Today sees one of those books I really wish I’d had time to read but unfortunately haven’t got round to, Blue Gold by David Barker. Thankfully, however, David has written a lovely guest post for Linda’s Book Bag on why he writes that I’m delighted to share with you today.

Blue Gold will be published by Urbane Publications on 11th May 2017 and is available for pre-order here or via the publisher here.

Blue Gold

The near future. Climate change and geopolitical tension have given rise to a new international threat – a world war for water. This most vital of resources has become a precious commodity and some will stop at nothing to control its flow.

When a satellite disappears over Iceland, Sim Atkins thinks he knows why. He is given the chance to join the hallowed Overseas Division and hunt for the terrorists responsible. But his new partner Freda Brightwell is aggrieved to be stuck with a rookie on such a deadly mission.

Freda’s misgivings are well founded when their first assignment ends in disaster – a bomb destroys a valuable airship and those responsible evade capture. Seeking redemption, the British agents follow the trail to a billionaires’ tax haven in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and uncover a web of deceit that threatens global war. Whom can they trust?

As the world edges ever closer to destruction Sim and Freda must put their lives on the line to prevent Armageddon – and protect the future of ‘blue gold’.

Why I Write

A Guest Post by David Barker

George Orwell wrote a short article in 1946, entitled, ‘Why I Write’. Apt to mention that, since he’s one of my reasons. Men of vision, like Orwell, HG Wells, Arthur C Clarke, who could seemingly predict the future and turn it into a gripping story inspired me from an early age. At the time, I didn’t even realise or think it odd that all those writers were male. I’m glad my daughter is growing up with so many women to inspire her.

The journey from there, to here – with my debut novel Blue Gold out this month – has been rather circuitous. Many people, including my family, were surprised to learn that there was a destination at all! But I’ve always enjoyed writing. Working as an economist in the city, I liked the challenge of making some analytical report clear, succinct and interesting just as much as I liked the analysis itself. When I got bored at the Bank of England, I contemplated a role in financial journalism. But then an offer that was too good to refuse came along and the shift towards more direct involvement in writing was postponed for another decade.

After my daughter was born, we re-discovered the joys of reading out loud to her. When she was old enough, she asked me to make up stories at bedtime. If that was good enough for Tolkien, it was certainly a good enough excuse for me to start writing fiction. Around the same time, I started to research the issue of water shortages more carefully. Two images got stuck in my head and I knew that I had the start and end of a novel.

What I didn’t realise was quite how much hard work and commitment it took to turn an idea into a 90,000-word story. Especially while holding down a full-time job. Coming home in the evenings, tired and surrounded by distractions, it can be very difficult to keep going. I did a good chunk of the first draft on the train during my commute.

And then I discovered that it’s even harder to write well. A good plot isn’t enough. On the Faber Academy How To Write A Novel course we all had to submit our work-in-progress to peer review. That can be a bruising experience, especially when you are making so many rookie errors like I was.

But none of this has put me off. I love trying to create something polished, something that will grip the reader’s attention. I don’t mind the editing process. Or the knowledge that I’ll have to start again from scratch for the next book. I’m already on draft three of the sequel to Blue Gold. (It’s called Rose Gold and should be available in May 2018). And I’ve even started to plot out the final instalment, White Gold.

I woke up at 3am just before Easter. I should have been thinking about the launch campaign for Blue Gold, or how to solve some of the sticking points in the current draft of Rose Gold. Instead I had the opening paragraph of a completely new story and a new voice inside my head. I didn’t ask it to be there. But I had to get up and put pen to paper (or at least put fingers on a keyboard) while it was fresh in my mind.

That’s why I write. Because my mind conjures up people that want to live and places that ought to be seen. The best way I can serve their needs is if I put them into a book and set it loose upon the world. Whether the world is interested in me and my imagination, we’ll just have to wait and see…

About David Barker

David was born in Cheshire but now lives in Berkshire. He is married to an author of children’s picture books, with a daughter who loves stories. His working life has been spent in the City, first for the Bank of England and now as Chief Economist for an international fund. So his job entails trying to predict the future all the time. David’s writing ambitions received a major boost after he attended the Faber Academy six-month course in 2014 and he still meets up with his inspirational fellow students. He loves reading, especially adventure stories, sci-fi and military history. Outside of family life, his other interests include tennis, golf and surfing.

You can follow David on Twitter and find out more about him on his website.

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It feels very strange to me that I haven’t had chance to read Karen King yet as I feel as if I’ve known her vicariously for years! I conducted a mini-interview with Karen that you can read here.

I’m delighted to welcome back Karen onto Linda’s Book Bag today to help celebrate her young adult book Perfect Summer. Perfect Summer is published by Accent Press and is available for purchase here.

Karen has kindly agreed to provide a little insight into Perfect Summer by interviewing the heroine of the book, Morgan.

Perfect Summer

Set in a society obsessed with perfection, 15 year old Morgan is best friends with the seemingly perfect Summer. But when Morgan’s brother, Josh, who has Down’s syndrome, is kidnapped, they uncover a sinister plot and find themselves in terrible danger.

Can they find Josh before it’s too late? And is Summer’s life as perfect as it seems?

Interviewing Morgan

A Guest Post by Karen King

Perfect Summer is set in the future about thirty years from now. The heroine of Perfect Summer is 15-year-old Morgan Taylor. Let’s find out a bit more about her.

Q: Everyone is pretty much obsessed with how they look and striving to be as beautiful as they can. How did you feel about that?
Morgan: I never really thought about it, it’s just the way it was. I was actually looking forward to being 16 so I could have some PP (Physical Perfection) surgery.

Q: Your family was put under a lot of pressure when Josh was born. How did that make you feel? Did you ever wish your parents would put him in care?
Morgan: I loved Josh as soon as I saw him, we all did. But I’m really ashamed to admit that I resented him sometimes. I got bullied a lot at school because of him, and that was really hard. But no, I never wanted to send him away. I really love him.

Q: Having a rich, cool friend like Summer must be really hard for you. Did you ever resent her?
Morgan: Yes, lots! I couldn’t help it, she had everything – looks, money, cool parents – the lot! Or so I thought. She was a good friend though, and was always there for me. I felt really sorry for her how everything turned out.

Q: How did you feel when you discovered how many disabled children had been kidnapped and why?
Morgan: Sick. Angry. And desperate to save my little brother.

Q: You, Summer and Jamie risked your lives to find Josh. Especially you and Jamie. Were you ever scared?
Morgan: Terrified! But what could I do? I had to find Josh and the LEF weren’t bothering.

Q: Talking about Jamie, do you fancy him?
Morgan: You bet. He’s really cool. I thought he was a bit geeky at first but he risked everything for us. He’s fantastic.

Q: Do you think your terrible experience has changed you?
Morgan: Definitely. I’ll never be jealous of anyone again. I realise how important my family is. And I’m tougher too, stronger inside. I was lucky. I’ve looked death in the face and survived. Others didn’t.

About Karen King

Karen King is the author of over 120 children’s books and has had two YA’s published, Perfect Summer and Sapphire Blue. Perfect Summer was runner up in the Red Telephone Books YA novel competition in 2011 and has just been republished by Accent Press.

Karen is also the author of two romance novels, and has been contracted for three chick lit novels by Accent Press. The first, I do?… or do I? was published in 2016 and the second, The Cornish Hotel by the Sea, is due out in the Summer. In addition, Karen has written several short stories for women’s magazine and worked for many years on children’s magazines such as Thomas the Tank Engine and Winnie the Pooh as well as the iconic Jackie magazine.

When she isn’t writing, Karen likes travelling, watching the ‘soaps’ and reading. Give her a good book and a box of chocolates and she thinks she’s in Heaven.

You can find more about Karen on her website, on Pinterest, Instagram and by following her on Twitter. Karen has a Facebook page for her children’s fiction here and one for her romances here.

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I’m delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for Clare Fisher’s debut novel All the Good Things.

All the Good Things will be published by Viking, Penguin on 1st June 2017 and is available for purchase here.

All the Good Things

What if you did a very bad thing… but that wasn’t the end of the story?

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn’t deserve ever to feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won’t give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life.

So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby’s head.

But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone – even a 100% bad person – deserve a chance to be good?

My Review of All the Good Things

Beth has done something dreadful and part of her prison therapy is to write lists of good things.

What a touching and scary read All the Good Things is. It’s touching because we see right into the very soul of dysfunctional and mentally ill Beth and her mother. It’s scary because what happens to them and the crime Beth has committed could actually happen to any one of us. I thought the dropping of the ‘any’ part of Bethany’s name highlighted this possibility. Her faults, her challenges, her triumphs and disasters are a hair’s breadth away for any one of us.

All the Good Things has a really clever structure. Within each of the list elements Beth writes is woven her back story, her childhood and what makes her who she is. Clare Fisher makes the reader confront Beth’s issues with her and understand that anyone we might judge in society, such as a woman in prison, is a real person with genuine struggles of their own. Beth is flawed, complex, intelligent and a complete disaster. The first person narrative with its breezy and realistic tone makes the story all the more real. I loved the way the text physically breaks down in structure at the end to reflect the actions happening in the story. The only element I was less keen on was some of the language in the reports in the file Beth reads. However, I think that might be because reading it made me feel quite uncomfortable.

I’m not sure All the Good Things is a book to enjoy as it paints at times a quite bleak view of the world, but it does have hope and optimism too and is a story that penetrates the soul of the reader. It is a book that educates and touches the reader so that I know it will resonate in my mind for a very long time. In hearing about Beth I was reminded of some of the students I have taught in the past and I know just how realistic her tale is. Life can be brutal, devastating and challenging and Clare Fisher presents Beth’s version of it with compassion and humanity. This is hugely affecting writing. Outstanding.

About Clare Fisher

Clare Fisher was born in Tooting, south London in 1987. After accidentally getting obsessed with writing fiction when she should have been studying for a BA in History at the University of Oxford, Clare completed an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London. An avid observer of the diverse area of south London in which she grew up, Clare’s writing is inspired by her long-standing interest in social exclusion and the particular ways in which it affects vulnerable women and girls. All The Good Things is her first novel.

You can follow Clare on Twitter and visit her website.

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I’m thrilled to be staring the launch celebrations for Abi’s Neighbour by Jenny Kane today. Abi’s Neighbour is the standalone sequel to Abi’s House and was published by Accent Press in e-book and paperback on 4th May 2017. Abi’s Neighbour is available for purchase here in the UK and here in the US.

To celebrate, Jenny Kane has kindly written a guest post for Linda’s Book Bag all about having a split personality!

Abi’s Neighbour

Abi Carter has finally found happiness. Living in her perfect tin miner’s cottage, she has good friends and a gorgeous boyfriend, Max. Life is good. But all that’s about to change when a new neighbour moves in next door.

Cassandra Henley-Pinkerton represents everything Abi thought she’d escaped when she left London. Obnoxious and stuck-up, Cassandra hates living in Cornwall. Worst of all, it looks like she has her sights set on Max.

But Cassandra has problems of her own. Not only is her wealthy married lawyer putting off joining her in their Cornish love nest, but now someone seems intent on sabotaging her business.

Will Cassandra mellow enough to turn to Abi for help – or are they destined never to get along?

Complete with sun, sea and a gorgeous Cornwall setting, Abi’s Neighbour is the PERFECT summer escape.

A Split Personality in Cornwall

A Guest Post by Jenny Kane

It’s the first day of my Abi’s Neighbour blog tour! Many thanks to Linda for hosting me.

Set in the stunning Penwith area of Cornwall, Abi’s Neighbour, is the sequel to my bestselling novel Abi’s House. (Although it can be read as a standalone story).

As you can tell from the above blurb, Abi’s Neighbour falls into the both the contemporary fiction/ romance genres. As a consequence it was written under my ‘women’s fiction’ pen name, Jenny Kane.

I have three pen names and a different personality to go with each of them. You could say that my personality isn’t so much split as shredded.

My writing career began back in 2007 as Kay Jaybee; an erotica author who is very much braver than I am! She is wonderful in those situations in which I’m too shy to deal with. My inner Kay has come in very useful over the years. She is far more confident than I am- and has a very cheeky smile!

I am also Jennifer Ash; a medieval mystery/crime writer. My most recent incarnation, Jennifer is more like the real me than Kay. Jennifer has the personality I used to draw upon when I tutored undergraduates in the medieval economy and crime, at the University of Leicester, back in the 1990’s. I was always so nervous before a class that I invented the character, now named Jennifer Ash, to help me pretend that I wasn’t worried about the students knowing more about the subject than I did!

And then there is Jenny! Jenny Kane came into existence with the publication of Another Cup of Coffee (the first in my Another Cup of… series), in 2015. I needed a pen name with no connections to my previous erotica work, as often the two readerships are quite separate reader types with very different tastes. (Although not always).

I wanted to keep the initials of KJ as they had worked so well for me as Kay. It was my daughter who suggested swapping them round to JK. Once she said that she liked the name Jenny, we played with a few surnames that sounded good alongside it, and within half an hour, I was Jenny Kane.

Jenny Kane is the name I’m known by the most. In fact, about three quarters of the people in the town in which I live call me Jenny, and have no idea it isn’t really my name. I rather like it. It means I can be one person at work – when I’m sat in the corner of the coffee shop where I write every day- and someone else at home.

My writer friend, Jeremy Edwards, once likened me to Clark Kent. He said it was as if, on my walk to work each day, I went into a metaphorical telephone box, and came out- not as Superman- but as whichever author I was being that day.

I have a strict writing regime to prevent me from getting into the wrong mindset. Jenny and Jennifer take it in turns to exist, depending on the novel I’m writing. At the moment I am clearly Jenny Kane, as I am busy promoting Abi’s Neighbour. However, once May comes to an end, I’ll be Jennifer Ash, as my next medieval mystery, The Winter Outlaw, will need an edit before it comes out at the end of 2017. (That means that Jenny’s jeans and trainers will be replaced by Jennifer’s jeans and ankle boots!)

On Wednesday’s however, I am Kay. On that day, affectionately known as Wicked Wednesday, I dress a little differently (skirts not jeans, knee high boots not trainers); my shoulders will be pushed further back, and the words I write will not be suitable for discussing in the playground!

As Jenny Kane, I’d like to thank you for dropping by this leg of my Abi’s Neighbour blog tour today!

As Max Pendale from my Cornish novels would say, I’m suffering from a Cornish split personality- wise! Knowing Max, he would probably then go on to tell you precisely what a Cornish split is, and how it led to the birth of the Cornish Cream Tea…if you want to find out about that, then you need to read Abi’s Neighbour.

Jenny xxx

About Jenny Kane

Jenny Kane is the author of the full length romance novels Abi’s Neighbour, (Accent Press, 2017),  Another Glass of Champagne (Accent Press, 2016),  Abi’s House (Accent Press, 2015), the contemporary romance/medieval crime time slip novel Romancing Robin Hood (Accent Press, 2014), the best selling contemporary romance novel Another Cup of Coffee (Accent Press, 2013), and its novella length sequels Another Cup of Christmas (Accent Press, 2013), Christmas in the Cotswolds (Accent, 2014), and Christmas at the Castle (Accent Press, 2015).

Jenny also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee and historical crime as Jennifer Ash.

You can follow Jenny on Twitter, visit her blog and find her on Facebook. Jenny is also on Goodreads and you can find all Jenny’s books for purchase here.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

 

Having had the pleasure of hosting a guest blog from Angela Clarke earlier this year all about growing characters that you can read here, I’m delighted to be helping reveal her latest book Trust Me.

Trust Me, the third book in Angela’s social media thriller series, will be released by Avon Books on 15th June and is available for pre-order here.

Trust Me

YOU SAW IT HAPPEN. DIDN’T YOU?

What do you do if you witness a crime…but no-one believes you?

When Kate sees a horrific attack streamed live on her laptop, she calls the police in a state of shock. But when they arrive, the video has disappeared – and she can’t prove anything. Desperate to be believed, Kate tries to find out who the girl in the video could be – and who attacked her.

Freddie and Nas are working on a missing persons case, but the trail has gone cold. When Kate contacts them, they are the only ones to listen and they start to wonder – are the two cases connected?

Dark, gripping, and flawlessly paced, Trust Me is the brilliant third novel in the hugely popular social media murderer series.

About Angela Clarke

Angela Clarke is an author, columnist and playwright. Her debut crime novel Follow Me was the first in the Social Media Murders Series.

Her memoir Confessions of a Fashionista (Ebury) is an Amazon Fashion Chart bestseller. Her debut play The Legacy received rave reviews after it’s first run at The Hope Theatre in June 2015. Angela’s journalist contributions include: The Guardian, The Independent Magazine, The Daily Mail, and Cosmopolitan. Now magazine described her as a ‘glitzy outsider’. Angela read English and European Literature at Essex University, and Advances in Scriptwriting at RADA. In 2015 Angela was awarded the Young Stationers’ Prize for achievement and promise in writing and publishing.

She is almost always late or lost, or both.

You can follow Angela on Twitter, find her on Facebook.

It’s always a joy when T.A. Williams has a new book out and so when Faye Rogers asked if I’d like to be part of the launch celebrations for Trevor’s latest story, Dreaming of Venice, I jumped at the chance. T.A Williams has featured on Linda’s Book Bag several times, most recently with my review of Chasing Shadows that you can read here.

Dreaming of Venice was published in e-book by Canelo on 24th April 2017 and is available for purchase here.

Dreaming of Venice

Find love, friendship and prosecco – in the magical city of Venice

Life is tough for Penny. A dead end job in a London café, a boyfriend in Australia (what could go wrong?) and an art career going nowhere. But then Penny is approached with an extraordinary proposition.

It isn’t going to be easy but, if she can pull it off, she will turn her life around and at long last see the fulfilment of her dream – to visit Venice. And, just maybe, find true happiness with the handsome man of her dreams.

But can dreams come true?

My Review of Dreaming of Venice

Penny lives in a room in a rat infested house and life is not treating her well. An act of bravery leads to a different set of experiences altogether.

I don’t know if it is because I’d just read a couple of very intense books when I picked up Dreaming of Venice, but it was the perfect read for me, feeling akin to eating a refreshing sorbet after a heavy meal. Unashamedly women’s fiction, Dreaming of Venice has an assured touch that transports the reader away from the cares of the world into the lives of Penny, Caroline and Olivia in a hugely satisfying way.

Admittedly, one has to suspend disbelief at the underlying premise (but I don’t want to explain more for fear of ruining part of the plot), but I had no difficulty in doing that and found myself relaxing into a gorgeous narrative that had me entirely entertained. I found the writing flowed effortlessly and thoroughly enjoyed the naturalistic dialogue and the smattering of Italian too which served to add credibility to the story.

What also appealed to me alongside the expected love elements of such a genre was the description and quality of the art and of setting, especially in Venice. I wanted to go and look up some of the paintings mentioned so that I was having the same experiences s the characters and I found myself completely transported to Venice making me want to return immediately.

The themes T.A. Williams explores are deftly handled. In Dreaming of Venice there is much about identity and how we judge others by appearance, and as well as love we find grief, friendship and family relationships so that there is depth as well as entertainment.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dreaming of Venice and cannot recommend it highly enough to those wanting a smashing escapist read. It’s just lovely.

About T. A. Williams

My name is Trevor Williams. I write under the androgynous name T A Williams because 65% of books are read by women. In my first book, “Dirty Minds” one of the (female) characters suggests the imbalance is due to the fact that men spend too much time getting drunk and watching football. I couldn’t possibly comment. Ask my wife…

My background, before taking up writing full time, was in teaching and I was principal of a big English language school for many years. This involved me in travelling all over the world and my love of foreign parts is easy to find in my books. I speak a few languages and my Italian wife and I still speak Italian together.

I’ve written all sorts: thrillers, historical novels, short stories and now I’m enjoying myself hugely writing humour and romance. My most recent books are the What happens… series. What happens in Tuscany reached #1 in the Amazon.uk Romantic Comedy chart and What Happens on the Beach, the last in the series, came out in July 2016. Chasing Shadows is still romance, but with the added spice of a liberal helping of medieval history, one of my pet hobbies. I do a lot of cycling and I rode all the way to Santiago de Compostela on a bike a few years back. This provided both the inspiration and the background research for Chasing Shadows.

I’m originally from Exeter, and I’ve lived all over Europe, but now I live in a little village in sleepy Devon, tucked away down here in south west England. I love the place.

You can find Trevor on Facebook, Goodreads and Amazon. You can also follow him on Twitter and visit his website.

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Sometimes there is an author whose books you know you’ll love but you haven’t yet had chance to read. Elaine Everest is one such writer and I’m delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for her latest book The Butlins Girls with an extract to share with you today as at last I get to read something from Elaine!

Published by Pan MacMillan on 4th May 2017, The Butlins Girls is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

The Butlins Girls

A warm and comforting read, set against the nation’s favourite holiday camp, from bestselling author of The Woolworths Girls

Molly Missons hasn’t had the best of times recently. Having lost her parents, now some dubious long-lost family have darkened her door – attempting to steal her home and livelihood…

After a horrendous ordeal, Molly applies for a job as a Butlin’s Aunty. When she receives news that she has got the job, she immediately leaves her small home town – in search of a new life in Skegness.

Molly finds true friendship in Freda, Bunty and Plum. But the biggest shock is discovering that star of the silver screen, Johnny Johnson, is working at Butlin’s as head of the entertainment team. Johnny takes an instant liking to Molly and she begins to shed the shackles of her recent traumas. Will Johnny be just the distraction Molly needs – or is he too good be to be true?

An Extract from The Butlins Girls

Prologue

Molly Missons gazed around in awe. So this was Butlins. Whitewashed buildings, bordered by rhododendrons, gave a cheerful feeling to a world still recovering from six years of war. The Skegness holiday camp covered a vast area, much larger than Molly had expected.

If it were not for a helpful bus conductor, she’d have alighted far too early, when first spotting row upon row of flags fluttering in the early May sunshine. As it was, the bus followed the boundaries of the camp and pulled up at the visitor entrance. The conductor helped her from the vehicle, passing her suitcase down from the steep step. With a cheery call of ‘Hi-de-hi!’, he waved goodbye.

Up ahead, she could see a long white building with the words ‘Our true intent is all for your delight’ embla­zoned on the front wall for everyone to view. She thought it was a genuine welcome. Neat borders of shrubs and what looked like a children’s play area were extremely inviting to this first-time visitor. What was missing were people. She couldn’t see a single one. Molly knew the start of the holiday season was still days away, but surely there should be staff around the place? She pulled a letter from her coat pocket and checked the words. Yes, she had arrived on the right day, albeit several hours early. Such were the trains from Kent that if she’d caught the only other train from her connection in London to Lincoln­shire, Molly would have arrived two hours late for her new job and not made a good impression.

But where was she to go? Molly chewed her lip and looked around in bewilderment, hoping someone would come to her rescue.

‘You look lost, m’dear,’ a gruff voice called out from behind her.

She jumped, not expecting her wishes to be answered so soon. Spinning round, Molly spotted an elderly man peering through a hatch in the window of a military-style gatehouse at the side of the road.

‘Yes, I am a little,’ she called back. ‘I know I’m in the right place, but I have no idea where to go or what to do next.’ Molly felt her chin wobble slightly. It had been a long journey into the unknown. If only she was at home once more, chatting with her mum in the kitchen while they prepared the evening meal. Sadly, that was never going to happen, however much she wished. It was a foolhardy idea to come to Butlins. It had been her best friend, Freda, who’d suggested applying for a job at the newly opened holiday camp. Despite fighting it back, a tear splashed onto her cheek.

‘There, there, missy – there’s no need for tears. Just you get yourself in here and I’ll sort things out for you or my name’s not Spud Jenkins. You can leave your suit­case out there. It won’t come to any trouble.’

Molly sat on the wooden chair Spud nudged towards her. ‘I’m so sorry. It’s been a long journey. I’m just tired. Once I know where I have to report, I’m sure I’ll feel better.’

Spud watched her thoughtfully as he struck a match over a single gas ring, which came to life with a loud pop. Shaking a battered kettle to check it contained enough water, he placed it onto the now flickering flame. ‘I take it this is your first visit to Butlins?’

Molly nodded as she took a handkerchief from her handbag and wiped her eyes. ‘Yes, it is. You must think I’m so silly.’

‘Not for one minute. You’d be surprised how many times I’ve been a shoulder to cry on. Boyfriend troubles, homesickness . . . I’ve heard it all in here.’

About Elaine Everest

Elaine Everest lives in Kent and is the author of bestseller, The Woolworth Girls. She has written widely for various women’s magazines and when she isn’t writing, she runs The Write Place creative writing school in Dartford, Kent, and the blog for the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

You can follow Elaine on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

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I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Rachael English, author of The American Girl, to Linda’s Book Bag today. I loved The American Girl and you can read my review here.

Today, Rachael has kindly agreed to write about the ordinary kind of people she features in her writing – and I can tell you, they are at the heart of what she writes about so brilliantly. I’m also thrilled that Rachael has kindly allowed me to offer two signed paperback copies of The American Girl in a giveaway. To enter, click on the link at the bottom of this blog post.

The American Girl is available now in e-book and for paperback pre-order here.

The American Girl

Boston 1968. Rose Moroney is seventeen, smart, spirited – and pregnant. She wants to marry her boyfriend. Her ambitious parents have other plans. She is sent to Ireland, their birthplace, to deliver her daughter in a Mother and Baby home – and part with her against her will.

Dublin 2013. Martha Sheeran’s life has come undone. Her marriage is over, and her husband has moved on with unsettling speed. Under pressure from her teenage daughter, she starts looking for the woman who gave her up for adoption more than forty years before.

As her search leads her to the heart of long-buried family secrets, old flame Paudie Carmody – now a well-known broadcaster – re-enters the frame.

From Boston to rural Ireland; from Dublin back to Boston, The American Girl is a heart-warming and enthralling story of mothers and daughters, love and cruelty and, ultimately, the embrace of new horizons.

In Praise of Ordinary People

A Guest Post by Rachael English

Like most writers, I also have a day job, and in the radio newsroom where I work, a listener’s letter spent several years hanging on the wall. Addressing the station’s presenters, he wrote, Who are these ordinary people you keep speaking about? I’m not ordinary, and neither is anybody I know.

The listener had a point, and the letter’s contents have stayed with me. I was reminded of it recently when I read the back of a new book. The blurb boasted of ‘the nastiest serial killer ever’ or something to that effect. Now most of us relish a good fictional murder hunt, but it occurred to me that the characters I find most fascinating aren’t the obvious extremes. As a reader, I like flawed but authentic-feeling characters. The sort of characters who manage to be familiar yet surprising. They’re the people who display great kindness but are also capable of unthinking cruelty; whose lives appear mundane but whose heads are overflowing with longing and regret; who strive and stumble and keep on going. They can be of an era or any place. They can be in Anne Tyler’s Baltimore or Maeve Binchy’s Dublin.

As a writer, these are the characters whose stories I like to tell. In The American Girl, the protagonists are deceptively straightforward. Rose has lived a steady middle class life in Boston. And yet, as she says herself, there are times ‘when sadness hovers over her, like birds over landfill; when she believes she might be overwhelmed by darkness; when her head goes places where others can’t follow.’ What even her children don’t know is that, as a teenager, Rose became pregnant. She was sent to Ireland and forced to hand over her baby daughter for adoption. That daughter, Martha, grows up knowing nothing about her background. She claims this doesn’t bother her but privately she feels incomplete. She too has secrets. They gnaw away at her until she’s forced to confront the truth.

A couple of years back I was listening to a radio programme about the brain. In many ways it was quite a technical discussion, but one line stayed with me. I’m paraphrasing here, but the interviewee said something along the lines of, ‘Every time a person dies, an unknown world disappears.’ When I’m writing, I think about this. In The American Girl, Martha has to grapple with some uncomfortable truths. This makes her wonder what other people are hiding.

‘On her journey, Martha passed street after street of pristine red brick, gleaming doors and well-tamed hedges. How conventional everything appeared. How mundane. And yet . . . who was to say what people were doing behind those glossy doors? They could be sitting around the dinner table like a Dublin incarnation of the Waltons or they could be passed out drunk on the kitchen floor. Her dad used to say you should be nice to people because you didn’t know how they were suffering. But it wasn’t just their troubles you didn’t know. You knew nothing of their joys either; their ambitions or desires; their capacity to inflict pain or their ability to lie. Lives that appeared small might be immense. Lives dismissed as uneventful might be brimming with intrigue or emotion.’

I like to think that in her own way Martha is acknowledging what the letter writer said: there are no ordinary people.

(And I can vouch for the fact that the characters in The American Girl are no ordinary people Rachael! Thanks so much for agreeing to write about ordinary folk.)

About Rachael English

Rachael English is the author of three novels: Going Back which was shortlisted for the most-promising newcomer award at the 2013 Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards, Each and Every One which like Going Back was a top five bestseller in Ireland, and, The American Girl.

Like many authors, Rachael also has a day job and is a presenter on Ireland’s most popular radio programme, Morning Ireland.

You can follow Rachael on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

Giveaway

For your chance to enter to win one of two fabulous signed paperback copies of The American Girl click here. Open internationally. Giveaway closes UK midnight on Thursday 11th May. Good luck!

I’m just thrilled to be part of the launch celebrations for Tracy Rees’s latest novel, The Hourglass, as I adore her writing. You’ll find my review of Amy Snow here and of Florence Grace here. I also have a wonderful guest post from Tracy about the appeal of writing about the C19th in her first two novels that you can read here.

The Hourglass is published by Quercus today, 4th May 2017, and is available in e-book and paperback here.

The Hourglass

2014. Nora has always taken success for granted, until suddenly her life begins to fall apart. Troubled by anxiety and nightmares, she finds herself drawn to the sweeping beaches of Tenby, a place she’s only been once before. Together with a local girl she rents a beautiful townhouse and slowly begins to settle in to her new life. But Tenby hides a secret, and Nora will soon discover that this little town by the sea has the power to heal even the most painful memories.

1950. Chloe visits Tenby every summer. She stays with relatives, and spends the long, idyllic days on the beach. Every year is the same, until she meets a glamorous older boy and is instantly smitten. But on the night of their first date, Chloe comes to a realisation, the aftermath of which could haunt her forever.

The Hourglass is a moving novel about finding love even after it seems too late and the healing power of a magical place by the sea.

My Review of The Hourglass

Nora is unhappy with her life. When a vision of a beach invades her mind she knows it’s time for a change, but little does she realise quite what fate has in store for her.

When you have so loved an author’s writing and they move into a new era, there’s always a slight trepidation, but Tracy Rees writes with such emotion and honesty that it wouldn’t matter when she set her novels. Each is a delight to read. Set in two converging time frames of the 1950s and 2014, the narrative of The Hourglass evokes those times so perfectly.

Once again I found myself drawn in to Tracy Rees’s wonderful story telling so that I set aside daily life until I’d devoured every word. She has such an eye for the incidental details that brings alive a text that I always feel I am in the story with her characters. This time, I was so enchanted by the idea of Tenby, a town so well depicted that it is a living character and not just a place in The Hourglass, that I have been researching places to stay there! I was with Chloe and Llew on the beach, looking for coins between the cracks in the pavement and chasing rainbows as if I had been transformed into Chloe herself.

I’m not sure quite what it is about Tracy Ress’s writing that I enjoy so much. Yes, she writes perfectly natural dialogue; yes, she can convey character and setting brilliantly; yes, she researches time and place meticulously, but I think it’s her ability to convey effortlessly exactly how we are built and affected as human beings. When I read her stories I understand completely why her characters behave as they do and I am desperate for their lives to be happy ones. I found tears streaming down my cheeks at times reading The Hourglass and felt almost a physical ache in my heart because the nostalgia and melancholy -the Welsh hiraeth – that underpins the story is so powerful.

The interplay of relationships is just beautifully depicted in The Hourglass. Chloe’s desperation to grow up and be accepted by those around her, Nora’s need for her mother’s understanding and Llew’s outsider status are utterly, utterly believable and compelling. There’s a real sense of how we never really fully know those around us. More importantly, it takes us a long time to really know ourselves. I adored this exploration and it isn’t an exaggeration to say that reading The Hourglass made me look closely at my own life and how I feel too.

I was completely charmed, entertained and moved by The Hourglass. Once again, Tracy Rees has produced a book to mark a reader’s heart and mind. I loved it.

About Tracy Rees

Tracy Rees has been called “the most outstanding new voice in historical fiction” by Lucinda Riley and her books are paperback and kindle bestsellers. She was the winner of the Richard and Judy ‘Search for a Bestseller’ Competition. A Cambridge graduate, she had a successful eight-year career in nonfiction publishing and a second career practising and teaching humanistic counselling before becoming a writer. She lives in Wales.

You can follow Tracy on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I’m delighted to be celebrating the publication today, 4th May 2017, of French Kisses and A London Affair by Jan Ellis with a giveaway from the author and publisher, Waverley. To enter you just need to click the link at the bottom of this blog post.

You can read my review of Jan’s lovely novella French Kisses here, and I’m thrilled to be quoted on the cover for its new release with A London Affair.

Jan has previously featured on Linda’s Book Bag with a guest post about first editions that you can read here.

French Kisses and A London Affair is available for purchase here.

French Kisses and A London Affair

French Kisses

To the outside world, Rachel Thompson has it made: a wealthy husband, a successful career as an artist, and a to-die-for house in the middle of rural France.

That is until her husband Michael hits 40, discovers his inner love-rat and runs off with the kids’ young, skinny dance teacher.

Determined to ignore her friends’ advice to up-sticks and move back to England with her children, Rachel decides to turn their crumbly stone farmhouse into a bijou hotel.

Although Rachel is getting plenty of attention from local admirers, her husband Michael is never far away…

Will Rachel and Michael rekindle their love affair?

Or will she be sharing French Kisses with someone else…?

French Kisses is a fun romance about starting again and learning what really matters.

A London Affair

Turning her back on university, Kate hopes to find an exciting opportunity that will take her away from wellies and wet sheep in the English countryside to the glitz and glamour of London.

However, after a year selling chutney on a chilly market stall, the prospects for a glittering career in the capital are looking increasingly unlikely.

All that changes when Ned, the intriguing buyer from a smart London deli, brings a welcome chance to follow her dream, and Kate finally embarks on a new chapter, leaving behind rural life and ex-boyfriend, Steve, in exchange for six months in the hectic café scene…

A funny and heart-warming contemporary romance, A London Affair will strike a chord with anyone who has ever daydreamed about choosing an unconventional career path, or who simply enjoys cheese and fine delis…

About Jan Ellis

Jan’s background is in non-fiction publishing and An Unexpected Affair was the first fiction she had written since the age of about seven. Fortunately people enjoyed it, so Jan wrote A Summer of Surprises, which continues the adventures of her bookselling heroine, Eleanor Mace. Now these novellas are available to enjoy in one luscious, paperback volume! Jan is also thrilled to present a brand-new title – The Bookshop Detective – in which Eleanor ends up doing some sleuthing from her quiet corner of rural England.

You can find out more about Jan Ellis by following her on Twitter, and by finding her on Facebook or visiting her website.

Giveaway

For your chance to win a paperback copy of French Kisses and A London Affair by Jan Ellis, click here. Giveaway closes at UK midnight on Wednesday 10th May 2017. Open internationally.