New year - new book

Well, now that the holiday season has been and gone, life is settling back to normal.  My second book "The Undermerchant's Woman" has been sent to my publisher and I have now started writing my third novel "The Mafeking Woman".  This one takes place during the siege of Mafeking in 1899, during the Boer War.

Looking out of my office window it is dull and snowing. I know that I should be writing but the drive really needs shoveling again before my car gets snowed in  LOL

Christmas is upon us

Since my last post I have been busy with more book signings. I'm getting more comfortable with them and selling more books LOL.  But promoting apart, I'm really enjoying the experience. It's fabulous talking to book shoppers. You meet such interesting people.

I have finished my second novel The Undermerchant's Woman and so can now relax and think about Christmas.  Did I say relax? I haven't even started my gift shopping yet.  I find shopping malls this time of year to be real nightmares. To all the guys out there...am I alone in dreading the crowds and the desperate fight to find a parking space?

My first book signing

I did my very first book signing today. I sold nine books in two hours (four to customers and five to the store). I don’t know if that is good, bad or indifferent but I was very pleased about it anyway. And I’ve been invited back for a second signing so onward and upward.

I was quite nervous about doing signings as I’m a rather reserved guy, but I found the whole experience really enjoyable. It gave me quite a thrill when people actually came up and wanted me to sign their copy of the book. I felt like jumping up and punching the air with excitement. LOL

Best time of the year

As I sit here editing my new book, I’m looking out of the window at a clear blue sky and a small woodland glowing red, orange and gold. A heron flies past every hour or so as it cruises the river looking for fish and the geese have started gathering for their flight south.

    You have no idea how much I love this time of year. The only thing spoiling it, is that the sweet corn has finished.

    Oh come on! Stop daydreaming and get back to work.

TV Interview

I was interviewed on TV yesterday as part of my book promotion. It was a lot of fun doing it and the host, Kasia, was very charming. Before we began the cameraman asked us to get closer. The result was that we kept banging knees under the table. That made it hard to concentrate I can tell you LOL. The problem was lack of time. At one point Kasia said that we only had three minutes left and I was only just getting warmed up.

I’ve uploaded the interview onto my website.  www.robertkerbybooks.com

The Man-Engine

In the opening chapter of The Regiment’s Woman I have made reference to the “Man Engine” in the tin mine.

Accidents in mines were common and many happened at the end of an exhausting shift when the men had to climb numerous ladders to get back up the shaft to the surface. It was common for men to fall off the ladders out of shear fatigue.

To solve this problem a “man-engine” was invented and installed in the Tresavean mine in Cornwall in 1842. The Fowey Consols mine (featured in the book) had one installed in 1850.

The man-engine consisted of eight inch square rods of pine strapped together end to end. Every twelve feet there was a one foot square platform and handle. There were similar platforms attached to the sides of the shaft. The rods pumped up and down and a man could jump onto the platform and be lifted, with every up stroke, twelve feet up to the next stationary platform. The rod was powered by a thirty six foot diameter water wheel.

By this method a man could be lifted up a 1680 foot shaft in about 25 minutes. A huge improvement over ladders.

Astonishingly kind

Researching The Regiment’s Woman took about three years and I was unable to visit a lot of the places I wrote about. However, throughout that time I was blown away by the kindness of complete strangers I met on the internet who were only too pleased to help me.

One lady volunteered to take time out to drive around the village of Chapel Down and take photos for me.
Another gentleman was very helpful with information about the transportation of military horses.

My biggest surprise however, was about the Greenwich observatory. I went there when I was a teenager and remembered that the observatory sat on a high hill overlooking the Thames. The grass drop-off was so steep at the top that it was possible to lay on the grass and not been seen by people on the path at the top.

I wanted to write a scene in the book where Janetta makes out with her soldier on that slope hidden from view. However I was worried that my memory had failed me, and that it was impossible to be hidden on the slope. Would my readers see this flaw?

So I wrote to the observatory explaining my problem and several days later I received an astonishing reply. Apparently the office staff had volunteered to go outside on their lunch break and test this theory out for me. Happily my memory hadn’t failed me and I included the scene in the book.

I’ve been left with this image of these wonderful people cuddling on the grass and calling out, “can you see us now?”