On 28th September, Wombourne Wives welcomed our first speaker from the new 2017/18 programme. Black Country born novelist Michael Taylor ( alias Nancy Carson) entertained us with his talk entitled ‘Fact in Fiction’
Michael started writing seriously in 1990. His genre is Historic Romantic Fiction and his novels are based in the industrial Black country in the 19th and early 20th century. In all historical fiction work the history of time must be fact and be researched for accuracy –hence the title of his talk.
He originally wrote the dialogues for his first book in Black Country Dialect. He spoke of his rejections from publishers and being accepted originally by Peacock Publishing .He then wrote for Hodder and Stoughton who suggested he should change the dialogue into standard English to attract more readers. His first main character was Henzy Kite, and her story was the first of a trilogy about the Kite family. He found further success after moving to Harper Collins, who agreed to republish his books but suggested that he should write under a female name and preferably with a surname beginning with C, D or E as they would be displayed at eye level in stores –hence the name Nancy Carson! The secrets you learn about successful writing!
Michael alias Nancy has written several books including The Factory Girl, Rags to Riches, A Family Affair and Poppy’s Dilemma.
Our next two meetings are:-
12th October – ‘Classroom in the skies’ Sally Sixsmith – Sally’s trip to a school in Nepal
26th October – Humorous Poetry – Keith Whitehouse
New members and visitors are always welcome to our meetings and enjoy a tea or coffee and biscuits with us.
We meet at 8pm at the Venerable Bede on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays in each month.