I’m delighted to welcome Tamara Agha-Jaffar to Linda’s Book Bag today to tell me about one of her books as I happen to know it’s Tamara’s birthday. So, happy birthday Tamara!

Staying in with Tamara Agha-Jaffar

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Tamara. Thank you for agreeing to stay with me.

I’m delighted to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I love to talk about my passion for mythology and for women’s role in myth.

It sounds like I’m in for an entertaining evening. Which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you brought it?

I have brought along my first novel, A Pomegranate and the Maiden, based on the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone because this is the myth that launched me on my writing career.

(That sounds like a good choice to me!)

I was a professor of English for a number of years, and among the courses I taught was a course on Women Literature in which I included selections from Homer’s Hymn to Demeter. I love the poem because it focuses primarily on women, specifically a mother and her daughter. I encouraged my students to interpret the myth as metaphor and to recognize how its themes have an enduring relevance. The myth of the abduction of Kore/Persephone and its aftermath speaks to us on many levels: how to cope with trauma; the nature of the mother/daughter relationship; the stages of grieving; the impact of gender on our perspectives; the differences between male and female socialization; communication styles; etc. etc.

My students became so enamored with the myth that they encouraged me to write a book deconstructing it so others can benefit from its insights. I took their advice. My first book was born: Demeter and Persephone: Lessons from a Myth (McFarland 2002). This non-fiction book is an analysis of the myth from a feminist perspective.

(It sounds incredibly interesting. I love the way in which your students prompted your writing. It seems fitting somehow!)

The whole time I was writing the book, I kept thinking I would love to write a work of fiction based on this myth in which each of the characters speaks in the first-person point of view and describes the events from his/her gendered perspective. So as soon as I retired from academia in 2013, I plunged right into writing my first novel, A Pomegranate and the Maiden.

What can we expect from an evening in with A Pomegranate and the Maiden?

A Pomegranate and the Maiden retells the story of Demeter (the goddess of the grain) and her daughter Kore/Persephone (the goddess of Spring) from multiple first-person points of view. It begins with Kore/Persephone as a young girl on the cusp of womanhood. She attracts the attention of the god of the Underworld, Hades. He colludes with her father, Zeus, to trick her into opening a chasm to the underworld from which he emerges, kidnaps her to his deathly realm, and makes her his bride.

Learning of her daughter’s whereabouts, Demeter experiences the stages of mourning. She even engages in displacement by trying to appropriate another woman’s infant to fill the void she feels at the loss of her daughter. When that attempt is foiled, Demeter goes on strike and denies the earth its fertility. The ensuing famine forces Zeus to submit to her demands by releasing Persephone from the underworld.

Although Persephone is eager to emerge from the underworld, she intentionally swallows the pomegranate seeds Hades pops into her mouth. Eating food from the underworld commits her to return. So Persephone returns to the underworld for four months of every year. Demeter mourns the loss of her daughter during those four months and refuses to let anything grow. Winter ensues. Persephone’s emergence from the underworld is the catalyst for her mother’s joy. Spring ensues.

That is the outline of the myth in a nutshell. A Pomegranate and the Maiden explores each character’s psychology and gendered thoughts as they come to terms with the events. For example, Demeter is portrayed as the possessive mother who doesn’t want her daughter to grow up. Kore/Persephone wants to break away from mother’s binding constraints and find her own way. Zeus is the patriarch who tramples over a mother’s rights. And Hades is the lover who catapults Persephone into gaining independence from mother.

I first released the novel in paperback (2015) and then on Kindle. I recently released an audiobook version with me doing the reading (2018). I had a lot of fun doing it.

(It sounds to me, Tamara, that you have been able to explore the myth through so many different perspectives. Fascinating.)

What else have you brought along and why?

I have brought along my other books.

The first one is the non-fiction book that set me on my writing career: Demeter and Persephone: Lessons from a Myth.

I was still a Professor of English when this book came out. I became very interested in the depiction of women in mythology and religion and wanted to develop a new course focusing on women’s roles in myth and religion. I searched for a multicultural text that would work. But when I couldn’t find exactly what I needed, I wrote my own text book. Women and Goddesses in Myth and Sacred Text: An Anthology (Pearson 2005) was born. It is a multicultural text with excerpts from The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Hell, the Enuma Elish, and many other selections including those from Western, Asian, Islamic, Christian, African, and Native American traditions.

When an author conveys their absolute passion for a subject it really inspires me to read their work. You’ve certainly piqued my interest Tamara.

I have also brought along my second novel, Unsung Odysseys (Kindle 2016) I love anything Homer and have read The Odyssey many times. I thought it was about time we heard the voices of women who interacted with Odysseus as he made his trek home to Ithaca. Among the voices we hear in my novel is the voice of his wife, his mother, his nurse, the goddess Circe, and the nymph Calypso. Their collective voices provide an alternative perspective on Odysseus and his exploits.

Finally, I have brought a photograph of one of my favorite statues. It is Bernini’s statue of the abduction of Persephone. My husband and I were on vacation in Italy a few years ago. We went to the Borghese Palace in Rome because it houses paintings by Carvaggio, one of my favorite artists.

I was on the lookout for Carvaggio’s paintings when we entered one of the beautifully ornate rooms at the Borghese in which were displayed Bernini’s incredible statues. They were astonishing—all the more so because I wasn’t expecting anything quite so spectacular. There was his statue of Aeneas with his father and son as they escape from the burning walls of Troy, Daphne escaping from Apollo, and an amazing statue of Hades kidnapping Persephone.

The statue is over 8 ft tall and absolutely breathtaking. I love how Bernini captures movement as Persephone struggles to get away and Hades digs his hand into her flesh to prevent her escape. The detail, the size, the whole composition blew me away. I love anything Demeter/Persephone, so this statue was the icing on the cake for me on what was a wonderful vacation.

It sounds like the perfect trip for you! Thanks so much for a really interesting evening Tamara. I’ve so enjoyed staying in with you and Happy Birthday! 

Thank you Linda.

A Pomegranate and the Maiden

A Pomegranate and the Maiden is a multi-faceted re-telling of the story of Demeter and Persephone as told in Homer’s Hymn to Demeter. The many characters speak directly to the reader, presenting multiple perspectives of the same event. Among the voices we hear is that of the mother grieving for her lost child, the daughter struggling for independence, the father who tramples on a mother’s rights, and the lover who resorts to nefarious means to win his beloved. Each perspective is deeply rooted in the character’s psychology and gender. Woven within their narratives are stories familiar to readers of Greek mythology.

Against the backdrop of our own culture, which still diminishes the value of motherhood and marginalizes women of all ages, these voices speak to us through the centuries and offer new ways of seeing the world we inhabit.

A Pomegranate and the Maiden is available for purchase here.

About Tamara Agha-Jaffar

Tamara Agha-Jaffar has a Ph.D. in English Literature. She has been in academia all her professional life, serving as professor of English, dean, and Vice President for Academic Affairs. She retired in July 2013. In 2004 she was named Kansas Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation and received its CASE Award for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2010 she received The President’s Call to Service Award for her volunteer work in the community.

Tamara and her husband are empty nesters living in Kansas. She enjoys retirement and spends her time doing the things she loves best: reading and writing.

You can find out more about Tamara on her website, her Amazon Author Page and on Goodreads.

About 18 months ago I went to a fabulous event, Oceans of Words, at which Tracey Scott-Townsend was speaking and you can see my write up here. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Tracey properly and she’s so lovely that I had to invite her onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell me about one of her books. I have also had the pleasure of reviewing some of Tracey’s poetry in So Fast and you can read that review here.

Staying in with Tracey Scott-Townsend

I absolutely loved reading So Fast, Tracey so it gives me very great pleasure to welcome you to Linda’s Book Bag today. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it? 

I’ve brought Another Rebecca along today since this is my most recently published work. Actually it’s a second edition: it was originally published by Inspired Quill in 2015 but Wild Pressed Books, of which I’m co-director, managed to acquire the rights earlier this year. We’ve made some improvements to the text, engaged a fantastic cover designer (Jane Dixon-Smith) and added a beautiful, new cover with a horse that appears to be composed of a flock of starlings, galloping across a pale blue and lilac sky above silhouetted treetops.

(It’s certainly a stunning cover. You must be so pleased with it.)

What can we expect from an evening in with Another Rebecca?

We’ll have to expect unpredictability if Rebecca is accompanied by her mother, Bex. It’s unlikely you, me or Rebecca will get a word in edgeways if Bex has been on the drink. She becomes bellicose and insulting if you look at her the wrong way. She usually manages to secrete a bottle about her person somewhere and before you know it she’ll have shoved one down the side of your sofa so she can have a sneaky snifter when you’re not looking.

Rebecca will be on edge, watching her mother’s every move, fearing her own embarrassment and worrying about how she’s going to get her mother home and into bed without having to deal with vomit or pee. Sorry to spoil the evening, but that’s Rebecca’s life for you. The stress and exhaustion landed her in hospital where she had a convulsion, alone in the bathroom. Since then she’s been even more ‘away with the fairies’ than ever and since she returned to art college, she can’t stop painting variations on the theme of a blue-and-violet landscape with a white horse galloping through it and a boy, leaning on his elbow in the foreground. She’s obsessed. And the painting upset Bex terribly when she saw it – she said it reminded her of something from her past.

(Crumbs. It sounds as if I’m in for an ‘interesting’ evening then!)

There’s something odd about that mother and daughter – as if neither of them is certain where one of them ends and the other begins. I’ve seen photos of Bex when she was Rebecca’s age. The two of them are almost identical.

Anyway, perhaps we can make it a pleasant evening if one of us can distract Bex while the other snatches that bottle of gin from down the side of the sofa. Maybe we can even get Bex to give us a song, she’s got a beautiful voice, you know. Rebecca’s inherited it. We could have a grand old sing-song between us. Do you play any musical instruments?

(Sadly not. I’m tone deaf. The triangle is about as much as I can manage. But I think I’ll be watching Bex too closely anyway!)

What else have you brought along and why?

I’ve brought along a copy of a painting called There is No Night by Jack B. Yeats (brother of the poet, William). The painting is uncannily similar to the ones Rebecca keeps painting, although she swore she’d never heard of Jack B. Yeats before I showed her the original image. But perhaps we could get to the bottom of her obsession with the boy and the horse and with Bex’s aversion to it. I did hear that Bex had a horse of her own when she was younger – she wasn’t always an incoherent drinker who decided to ‘stop living although her body would carry on’. Rumour has it that she had a fiancé and was all set to live in a big house in the village of Newtown Linford, in Leicestershire. If we could get that photo album that she guards so secretly off her we might be able to help Rebecca by solving a few mysteries about her past…

(Let’s do our best. I’d love to have a sneaky look inside it!)

Thanks so much for staying in with me this evening Tracey. Bex and Rebecca have certainly livened up proceedings! I’ve really enjoyed meeting them and hearing about Another Rebecca.

Thanks for inviting me (and my friends) for an evening in with you, Linda. I hope Bex hasn’t been too badly behaved and that you enjoyed her singing, and I do think Rebecca’s had a lovely evening after all, don’t you? She’s such a shy young woman, it was nice to bring her out of herself.

(I hope she enjoyed it too!)

Another Rebecca

Rebecca Grey and her alcoholic mother, Bex, live in insecurity and poverty. Following a tragedy in Bex’s past she made a decision which nobody must ever find out about. Will Rebecca escape from her mother’s lies and make a life of her own?

A gripping psychological family drama about Rebecca Grey, a sensitive girl who’s spent her childhood caring for her alcoholic mother, Bex. They lurch from one poverty-stricken situation to another until Rebecca is hospitalised with exhaustion. While there, she has an illness-triggered hallucination which entangles her deeper than ever into her mother’s psyche. As an art student, Rebecca can’t understand why she is repeatedly impelled to paint a white horse in a blue landscape. And then there is the boy with yellow hair who she glimpses from the corner of her eye.

Bex’s life was frozen by a shocking tragedy when she was nineteen. Her ‘great grief’ caused her to make a decision which nobody must ever find out about. Rebecca has been implicated in her mother’s lies since the moment of her birth, a fact that her father, Jack, has no inkling of.

As Rebecca gets to know her father’s new family, the gap between her and her mother widens. The mystery of Bex’s dark past comes into focus when an old woman she has never met contacts Rebecca, claiming to be her grandmother.

The thunder of hooves is getting closer for both Rebecca and Bex and the blond-haired boy is more and more often in Rebecca’s dreams. Can Bex continue to keep Rebecca in the dark about the circumstances of her birth, or will the final twist in her tail set Rebecca free to make a new life of her own?

Adapted from a short story written by the author when she was an art student, Another Rebecca was inspired by the painting There is no Night by Jack B. Yeats.

Another Rebecca is available for purchase here.

About Tracey Scott-Townsend

Tracey Scott-Townsend is a novelist, poet and artist living in the East Riding of Yorkshire. She has exhibited widely across Britain and her previous books are published by Inspired Quill and Wild Pressed Books.

You can find out more about Tracey by visiting her website, finding her on Facebook and following her on Twitter @authortrace.

As someone who loves fiction with historical elements and which explores identity it gives me very great pleasure to have the opportunity to interview Jan Fortune all about A Remedy For All Things today.

Published today, 5th October 2018, A Remedy For All Things is available for purchase here or directly from the publisher.

A Remedy For All Things

In the dream she is not herself.

Belief is Catherine’s gift, or it was once, growing up in the shadow of an extraordinary friendship amongst a cacophony of voices trying to tell her who to be.

Now, in her thirties, Catherine knows what she has lost and what she has survived. Her professional life is on course and she has a new relationship with Simon, a writer who shares her imaginative and creative worlds. But when Catherine arrives in Budapest in winter 1993 to begin researching a novel based on the poet, Attila József, she starts dreaming the life of a young woman imprisoned after the 1956 Uprising. More disconcertingly, by day this woman, Selene Virág, is with her, dreaming Catherine’s life just as she dreams Selene’s.

Obsessed with uncovering the facts, Catherine discovers that Selene was a real person who lived through the persecution of Jews in Hungary during WW2, but what is most disorienting is that Selene believed Attila József to be the father of her daughter, Miriam, despite the fact that József committed suicide in December 1937, eighteen years before Miriam was born.

How do the three lives of Catherine, Selene and Attila fit together?

Densely layered, constantly challenging the boundaries between fact and fiction, A Remedy for All Things is a disquieting and compelling exploration of what we mean by identity and of how the personal and the political collide. Spare, subtle prose and an innovative, original narrative combine with an accessible, moving story; an extraordinary follow-up to This is the End of the Story that will lead to the final book in the trilogy, For Hope is Always Born.

An Interview with Jan Fortune

Thanks so much for agreeing to answer my questions and welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Jan.

A Remedy For All Things has a complex premise Jan. How did the concept for the book arise?

The premise is that Catherine, a writer is in Hungary in 1993 researching a book on Attila József, an extraordinary Hungarian poet who committed suicide in his early 30s in 1937. She is someone coping with losses of various sorts from the previous novel, This is the End of the Story, but her life seems to be on course until she arrives in Budapest and begins dreaming the life of another woman from a different time period. The idea was partly suggested by the fact that a lot of my material for writing comes to me in dreams. In this case it was the new character, Selene Virág, who I dreamt.

Up to that point I hadn’t realised that I would write a sequel to This is the End of the Story, let alone a trilogy, but once I’d dreamt this young woman, she wouldn’t let me go. In the dream she was imprisoned after the Hungarian Uprising at the end of 1950s and I knew she had a strong connection to Catherine.

How extraordinary! I love hearing how authors get their inspiration and this is so interesting.

At the same time, I was reading the poetry of Attila József, so that might have fed into the dream, and I had a strong sense that Selene was connected with Attila as well as with Catherine, even though she would have been a very young child when Attila died.

The book is an exploration of the connections between these three people over these three time periods and also beyond the book, but although the premise is complex the narrative is structured so that we see the lives of the two women in alternate chapters, as they dream each others’ lives and work out their own issues of identity, conflicts and loves.

That’s fascinating. As A Remedy For All Things is the second book in your trilogy, how do you manage the plotting of a story over three books?

I write drafts on computer but I keep endless hand written notes and timelines to keep everything consistent. The timelines in the trilogy are fairly intricate as the action of A Remedy for All Things actually fits into a month that isn’t filled in during the first book, but is chronologically before the last chapter of This is the End of the Story. So the first book ends in June 1994 and the second takes place in the thirty days from November 6 1993 to December 3 1993 (and the same dates in 1959 and 1937 for Selene and Attila).

I was almost finished the first book when I realised it would be a trilogy so right at the end I spent an intense period going over This is the End of the Story to make sure the continuity would work with the next two novels. I had endless charts of dates and colour-coded pages of notebooks. A key element was also planting particular objects that appear across the books, the third of which ends in June 2020, which is when the third will be published.

It sounds complex to keep abreast of it all.

So there’s a sketchbook given to Catherine in Paris that once belonged to Selene’s father. It becomes not only a symbol of a life that Selene has lost, but also a motif for the future and will re-appear in For Hope is Always Born. Another object that assumes even greater importance in communicating themes through the three novels is a small silver hand of Miriam pendant. It comes to Catherine when she is in Toledo searching for traces of the 11th century Muslim princess-cum-saint, Casilda, whose story is entwined in the plots of the first and third novels and it’s a tiny pendant on which a great deal hangs.

There’s also a book shown to Catherine by my fictionalised version of Szuzsanna Makai, Attila József’s niece. On this object the plot might turn, but you’d have to read the book to learn more about that object and how it is used to manage the plotting …

I will indeed. I love the sound of all three!

Hungary features strongly. How did you research the geographical elements of the book?

I read everything I could find – online and in books. I read books about the uprising and about the history and politics of Hungary and the background years before the 1956 Uprising. I read Hungarian novels and poetry to get the texture of the place and books about Attila József.

The reading was vital. Unlike 1970s Teesside where I grew up and where much of the first novel is set, Budapest was completely new to me. But I was also incredibly privileged to get an arts council grant to travel to Budapest to research and write there. This made a huge difference and it was made even more effective through key conversations with people there.

How brilliant. I love Budapest.

The staffs of the Hungarian House of Photography and at the Attila József Museum were incredibly helpful. I was lucky to be put in touch with Lászlo Kunos, Director of Corvina Press, who gave me a much more nuanced perspective on life in both 1950s and 1990s Budapest and also helped me make key decisions about how my character, Catherine, thinks about Attila József’s final days.

Similarly, a meeting with the Hungarian novelist and poet, Gábor Schein, gave me much more insight into the remarkable city of Budapest. It’s place that has been through so much, and yet it’s a young city, with Pest in particular becoming populace only at the end of the nineteenth century.

There are many books set in the recent past and WW2. What sets A Remedy For All Things apart from the others do you think?

The book has three time periods that intersect in an unusual way through the lives of the characters – the 30s, the 50s and the 90s. At its core the book, and the whole trilogy, are asking questions about identity and the human issues of how individuals survive in tumultuous times so whilst each character is very much of his or her time and the particular events of those times matter, there are also wider questions at stake.

The first book is set in the 70s, with some forward passages in the 80s and 90s and the last is contemporary so this also emphasises that it is what unites the characters across time and place that is vital. And underpinning all three novels is the story of Casilda, who was a real Moorish princess in 11^th century Spain who became a saint. Her extraordinary story is weaves through the three novels.

So while in some senses the book is ‘historical’ fiction and I take the historical research very seriously, they are also books about relationships and identity and there’s an element that is on the edge of magic realism.

The more you tell me Jan, the more I want to get your books to the top of my TBR.

To what extent do you feel we are all political creatures as this seems to be a theme you explore?

I think the personal and the political are inseparable. Across 3 novels that span almost a millennium every character is both an individual trying to work out life, love and identity but always within a particular context. Casilda lives at a time when the intersection of cultures in Moorish Spain enables her to make a huge change in her life that is as political as it is spiritual. Selene survives the Jewish ghetto in Budapest in WW2 only to be caught up in the political events of young Hungarians trying to overthrow the constraints of oppressive Soviet rule in the 50s. Catherine is formed by the politics of industrial decline in late 70s Teesside.

Yet all of them are also individuals who react and respond to these contexts with imagination. Running through the novel are various quotes from Don Quixote and most importantly:

When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. … — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be.

So there is a constant idea that political events might trample our daily lives, and that the ‘unreason of the world is more insane than any fiction’ and yet so often, even in the most dire circumstances, the human spirit persists.

I love that optimism of the human spirit.

All of your writing seems to have a keen interest in identity. What would you say to that assessment?

That’s absolutely right. The question that began the trilogy for me was about how one person supports and even lives out the fantasy life of another. Sancho does this for Quixote and Catherine does it in the first novel for her friend Miriam. She is someone who for a long time lets others define her; they even change the form of her name so Miriam calls her Cassie and later she’s called Kitty. Reclaiming her name, Catherine, is an important step, but her sense of identity is challenged again when she begins dreaming Selene’s life and becomes obsessed with finding out more about her.

Identity is a wonderfully fluid concept and this fascinates me. Who each of us is, is much less monolithic than we often imagine, and a novel is a great way of exploring the human condition.

Is there anything you feel it is essential for a reader to know about A Remedy For All Things?

Only that if all this sounds complicated, the response I’ve had from readers is that all the plotting and research, all the timelines and thinking about politics and identity are very much secondary to the story. Essentially I wanted to end up with a story that begins with a coming of age and moves on to how people live in immensely challenging times with amazing dignity; how people grow and love whatever the conditions around them.

It sounds to me as if you have done so wonderfully, Jan. Congratulations.

About Jan Fortune

Poet and novelist Jan Fortune is the founder of Cinnamon Press. Following her poetry collections, Stale Bread and Miracles, Slate Voices: Cwmorthin and Turn/Return, her fifth novel This Is The End Of The Story was released in 2017.

A respected editor and passionate writing mentor, Jan lives in the wild wet foothills of the Moelwyns in North Wales, beneath the abandoned slate village of Cwmorthin.

You can find out more by visiting Jan’s website, or by following her on Twitter @JanFortuneWrite.

I can’t believe how many great new to me authors I have had the chance to ‘meet’ through this staying in with feature on Linda’s Book Bag and today I welcome another to spend an evening with me – this time it’s R.K. Wheeler.

Staying in with R.K. Wheeler

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Robert and thank you for agreeing to stay in with me. Tell, me, which of your books have you brought to tell us about this evening?

I have chosen The Witch of Endor as my first book with you Linda as I think that it would appeal to the most readers, being a YA/Midgrade, paranormal, romantic fantasy.

Sounds good. What can we expect from an evening in with The Witch of Endor?

Although devoid of swear words or sex, it is full of romance, action, suspense and plot twists.  The reviews thus far have been stellar and I have recently finished production to audiobook with my wonderful producer Jas Walker.  Although English born he currently resides in France.  This novel is available on audible.com and will be on iTunes in the next couple of weeks.

Each chapter in my story starts with a poem about the chapter.  I prefer to write in rhyme.

The blood’s the life the life’s the blood

Beware the night and vampire’s bite

A cross a stake be sure to make

Or pray the Lord your soul to take

(Now, this is why I avoid vampire stories usually – too scary!)

What else have you brought along and why have you brought it?

I would recommend some buttered popcorn for the suspenseful, scarier scenes, and a bit of chocolate for the more romantic tales.

Now that sounds like a plan to me!

Thanks so much for staying in with me to tell me all about The Witch of Endor Robert. I’ve really enjoyed it and you never know – I might one day be brave enough to read it!

The Witch of Endor

Lilith grew up seeing and speaking with the dead, although she did not realize they were dead until her parents asked her to whom she was speaking with. It was the magic that came later when she reached puberty. She could not control the magic in those early years so her parents had to move from Nazareth to Endor. The move was not far enough though, for it was not long before the rumors started. A man walked through the doors of Lilith’s magic shop one day. He was different. He was not afraid of the spirits and he had a rudimentary ability to use magic.

Their nightly meetings turned into more than palm readings and magic practice. She fell for Lamech and was in love in his arms. Still doubts nagged at the back of her mind. Why had she never seen him by day and why had she never seen him eat? He always had a good excuse.

Was it another woman? She had to find out so she followed him one night before dawn. He entered a cave and what she found there was not what she had ever imagined and it would change her life forever.

The Witch of Endor is available for purchase here.

About R. K. Wheeler

R.K Wheeler is a Florida native who shields himself at times from the sun’s rays behind a computer, writing books.  He dreams of traveling full time, gleaning inspiration from frosty peaks and fertile plains, thick forests and luminescent caverns.  However, until that day comes, Robert must keep his day job as a chiropractic physician. He enjoys beekeeping.

R. K. Wheeler has four beautiful children. His wife of 26 years stays lovingly by his side even on the days that she is a book widow.

You can find out more by visiting R.K. Wheeler’s website.

When Only Child by Rhiannon Navin was first released I was thrilled to be able to review it and you can read that review here. Today I am delighted to welcome Rhiannon to Linda’s Book Bag to stay in with me.

Staying in with Rhiannon Navin

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Rhiannon. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Thanks for inviting me, Linda.

As if I couldn’t guess, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it? 

I’ve brought my novel Only Child with me. The paperback edition comes out the 4^th of October and I’m excited to show off the beautiful new cover.

(Happy paperback publication day. I love the new cover too Rhiannon.)

Only Child is the first story I’ve ever written. It began as just a way for me to work through some pretty intense fears and worries I had for my children (I’ve got three) and turned into an amazing journey that led to this novel now having been published all around the world. It’s been terribly exciting and mind-blowing for this stay-at-home mum. Only Child deals with an unfortunately very timely subject and terrifying reality for parents here in the U.S.: a deadly school shooting. The story’s perspective is unusual, as it is a seven-year old boy named Zach who tells his story of having to live through a shooting and its devastating aftermath.

(I adored Zach’s perspective and only wish all the politicians would read Only Child too!)

What can we expect from an evening in with Only Child? 

Tears, most likely. My little narrator Zach survives a shooting at his school by hiding in a cloakroom with his classmates and teacher. But his older brother does not survive. While his family and community quickly begin to unravel and are consumed by their grief, Zach is largely left alone to navigate his many conflicting emotions. He retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and art. Armed with his newfound understanding, and with the optimism and stubbornness only a child could have, Zach becomes determined to help the adults in his life rediscover the universal truths of love and compassion.

(I can confirm the tears…)

I know many of your readers might be hesitant to pick up a story about a school shooting, which I can completely understand. But, they will quickly discover that Only Child is a hopeful and uplifting story. It is ultimately little Zach, who manages to lead his family and their community to a path towards forgiveness and a chance to heal, together.

It’s an emotional rollercoaster for him though, so keep the tissues close by.

(That’s a perfect description of Only Child. I hope more and more people will read it.)

What else have you brought along and why?

I brought my three kids. I couldn’t find a babysitter tonight, so I had to bring them along. I want to apologize for the mess they’ve made already. But it is very apropos that they’re here with me, while I talk to you about my book, because they really were the inspiration for the story.

(They are very welcome. I’ll get my husband to clear up later…)

While writing Only Child, I used them as my focus group for how Zach might act or speak. In a way, the process of discovering Zach’s character and writing his story brought me even closer to them because I paid more attention and watched them intently for clues: What are they thinking right now? How are they processing, expressing themselves? I call my kids by the wrong name all the time—even the cats’ and dog’s names sometimes—and because I hung out with Zach so much while they were at school, I even called them Zach once or twice. They were very confused.

(Ha! My father used to call me by the cat’s name so I know how they feel.)

In all seriousness though, it was a devastating thing to have to do, picture my own children in Zach’s situation. I hope that my story finds the people it’s meant to find and that it can make a small contribution towards a safer future for all our children.

(I quite agree. Only Child brings home so clearly how children are affected and we need a safer world for all children.)

Having so appreciated Only Child, Rhiannon, it has been a delight to stay in with you and hear more about it. Thanks so much and good luck with the paperback version.

Only Child

We went to school that Tuesday like normal.
Not all of us came home . . .

Huddled in a cloakroom with his classmates and teacher, six-year-old Zach can hear shots ringing through the corridors of his school. A gunman has entered the building and, in a matter of minutes, will have taken nineteen lives.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the close knit community and its families are devastated. Everyone deals with the tragedy differently. Zach’s father absents himself; his mother pursues a quest for justice — while Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and drawing.

Ultimately though, it is Zach who will show the adults in his life the way forward — as, sometimes, only a child can.

Published by Mantle, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, Only Child is released in paperback today, 4th October 2018 and is available for purchase here.

About Rhiannon Navin

Rhiannon Navin grew up in Bremen, Germany, in a family of book-crazy women. Her career in advertising brought her to New York City, where she worked for several large agencies before becoming a full-time mother and writer. She now lives outside of New York City with her husband, three children, two cats, and one dog.

Only Child is her first novel.

You can follow Rhiannon on Twitter @rhiannonnavin and visit her website. You’ll also find Rhiannon on Facebook and Goodreads.

My enormous thanks to Jaime Frost at Harper Collins for sending me a Netgalley copy of The Book of Love in return for an honest review.

Fionnuala Kearney’s You, Me and Other People was one of the first books I reviewed when I began blogging and you can see my review (and the way the blog has evolved) here. I also reviewed Fionnuala’s The Day I Lost You here and it was my book of the Year in 2016 amongst some very stiff competition. You can find out more about that here.

Published by Harper Collins on 25th October 2018, The Book of Love is available through these links.

The Book of Love

One love. Two people. Twenty Years.

From the moment they met, Erin and Dom loved each other too much, too quickly. Everyone said it wouldn’t last. But they knew differently.

A wedding present, a notebook, brings them together through the good times and the bad. On the blank pages of their love story, they write down everything they can’t always say – the secrets, the heartbreak, the highs and lows. It’s where they see the best and worst of each other.

Falling in love is easy but staying in love is where the story begins…

This is The Book of Love.

My Review of The Book of Love

Erin and Dom use the book of love to record their thoughts.

I’m not sure I can write a review of The Book of Love because I simply do not have the vocabulary to describe what an impact this glorious celebration of love in all its forms has had on me. I feel simultaneously broken, uplifted and so emotional I can hardly see the screen to write through my tears.

I thought all the characters were wonderful but it was Dom who appealed to me most. The intensity of his relationship with Erin, his flawed and realistic nature and his unfailing love meant he infiltrated my thoughts even when I wasn’t reading about him. I ended The Book of Love feeling I had known Dom and Erin personally, shared the ups and downs of their lives and I wanted to hold them in my embrace.

The Book of Love is brilliantly plotted by Fionnuala Kearney so that the surprises on the way left me emotionally stunned. There are mysteries that unfold through magnificent storytelling. I genuinely gasped aloud a couple of times and occasionally I so wanted things to be different that my heart shattered. To have such a huge impact on the reader takes consummate skill and Fionnuala Kearney has it at its most wonderful. I can’t say too much about the plot because I would hate to spoil the read for others. However, I would say; be prepared to invest all your emotions without your consent because once you’re absorbed into The Book of Love your life, your heart and your very soul will not be your own. It’s fair to say that Fionnuala Kearney not only understands humanity in its very essence, she knows exactly how to convey that essence on the page in The Book of Love.

I’m not going to say more because I don’t feel up to the task of articulating what a wonderful, wonderful book this is. The Book of Love is compassionate, beautiful and raw. It touched me. It broke me and ultimately it left me feeling that, whatever life throws at us, love can and does endure.

I completely and utterly adored The Book of Love – mightily!

About Fionnuala Kearney

Fionnuala Kearney, pronounced Finoola Carney, was born Fionnuala Moore into a large Irish family. One of seven children, she discovered, age six, that she had in fact been christened Ann. That’s Ann with no ‘e’. Her parents had decided, for some reason to address her by her second name, saddling her with a life of dealing with unnecessary vowels.

At twenty she moved to London and marrying Mr Kearney proved to be the best thing she ever did (apart from the fact that the vowel thing escalated even further). Two daughters, both with deliberately simple mono syllabic names followed.

Earning a living meant working in property. She was for many years a home search agent (like Phil and Kirstie without the cameras). Dealing with high net worth individuals and celebrities, she decided one fateful day, five years ago, that it was time for a change.

Encouraged by her loved ones, she did just that. Five years later – years of penury in her garret spent learning her craft, with not a celeb in sight (except for an odd dose of the Kardashians on telly), she is often found talking to herself with yellow ‘post its’ stuck to her forehead.

She likes to write about relationships: a married couple, a mother and child, siblings, best friends… She likes to peel away the layers and see what’s going on beneath and then tell you all about it.

I’m delighted to welcome Grace Lowrie to Linda’s Book Bag today and would like to thank Katrin Lloyd for inviting me to be part of this blog tour in celebration of Before We Fall.  When I saw the blurb for Before We Fall I just had to ask Grace what she might do if she found herself in a similar situation to her protagonist Cally and luckily Grace agreed to tell me.

Before We Fall is available for purchase here.

Before We Fall

When Cally, an amateur ballet dancer, is suddenly diagnosed with cancer she runs away from her boyfriend, her job in a call centre and her safe life in Wildham in order to experience ‘real’ life in London. Taking a job as a stripper and flat-sitting in the top of an office tower she meets her obnoxious neighbour Bay; a tattooed, drug-taking, suicidal artist, haunted by the death of those close to him.

Despite their differences, the two strike up a friendship – Bay pushes Cally to try new things while Cally provides Bay with a muse – and they fall in love. But their secrets threaten to tear them apart and time is running out…

If I Received a Death Sentence

A Guest Post by Grace Lowrie

At the start of Before We Fall Cally learns that she may not have long to live. She reacts by walking out on her mundane life in search of new and exciting experiences in London – with mixed results. Linda has kindly asked me what three things I would do with my remaining time if I received similar news…

Despite the fact that mortality is a natural part of living, it’s hard to truly imagine how I might feel if confronted with my own imminent death. On the whole I’m content with my life and certainly wouldn’t want to leave it prematurely, but if I no longer had to worry about running a business, getting my flat fixed up or saving for retirement, I’d probably do something fun and slightly-less-responsible to start with – get a couple of tattoos, dye my hair blue and go all-night clubbing for example.

The second thing I’d do is buy a plane ticket and go visit my dad overseas in whichever country he is currently residing – because he’s my dad and I don’t get to see him nearly enough. Indeed making time to spend with loved ones would be a definite priority for me, but potentially difficult with a strict time restraint.

So the third and biggest thing I’d do is this – blow my savings on a luxury holiday abroad for me and as many of my friends and family as possible. Somewhere exotic like Bora Bora with five star accommodation, fabulous views and beaches, gourmet food on tap and a large pool for the kids. It would be a challenge to organise but I love the idea of treating my nearest and dearest to a once-in-a-lifetime holiday before I check out.

What would you do?

(Well I’d definitely not have the tattoos – no point in putting myself through pain Grace. I do agree about the holiday though… brilliant idea!)

About Grace Lowrie

Having worked as a collage artist, sculptor, prop maker and garden designer, Grace has always been creative, but she is a romantic introvert at heart and writing was, and is, her first love.

A lover of rock music, art nouveau design, blue cheese and grumpy ginger tomcats, Grace is also an avid reader of fiction – preferring coffee and a sinister undercurrent, over tea and chick lit. When not making prop costumes or hanging out with her favourite nephews, she continues to write stories from her Hertfordshire home.

You can find out more about Grace by visiting her website and blog, finding her on Facebook, Instagram, following her on Twitter @gracelowrie1 and Goodreads or visiting her Amazon page.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Although I’ve only just come back from a pretty good trip, I’m already missing my travels so I’m delighted that Laine B Brown has agreed to stay in with me on Linda’s Book Bag and take me away through her book.

Staying in with Laine B Brown

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag Laine. Thanks so much for staying in with me. Which of your books have you brought along to share?

The book title is Finding Myself in Puglia.

What can we expect from an evening in with Finding Myself in Puglia?

It is a personal Italian memoir of my experiences of living in Puglia, in Italy.  A little-known region of Italy, in the heel of the boot,  which is more like Greece than Italy.  Seafood is the main dish of the day and is often eaten raw and drizzled with lemon.  Although I never got used to eating something that looked as though it could still be moving on my plate.

(I can sympathise with that. I had raw fish and seafood in Japan the other year and I wasn’t entirely convinced!)

Living in Italy I learnt to value silence, learnt to feel comfortable living and risked my life on the Italian roads.  I did this, because I felt I had to and because I wanted to realise a dream, realizzare un sogno… 

(I think we could all do with more silence in our lives Laine.)

What else have you brought along this evening and why have you brought it?

I’ve brought Aperol Spritz to share and green olives, also a large plate of antipasti of Italian cured meats and buratta cheese.

That looks delicious. And who are all these people you’ve brought along?

I’ve brought Norah Ephron, Bill Bryson, Tim Parks, Luigi Barzini (who wrote about the Italian in 1964 and nothing has changed) and Elizabeth Gilbert. It will be quite a party!

It certainly will! Bill Bryson would have us in fits of giggles I’m sure! Thanks so much for staying in with me, bringing lovely food and telling me all about Finding Myself in Puglia, Laine.

Finding Myself in Puglia

An Italian memoir.
Laine gave up her job as a nurse, sold her home and gave away most of her belongings. She has three desires bubbling at the heart of her choice: to write a book, paint a picture and climb a mountain before she died.

A man with a van took most of her remaining belongings, along with her basset hound Basil, down to the heel of Italy over 1,500 miles away, where she would spend the next four years.

If it all seemed like a folly, then she was willing to take the risk. She moved to a house that she had only spent a week in the year before. She knew no one and yet she had surety in her resolve. She wanted to feel fully present in feeling unsafe and comfortable with the not knowing.

And so the journey began, a new language, a new life laced with humour and laughter under the warm southern Italian sun.

Come and join her…

Finding Myself in Puglia is available for purchase here.

About Laine B Brown

Laine B Brown lives in Norfolk with her basset hound Basil and Italian cat, Munchkin. Laine spent four years living in the heel of Italy where she penned her personal memoir, Finding Myself in Puglia.

You can find out more by visiting Laine’s website, finding her on Facebook or following her on twitter @Lainebbrown.