A little while ago I reviewed (here) a charming children’s book Puppy: 12 months of Rhymes and Smiles by Patricia Furstenberg. As I feel books are an essential part of growing up and a child’s develoment I asked Patricia if she would like to return to Linda’s Book Bag to tell me a bit about diversity in writing, especially as she’s celebrating three new Chilren’s books this month; The Elephant and the Sheep, The Cheetah and the Dog and The Lion and the Dog.

Before you read Patricia’s brilliant guest post, find out a bit about her new books.

The Elephant and the Sheep

The Elephant and the Sheep, sure to touch a deep chord, particularly with fans of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

When a curious lamb meets a friendly elephant calf he soon discovers the secret behind the elephant’s lonely life. Sharing means so much more than material things.

You can find out more on Amazon UK, Amazon US, and Goodreads.

The Cheetah and the Dog

The Cheetah and the Dog, sure to resonate with families – particularly non-traditional ones as well as with the fans of Michael Jackson’s “Black or White”.

When a cheetah cub and a puppy dog bump into each other no one can foresee that their blooming friendship will save many lives, thus becoming the core of an African folktale.

You can find out more on Amazon UK, Amazon US, and Goodreads.

The Lion and the Dog

The Lion and the Dog, sure to strike a chord with the many fans of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

When a lion is crowned King of a zoo he becomes a secluded beast with no visitors but an observant and determined little brown dog. Learn how optimism and kindness can changes even a wild animal into a friend for life.

You can find out more on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Goodreads.

Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Fiction

A Guest Post by Patricia Furstenberg

What is a normal lifestyle? I live in a country with 11 official languages. It is normal for us. Apart from English, schools in South Africa teach compulsory and optional classes in Afrikaans, Zulu, Sepedi, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa, Venda etc. To make things even more complex, languages like French, German, Portuguese or Greek are also taught! My children attend a school alongside friends with different religions, originating from all the continents of the world. Once back home, each one of these children will return to the nest of their own cultures. To them, this is a normal lifestyle.

Going back to my native country, snuggled in the oldest continent in the world, I notice how much things have changed since I grew up. How much more diverse people are today and how, nationality wise, there is a wider spread now, than during my childhood. It is a normal lifestyle for current times, market by human migration.

For our children’s generation life is like strolling through a library of live books.

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” Maya Angelou.

Reading brings us in touch with our humanity.

The act of reading and having access to diverse stories offers children a window towards real life, the one outside their homes. Towards the kind of life people from different countries and cultures lead. Towards their struggles, feelings and values; how and why are they similar or different to our own. Reading expands our children’s understanding and widens their acceptance.

Diversity and its meaning in the book industry.

The fact that different people, men AND women, white AND black, can write books, is often a revelation for many young readers. “If they can do it, so can I!” The book monopoly doesn’t belong only to the white male writer anymore. It belongs to the young, to the woman, to the indie author as well. And this variety can be empowering for many young readers.

An empowered young girl will grow into a strong, self-confident, open minded woman that will not be intimidated to discover and follow her own path.

I want you to read this passage:

The boy ran down the road, dust billowing all around him. He ran as fast as he could, his skinny legs barely touching the sharp rocks, his small body a ghost past the barking dogs; they always barked at his kind. He watched them, though, out of the corner of his eye, his hand tight on the stick he had picked up by the bridge, as soon as he left the field. How far to the doctor’s house? “Just after the first bend in the road”, his grandpa had whispered. “Run, boy, run…”

Where do you picture this scene taking place?

Now read the text again.

Cheng ran down the road, dust billowing all around him. He ran as fast as he could, his skinny legs barely touching the sharp rocks, his small body a ghost past the barking dogs; they always barked at his kind. He watched them, though, out of the corner of his eye, his hand tight on the stick he had picked up by the bridge, as soon as he left the field. How far to the doctor’s house? “Just after the first bend in the road”, yeye had whispered. “Run, Cheng, run…”

And now, where is the scene taking place?

Why the difference? Because in our minds we’re used to picture the characters based on our own frame of reference, shaped by the literature we’ve been exposed to throughout our lives.

The cultures least represented in literature are not the ones which are missing out because, within their own frontiers, they often have an extensive oral tradition. Their stories are still passed on through generations, teaching valuable life lessons. It is the rest of the world that’s missing on reading them.

Diversity in children’s books is a two way street.

First, more children get to read about their own culture, feeling empowered because it mirrors their race, inter-race, religion, sex or physical health, home up-bringing (divorced families, immigrants, single parent families). Children feel good about themselves when they read about characters like them.

Second, the rest of the world is exposed to a different culture, therefor gaining in diversity and humanity. Because the same story can be told from many angles, in a multitude of languages, each time becoming a new narration with a new lesson to communicate.

We need diverse books for diverse minds. Aren’t all children’s favorites exactly those stories about unique, strong individuals? Beautiful characters, inside and out.

We live in a world that’s confronted, more than ever, with a wide variety of issues we can’t ignore anymore. Global warming and social migration, be it willing or forced; terrorism and out of control political spectacles that impact more and more individuals.

Diverse books will offer our children the right tools to understand and deal with the global uproar they’ll have to live in. Access to diverse books will, hopefully, grant our children the strength and wisdom to understand themselves and the world they live in and unlock their own powers; to stand on their own two feet and lead a life of humanity and empathy.

(I couldn’t agree with you more Patricia. Thanks so much for coming on Linda’s Book Bag.)

About Patricia Furstenberg

Patricia Furstenberg came to writing though reading. After completing her Medical Degree in Romania she moved to South Africa where she now lives with her husband, children and their dogs. Patricia became taking writing seriously  after becoming one of the WYO Christie winners. She enjoys writing for children  because she can take abstract, grown-up concepts and package them it in attractive, child-friendly ways while adding sensitivity and lots of love.

All of Patricia’s children’s books are available here.

You can follow Patricia on Twitter, find her on Facebook and visit her website. She’s also on Goodreads.

I cannot thank Diana Morgan at Ruth Killick Publicity enough for inviting me to be part of the launch celebrations for Sweet William by Iain Maitland and providing a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Published by Contrabrand, the crime imprint of Sarabrand, Sweet William is available for purchase here.

Sweet William

Life and death played out over 48 hours.

A father desperate to be with his young son escapes from a secure psychiatric hospital, knowing he has just one chance for the two of them to start a new life together. His goal is to snatch the three-year-old – a diabetic who needs insulin to stay alive – and run away to France … but first he must find the boy, evade his foster family and stay well clear of the police, already in pursuit.

A real page-turner cut through with dark humour, Sweet William zeroes in on a potent mix: mental illness, a foster family under pressure, and an aggrieved father separated from his precious child. The result is an incisive and deeply affecting literary thriller.

My Review of Sweet William

Don’t you just love it when a book is so good you have to put your whole life on hold until you’ve devoured every word? That’s exactly what Sweet William is like.

From the very first word of Sweet William I was hooked. The writing is fantastic. Partly it’s the superbly created voice of the narrator so that I was inside his dubious head with him. Partly it’s the overall quality of the writing with the rhetorical questions and the stunning sentence structure that has maximum impact on the reader. And partly it’s the breathtaking pace of the plot over 48 hours that left me reeling. I genuinely felt tense the whole time I was reading but, although I had to pause to let my pulse slow back down, I couldn’t tear myself away. Several times I found I wasn’t actually breathing! Sweet William is a book that clamours to be read at breakneck speed.

The first person viewpoint is very disturbing. It’s not always clear to whom the narrator is speaking – the reader, a voice in his head, or perhaps someone beyond the end of the novel in the same way he has had therapy in the past. What I found both compelling and appalling was that the way in which he justified his actions, which are clearly insane, was only a short step away from the way in which we ‘normal’ people justify our own actions too. I don’t know whether the concept of the way we treat those with psychiatric health issues and the exploration of how they think and behave was a deliberate treatise by Iain Maitland or simply a device upon which to construct the plot but either way I found Sweet William stunning and thought provoking. Similarly, not knowing the name of the narrator until well into the second half of the novel adds to that feeling of society rejecting and erasing those with his kind of problems.

I can’t say too much about the plot or the settings as they are so closely linked and I don’t want to spoil the read but I will say that when Stamford, a location just a few miles from where I live, was mentioned I actually felt quite nervous and threatened.

I felt the concept of ‘what if’ was brilliantly handled, making my brain reel with possibilities. What if it were my child? What if I felt responsible? What if my mental health broke down?  There are also several unanswered questions in Sweet William that make the book so very disturbing so that it keeps nagging away in my mind. Sweet William is a book I won’t forget in a hurry. In my view it is outstanding.

About Iain Maitland

Iain Maitland is the author of Dear Michael, Love Dad (Hodder, 2016), a moving book of letters written to his son, who suffered from depression and anorexia. Iain is an ambassador for Stem4, the teenage mental health charity, and gives regular talks about mental health issues in the workplace. A writer since 1987, he is a journalist and has written more than 50 books, mainly on business, which have been published around the world.

You can find Iain Maitland on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @iainmaitland and visit his website.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I’ve had a fabulous time as a result of the kindness of strangers this week, with an anonymous (to me) nomination leading to me winning the Romantic Novelists’ Association Media Star award. What better way to celebrate than to reveal Julie Newman’s latest book The Kindness of Strangers today?

The Kindness of Strangers will be published on 19th April 2018 by Urbane Publications.

The Kindness of Strangers

Secrets and lies abound in Julie Newman’s breathtaking new novel, The Kindness of Strangers.

When Helen’s chance at happiness is threatened what lengths will she go to in order to hide the truth?

Deceived by her husband and desperate for a ‘perfect’ family life, Helen will do everything she can to achieve her goals – whatever the cost…

Following the gripping and controversial Beware the Cuckoo, Julie Newman’s new novel lifts the lid on family secrets, and the dark past that haunts a seemingly happy household…

Beware the Cuckoo

They were reunited at his funeral, school friends with a shared past. A past that is anything but straightforward. A past that harbours secrets and untruths.

Karen has a seemingly perfect life. An adoring husband, two wonderful children and a beautiful home. She has all she has ever wanted, living the dream. She also has a secret.

Sandra’s once perfect life is rapidly unravelling. The man who meant everything to her had a dark side, and her business is failing. To get her life back on track, she needs to reclaim what is rightfully hers. She knows the secret.

As the past meets the present, truths are revealed – and both women understand the true cost of betrayal.

Out in e-book and paperback, Beware the Cuckoo is also out this week in audio here.

About Julie Newman

Julie Newman was born in East London but now lives a rural life in North Essex. She is married with two children. Her working life has seen her have a variety of jobs, including running her own publishing company. She is the author of the children’s book Poppy and the Garden Monster. Julie writes endlessly and when not writing she is reading. Other interests include theatre, music and running. Besides her family, the only thing she loves more than books is Bruce Springsteen. The Kindness of Strangers is Julie’s second novel.

You can follow Julie on Twitter @julesmnewman and visit her website.

I am delighted to welcome Chris Chalmers, author of Dinner at the Happy Skeleton to Linda’s Book Bag today. Often, authors tell me they hate the promotional side of writing and so I asked Chris, who has experience in advertising, what his take was. His guest post makes for interesting reading!

Dinner at the Happy Skeleton was published on 14th October 2017 is available for purchase here.

Dinner at the Happy Skeleton

Dan is the kind of gay man for whom the Noughties might have been named. Warm, witty and serially promiscuous, his heart melts at the sight of a chocolate brown Labrador — but with men, it’s a different matter. He’s thirty-nine and as single as ever, not counting the couple he just met online. An arrangement that looks oddly like it’s going somewhere, until Dan gets fired from his job in advertising.

With time out and a payoff in his pocket, summer presents a world of possibilities; just as the memories surface of the ex he blames for the thinly-veiled chaos of his life.

From London to Ljubljana, a yen for closure sets Dan on the trail of the man who fed his ego into a shredder. Through an eerie encounter at the home of the Olympiad and a sleepover at the Dutch Embassy, run-ins with a fading porn star and the celestial manifestation of Margaret Thatcher, he ultimately confronts his past. Until, with his Big Four-O rapidly approaching, destiny beckons from where he least expects it.

It Pays To Advertise?

A Guest Post by Chris Chalmers

When you tell people you’re an advertising copywriter and novelist, they usually react in one of three ways:

“Oh right … Like Salman Rushdie/Fay Weldon?”

“Of course all advertising creatives are frustrated novelists, aren’t they?”

“You’ll be good at marketing your novels then — lucky you!”

The first is factually true. The second isn’t, since plenty of my fellow copywriters are quite happy being just that. And the third — well, that should be true but I’m not sure how well I live up to it.

Pre-advertising, back in the big-hair days of the late 1980s, I got my first job as a writer in the marketing department of Pan Books. That meant I wrote cover blurbs for everything from kids’ puzzle books to the most literary Picadors, though my big claim to fame was re-jacketing the entire Jackie Collins backlist. Naturally, to this day I think I know about blurbs; I’d no more let someone write mine for me than hand over my long-awaited Friday night chocolate bar. But, as for my subsequent career in advertising, the benefits are harder to define.

When my first novel was published — Five To One, about the day a helicopter crashes on Clapham Common — I took a leaf out of the direct marketing handbook and pushed five thousand custom-printed postcards through the Farrow-&-Ball painted doors of London SW4 … Did it work? Well, the spike in sales wasn’t precipitous, and the profits almost certainly cancelled out by the Indian trinket box I spotted in the window of a swishy Clapham emporium.

Five To One was originally published for Kindle only. So a few years later, when I came to republish it as a paperback and e-book, I did what I’d been telling my clients to do for a decade: I took my marketing push online. The result was Five To One-Minute Movies, a series of 60-second monologues featuring the novel’s main characters played, directed and filmed by me. Posted on YouTube, I linked the films all over my blog, Twitter and Facebook, where they gained traction for a while. What I particularly like about this approach is that they’re there for posterity — to intrigue potential readers into discovering why Ian, Glory, Tony and Mari are on the Common that sunny afternoon when an unforeseen moment changes their lives.

I have a new book out this month, and as I write this my marketing plan is still forming. So far it’s blogger-based, with a dozen stalwart pre-publication readers lined up to give Dinner At The Happy Skeleton their honest shot. Ironically the main character this time is an advertising copywriter (though not for long — he gets fired in Chapter Three). From then on he spends the summer in hot pursuit of a figure from his past, getting up to even more shameful things than flogging high-interest mortgages.

So no, in answer to point three, I don’t think thirty years in advertising has given me the magic-bullet answer to marketing my novels. But I do know that testing audience reaction is a big part of many an advertising campaign. Which is why I’m intrigued to see how enlisting the help of the blogosphere affects the launch of this one.

(Hmm – and we bloggers always wonder if what we do actually helps authors so I look forward to an update on this please Chris!)

About Chris Chalmers

Chris Chalmers is the author of Dinner At The Happy Skeleton, Five To One, Light From Other Windows, and for children, Gillian Vermillion — Dream Detective. He lives in South-West London with his partner, a quite famous concert pianist. Chris has been the understudy on Mastermind, swum with iguanas and shared a pizza with Donnie Brasco. Aside from his novels, his proudest literary achievement is making Martina Navratilova ROFLAO on Twitter.

You’ll find more about Chris on his website, on Facebook and by following him on Twitter @CCsw19. Chris also has a YouTube channel here.

Everyone who knows me knows if I’m not reading I’m planning my next trip and having just returned from Mauritius and Dubai a couple of days ago, with Uganda, India and Indonesia booked for next year, I’m delighted to be off on my travels again, albeit vicariously, with M.P. Tonnesen, author of Desert Skies, Rebel Souls. I couldn’t agree more that to travel is to live.

Desert Skies, Rebel Souls is available for purchase here.

Desert Skies, Rebel Souls

A journey into the unknown. A rebellion against family, culture and society. A love against all odds.

From Scandinavia to the Middle East, a young woman travels to discover herself and finds a world of passion and history, war and peace. A whirlwind romance takes a dramatic turn, leaving Olivia caught between countries, belonging nowhere, and with the love of her life in danger far away.

From the award-winning author of The Cosmopolitan Islander comes an uplifting tale of adventure, conflict and reconciliation that never shies away from brutal reality, yet sparkles with the sheer love of life.

Desert Skies, Rebel Souls is a bittersweet coming-of-age story set under the desert sky against the backdrop of music and key events of the nineties – to be enjoyed by adventurous globetrotters and readers longing to escape.

To Travel Is to Live

A Guest Post by M.P. Tonnesen

A wise man and fellow Danish writer, H.C. Andersen, once said: To travel is to live. Whether you travel in real life or travel by book, there is no denying that exploring the world outside your window widens your horizon. As a human being, but perhaps for artists in particular, you need to fuel your imagination with impressions. Colours, smells, sounds, textures, tastes – all your senses come alive and are stimulated when you travel. If you never get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, you will not be able to create anything new and exciting for others to enjoy – and you will go to your grave less fulfilled in my humble opinion. Through your writing or other craft, you are then able to whisk others away on adventures they would perhaps otherwise not have been able to experience.

I was born a wanderer. Globetrotting runs in my blood. My mother is from Singapore, my father from Denmark, and they met in Cyprus. They both have the wanderlust gene and have passed it on to me. We did not travel wide and far when I was a child, but I grew up with family all over the world and different cultures and languages as a central part of my life and identity. Now I get claustrophobic if I remain in one place for too long.

There is a passage in Desert Skies, Rebel Souls in which Olivia, the travelling protagonist, meets a Bedouin in the desert, and he surprises her with a simple, yet profound revelation:

‘“We both wander. I am desert nomad. You are modern nomad.” He pointed towards the vast desert behind them only a short distance from the village. “This. All of this my home. But I wander all my life. Look for grass and water for animals. I am not lost.” His keffiyeh-clad head gave a small shake. His eyes twinkled. “I wander to be free.”

Olivia’s lips parted, but no words came out. She was still as the rock beneath her, processing the surprising revelation. She was a wandering soul and it was a gift, not a curse.’

I hope my new novel will take the readers on an adventure that will stay with them forever. Happy reading and happy travelling!

(My perfect combination – travel and books. Thanks so much for such a lovely post.)

About M.P. Tonnesen

M.P. Tonnesen is a writer and businesswoman living on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. She was born in Denmark, but grew up in a multicultural family and has lived in Brussels, the Middle East, and London before moving to the island with her family in 2011.

She authors contemporary and women’s fiction with an adventurous twist. Her books are inspired by her experiences working, living and travelling around the world.

She has a Master’s Degree in International Business and Modern Languages with a major in Intercultural Communication. She has also studied Creative Writing at London School of Journalism, Faber Academy and Isle of Man College.

She has worked with communication from a variety of perspectives: business, academic and creative media. Her creative work has been published locally and globally, including her diverse portfolio of business and lifestyle articles for magazines.

She enjoys reading and telling good stories, travelling and eating dark chocolate. She also dabbles in yoga, pilates and juggling two kids.

You can follow M.P. Tonnesen on Twitter @mptonnesen, find her on Facebook and visit her website.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

In August 2015, just six months after I’d started blogging, I went to an event where I met lovely Laurie Ellingham. At the time Laurie was just getting going in her writing career. Today, she is an established and greatly loved writer and I’m delighted to be part of the launch for her latest novel Ours is the Winter, in association with Rachel’s Random Resources as I consider both Laurie and Rachel as friends now too.

Life hasn’t allowed me to read Ours is the Winter yet, but I do have a smashing piece about self-publishing from Larie to share here, with a follow up piece on getting a book deal that you can see here, as well as my reviews of Laurie’s The Reluctant Celebrity here and How to Throw Your Life Away here.

Ours is the Winter is published today, 17th November 2017, by HQ Digital and is available for purchase here.

Ours Is The Winter

Journeying across the Arctic, their pasts are about to catch up with them.

Erica, Molly and Noah are embarking on the challenge of a lifetime, driving Siberian huskies across the frozen wilderness of the Arctic. Cut off from the world and their loved ones and thrown together under gruelling conditions, it isn’t long before the cracks start to show.

Erica has it all. A loving husband, a successful career and the most adorable baby daughter. But Erica has been living a double life, and as she nears her fortieth birthday her lies threaten to come crashing down.

Molly was on her way to stardom. But when her brother died, so did her dreams of becoming an Olympic champion.  Consumed by rage and grief, she has shut out everyone around her, but now she’s about to learn that comfort can come from the most unexpected places.

Noah has a darkness inside him and is hounded by nightmares from his past. Tortured, trapped and struggling to save his fractured relationship, he knows this journey is not going to help, but try telling his girlfriend that.

As their lives and lies become ever more entwined, it becomes clear that in the frozen wilds there is nowhere to hide.

You can watch a trailer for Ours is the Winter on Laurie’s Facebook page.

About Laurie Ellingham

Laurie Ellingham lives on the Suffolk/Essex border with her two children, husband, and cockerpoo Rodney. She has a First Class honours degree in Psychology and a background in Public relations, but her main love is writing and disappearing into the fictional world of her characters, preferably with a large coffee and a Twix (or two) to hand.

You can follow Laurie on Twitter @LaurieEllingham and find her on Facebook.

Earlier this year, when Bad to the Bone was published, I was fortunate to have a guest post from Tony J Forder on Linda’s Book Bag all about becoming a writer. You can read that post here. Recently I was thrilled to attend the launch of Tony’s novel Degrees of Darkness and when I realised what a smashing bloke he is, I had to invite him back onto the blog to celebrate his latest book, Scream Blue Murder. Luckily he agreed to come! Today Tony is telling us all about his writing comfort zone.

Tony’s launch (with fellow author Eva Jordan and me).

Scream Blue Murder was published by Bloodhound on 8th November 2017 and is available for purchase here.

Scream Blue Murder

Mike Lynch is going through hard times. But things get much worse when he witnesses a murder in a lay-by. Snatching the victim’s car in order to get away, Mike soon makes a shocking discovery – the victim’s young daughter and her nanny are hiding in the rear footwell. This is when the real trouble begins.

Mike wants to go to the police, but the nanny, Melissa, wants to delay until the daughter, Charlie, is somewhere safe. Mike agrees to this request before finding out the seriousness of the situation, and just how much danger they are really in.

Who exactly was the man he saw murdered? And who is the man he saw pulling the trigger?

In a situation where nothing is what it seems, Mike will have to fight for his life to protect a woman and a child he doesn’t know. And when the death count rises, he will discover what kind of man he really is.

When you can’t identify the victim, how can you find the killer?

Degrees of Darkness is published by Bloodhound and is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

Degrees of Darkness

Pre-teen girls are being abducted from their homes and their families murdered.  When

Frank Rogers, once a DI with the Met and now running his own debt collection agency, is told that his own daughter is missing, his son murdered, he naturally wants to become involved with the case.

Soon Frank’s face is all over the news. In an unexpected turn of events, the killer contacts the police and says he is willing to talk, but only to Frank.

When the body of the first abducted girl is discovered, Frank realises it is a race against time to save his daughter.

In order to solve the case, Frank must work out how the killer is picking his victims.

But how do you catch a murderer who is hiding in plain sight? And can Frank unravel the mystery, when he has so much to lose?

Am I Sitting Comfortably?

A Guest Post by Tony J Forder

I think the one thing I cannot be accused of is remaining within my comfort zone when writing. My first and fourth books are police procedural crime thrillers, featuring the same characters working out of my home city of Peterborough. Writing that second book of the series (as well as the third which I am currently eight chapters into) was like stepping into a warm and comfy pair of slippers. I knew the characters inside out – their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, knew what made them tick and drove them forward. In so many ways it was nice to be able to pick them up again and work with them in order to create another book which I hope will be as well-received as the first.

Sandwiched between books one and four, however, are two very different pieces of work. Degrees of Darkness, released in September this year (following April’s release of Bad to the Bone) is a very dark, psychological serial-killer book that is a study of the human psyche from mainly three very different perspectives – an abducted child, the father who will do anything to save her, and the killer who intends inflicting both emotional and physical harm. They each experience varying degrees of a very different level of darkness throughout the journey, and none are left unbroken by it. It is an uneasy read at times, perhaps, but I hope a rewarding one.

When I came to book three, not only was the story going to be different – a fast-paced, action-packed thriller – but I became convinced that I had to tell it differently as well. The first third of Scream Blue Murder was written from my usual third-person perspective, but as it unfolded I realised that it would be better served if told from the first-person POV. I re-wrote that first third, and moved on. About two-thirds of the way through I felt that I was not doing justice to the story, so I went back to third-person and re-wrote it again. But by the time I came to figuring out where the story was going to end, I had once again come to the conclusion that I really did need to step out of my comfort zone and tell the story as it was meant to be told – back in the first-person once more. It seemed to me that I had to move away from the familiar, that the nature of the book demanded the immediate perspective from the narrator’s viewpoint.

It was the first time I had attempted such a book, and the first time I had written anything other than a short story from the first-person POV. You will know how different these viewpoints are from reading books, but you may not be aware of the entirely different approach the author has to take when writing them. It requires a completely fresh mind-set, both in describing the story for your reader and in the way you portray the lead character and those around them. As my own worst critic, I am not best placed to judge how well I did. But with Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter thrillers saying “Forder didn’t spare the horses when writing Scream Blue Murder. This book rockets along, a breathless action-packed ride. Perfect reading  for fans of Simon Kernick and Jeff Abbott.” and Mason Cross, author of the Carter Blake series of thrillers offering “An action packed, twisty thriller. Great stuff.” I could not be more thrilled with how it was received by writers whose work I respect and have followed for many years. Moreover, when writing Scream Blue Murder I was completely captivated by the process, loved every second of it, and I have to say it was by far the most pleasurable experience I have had when writing. It was a release, of sorts, enabling me to express myself in a wholly different way.

Scream Blue Murder, released on 8 November, was intended as a stand-alone book. However, long before the end I knew that I would be revisiting the main character again at some point in the future, that there was a series here if I wanted to go down that road. To that end, I have a storyline and half a dozen chapters already written, and they are proving to be extremely satisfying to write.

I don’t know what my own future holds, let alone the future of my characters. I think I have other stories inside me that I want to purge myself of, but having created these characters now, with readers enjoying them so much, I also want to keep bringing them back for further adventures. There are, of course, only a certain amount of hours in the day, and I cannot write everything at the same time. I need to knuckle down and prioritise, but not from the perspective of what I think might sell best – never that. As most writers do, I write for myself first and foremost. I have to continue doing that. So I enjoy my Peterborough series, I enjoy what I hope will be my second ‘series’ when following up on Scream Blue Murder, and even Frank Rogers from Degrees of Darkness may yet return. But if something else comes along, something that insists it be written, then I will slip out of that comfort zone once again and write it.

After all, I started writing because I have stories to tell. And that really is the reason why the next book will get written.

(Sounds like very exciting times ahead Tony. Good luck with all your books.)

About Tony J Forder

Tony is the author of the critically acclaimed crime thriller Bad to the Bone, the first in a series featuring DI Jimmy Bliss and DC Penny Chandler. The second book in the series, The Scent of Guilt, will be released in March 2018, with a third currently in progress.

On 19 September 2017, Tony’s dark, psychological crime thriller, Degrees of Darkness, featuring ex-detective Frank Rogers, was also published by Bloodhound Books. This was intended to be a stand-alone novel, but Tony is now considering the possibility of a follow-up.

Some years ago, Tony won a short story competition judged by an editor from Pan Books. The story, Gino’s Bar and Grille, went on to be published in Dark Voices 2, part of the celebrated Pan Book of Horror series. Three further short story sales followed: Book End, published in Dark Voices 4, Character Role, in FEAR magazine, and finally A Grim Story, which featured in A Rattler’s Tale. It was the start of Tony’s publishing journey.

Between April 2017 and March 2018, Tony will have had four novels published by Bloodhound Books, but believes there is much more to come.

You can follow Tony on Twitter, visit his website and find him on Facebook.

I love historical fiction so I owe enormous thanks to Matt Casbourne at Duckworth Books for a copy of Rivals of the Republic by Annelise Freisenbruch in return for an honest review.

Published by Duckworth Books Rivals of the Republic is available for purchase through the links here.

Rivals of the The Republic 

Using her supreme knowledge of the period, author Annelise Freisenbruch presents the great new heroine of historical fiction, Hortensia, who must navigate the male-dominated courts of law in her quest to uncover a sinister plot to overthrow the Republic.

Drawing from historical accounts of the daughter of famed Roman orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, Freisenbruch delivers an atmospheric, meticulously accurate and fast-paced story that will have readers craving more.

Rome, 70BC. Roman high society hums with gossip about the suspicious suicide of a prominent Roman senator and the body of a Vestal Virgin is discovered in the river Tiber. As the authorities turn a blind eye, Hortensia is moved to investigate a trail of murders that appear to lead straight to the dark heart of the Eternal City.

My Review of Rivals of the Republic

I love all things Roman. I have been on a dig, visited Roman sites and I collect Roman coins, so I had high expectations of Rivals of the Republic and I’m delighted that Annelise Freisenbruch met and exceeded every single one.

I have to admit that my heart sank when I saw the Dramatis Personae at the beginning as I thought my reading would be constantly interrupted whilst I had to keep checking who was who. Not a bit of it! The writing was so good and so effective that I didn’t need it at all because Annelise Freisenbruch has the ability to weave in character and plot smoothly and effortlessly. 

Aside from the excellent descriptions that truly place the reader in 70 BC Rome, the general tone and style are just perfect, with a formality that underpins the era wonderfully. I genuinely felt as if I were transported back in time and I found Annelise Freisenbruch’s setting so visual it was as if I were watching a film as well as reading a story.

I found the plot absolutely fascinating. It writhes along so that the reader doesn’t know what to expect next, even when they are aware of historical factual background. The political machinations of Rome flood the text with excitement and tension making for a highly exciting read. The Rivals would make a fabulous television series and I could visualise every element.

The characters created are three dimensional and realistic. Hortensia is a triumph. Her feminist approach to the patriarchal Roman society adds an extra layer of tension and detail that I loved. The quality of research that supports the narrative to bring alive both real and imagined people is outstanding. I am thrilled that The Rivals is the first in a proposed series as I’m desperate to read more about Hortensia and, if I’m honest, I’m a little bit in love with Lucrio and I definitely want to see more of him.

Regardless of whether the reader prefers history or thrillers, The Rivals is a novel of outstanding writing, exquisite research and fabulous storytelling such that all readers can enjoy reading it. I absolutely loved it.

About Annelise Freisenbruch

Annelise Freisenbruch received her PhD in Classics from Cambridge University. She has worked as a researcher for the BBC and has appeared in documentaries about ancient Rome for PBS and CNN. Her first book, The First Ladies of Rome: The Women Behind the  Caesars was published in the US and the UK to critical acclaim and has been translated into eight languages. Rivals of the Republic is her first novel.

You can find out more by following Annelise on Twitter @afreisenbruch and visiting her website.

My grateful thanks to Mikka Haugaard for a copy of Notes On My Family by Emily Critchley in return for an honest review.

Published by Everything With Words Notes On My Family is available for purchase here.

Notes On My Family

A vivid present tense account of life in a dysfunctional family told by a perceptive thirteen year old girl with a sense of irony and humour.

Lou, her sister Sarah – ‘for people who have been forced to share living accommodation for the last thirteen and half years, we have very little in common’- and her brother Mickey- ‘he’s gay but he doesn’t yet know it’ – discover that their parents are going to be doing a ‘trial separation with a view to permanent’, and that their dad is having an affair with a sixth former. ‘Thinking of my dad as anyone’s ‘lover’ is actually quite gross. ‘Boyfriend’ didn’t seem the right word for an adult who is fast approaching forty-seven and owns socks that are older than I am.’

Meet Lou, her siblings, her mum and dad, her nan who does seances , her friend Faith who has six mums and dads (all gay) and Hammy, the escaped hamster.

My Review of Notes on My Family

Louise Coulson doesn’t fit in with other thirteen and a half year olds at her school and life is about to get tougher.

Notes On My Family is a young adult book but I think it should be read by every parent and teacher as well as the audience it is aimed towards because of its wonderful insight into the mind of a teenage girl. I thought it was brilliant. Emily Critchley makes the reader think and question their own actions and place in society. This is an outstanding book about the nature of identity.

Emily Critchley writes with wry humour so that some of Lou’s thoughts and comments made me laugh aloud. However, what she does best is create a depth of emotion that made me completely entranced by Lou’s life. I was so absorbed and convinced by the writing that as well as leaving me feeling uplifted, it made me cry too.

The characterisation of Lou is wonderful. Her first person account allows the reader to see right inside her head and to understand not only Lou but others with similar personalities and minds. Totally convincing, Lou really is one of ‘the people who are different that make a difference’. She’s sensitive, intelligent and individual and she even left me wondering if I should allocate colours to days of the week and foods. It is the flawless quality of Emily Critchley’s writing in maintaining Lou’s persona that is so appealing.

There is a super plot that covers so many aspects young people will be only too aware of, from bullying to first love, from family break ups to first periods and Lou navigates a world of school and family in a way that would be of huge comfort to young people similarly struggling. These are universal themes personally handled making them accessible to readers of all ages through fabulously skilled writing. 

Notes On My Family may be marketed as a Young Adult read but it is a book that offers something for readers of all ages because of the superb characterisation and insight. I loved it and cannot recommend it highly enough. 

About Emily Critchley

Emily Critchley grew up in Essex. She left school at sixteen and worked in various shops and call centres where she jotted down ideas for short stories on scraps of till roll. She studied creative writing at London Metropolitan University and graduated with a first class honours degree. Her poetry and short stories have been published both online and in magazines.

Notes On My Family is her first novel for young adults.

You can follow Emily Critchley on Twitter @EmilyMCritchley, find her on Facebook and visit her website.

I’m delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for The Perfect Victim by Corrie Jackson because I love a thriller. Today I’m very excited to be bringing you a guest post from Corrie as she interviews her protagonist Sophie Kent.

The Perfect Victim is published tomorrow, 16th November 2017, by Bonnier Zaffre and is available for purchase here.

The Perfect Victim

Husband, friend, colleague . . . killer?

Charlie and Emily Swift are the Instagram-perfect couple: gorgeous, successful and in love. But then Charlie is named as the prime suspect in a gruesome murder and Emily’s world falls apart.

Desperate for answers, she turns to Charlie’s troubled best friend, London Herald journalist, Sophie Kent. Sophie knows police have the wrong man – she trusts Charlie with her life.

Then Charlie flees.

Sophie puts her reputation on the line to clear his name. But as she’s drawn deeper into Charlie and Emily’s unravelling marriage, she realises that there is nothing perfect about the Swifts.

As she begins to question Charlie’s innocence, something happens that blows the investigation – and their friendship – apart.

Now Sophie isn’t just fighting for justice, she’s fighting for her life.

Who Is Sophie Kent?

A Guest Post by Corrie Jackson

The Perfect Victim is the second thriller starring crime reporter, Sophie Kent. With killer instincts and a razor-sharp mind, she’s proven herself a force to be reckoned with. But what makes Sophie tick? This questionnaire sheds light on the star journalist…

Describe your appearance in three words.

Blonde. Pocket. Rocket. (I’m 5’2”!)

What does your business card say?

Sophie Kent

Crime Desk, The London Herald

Who are your parents?

My father, Antony Kent is the founder and CEO of Kent Industries. You know the type. Bullish. Old-school. Regularly appears in the Business section of the broadsheets. My mother, Kathy, is…a stay-at-home mum. Not in the cosy sense.

Are you married?

God, no. Single.

Which living person do you most admire?

Journalist Edna Buchanan. She ruled Miami’s police beat for two decades and won a Pulitzer prize in 1986. Edna once said: People who say, ‘Let me tell you the truth, won’t. When they say ‘Trust me,’ don’t.’ These words are on a Post-It Note stuck to my computer.

What’s your best trait?

My resourcefulness.

And your worst?

Not knowing when to quit (professionally and personally!)

What’s your greatest achievement?

I don’t know.  I haven’t done it yet.

You’re in a bar: what’s your poison?

Whatever’s nearest…I’m fickle.

Name one thing people don’t know about you?

My middle name is Imogen, after the Jilly Cooper novel. My mother is a devotee.

Sum yourself up in a hashtag?

#smallbutmighty

What do you dislike most in the world?

Injustice. And bad grammar.

What’s your most-treasured memory?

Climbing the large oak tree in the garden of my childhood home with my little brother, Tommy. I’d make up stories and we’d sit there for hours. Tommy’s wide-eyed curiosity spurred me on to become a better storyteller. I have him to thank for the path I’ve taken.

What’s your favourite hang-out?

The Anchor & Hart; an old man’s pub round the back of the London Herald in Kensington. It’s where all the Herald journos let off steam.

Do you ever lie?

What kind of question is that?

What takes pride of place in your house?

My London Herald printing plate. Every reporter is awarded the printing plate of their first front page. I’ve hung mine in the downstairs loo!

What one thing would you change about your appearance?

I wish I didn’t look so much like my father.

Best piece of advice?

Always know the line. If you can’t sum your article up in one sentence, you haven’t nailed it. My editor, Philip Rowley, told me that on my first day at the Herald.

Where would you like to live?

Exactly where I do. Bywater Street, London.

Who or what do you love most?

My brother, Tommy.

What do you consider the lowest depths of misery?

Helplessness.

What’s your biggest regret?

That I couldn’t prevent Tommy’s death.

When and where are you happiest?

At my computer, in the grip of a good story, fingers flying. Speaking of which, I’ve got work to do!

About Corrie Jackson

Corrie Jackson has been a journalist for fourteen years and has worked at Harpers Bazaar, The Daily Mail, Grazia and Glamour. After a sunny two-year stint freelancing in Los Angeles, she is now coming to terms with the weather in Surrey, England where she lives with her husband and two children.

You can find out more about Corrie on Facebook, Twitter @CorrieJacko and via her website.

There’s more with these other bloggers too: