books? If one were to count the readers in any single country, one would not find enough to consume the enormous numbers of books being created by the day.

One would have to eliminate those too young to read or purchase books. Or those with financial restrictions that do not allow them to buy a cheap children's book. One must eliminate the illiterate. And remove those who simply do not read or buy books. A proportion of the population borrows from the libraries that are still standing. Some have not touched a book since school. Many chuck books out with childhood, like so many highchairs, strollers, nappies and bottles.

Reading is not for everyone. Although literacy levels continue to rise, they have little to do with whether that literacy applies to book purchasing - people read other material. They do not have to read books - there is enough material around that needs deciphering. The amount of reading one has to do in an interactive game, for example, is tantamount to a small novel.

I stood in Big W yesterday - a department store that carries everything, from hammers and nails to chocolate and dinner sets and toasters, shoes and fishing rods. I waited by an enormous dump bin crammed with cheap paperbacks and looked at the book section, crammed mainly with celebrity cookbooks, sporting biographies and bestselling novels by household name authors. The store buzzed with shoppers, but the book department was almost deserted. Already shrunk to a quarter of its previous size, and occupying floor space equivalent to a large lounge room, it was the only quiet spot in the store.

Interesting. I watched browsers (all female), who gravitated without fail to the colourful children's section.

The digital entertainment section buzzed. Dozens walked away with appliances as I watched. I lost count of the eReaders taken off the shelves, and an assistant promptly came to replenish the shelf with Kindles.

I realized that the sales predictions of the industry would apply mainly to online bookstores. Few were making their book purchases as I looked. In the entire shopping complex, two of the bookstores were no more, and the one left was pushed into a corner, and contained only three shoppers when I came up in the lift.

Different from other years? Marginally. I knew what was going on online - I have watched it all year, for a number of years now. Just because readers have shifted where they buy books does not mean they do it any differently. Even the fact that a large number of bought books remain unread stays the same.

The hardworking author might do well to examine what is happening. I leave the conclusion to them - whether they see the changes in quantity of available books - competition - as heartening or depressing depends on their ability to bring their books to the notice of readers, and the ability of their words to retain their attention.

Reading is alive and well - that is not the issue. It's the over supply that makes authors wonder where all this might go in the next five years or so.

What are YOUR predictions?

Promotions and awards

It pays to promote - creators of some sort of product know that well. Authors find the need to promote their books an understandable task: it is necessary, yet can prove daunting, puzzling and demands a different kind of mindset. Finding like-minded authors, who see promotion the way you like to think of it, is not an easy task either. Sharing successes and woes is necessary in the new game that's opened up to independent authors and those who publish with small presses.

Publicity comes at a price, and that is time and trouble. But when one is unexpectedly awarded with a nomination, apart from the surprise that comes out of the blue, one is flattered, and made to feel glad. The message is getting out, and some are reading my blog almost as soon as it hits the ether. Thank you, Dan Nader, of Avoiding the Stairs - you have surprised and gladdened me with this nomination. I must say I display this bright green badge with pride. And joy. And gratitude.

It could not have come at a better time.

It comes with a set of instructions: I must nominate other blogs, and I must divulge seven things about myself as an author. Hm - not an easy thing to do, since what I know about myself is not exactly riveting or the sort of thing one can put in a blog with impunity. Let's have a try regardless:

1. I have a real knack for wrapping presents. I proved it several times this week.


2. I never wear necklaces - the only thing I hang around my neck are glasses.


3. I am a very slow reader, and rarely read more than a few pages at a time. The right-left eye movement sends me to sleep like nothing else can.


4. Very hot weather is appalling. I'm a cool weather type. Having Christmas in hot weather is not exactly ideal.


5. I love music, and try to include it in my writing. Not always easy, but the effort is worth it. To find out what I like, read my fiction!


6. I used to be a heraldic artist, so I can draw a lion rampant or a griffin couchant in a space smaller than an inch square.


7. I'm the calmest of creatures in a traffic jam, and I can wait a long time for things to arrive in the mail, but I can't wait for release of my forthcoming thriller, Camera Obscura.




Now to nominate five more deserving bloggers for the Versatile award. This is very very difficult, so bear with me while I think. These are places where I read and comment frequently.


Drumroll ...

Pic from squidoo.com

1. Helen V's Imagine Me at Clarion South


2. Mark Hunter's Slightly Off the Mark

3. Stuart Aken's  Daily Word Blogs

4. Mark Nichol's Daily Writing Tips

5. Tom Kepler's Writing Blog

There - that wasn't so hard. Now I must let these guys know. If you know them and already read these blogs, pass on the good news. If you have never heard of them, now's the time - click over to their neck of the woods, and enjoy the read.

Authors and book sales

It would be an unusual author who did not wonder from time to time about their book sales. Some say it's not what they write for, since the satisfaction of putting work 'out there' is all they need. Others produce a few copies for friends and family, and the joy of being read by their small circle is quite enough. A few dread the publicity, or what could happen if fame or notoriety knocked at their door, so they hang back.

Image via WikipediaBut realistically speaking, most authors have some sort of level of interest in how their titles do on the market. Curiosity, eagerness, wishful thinking or a purely commercial mind-set will eventually push an author to harbour the desire to know how a title is doing, as far as sales are concerned. Not reviews. Not favourable comments on blogs. Not letters or emails from distant relatives or friends. No ... sales. Simple numbers of sales as they appear in a column of figures. Or on a pie-chart. Or a graph. They are not interested in global book sales of all the authors in a genre, or all the authors in a given region. They want to know how many books they have sold.

Most independent publishers send out half-yearly royalties statements to their authors. It used to be quarterly, but time and staff restrictions have seen the periods lengthen somewhat. So every six months, authors' eyes travel up and down those columns of figures and seek ... you've guessed it. Numbers of sales. How many copies of any title sold in that six-month period. How many people clicked that button. How many copies Amazon posted off. How many paperbacks in paperbags?

davidderrico.com

With so many turning to self-publishing (it's also possible these days to write that down without the need for euphemistic synonyms!) the ability to read sales figures almost as soon as the sale takes place has come about. Hold an account with Createspace or Kindle, and you hold the facility to view your figures in real time minus one hour! Oh goody gumdrops. Not.

This convenience, this facility, has the in-built ability to drive you mad. Make an addict of you. Take you from your writing. Sales could become the bane of your life. Arrggh! It used to be submission fever. Agent allergy. Rejection phobia. Now it's figure fatigue. I know some authors who keep a daily eye on what's happening on Amazon, Sony Ebook Store, Smashwords, and a couple of other online retailers. Daily. I know more than just a couple who have a peep many times a day. This can do a number of things to one's self-esteen, one's general morale, and one's schedule. It can completely stifle the will to carry on writing, or it can fill one with such euphoria it's impossible to write another word.

Every second day is a scenario that seems more sane. Let's face it - a sale is a sale. Its record will not fade away if one waits until the morrow. Weekly, too. A weekly peep will still give you a great idea. If an author were to look once a month, even, the figure is sure to gladden.

The temptation to look, however, is enormous. It's more than just an itch or idea. It's a compulsion.

Isn't it?

Related articles

• How Well Is My Book Selling? Now Authors Have More Answers (moconews.net)

A weak character can make a strong protagonist

Most writing manuals, courses on creative writing and authors' handbooks tell the writer to create strong characters. This makes one visualize tough personalities, imperturbable people who march through the written pages like nothing can flap them. Like they are made of steel. Titanium. Sterner stuff than we meet in our daily humdrum lives.

Strong character

Hm - on the other hand, authors are required by their audience to be believable. To create characters one might enjoy meeting. Or fear, or avoid, or love or admire, in a realistic way. To populate novels with memorable characters is certainly the requirement of today's demanding reading public.

Strong characters - two words one often finds in book reviews. Still, one has to wonder what strong really means. Exploring this in depth is vitally necessary to those who write character-driven stories: stories that stay in the heart not merely because of heart-stopping action, but because of the heart-rending emotion and psychological drama through which the author has led the protagonist.

We all have personality flaws and weaknesses - and secretly, we like to find similar failings in books, especially novels. Relating to a heroine who falls for the wrong bloke, but comes through victorious in the end makes for entertaining reading to some. Relating to a hero who dithers, ducks and weaves but reaches some sort of decision-making stance by the end can make for a good read. Many readers like it when tough-guy baddies have a chink in their armour. Since there is no such thing as a totally strong and unassailable character in life, we hardly expect to find it in fiction.

Brad Pitt as Achilles

Weakness in character, an Achilles' heel, a flaw or habit that reins in a protagonist and makes her worthy of attention can be interesting, and serve to make a novel that much more entertaining and intriguing.


In my forthcoming romantic thriller, Camera Obscura, my hero struggles valiantly with his weak side. He wonders why he cannot turn himself around, exit his inertia. He finds a woman who - in contrasting ability to his - takes charge of his life, at least for an interval, and makes him dizzy with ... with a feeling he cannot analyze. Oh dear. This man has weaknesses and failures. And yet, I have made that a strength. A strength for the novel and what it means. I hope I have imbued Bart Zacharin with enough muscle to satisfy a reader seeking change.

Perhaps that is what readers do seek: a weak character with failures much like their own, who finds an impasse but manages to overcome it.


Stay with me for the next few months, until Camera Obscura hits the online bookshops. Read chapter one by clicking on this link, and try and figure how I take Bart Zacharin from his state of inertia and make of him a fine hero one would not mind keeping and following.

Tell me what kind of character you like, if you are a reader. If you are an author, do you relish putting your characters through trials and tribulations that make them stronger?

Related articles

• Character weakness adds interest: 8 easy choices for character development (storybodyguard.com)

Saint Luke's Secret World

Image via Wikipedia

The Four evangelists by Jakob Jordaens

There were four evangelists. They did their writing during the first century AD, and what they wrote is now lost to us in the original. As one would imagine for such important writings - in an age when literacy was either low or non-existent among the ordinary town and village populations of the world - the scrolls were copied many many times and learned off by heart to be passed along verbally to the faithful, by those who took it upon themselves to spread the word.

There were historic intervals when supporting or disseminating the Christian faith was dangerous, if not lethal. Reciting what the evangelists left behind as testaments was not always safe. The copies of the gospels, as they came to be known, were hidden, secreted, buried, lost, stolen, forgotten, left behind and discarded. As often happened in history, some hiding places were only discovered centuries after the caretaker of a scroll died.

The faithful spread the word, and the evangelists suffered for their diligence and zeal in getting the word out. Their followers, translators and transcribers did their best to further the dissemination of their important message. Despite - or because of - this zeal, mistakes were often made, and what we read in the scriptures today is in all probability quite different from the original writings the four testament writers took pains to put down for posterity. What we are left with is the subject of study, controversy and conjecture by scholars. Is it exactly what the evangelists wrote?

So many stories - myths and legends - grew around the origins of the gospels, who had written them, and the ways they were copied, translated and interpreted, that it was difficult to come upon one unifying decision. Conclusions and pronouncements were made by kings and popes, and some were contentious enough to incite great debate or outright wars.

When Jakob Jordaens painted the picture you see here, he might have done it with something other than devotion or reverence. The origins and motivations of the evangelists must have been on the artist's mind. Controversy surrounds the reason why this respected Flemish painter portrayed three old men and one rather young one. Who is the youngest one? Is it Luke? Was Jordaens privy to a secret about the identity of this evangelist? We must remember that according to historians, Luke never met Jesus, but did meet Mary. Did the Flemish artists of Jordaens's time know something disputable about Luke's identity that has remained a secret?

Find out in According to Luke, a novel that takes the secret controversy and blows it apart. As an author, I took on a lot of research, and found that a considerable number of Flemish artists portrayed Luke in an androgynous way - unbearded, smooth-skinned, and with eyes averted. Why did they do this? They must have shared some secret about the evangelist who traveled with Saint Paul and wrote the Acts of the Apostles. What did they know?

Read According to Luke and see how this exciting thriller gives a reasoned, researched solution to the question. See how Saint Luke's secret world was so dangerous that murder, extortion and mayhem were undertaken to keep it that way... secret.

Nothing beats F2F

Yesterday, I gave a talk about According to Luke, together with Robyn Varpins, the artist who created all the icons and other reverential artworks for the launch of the novel in May 2011.

Atwell Art Centre, Perth WA

We spoke to a room of very enthusiastic art patrons and practitioners, who were very intrigued by the interface between fiction and visual art. Talking in tandem, Robyn and I discussed the various aspects of the whole project.

I spoke about how I conceived the story and the characters. Robyn spoke about materials, inspiration, and working to a theme. Some of her icons were on display, and aroused a lot of interest. The aged timber supports, paints used, additions such as gold leaf... the audience was spellbound, and one could feel the questions start to form.

Although there was no time to read an excerpt, since this was a Wednesday lunchtime event with most people engaged for something else later in the day, it was lovely to see the rapt expressions of the varied audience. They watched the scrolling slide show on a large screen to one side, which showed various shots of locations from the novel, ancient icons, publisher BeWrite Books logo, locations used, and the cover of the paperback, of course.

Several copies stood on a table, in a display that included several Rubik's cubes, to highlight the significance of the cover illustration - a design by Tony Szmuk. In a very brief sidebar, I commented on the relationship one develops with the publishing team, and what joy and satisfaction can be derived from it. It is very much a part of what an author's life is all about.

Questions from the audience revealed a fascination with all things visual, and how they can relate to the human condition, fiction, and a host of other ingredients. A couple of audience members admitted to a fondness for writing, and all were avid readers - sometimes an author just gets lucky! Robyn and I could have answered questions all afternoon, but Deb Weber, our hostess for the event, wound up the session and opened the 'shop'. Yes, sales were very healthy for both books (they were all claimed off the table!) and icons, so Robyn and I both went home very pleased with the whole day.

Madonna icon by Robyn Varpins

One of the questions we were asked was whether we were going to attempt another collaborative project similar to the one for According to Luke. Robyn and I both nodded with the same enthusiasm. The success of this project is making us think very hard about the upcoming launch for my next thriller, Camera Obscura.

Since it involves visual art again, I have no doubt we shall be able to enthrall the growing body of fans for this kind of overlap between the different disciplines.

Do you read books about art? Leave a comment if seeing images from a novel portrayed in real paintings would elicit a shift in perception for you.

Do you write books about art? How does collaboration with an artist sound to you?

Inspiring locations

Authors are often asked on interviews where they find their inspiration. Some find that question hard to answer, since seasoned writers can find triggers in almost everything: nature, real life situations, observation of behaviours, and more. In fact, anything to do with the human condition can get a seasoned author thinking creatively.

Overlooking Grand Harbour, Malta

I have often said that words themselves can drive me to write: a great sentence read in a newspaper article, a long-lost proverb, a line out of a play or song, or something as prosaic as a billboard can form the basis of a whole chapter or short story.

But nothing inspires me in the same way as a good location. More than the visual aspects alone, I can be captivated by what more imaginative people sometimes call the 'spirit of a place'. My pragmatic nature shies from words such as 'spirit', but I do hold that places are much more than what one can see in them.

A visit to a location sets off a series of questions in my writer's mind, and they are to do with history, origin, and the various footsteps that tramped that place through the years; the eyes that saw it, and the various stories that might have taken place in the very spot where one stands with one's camera.

Take this picture on the right. I stood right there in 2004, and waited until dusk bathed Grand Harbour, in Valletta with a veil of darkness, which was suddenly transformed by golden floodlights that turned the whole magnificent inlet into quite another place. The battlements and bastions were turned upside down in the water, and even the plainly practical port structures such as cranes looked romantic and meaningful. I had to use that scene - but more than just a scene: I had to use that feeling.

I gave the sentiment to a protagonist in a novel that will be released soon: I made him stand right in that spot, taking photos and feeling the enormous shunt the sheer history of a place can give a person. It's like a kick in the derriere that puts one little life into perspective. In the face and presence of some locations - and the essence packed into them - everything is pushed willy-nilly into perspective.

When the characters in my fiction have a problem, I send them to some magnificent place. I make them stand in some location where many before them have experienced drama: politics, romance, religion, ethics, the personal drama of relationships. All these are dwarved by the magnificence and meaningfulness of place. Place outlives them all, yet absorbs them all, and becomes imbued with their essence.

We could all make lists of locations that seem to embody history and drama. Yet there is not one square mile in any country that could be said to be free of history, politics, religion, personal drama and romance.

Pic courtesy www.last.fm

My forthcoming novel Camera Obscura (click to read Chapter One) is more than any other of my works of fiction, perhaps, concerned with the magic of locations. Scenes take place in  medieval places such as Mdina, where ancient portals can mystify the traveller, and Le Havre, in France (left), where constant change is just as intriguing and engaging. Compare this little photo with the big painting on top - yes, it's the same place, but what a difference! The same person, the same artist, the same novelist, can experience different feelings, even when visiting the same place on different occasions, or with a different companion, or with another camera.

Novels would be nothing without the places in which they take place. Whether these are real ones the reader can visit, or totally fabricated by some very imaginative author, the place must contain the story and magnify it. The importance of this cannot be emphasized too much.

How do locations in books affect you, as a reader?

If you are an author, how much time do you spend researching a good place in which to anchor your story?

Leave a comment - a discussion about locations would be fascinating.