With very best wishes to you and yours this Mothering Sunday.
If you’re blessed, as I am, to all still have each other then have a lovely day celebrating.
Thinking of those who no longer have their Mum and also Mums who have lost children.
My thoughts and prayers are with you.
xXx
Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Jill Marsh to Chat About Books 🙂
For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?
My name is Jill and I write under the pen name JJ Marsh. I live in Switzerland with my husband and three dogs. My Beatrice Stubbs books are European crime dramas with more brains than blood. I’m a founder member of author collective Triskele Books, Co-Editor and Creative Director of The Woolf, and reviewer for Bookmuse. Also qualified fire-eater.
Where did/do you get your ideas from?
Overheard conversations, dreams about Starsky & Hutch, news articles, a ginger-haired bloke in the Post Office, intriguing locations, Dusty Springfield and the urge to write crime with more roles for women than dead prostitute.
Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?
Adrian (wine merchant, gay chorister and amateur detective) owes much of his personality and skills to three special individuals from the London years.
How do you pick your characters names?
Great question! My books are set in various European cities, so I often trawl that country’s politicians, footballers, actors and musicians until I find something that fits the personality. Arch villain Arturo Aguirre came from Werner Herzog’s eponymous film featuring Klaus Kinski.
Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?
Research, plot on a massive grid, write 2K words a day, edit seven times, send to Triskele Books (our five-person author collective), rewrite and send to the proof reader. Usually takes me a year.
Who are your top 5 favourite authors?
Perennials like Kate Atkinson and Louis de Bernières etc, but current discoveries would be Jane Davis, John Ironmonger and Louise O’Neill. Reading good writing makes me raise my game.
If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Dylan Thomas. I’d ask him if he fancied a pint.
Were you a big reader as a child?
Obsessively. I got kicked out of the school library because I overstayed my welcome.
When did you start to write?
To make a living out of it? 2004. That said, I’ve always been a storyteller. When I was three, my mother found me in the field outside our house entertaining the cows with fairytales.
If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?
Torch Song Trilogy’s Fugue in a Nursery. Please, not Alan!
Is there a book you wish you had written?
My next one and the one after that.
If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?
Till the Cows Go Home
If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?
Flann O’Brien. I’d take him to the pub to meet Dylan and we’d all have a pint of plain.
Tell us a random fact about yourself.
It’s true that I can eat fire but I’m a woeful juggler.
What are you working on right now?
Honey Trap, the eighth in The Beatrice Stubbs Series. It’s about culinary espionage in Naples – the research is a joy.
Tell us about your last release?
That was An Empty Vessel, a detour from my crime series into literary/historical fiction. A woman is on death row for murder in the 1950s. Everyone has an opinion, except her.
Do you have a new release due?
Honey Trap will be out end of June, if I ever stop researching Italian food and wine.
What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?
Stare at screen, worry, wish I’d rewritten it one more time, refresh screen, worry, and eventually collapse onto the sofa with Prosecco and pugs.
How can readers keep in touch with you?
http://www.beatrice-stubbs.com/relaunch/
or on Twitter: @JJMarsh1, but to be honest, I mostly rant about politics.
Is there anything else you would like us to know?
I’m a polyglot. I can say ‘A white wine spritzer with soda and no lemon’ in five languages.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, Jill 🙂
Today’s the day Nancy Maidstone is going to hang.
In her time, she’s been a wartime evacuee, land-girl, slaughterhouse worker, supermarket assistant, Master Butcher and defendant accused of first degree murder. Now she’s a prisoner condemned to death. A first time for everything.
The case has made all the front pages. Speculation dominates every conversation from bar to barbershop to bakery. Why did she do it? How did she do it? Did she actually do it at all? Her physical appearance and demeanour in court has sparked the British public’s imagination, so everyone has an opinion on Nancy Maidstone.
The story of a life and a death, of a post-war world which never had it so good, of a society intent on a bright, shiny future, and of a woman with blood on her hands.
This is the story of Nancy Maidstone.
“From its chilling opening as a death sentence is passed, this book had me gripped. The 1950s setting, the entirely believable characters and the tight plot all held me as, fully engrossed, for the first time I went in the wrong direction on the Tube. Thoroughly recommended”.
– Dr Alison Baverstock, Associate Professor of Publishing, Kingston University, London
I always struggle to review short stories, but I did enjoy this little collection…..
Full Circle –
A short, but very sweet love story. Who doesn’t love a happy ending!? Some people are just meant to be.
The Perfect Murder –
A clever little tale of entitlement, greed, deceit and murder.
Who’s Sorry Now –
Madeleine is regretting divorcing her husband, Carl, a year ago. He was unfaithful though, so the trust was gone. Or was it? Was there the possibility of a reconciliation? This may be short, but it’s full of bitterness, manipulation and reaping what you sow.
Katie’s Christmas Wish –
A lovely little romance about finally seeing what has been there all along.
Many thanks to the author for my review copy via Sarah @ Book On The Bright Side Publicity
It’s about love, betrayal and dreams.
Do we really know the people we love?
Can love be rekindled?
Do dreams come true?
The truth always comes out in the end.
~~~
Born into a bilingual family (Swedish/ English) Hélene Fermont enjoyed an idylic childhood on the outskirts of Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city and major cultural hub. Growing up in the 1970s she had a brief musical career on Swedish TV and radio. Hélene lived in London for over 20 years but has recently returned to Sweden. Hélene is a former teacher, a practising psychologist, and currently the author of three novels, all of which are psychological suspense with a nordic noir flavour. Her fourth novel is coming soon!
Welcome to my stop on CM Thompson’s Who Killed Anne-Marie blog tour!
Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Group Tours for arranging the following interview with CM Thompson…..
For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?
My first novel “What lies in the Dark” is a book about a serial killer and how murders can affect a community as well as how they affect individuals.
My second novel “Who Killed Anne-Marie?” is a sadder book about the suspicious death of an alcoholic and how her death affects her husband, family and her neighbourhood.
As for myself, I am not as interesting as my novels. I work two jobs and spent most of my time reading, cooking or thinking about (but not actually) writing.
Where did/do you get your ideas from?
I don’t ask where the ideas come from, encase they stop. But I thinking of them as little sparks of electricity shooting across my brain that must be captured, grown and harvested before they fade away. Also I work in customer service and meet many many interesting people ;).
Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?
Loosely yes, also people I personally have never met but have heard legends of. I am not going to go into details encase they have good lawyers.
How do you pick your characters’ names?
Sometimes a character tells me their name. The first novel I ever tried to write (unfinished, unpublished) had a character who insisted her name was Lola but I wanted to call her Rose. I still think of her sometimes, stamping her feet, insisting her name is Lola and demanding to be finished.
Other names I use baby names websites and when all else fails, I ask Twitter for suggestions.
Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?
Ugh I don’t want to.
Maybe I will do something later.
That’s mostly the process, it can be as difficult as pulling teeth, forcing a small child to blow their nose or convincing a person to change their political outlook.
Mostly process-wise I read research, write random notes, let the notes form a massive pile on my desk, then a few months later try and make sense of it all and form some kind of loose plot. Then write a skeleton of a novel, flesh it out, edit it, edit it some more, show it to my publisher, ignore it in favour of a new idea, edit it again, consider becoming a nun / hermit, rewrite it, rewrite it again and then edit it some more. It’s a process that takes around 2-3 years.
Who are your top 5 favourite authors?
Terry Pratchett
Sue Townsend
Banana Yoshimoto
Stephen King
George R R Martin
If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Shakespeare, Sue Townsend or Terry Pratchett, I wouldn’t ask them anything but I think whatever they have to say would be interesting, unless all they do is ask “How the heck did I get here?”
Were you a big reader as a child?
I once dented my glasses as child by walking into a lamppost whilst reading.
When did you start to write?
I don’t really remember anymore, preteen I started writing awful poetry and even worse fanfiction and slowly I got better. (in my opinion) but there has always been stories.
If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?
Is there a book you wish you had written?
Taming of the Shrew, I would rewrite the ending. But then there are so many different ways of interpreting that play, so many possible versions. And to me, an ending that leaves you cold, empty or angry can inspire as much or more than a happy ending.
But honestly, if there was a book I wish I had written, I think would rewrite it in my own words, with my own plot, changing the characters so only I would recognise them. Why waste time wishing when you could be writing? 😉
If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?
Level 4158 on Candy Crush and still wasting time.
If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?
Nanny Ogg from the Discworld. Somewhere that serves really good coffee and cakes, with a pub very close by.
What are you working on right now?
I am working on a direct sequel to What Lies in the Dark (also an indirect sequel to Who Killed Anne-Marie?) At the moment it is a mighty pile of notes, but one day it will be a book.
Tell us about your last release?
It’s getting there. It is definitely a marmite novel, there are people who like it, there are people it resonates with and there are people who would willingly burn it. Sign of a good novel I think.
Do you have a new release due?
Not yet, it will be a while.
What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?
First book I celebrated in a pub in Nottingham with 2 friends. Second book I celebrated with a launch party, also in a pub in Nottingham. Generally I celebrate in secret with a bottle of wine when the book is accepted for publication, then I gird my loins for the long harsh editing journey that lies ahead.
How can readers keep in touch with you?
They can either set some kind of elaborate trap up at one of the theatres in Nottingham and wait patiently. Or they can find me on Twitter @cmtwrites, Goodreads or failing that, they can send a pigeon.
Is there anything else you would like us to know?
The biggest piece of wisdom I can impart at this time of my life, the biggest lesson I have ever learnt, is never to brush your teeth with antiseptic cream. Just don’t, seriously, learn from my mistakes.
LOL!!!
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! 🙂
Daniel and Anne-Marie’s marriage isn’t just on the rocks, it’s about to go six feet under. Anne Marie Mills is out of work, out of love and out of whisky. Everyone else is out of
patience. When Anne-Marie is found dead who is to blame? The neighbours who
despised her drunken rants? The husband who wondered how much more he could
take? Or is there another killer in the neighbourhood?
Welcome to my stop on K T Lee’s Calculated Sabotage blog tour 🙂
Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Group Tours
Morgan Grady stepped into the Director’s office and closed the door behind her. Dan Floyd’s office was bigger and more formal than hers, but it wasn’t so stuffy it made him seem unapproachable. Well, he scared the new recruits a little, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for the Director of Special Operations. He had a reputation to uphold. Dan had been nothing but dependable since they’d met at the Farm a lifetime ago. While Dan was in his mid-forties and single, Morgan was married and had twin sons, now in college. It had been some time since either of them had worked undercover in the field but it wasn’t easy to shake the veil of secrecy and the burden of distrust in others’ motivations.
Dan gestured for her to sit. “I heard Falcon met your man last night.”
Morgan sat in the chair across from Dan and crossed her arms. “Yeah. It sounds like she misled him about the op. Cam was under the impression she would arrive next week. We’re on the same team, Dan.” Morgan didn’t like games and wasn’t going to let Dan off the hook that easily.
Dan crossed his arms. “Look, Falcon is still recovering from the loss of her partner. She said he came early and they bumped into each other in a bar. After some initial confusion, they figured it out.” Morgan raised a skeptical eyebrow and Dan cringed. “Uh oh. How close to the truth was that explanation?”
“It sounds similar to Cam’s version, although I expect there was more to it than that, since he was pretty amped up about catching her until he found out she was CIA. I don’t have all the details yet – he just sent me a short note saying she’d shown up unannounced and they’d had a near miss. I plan on asking him for the full story on our regular update call tomorrow. Is Falcon a liability?”
“She’s trustworthy, just a little careful.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Falcon is used to operating independently. She threatened to go rogue unless we let her in on this. Trust me, she’s the type you want working with you, not against you.” Dan looked down at his notebook and tapped his pen against it.
“So, she strong-armed you. That’s a first. And a concern.”
“Mo, I trust her.” Morgan narrowed her eyes at him. It’d been a long time since anyone besides her brother had called her that. Dan was either spooked or trying to charm her. Or both. “More than almost anyone. Her sense of right and wrong is absolute. Like someone else I know.” He nodded at her.
“Flattery doesn’t work on me, Dan.”
“Regardless, I stand by my opinion.”
Morgan crossed her arms. “My assessment of Cam is the same.”
“Good. We’ve done what we can. Thanks for the update and let me know if you have any other problems. Let’s continue to keep it compartmentalized, please. Only you, me, and the two operations officers, unless I say the word.”
Morgan leaned forward. “This is the second time you’ve asked me to treat this like it was an inside job.”
“I don’t have any hard evidence to conclude it was an inside job.”
“You can’t charm me and bullshit me in the same meeting, Dan. You’ve already used up your quota.”
Dan sighed. “I can’t prove that it wasn’t an inside job. I’m proceeding as if someone in the Agency was involved unless we hear otherwise. It’s prudent and in line with our protocols. Nothing more, nothing less.” Dan chose his words carefully. He was nervous.
“Let’s meet on this. Regularly. So there aren’t any more misunderstandings.”
CIA operations officer
Quinn King will do whatever it takes to find the person who killed her partner.
She follows the evidence to Innovative Rocket Technologies, a start-up company
and current darling of the rocket world. Their most recent launch, however, ended
in an explosion that Quinn believes is connected to her partner’s death.
The CIA sends Cam Mitchell to provide backup for Quinn — and to make sure she
isn’t too emotionally invested. With Cam watching her back, Quinn embeds
herself at IRT. She soon discovers there is more to the failed launch than IRT
has shared with the public. And someone has a vested interest in keeping that
information under wraps.
When the CIA finds new evidence that someone is actively sabotaging the next
launch, they call in Parker, Ree and Mike from the FBI to help manage a growing
number of loose ends. However, once Cam and Quinn realize why the rocket is
being sabotaged, it puts them right in the crosshairs of a killer.
(Calculated Sabotage is Book 3 in The Calculated Series. All books in The
Calculated Series may be enjoyed as standalone novels or as a series.)
Welcome to my stop on Adrian Harvey’s Time’s Tide blog tour 🙂
Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Group Tours for arranging the following interview with Adrian Harvey…..
For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?
My books tend to be character-driven. I’m more interested in exploring why someone does what they do, how their relationships reflect and shape who they are. All three books – the love story Being Someone, the coming of age The Cursing Stone, and my new one, Time’s Tide – are very different narratively, but they have that in common. That and place – I’m fascinated by places, city streets as much as mountain tops, and travel as much as I can with my trusty notebook. I think landscape plays a big role in my writing; it certainly does in the new book.
Where did/do you get your ideas from?
Often my jumping off point is a story that someone tells me, something that snags my imagination, sets the cogs whirring. With Time’s Tide, my current book, that story was told to me in Iceland, on the way over to Hornstrandir, a desolate place in the far north west of the country. It’s where much of the novel is set and, in fact, the landscape there is almost a character in itself. The young woman told me a tale about her grandfather’s cow and that became the opening to the book. The trick is to always be listening – people are dishing out great ideas all the time.
Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?
Sometimes people think they’ve spotted themselves in my books, but it’s not true! My characters are a blend of everyone I know (as well as some people I’ve only overheard on the street) and myself. I’m in every character, I think, if only a little bit. How can it be otherwise? The only time a specific person is directly related to a character is when I use someone’s voice to get the dialogue right: I imagine so-and-so speaking the words, and if it doesn’t sound natural, I’m getting it wrong.
How do you pick your characters’ names?
Picking character names is usually quite tough. If the character is really well-developed, the name sometimes just seems right, almost like the character chooses their own name. But most of the time there is a lot of head scratching and a lot of research. In my first book, Being Someone, I changed the name of one of the main characters between first and second drafts: her original name didn’t really fit, but then I saw a name on a reserved table in a City wine bar, and I just thought “That’s her”. With this book, Time’s Tide, it’s a bit easier because there is literally a list of allowed names for Icelanders, so I trawled through that for the minor characters.
Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?
I start with a sheet of A3 paper and draw a diagram of the plot and the characters needed to make that happen. Then I turn that into a short document setting out the plot, themes and details of the characters – back stories that never make it into the books. That document is my compass over the months that follow: when I get lost in the details, I can always return to it, remind myself of what I’m supposed to be doing. Other than that, it’s just a matter of sitting at my desk in the spare bedroom and typing. The maxim I work by is: “Don’t get it right, get it written” – the effort is all in the rewrites.
Who are your top 5 favourite authors?
I like making lists like this, but asking for my top 5 authors feels a little daunting – it really depends on the day you ask! But since you’ve put a gun to my head, I’m going to go with Philip Roth*, A L Kennedy, George Orwell, Anuradha Roy and Orhan Pamuk. What they have in common is that they all write beautifully – all have brought tears to my eyes and all have had me endlessly re-reading a passage, a sentence or a phrase just for the joy of it.
*Philip Roth would make it to the top of the list on any day, to be honest.
If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?
It would have been Phillip Roth, but he died last year, and in any case I would probably have been too overawed to ask anything sensible, I would just have gushed. I have met A L Kennedy, and I asked her why she had such a grim fascination with dentists.
Were you a big reader as a child?
I was a massive reader as a child, more so than as an adult. I ploughed through books. I loved Ursula Le Guin, but also Conan Doyle and Arthur C Clarke. It was a simple escape to other realms, but I also learned to love language, to enjoy the way that words work together. That has stayed with me, even if my reading is more sporadic now.
When did you start to write?
I’ve written for work a lot during my career in the policy world: my first book was actually something on reforming the monarchy. But it was always writing for someone else, to order, always with someone looking over my shoulder. Then in 2011, I took redundancy and – aside from some travelling – I spent the time seeing what it would be like to write fiction, to write for myself. I didn’t intend to try to get the thing published, just to see if I could get it finished. I did and I thought it wasn’t too shabby, so… Anyhow, I loved the process of writing. When it works, it’s both liberating and all-consuming.
Is there a book you wish you had written?
My first reaction to that question was ‘No, of course not!’ But then I remembered reading Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red just after I finished writing Being Someone. I try not to read while I’m actually drafting, to minimise the influence of other writers, which means that I end up with a big stack of books to read. Anyway, I was feeling fairly good about my novel, until I read that. It made me realise how limited my talent is. So while I don’t wish that I had written it, I wish I could write something as good as that.
If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?
Back to Pamuk, I’m afraid. I’m not one for tying up every last thread at the end of a story – life carries on beyond the last page and it’s fine for that to be completely unknowable, something the reader creates for themselves. Not everything needs to be explained. So a little like the last third of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, I would strike out the last chapter of Pamuk’s The Red-Haired Woman: I’d loved it up to that point and, while the perspective of the red-haired woman herself didn’t detract from the book, for me it added nothing. Better to end with the father and son fighting at the top of the well, and to leave the rest to ambiguity.
If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?
Probably something like Maps and Legends. I’m a bit obsessed by places and the stories that spring from them, and I also like to travel and to walk, so that feels appropriate. In many ways, my autobiography would be more like an auto-geography, mapping my life onto the places it’s been lived. There would be mountains and there’d be plenty of getting lost along the way.
What are you working on right now?
Ah, the work in progress question! Well it’s a bit different to anything I’ve produced before. I guess it’s a political thriller, but it’s set in an unspecified time and place and that’s a challenge, because I love to write about landscape and places, and there aren’t any in this one. In fact I’m trying hard to keep as much of the action as possible in a handful of rooms, most of them without windows, to create a sense of claustrophobia. I’ve no idea if it’ll work and since I’m only half way through the first draft, it might be completely different by the time I’m done.
Do you have a new release due?
My new novel, Time’s Tide, is out in mid March. As I said earlier, it starts with an Icelandic cow, but it is really about the relationships between fathers and sons, about the distance between them and the enduring connection. There’s also a lot about landscape – the landscape is a character in its own right, rejected but inescapable, and the scene of tragedy and loss. And there are beards, lots of beards. And more coffee and cigarettes than are good for you.
What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?
Mine’s a pint if you’re buying…
How can readers keep in touch with you?
I spend far too much time on Twitter, so that’s probably the best place to find me – @ade_harvey
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, Adrian 🙂
The new novel from the bestselling author of Being Someone and The Cursing Stone.
A father and son struggle to overcome the distance between them. Each is drawn irresistibly to an unforgiving landscape, one that has been the scene of tragedy and loss.
The son’s return to the northern shore he abandoned as a young man promises the chance to heal the rift. But is it too late?
Arni left his remote corner of Iceland as soon as he could, seeking opportunities beyond winter and fishing. Married to an English woman, he builds a life as a successful scientist but can never quite escape the pull of the West Fjords and bleak landscape of his birth, nor shake the guilt he feels towards his distant father.
When Eirikur goes missing, he sets off to find him on a windswept spit of land lost in an angry ocean.
Time’s Tide is a compelling and beautifully written story of loss, belonging and the silence between fathers and sons.
First of all, my apologies for this being on my Netgalley list for far too long, but WOW was it worth the wait!
I can’t even begin to explain to you how tense and terrifying this story is!
When we meet Audra she has packed herself and her two children, Sean and Louise, into her car and is fleeing her abusive husband. Having travelled for hours she plans to stop at the next town, for the night, but before she gets there she is pulled over by the local sheriff and what happens from that moment on is just horrific. I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading, but I was absolutely captivated! As a mother I was right there with Audra, sharing her panic and desperation. There is no real way of knowing how I would react in the same situation, but I’m pretty sure it would reflect Audra’s behaviour. I can guarantee I would be hysterical.
There are some evil characters in this story and it’s scary to think that there are actually people like this in the real world, committing such horrendous crimes. It just goes to show that no matter the position of authority someone holds, it doesn’t necessarily make them a good person. Some people will do anything for money.
As for Audra’s husband, well he’s a nasty piece of work. He’s an arrogant, abusive Mummy’s boy! His mother is no better either. What is wrong with some women!? I take my hat off to Audra for finding the strength to leave in the first place.
Sean and Louise are lovely little characters, bless them. My heart went out to them.
If you’re looking for a compelling crime thriller then look no further. This one truly is a page-turner. I will be looking out for other books written by Haylen Beck.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for my review copy via Netgalley.
‘The best thriller I’ve read this year’ LISA JEWELL
‘A fantastic thriller… It doesn’t get better than this’ LEE CHILD
Her fresh start is about to turn into a nightmare…
Audra has finally left her abusive husband. She’s taken the family car and her young children, Sean and Louise, are buckled up in the back. This is their chance for a fresh start.
Audra keeps to the country roads to avoid attention. Then she spots something in her rear-view mirror. A police car is following her and the lights are flickering. Blue and red.
As Audra pulls over she is intensely aware of how isolated they are. Her perfect escape is about to turn into a nightmare beyond her imagining…
‘A rollercoaster…complete with agonising tension and a heroine you can’t help rooting for’
Daily Mail
‘Almost unbearably tense… Cancel all your plans and settle in for the ride’
Ruth Ware
Welcome to my stop on Elaine Gunn’s The Silver Moon Storybook blog tour!
Many thanks to Kelly @ Love Books Group Tours for arranging the following interview with Elaine Gunn…..
For those who don’t know already, could you tell us about yourself and your book(s) please?
Yikes, where do I start? Ok, I am a mum of three boys; I live just outside Edinburgh and am married to a hero called Angus. I’m trained in reiki and Dr. Hauschka therapy and run my holistic therapy business Something Lovely alongside my writing. The Silver Moon Storybook is my first published work; it’s a collection of seven original fairy tales with a feminist slant.
Where did/do you get your ideas from?
I get most of my ideas from online media, I totally subscribe to that Facebook meme that goes about from time to time, which says “so it turns out that being an adult is basically just googling how to do stuff” – I get so much of my information on the internet! For example, my story The Strong Man was inspired by a brilliant TED talk given by the actor Justin Baldoni, where he talked about reframing our understanding of what masculine strength should be. It turned up in my Facebook timeline, and the next thing I knew I had come up with Dr. Cornelius’ Travelling Circus and its struggle with toxic masculinity.
Are any of your characters based (however loosely) on anyone you know?
I didn’t set out to write about anybody in particular, but I suppose it’s inevitable that what is basically a download of your subconscious onto the page will reflect your own perception of reality to an extent. I suspect there’s more of me in each character than there is of anybody else. The character of the king in The Weaver did come from a very bizarre dream where Henry VIII saved me from a giant spider though. I’ve read a good bit of Phillipa Gregory in my time, and I’m guessing Henry VIII is about as accurate a symbol of the patriarchy as I can imagine.
How do you pick your characters’ names?
They don’t really have proper names – I am horrible at naming characters! I overthink it and try too hard to be clever with symbolism and double meanings, which I think ends up feeling contrived. By keeping it simple and letting the characters’ identities dictate what I called them in Silver Moon, I felt much freer to let them take me through the story themselves.
Can you share your writing process with us, in a nutshell?
I just sit down and write. Usually I start with a theme I want to explore, then I come up with a core character whose experience is going to be central to the story. Once I have that, I just go with it and see what happens – some of my stories have ended up completely different from what I initially expected. My characters seem to have lives of their own!
Who are your top 5 favourite authors?
This is a hard one – I love books and when I get the time to read (see above, re 3 kids and 2 careers…) I read loads of different authors, it’s difficult to pick favourites. I do really love Jane Austen, and I’ve had a lot of Stephen King on my bookshelves over the years. Georgette Heyer is a bit of a guilty pleasure, I often turn to her if I’m needing some happy fluff to cheer me up, and Neil Gaiman is a great one too. Oh! Hans Christian Andersen – I know I’m a grown woman now, but his fairy tales will always feel a bit special to me.
If you could meet any author, who would it be and what would you ask them?
It would have to be George Orwell; I read 1984 in my early twenties and it’s the only book I haven’t been brave enough to go back to learn more from as an older reader – I had a proper hyperventilating panic attack at the end of it. I’d ask him about the parallels I see in today’s society, and try to get a sense from him of how close to dystopia we actually are. Although I would probably need quite a lot of gin to attempt that conversation…
Were you a big reader as a child?
Yes. I was very introverted and had pretty low self-esteem. I retreated into books a lot – it was easier for me to immerse myself in imaginary worlds than to deal with the real one. I was a total bookworm and really into fantasy, fairy-tales and science fiction.
When did you start to write?
I remember writing my first story in Primary 2 (I would have been 5 or 6 at the time), then I started keeping journals when I was about 10 or 11. I’ve been writing on and off since then, but never had the confidence to attempt anything for publication. It’s amazing how much writing experience you can gather in the world of work though; I have had to learn to adjust my style for reports, plans, terrible marketing campaigns etc, all of which have taught me how to be really tight and precise with my language.
If you could re-write the ending to any book what would it be and what would you change?
I would keep Mr Quincey P Jones alive at the end of Dracula – I always thought it was mean to kill him off, he was by far the warmest character in the book and deserved a happy ending. I was never very convinced of the whole “moral and racial superiority of Englishmen means they get to live” thing that Bram Stoker often got up to.
Is there a book you wish you had written?
That would be a toss-up between two books. On one hand I have direct experience now of how amazing it is to have written a book that inspires children (one of my son’s wee pals has named her new gerbil Silvermoon) to think it would be great to have written Harry Potter. But also, I would like to have written Monty Hall’s Great Escape, because that would mean I’d have spent 6 months living like a hermit on the Applecross peninsula in Wester Ross, which is absolutely on my bucket list.
If you wrote an autobiography, what would your title be?
It took me about 6 months to come up with a title for Silver Moon; I nearly ended up having a workshop with some of my pals, I was absolutely stumped. I have no chance with this question! “Elaine, the Indecisive” or something…
If you could invite any fictional character for coffee who would it be and where would you take them?
Erm… I’m not going to lie, it would totally be Jamie Fraser from Outlander. Somewhere deserted in the Scottish Highlands. I’ll bring a flask and a blanket.
What are you working on right now?
I’m busy marketing The Silver Moon Storybook and working on getting some of Megan MacPhie’s wonderful illustrations up on my website for readers to download and colour in. I am also keeping my radar up for inspiration for more fairy tales, but I’m in no huge rush. Writing and self-publishing a book was quite an intense experience for me, and I’m trying to nurture myself in the aftermath.
Tell us about your last release?
I released The Silver Moon Storybook in December 2018; I self-published as I had quite set views on how the book should look and feel, and I wanted to have total control over the creative side of things. The concept of feminist fairy tales was born out of my total frustration with some of the rubbish my kids were reading and watching on telly, and my disappointment with how a lot of female characters are portrayed in mainstream media these days. I wanted to write something that would examine gender roles in a way that would be accessible to children and perhaps their parents too. Fairy tales felt like a nice way to do this; apart from my own fascination with the worlds of dreams and fantasy, they open you up for all sorts of lovely metaphors, which I really enjoyed playing with.
Do you have a new release due?
Not yet; maybe in a few years. I want to focus on my first book baby for a good while first.
What do you generally do to celebrate on publication day?
I’ve only had one so far, but there was definitely a G&T involved! I was very nervous and felt quite overwhelmed, so spent quite a lot of time staring in disbelief at the stack of 2000 odd books in my garage. Next time I will try to come up with something a bit more interesting.
How can readers keep in touch with you?
I’m on Twitter at @Elaine_Gunn and my business page is on Facebook @somethinglovelydotscot. I also blog about writing, holistic therapy and feminism at http://somethinglovely.scot.
Is there anything else you would like us to know?
I don’t think so. 🙂
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Elaine 🙂
The Silver Moon Storybook is Elaine’s first published work, a collection of modern fairy tales that weaves contemporary, progressive values and messages into seven magical stories.
What darkness lies in the past of a little witch, cursed into the shape of a giant?
As the silver moon rises, who will save a magical unicorn, imprisoned in the castle of a tyrant, or befriend an enormous clown who roams the world alone? Can a humble weaver find the courage to face a terrible monster? And what will be the fate of a powerful mermaid, at war with the world above her ocean? Join them and other enchanting characters in these haunting tales of illusion, discovery and love.
An exquisitely illustrated bedtime story for young readers (and perhaps some not so young), The Silver Moon Storybook weaves progressive and modern themes into touching fables full of the magic and shadows of traditional fairy tales.
https://www.somethinglovely.scot/product-page/the-silver-moon-storybook
Welcome to my stop on Julia Barrett’s My Sister Is Missing blog tour with RedDoor Publishing!
My Sister Is Missing is a gripping, highly emotional psychological thriller. Julia Barrett had me from the very first page and I found the whole story completely compelling.
Sisters Steph and Jess share a close relationship. They were both brought up by their mother after their father left when Jess was just five years old. However, they experienced very different childhoods from that moment on, despite living in the same house. Steph enjoyed a close relationship with her mother whereas Jess suffered abuse and neglect at her hands. We know that Jess blames herself for her father leaving, her mother blamed her too, but we don’t really know why for quite some time and the suspense is palpable throughout the story.
The story begins with Steph becoming a new mother to daughter Natalie. She has a dreadful secret she needs to keep from her husband, Adam, though. She believes he might not be the father of her daughter and she is convinced he will leave her or, worse, take Natalie away from her if he finds out the truth. So she disappears.
Naturally Adam and Jess are out of their minds with worry and a missing persons investigation is opened. Steph is high priority given that she has a newborn with her. This is an extremely tense part of the story. I could feel the panic rising as each hour passed and was praying they would both be found safe.
During the time Steph is missing Jess senses something off about Adam, more than worry about his wife and daughter, but she can’t put her finger on it. He is acting quite strangely and when we learn the truth his behaviour makes perfect sense.
Jess is also battling her own demons regarding her past and I became more and more intrigued with each page read.
Julia Barrett has created a very believable family who could just as easily be living next door. I think Steph’s struggle with her post-natal mental health is handled with honesty and sensitivity. I’m sure this story will help to raise awareness.
Jess’s story is quite heart-breaking and I loved that she finally confided in Matt.
Adam’s story is quite devastating. I did really feel for him.
This book highlights the fact that despite what we might face throughout our lives, things can always get better and we can move on from the past with the support of those we love, especially when we are open and honest with each other.
It is a must read for any psychological thriller fan and for those who enjoy a good police procedural. I highly recommend.
Many thanks to Anna at RedDoor Publishing for my ARC and for the opportunity to be a part of this blog tour.
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