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When Billy Coke steps onto the streets of London one December evening he has no idea he is stepping to his fate.
I'm pleased to welcome author Chris (C.C.) Humphreys to The Writing Desk;
Tell us about your latest book
I was going to write a load of new stuff about it… then realized I'd laboured so long and hard to narrow it down for the back cover copy I thought it better just to send you that! I promise after this there will be no more cut and paste:
'Inspired by my parents' true story, this is a novel about a spy and a pilot who fall in love, are wrenched apart by war, and must find their way back to each other.
When Billy Coke steps onto the streets of London one December evening in 1940, he has no idea he is stepping to his fate. As Hitler’s bombers come close to burning the city down, Billy meets the woman who will change the course of his life - Ilse Magnusson, a musician from Norway, but also something more – a spy in training. Escaping the Blitz for three days, she and Billy drive, quarrel, conceal, reveal… and fall, finally, fully, in love.
Now they must part, each to fight the war their own way. Billy, a Canadian Spitfire pilot, to duel with the Luftwaffe over North Africa and the Med. Ilse to return to her conquered country, ingratiate herself with the Nazi elite – which includes her beloved father ¬– and send vital intelligence back to Britain. They know that the odds of both of them surviving are poor. All they can hope is that the other does survive – and that someday they find each other again.
From decadent pre-war Berlin to the atrocity at Guernica, from dogfights over Sicily to an Oslo ground under the German jackboot, through small victories and bitter losses, this is the story of a man and a woman at war. A tale of causes and compromises, heroism, and betrayal. Of choices made, with consequences unforeseen. Finally how sometimes . . . love can give you a second chance.
(And yes, my father was a Battle of Britain fighter pilot, and my mother was a spy in the Norwegian Resistance, her cell run by SOE)
What is your preferred writing routine?
It really depends on what draft I am on. If it is my first draft - after I have done all my preliminary research and have a rough idea of where I am going (I don't outline), I just set out and try to find out who these characters are… in action. I like to be caffeinated and at my desk by about 7:30am.
If I am filling the blank screen i.e. making it all up as I go, I find I am inspired for about five hours, so I stop for lunch. If it's second draft i.e. I have a mountain of words to chip away at - then I can go all day. You have to drive me from my desk with hounds.
What advice do you have for new writers?
CC: My biggest piece of advice - and what I strive to teach when I do - is to regard writing as a process. A series of stages. This part - the first draft - is about finding out what the story is, telling it to yourself. You need to remove the words 'good' and 'bad'. (They are rarely useful at any stage.
Does it work - serve your purpose at this stage - or doesn't it?) Like so many I thought I needed to write well, instantly, like my heroes. Then I remembered the cliché - 'journey not destination'. Each stage - preliminary, first draft, second draft, working with an editor - is separate and distinct. The lines should not be blurred.
What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?
Gosh, I am not great at the marketing stuff. Had to get a bit better since I started self-publishing some of my backlist. I find newsletters are useless, don't pay for them. Word of mouth - generated mostly by some social media shares - helps.
Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research
I always say that research is not so much about getting the details right, necessary though that is. A good new fact acts as a springboard for the imagination. Very occasionally, maybe three times a novel, a fact merges with your imagination and writing becomes like taking dictation.
In Someday I'll Find You (for reasons I can no longer recall) I chose to make Ilse, my female protagonist, a classical flautist. I am vastly ignorant about classical music, so I began to research, mainly by listening to flute quartets. I discovered that the adagio (second movement) in Mozart's Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major is based on an old Troubadour song.
Then I remembered that the troubadours sang of courtly love which was pure - and unrequited. This gave Ilse the perfect excuse not to sleep with the viola player she'd been considering - and left her free to meet the other protagonist, Billy Coke. I confess to chortling while typing as research and character came together in action.
Interestingly, I mentioned to Doubleday my publishers that I'd put together a Spotify playlist of my research. Suggested they might want to use it in some way. They put it on a QR code on the free bookmarks.
What was the hardest scene you remember writing?
Ever? In my novel Vlad, The Last Confession I kept delaying writing the impalement scene which was vital. I mean he was Vlad the Impaler, not Vlad the Tickler, right? My writing was getting delayed, I was antsy, then realized why.
So I sat down and wrote a page and a half in 45 minutes. You will never need to know anything more about how to impale someone. I never needed to write it again. There are other impalements in the novel, but all done from people's POV, their reactions, never directly. Phew. Definitely tough.
What are you planning to write next?
Someday I'll Find You did especially well in Canada. Sequels are apparently out of favour, but Doubleday wanted more of the same: spy, WW2, love story, with some Canadian Content. Two weeks ago I delivered 'Eve Sinclair', mainly set in the world of spies in neutral Sweden during the war.
I have also finally written another Jack Absolute novel, sixteen years after the last one. It's the sequel to the original 'Jack Absolute' and I am hoping it revives the whole series. We are in talks with a publisher about reissuing them all with new covers etc. This one is appropriately called, 'The Resurrection of Jack Absolute'. They would also want new ones which would thrill me. I love Jack!
Chris (C.C.) Humphreys
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About the Author
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