I am delighted to welcome Lucinda E Clarke, who will tell us more about her books and latest publication - it's sure to be another winner.
Firstly a huge thank
you to Beth for suggesting I invade her blog space, I feel very privileged indeed.
I’m always at a bit
of a loss when people suggest I talk about my life. Do I mention I was stuck
alone in the African bush with a 9 week old baby, or broadcast live with a
bayonet at my throat in Libya, or how I stumbled across a public hanging in the
streets? Or the time I met Nelson Mandela, chatted with Prince Charles or fell
into a rubbish dump? No, I won’t mention any of that because, despite being
true, none of it sounds believable. I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut at
social gatherings as other guests edge away from me, giving me sideways looks
before searching for the number of the local asylum in their cell phones.
I’d better stick to
telling you about my heroine Amie. I was going to entitle this ‘Who is Amie?’
when my mind wandered – as it so often does totally out of control – to those singing
lessons at school. Our music teacher was particularly fond of that awful song
‘Who is Sylvia?’ My thoughts were, ‘well why doesn’t someone ask her instead of
warbling on about it?’ Then, I remembered the summer dresses we wore that had two
pieces of material at the waist you tied into a bow at the back. I guess it was
to help make them ‘one size fits all’. Well of course the boys couldn’t resist
pulling the ties apart and fixing them round the back of the chairs. As all the
girls stood up to screech about Sylvia, most of us fell flat on our noses.
Anyway back to Amie
who gets into many difficult and dangerous situations. After four books she’s
become very real and I have to stop myself from laying her a place at the
dinner table. I send her out to Africa, reluctantly accompanying her husband whose
company has a project in a country she’s never heard of. In fact all she knows
about Africa is: there are lots of flies and countless civil wars. So of course
she has to get caught up in such a conflict with tribal factions fighting for
power, with her in the middle of it.
I got her out of
that predicament (whoops a spoiler, but then you will guess that when you
realize there are 4 books in the series and I don’t write about ghosts!)
In book 2 she sets
out to rescue the child she had fostered in book one but runs up against an
ISIS type organization and in book three she loses everything, her home, her
identity and her freedom. She is forced to work for an organization that would
kill her rather than admit she is still alive. Book four, has just been
released and this time we meet her as a fully fledged, but very reluctant spy,
caught up in an international child sex trade with a twist.
All my books, my
memoirs and the Amie series are set in Africa, not surprising as it was my home
for almost 40 years. My work, as a video producer and writer took me to far
flung places where I was privileged to meet many people in all walks of life,
invited into their homes and shared many hours talking to them. In the west we
will never totally understand a different mindset and outlook on life, but I
developed a deep love for what is essentially still the Dark Continent, despite
the high rise blocks and the paved streets.
Originally I
qualified as a teacher, and I’ve taught from pre-school to lecturing college
students on scriptwriting and it must be some lurking gene in my make up, but
in all my books I try to show people what Africa is really like and attempt to
give some insight into a land we are usually shown through ‘fake news’ and
carefully selected camera angles. Heavens I did enough of that myself, out on
location, filming what the client wanted to show in the finished product.Occasionally I would mutter about the ‘client from hell’ who was really difficult to work for, but then I had not experienced being my own client – the very worst of all!
We retired to Spain
in 2008, I hated leaving filming and Africa but circumstances dictated it, and
after a couple of days I got horribly bored and started writing books.
Eight to date with a free novella as an introduction to my scribbling – you can download it here - myBook.to/WRS
These are all the
usual links to places where I lurk (do you remember the time when we only had one
address and that was for the postman? – sigh)
Eight to date with a free novella as an introduction to my scribbling – you can download it here - myBook.to/WRS
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucinda-E-Clarke/e/B00FDWB914/
Do please connect
with me, as I love to hear from people and another thank you to Beth.
Love Lucinda’s books. If you read her memoir Truth Lies and Propoganda before you start the Amie series you might have to keep checking that you are reading fiction and not a memoir with Amie.
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ReplyDeleteThank you Susan :) Half my life is still spent mentally in Africa. And there is supposed to be a bit of the author in all books even non memoirs, so in in there with Amie, along for the ride. (Removed due to typo - but what can you expect?)
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