Blog | Alison Morton Author

Security for the Olympics - a perspective

I don’t get ranty very often, but the anti-rant barrier broke this morning as I listened to the mouthings on Yesterday in Parliament on BBCRadio 4.

The Olympic Games security plan looks poorly planned and executed, so further military personnel have been brought in to help.

Several points: Thank goodness we have professional, well-disciplined forces we can draw on. Thank goodness they are highly trained and experienced in dealing with civilians under stress. Thank goodness they are not the pitiless troops of some African warlord who corrupts and kills children. Instead, we have citizen soldiers, well respected by 98% of the community.

The press has a weird attitude. They love being amongst soldiers, borrowing their lifestyle and perceived glamour for a few hours. They mouth words like “assets” and “inflitration”, wear camouflage jackets and armoured vests as they pop in to do a piece from Afghanistan. War zones are dirty, noisy and scary as hell, but the military make the press welcome and show more the cameraderie and dedication than the relentless pressure and sheer slog of military life.

On the other hand, the press bitches about the impact these “tough and dangerous troops” are going to have on the Olympic visitors. Me, I’d feel a lot safer with them on the gate than being checked by some bored bloke or girl doing a few weeks’ work after a short course in ticking boxes with a private company. Maybe that’s harsh on the security company, but you get the idea.

And whatever the merits of the criticism about the security plan, I feel depressed and angry when opposition MPs and the press project soldiers as threatening or intimidating just to score points. They are there to protect us. And don’t get me started on the moans about having strategic artillery points in normally civilian areas. They are there to protect us. Those positions on top of tall buildings could be the one chance of stopping some mad terrorist’s incoming threat. Some say the military’s presence will attract terrorists – the residents wil become targets. No, if terrorists were planning a strike, they would come anyway. And the biggest moaners would be the first to complain if they were attacked and no such provision had been made.

The UK is still on a high threat level. The Olympics are a golden opportunity for terrorists to strike as well as a superb chance for 99.5% of us to watch world class sport of every kind.

A government’s prime duty is to protect its citizens. What they are proposing is a light touch. It really is. You won’t see most of the security measures in place and won’t have noticed the huge preparation that has gone on for many years before. The security organisations, military and police are working hard to protect all visitors to the games so the latter don’t have to be concerned, but can relax and enjoy them.

The security is there to protect you. It may be personally irritating, but it’s collectively a shield. Grow up and deal with it.

Why do you buy the books you do?

Wouldn’t every publisher, agent and writer want to know the answer to that one?

I’ve been on the Goodreads site, rating the books I’ve read. Analysing my own behaviour as a reader, I’ve been surprised by what I’ve picked out: historical fiction, adventure, romance, thriller, literary, fantasy, young adult, psychological, crime, contemporary, epic, speculative/science fiction, mystery. You name it, I’ll try it. My significant other groans when I announce I’m going on a buying trip in a bookshop. I’ll come out with a dozen or more books whose choice has baffled the bookseller, and him.

Why I pick the book up: attractive cover with dramatic figures, historical setting, intriguing font, colour impact, guns, uniforms, badges, symbols, classic painting or landscape or stylised design, and a strapline or testimonial that pulls my interest.

Next, I read the blurb and reviews: an intriguing dilemma, possibly related to something I know about or which I can identify with, different timelines (a favourite!), a ‘what if’ or setting far away from my own one, some snippets about the main character(s), some urgency/deadline, the impact of the plot on others or the characters’ world and their world on them. Oh, and if it’s Romans in any shape, form or reference, that gets extra points of attractiveness.

Then I read the first paragraph, followed by the remainder of the page. If I’ve reached page five without realising, that’s a very good sign. I’ll glimpse in the middle, but I won’t be tempted to look at the ending or I’ll spoil it for myself.

The other main reason I have books on my shelves is a recommendation: by a friend, a magazine/newspaper/radio programme, a bookseller, a bookblog or Twitter. But I’m choosy about whose recommendation I pick up. Not all recommenders are equal.

Next post, I’ll look at what elements are common to books that are currently selling well.

But first, what makes you stretch out your hand to pick up a particular book?

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out and Book 4 is in the editing process!

Find out about Roma Nova book progress, news, writing tips and info by signing up for my free monthly email newsletter.

What do readers really want?

A fun thing around Twitter #thingsnottosaytoawriter recently had some wry and clever responses from writers, some tinged with irony, even bitterness. Some were made up, but some were things that had been said to them in true life:
Does this sort of thing sell, then?
Where can I download your book for free?
Since you aren’t working, can you look over my thesis?
I’d write one but I’m too busy pursuing my career.
Why don’t you try writing the way bestsellers write?
Have you written anything I could read?

This made me wonder what readers thought of the writing world, our little self-contained universe. You know what? I don’t think many know or care. And why should they? They just want a good book and maybe, possibly, would like to know a little bit about the writer and their personality. If they belong to a reading group, then they’ll want to know about your motivation, how you researched it, what made you create certain characters, why you chose that ending.

They don’t want to know how many times you went through the editing cycle, how many late-nighters you pulled to meet a publishing deadline or your angst about self versus traditional publishing.

The reason they picked up that book in the first place or listened to a friend’s recommendation was that they were looking for a good read. Period.

A transgressive Roman

My last Roman post was in January this year, although I have sneaked in a few pictures here and there. I took this photo (right) in February this year in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum – a near holy place for any ‘Roman nut’.

I was intrigued by the assured pose of the obviously female figure who was uncharacteristically but modestly dressed in a short robe, cloak and leggings or boots, almost as a man would be. Moreover, she is carrying a banner as legions did and something is slung on her back and held across her chest by a strap as a weapon would be. Sadly, her hand is missing, but something is dangling from her wrist. She is said to represent one of the Roman provinces – I don’t know which. If you know, please tell me.

In a military society which strongly regulated women’s behaviour, role and artistic depiction, this figure is transgressive. But altogether fascinating because of that…

Why I started writing novels

I started writing novels all of a sudden in May 2009. Why? To tell a story, of course, a story that had been squatting in my head and slowly brewing for over ten years. It was sparked into life by a visit to the cinema.

I’d always fancied the second male lead in the film we were going to see, the producer had consistently turned out high quality films and as a clincher, we had Orange Wednesday Two-for-One tickets.

The film was impressive cinematographically, but total pants as a story: implausible, unconnected, heaving with coincidences, obvious.
‘You know, I said to my husband, ‘I could do better than that.’
‘So why don’t you?’ he replied.
The demon seized me and three months after I tapped the first key I had 105,000 words of mangled crap. Then I set out to learn how to write.

But why?

Writers are storytellers. Luckily, human beings have a hard-wired need to hear stories. This is how family and personal history, customs, laws, traditions, myths and spititual teaching, philosopy, let alone heroic tales of love, war and sacrifice have passed down. They’ve been embellished along the way, of course.

Storytellers were always welcome in the hall and given respect through history. But mainly they told stories because that’s who they were and that’s what they did.

Although my novel writing was triggered by a light bulb moment at the cinema, I realised I’d felt the itch for a very long time. Since I could remember, I’d told funny stories about my experiences, somebody else’s dilemma or achievement and usually held my audience and got a laugh. I’d witten plays for my friends when I was small and trade articles or pieces for hobby magazines most of my life. The only ‘long writing’ I’d done before was my academic thesis of 18,000 words.

I found a story the other day on yellowed lined paper that I’d written when I was in the Upper Fifth (about 16 years old). It was about a boy experiencing the annual flood in the Camargue in southern France. He saw the warning sign of birds rising and helped the old ‘gardien’ secure the horses. The style lumped along and the description was shallow, but I was strangely moved by the characters. They were people of their environment. As I laid the two sheets back on the desk, I realised I’d conveyed the emotion created by my 16-year-old self to my current day self. Result!

I write what I write, what interests me. I don’t think I could have sustained that first novel draft if I hadn’t been so fired up by the story. And if my beta readers are right, I think my stories may well interest others.