Awesome Allshorts: Last Days, Lost Ways

In my last post I mentioned some of the great things about reading and writing short stories, with special mention of the new Awesome Indies anthology.

One of the authors appearing in the anthology is Amy Spahn with a beautiful story called The Cost of Hope. On her blog, Amy has a great post titled 5 Things Short Stories Can Do that Novels Can't. 

It's an interesting and insightful post in which Amy uses some of the stories from the anthology to illustrate her points. I'm thrilled she used Recipe for a Dinner Party as one of the examples. Head over to Amy's blog for some great reading.

And just a reminder that my new novel Still Death launches tomorrow (8th November) at the super-low price of $0.99 for the launch (it will be $2.99 post-launch). You can pre-order/buy it from the following retailers.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Apple Store
Smashwords
Kobo Books 

The Long and the Short

It's an exciting time right now. In addition to the launch of my latest novel Still Death, I have a short story that's been accepted for inclusion in the Awesome Indies Anthology - Awesome Allshorts: Last Days, Lost Ways.

 

I am thrilled to be included in such stellar company.

I like reading short stories, and I'm pleased that since the advent of eReaders there seems to be more collections of short stories available.

Reasons to read short stories
I love the intense nature of a short story and the way it gives you a glimpse into a different life. It's like a short conversation with a stranger that leaves you changed in some way. I find some short stories leave me thinking more about a character, their choices and their life, than a novel simply because there is less said and more implied.

In our busy world we can sometimes think we don't have time to read and that's a huge shame, but a short story can be read and absorbed during a train or bus trip to work, or during our lunch break. It takes us away from the humdrum and gives us a different perspective on our world.

Reasons to write short stories
Because of their brevity, you have to make every word count, especially in flash fiction where you may have as little as 100 words to tell a story. This means choosing exactly the right word, and/or exploring the possibilities and using a word that can offer different meanings and images but which still fit with the character.

Short stories offer a writer the opportunity to experiment: perhaps with different narrative structures or a tense that may be difficult to carry through an entire novel, both for the writer and the reader.

A short story is much more than an anecdote or joke, like a novel, it shows a character at a moment of emotion and change, and the stories in Last Days, Lost Ways do exactly that.

New Awesome Indies Website

This weekend Awesome Indies launches their new website with a great sale - over 70 books by brilliant indie authors in a variety of genres, and a competition to win a Kindle Paperwhite.

This is the link to the new website and this will take you to the sales page.
  

As part of the launch I have two books in the sale - Lies of the Dead and Lives Interrupted. They are both reduced from $2.99 to $0.99 for this weekend. 

Lies of the Dead is a crime/mystery story set in Cornwall.

Liam Trethowan disappears in circumstances which the police accept as a suicide. However, Liam's older brother Tom can't accept that the charismatic Liam would ever kill himself. His sister Andi had a stormier relationship with Liam, but finds herself drawn into the hunt for what really happened. This search leads them into a criminal world they're not prepared for, and when Andi and her twin daughters are caught in a dangerous showdown, Tom realises his search for the truth may have too high a price. 

Lies of the Dead can be purchased from Amazon for $0.99 this weekend.

Here are some reviews for Lies of the Dead. 

This book grabbed my attention from the get go and didn't ease up until the very end. The characters are well developed, and very real. I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and based on this novel, would highly recommend Shauna Bickley's books. I award a strong 5 out of 5 stars to Lies of The Dead. - Awesome Indies  

Bickley paints ordinary people in extraordinary situations and does it well. Lies of the Dead is a very human mystery/thriller. Loved every moment of this novel. - Rabid Readers Reviews 

This was a fast paced novel that kept me engaged through out. It would even be a good movie. - Clue Reviews   

Lives Interrupted is a contemporary drama set in London. It tells the story of a group of people living and working in the city, and how their lives interweave before and after a bomb explosion on the underground. They all experience the bombing and aftermath in different ways but none of them are left unscathed.

Lives Interrupted can be purchased from Amazon for $0.99 this weekend.

This is a powerfully written story of seven lives intertwined, and the effect that the London Underground bombings had on them. It's a challenging feat to handle an ensemble cast like this, but the author presents each character's viewpoint in a clear and compelling way so that the threads are easy to follow from scene to scene - Bev Robitai, novelist

Don't forget to check out the new Awesome Indies site and find some great reading bargains.

The New Book - Still Death

Regular readers of the blog may have noticed that while I've posted about writing, I haven't actually mentioned anything about a current project for some time. That's about to end, as I'm thrilled to say my latest book is due out on 8th November. 

While I'm in the early stages of writing a book, the ideas often feel so tenuous I don’t like talking about them. Winnie the Pooh best sums up this feeling, 'When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.' 

Once I have the feel of the characters and the ideas are firmer, my problem then is finding a title. It's quite difficult talking about your current project when you don't know what to call it. Once I've written the first draft, I spend ages coming up with words and phrases that link to the ideas and themes of the book. This time I took so long to find anything I liked that I'd actually got to the beta reader stage and was still without a title. I gave my beta readers the list of ideas I'd been playing with, and fortunately they all liked the same title - Still Death. As you might guess from this it's a murder/mystery!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with Andrew of Design for Writers, and once again he’s come up with an amazing cover. Unlike some of my previous novels, I knew exactly what I wanted, and Andrew has captured the opening scene brilliantly.

So without further ado – drum roll – the cover for Still Death.

I find writing the novel easier than writing the blurb that goes with it, but if you're interested in knowing more about Still Death, here goes... 

The first was a hit and run.

The second a murder/suicide.

Who will be next?

Lexie believes Patrick has been set-up for the murder of his girlfriend, but she is the only person who does.

After living in London, she thought life in a small town would be boring, but there are too many accidents to be a coincidence, and they all appear linked to the death of Patrick's girlfriend.

Lexie is determined to find out who is behind it until her family becomes one of the statistics.

Death still lurks in the quietest places. 

In the next post I'll talk a bit more about writing the book and give you a sneak preview of the opening scene.

Book Blurbs and First Chapters

The first quarter of this year has been packed with a significant number of stressful life events. These are rather like public transport; they leave you alone for some time and then all come along together, as if you’ve been having things too easy and it’s time to see if you crack under the strain.

Selling our home and moving was planned, but the other events obviously decided this was waaaay too easy and they’d come along for the ride - big sigh! However, back to the moving. One of the things I decided to do before the move was to significantly cull my books and get rid of some of the bookshelves.

When choosing a print book to read, I tend to look at the cover and then reread the back page blurb to remind myself of the story and why it interested me. After doing this a few times I settle on one to read.

When I first starting using my Kindle I had a relatively small number of books on the device, and most were books by favourite authors or classics I hadn’t yet read. In all cases I was aware of the book premise simply by looking at the title. Since then I’ve purchased many more books, and often they’re on my Kindle for some time before I read them.

An eReader is a little like Mary Poppins' carpetbag. You can fit in a large number of books without it looking any different, whereas when I tried to find room on the bookshelves for new purchases I was always aware of the number of books I hadn’t yet read, and I felt guilty for buying more.

When I’m selecting a book to read from the electronic list on my Kindle, I tend to be too lazy to look at the book blurb on Amazon, so all I have to go on is the book cover and title, and a tagline if there is one. This means I often have very little to go on as to the storyline or setting.

From a writer’s perspective this means we’ve really got to make that first chapter work hard, (not forgetting that all important first paragraph). Is there enough to draw the reader in and keep them reading and wanting to know more, without confusing them totally?

The opening chapter needs to introduce the protagonist, give the reader a feel for the genre or type of book (you should also get an idea of this from the title and cover), give a feel of the narrative voice (is it a warm confiding tone, ironic, amusing, frightening), and introduce the setting and time period. By the end of the chapter there should also be an indication this is going somewhere, that there is conflict, problems to be solved and stakes high enough to ensure action is taken. As readers we don’t want endless ramblings of the protagonist's everyday life or lots of backstory.

Opening chapters have always had to do that, but now they need to work even harder if the reader doesn’t have an indication of the storyline from the back cover blurb.

Some time ago I released a romantic suspense novella (Driftwood). In the reviews I’ve noticed a couple of comments along the lines of ‘it’s a quick read’. That’s true, it’s a novella, and comes in at around 46,000 words. The blurb on Amazon states it’s a novella, but of course, when you open it on your eReader you don’t have any idea whether it’s a doorstop of a book or a quick read. For these reasons I’ve decided that in future I’m going to add the short blurb to the front of my electronic books, so the reader is oriented as to the main outline or premise of the book before they begin. It doesn’t mean I can relax on that first paragraph and chapter, it still has to pull its weight, but at least the reader has the same information they would if they were reading a print version.

As readers or writers, what do you think?

Other People's Goals and Resolutions

At the moment my hand is strapped up due to an injury, and because of that I've had to cut back on computer time. I had planned on spending a lot of the holidays writing so I was a little put-out by this (as you can guess!) However, on the positive side I've been able to read my way through a significant portion of the Leaning Tower of Pisa that is my to be read pile.

Keeping away from the computer means I haven't read quite as many online articles and blogs as I usually do, but I've noticed a recurring theme in those I have read. The theme is hardly surprising given the time of year. You've guessed it - goals and resolutions.

The ones I've read have been very realistic and helpful on the subject, and because I can't spend too long typing one-handed I thought I'd share a few of the links with you.

How to keep your writing going - Dean Wesley Smith

Find balance over your years, not your days - Raptitude 

Create an Action-Packed New Year - James J. Murray 

New Year Resolutions for Self-published Writers - The Alliance of Independent Authors

All ahead for a productive, but most importantly, happy time.

Now for a bit of shameless self-promotion - if your taste in reading is romantic suspense then Driftwood is free at the moment on Amazon.

The last person Juliet expects to meet on a work trip is Luke. She has changed her name and worked hard to ensure he wouldn't find her, but now he is back in her life again. Is it chance, or something more sinister?

Juliet has secrets she needs to keep hidden, but Luke wants to renew their relationship. After meeting him incidents occur that make her fear the unthinkable. Her life may be in danger.

She leaves Auckland for Sydney on a business trip, but Luke appears there. Can she trust him, or are his secrets more dangerous than the ones she hides.

Secrets and lies can be a killer.

Book Reviews

As I mentioned in this post one of the things I love about holidays is the extra (not feeling guilty) time for reading. After Pride and Prejudice and Death Comes to Pemberley, I read Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris. I cheated on this one as I have read it before. I think my feelings about it were much the same as the first reading quite a few years ago. It has a slow, lush, intoxicating feel to it that was perfectly suited to a holiday. However, it does have flaws. The plot is slight and the speed with which Jay manages to renovate his house and garden is amazing, but part of the delight of the lovely prose is to suspend your disbelief.
 
Changing the mood totally I turned to a murder mystery Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin writing as Jack Harvey. The premise was interesting but ultimately I didn’t enjoy the book. I found there was too much information on the guns and ammunition being used. I imagine people who enjoy guns would appreciate the research Ian Rankin did before writing the book, but it it bored me. Ian Rankin has been on my To Be Read list for a long time, and when I first bought the book I hadn’t actually realised he was writing as someone else as the Jack Harvey name was much smaller. However, I’ve heard so many good things about his Inspector Rebus books I will certainly try one of those next time.
 
The last two books were both 500+ page books and I was glad to be reading them on my Kindle. The Last Dark by Stephen Donaldson was the final episode in Donaldson’s epic Thomas Covenant series. I loved the first two trilogies even though I wouldn’t call myself a fantasy fan. The initial books in this last segment were excellent but the final two books left me feeling that too many things were Deus ex machina. I was always going to read the final Thomas Covenant books but I didn’t feel they were Stephen Donaldson at his best.
 
The other book was The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. I’d been interested in reading this book since it first came out simply to see what JK could write for adults, and because like a huge number of other people I’d read all the Harry Potter books.
 
As a writer and reader I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Initially I had thought the large cast of characters might make it difficult to keep track of them, but I found that each had their own distinct voice – not easy to do with that many characters. Another initial thought (as a writer) was that there was head hopping going on. Many of the chapters begin in third-person omniscient point of view before moving into a particular character's point of view, and sometimes after interacting with another character the point of view elegantly turns to the second character. No head-hopping just a neat handover.
 
I’ve read through a few of the Amazon reviews for this book – as of this moment in time there are 4,311 of them. I looked at a few of the four and five star reviews and then at some of the one and two star reviews. The interesting thing is that most of what people loved in the higher rated reviews are the things that people didn’t like in the one and two star reviews. I guess this shows that ‘you can’t please all the people all the time.’
 
As a writer I both love and hate reviews. It’s wonderful to read a great review or get an email from someone who loved your book, especially if they let you know what they liked about it. It’s obviously harder to read a harsh review, but not everyone is going to love everything we write. I often like an author’s work as a whole but there will be some books I like less than others. The brief reviews above show that. However, a well-written review from someone who hasn’t enjoyed a book can show what they didn’t like. That may well point to things that can be changed in future writing i.e. stereotype characters, unrealistic dialog, confusing plot etc.
 
What most writers (especially indie writers) want are reviews. Did you enjoy the book? Why? If not, why not? The review doesn’t have to be long, but it’s definitely best if it’s constructive rather than a rant, or working off bad temper.

Go on, give a writer a gift today, write a constructive review of a book you've recently finished.

How Long to Read a Book?

I wrote a blog post some while ago outlining the length of time it took me to write a book. At the weekend I read this post on whether books should tell us how long it will take to read them.

Even before reading the article my first thought was how would we determine how long it would take someone to read a book? We all read at different speeds, and the speed I read at also varies depending on a number of things including: 

• Whether the book is fiction or non-fiction
• If non-fiction, am I learning how to do something new
• Style of writing
• How interested I am in the story (fiction)
• Beauty of prose

Being able to speed read depends on how well the book, report or article has been written and laid out.

If it’s well laid out non-fiction I should be able to skim through the table of contents and/or section headings to find the specific parts that I need without actually having to read the entire book. The same should apply to a report or article.

What about the style of writing? Is it very dense academic writing or a pop-science read that is enjoyable as well as informative? This will make a vast difference on the length of time it takes me to read. It will also affect the length of time I’m able to stay awake while reading!

If reading a thriller or mystery novel, I would expect to be taken on a wild ride that doesn’t include a lot of heavy prose, but if I’m reading a more literary type novel I often like to re-read paragraphs just to enjoy the sound and flow of the prose. I may read parts of a short story several times as there are often layers of meaning that take time to see.

Non-fiction reading is often done for a reason and therefore I may have a time limit. I might be reading to understand information that I need to turn into training material. If I’m reading fiction then I’m reading for pleasure, and to me turning that into a timed exercise negates the enjoyment. I don't care how long it takes me to read the book as long as I’ve enjoyed the journey.

What do you think?

Double Celebration

We had a great night at Takapuna Library last night with around 80 people attending the launch of Lies of the Dead and Sunstrike. Thank you to everyone who was there, I hope you enjoyed the evening.

A huge thanks to the library for hosting the launch and to the Friends of the Library for preparing the food and drink (and tidying up afterwards).

Helen Woodhouse graciously introduced Bev Robitai and myself for our fifteen minutes of fame, and I hope we didn't bore the audience too much.

   
I'm always interested in the background to novels I read, and so I talked about the inspiration for Lies of the Dead, the characters and the Cornish setting.

Bev did a brilliant job of painting a picture of her world after solar flares have knocked out all our electrical equipment, and talking of the things we would need to do to survive.

I've just realised that in addition to celebrating a great launch last night this blog is three years old today. Happy Birthday blog.

It's been an exciting journey - and still continuing!

I started the blog just before Driftwood was published and three years later I've just published my third novel. You could be mistaken for thinking that's three books in three years, but the reality is a little different. Both Lies of the Dead and Lives Interrupted existed in various forms at that time, but I'm proud and pleased that both are now out there. 

I did say at the launch last night that I'd like to actually write a book from start to finish within a year, so I'm making that my goal for the next one.

Watch this space.....

Lies of the Dead Launch

After three novels, some short stories and non-fiction I've finally been talked into having a launch celebration for Lies of the Dead.

I say talked into it in the widest sense, as the launch celebration eventuated after a meeting with my friend and fellow-writer Bev Robitai when we were discussing publishing, deadlines and other assorted writing topics.

Bev's new book is Sunstrike. We will be talking about our new publications, writing and the story behind the story.

If you're in the Takapuna area tomorrow evening (Tuesday 10th September at 6pm) come and help us celebrate at Takapuna Library. Feel free to bring a friend, partner or passer-by (who looks as though they're interested in books). We'd love to see you there.

Lies of the Dead

The nine months of a pregnancy often seem to last for longer than that, though at times pass too quickly - okay maybe just in hindsight!

In my experience writing a book is a much longer affair, though painful in different ways, but today I'm absolutely thrilled to say that Lies of the Dead is well and truly published and out there.

 

I had the initial idea for the story and the three siblings who are the main characters about four years ago, though they sat quietly for a while at the back of my mind, but gradually they clamoured more and more to be heard.

Liam, the youngest of the three, was the one who claimed my attention initially, and I intended to tell the story through him, but every time I thought about scenes, or tried to write, it was Tom, the oldest brother, whose voice came through. Eventually I gave in and listened to him.

Lies of the Dead is set mostly in Cornwall, though Andi lives in Bristol and Liam in London. The Cornish scenery and people played a large part in forming the story, and it is an area of England I love.

What would you risk to find the truth?

How well do we know those closest to us? When Liam kills himself, his older brother Tom needs to know why suicide was the only solution.

Tom, and his sister Andi, search for answers but don't know who they can believe. Are Liam's friends and associates the people they claim to be? Tom and Andi are propelled into a world where their ideas of right and wrong don't exist, and where people demand what neither of them possesses.

Liam's legacy of deceit is dangerous, and when Andi and her twin daughters are threatened, Tom realises that truth may have too high a price.

The main idea of the story remains as it first came to me, but the path it took has changed considerably, although I find that is often the way.

Lies of the Dead is available in print and Kindle through Amazon and Amazon UK and the other Amazon stores, and in alternative electronic formats through Smashwords. It will shortly be available through other retailers including the Apple store, Barnes and Noble and Sony store.

If you read the story of Tom, Andi and Liam I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know.

Lies of the Dead - Cover

I'm really excited that my latest book Lies of the Dead is just about there and thrilled to unveil the cover created by the talented Andrew Brown of Design for Writers.

Unlike Driftwood and Lives Interrupted I had absolutely no ideas for the cover of Lies of the Dead, but working with Andrew makes the process incredibly easy. He asks a lot of questions about the plot and characters, important (poster) scenes, my own likes and dislikes, and then he goes away and works his magic.

Lies of the Dead is set predominantly in Cornwall which is an area I love. Writing those scenes has allowed me to wander through villages, along beautiful cliff walks and feel the sand under my feet on the glorious beaches. The setting of Poldrayth is fictitious but it is based on a real Cornish village to allow me to play around with the geography a little.

What would you risk to find the truth?

How well do we know those closest to us? When Liam kills himself, his older brother Tom needs to know why suicide was the only answer.

Tom's search leads him, and his sister Andi, to a criminal world where their ideas of right and wrong don’t exist, and where people aren’t who they claim to be.

Liam’s legacy of deceit is dangerous and when Tom and Andi and her twin daughters are threatened, Tom realises that truth may have too high a price. 

Thanks a million Andrew for a wonderful cover - drumroll

Driftwood

Salvador Dali said, ‘Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.’ I can certainly relate to that.

Samuel Johnson’s quote is a little kinder. ‘It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.’

Back in 2006 I started writing a novel. I’d been honing my craft and writing skills on short stories for some time, and decided it was time to start work on the characters and story that became Driftwood.

In 2010 I entered Driftwood into a competition for unpublished romance novels, and to my surprise I won, and Driftwood was published. As I read it I found there were parts I enjoyed and felt proud of, but also parts I wanted to change.  I have a huge streak of perfectionism when it comes to my writing, so strong it is often difficult to know when it's time to let go. 

I kept the electronic rights for Driftwood, and decided as a goal for this year to read it and make some changes. It's been a good experience working on something I originally started six years ago, and I've tried to keep to Elmore Leonard's advice of leaving out the parts that people skip.

It has also been great fun working with Andrew of Design for Writers on the new cover for Driftwood. He's created an amazing cover which I loved from the moment I opened the email with the proof.  He commented about his design thoughts. 'It is hard to escape that central image of the driftwood, but I wanted something more than golden sands and blue sky. This image is darker and suspenseful, hinting at that darker side of the book. It is also wistful in some way, like a memory.' I totally agree, and the image sums up the tone of the book beautifully. 

If you'd like to look at Driftwood, it is now available as a novella through Smashwords and Amazon. 

Juliet, the protagonist, is a strong character. She is passionate about building her business, but uses it as a shield from emotional involvement. Her strength comes from her past, and has grown as a defence mechanism. On a work trip to Christchurch, New Zealand, she bumps into Luke. She thought she had managed to forget him, but from the moment they meet again, her life is not the same.

Luke wants to renew their relationship, but Juliet has strong reservations (to put it mildly), and tells Luke they can’t recapture the past.

Within days of meeting Luke, events escalate and Juliet realises someone is trying to harm her. She is relieved to leave Auckland for Sydney to work with a new client, but trouble follows her, and then Luke appears. Can she trust him, or are his secrets more deadly than the ones she is hiding? 

I have also included the opening chapters of Lives Interrupted, and the first four chapters of my new novel, Lies of the Dead, which should be published in April this year. 

I've had a great time working on Driftwood, and I'm now looking forward to final edits on Lies of the Dead, with the help of good feedback and comments from my beta readers.

Popular Posts and Christmas Wishes

I've just been looking through my blog stats and noticed this is post 100 for this year.  Yay, as that means I'm not far off my goal for the year of posting twice a week.

I've been writing this blog for just over two years now and I've been amazed and humbled at how the readership has grown. When I first started it felt as though I was talking to myself, but then we writers are used to that!

My first posts were just before I had a publishing contract for Driftwood, and as I look back on them I realise how much I've learnt in that time and how much the publishing industry has changed, and the opportunities we now have as authors.

This time last year I published my second novel, Lives Interrupted, through Kindle and CreateSpace, and that was another learning curve.

The posts on my experiences on formatting and uploading a manuscript to Smashwords and KDP are searched regularly, and it's good to know they're  useful.  I've had some great emails from people asking questions and sharing their experiences.

I was interested to see what posts were the most popular for this year and thought I'd share links to the most viewed, excluding the formatting and uploading ones for Smashwords, KDP and CreateSpace as they're only interesting if you need the information.

So of the non-writing posts, one of the most viewed this year was The Sound of Thoughts. The photo of the Opera House is there because I wrote this post in Sydney.

Quite a few of the posts are writing related in some way, and another popular post was on Positive and Negative Character Traits, and this one on the topic and CSI.

I like sharing resources and interesting things I find and a TED talk inspired this post on what makes a good story, and I'm obviously not the only one who enjoys daydreaming.  

It's been an interesting year, and I'm looking forward to 2013 and am busy concocting plans and goals for the things I want to achieve.

Lives Interrupted is free to download on Amazon US and Amazon UK today (21st December), and if you missed it, or are waiting for Santa to deliver your eReader, it will also be free on 26/27th December.

Have a great weekend. 

It's Beginning To Feel A Bit Like Christmas

The work projects are in their closing stages, the Christmas tree is up AND I’ve actually wrapped presents and put them underneath the tree, so to misquote a song title, it’s beginning to feel a bit like Christmas.

I walked along my local beach earlier and the pohutukawas are looking beautiful. There are some photos of them sprinkled through this post. They bloom in December and so are known as New Zealand’s Christmas tree.  The cliffs at the end of the beach are ablaze with them at the moment.

Christmas in the southern hemisphere takes some getting used to if all you’ve known is northern hemisphere snowy celebrations.  At the moment all the windows and doors are open, and it’s still hot.

I do feel sorry for the shopping mall Santa's.  They’re dressed in warm red robes while the rest of us are in shorts and t-shirts.  Hearing/singing  traditional Christmas songs about the cold and snow also seems a little out of place.

We are approaching the longest day of the year, and the children have just started the long summer holidays. This means that Christmas and New Year holidays tend to stretch well into January in New Zealand, as families head off to the beach for holidays. Turkey and ham are Christmas favourites, but so also are family BBQs at the beach.

I’ll put my hand up for some extra reading time during the holidays.  I’ve been doing some serious work on the Leaning Tower of Pisa that is my ‘to be read’ pile, and that’s just the overflow from the bookshelves. My Kindle is also bursting, though fortunately no-one but me knows that!

It’s a year since I first published Lives Interrupted, and as it’s a present-giving time of year, Lives Interrupted is free to download on Amazon on 20 and 21 December  - Amazon UK. 

If you don't have an eReader, but are getting one for Christmas it will also be free on 26 and 27 December. 

Happy holidays and happy reading. 

Authors Tagging Authors

As I live like a hermit a lot of the time, I’m always thrilled to be chosen to take part in anything, and this is The Next Big Thing: Authors Tagging Authors.  I was tagged by Di Jones who wrote Transplanting Holly Oakwood.

What's involved? Answer the questions below and tag a set of authors. So here goes…

What is the working title of your book?

If you read this blog regularly you’ll know I find titles difficult, and generally I’ve finished the first draft before coming up with a title, which is exactly where I am with the current work in progress. It’s only had a name for a month or so, but I’m pretty happy with it - Lies of the Dead.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I wanted to write a book with two possible storylines – think Mapping the Edge or the film Sliding Doors.  The main character is Liam, however all through my initial thinking period it was Tom’s voice (Liam’s brother), which kept coming through in the scenes. The dual storyline wouldn’t work with Tom as the POV character, and so I’ve put that idea away for a future novel, but I'm happy with the way the story is moving.

What genre does your book fall under?

Thriller/mystery

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Now that’s a hard question as I read a lot more books than I watch films, but here goes…

The story revolves around the character Liam, although we find out more about him through the other characters, but I guess in a film version they’d do more flashbacks. Ryan Gosling would make a good Liam.

Tom is Liam’s brother and I think Jake Gyllenhaal would do an excellent job playing the role. Tom is a nice guy, but during the novel has to take on people and events way out of his comfort zone, and I think Jake would cover off those changes in character well.

Andi is Tom and Liam’s sister, and is a feisty character. Emily Blunt would do a fantastic job.

And for the authors I’ve tagged – have a look at their websites and books.

Rachel Abbot 

Tui Allen  

Bev Robitai 

Stephanie Ingram  

Katherine Logan

A Love Affair With Books

During this year a lot of my reading has been on my Kindle. That was until a month or so ago, when my daughter lent me a paperback she thought I would enjoy. I did. The time travel nature of the book reminded me of an unread book I bought some time ago, and so I searched through the bookshelves (double packed with the ‘to be read’ books in front), and then the teetering tower of Pisa in the corner of the room, and found the book. Since then I’ve been working my way down the stack, which no longer sways in a light breeze, and the incline is almost non-existent now as well.

I’ve had a love affair with books since I first learnt to read. I’d save up my pocket money until I had enough to go to the local shop and buy a book. It was actually a newsagents shop, but they had two rotating stands of books, one for children.  I would hurry there with my money clasped tightly and spend a delicious half hour deciding which book I’d buy. Around that time I acquired my own library ticket and would go with my dad to the library and also select books there. I worked my way through all the books, and then sneakily started on the adult ones on the shelves next to the children’s area. That was how I found Agatha Christie. I read most of her books when I was around twelve or thirteen, and then moved along the shelves and discovered historical novels. I flirted with these for a year, but went back to crime (as in fiction) and thrillers.

Both my parents loved reading, though they didn’t own many books, so we were regularly at the library.

Book prices are now much cheaper, relative to earnings, and so I have quite a book-buying habit. Acquiring a Kindle certainly didn’t do anything to lessen that. It also made me realise something else, and some people will no doubt reel in horror at this admission, I don’t have a love affair with books, it’s with reading.

I still buy print books, still browse through bookshops, and I think I will probably always buy non-fiction print books, especially if it’s something I need to refer to for learning purposes. However, I read more widely on my Kindle and am reading classic books that I might never have tried. Recently, when  reading an 800 page print book, I wished I’d bought the eBook as it's much easier to carry around!

I have books on my bookshelf that are special, and that I’ll never get rid of. As I was looking for the unread book I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I picked up a book I bought for my father as a birthday present a few years ago. He died just weeks after his birthday, and when I went home I found the book on the shelves next to his chair. I could see he’d read it, and I hoped he'd enjoyed it. I brought it back with me, and enjoyed reading it, but sometimes a book is special for more than the tale it tells.