Alex’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2011)

Alex’s comments from the Q&A with Alex Beecroft group.

Candice wrote: "Alex, Big fan. buying and reading your stories as they become avail, automatic.

I want to ask about your Under the Hill stories. Just finished II, and first off, I loved the WWII motif, even the s..."

Hi Candace! Sorry I didn't reply to this before. I only just saw it.

I did end UtH with a feeling that I would like to leave things open for a possible follow up to give Geoff a happy ending. Is that the sort of thing you were thinking of when it wasn't what you expected it would be? I haven't heard the same from other people, but I am aware that it was a bitter-sweet ending in the sense that Chris and Geoff end up separated. What were you expecting to happen?

Jordan wrote: "I loved False Colors too! It was the first of yours I'd read.

I'm amazed at your plotting. Sometimes I can plot out for each chapter, but most times I just plot and as I write, l sorta get a feel..."

Thanks, Jordan! Yes, the whole plotting thing is a very individual and inexact thing. Some people don't like to plot at all before they write, and some at the opposite end of the spectrum like to nail everything down before they start. I feel I'm middling - I like to know more or less what's going to happen in every chapter, but still let things surprise me if they really want to.

Richard wrote: "Your Beecroftliness:

A humble request from a delighted reader...please set something in an Edwardian country house-murder kind of mode. Mr Chuffington the impecunious cousin after Lord Felchingdal..."

LOL! That does sound like lots of fun, and I've always promised myself I would branch out into mystery. A big house story sounds ideal to start with. Thanks, Richard! I'll bear it in mind.

Nick wrote: "18th century London, the slave-trade and the building of a great estate, with male-male characters."

Oh, thanks Nick! That's an interesting thought. I could see myself doing something annoying like pairing a slaver with an abolitionist, and setting at least half of it in Jamaica, though.

Erastes wrote: "Oh Cronin is much more accessible than Lawrence, but still quite gloomy! Lots of people dying horrible deaths in flooded mines!"

*g* I don't think I would mind the flooded mines so much. It's Lawrence's tendency to get all over-excited that I find offputting. He writes as if he's constantly having to dry his sweaty hands on his trousers. And when he's not making me think "ew, put it away," he's just boring.

Erastes wrote: "plenty of film coverage of that, I think, too. always handy."

Yes, it was an interesting documentary about Thomas Andrews that made me think of it. I have to admit that I haven't read anything by AJ Cronin, so I'm not sure what the appeal of t'mill is. (Or maybe it's just that Sons and Lovers put me off it for good.)

Erastes wrote: "Even better! then you aren't riffing off Cronin! Building the Titanic... all those hot rivets.... :D"

*g* I was thinking of the Titanic there too :)

Yes, I have enormous admiration for anyone who can work *and* write. I tried, but I came home from work too exhausted to do more than watch TV and phone for a takeaway. Hopefully you can slowly build up your back catalogue to the point where it becomes possible to leave work and concentrate on writing, (or find a rich and understanding partner and do it a few years earlier.)

*g* Thank you so much! I'm very proud of False Colors. I'm aiming to make the one I'm working on now equally good, but who knows whether I can? It'll be very different from FC, in any case, so might not bear comparison.

Erastes wrote: "I'd like you to write a gritty novel about some depressed area in Northern England in the 30's. A la AJ cronin! Trubble a' tmill and all that."

Seriously? There's something that had never crossed my mind before. How about Belfast and the shipyards instead?

*G* Only if you did mine in exchange.

I've got a couple of AoS novellas in the pipeline, but they're both military, and I've been thinking of doing a properly pirate one. (One of the AoS novellas is slightly piratey.) But I hadn't really considered the merchant service. Isn't Sal Davies doing something with the East India Company, or did I imagine that?

Eee! First of all, thanks for joining! I'm very glad you did :) Secondly, I'm lucky enough not to have to go out to work, so I have from 11am to 5pm to play with. I've fallen into a routine of answering email/social media/doing real life stuff between 11am and 1pm, then having lunch, then writing from half one to 5pm.

I don't start writing a novel until I have made up a plot plan for it with a paragraph summary for what's going on in each chapter. That way I can look at that before I start, read the final page I did previously, and I know where I am starting from for the day, and where I'm aiming for.

But I am tremendously absent minded in RL, probably because the novel is taking up all my processing power :)

I always struggle most with knowing what to write next, so what would you like to see?