Blog | Alison Morton Author

Day 2 Writing challenge: introduce your Work in Progress

To be truthful, I have two projects on the go at present, but let’s not complicate life!

Now I’m going back in time to AD 370…

The Roma Nova series has two main strands: one with four books set in the 21st century featuring Carina Mitela and the other set between the late 1960s to early 1980s featuring Aurelia Mitela. The short story collection ROMA NOVA EXTRA includes a couple of stories about the foundation of Roma Nova – The Girl from the Market and Victory Speaks – but these were mere dips into the late fourth century.

Readers have been urging me to write about how Roma Nova started. Every country has a history and in the books so far the characters refer back to that history. We know founders Julia Bacausa and Lucius Apulius will survive – there would be no present day Roma Nova if they hadn’t – but the intrigue, I hope, is how and why they did what they did, whether they acted well or not, and what gains and sacrifices occurred. And what the consequences were for Aurelia’s and Carina’s generations.

As I write, I’m about 9,000 words in and I start with the bones of the story in The Girl from the Market, but from Julia’s point of view rather than Apulius’s. That’s an interesting challenge in itself! The other big challenge is all the research. I have a reasonable grounding in Ancient Roman life, but as we know, Rome in the West lasted 1229 years and by AD 370, it was rather different from the classical period of Augustus. And we’re in Roman Noricum, an important province but very different from the old urbs of Rome and the new capital of Constantinople. More of that on Day 4!

In the meantime, Day 3 will reveal more about those founders. Of course, there will be fireworks when they meet!

Back to Day 1: Introduce yourself On to Day 3: Meet main characters, Julia and Apulius

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now out.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines… Download ‘Welcome to Roma Nova’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be first to know about Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

A writing challenge – Day 1: Starting with revealing information...

Official photo! (More photos here)

A writing friend of mine, Jennifer C Wilson, has given me a challenge. Well, not directly, but an idea.

Every day in August, she’s been doing posts on aspects of writing. Now, I can’t guarantee to keep that up, but I’m going to have a go. I would LOVE to have your comments on these mini-posts so please do join in where and when you’d like.

Day 1: Introduce yourself

Ha! Well, here’s the ‘official bio’. (Click on the headings for further info and full links – you don’t want me spattering them on every line.)
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Alison Morton writes the award-winning Roma Nova thriller series featuring tough, but compassionate heroines. She blends her deep love of Roman history with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, adventure and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.

All six full-length Roma Nova novels have won the BRAG Medallion, the prestigious award for indie fiction. SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO were selected as Historical Novel Society’s Indie Editor’s Choices. AURELIA was a finalist in the 2016 HNS Indie Award. The Bookseller selected SUCCESSIO as Editor’s Choice in its inaugural indie review.

A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, Alison misspent decades clambering over Roman sites throughout Europe. Fascinated by the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain), at their creation by the complex, power and value-driven Roman civilisation, she started wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by strong women…

Now she continues to write thrillers, cultivates a Roman herb garden and drinks wine in France with her husband.

Works

The Carina strand
INCEPTIO where New Yorker Karen Brown is thrown into a new life in mysterious Roma Nova and fights to stay alive with a killer hunting her
CARINA, a novella, Carina’s first mission abroad. What could go wrong?
PERFIDITAS, six years on, where betrayal and rebellion are in the air, threatening to topple Roma Nova and ruin Carina’s life.
SUCCESSIO, where a mistake from the past threatens to destroy the next generation.

The Aurelia strand
AURELIA, in late 1960s Roma Nova, Aurelia Mitela battles her life-long nemesis, silver smuggling and is forced to choose between her love, her child and her country
NEXUS Mid 1970s, London, where a simple favour for a friend becomes a chilling pursuit across Europe
INSURRECTIO, where Aurelia Mitela struggles against a manipulative tyrant grabbing power. But it may already be too late to save Roma Nova…
RETALIO, a classic tale of resistance and retribution – the endgame between Aurelia and Caius

Extras
ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories from AD 370 to the present

Contributions
‘A Roman Intervenes‘ in 1066 Turned Upside Down
How Galla Mitela, Roma Novan imperial councillor, attempts to stop the Norman invasion of England. One of a series of possible alternative outcomes of 1066.

‘The Mystery of Victory’ in Rubicon (HWA/Sharpe Books)
What did happen to the Altar of Victory in the dust of the Roman Empire?

Coming in November: The Idealist, in Betrayal, an anthology by the Historical Fictioneers, an international group of historical fiction writers. What exactly did happen in 1849 that now threatens to ruin, proscribe and exile Carina and the entire Mitela family?

Non Fiction
Military or civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War.
The 500 Word Writing Buddy: 35 Inner Secrets for the New Writer

Audio
Four of the Roma Nova titles were sold to Audible Studios UK via Blake Friedmann Literary Agency (Agent – the late Carole Blake): INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA

Current work in progress
Double Identity, a modern conspiracy thriller – at final stage
FONDATIO (working title), set between 370 AD and 430 AD in Roman Noricum
A second thriller to follow Double Identity

Social media links
Connect with Alison on her Roma Nova site: https://alison-morton.com
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison_morton
Alison’s writing blog: https://alisonmortonauthor.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonmortonauthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Alison’s Amazon page: http://Author.to/AlisonMortonAmazon
Newsletter sign-up: http://eepurl.com/ckNeFL

Memberships: International Thriller Writers, Historical Novel Society, Alliance of Independent Authors, Society of Authors, Romantic Novelists’ Association, Mystery People

Speaking and media participation
Alison gives talks/workshops/panels on writing, thriller writing, self-publishing, alternative and historical fiction and social media at international writers’ and genre conferences, tutorial groups and associations.

She has also written articles for Writing Magazine, appeared on local radio and has written a column on writing and publishing for The Deux-Sèvres Monthly, the local English language magazine since 2012.

Some friends and colleagues…

So that’s me!

Day 2 is about what I’m working on now…

Masking up – How to make a fabric mask

Quite a number of people have asked my about how I made the fabric masks for our family. In late April, I dug out my trusty Singer sewing machine and joined a community sewing project run by my local council here in France.

After producing 100 masks for them from pre-cut materials to Lille University Hospital approved pattern, I reckoned I had learnt a new skill. So I made family ones from my materials box. I have a full suitcase of offcuts. 😉

Anyway, here are some guidelines that I developed. They’re not advice, but you you may find them helpful. There’s also a pdf version to download at the end.

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Materials

Three layers are recommended.

Outer layer (1): I used a thick, close-woven soft furnishing fabric so I could be 100% sure the weave was tight. Yes, 400 thread Egyptian cotton sheeting would do the same, but you don’t want to cut up your best sheets!

The choice of fabric is yours; the trick is to hold the fabric up to sunlight. If you can see through it without too much trouble, it’s not tightly woven enough. Linen is no use for this reason.

Anything knitted is a no-no as it can stretch and open up the fabric which lets drops through.

Middle layer (2): Winter or horticultural fleece “non-woven (technically called spun bonded) polypropylene fleece”. Gardeners will know this is a thin membrane used to protect soft fruit and other delicate plants from harsh winter weather. It’s very light and not woven. It’s easily obtainable from garden centres or online.

Be warned: It comes in large sheets. Buy the smallest size you can get or club together with others. You only want a tiny quantity – 20 x 20cms for each mask.

Inner layer (3): something soft like cotton/poplin, ideally 100% cotton and again closely woven. Polycotton mix sheeting is okay – we do sleep on it much of the time. Avoid synthetic fabrics like nylon, acrylic, polyester, viscose; they’ll just make your skin hot and sweaty, and potentially blotchy.

Elastic
You’ll need two 18cm lengths. Round elastic as on surgical masks is fine but can become uncomfortable after a while and it’s awkward to sew.

I prefer flat elastic – easier to sew and more comfortable.

Making your mask
Cut a paper/card/greaseproof paper pattern square of 20 cm x 20 cm. Fold it in four both straight (into 4 squares) and diagonally (into 4 triangles) to make sure you have a proper straight sided 20 cm square.

Unfold and flatten out.

Using your 20 cm paper square as a pattern, cut out one of each layer 1, 2, and 3.

Place layer 3 (inner) on top of layer 2 (fleece), then layer 1 (outer) on top of layer 3 with right side of fabric face down. Pin together.

Sew three layers together along two opposite sides with about a 0.75cm-1cm hem; these will be the top and bottom of the mask.

Next, place the ear elastics each side, sliding each end about at 0.75cm-1cm in between layers 1 (outer) and 3 (inner) at points H in the diagram below.

Sew down the whole of one side, sewing the elastics in place at the corners. You may have to manoeuvre the material as it goes through the machine so you don’t catch the elastic in the wrong place.

Sew down the opposite site, sewing the elastics in place at the corners, but leave a 5cm gap in the middle of that side.

Tie all the loose ends off. You may also like to snip diagonally at the corner to get rid off excess fabric, but don’t cut into the sewn seams.

Using the gap left in one side, turn the whole mask out. Pin the gap opening together and oversew the whole square with a border of about 0.2 cm from the edge (right).

Pleating

Three or four pleats are usual. These held keep the mask tight on your face at the sides when wearing. From the top, fold 2-3 cm over and pin. Repeat with the next 2-3 cm. See photo for finished effect. Once happy with the pleats, over sew down each side to fix pleats. Press with warm iron if you wish to (not compulsory!).

Washing

The recommendation is 60 minutes at 60 C, but I admit to soaking in hot tap water and washing machine liquid in a bowl for 30 minutes, then rinsing thoroughly, towel drying then drying in the sun or fresh air. This is not necessarily what you should do.

I do this after each use, e.g. a shopping trip or visit to doctor/library, etc., so would recommend making two masks per person.

And here’s the downloadable PDF including images

Stay safe and prosper!

When not sewing masks, Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now out.

Writing things I forget, but need

Viglen 1 desktop

Do you use some your applications, programs or software occasionally and then forget how to do them?

I’ve used a computer since 1989. Yes, there was personal computing then. We bought a Viglen Plus, 640K RAM and 30Mb hard drive storage and a 360K disk drive which took 5¼” floppy disks. Heady stuff! These were the days of working in DOS and using keyboard commands. WordStar, SuperCalc and DBase were the programs of the day. You memorised a hundred commands to drive even the basic functions.

I still use Control C and Control V for copying and pasting. Actually, on my Mac it’s Cmd C and Cmd V, but they’re the same mental process and finger movements. Cmd A is great for highlighting all text and the fabulous Cmd Z (presumably based on ‘zap’) for undoing the last action.

Next, we saw dropdown menus in DOS. How decadent! And then along came graphical interfaces, such as Windows. We became spoilt. But the old-fashioned DOS users then had the option of digging around in the innards of the operating system if there was a serious problem and we learnt to systemise and file information properly on ‘trees’.

Enough nostalgia! Back to amnesia…

When I go back to iMovie to make or amend a video, usually a book trailer, I have to re-familiarise myself with its arcane mysteries. I admit, iMovie10 was wonderfully flexible with myriad options and tweak possibilities, but then iMovie11 hit and it was a horrible surprise. Many of the options and tweaks had vanished, but it was still as un-intuitive as before. Still, I wrestled with it and eventually worked out how to work in the new restricted environment. Then I didn’t make a book trailer for a year. Cue a day of frustration re-learning the blasted program.

But MS Word gives me the most grief as Microsoft insists on changing familiar commands or buttons every time they update. Like many writers, I use the Review function as does my editor and countless editors before her. When you finished, you used to click ‘Final’ and hey presto, the mark-up area at the right side disappeared.

In the current version 16.37 for Mac, there is no ‘Final’ option.

Cue ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana…

Now, I’m used to computing after thirty years and am reasonably good at researching, but it took ages to find the appropriate information and instructions to get rid of that wretched right hand column for ever. Or maybe I’m just slowing up…

My teeth gnashed at this on the above linked help page:
“Important: The only way to remove tracked changes is to accept or reject them, and the only way to remove comments is to delete them. Choosing the No Markup view only temporarily hides changes and comments, and will show up again the next time someone opens the document.”

Er, Microsoft, at this stage when we’ve finished edits or addressed all the comments, the only thing we want to do is produce a nice clean document, or copy document, that doesn’t have the blasted review column, especially if it’s empty. So ‘Final’ is the simplest option for doing this in one go.

Perhaps I enjoy the apocalyptic lure of a ‘Final’ button, but I would have fewer visits to the dentist if computer software designers would listen to the common or garden user.

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

To Zoom or not to Zoom?

Let’s face it, not seeing our friends, family and colleagues and not going to our favourite bar or pub, not being able to hug others or kiss them is a real pain. No more weekends away, in my case on a low-cost plane to the UK, no more work trips, let alone seeing my newborn grandchild.

Enter Zoom!

We’ve had Skype and FaceTime for a while but now there are MS Team and Facebook Rooms, plus many others I haven’t heard of. But the principle is the same – group chats with your mates, colleagues, activity groups and of course, your wider family.

It’s sheer pleasure interacting with somebody outside your immediate household and reassures you and them that we are still here. Jokes, experiences, both happy ad tragic, or just chit-chat are still out there for us to share. And seeing people is so much better than the bald talk of social media, even with images. I’ve been on many groups and chats and generally enjoyed every one.

However… (Just for a change from the usual ‘but’ 😉 )

It can get a little chaotic. No, actually very chaotic. Everybody is excited about meeting up, especially when it’s with friends and colleagues of equal status. We all pile in.

After a few minutes, one person seems to dominate the conversation and quieter group members tend to have little chance to say anything unless another respected member specifically asks them for their news or views. And everybody replies which means nobody hears much of what’s said. Then it settles down, but before long another wave comes along.

This is all perfectly natural, but sometimes you feel as if you’ve been at a village jumble sale scrabbling for the desired item.

Video conferencing (whatever the name) was really designed for business meetings where a formal hierarchy and systematic reporting order exists. Like any business meeting, there’s a chairman/woman/person who keeps order and ensures that views are heard, ideas discussed and stuff gets done.

In the military, there is voice procedure which is basically a similar system. Everybody has a place in the order of responding to the call initiator and an identifying number to demonstrate that order.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE connecting with others during this enforced isolation but we seem to have forgotten the usual ways of group talking. Would we talk over each other like this in a pub or over a group meal? I don’t think so. We’d take turns more. I say ‘more’ as we do overtalk a little in real life but mostly we wait for the other person to finish.

Whilst technology should be our servant, not our master, I think we need to work out how to adapt to its limitations. I’m not advocating talking by numbers, but a facilitator should be designated who can ensure everybody gets an equal look in and call order if it’s getting too raucous. This will lead to something resembling a civilised conversation between equals rather than the rather tumultuous free for all I sometimes leave with no breath and a ringing head.

I probably won’t get invited to any more chats now…