Lorraine Bateman's Blog

When Spring returns ‘Blue Days and Fair’ apple blossom will fill the air. Spring always engenders an uplift after the dark drabness of winter and as the stories in the novel Blue Days and Fair take forward the lives of characters met in At Midnight in a Flaming Town hope and optimism mingle with danger and despair as the war continues its rampages through lives and countryside. 

Marion’s concerns for baby Alain create social discomfort, Russell’s changing interests show him to be fickle, Edith’s stubbornness according to her mother “would be the death of her” and Lieutenant Baxter faces the trials of incarceration as a prisoner of war in Germany.

Plans for lives are put on hold as nations feed the monster called war, but Spring does emerge once again.

The book is now available through Amazon and kindle. Hop you enjoy it and feel able to recommend it to others through your social networks. Thank you for your support.

The picture of a lonely tortured writer achingly passing isolated hours is both fact and fiction and as individual as the many authors that fill our shelves. But it is the picture that many would-be writers carry of the craft and it can feel burdensome. I was no different, until I discovered the notion of a writing group.

Nowadays there is so much stimulation for aspiring writers with 'how to' books, seminars, workshops and it was at one such workshop run by Mslexia that I met a group of like-minded interested and interesting local women. We decided to take the plunge and form a writers group, the core of which is still in place some three years later. It became a place to share aspirations, practise writing exercises, encourage competition entries, inspire job applications and diets, congratulate the publication of articles and start to build the courage to call oneself a writer.

Membership and attendance has changed, and the meetings have moved from evenings to mid mornings, but even when the meeting can't be joined by all the life-line of emails that regularly circulate keep the support flowing.

Early reading, editorial critiques and the support that comes from a room full of eager faces who simply believe that if 'we apply ourselves – it can be done' all bear testament to 'At Midnight in a Flaming Town' being published.

Reach out as you reach in, and believe in fairy dust.

What is it about these chiseled statements of lives past that hold such a place in our hearts. It is because they contain the pain of a generation, of a nation, of a world that was swept into the path of such destruction. Each name represents a sacrifice that enables us to stand and pay our respects in any town village, church or hall that we enter. Built by money raised within local communities the monuments were the only way of bringing the lost generation back home, to bring them close, for them to each be honoured.

We will always remember them…………….. and hopefully their presence will always make us mindful of the waste that is war.

One of the requirements of my MA in Biography (Lorraine writing) was to write the biography of an individual in 40,000 words. The decision that occupied the first term was 'who' to write about. I had just moved to my home in Buckinghamshire, an apartment in a converted mansion house, and was getting acquainted with the neighbourhood through local walks, one of which took me into an ancient church. I found my way to the memorial plaque for the IWW and was intrigued to find the name of Herbert William Tyrwhitt-Drake. The Tyrwhitt-Drake family had owned the house I now lived in for over 350 years and here was the news that one of the sons of the family had died in service. I later found his name on the War Memorial in the local Garden of remembrance. I looked no further, he was to be my subject and I spent the next eighteen months stepping into the footsteps of his life to bring his spirit home. The war memorial had introduced us to each other.

Do have a look at the work of The War Memorial Trust – www.thewarmemorial.co.org – they would welcome your interest and support.

Of course that isn't how the title came about. Unlike many children who are named by the second scan this baby remained untitled for much of its creation, but then one dark and wet Sunday evening I, Lorraine (the Bateman of batemanandcole) decided it was time to focus on the challenge of the title.

Meditation had failed to bring it through, seeking ideas from book shelves had drawn a blank, re-reading the manuscript itself, still nothing, so it was time to put a different type of effort behind it. Google research taught me that book titles are often extracts from quotes and then inspiration struck. Straight to my bookshelves and copies of First World War poetry (have you learnt of my passionate interest in IWW yet?) and the pages were scoured. Who needs novels about the war when these poets tell it all with such power and evocation?

Okay, there is some truth in the question above, I did create a list of some 60 quotes which I whittled down to 5 and within these had my 2 firm favourites. Enter Paul(the Cole of batemanandcole) to review the long and the short list and pick his favourites, which luckily mirrored mine (more on collaborative writing later!) Both ideas were tested and both proved popular, so as it was considered me that had carried this baby for so long I could choose and "At Midnight in a Flaming Town" was named. It's where the novel starts, it's the story on the cover and we hope it will remain a memorable read.

The title came from a line in the poem 'A Rendezvous with Death' by Alan Seeger, an American who was born in New York in 1888. He happened to be conducting some research at the British Museum when war was declared and, of a bohemian nature, he signed up with the French Foreign Legion. He died fighting in France in 1916. He kept his own rendezvous with death.

The title of the sequel (currently underway) 'Blue Days and Fair' is also a line from the same poem. We pick up the lives of many of the characters after the war, when, as Seeger wrote: ' spring brings back blue days and fair.'

We cannot live without hope and sunshine.

We are delighted to say the 'At Midnight in a Flaming Town' is ready for pre-orders (if you order from our website you can have your copies signed and support the War Memorial Trust)  and will be available at the end of March.

The interest and support from friends and family has been fabulous throughout this creatively challenging journey, of which publication is but a milestone, and we now want to interest and entertain a wider readership and would invite and welcome your interest and help with this endeavour.

I, Lorraine (Bateman of the batemanandcole) recently received an email which made a request for its swift onward dissemination to spread a message worldwide. They made the maths look simple. Applying this to our desire to 'spread the word' about this new piece of literature… it looks like this: if thirty people out of those we contact each emailed/blogged/twittered just 10 friends/colleagues with a suggestion that they visit our website: www.lorrainebateman.com there is the potential of 300 introductions. If each of those 300 felt inclined to bring along another 10, then that would mean 3,000 people had the potential to find out about the book, and by the sixth generation we'd be at 3m, and another 10 at 30m. Now if all this happens, surely some are going to be tempted to buy and read the book……. which is the next time that it's worth telling people about it, with your own endorsement. We would be very grateful if you did take some time to splash this news around and we would love to hear from you once you have read your copy, and hope you will then be pleased to know we are underway with the sequel – 'Blue Days and Fair.'

The days of "don't judge a book by its cover" are way behind us now in this age of glitz, glamour and celebrity looks. If you're like me when I'm browsing, it's Lorraine here (the Bateman of batemanandcole) a cover will both attract or repel me, so it's a big consideration as part of the creative process. We were lucky that our publisher, Oliver Rathbone at Karnac books encouraged us to contribute our ideas and this set me on a journey.

As you'll know if you've read my bio on the website www.lorrainebateman.com I spend part of the time living on the Isle of Wight, in quaint quirky Ventnor. When I was furnishing my apartment there I came across a picture of Beach Huts (thank you Sandy for this house warming gift) by the textile artist, Liliane (www.lilianetaylor.com) and felt certain that she could produce just the right cover for the book. Well that's when the fun started!!!! The gallery wouldn't give me any of her contact details and without her surname the google search was too difficult ……. but after repeated visits to the gallery, and by tripping up a temporary member of staff, I gleaned her surname and tracked her down in the north of England. And why the difficulty? Because the gallery were copying and selling her work without her permission. Yes folks it can happen as brazenly as that – all of which they denied through subsequent legal enquiries …. but that's Liliane's story to tell. Suffice it to say the search paid off and Liliane produced an evocative picture with the hint of a flemish outline to the houses and the trauma of flames in the background. She sets the scene for our words within.

Our new blog is up and if not yet 'running' then at least beginning to move !