The Silver Screen and Me...by Sheila Claydon

 

Find my books here

For a variety of reasons I haven't been able to concentrate on writing recently, which means I've lost the habit of putting words on a page every day. So in an attempt to reactivate the creative juices I have been looking at my backlist and, because I frequently use places I've visited as the setting for a story, remembering what prompted me to write each particular book. It's been an enjoyable journey. So has the game I started playing, which was trying to decide which one could best be adapted into a film for the silver screen!

Pie in the sky I know, but fun nevertheless.

Out of all my books Miss Locatelli won. It has all the ingredients. A family business and a family mystery. A burglary. A far too sexy 'bad boy turned good' Italian hero. A quirky heroine with a prodigious talent and a temper to match. Some fabulous and some less than fabulous clothes! Jewellery. A large Italian family. Mouth-watering Italian food. Settings in London, England and Florence, Italy. And, of course, the ubiquitous misunderstandings that keep the reader turning the pages of a romantic fiction novel until the very end.

Then there is the intoxicating thought of all those long distance drone shots of the wonderful Italian countryside as well as the close ups of life in Florence with my characters walking across the The Ponte Vecchio or staring up at the iconic Duomo.  Equally intoxicating is the imagined bird's eye view of the River Thames in London, the Houses of Parliament, the parks, the interior of one of the city's famous hotels. If only!

I'm quite sure actually having my book turned into a film would be far less exciting than imagining it. For a start I would lose control and have to watch as producers and directors decided to alter parts of my story. None of the actors would look the same as my imagined characters either. The settings would be different from the ones I had imagined, probably the clothes too. They might even leave out my favourite scene or, horror of horrors, change the ending! It happens.

While J K Rowling, whose Harry Potter books were such best sellers long before they were filmed, was able to influence filming, most writers cannot. One writer, when interviewed, said that when she sold her book to a production company she had to accept that the story was no longer hers and just enjoy spending the money instead. And that is another problem. Mostly writers make very little money despite their book being the heart of the film. And then there are all those other books, the ones that despite being sold  never actually make it to the silver screen.

Still, imaging how my book might be adapted has been good fun, and trying to decide which particular scene I would most like to see filmed was too, although in the case of Miss Locatelli  I'm still working on it. It's been a good mental exercise and who knows, it might just prompt me to start putting words on paper again.

Try it with one of your own books if you are a writer. And if you're not, then try imagining filming your favourite novel or, better still, your favourite book from Books We Love. 

Holiday dilemma...by Sheila Claydon

 

Find my books here

I'm going on holiday, well to visit my son and family actually but I've been assured it will be a holiday. In Singapore. So much to look forward to...seeing my nine year old granddaughter again, catching up with my son and daughter-in-law in person instead of on WhatsApp or Skype, spending 3 weeks in the sun in what I've been assured is a lovely holiday destination. What's not to like? 

My dilemma? Finding the right clothes. It's not that I'm short of summer tops, shorts and trousers but they are all geared to a UK summer. With very little humidity and erratic weather, wearing synthetic fabrics is not a problem. Nor, except occasionally, do I have to slather myself in suncream or remember to wear a hat. In Singapore it seems, things are very different.

Added to this is the fact that because I live a mainly coastal/rural life where walking the dog through woodland or on the beach requires the most practical of clothes and shoes, as does gardening or meeting up with friends for a hike, my wardrobe is full of t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, cropped trousers, trainers and hiking boots. These are clothes that are also totally suited to sitting at the computer writing.  There's not a dress in sight although I do have a couple of pretty tops for the occasional party or dinner.

When I was working it wasn't like that. My wardrobe was full of formal working suits, dresses with jackets, skirts, even trouser-suits because it was a career that encompassed a lot of travel and Boardroom meetings. When I retired, however, everything hung unworn in the wardrobe for far too long until, eventually, I passed  them onto a charity shop. Not that they would have been suitable for Singapore anyway as they would have been too warm. So now I have to do my least favourite thing and go shopping to find clothes that I will rarely be able to wear in the UK.  As I have left it so late in the season, however, at least the prices will have reduced, and I'm sure I'll love them when I get them home.

Arabella, my heroine in Miss Locatelli faced the same dilemma. She was a jeans and sweater type of girl when she wasn't wearing motorcycle leathers, so when she suddenly had to travel to Italy to take charge of her grandfather's ailing jewellery empire she had to revamp her wardrobe in a hurry. With her best friend's help she initially managed to get it so spectacularly wrong that it was very nearly her undoing. I loved writing about Arabella's quirky take on things as much as Luca, the hero, did while falling in love with her. I especially enjoyed the fact that their story took me back to the times I visited Florence and saw for myself the elegance of  Italian business women and enjoyed the wonders of Italian food.  It's a book for anyone who either loves or wants to visit Italy.

Arabella knows her audacious plan to save her family’s century old jewelry business doesn’t stand a chance without Luca Enzio, she just wishes he wasn’t helping her because her grandfather asked him to but because he wants to.

 For his part Luca can’t remember when he was last so turned on by a woman and he doesn’t like it one little bit. Apart from being way too young, Arabella is the granddaughter of a client whose relationship with his family is complicated. The right thing to do would be to walk away but his heart has other ideas.

Then her life begins to unravel in a way that affects both of them and suddenly Luca finds himself fighting for his future as well as for Arabella’s heart.

While my small wardrobe revamp will be of no significance to anyone but me, of course, maybe Singapore will affect me the same way Italy does, and feature in my next book. Oh, and there's one other positive. As my new clothes will really only be useful for Singapore I'll just have to go there again!