I’m delighted to be supporting Brook Cottage Books in bringing you the first in the Dancing for the Devil Trilogy series, The Dream Catcher, by Marie Laval. This historical romance was released on 28th December 2015 by Accent Press and is available from AMAZON UK and AMAZON US.

Not only do I have an interview with Marie, but you have the chance to enter to win a paperback copy of The Dream Catcher at the bottom of this blog post.

The Dream Catcher

Can her love heal his haunted heart? – Cape Wrath, Scotland, November 1847.

Bruce McGunn is a man as brutal and unforgiving as his land. Discharged from the army, he is haunted by the spectres of his fallen comrades and convinced he is going mad. And he is running out of time to save his estate from the machinations of Cameron McRae, heir to the McGunn’s ancestral enemies. When the clipper carrying McRae’s new bride is caught in a violent storm and docks at Wrath harbour, Bruce decides to revert to the old ways and hold the clipper and the woman to ransom. However, far from the spoilt heiress he expected, Rose is genuine, funny and vulnerable – a ray of sunshine in the long, harsh winter that has become his life.

Rose is determined to escape Wrath and its proud master – the man she calls McGlum.
Will she be reunited with Cameron McRae, the dazzlingly handsome aristocrat she married after a whirlwind romance in Algiers, or will she risk her heart and her honour to help Bruce discover the truth about his past and solve the brutal murders committed on his land?

An Interview With Marie Laval

Hello Marie. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing.

You are very welcome, Linda. I am delighted to be here!

Firstly, please could you tell readers a little about yourself?

I am French but have been living in the north of England for a long time now – long enough to have got used to the rain (but not long enough to have lost my terrible French accent)! I was brought up in a small village near the beautiful city of Lyon and I try to go back every year to visit my sisters and my friends. I teach modern foreign languages (French and German), I have three children – two boys and a girl – who are growing up very fast, and I love dreaming up irresistible heroes and romantic stories in my spare time. One word about my heroes…they are usually French but for the DANCING FOR THE DEVIL Trilogy, I have chosen a very Scottish hero – Bruce McGunn!

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

I suppose I always knew I wanted to write. When I was a teenager I scribbled down plays, short stories and very, very bad poetry. I used to make up stories before going to sleep which would be just like films in my mind, and the following morning I would write it all down.

If you hadn’t become an author, what would you have done instead as a creative outlet?

I’m not sure, to be honest. I don’t have artistic many talents, unfortunately. I enjoyed playing the piano when I was younger, and I used to do some cross-stitching when I was expecting my three children! That’s about it.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

That’s a very difficult question. No story is the same for me and they have all caused me different kinds of thrills and headaches – or heartaches. I suppose that being French and writing in English I always have to make sure that what I write makes sense and that I haven’t just invented words! Also I don’t plot very much at all so I sometimes get stuck in a dead end and have to backtrack and delete characters and plot lines.

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

I don’t really have a writing routine. As I work full-time and have a family I have to fit in my writing whenever I can. Having said that, I do try and do something ‘book related’ every single day even if it’s editing, writing a few hundred words, or again doing some research. I feel it’s essential to stay in touch with my characters.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I read romance, lots and lots of it. But as I have very eclectic tastes, I also like non-fiction, such as biographies, and travel guides which are great for researching settings of future stories.

Do you have other interests that give you ideas for writing?

I love walking in the hills near my house at the weekend and even if I only manage an hour at a time I always come back with at least one or two fresh ideas or lines of dialogue for my work in progress. It’s really wonderful how inspiring being alone in the countryside can be.

Which of your characters would you most like to be and why?

All my heroines! They are all very different but all very strong and determined.

If  one of your books  became a film, which would you choose and why?  

I always thought that THE LION’S EMBRACE would make a wonderful film. I know I’m not at all objective here, but I think it has everything – love and passion, adventure and mystery, treasures and deceit, and of course the breathtaking scenery of the Sahara desert. My contemporary romantic suspense set in France, A SPELL IN PROVENCE, would make a darker, more mysterious film.

What made you choose Scotland as the main setting for The Dream Catcher?

I have a confession to make, Linda. I wanted to write a novel set in Scotland for a long time because it is such a beautiful and romantic country, but I didn’t really know where exactly I should set my story. So I bought a map of Scotland, spread it out on the carpet and looked for inspiring names, and then I saw it: Cape Wrath, in the far north of the country. That was it! I just couldn’t resist. My hero had to live there, and be just as wild and brooding as the name.

The Dream Catcher is set in 1847. How did you carry out the research to ensure the time period was authentic?

I read a lot of different articles about the clearances, biographies, books about life at the time, including folklore and legends…I researched common sayings and dialects, and watched lots of documentaries about Scotland, and Sutherland in particular. As usual, researching for the novel was wonderful.

What techniques did you use in The Dream Catcher to make sure the story appealed to a modern audience whilst being true to the mid 1800s?

That’s a very difficult question, Linda. I don’t really think about techniques when I write, so I do hope a modern audience will enjoy the story!

In The Dream Catcher, Bruce Mc Gunn is suffering from what we would now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Why did you choose to use such an emotive aspect as part of your characterisation?

I wanted Bruce McGunn to be haunted by his life in the army and tormented by some of the decisions he had taken which had caused his men’s death. He was a very proud man who believed himself invincible during the military campaigns in the Punjab – hence the tattoo on he had engraved on his chest with the word ‘Ahankar’, which means ‘pride’ or ‘excessive ego’ in Gurmukhi, and which is the worst of the Five Evils in Sikh beliefs. He is plagued by guilt and nightmares which are partially imputable to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (but I don’t want to reveal too much…). We are now very aware of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but it wasn’t something that was identified, and named as such, until quite recently – the 1980s, I believe. However many heroes in literature appear to suffer from it. Shakespeare’s Henry IV for example appears to meet many, if not all, of the diagnostic criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that A Dream Catcher should be their next read, what would you say?

I am really rubbish at blowing my own trumpet, so I will quote from my 5 Stars reviews, if you don’t mind! ‘A gripping story that had me turning the pages’, ‘atmospheric writing’, and a ‘wonderfully likeable heroine’. That’s 14 words!

Thank you so much for your time in answering my questions.

It was a pleasure, Linda. Thank you for all those great questions.

About Marie Laval

Originally from Lyon in France, Marie has lived in the beautiful Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England, for the past few years and likes nothing more than dreaming up romance stories and handsome, brooding heroes. She writes historical and contemporary romance. Her contemporary romance A SPELL IN PROVENCE, as well as her historical romances, ANGEL HEART, together with the award-winning THE LION’S EMBRACE, and the DANCING FOR THE DEVIL Trilogy (which includes THE DREAM CATCHER, BLUE BONNETS and SWORD DANCE) are all published by Áccent Press.

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

Click here for your chance to win a paperback copy of The Dream Catcher.

It gives me great pleasure to be featuring a new to me author, John Day, whose latest novel Bent Penny will be released on 11th May 2016 and is available to order here. John kindly agreed to an interview on Linda’s Book Bag to tell me all about his writing. Not only that, but John has given me an exclusive extract from the opening of the second book in the series, Dirty Penny, to share with you too.

Bent Penny

D.I. Penny Britain is a brilliant detective, but despised by colleagues for not being normal, like them. She has dark secrets and no man, or woman come to that, in her life. Until Paul enters her life, that is, but he is taken.

Her boss dumps a high profile kidnapping case on her. She discovers a trail of intrigue and murder out of all proportion to the crime. Then the dead bodies start piling up as someone covers their tracks. When Penny finally discovers the enormity of the threat she faces, her name is added to the hit list.

What is the connection to the gruesome Concrete Man murder? A dead body, but no victim.

Who is the serial killer dubbed the Index Murderer? Elusive as a ghost, forensically aware and super smart, leaving no clues. Who will be next?

An Interview with John Day

Hello John. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and new book, Bent Penny.

I greatly appreciate your interest in my new book, Bent Penny, I welcome the opportunity to tell your readers about it and a little about myself.

Firstly, please could you tell readers a little about yourself?

My first thought would be, there is little to tell, but at 70 and retired, I can look back on a turbulent life. Without giving detail, it has provided a wealth of life experience that can be used in my writing. I have travelled a great deal and because of my curiosity, I have met some interesting characters. I tend to watch and analyse how people interact in situations most people would never find them selves in. All valuable stock to the author’s cupboard.

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

When my books started selling and people I did not know placed reviews. That was about 2 years ago. I started writing for my own amusement 15 years ago, because I couldn’t find books that entertained me sufficiently. The average reader might spend 8 hours at different times, reading their book and enjoying it. I can spend 3 months, scheming, plotting and writing the words to shape the story. Every moment of it will be utter pleasure.

How would you describe your writing style?

Fast paced, packed from cover to cover with a multi-faceted plot, well developed characters to love or hate. I try hard to give each character their own voice. A toff will sound better educated, a thug will sound coarse… I try to describe only what is relevant to the part being read. A character should reveal what is going on in their mind so the reader can get to know them.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

Because the ideas flow thick and fast, I have no problem there. I don’t know what writers block is. Keeping the flow at bay is difficult. I always plan out my stories so they fall into place quite easily.

The process of marketing is the punishment for all the enjoyment I have received, while writing.

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

Having developed a skeleton for the story, I imagine a segment in my dreams. So in a sense, I write in my sleep. The morning is devoted to shopping, garden stuff and the afternoon and evening is my best writing time.

How do you carry out the research for your novels?

In many cases, I have been on location. Often I have been caught up in a situation that I have translated as the actions of my characters. The Max & Carla series contains scenes from things I have done. Like their dive on the sunken ship Zenobia, to recover a fortune in diamonds. A frantic chase through the narrow streets in Greece…

I also consult with experts, in weaponry during WW2 for The Glass Beacon and in the case of Bent Penny, a senior policeman and forensic scientist.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

The same genre as I write. Not that the books give me ideas, it is just a change in pace.

Today we’re celebrating the publication of Bent Penny, which is a slightly different genre for you. Why did you decide on this change of direction?

It is a big change actually; Bent Penny is a psychological crime thriller.

I love writing spy stories, particularly those with interesting and diverse characters set in an adventure background.

The term ‘Police Procedural Thrillers’ fills me with dread and to write one properly requires insider knowledge, I could never imagine making the procedure element exciting. In my mind, for a thriller to be thrilling, there must be mystery, intrigue, betrayal, and a smear of gruesome killing. A bit like a spy story, but with the police taking the lead role. The scope for adventure is minimal, but the other ingredients remain.

I also decided I needed to write to a clearly defined market, so the course was set. My other books were less easily defined and to a large extent, have been missed by readers for that reason.

What are the challenges of writing from a female perspective?

I don’t see a challenge as such, because my wife keeps me on track if I digress. She is a frequent reader with a broad range of genre. She does my editing. I often hear her chuckling at something I wrote, a good test of honest enjoyment, don’t you think?

(I do John!)

I will be quite honest here; the books I have read have not done women justice. I hope I have succeeded in redressing the balance in my books, especially Bent Penny. I write about women I have seen in real life. So, they are intelligent, focused and deceptive.

One fan wrote to me about Carla Day in the Max & Carla series. She said ‘Carla is so inspiring, she is a no nonsense girl and I want to be more like her.’

Penny, in Bent Penny, is quite different to Carla, in the looks and character sense. However, you know that you can depend on Penny. She will be loyal and protect you, unless you are a criminal of a bad kind. Then you will never outsmart her and you will end up in the slammer. Oh! She has her own rules, so a smart lawyer will not save you!

D.S. Penny Britain is a complex individual. How did you go about creating her? Is she based on someone real?

Penny should not be a stereotype, however, most people would not notice her, and she is deliberately unattractive and business-like. Not every woman wants to be glamorous and be bothered by men. She has a career she lives for, a personal life that is only shared by Holly, her cat. This is her world. However, even she can suffer the distraction of infatuation, then all hell can break lose.

Yes, Penny is based on a real person, though she wouldn’t appreciate me mentioning her name.

The world you present in Bent Penny isn’t particularly attractive. How far do you think society is becoming more violent and less caring in real life too?

I was told by an expert that in times of war or great hardship, people are friendlier and caring. Not with the enemy, of course. The so-called civilised world doesn’t have those pressures at the moment and people are too wrapped up in themselves. I see this stark and unpleasant contrast when I travel from my Island to the UK and America. There are kind and friendly people, still to be found in those places, I hasten to add.

Crime and murder has never been pleasant, has it? So a psychological crime thriller by definition will not be a merry affair.

When I started writing Bent Penny at the beginning of this year, the carefully planned plot was conceived then. Without giving anything away, I was recently shocked to hear the very things mentioned in the book, appeared in the news. I hope Bent Penny does not become a crime text book.

(Oh. That sounds intriguing.)

What is it, do you think, that draws the reader to psychological thrillers like Bent Penny so readily?

According to my expert, people are so well protected theses days that the only way they can experience the fear emotion in their lives, is to read about it. Don’t forget, many human instincts are dormant in present society. From time to time, they need to be re-stimulated, in case the person should need them. For example, there is no need to play a competitive game, but there is an inner drive to win that must be satisfied. That is the instinct to beat the opponent, expressing itself.

If Bent Penny became a film, which would you choose to play Penny Britain and why?

Wow, that’s a hard one! Said the actress to the film director. My wife and I independently thought of Jodi Foster as the first choice, if she was younger. There are others, but they are unlikely to be well known, because they play supporting roles. Very well, I might add.

A dressed down attractive woman would just not work. Although Charlize Thereon played a serial killer and was unrecognisable.

If you hadn’t become an author, what would you have done instead as a creative outlet?

Actually I have some amazing times exploring the world. My exploits into dangerous situations could make a good book of short adventures.

I love to take photos. I refer to myself as a happy snapper who takes normal snaps as well as under water photography. I have swum with sharks as they circled for a feeding frenzy, and no, I was not expecting it. I also take aerial stills and video, exploring the beautiful Island I live on.

(Sounds perfect. I’ve swum with sharks in the Galapagos and manta rays in the Maldives and loved it so I understand exactly what you’re saying.)

Do you have other interests that give you ideas for writing?

Electronics, writing software, exploring the forts and tunnels on my home island and talking to people.  This provides useful background and sometimes a whole story.

When I was writing The Glass Beacon, I discovered there are some dark secrets hidden in the depths of a cooling pond, on the island.

So the story goes, the Germans dumped equipment into the very deep pond and a recent attempt to raise the interesting vehicles was met with top-level resistance from the British Government. The island had many prostitutes up until the war ended, and they were never found. They vanished without trace.

How important do you think social media is to authors in today’s society?

It has provided an advertising opportunity, but not a good one. Most of the site traffic is chatter and that is good, but the flood of adds and banners that no one looks at should be stopped.

The big failure of the current process is the divide between readers and authors.

It is a syndrome that I perpetuate as a reader. I see a book as a product, like a painting or DVDs. I forget that someone contributed many months of his or her life creating it.  I fail to spread the word and so only the best-marketed products survive. Often those same unknown products are superior to the best seller. Remember, you only bought it, because you were told it existed by skilled marketing.

Take for example talent competitions on TV. Those winning contestants are brilliant, as good as celebrities, but would otherwise have remained unknown.

Readers are ultimately short changing themselves by not actively promoting good books by the unknowns. I know a few do, but it is a drop in the ocean, actually.

I would suggest a central registry of books where everyone would consult. Forget Amazon & Goodreads and all the other book sites for their bitty reviews and biased service, just buy from them. Use the central register to get the best book for you. It can be done, but again, the reader has to do their bit.

(Which is why you’re here on Linda’s Book Bag!)

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that Bent Penny should be their next read, what would you say?

Expose a serial killer and unravel an extraordinary mystery with D.S. Britain, tonight!

Thank you so much for your time, John, in answering my questions.

Thank you for providing me with this amazing opportunity to make my books known. Those readers who love my writing style will be able to find and enjoy my books. Their reading pleasure is my sole objective.

About John Day

John Day is my pen name and was chosen to avoid issues as a business professional. It also looks better than my real name.

I was born in South of England, was widowed and remarried. I now live on a beautiful Channel Island, where the sea is often a tropical blue or turquoise. Exploring Forts, war time military installations and tunnels can be fascinating, there is a lot to see here.

Now I am retired, I travel a great deal all over the world. Often I use those exotic locations in my Max & Carla thrillers. Other times it is just an excuse to take photos.

I have recently discovered previously unknown artistic skills and wish I had another lifetime to do all the things I would like to do.

You can find John on his website, on Facebook, Goodreads and Google+. John has just started out on Twitter too so why not give him a follow?

An Extract from Dirty Penny

The terrified middle-aged man ran headlong down the roughly hewn chalk tunnel. The uneven path under his feet, worn down to a narrow dip in the floor was treacherous. History professor James Walker was running for his life. A misplaced footing would inevitably lead to a fall, probably a serious injury, and certain capture. Over nearly a century, thousands of feet had shuffled and picked their way along the path, bent double under their heavy load. The steep slope down to the sea ended in a sheer cliff face. Rocks lay some 6 metres below the tunnel entrance, but there was a rope hanging there, waiting for him. The men chasing him shouted for him to stop, but why would he, they intended to kill him. Their warnings and threats echoed after him. The sound of their running and stumbling feet added to the Academic’s fear and panic, as they pursued him. They were all young, fit and ruthless men and they were gaining on him.

Photo courtesy of The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

via Tim Atkinson

Regular readers of Linda’s Book Bag will know that I’m obsessed by WW1 following my grandfather’s involvement, injuries and blinding during the Battle of the Somme. When I was told about a new novel by Tim Atkinson, The Glorious Dead, based in the aftermath of the Great War and with an unusual route to publication, I had to find out more.

The Glorious Dead

What happened when the Great War ended and the guns stopped firing? Who cleared the battlefields and built the great monuments to the fallen? And why did so many men who served – and survived – in France and Flanders end up living and working among the ruins of the war they’d fought?

The Glorious Dead is the fictional story of a group of soldiers who remained in France and Flanders following the Armistice, who served their King and country with a shovel and who found and buried the thousands of bodies abandoned on the road to victory. It is the story of men living among the destruction, death and decay of the so-called ‘war to end all wars’. It is the story of an uneasy peace as over 15,000 ex-servicemen remain abroad working in the former theatres of war, burying the dead and rebuilding their own lives. The work of these men is one of the most original yet neglected aspects of this most compelling era in our nation’s history.

Theirs is a story worth telling.

You can watch Tim’s video about The Glorious Dead here.

An Interview with Tim Atkinson

Hi Tim. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your book The Glorious Dead and its unusual journey to publication.

Firstly, please could you imagine we are on a one minute speed date and tell me a little about yourself?

Like Ed Reardon but without the anger or the pipe. Or a cat called Elgar.

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

When I was ten I sat down at the dining room table and wrote an article about my model railway for a magazine called the Railway Modeller. They published it and sent me a cheque for £12 (which was about three months pocket money for me back then!) and that was the moment I knew I wanted to be a writer.

The Glorious Dead is yet to be published. Could you explain a little bit more about why this is please?

It’s being published by Unbound (the world’s first crowd funding publisher) so it’s currently on their website gathering support. Although Unbound selects books like any other publisher, once accepted it’s up to the author to pitch direct to the reading public. The public then gets to decide what is written. It’s very exciting. The process also means there’s a unique opportunity for me to exchange ideas and share elements of the writing process with supporters, which is already proving really interesting.

Could you tell us a bit about The Glorious Dead (but without spoiling the plot please!)?

When the guns top firing, Jack starts digging – not trenches now, but graves. Although the war is over, Jack Patterson remains in Flanders searching the battlefields and burying the bodies of thousands of his former comrades. But there’s a secret keeping Jack in Flanders, a secret that is only revealed when a visitor to the battlefield cemeteries arrives – in search of Jack’s own grave.

What drew you to the idea of exploring the time after WW1 as opposed to the war itself?

I’m fascinated by the Great War and have always secretly wanted to write a war book. But I also wanted it to be different. When I discovered the strange, untold story of the men who served their King and Country first with a rifle, then a shovel, I knew I had my subject.

Secrecy is a major theme in The Glorious Dead. Why did you decide to explore such a concept?

Everyone has secrets. To a greater or lesser extent we all decide what to share and what to hide and with whom. We shape the story of our lives to suit different audiences and that’s what’s being done in The Glorious Dead. At the level of national policy, there’s secrecy shaping official remembrance of the war and the creating the iconic battlefield cemeteries – which were to remain abroad partly to hide the visual scale of the losses from the British public. And there are the secrets of the individual soldiers – men like Jack, who served and stayed abroad, doing a terrible job, but hiding from something much more terrible at home. And the work that men like Jack did – clearing the battlefields, burying the dead and rebuilding their own lives – is itself the Great War’s great secret.

Much of your writing seems to champion those with mental health issues and I know you have suffered from depression yourself as you explain on your blog. Did you set out deliberately to bring these issues to the public’s attention or did they arise naturally in your writing?

Both, really. As a teacher I was alarmed by the increase in mental health problem among the young, which is why my novel Writing Therapy was written in support of the mental health charity, Young Minds. But I also had my own personal reasons for exploring the subject, as you’ve said. There’s a lot more written about mental health issues now than there was even eight short years ago. I’m glad to have played a small part in bringing the subject to the public’s attention.

If Linda’s Book Bag readers would like to get involved in supporting The Glorious Dead on its road to publication what do they need to do?

They need to pledge, please. Take a look at the book’s page on Unbound – click here – read the synopsis, watch the video: there’s even an extract from the book to read. If people like what they see it’s a simple matter of clicking the ‘pledge’ button and instantly becoming involved in the creation of a new book. It’s very exciting.

I know you’ve had a range of other books published more conventionally. Would you tell us a bit more about them too please?

As a former teacher it seemed natural that I should write a couple of school textbooks, although they happened to be on a subject (geography) that I hadn’t actually taught for some time. But a publishing deal’s a publishing deal; I wasn’t about to turn it down! Writing Therapy, my 2008 novel, was the big project I wanted to complete for all the reasons outlined above and I was delighted that it seemed to strike a chord with so many people. But I also write a parenting blog, and a spin-off book called Fatherhood: The Essential Guide (A Book for Dads) was published as a result of that.

How do you go about researching detail and ensuring your books are realistic?

For The Glorious Dead I’ve spent hours and hours reading, trawling through the archives at the Imperial War Museum but – most useful of all – walking the ground in an around Ypres in Belgium, where the book is set. Although the landscape has changed beyond recognition in many ways, walking in the footsteps of the men whose story you are telling is probably the most useful way of getting under their skin.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

I like writing that involves research and demands plenty of reading. Because then, if I’m stuck for words, I can simply have a break, pick up a book, but still be working. And vice versa, of course. It’s a good balance. The hardest job of all, of course, is editing!

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

I’m lucky to have a room of my own since we moved house a couple of years ago. I’m surrounded by books and I can shut the door and get on with it. But I find I’m always doing something – either reading or making notes (on scraps of paper or on my phone) anywhere and everywhere.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

When I’m not reading for research I love contemporary literary fiction. But my tastes are really quite catholic. At the moment I’m reading The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell; before that, Viral by Helen Fitzgerald had me gripped, as did The Lifeboat, by Charlotte Rogan. But I think the single most enjoyable book I’ve read in the past year was A History of the Rain by Niall Williams. There’s a trend here, isn’t there, one I’ve only just noticed? I enjoy female narrators/protagonists.

What is next for Tim Atkinson after The Glorious Dead?

There’s so much material I think I could probably write at least another two books about the characters and situations from The Glorious Dead. Maybe it’ll become a trilogy?

Is there anything else we should know about you or The Glorious Dead?

I could go on about this bee I’ve had in my bonnet for the last five years for a long time. But I’d urge readers to simply look at the project page on Unbound. Watch the video (sorry about the bags under my eyes – the kids had been ill!) and read the extract. I hope that speaks for itself.

If you could chose to be a character from The Glorious Dead, who would you be and why?

I think I’d probably be Blake – partly because I’m not sure I could have served as a combatant.

If The Glorious Dead became a film, who would you like to cast?

That might not be too big an ‘if’ as an indie film-maker I know has already said it would make a good movie. If I had any say in casting, Carey Mulligan would definitely be Francoise and I’d like to find a part for Hugh Bonneville – maybe as Lt Col. Goodland of the Army Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries. Damian Lewis would make a great Lt. Ingham and Jack himself would almost certainly be played by Stephen Waddington – a Yorkshireman with just the right ‘look’ for the part.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that The Glorious Dead should be their next read, what would you say?

Why did so many soldiers stay among the shattered ruins of the war they’d fought?

Thanks so much Tim, for featuring on Linda’s Book Bag and taking the time to answer my questions.

My pleasure!

About Tim Atkinson

Responsible for adding to the world’s population, blogging about it, then writing a book telling others how to do it, Tim Atkinson has accidentally become both something of an author and an alleged authority on fatherhood.

Having given up full-time paid employment to stay at home and keep an eye on the children, Tim was casting around for part-time, work-from-home opportunities when a publisher approached him and asked if he’d like to write some text books.

The rest, as they say, is history. Or it would be if the books hadn’t been geography text books. And if he wasn’t still doing it. Current projects include a novel about post-WW1 battlefield clearances and the establishment of the monumental World War One war cemeteries.

Tim Atkinson has an MA in Education and a Diploma in Creative Writing. Oh, and a certificate for swimming.

You can follow Tim on Twitter, find him on Facebook and pledge to support The Glorious Dead on the Unbound website. You’ll find Tim’s other books here and can read his blog here.

Having long (very long!) left my 40s behind, I was interested in a new series of books by Angie Dickerson that begins with Friends at Forty so I asked Angie if she would tell me a little bit about the inspiration for her novel. Friends at Forty was published on 23rd march 2016 and is available on Amazon.

Friends at Forty

This is a tale of fine dining, Zen masters, Magic 8-Balls and the inexplicable bond that holds a marriage together even as it ruptures at the seams: friendship. What if you had the opportunity to reinvent yourself after a lifetime shackled to parenthood but didn’t know what you wanted or even who you were anymore?

When empty nesters, Samantha and Daniel Blake, move into their loft in L.A.’s hip Historic Core it is in search of a new lifestyle—an attempt to stabilize their erratic marriage weighed down by decades of spousal congeniality and exhaustive parenting. But when new alliances surface, tensions mount as the couple is tested by an overdose of their “new normal.”   Samantha is finally pushed to make her most difficult choice: will she have the strength to sacrifice her marriage in order to find herself or will she continue to trail aimlessly behind Daniel and live an uninspiring life?

Friends at Sea, the second in Angie’s Friends… series is out soon

The Inspiration Behind Friends at Forty

A Guest Post by Angie Dickerson

My debut novel, Friends at Forty, like the marriage in my story, has been twenty-four years in the making. The main character’s journey was inspired by the love and turbulence of my own marriage. To some extent, I guess all works of fiction end up being autobiographical in one respect or another. I once wrote that the flawed characters I breathe life into, end up breathing life into me. They are a complete reflection of who I am. So when I was recently demoted to the role of empty nester, as my children headed to college, I took the opportunity to reinvent myself. And what better way to do this than to write the truth behind a real marriage—the humor and pain of years spent surviving spousal congeniality and exhaustive parenting punctuated by the greatest irony of all: the gut-wrenching empty hole left in your life when it’s finally done.

Much like the main character, Samantha Blake, I felt lost, abandoned and utterly confused but nevertheless determined to turn things right-side up even when nothing seemed upside down. After fourteen years as a literature and creative writing teacher, I risked it all, quit my day job and began a new lease on life: a writing life. I found writing Friends at Forty easy because all I had to do was take a not-so-stable, not-so-likable forty-something chick like myself, add a loyal and hardworking husband and dad like my very own and mixed in a healthy helping of marital misadventures, passions, frustrations and joys sprinkled with a bit of fiction. Like a stew, I set the pot on high and watched it boil. Then I turned it down so it could simmer, allowing the flavors to fuse together. I stirred and tasted and stirred and tasted for months until the homemade concoction was ready to serve.

My favorite chapter would have to be The Potato. Writing it took me years back to when my hubby of six years then, had an unexpected bout with jealousy when a male friend at dinner offered to butter my corn. Another fun piece to write was chapter 3 in which Daniel (the husband) like my hubby is found in the kitchen knee-deep in his culinary world as he fixes his wife the perfect lunch—this chapter is a glimpse of what it’s like to live with a man that pampers you at every turn and takes pride and pleasure in cooking wonderful meals for people but especially me. I get the five-star, fine dining experience on the daily. Consider me beyond lucky.

As the Friends at Forty project came to an end, I felt excited about the next chapter in Samantha and Daniel’s life. But now that the second installment, Friends at Sea is underway, I am loading the second novel with tons of crazy adventures of the not-so-autobiographical kind. I find that with this next book I want to explore not where Samantha and Daniel have been (which will be smattered throughout) but instead focus on where they are going next. With ports-of-call like Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Panama City, the Cayman Islands, and the historic port of Cartagena, Colombia the couple might be faced with more excitement than they can handle and be forced to rediscover each other. Needless to say, I am having a blast taking Samantha and Daniel Blake into this new chapter and redefining marriage along the way.

About Angie Dickerson

Angie fell in love with her first book back in middle school. Her school library was fundraising by selling discarded novels for 39 cents. She spent her last 50 cents on a tattered paperback with yellowed pages and creases on the cover titled Forever and never looked back. Thirty-two years later, after fourteen years as a teacher, she has made her writing dreams a reality and published her first novel, Friends at Forty.

Angie has been recently demoted to the role of empty nester and after twenty-two years of marriage and raising three wonderful children, she spends her hours writing and reading about what she knows and loves most: the misadventures of family and couplehood. Her first novel tackles the difficult questions we are sometimes too afraid to ask: What is a loving couple to do when they discover they want different things out of life? Is friendship enough to save a marriage in trouble? What is the role of romance and passion for a forty-something couple after decades accustomed to a practical partnership?

Angie is hard at work on the second novel in her Friends series, with the next installment, Friends at Sea, underway. This is the emotional continuation of Samantha and Daniel Blake’s journey: a marriage in trouble forced to face who they were, who they’ve become but most importantly who they want to be.

You can follow Angie on Twitter, find her on Facebook and read her blog.

I’m delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for The Last Days of Summer by Vanessa Ronan which is published by Penguin in paperback, e-book and audio on 5th May 2016. You can pre-order The Last Days of Summer here.

Vanessa has kindly agreed to be interviewed for Linda’s Book Bag and I’m thrilled to be sharing that interview with you today.

The Last Days of Summer

After ten years in the Huntsville State Penitentiary, Jasper Curtis returns home to live with his sister and her two daughters. Lizzie does not know who she’s letting into her home: the brother she grew up loving or the monster he became.

Teenage Katie distrusts this strange man in their home but eleven-year-old Joanne is just intrigued by her new uncle. Jasper says he’s all done with trouble, but in a forgotten prairie town that knows no forgiveness, it does not take long for trouble to arrive at their door…

An Interview with Vanessa Ronan

Hi Vanessa. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on Linda’s Book Bag about your writing and The Last Days of Summer.

Firstly, please could you tell me a little about yourself?

Hi Linda, thank you for having me! That’s always the most difficult question… Well… I’m 29, I was born in Houston TX, got my 1^st college degree in NYC studying dance and choreography. After graduation, I subsequently got the travel bug, and, after a year working at the bottom of a totem pole of personal assistants to a multimillionaire, I left to backpack through Europe for six months. Eight years later, here I still am! And, long story short, that’s how I fell onto that path that led to meeting my husband and Ireland becoming my home.

I know you’ve lived all over the place. How do you think this has affected your writing?

The more cultures and aspects of life one has the opportunity of absorbing, the better. Ever since I was a child I loved watching people. My characters come from everyone I’ve watched—this idiosyncrasy borrowed from this stranger here, this turn of phrase overheard out of context there, etc. As storytellers, I think we gather up all the oddities we witness in life and sift through them—or at least, that’s what I do! I feel very lucky that the varied places I’ve lived have given me a colourful world to observe.

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

When I was three I had a black notebook I filled with squiggly lines. I brought the notebook to my mother and very proudly told her, “Mommy, I just wrote a novel.” I didn’t know the alphabet yet (oddly enough I always forgot the letter V) but my mother swears that every time I read my “novel” to her I read the same story, word for word, as though I knew what each squiggly line meant. Nearly everyone in my family writes. I think a part of me always knew that I would, too.

How far do you think being home schooled has impacted on your writing?

In many ways I am still learning just how deeply being home schooled has impacted my writing. My parents are both college literature professors so there was definitely a strong emphasis on our writing from a very young age. That being said though, my brother and I naturally gravitated more towards that side of our studies. Writing stories and poems was almost like a game for us, and we’d read and edit each other’s work from a very young age. Who knows, maybe had our parents been astrophysicists or mathematicians that would have naturally turned our focus another way, but they weren’t, and in many ways it is only now as I reflect back on my early influences that I begin to fully realize just how deep an impact the classics—Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Larry McMurtry, Poe, Dickens- we were read as bedtime stories had on my writing career. I think being home schooled may have helped me hear my own creative voice faster than I may have otherwise. It definitely encouraged the continued growth of my imagination.

Your parents have a strong literature background so books have been an influential part of your life I suppose. How important is reading as well as writing to you?

Reading has always been hugely important in my life. As a painfully shy home schooled child there was a time when books were my best friends. Loosing myself in books has gotten me though some of life’s toughest times. Reading can be very healing. There are books I’ve read and re-read cause reading them again feels like coming home. I grew out of the shyness, but I’ll never grow out of reading.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I like to read almost everything. Favourites include: All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavril Kay, The Once and Future King by T H White, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Padero Paramo by Juan Rulfo… I devoured the Harry Potter series. I love the old classics. I read a lot of poetry. Again, the influence of my parents here is vast—especially my mother, an avid reader herself who was wonderful at teaching me to see the beauty in all types of stories.

How does it feel to have released your debut novel The Last Days of Summer?

Surreal. And at the same time more wonderfully real than anything. I’ve spent the last year up on cloud nine, pinching myself every day.

Without spoiling the plot, could you tell us a little bit about The Last Days of Summer?

THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER begins as the convict, Jasper Curtis, is released from the Huntsville State Penitentiary to move in with his sister and her two young daughters far out on the Texas prairie. It is a story about a dark soul coming home and how this affects the family and the community. Told from four different points of view, it examines themes of forgiveness, redemption, and revenge.

Child Joanne is less suspicious than the adults in The Last Days of Summer. Do you think this is typical of how we behave in society in general too? Yes, I think so. I was less suspicious when I was young. I think as we grow up and gain knowledge we also (to some degree) learn to be afraid. If we don’t know that something or someone could hurt us, the fear is not there—that comes later, with knowledge.

Forgiveness is a central theme of The Last Days of Summer. Did you set out to explore that concept or did it arise naturally as a result of your storytelling?

It arose naturally from the story itself. I didn’t set out with that as my goal, but, due to the nature of the novel, forgiveness (or at times our inability to forgive) quickly became an important issue key to the story’s development.

Your writing has been described as ‘dark’. How do you feel about that?

My writing is dark, but I’m OK with that! I like dark stories. I was raised on the original Hans Christian Anderson and Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tales. Frankenstein and Dracula were both bedtime stories before I was nine. My dark side comes out in my writing, I suppose. In everyday life I’m a pretty happy person. I smile a lot. I believe in good karma. I try to surround myself with positive energies, good influences, good friends. BUT, if I wrote novels about good people who try to be nice to everybody and do good things all the time I would bore my readers to tears. I’d bore myself to tears! Darkness can have a certain mystery to it. A certain dark beauty. That’s the type of darkness I hope I write. That’s my goal.

You’ve had several jobs so far. How does being a writer compare with the others and how far do you draw on those previous experiences?

Being a writer is my dream job. It’s that job when you’re a kid and you imagine all the “what if’s” of the future that you hope you’ll be—or at least for me that’s what it is! I honestly feel that getting to do this as my job right now is like winning the lottery in and of itself. Even if no one goes out and buys my book. I enjoyed a lot of my past jobs, but they all had their time and place. They were brilliant experiences that lead me to where I am now, but none of them were what I saw myself doing for life. Through those various jobs, I met some very interesting and often amazing people and often had some very unusual experiences as well—as a barmaid, a PA, a dance teacher. Like I said earlier, I am strong believer in filing away oddities to form stories with later. But all aspect of life fall into that—not just work.

How do you go about researching detail and ensuring your books are realistic?

I was very lucky in THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER that my research was minimal given I have lived on the Texas prairie as a child and I have a lot of family still in Texas. I know Texas very well. That said though, it is very important to me to try to make my stories as realistic as possible. I want the reader to feel like they are right there in that moment. As I am writing I try to be aware of what are the characters hearing, feeling, smelling? What is the texture of this? The taste of that? I then research accordingly to try to bring all the senses to life.

If you hadn’t become an author, what would you have done instead as a creative outlet?

I trained classically in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and hip hop, and even taught dance for a while. Six months before I got the travel bug and left NYC, I had a showcase of my choreography at a small black box theatre in the Lower East Side. Choreography was my passion for many years. I saw it as a way to tell stories through movement.

Do you have other interests that give you ideas for writing?

I get a lot of ideas from documentary films and TV programs that depict people living on the fringes of society.

If you could choose to be a character from The Last Days of Summer, who would you be and why?

In many ways I feel I have been each character already! It took me just under four years to write THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER. That’s four years of people in your head whose thoughts you grow surprisingly used to. I write from multiple points of view, so I was Jasper. I was Lizzie. And Katie. And little Joanne. I have seen the world as they see it. For four years. And as they grew in my head, they took on a surprising independence I didn’t expect—each one said or did things at one time or another that I hadn’t planned! But I felt I had to “go with it” each time because that was what Japser would have done or Joanne would have said, so who was I to stifle their voices? Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to be any of them forever—each one’s been dealt a rough hand in life. But I will also always (slightly) be all of them, too. And I’m very grateful for that. It has felt very strange as I write my second novel now having new voices in my head, seeing through new eyes.

If The Last Days of Summer became a film, who would you like to play Jasper?

I’ve had a few people tell me they see Jasper as played by Matthew McConaughey. A couple others have said, Hugh Jackman. I’d be OK with either of those! But it’s funny, any time I’m asked this question it makes me realize more and more how used to seeing through Jasper’s eyes I’d grown. It’s different now looking at him.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that The Last Days of Summer should be their next read, what would you say?

Lose yourself in the dark poetic prose and prepare for the blistering fury’s slow burn.

That sounds so exciting. I can’t wait to read The Last Days of Summer which is almost at the top of my TBR! Thank you so much, Vanessa, for your time in answering my questions.

Thank you for having me!

About Vanessa Ronan

Vanessa Ronan was born in Houston and in her 29 years has lived in Texas, Mexico, New York, Edinburgh, and Dublin, where she now lives with her Irish husband. Among other things, she has been a dancer, a PA, a barmaid, a literature student, a dance teacher, and now, a writer. Home-schooled by her literature teacher parents, Vanessa began writing as soon as she learned the alphabet. The Last Days of Summer is her first novel.

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter and find out more about her on Goodreads.

Find out more too with these other bloggers:

Being married to a Welsh man I am always on the look out for links to Wales and when I realised Tony Riches also hails from Wales I had to feature him on Linda’s Book Bag. Today I’m spotlighting the second in Tony’s Tudor Trilogy, Jasper which was released on 25th March 2016 and is available on Amazon UK,  Amazon US and Amazon AU.

Jasper

Following the best-selling historical fiction novel Owen – Book One of The Tudor Trilogy, this is the story, based on actual events, of Owen’s son Jasper Tudor, who changes the history of England forever.

England 1461: The young King Edward of York takes the country by force from King Henry VI of Lancaster. Sir Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, flees the massacre of his Welsh army at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross and plans a rebellion to return his half-brother King Henry to the throne.

When King Henry is imprisoned by Edward in the Tower of London and murdered, Jasper escapes to Brittany with his young nephew, Henry Tudor. After the sudden death of King Edward and the mysterious disappearance of his sons, a new king, Edward’s brother Richard III takes the English Throne. With nothing but his wits and charm, Jasper sees his chance to make young Henry Tudor king with a daring and reckless invasion of England.

Set in the often brutal world of fifteenth century England, Wales, Scotland, France, Burgundy and Brittany, during the Wars of the Roses, this fast-paced story is one of courage and adventure, love and belief in the destiny of the Tudors.

Owen

England 1422: Owen Tudor, a Welsh servant, waits in Windsor Castle to meet his new mistress, the beautiful and lonely Queen Catherine of Valois, widow of the warrior king, Henry V. Her infant son is crowned King of England and France, and while the country simmers on the brink of civil war, Owen becomes her protector.

They fall in love, risking Owen’s life and Queen Catherine’s reputation—but how do they found the dynasty which changes British history – the Tudors?

This is the first historical novel to fully explore the amazing life of Owen Tudor, grandfather of King Henry VII and the great-grandfather of King Henry VIII. Set against a background of the conflict between the Houses of Lancaster and York, which develops into what have become known as the Wars of the Roses, Owen’s story deserves to be told.

You can find Owen – Book One of the Tudor Trilogy and many more of Tony’s books here.

About the Author

Tony Riches is a full time author of best-selling fiction and non-fiction books. He lives by the sea in Pembrokeshire, West Wales with his wife and enjoys sailing and kayaking in his spare time.

For more information about Tony’s other books please visit his popular blog, The Writing Desk and his WordPress website and find him on Goodreads, Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

My grateful thanks to Alainna Hajigeorgiou at Quercus Books for an advanced reader copy of A Spring Betrayal in return for an honest review. A Spring Betrayal was published in e-book and hardback on 21st April 2016 and is available on Amazon, from Quercus, Waterstones, WH Smith and from all good book shops.

A Spring Betrayal

My Review of A Spring Betrayal

When several children’s corpses are found in a shallow grave, Inspector Akly Borubaev finds himself drawn ever further into the corrupt world of Kyrgyzstan as he attempts to discover how they were murdered and by whom.

A Spring Betrayal is the second in Tom Callaghan’s Inspector Akyl Borubaev thrillers after A Killing Winter which I have not read. Although I may have missed the significance of a few references, A Spring Betrayal works perfectly well as a stand alone read and the back story is well enough outlined to ensure the reader understands Borubaev’s motivations and attitudes.

Let me say at the off that A Spring Betrayal is far outside my comfort zone of reading as it is violent and quite disturbing and had it not been sent for review I’m not sure I’d have read it. I found the subject matter – child pornography and murder- quite distasteful and not something I would readily choose to read about. I ended by feeling slightly contaminated by the book which possibly shows just how well written it is.

However, that said, A Spring Betrayal is a fast paced, action packed and thrilling read with a plot that twists and turns with breakneck speed. There’s a feeling of James Bond about it in places with spies, political intrigue, bribery and corruption all rife. One or twice I felt the plot was somewhat unrealistic but that might be more my own naivety in not appreciating that some of the events are likely in this particular setting.

I’m not sure how accurate a picture of Kyrgyzstan Tom Callaghan paints, but the social corruption and willingness to kill within the story I found horrifying and scarily plausible. Indeed, there is a real sense of place and I certainly felt I had a better understanding of the area and the politics of the recent past.

The character of Borubaev is rounded and interesting and I found fascinating the blurring of the lines of morality within his thought processes as the story progressed. He carries a burden of guilt that is fully understood by the reader. The character of Saltanat Umarova is less well defined, but this is not a criticism as she remains an enigma to Borubaev and, therefore, to the reader, as the narrative is presented from his first person point of view.

The writing is assured and convincing, and I liked the way in which there were several mini cliffhangers at the ends of chapters so that I wanted to read on in spite of myself.

Did I enjoy reading A Spring Betrayal? I’m not sure. Did I find it compelling and exciting? Undoubtedly. Those who like this fast paced, quite violent writing will love A Spring Betrayal. It was just a bit too explicitly violent for my taste.

Today I’m delighted to be featuring an interview with another author I’ve met in person, the lovely Sue Moorcroft. Sue is a prolific and award winning writer and an absolute delight to spend time with.

An Interview with Sue Moorcroft

Hi Sue. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing.

Firstly, please could you tell readers a little about yourself?

I write commercial women’s fiction on sometimes unexpected themes – and also short stories, serials, novellas, columns and courses (I like to keep busy and I’m a creative writing tutor, too). Apart from writing, my chief pleasures are reading, watching Formula 1, Zumba, yoga, FitStep, and hanging out with friends. I was born in Germany into an army family and lived in Cyprus and Malta when growing up.

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

Because of a bit of a false start I was a while coming to reading and writing but once I realised I could a) lose myself in reading b) get good marks for making stuff up, I embraced the world of fiction. However, people didn’t seem to see ‘novelist’ as a credible goal and I was too easily dissuaded from journalism so, although I never stopped writing, I only tried to make it into a career when I became a mum and could write while the children were at school. I wrote two novels, which I’m happy to say ended up in the bin, then I took a course with a view to writing short stories for magazines, which proved a successful stepping stone to writing novels.

If you hadn’t become an author, what would you have done instead as a creative outlet? Would you have become a Formula One driver?

I wish! That’s a career that takes a lot of commitment, talent, strength, luck and funding. I used to fancy that I could make a living as a commercial artist but I don’t think I was good enough.

You’re assiduous in researching your novels. Which was the most challenging to research and why?

The condition of narcolepsy, for Dream a Little Dream. It’s a complex, fascinating neurological condition, much misunderstood and even mocked. It infiltrates every aspect of the lives of those affected. I gave narcolepsy to Dominic Christy almost on a whim and there were times when I heartily wished I’d given him something else. All the information I found seemed superficial. It wasn’t until I went onto the message board of Narcolepsy UK that I connected with a man, also called Dominic, who made the book possible by giving untold hours to educating me on the condition and reading the manuscript twice, for which I’m profoundly grateful.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

The editing is easiest (and most enjoyable), especially when I’ve had a bit of a break from a book and gained objectivity. I also like the first ten thousand words because I feel it’s like a Formula 1 race – I’m on the starting grid but haven’t crashed into anything yet. The first draft, generally, is difficult, as I have to keep giving my best for lap after lap and even a small mistake can have a large consequence.

I know you do a lot of planning before you write. What format does this take? Do you use Pinterest, Post-it notes, spreadsheets or some other means to plot your novels?

A bit of everything. I tend to begin with character and I handwrite bios, look at major characters from the viewpoint of several of the other characters, establish conflicts and goals, secret desires, unconscious desires, and backstories. If I can link the conflicts/goals of the major characters then I feel this helps the narrative drive. For example, in The Christmas Promise, one of Ava’s conflicts is that her couture millinery business is struggling. One of Sam’s conflicts is that his mum, Wendy, is in the elapse between surgery and chemotherapy. Intent on giving Wendy the best Christmas he can, he hits on the idea of giving her a frivolous and expensive present and commissions Ava to make her a hat. This single incident leads to other ways of Ava keeping her business afloat until she has the potential to make it big. Although I then make her realise that success comes at a price, there are many other ways I keep Sam and Ava together, including another of Ava’s conflicts, being threatened with revenge porn by her ex-boyfriend. As I link the ideas, I staple bits of paper together in a logical (but not pretty) way. As I work through dynamics between various characters I have a lot of paper by the time I begin writing. (I call this ‘the compost heap method’.)

Sue’s Compost Heap!

I create a timeline as I write (more stapled pieces of paper), a spreadsheet of character names/dates of birth and marriage etc, and when I get stuck in my plotting I either create a mind map or I use sticky notes on a wall. I also make notes on my phone and send them to myself so I can add them to a document of thoughts and ideas that’s in the same computer folder as my manuscript. As a book progresses, I regularly reassess my compost heap to see what I still need.

I don’t know why I plan by hand and write on a computer but it works for me.

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

I like to work in my small and overcrowded study with my back to the door and window. I start about 07.30 and finish about 18.00 but I usually have a couple of hours off for an activity – Monday is piano lesson, Tuesday Zumba, Wednesday Yoga, Thursday FitStep, Friday Zumba again. However, when I go away from home for meetings, conferences and courses, I work wherever I can: trains, aeroplanes, hotels or coffee shops. Then I use my iPad and keyboard.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I read a lot in the area I write – authors such as Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell, Sarah Morgan – and enjoy many US authors, too, especially those who write romantic suspense (Linda Howard, Suzanne Brockmann, Brenda Novak) or small-town series (Jill Shalvis). I throw in the occasional biography or chiller but, on the whole, I like my reading diet to be ‘feel good’. There’s enough bad stuff in real life.

Do you have other interests that give you ideas for writing?

I think it’s more the other way around: once I have an idea, I interest myself in the subject. Or I happen across something I think I can use, as when I met milliner Abigail Crampton. We were both guests on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and I thought millinery would be a cool occupation for a heroine so shamelessly hit up Abigail for help. Now I notice hats everywhere and when someone shows me a hat shop I tell them how mass-produced hats differ from handmade hats (whether they want to know or not).

I know that Ratty from ‘Starting Over’ is one of your favourite characters from your writing. Why is this?

I never quite fell out of love with Ratty. He’s been my most successful hero, judging from reader feedback (and even fanmail) and I’ve just snuck him into The Christmas Promise, as it turns out he’s a childhood friend of Sam’s. I would say he’s my most quirky hero and the least PC. Make of that what you will! I conceived him after watching Kevin Kline as the pirate king in Pirates of Penzance (though I shaved the moustache and changed the colour of his eyes). Like the pirate king, Ratty’s the leader of a motley crew, has a slightly flexible personal code but would risk everything if a friend needed him.

If one of your books became a film, which would you choose and why?

The Christmas Promise because quite a lot is set in London so would have broad appeal and deals with current themes, such as revenge porn, and contemporary settings such a communications agency. Sam lives in one of those all-glass buildings in the Olympic district and with that and Ava’s hats I think it would be satisfying visually. The story has enough twists and turns to satisfy cinematic requirements and loads of emotion and tension, too.

You have a reader street team. How important do you think social media is to authors in today’s society?

It depends upon the author. It’s important to me and I enjoy chatting on Facebook or Twitter, which are my major channels. It’s such a privilege when I receive nice messages from readers! Social media’s perfect for discovering what current schools rules are about teenagers dying their hair blue or how people feel about Christmas. I love the feeling of being connected and I’ve gained work via social media contacts. I’ve written at length about my views on social media on my own blog which can be found here.

Team Sue Moorcroft is a joy to me. I’m honoured and humbled that people like my work enough to advocate it whenever they get the chance and to want to chat to me on the Facebook group. People can join via my website.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that a Sue Moorcroft book should be their next read, what would you say?

Lose yourself in witty stories of characters you care about and their contemporary, intriguing issues.

Oo – 15 words exactly!

Tell us more about the book that’s scheduled for release later this year, ‘The Christmas Promise’.

Set mainly in London (although with an excursion to Middledip village for those readers who have asked for more Middledip novels!), The Christmas Promise sees Ava struggling for money, disliking Christmas, and being threatened by her ex-boyfriend, Harvey. Her best friends, Izz and Tod, are both working for Sam Jermyn at his communications agency and Ava finds herself ready to dismiss him as a ‘golden boy’. She realises there’s more to him when she gets a glimpse into his feelings about his mum’s illness and how he’s trying to give his mum the best Christmas he possibly can. It’s a book that contrasts pretty hats, animated Christmas cards, parties and a WAG called Booby Ruby with revenge, cancer and betrayal.

It sounds great! The Christmas Promise is available for pre-order here.

Thank you so much, Sue, for your time in answering my questions.

Thank you for having me on your blog!

More About Sue Moorcroft

Award winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes. The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is This Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the RNA and editor of its two anthologies.

Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a creative writing tutor.

Sue’s next book is The Christmas Promise.

You can find out more about Sue on her website, blog, Google+, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Take Five Authors, Facebook and her Facebook author page. You can also follow Sue on Twitter.

I’m a big fan of women’s historical fiction and I first read and loved Judith Barrow’s Pattern of Shadows years before I began blogging and reviewing, so I’m slightly star struck to have an interview with Judith on Linda’s Book Bag today.

Pattern of Shadows

Mary is a nurse at a Lancashire POW camp. Life at work is difficult but fulfilling. Soon, she meets Frank, a guard who has been watching her for weeks. But Frank is difficult to love and it’s not long before Mary decides to break it off. Matters come to a head when Frank puts two and two together and realises that Mary is about to embark on an affair with one of the camp’s German doctors. Frank is not the kind of man who will take no for an answer and pretty soon, Mary’s secret threatens to destroy not just her happiness, but her life itself.

Pattern of Shadows is available on Amazon UK, Amazon US and your local Amazon site.

Changing Patterns

The war is over, but for Mary the danger isn’t…1950: Mary is living in mid Wales with Peter, a German ex-POW, and working as a nurse, though she knows her job is in danger if they find out about Peter. When her brother Tom is killed, Mary is devastated, especially as nobody will believe that it wasn’t an accident. Her best friend Jean is doing her best to get Mary to leave Peter and come back to Lancashire. Mary is sure this will never happen, but she has no idea of the secret Peter is keeping from her.

Changing Patterns is available on Amazon UK, Amazon US and your local Amazon site.

Living in the Shadows

It’s 1969 and Mary Schormann is living quietly in Wales with her ex-POW husband, Peter, and her teenage twins, Richard and Victoria.
Her niece, Linda Booth, is a nurse – following in Mary’s footsteps – and works in the maternity ward of her local hospital in Lancashire.
At the end of a long night shift, a bullying new father visits the maternity ward and brings back Linda’s darkest nightmares, her terror of being locked in. Who is this man, and why does he scare her so?

Living in the Shadows is available from Amazon UK, Amazon US and your local Amazon site.

An Interview With Judith Barrow

Hello Judith. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing.

Hello, Linda, thank you so much for inviting me here.

Firstly, please could you tell readers a little about yourself?

I live in Pembrokeshire, West Wales; we moved here almost thirty-eight years ago from a village in Saddleworth, at the foot of the Pennines. So we went from the moors to the coast – both have glorious scenery.

I have an MA in Creative Writing, a B.A. (Hons.) in Literature, and a Diploma in Drama and Script Writing. I am also a Creative Writing tutor and run workshops on all genres.

When I’m not writing I’m researching for my writing or reading (I’m on Rosie Amber’s Review Team, #RBRT), or walking the Pembrokeshire coastline. I also organise the letting of our holiday apartment Saddleworth House.

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as a writer, it was just something I always did but I never shared it with anyone for years. Even when I had poems and short stories published I treated it as a hobby. It was after I had breast cancer and decided to get the degree and MA that I knew I wanted to be a ‘real’ writer.

How do you carry out the research for your novels?

Initially, for the trilogy, it was in the Oldham Archive and History Library. After that, it’s always libraries locally, the internet and reading books on the particular era I’m researching.

Three of your novels (Pattern of Shadows, Changing Patterns and Living in the Shadows) focus on WW2 and its aftermath in the next couple of decades. Why does this era hold such an attraction for you?

I find recent history fascinating, there have been so many changes over the last hundred years; it’s history but it’s still– just–within living memory. But how these books started is a pure coincidence. I was researching for another novel when I came across some information on Glen Mill, the first POW camp for Germans in WW2; a disused cotton mill in Oldham. I’ve spoken often about my memories of my mother being a winder in a cotton mill when I was very young and Glen Mill caught my interest.  I wondered how those prisoners would feel; what would their lives be like, how would they interact with the locals, if indeed they did. One thing led to another and, before I knew where I was I was researching the whole of that era.  I wanted to write about that time and of a similar place. I knew there had always to be a hospital in every camp and I wanted there to be a female protagonist.

At first I was told there wouldn’t be a civilian nurse there but I went to the Imperial War Museum and found out there was one. And so Mary Howarth came to life and I was hooked on her, on her family and their story.  Pattern of Shadows was the result. The sequel, Changing Patterns, seemed a natural follow-on. But then I knew that the next generation would also be affected by the actions of their elders in one way or another, so Living in the Shadows, set in 1969, came out in 2015. But this family won’t leave me alone and my WIP is the prequel, set between 1910-1922, the story of Mary Howarth’s mother and father.

(Oh, brilliant – I can’t wait for the prequel to come out.)

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

I think the easiest is the plotting and then planning the time line of the story. The most difficult is when the story refuses to fit the timeline and I have to do a massive juggling around of where the characters should be – and when.

How has being a creative writing tutor impacted on your own writing?

I love tutoring and I seem to be doing more and more of it as the years go by.  I’ve just signed up to tutor five weekend workshops at a local guesthouse which holds craft and Interest holidays.  The only downside, these days is the lack of time for my own writing. But sometimes I come away from the classes buzzing with enthusiasm and start to write as soon as I get home.

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

I’m lucky enough to have a study. It’s an L-shaped room and the shorter side is where I paint and the longer length is where I keep all my files for my tutoring. And books- lots and lots of books. I’m usually up at five in the morning to write; it’s when my brain works best. But, often, I wake up in the early hours and write then.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I’ll have a go at most genres. But, if a book bores me or the writing is particularly bad, unless I’m reviewing a book for #RBRT I’ll only read for the first fifty pages – or around thirty percent if I’m reading on kindle

If you hadn’t become an author, what would you have done instead as a creative outlet? 

I paint. I probably would paint more.

Do you have other interests that give you ideas for writing?

Walking. Walking the Pembrokeshire coastline is so glorious and it’s inspiring for a lot of my poems. And watching people walking by gives me ideas for characters and plots.

Which of your characters would you most like to be and why?

Mary Howarth. I love her strength, her belief in herself, her loyalty.

If one of your books became a film, which would you choose and why?

I would love to see Pattern of Shadows as a film. Or maybe a TV drama. Oh, if only someone could see this too!

You have your own blog and you’re on Twitter and Facebook. How important do you think social media is to authors in today’s society?

I think it’s a necessity.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that one of your books should be their next read, what would you say?

‘Please believe me, this is a book that will change the way you think about …’ Hmm, is that cheating?

(Possibly, but it’s also intriguing!)

Is there anything else you would have liked to be asked?

No, I don’t think so; these have been brilliant questions

Thank you so much for your time, Judith, in answering my questions.

Thank you for your time, and for this opportunity to appear on your blog.

My pleasure Judith.

About Judith Barrow

Judith Barrow, originally from Saddleworth, near Oldham,has lived in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for thirty four years. She has BA (Hons) in Literature with the Open University, a Diploma in Drama from Swansea University and a MA in Creative Writing with the University of Wales Trinity St David’s College, Carmarthen. She has had short stories, plays, reviews and articles, published throughout the British Isles and has won several poetry competitions. She has completed three children’s books. She is also a Creative Writing tutor.

You can find out more about Judith on her blog/web site, on Pinterest and on Facebook. You can also follow her on Twitter.

 

My grateful thanks to Lucy Chamberlain at Legend Press for an advanced reader copy of The Wacky Man by Lyn G. Farrell in return for an honest review. Published on 2nd May 2016, The Wacky Man is available for purchase here.

My Review

Amanda sits isolated in the detritus of her room, self harming and pulling out her hair one strand at a time.

I don’t want to write a review of this remarkable book. I just want to repeat the word ‘stunning’ several times. Stunning, stunning, stunning.

I have no idea whether Lyn G. Farrell is writing from her own experiences, but her background in psychology certainly adds depth, credibility and authenticity to this outstanding read.

The narrative is split into Amanda’s first person dialogue with the reader that is set in the present day and a third person, chronological, present historic that describes her life so that the reader understands completely and harrowingly why and how Amanda behaves as she does. This is a study in mental health, domestic abuse, identity and utterly heartbreaking realism.

Those of us who have had the luxury of a stable and happy childhood and who haven’t suffered mental health problems will be educated by The Wacky Man. Lyn G. Farrell lays bare the suffering and consequences for those living in abusive and violent households in a way that defies the reader’s escape. Although much of the story is uncomfortable to read as Seamus rules the home with fear and hatred, it is impossible to put down The Wacky Man. My life was on hold while I read it, totally enthralled. The quality of the writing is breathtaking. Amanda’s self loathing is so well described that I felt I understood better the whole of humanity and not just a character in a book.

I must also mention the title which ostensibly refers to a colloquial term for the truant officer, but obviously refers also to the physical violence of Amanda’s father Seamus (and that of his extended family and personal experience too) as well as Seamus’ own mental health issues. To describe him as wacky is generous, but again the reader can understand how he behaves as he does. Other references include the psychiatrists Amanda is presented to who universally fail to help her.

The cover image too reflects the overall quality of the book. The image reminds me of Rorschach tests used in psychological assessment as well as suggesting that Amanda has blotted her copy book in her unsympathetic schools. It also put me in mind of the mould and dirt she describes in her home as she and her mother fall apart emotionally.

The Wacky Man is not going to be a comfortable read for all, but it is a book that deserves the highest possible praise. I can see it being one of my books of the year in 2016. I thought it was superb.

 The Wacky Man

The Wacky Man was winner of the Luke Bitmead Bursary.

My new shrink asks me, ‘What things do you remember about being very young?’ It’s like looking into a murky river, I say. Memories flash near the surface like fish coming up for flies. The past peeps out, startles me, and then is gone…

Amanda secludes herself in her bedroom, no longer willing to face the outside world. Gradually, she pieces together the story of her life: her brothers have had to abandon her, her mother scarcely talks to her, and the Wacky Man could return any day to burn the house down. Just like he promised.

As her family disintegrates, Amanda hopes for a better future, a way out from the violence and fear that has consumed her childhood. But can she cling to her sanity, before insanity itself is her only means of escape?

About Lyn G. Farrell

Lyn G. Farrell is the winner of the 2015 Luke Bitmead Bursary and The Wacky Man is her debut novel.
Lyn grew up in Lancashire where she would have gone to school if life had been different. She spent most of her teenage years reading anything she could get her hands on.
She studied Psychology at the University of Leeds and now works in the School of Education at Leeds Beckett University.

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