Tag Archives: Jane Cable Author

Paws and Prose with Eva Glyn.

Guest Post, Paws and Prose, , , , , , , , , , ,

Today, I am very happy to welcome Eva Glyn to my blog. Eva and I have known each other for almost a decade. She is a dear writing friend and author of many wonderful books, the latest of which, The Dubrovnik Book Club, is a moving story with a feline character who will steal your heart as much as the lead characters.

Please welcome Eva as she shares more about how that cat found its way into The Dubrovnik Book Club …

The first time I saw the draft cover for The Dubrovnik Book Club, the chair next to the table was empty. The next time there was a really cute little ginger and white cat on it.

“I hope you don’t mind,” my editor (a dyed-in-the-wool dog lover) told me, “but I asked the art department to pop one in.”

Not any cat, though; I recognised it straight away from one of the many pictures of Dubrovnik’s cats I’d shared on Instagram. This one was particularly gorgeous, photographed at ground level outside Sveti Vlaho church and taking more than a passing interest in the camera.

Dubrovnik’s cats are famous. The old town is full of them, many of no fixed abode, but others no doubt simply availing themselves of an extra meal from the various feeding stations which dot the narrow streets. Tourists who know about the cats arrive with bags of treats in their luggage, and I have no doubt at all that Dubrovnik is one of the best places in the world to be a cat about town.

There was a small problem with the cat on the cover of The Dubrovnik Book Club though – there was no cat in the story. Now, authors are (in)famous for taking their covers too literally, but I wouldn’t want to disappoint a reader who hoped to meet one, and I suppose I always knew that one of my main characters, Claire, was definitely a fan.

      The Orthodox church was set back a little from the street, allowing the pale sunlight to bathe its creamy frontage. Behind the elaborate railings that protected its terrace were half a dozen or so of the old town’s stray cats. A huge ginger beast wrapped around the terracotta support of a potted palm, watched from a safe distance by an equally impressive white one with black and tan splodges. Several more stretched out on the paving, making the most of what little warmth there was in the rays of the sun.

      Claire adored cats. They’d always had one at home when she was growing up; ever since a stray tortoiseshell had turned up at the back door, just as they were settling into their house in Chiswick. A movement behind the palm caught her eye, and two kittens emerged, eyes wide and tiny tails upright, before starting to tumble together, a mass of ginger and white fur.

      Their innocent play was infectiously joyful and Claire could not help but laugh. She had to recapture that joy in life for herself and the only way to do it was by losing her fear.

So, of course, when one of the strays, a ‘wobbly kitten’ incapable of looking after herself properly, turns up in the courtyard behind the bookshop Claire and Luna take her in and christen her Mis, which is Croatian for mouse, because she squeaks rather than mews. Little do any of them realise that their kindness could actually put Mis’s future well-being in jeopardy…

Aw, thank you for sharing how Mis came to find her way into The Dubrovnik Book Club. I loved meeting her in the story, too. xx

About the book:

In a tiny bookshop in Dubrovnik’s historic Old Town, a book club begins…

Newly arrived on the sun-drenched shores of Croatia, Claire Thomson’s life is about to change forever when she starts working at a local bookshop. With her cousin Vedran, employee Luna and Karmela, a professor, they form an unlikely book club.

But when their first book club pick – an engrossing cosy crime – inspires them to embark upon an investigation that is close to the group’s heart, they quickly learn the value of keeping their new-found friends close as lives and stories begin to entwine…

Buy links for all formats and retailers can be found here.

My review: 

I enjoy Eva Glyn’s writing, and the setting of The Dubrovnik Book Club comes to life brilliantly through her detailed depiction of the ancient city in which it is located. I greatly enjoyed seeing the city through the eyes of Karmela (perhaps my favourite character), a history professor with a passion for her subject and tenacity to uncover those hidden from history.

When I read a book by this author, I expect some characters to bring with them a dose of realism. The cast of The Dubrovnik Book Club are all such characters. They each carry their own battle scars – some from the literal battles they have fought defending their country and others born from their life experiences.

The main characters, the supporting cast, and even the stray cat they befriend have a personal struggle that forms part of their story. It draws them together and ultimately makes them the ideal support for each other. As they work together to save the book shop (and related book club), mysteries are solved, friendships are formed, and personal growth and freedoms are found. To that extent, despite the scars of war, fear of Covid, homophobia, abuse and Cancer (all of which are sensitively raised within the pages of the novel), there is a good balance of warmth, hope, love and friendship.

It is an enjoyable and engaging read that will undoubtedly leave you wanting to visit Dubrovnik.

About the Author:

Eva Glyn writes escapist relationship-driven fiction with a kernel of truth at its heart. She loves to travel and finds inspiration in beautiful places and the stories they hide.

Her love affair with Croatia began in 2019, and since then the country’s haunting histories and gorgeous scenery have proved fertile ground for her books, driven by her friendship with a tour guide she met there. His wartime story provided the inspiration for The Olive Grove and his help in creating a realistic portrayal of Croatian life has proved invaluable. Her second novel set in the country, An Island of Secrets is a dual timeline looking back to World War 2, and although her third is a contemporary romance featuring mature main characters, The Collaborator’s Daughter, has its roots in that conflict too.

Inspired by authors she loves such as Libby Page and Faith Hogan, Eva has wanted to write books about unlikely friendships for a long time. March 2024 saw her dream realised, when The Dubrovnik Book Club was published.

Eva lives in Cornwall, although she considers herself Welsh, and is lucky enough to be married to the love of her life, who she’s been with for almost thirty years. She also writes as Jane Cable.

Discover more about Eva Glyn: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Newsletter sign up | Book Bub

Meet three characters from The Forgotten Maid.

Book Review, Guest Post, , , , , , , ,

I am delighted to welcome my good friend, Jane Cable, as my first guest for 2022. Jane joins me to introduce three characters from her novel, The Forgotten Maid. 

THE DANIELL FAMILY –  BLENDING FACT AND FICTION by Jane Cable.

As soon as I decided the main character in my 1815 timeline for The Forgotten Maid was a ladies’ maid I needed a family to place her in. A wealthy family with a kind mistress – the conflict in the story was going to be hard enough without her working for a witch!

Now I do like the historical background to my stories to be as authentic as possible, so I thought I would choose a real family. The good and great of Cornwall had been made wealthy on the back of copper and tin mining (think Poldark!) so there were plenty of likely candidates. (Note to Jane from Carol, I am always thinking Poldark! ;-))

I almost fell across the Daniells. A few years before I had been to an exhibition at Trelissick House, their former country home, which is now a National Trust property. And there I’d learnt most of their wealth had come from a copper mine called Wheal Towan, which was very close to where we were then based. When I started to write The Forgotten Maid I wanted to set it in exactly that area, and the connection was screaming at me to be recognised.

Researching the Daniell family tree was not difficult. Ralph and Elizabeth had married young, when Elizabeth was nineteen, and proceeded to have 16 children spread over the next 22 years, although of course not all of them made it to adulthood. Therefore in 1815 I was able to reconstruct the family precisely in terms of who was married and who was left at home. In that respect the book is entirely factual.

But how do you learn about someone’s character? The answer is that you don’t, although the Daniells were generous with local causes and I found out about Elizabeth’s visits to help the destitute miners from the local parish records, so they were real enough.

Elizabeth is my main Daniell character. Middle-aged, comfortable with herself, loving yet strict with her children and still very much in love with Ralph. She is delighted to find a French maid who is actually French (particularly in the provinces most just pretended to be) and values Therese’s skills. She is kind, almost motherly to her and trusts her implicitly, and Therese repays her with loyalty and faithfulness.

But someone has to disrupt this domestic harmony and the perfect candidate from history was Mary, the Daniell’s sixteen year old daughter. Sixteen was just the age to come out into society and I decided Elizabeth didn’t want a London season for her daughter if she could help it. The queen was ill, so there seemed to be little point as there would be no court presentation, and with one daughter married and living a long distance away, she liked the idea of a local husband for Mary.

Mary was a wonderful character to create. I needed her to be both loveable and charming, but with a real wilful, and even spiteful, streak when she does not get her own way. And of course, going out and about in Truro society she inevitably meets an unsuitable man and will stop at nothing to try to marry him, which has very unfortunate consequences for Therese.

My third Daniell is Ralph himself. Businessman, father, husband. A solid voice of reason. His is a small part, and mostly at the end, but I hope the enduring love story between him and Elizabeth shines through.

The Forgotten Maid blurb

In 2015 Anna Pritchard arrives on the wild and rugged north Cornwall coast to supervise the build of a glamping site. The locals hate the idea and she finds herself ostracised and isolated, so she volunteers at Trelissick, a stately home that was the country estate of the affluent Daniell family in the Regency era. The more time she spends steeped in its history, the more past and present begin to collide.

In 1815, in the aftermath of Waterloo and grieving for her brother, French army seamstress Therese Ruguel arrives in Cornwall as lady’s maid to Elizabeth Daniell. Although her mistress is welcoming, not everyone in the household takes kindly to a foreigner with strange ways who speaks little english. Who can Therese trust? Because her very life could depend upon her making the right decision.

What became of Therese? Can Anna unearth the ghosts of the past? And has she finally found a place where she belongs?

The Forgotten Maid is a beautiful dual timeline romance set in Cornwall between the Poldark era and the present day. It is the first book in the Cornish Echoes dual timeline romantic mystery series.

Thank you, Jane. I greatly enjoyed The Forgotten Maid and getting to know your characters. Here is my review: 

I enjoyed this dual timeline novel set in the present and early nineteenth century, Cornwall. As you might expect from Jane Cable whispers of the past are intertwined with the present. I was captivated by the protagonists in both time periods and their stories, though I was particularly intrigued by Thérèse (the forgotten maid). I was drawn to her character and hoped her strength would prevail over the increasing difficulties she faced. In the present day, however, it was Anna’s love interest who fascinated me. I enjoyed getting to know and understand him more as the story progressed. Cornwall past and present are brought to life by the author’s evocative descriptions of the setting. The Forgotten Maid is an intriguing, captivating read.

About the author:

Jane Cable moved to Cornwall in 2017 and The Forgotten Maid is her first novel set in the county. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction under the name of Eva Glyn.

Discover more about Jane and her work, here: Facebook | Twitter | website | Apricot Plots | Sister Scribes .

#WritingWednesday with Jane Cable: Self-Editing.

Guest Post, Writing Wednesday, , , , , , , ,

A PERSONAL APPROACH TO SELF-EDITING.

I am the ultimate dirty first drafter. I have learnt to bash out the bones of a novel in around three months, starting with just a few pages of the outline agreed with my publisher, but with the strong proviso that details may change.

What I end up with is invariably a bit of a mess, so rather than feel slightly sick at the prospect of fixing it all at once, I go through the manuscript again and again, focussing on one aspect of the editing at a time.

Consistency
Very often the story – or at least the character arcs – have changed a great deal as I’ve been writing so this edit is to update the beginning and middle for what I’ve learnt by the end. It’s mainly dealing with my characters’ motivations and conflicts so vital to the logical progression of the story.

Structure
I don’t worry too much about structure as I write. That said, I like to make sure that the key points, the dips and crescendos, are in roughly the right place. There are many frameworks to choose from, but my preference is for Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. It was originally devised for screenplay but keeps a novel tight as well.

Necessity
I go through every scene, then every paragraph in every scene, to make sure it’s absolutely essential to the story; either moving the plot forwards or giving the reader vital information about a character. If it does neither, however much I may like it, it goes.

Emotion
Each major character has their own edit for this, when I go through the whole story from their point of view, thinking deeply about how they feel as events unfold. It’s perhaps the most intense phase for me, and not something I can do all day, but it pays huge dividends when you get it right.

Balance
If you think about it, most books are made up of action, description and dialogue, so with this edit I highlight each one in a different colour. That pretty soon tells me if the balance of the book is wrong and where I need to put it right.

Timeline
This involves going through the whole manuscript and putting a date and time on each scene, using just the clues in the text. It’s surprising how many errors it can throw up and is a useful reference point going forwards.

Jane Cable writes romance with a twist and a look over the shoulder at the past. She published her first novel, the multi-award winning The Cheesemaker’s House, independently and is now signed by Sapere Books.

Discover more about Jane and her work, here: Facebook | Twitter | website | Apricot Plots | Sister Scribes .