Scenic Jog Along The Wild Coast

Those of you who follow me on TikTok will have already enjoyed (and perhaps laughed at) my "Running is Writing" clips. It's true though, at least for me. Running gets the blood pumping and the ideas flowing, and when you live in Brittany and set most of your stories in this mystical land, there's no better way to really soak up the atmosphere like ink before bringing it to life again on the page.

Here are a few shots I took while jogging along the Wild Coast (la Côte Sauvage) in southern Brittany. An excuse to catch my breath perhaps. Mud, granite, sand, and sea... Moss, lichen, gorse, and reed... and a rainbow as a reward at the end. There are benches along the coast here that are perfect for reading a good book, or for doing push-ups without getting your hands muddy. The bench in the shot I turned into a meme even faces a rock formation called The Devil's Table. You can't get better than that! 

Three of my stories I've set along the coast of Brittany are:

The Curse of the Emerald Eye (The Black Beacon Book of Pirates)

Holiday Home (The Black Beacon Book of Horror)

The Painting and the Password (The Third Black Beacon Book of Mystery)

The Impossible Theft (The Second Black Book of Mystery)

Of course, my forthcoming novel is set just a little further inland, in the marshland I call my home. Don't forget to grab a copy once it's out on the 30th of January. Dead on the Dolmen is the first novel featuring Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable, and if you love atmospheric settings, quirky characters, and a clever puzzle even half as much as I do, this distinctly Breton mystery is going to have you enthralled.   

Point of View

One of those topics that keeps cropping up whenever writers discuss the nuts and bolts of their craft is point of view. You, as a reader, may have a preference between first-person narrative and third-person omniscient or limited. Well, do you?

Before I start writing a story, I ask myself a number of questions and ultimately try to make a decision based on what I think will give the reader the best experience. For instance, I started writing my short mysteries involving Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable, in first person (there's a free example here) but soon changed to third, and it was a difficult decision. First-person narrative generally works well for the traditional detective short story. Look at Sherlock Holmes with Watson giving us an up-close-and-personal view of Holmes. When the POV is the protagonist's, it's even more powerful for demonstrating thought processes and internal battles that will hold the reader's attention. I ended up opting for third-person limited, however, because I wanted to jump between POVs in different scenes, and that obviously wouldn't work with a first-person narrative. The ability to show the reader in direct but shadowy glimpses what is going on behind the protagonist's was too tempting to resist.

The choice is ultimately based on the story and the author's priority for the reader, the personal depth the first-person narrative gives or the flexibility third gives. My post-apocalyptic work-in-progress is told in the first person in order to really draw the reader into the protagonist's personal experience and to force the reader to navigate a ruined landscape with unknown dangers, to wear the protagonists' tattered boots. It's an important decision to make...and a much easier one to make before you start a story. For a short story, it may not be the end of the world, but no one wants to go back and change the POV after writing a full draft of a novel! 

Do you have a preference? What are some of your favourite stories and which point of view did the author use? Let me know in the comments below.

From the State of Queensland to the Duchy of Brittany

One question I'm often asked (obviously by readers who haven't read my work yet) is whether I prefer to set my stories in places I know or in places I've never set foot. It's an interesting question, and one that deserves a full answer...so here goes.

As an Australian now living in Brittany, I find myself setting most of my fiction these day - almost instinctively - around my new home. That's quite a dramatic change considering the differences between the state of Queensland and the ancient Duchy of Brittany. The move from my home in Brisbane to my wife's in Brittany was made for a number of reasons, and none of them have anything to do with my writing, not directly in any case. Nonetheless, Brittany leaves an indelible mark on my writing, and I like to think that one day, my writing will leave its mark on Brittany. Within easy walking distance of my village, there are marshes, a mediaeval mound once used as a lookout, and an abandoned windmill. A short drive away, you'll find dolmens, the ruins of a castle, a sea cave inhabited by a korrigan, and German bunkers built during WWII...to see all this, find me on Instagram! There are misty mornings over the marshland here and stormy nights with waves crashing against the granite coast. You'll not be surprised to know all this provides endless inspiration (or awen to stick with the Celtic theme) for a writer of mystery, suspense, and horror. Added to this is the fact that for me as a writer, it's important to actually go and sit in the place a story is set, at least very now and then. One of my unpublished short mysteries featuring Oscar Tremont is set in a nearby river port (La Roche-Bernard) and the picturesque setting plays an important role in the plot.

So there you go. Not every story I'm working on and plan to write is set in Brittany, but most of them are, and when you read them you'll know there's nothing arbitrary about the setting. I'll be taking you on a guided tour of this ancient land, with its dramatic landscapes, its history, its legends, its superstitions, and you might even learn a word of two of its language too! Kenavo!

     The fortified city of Guérande (Gwenrann) in Brittany.