February 2006
Story
Phew! I don't think I have ever been so nervous. Sat on the sofa with my daughter, waiting to hear my defenceless novel dissected live on national television …
Well, it went well, thank heavens. In fact I was really pleased that Richard & Judy and their guests - Carol Thatcher and Bettany Hughes - talked about how they enjoyed the adventure story. That means they took my book on its own terms. You see, that's why I wrote Labyrinth, because of the amazing story I found hidden in the cracks between the rocks of the Pyrenees, because when I first visited Montségur, I could feel the story in my bones and, in my mind's eye, a character rose up out of the ruins and scrub …
Greg and I do a lot of creative writing teaching. Many of our students want to learn about genres like crime or travel writing. Often they are looking for guidance in how to structure a scene or a whole novel, or how to generate suspense or handle dialogue.
Sometimes, though, we just work on inventing stories. That is why we read - or watch TV or go to the cinema - for the stories.
In the workshop or classroom, it's great fun to test your imagination, trying to bring together very different characters and events. Here's a set of ideas which one of our classes is pursuing at the moment:
First location - a market town in the south of England, 2006. Lady Iris Stewart-Turner is 80. She is a widow with a great attachment to her deceased husband - a successful businessman - whose papers she would like to turn into a biographical book. She jealousy guards other parts of his legacy, too, including the family home and land outside the cathedral town. She is a gossip but very independent minded with a penchant for gambling.
Lady Iris' son married Valerie Brown but the relationship failed and he now lives in New Zealand. (See Helen's back story which I will send after this email for the reasons for the end of the marriage and Colin's flight.)
Valerie is divorced from Colin in 2006 and the marriage had no children. She is a bitch. She is a ballet teacher.Her general personality is stroppy, self-righteous, always thinks other people refuse to give her her due.
Also living around Chichester are a family of travellers. Janet is keen to identify the members of this family. They are in conflict with Lady Iris for trespass on her woodland.The lives of all of these people and those who live around them are utterly changed when - for a reason at this point mysterious - all silicon chips are rendered useless by some form of attack. This disables any device - computer, phone, fridge etc - that contains a silicon chip. The balances of power and authority are changed.
Second location - Tuscany, 2006. Alex and Miranda Franchetti have taken a holiday house in the hills of northern Italy in order to recuperate mentally and physically after the death of their daughter Bryony, 8. They are accompanied by their son Adam (11) and perhaps by a nanny or help. The house they are living in has huge rooms, odd doorways and cellars.
While in Tuscany, one of the family discovers a means of accessing another dimension - or perhaps another path through our known dimensions.
The challenge for all the members of this class is to inch forward aspects of these stories and gradually - very gradually - tie in all the disparate elements.
Find the connections in the Labyrinth …
