As every time I look up from my desk I can see a photograph of my Grandfather alongside his First World War medals, I’m delighted to be celebrating Fall of Poppies, a collection of short stories all about love and the Great War. Fall of Poppies was published by William Morrow on 1st March 2016.

Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War

Contributions in Fall of Poppies are by  Hazel Gaynor, Beatriz Williams, Jennifer Robson, Jessica Brockmole, Kate Kerrigan, Evangeline Holland, Lauren Willig and Marci Jefferson. Fall of Poppies is edited by Heather Webb

Top voices in historical fiction deliver an intensely moving collection of short stories about loss, longing, and hope in the aftermath of World War I – featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb.

 A squadron commander searches for meaning in the tattered photo of a girl he’s never met…

A Belgian rebel hides from the world, only to find herself nursing the enemy…

A young airman marries a stranger to save her honor—and prays to survive long enough to love her…The peace treaty signed on November 11, 1918, may herald the end of the Great War but for its survivors, the smoke is only beginning to clear. Picking up the pieces of shattered lives will take courage, resilience, and trust.

Within crumbled city walls and scarred souls, war’s echoes linger. But when the fighting ceases, renewal begins…and hope takes root in a fall of poppies.

An Extract from Fall of Poppies

From “Something Worth Landing For” by Jessica Brockmole

I first met her, crying, outside of the medical department at Romorantin.

She’d been there, hunched on the bench in the hall, when I arrived for my appointment and was still there when I stepped from the doctor’s office. She wore the same bland coveralls and white armband as the other women who worked in the Assembly Building and I might have walked straight past. I always managed to make a fool of myself in front of women— on one memorable evening with an untied shoe and a bowl of chowder—  and was sure today would be no different. After all, I’d just been standing stark naked in front of another man and was still a little red in the face.

But she chose that exact moment to blow her nose, with such an unladylike trumpet that I couldn’t help but turn and stare.

I’d never heard such an unabashed sound from a woman. She didn’t even seem to care that she sounded like an elephant. She just kept her head down and her face buried in an excessively crumpled handkerchief.

She looked as healthy as a horse to be sitting outside the medical department. Not as scrawny as the other French girls around here. She had dark hair parted on the side and pinned up in waves, but her neck was flushed pink. I wondered what kind of bug she’d caught to leave her so stuffy.

“Hello. Are you waiting for the doc?” I asked. The army doc wasn’t much— despite the file in his hand, he’d insisted on calling me “Weaselly” instead of the “Wesley” on my paperwork—  but he could probably give her some silver salts or, at the very least, a replacement handkerchief.

She lifted her head and blinked red, wet eyes. I could have smacked myself. I was a dope. She wasn’t sick. She was miserable and sobbing and I had no idea what to do.

If I’d had a sister or a girlfriend or a mother with a heart made out of something softer than granite, I might have known how to handle a teary woman. I’d never gotten as far as breaking a girl’s heart.

Regardless, a clean handkerchief would be a start, and I dug in my pockets until I found a slightly wrinkled one. I held it out, but between two fingers, like feeding a squirrel.

She looked surprised at my offer, though I wasn’t sure why. A nice- looking girl like that, surely she was used to kindness. She stared at me, then the square of cotton, then me again, considering.

I thought to add a few words of eloquence to my offer. “Go on,” I said instead. “I have dozens.” It wasn’t Shakespeare, but it must have been enough.

She swallowed and took it with a watery “Merci.”

That probably wasn’t enough. Chaplains and grandmothers always had a reassuring word or two. I wondered if I should take a cue from the padre and go with a pious Trust in Godor an old-fashioned There, there. I realized, belatedly, that I knew how to say neither in French.

She saved me from having to make a decision. “I am fine, really,” she said in quite excellent English. Tears welled up fresh in her blue eyes, but she nodded, almost too vigorously.

“Yes, never better.” She crushed the handkerchief to her eyes.

I didn’t believe her.  People who were fine didn’t cry uncontrollably in the hallway. “Bad diagnosis?” She looked healthy enough, with those pink cheeks and bright eyes, but I was no expert. Maybe she had just found out she had a week to live.

She blew her nose again, thunderously. “Bad, good, maybe both.”

This was mystifying, but I suppose that was the way of women.

Reprinted Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers

Follow more about Fall of Poppies here and on Goodreads.

Buy Links:  Amazon | B & N | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

UK Pre-order: Amazon UK

 

About the Fall of Poppies Authors

Jessica Brockmole is the author of the internationally bestselling Letters from Skye, an epistolary love story spanning an ocean and two wars. Named one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2013, Letters From Skye has been published in seventeen countries.

Website  | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home and A Memory of Violets. She writes regularly for the national press, magazines and websites in Ireland and the UK.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Evangeline Holland is the founder and editor of Edwardian Promenade, the number one blog for lovers of World War I, the Gilded Age, and Belle Époque France with nearly forty thousand unique viewers a month. In addition, she blogs at Modern Belles of History. Her fiction includes An Ideal Duchess and its sequel, crafted in the tradition of Edith Warton.

Website | Twitter | GoodReads

Marci Jefferson is the author of Girl on the Golden Coin: A Novel of Frances Stuart, which Publisher’s Weekly called “intoxicating.” Her second novel, The Enchantress of Paris, will release in Spring 2015 from Thomas Dunne Books.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Kate Kerrigan is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ellis Island trilogy. In addition she has written for the Irish Tatler, a Dublin-based newspaper, as well as The Irish Mail and a RTE radio show, Sunday Miscellany.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Jennifer Robson is the USA Today and international bestselling author of Somewhere in France and After the War is Over. She holds a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford, where she was a Commonwealth Scholar and SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. Jennifer lives in Toronto with her husband and young children.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Heather Webb is an author, freelance editor, and blogger at award-winning writing sites WriterUnboxed.com and RomanceUniversity.org. Heather is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and she may also be found teaching craft-based courses at a local college

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Beatriz Williams is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of The Secret Life of Violet Grant and A Hundred Summers. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a corporate and communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons. She now lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry. William Morrow will publish her forthcoming hardcover, A Certain Age, in the summer of 2016.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

Lauren Willig is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven works of historical fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association’s annual list of the best genre fiction. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

US readers can enter to win one of three print copies of Fall of Poppies by clicking here.

I am absolutely thrilled to bring you a Linda’s Book Bag exclusive today – the brand new cover for Laurie Ellingham’s latest novel How to Throw Your Life Away. How to Throw Your Life Away will be out on 14th April – just in time for a wonderful summer read. There will be a smashing celebratory series of events with other lovely bloggers and you must pop back here on April 16th to be in with a chance of winning a copy of How to Throw Your Life Away.

How to Throw Your Life Away

Katy Davenport was the master of rising above it – until the day she snapped!

For thirty-two year old Katy Davenport it was the littlest thing… All her boyfriend had to do was answer her question about dinner. Not ignore her. Not continue to watch football like she didn’t exist.

In that moment Katy snaps. One moment of insanity and Katy throws her life away…

I was lucky enough to meet Laurie in person last year when she had just released her novel The Reluctant Celebrity. We got on so well that it is my absolute pleasure to be featuring her again on the blog.

The Reluctant Celebrity

Some people crave fame, others can’t escape it.

When property developer and loner, Jules Stewart, comes face-to-face with her former self grinning back from the front page of Britain’s most popular tabloid, escape is not an option.

With a new house determined to remain derelict, a nosy village determined to befriend her, and a gorgeous pub owner determined to undress her, life for Jules is difficult enough. But add a famous ex-boyfriend set to ruin her life (for the second time), a newspaper eager to expose her, and everyone she has ever known desperate for their own fifteen minutes of fame…

———

Laurie was kind enough to write a guest post for Linda’s Book Bag when I was just starting out as a blogger and you can read it here.

I loved The Reluctant Celebrity and you can read my review here.

You can buy The Reluctant Celebrity from Austin Macauley, Amazon UK, Amazon US, Waterstones and from all good bookshops.

About Laurie Ellingham

When Laurie is not running around after her two young children, her husband, their cockerpoo Rodney, or just plain running, she loves nothing more than disappearing into the fictional world of her characters, preferably with a large coffee and a slab of chocolate cake to hand.

In the past five years Laurie has moved from East London to Chelmsford and she’s finally settled in a small village in the heart of the beautiful Dedham Vales on the Suffolk/Essex border.

When she’s in the thick of a character crisis she can often be seen walking around the village with her jumper on inside out and back to front, chatting (and occasionally laughing) away to herself.

Laurie has a First Class honors degree in Psychology and a background in Public relations, both of which help her in everything she does.

You can follow Laurie on Twitter and find out all about her on her website. You’ll also find Laurie on Facebook.

It is my very great pleasure to be part of the launch celebrations for Kate McQuaile’s novel What She Never Told Me which is published by Quercus on 3rd March 2016. What She Never Told Me is available for purchase in e-book and paperback from Amazon UK, Amazon US and from Quercus as well as from all good book stores.

I have a super guest post from Kate describing how fact and fiction can be uneasy bedfellows too.

What She Never Told Me

I talked to my mother the night she died, losing myself in memories of when we were happiest together. But I held one memory back, and it surfaces now, unbidden. I see a green postbox and a small hand stretching up to its oblong mouth. I am never sure whether that small hand is mine. But if not mine, whose?

Louise Redmond left Ireland for London before she was twenty. Now, more than two decades later, her heart already breaking from a failing marriage, she is summoned home. Her mother is on her deathbed, and it is Louise’s last chance to learn the whereabouts of a father she never knew.

Stubborn to the end, Marjorie refuses to fill in the pieces of her daughter’s fragmented past. Then Louise unexpectedly finds a lead. A man called David Prescott . . . but is he really the father she’s been trying to find? And who is the mysterious little girl who appears so often in her dreams? As each new piece of the puzzle leads to another question, Louise begins to suspect that the memories she most treasures could be a delicate web of lies.

Making Things Up

A Guest Post by Kate McQuaile

I’ve spent my whole journalistic life working with facts. I check and double-check everything. As I was told many years ago when I was learning how to be a journalist, you don’t write Oxford Circus W1 until you’ve checked the A-Z. And, as one of my American colleagues says, ‘if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.’

Now, after years of being bound to facts, I’m allowed to make things up. If I want to, I can rewrite history. If I decide that I’m going to make life easier or harder for a character in my novel, I can do that, too.

But it’s not as simple as that, as I’ve found during the writing of What She Never Told Me. Characters have their own reality, their own way of thinking and doing things and it’s not easy to steer them in a different direction once they start to come to life. So maybe I’m not really getting to make things up at all once the book starts to develop.

And, despite the freedom from rigid dependence on facts that writing a novel can give, I’m finding it hard to alter the habits of a lifetime. I find myself spending hours checking everything that I might refer to, from the colours of regional buses in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s to the daily tide tables and the weather. Is anyone really going to care whether there really was a major storm on a particular date? Maybe not. But I’m still going to check.

I can’t help feel slightly guilty about having taken a little bit of licence with some of the buildings that get a mention in my first novel, which is set in a real town. I have my protagonist, Louise, looking directly from one side of the river towards some apartments on the other side. In reality, the apartments I mention don’t exist on the other side of the river, but I wanted them to exist and so I put them there.

For the second book, I’ve gone down the route of inventing a place where the main part of the story takes place, so everything about it will come from my imagination.

But I have taken a bit of licence with the weather — I’ve frozen the Regent’s Canal in London during a winter that was, as far as I remember, on the mild side.

And, in the meantime, the characters are doing their own thing. I started the second book with a pretty clear idea of how it would begin and how it would end. And that idea hasn’t changed. But the characters are developing lives of their own and telling their own stories. They’ve already given me a few surprises.

Follow Kate on Twitter

Find out more about Kate McQuaile and What She Never Told Me with these bloggers:

It gives me great pleasure to be part of the launch celebrations for Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean and Me by Caroline James in association with Brook Cottage Books. Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean and Me was published by Ramjam Publishing Company on February 12^th 2016. It can be bought here in the UK and here in the US.

Caroline James shares her Top 10 Writing Tips too and I think there might be hope for me yet as an aspiring novelist after reading them!

There’s also a super competition, open internationally, to enter to win a copy of Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean and Me at the bottom of this blog post.

 

Coffee, Tea, the Caribbean and Me is a romantic comedy – the sequel to Coffee, Tea, The Gypsy & Me, which shot to number 3 on Amazon and was E-book of the Week in the Sun.

Continuing the Coffee, Tea… series, join Jo and Hattie as they romp into their middle years and prove that anything is possible!

Coffee Tea The Caribbean & Me was a top ten finalist at The Write Stuff – London Book Fair 2015. The judge’s comments included, “Caroline is a natural story-teller with a gift for humour in her writing.”

Coffee Tea The Caribbean & Me, is a a story about friendship and that there is hope in middle years, romance can happen and life really does begin again.

Set in Cumbria, London and beautiful Barbados.

‘The time to be happy is now…’

Jo remembers her late husband’s words but is struggling to face the lonely future that lies ahead. A heartbroken widow, the love of her life, husband Romany John, has died suddenly and Jo finds herself alone with ghostly memories at Kirkton House – a Cumbrian Manor that until recently, she ran as a thriving hotel. Her two sons have moved away; Jimmy to run a bar in Barbados and Zach, to London to pursue a career as a celebrity chef. Middle-age and widowhood loom frighteningly and Jo determines to sell up and start again, despite protestations from colourful friend, Hattie and erstwhile admirer Pete Parks. Hattie convinces Jo to postpone any life-changing decisions by enjoying a Caribbean holiday in Barbados and their holiday sets off a course of events that brings mayhem and madness to Jo and her family.

Confused and anxious for her future, can life really begin again for Jo? Is there hope in middle years and can romance happen?

Caroline James Shares Her Top 10 Writing Tips

It’s never too late to write. Frank McCourt was 66 when Angela’s Ashes was published. James A Michener wrote 40 books after the age of 40.

Make your own space for writing – a place where you feel totally comfortable.

Stop procrastinating – just turn up at the page and write

Use note pad and voice recording apps when you are out and about – or the traditional note pad

Develop your own style and don’t try to emulate others

Allow yourself to write badly – the main thing is to keep writing

Start a blog – a great way to get your writing flowing

Start or join a writer’s group and get support from fellow writers

Don’t proof or edit until the end – let your writing flow

Believe in yourself – don’t die wondering

ABOUT CAROLINE JAMES

Caroline James was born in Cheshire and wanted to be a writer from an early age. She trained, however, in the catering trade and worked and travelled both at home and abroad. Caroline’s debut novel, Coffee Tea The Gypsy & Me shot to #3 on Amazon and was E-book of the Week in The Sun newspaper. Her second novel, So, You Think You’re A Celebrity… Chef? has been described as wickedly funny: ‘AbFab meets MasterChef in a Soap…’ The manuscript for Coffee Tea The Caribbean & Me was a Top Ten Finalist at The Write Stuff, London Book Fair 2015 and the judge’s comments included: “Caroline is a natural story-teller with a gift for humour in her writing.” Her next novel, Coffee Tea The Boomers & Me will be published autumn 2016.

Caroline has owned and run many catering related businesses and cookery is a passion alongside her writing, combining the two with her love of the hospitality industry and romantic fiction. As a media agent, Caroline represented many well-known celebrity chefs and is currently writing a TV script and accompanying book about the life of a well-known chef. She has published short stories and is a member of the RNA and The Society of Authors. Caroline writes articles on food and celebrity based interviews and is Feature Editor for an online lifestyle magazine. When she’s not running her hospitality business and writing, Caroline can generally be found with her nose in a book and her hand in a box of chocolates, she also likes to climb mountains and contemplate life.

Find out more about Caroline on her website, follow her on Twitter and email here via caroline@carolinejamesauthor.co.uk

 

GIVEAWAY 

1st Prize – A copy of the book – UK winner (paperback) / Outside UK (ecopy)

Click here for a chance to enter and win!

 

 

I am indebted to Alison Davies for my advanced reader copy of You Sent Me A Letter by Lucy Dawson in return for an honest review. You Sent Me A Letter is published by Corvus, an imprint of Atlantic Books, on 3rd March 2016 and is available in e-book and paperback from Amazon UK, Amazon US, from all good bookstores and through the publisher.

At 2 o’clock in the morning of her 40th birthday Sophie wakes to find a man in her bedroom. He hands her a letter telling her she must open it at 8 PM that night at what she thinks is to be her birthday party or she will be putting her family in danger. So begins a catalogue of events that impact on many lives. Just who has sent her the letter and why?

You Sent Me A Letter opens with a dramatic scene and hurtles from there to the very last sentence. The plot snakes and coils so that it’s a real roller coaster of a read. I kept changing my mind about who exactly had sent Sophie a letter and I think I was suspicious of every character at some point, so clever is Lucy Dawson’s writing. I even suspected Sophie of sending herself the letter, wondering if she was mentally unstable and psychotic enough to be duping the reader.

I found all of the characters totally realistic which is what I think makes You Sent Me A Letter so chilling and psychologically disturbing – they all could have sent the letter and many might have had reason to do so. I thought the way character emerged out of dialogue was deftly handled, making the story all the more realistic.

One element that I felt worked incredibly well is the brevity of setting descriptions. There is a sparsity to the prose that makes it more compelling and thrilling to read. You Sent Me A Letter certainly raised my heartbeat.

It’s difficult to say more about You Sent Me A Letter without spoiling the plot, but if you like psychological thrillers, this is certainly a book to add to your book list.

I’m new to Lucy Dawson’s writing, but You Sent Me A Letter has confirmed that she’s a writer I’ll be reading again as soon as I can.

You can follow Lucy Dawson on Twitter, find her on Facebook and visit her web site.

I was lucky enough to meet Faith Mortimer at an event organised through The Book Club on Facebook and have long wanted to feature her on Linda’s Book Bag so it gives me enormous pleasure to host an interview with Faith today.

Faith Mortimer is a British author dividing her time between Hampshire, UK and Cyprus. Since 2005 she turned her hobby of writing into a career. During childhood, she dreamt of writing novels which readers would love, and spent many hours writing short stories which she read to her sisters.

Faith Mortimer is regularly in Amazon’s Top 100 paid lists and is best known for mystery, adventure, thriller and suspense as well as women’s fiction. You can find all Faith’s books on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

An Interview with Faith Mortimer

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

Hello Linda,

Firstly, before I answer your questions, may I just say how nice it is to be featured on your blog today? I am indeed honoured and appreciate it immensely. Thank you.

Crikey, thanks – not as honoured as I am to have you!

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

I was born in Manchester, England. I had an exciting childhood spent on Royal Air Force camps around the Globe. I think this first kindled my lifelong enthusiasm for seeing new places and people. After returning home from school in Singapore, I attended Purbrook Grammar School in Hampshire and left full time education with a handful of ‘O’ levels but a wealth of interests.

I qualified as a Registered nurse before starting a family, and much later changed careers and ran a number of sport related holiday companies. Hence my passion for sailing and snow skiing. During this time, I became a qualified Yacht Master and when my husband took early retirement we upped sticks and set sail for foreign lands. I studied for a Science degree on board our sailing yacht and being fortunate enough to gain my degree I then felt confident to write my first full length novel, The Crossing (The Seeds of Time and Harvest).

There’s a strong sense of place in your writing. How do you achieve that and to what extent has your life in the Air Force in bases around the world influenced you as a writer?

You’re absolutely right, Linda. I do set high importance in the setting of my books as I believe it adds to the richness of a story. My childhood was spent dotted around the world in some exotic countries, including Malaya (as it was then), Singapore, Malta plus some UK camps. I firmly believe that living in foreign climes and meeting other races, broadens and kindles the mind of both writer and reader.

Your Diana Rivers novels feature some very harrowing topics that are highly relevant to today’s society. What draws you to such subjects?

I have a favourite yet cynical phrase, ‘The World’s a Sewer’, and I’m not talking about poop although that is a major problem in itself!  No, every day we read and hear horror stories about rape, murder, drugs, human trafficking and the illegal sale of body parts. These problems are so vast that many countries are completely out of control socially. Although the subject matter is shocking and disheartening I believe we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the suffering of millions. By writing about these topics it is my small way of opening people’s eyes. Knowledge is power after all.

Family seems very important to you. How far does it impact on you as a writer as well as an ‘ordinary’ person?

The older I get, the more I realise how mortal we are. My family are supremely important and I endeavour to give them all the love and support I can. But I tend to get lost in my work, and sometimes have to be jolted out of my own world. But I do my best, and I’ve found that families are often great bearers of inspiration and anecdotes which often somehow find their way into my novels!

You haven’t always done things the easy way in life – studying science as a mature student when you intended to study English for example, so how far did this influence your creation of the Diana Rivers character?

I had to think about this. I’m often asked whether Diana Rivers’ character is mine and although we have similar ideas and habits we are not the same. She’s younger for one thing…but we do both like a challenge and this is probably where my determined nature comes in, as seen when I decided to read for a degree in my forties. When I’m passionate about something, I am also focused and single-minded on that subject. Diana just seemed to flow into someone similar but probably even more dogmatic!

If one of your novels became a film, who would you like to play Diana Rivers?  

Now there’s a question! Diana is essentially English and as well as having a sense of humour, she has been brought up properly with good manners and strong ideals. She doesn’t suffer fools at all and often feels tempted to thump the bad guys. So, my actress would have to play a strong character role as Diana. I’d choose someone like Kate Winslet who enjoys ‘ballsy’ parts, or Emily Blount or even Helena Bonham-Carter. Diana is in her forties, so some of the younger actresses of today would be too immature – as yet.

As well as the Diana Rivers series, you write psychological thrillers under the Dark Minds banner. How do the two series differ from one another?

The Diana Rivers series always has the same main cast in each book as well as others who pop up from time to time throughout the series. The Dark Minds series always has a completely new set of characters for each novel. I tend to be a bit more graphic with the Dark Mind series and play heavily on the mind of the protagonist, hence the psychological effect.

When you write your Affair romances, how easy or difficult is it to move into a different genre from thrillers and crime and what writing processes do you have to do differently?

At first it is difficult to slip into this new genre and generally takes me a week or so to adjust. Once I’ve realised that I don’t have to kill off my main characters (lol) then I settle into my writing groove. I write at the same time and place, and use much the same writing processes, hopefully creating empathetic characters who readily engages with my readers. I tackle topics which occur in everyday life: death, illness, infidelity for example as well as good old fashioned love, babies and marriage.

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

Thank you for looking me up – now – please try me for your next read!

You had a word left over so I think I’d rewrite your sentence to say ‘Thank you for looking Faith up. You definitely must try her for your next read!’

Faith, thank you so much for such interesting answers. 

You can find Faith on Facebook, Twitter, her website/blog, on Goodreads and on Amazon US and Amazon UK Author Pages.

 

As someone for whom wearing a hat is akin to being asked to dance naked in Trafalgar Square, I was fascinated when one of my favourite book publicists, Helena Sheffield, brought out a book all about hats and I asked Helena if she would be kind enough to write a guest post about how a publicist became an author. Luckily she agreed.

The Art of Wearing Hats

The Art of Wearing Hats was published on 11th February 2016 by Harper Collins and is available from Waterstones, WH Smith, Foyles and Amazon.

The perfect and practical pocket guide to being a hat wearer for novices and aficionados alike, complete with tips on where to buy them, how to wear them, who wears them best and tricks of the trade (yes hat hair, we’re looking at you).

Hats have been a mainstay of fashion for centuries, but now they’re back with a bang – overtaking the accessories departments of Topshop et al and gracing the celebrated heads of Taylor Swift, Cara Delevigne, Johnny Depp and the like day in and day out. But which one should you wear? Which will suit you best, how should you wear them and when?

The Art of Wearing Hats answers all these questions and more. Broken down into chapters covering everyday, outdoor and special occasion hats, you’ll soon discover the full range to choose from, alongside who in the Googlable world you can turn to for styling tips, and fun facts about where each originated from.

Complete with illustrations and tips on how to grow your hat-wearing confidence, it might be an idea to start making room in your wardrobe.

Publicist Turned Author

Guest Post by Helena Sheffield

It’s not every day someone turns to you in the pub one evening and says you should write a book called Who Wants to Be a Milliner. But that’s what happened almost exactly a year ago during some post-work drinks. I’d been at HarperCollins for a year and a half and was working in Sales, comfortable in the knowledge that the thing I was most known for was wearing hats. A lot.

It was one of the Directors who turned to me and suggested this brilliantly punny title (which, as you may have guessed, did not last long), but that was all he had – the rest, he suggested jokingly, was up to me. We laughed about it, but then an email fell into my inbox the following morning:

Think you can come up with a proper concept and proposal for the hat book? It might actually work…

When I was growing up I avoided risks at all costs – more than that, I avoided attention and dreaded doing anything different. But something changed when I was at University, and I started saying yes. Yes, I’ll set up a Creative Writing Society; yes, I’ll compete in Ballroom and Latin competitions; yes, I’ll apply to that publishing job even though I probably won’t get it… So how could I say no now?

It took months to pull together a proposal I and the publishing team were happy would actually work, but I was aware the entire time of just how absurdly lucky this whole situation was. I can’t deny it’s something I’ve always wanted, and here it was happening (sorry, hattening) right in front of me! Definitely still doesn’t feel real…

I finally got the go-ahead in July 2015 and had just over a month to write it. We wanted it to be illustrated in black and white, and I happen to have an aunt who’s an artist so I worked with her throughout the process as I wrote and she drew (yes, there are pictures of my entire family in that book. Yes, I remain embarrassed about the one of me in a turban…).

The Editorial process was eye-opening and fascinating – I’d only just started working at Avon as Digital Marketing Manager, so I hadn’t previously seen much of how Editors and authors work together. Emily my Editor had truly spectacular insight, and when I look at the finished product now I can’t believe it’s a proper book!

I finished writing and editing in early September 2015, and from there it was a case of getting it designed and printed. But the next bit is the good bit. I’d spent almost two years working for various divisions of the HarperCollins Sales team, so I got all the Top Secret Sales info that no author would normally get. I threatened to be their absolute worst nightmare if they didn’t sell the book, but for some reason I don’t think they’re very scared of me…

Because of their tireless efforts, the book has managed to be taken by a huge amount of independent bookshops, libraries, museums and even hat shops across the country (and a few more beyond – I hear Sweden has 4 copies). Discovering it was selected by Waterstones was pretty much the dream, but the dramatic point was when my old boss came up to my desk to tell me that Waitrose were going to be taking it for their Mother’s Day promotion.

I definitely didn’t cry. In public. (I still can’t live that one down…).

It’s been a frankly unbelievable experience, taking almost a year from pitch to publication. I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive team throughout HarperCollins (plus there’s less awkward ‘toilet small talk’ now, as people just ask me about the book instead). It’s been the epitome of wish fulfilment.

Next up: I’ve been approached to go to the Epsom Derby to blog about hats, so stay tuned for a ridiculous amount of excitement from me. And then, who knows, I’m open to ideas for Book Two…

You can follow Helena on Twitter

THE BIGGEST EVER LIVE EVENTS PROGRAMME AT DULWICH BOOKS CONTINUES…

Following hugely successful events in January and February, the programme continues throughout March, taking place in both Dulwich Books in West Dulwich and the legendary The Bedford in Balham and featuring some of the biggest names in crime writing, exciting new debut authors and bold voices of non-fiction.

 MARCH EVENT HIGHLIGHTS AT DULWICH BOOKS

Dulwich Books, 6 Croxted Road, SE21 8SW

New Voices: Tinder Press party

with

Rebecca Mackenzie, Sarah Duguid and Sarah Leipciger

Thursday 3^rd March, 7.00pm. Tickets cost £5.00 and include a glass of wine.

Join Tinder Press, publisher of some of the most exciting new fiction, to celebrate three phenomenal debuts.

Sarah Duguid is the author of Look At Me, a deft exploration of family, grief, and the delicate balance between moving forward and not quite being able to leave someone behind. It is an acute portrayal of how familial upheaval can cause misunderstanding and madness, damaging those you love most.

You can read my review of Look At Me here.

Rebecca MacKenzie is the author of In A Land Of Paper Gods, a story of a child far from home and caught between two cultures. In A Land of Paper Gods marries exuberant imagination with sharp pathos, and introduces Rebecca Mackenzie as a striking and original new voice.

You can read my review of In A Land of Paper Gods here.

Sarah Leipciger is the author of The Mountain Can Wait, a story of fathers and sons and the heartache they cause each other, in the tradition of Annie Proulx. Set in a stunning but scarred Canadian landscape, this is a sweeping, stunning debut novel that is a joy to read.

You can read my review of The Mountain Can Wait here.

 Deadly in Dulwich

with

Alex Marwood, Erin Kelly and Jane Casey

Wednesday 9^th March, 7.00pm. Tickets are £10 and include drinks.

Join us for the second installation of our new series of crime writing events Deadly in Dulwich to meet Alex Marwood, Erin Kelly and Jane Casey to talk about crime writing, their latest novels, and how they keep the reader gripped until the last page. The conversation will be chaired by Claire McGowan.

Alex Marwood’s latest thriller The Darkest Secret is already creating quite a buzz among lovers of crime fiction. The book opens with the line ‘Apologies for the general email, but I desperately need your help. My goddaughter, Coco Jackson, disappeared from her family’s holiday home in Bournemouth on the night of Sunday/Monday August 29/30th, the bank holiday weekend just gone. Coco is three years old…’

Erin Kelly is the author of critically acclaimed psychological thrillers The Poison Tree, The Sick Rose, The Burning Air and The Ties That Bind. Erin has been longlisted for the 2011 CWA John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger Award and is also famous as the author of the book inspired by the Broadchurch series.

Jane Casey is an Irish-born crime writer famous for her series featuring detective Maeve Kerrigan. Her novel The Stranger You Know won the Mary Higgins Clark Award and she has also been shortlisted for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award four times as well as the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. Her latest book is After the Fire.

 

Claire McGowan is a writer and writing teacher who has been acclaimed as ‘Ireland’s answer to Ruth Rendell’ by Ken Bruen. The fourth in her Paula Maguire series, A Savage Hunger will be published in March.

MARCH EVENT HIGHLIGHTS AT THE BEDFORD

The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, Balham, SW12 9HD

 DISPLACEMENTS

with

Ben Rawlence, Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes

Thursday 10^th March, 7.30pm. Tickets are £6 and are fully redeemable against a purchase of City of Thorns. 10% of profits from the event will be donated to CalAid (calaid.co.uk)

Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land. To the charity workers, Dadaab refugee camp is a humanitarian crisis; to the Kenyan government, it is a ‘nursery for terrorists’; to the western media, it is a dangerous no-go area; but to its half a million residents, it is their last resort. Among those seeking sanctuary there are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; Tawane, the indomitable youth leader; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education. In City of Thorns, described as ‘timely, disturbing and compelling’ by The Guardian, Ben interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.

 Olumide Popoola is a writer, lecturer, poet and performer. In the last year she has made a number of visits to the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais. Unlike Dadaab, which is administered by the UN, the Jungle is a settlement established by the people who live there, most of whom are trying to reach the UK. Olumide’s experiences will be recorded in Breach, to be published by Peirene Press in August 2016, and will tell the story of the crisis through the voices of refugees stuck in Calais. It documents an illusion disrupted: ‘that of a neatly ordered world, with those deserving safety and comfort separated from those who need to be kept out’.

Annie Holmes is the co-writer of Breach. Originally from Zimbabwe, she is a distinguished filmmaker, writer and lecturer. She has worked extensively on tackling the structural causes of HIV at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Christina Lamb OBE, foreign correspondent of the Sunday Times, and bestselling author of books including I Am Malala, will be chairing the event.

What are the root causes of current displacements? What are the long-term prospects for refugee camps and the people who live in them? And of course, what can the UK and the wider international community do to help? Join us to discuss the past, present and future of refugee camps. With an unprecedented refugee crisis in Europe, and the continued displacement of peoples on other continents, there has hardly been a more important time to reflect on the status of these precarious communities.

For press enquiries and author interview requests please contact Sophie Goodfellow and Hayley Steed at ed public relations on sophie@edpr.co.uk /hayley@edpr.co.uk or call on 020 7732 4796

For more information about the events including ticket prices, patron tickets and venue details please visit www.dulwichbooks.co.uk or call 020 8670 1920

Follow on Twitter: @DulwichBooks/@TheBedfordPub

 

As an aspiring writer I’m fascinated by authors who manage to develop a character and write a series of books so I’m delighted that Marni Graff, author of The Nora Tierney Mysteries which are published by Bridle Path Press, agreed to discuss how she does this.

The Nora Tierney Mysteries can be found on Amazon UK and Amazon US:

The Blue Virgin: A Nora Tierney Mystery (Oxford) – WINNER: Mystery and Mayhem Award for Classic British Cozy, Chanticleer Book Media

The Green Remains: Book 2 (Lake District) – WINNER: Classic British Cozy, Mystery and Mayhem Awards

The Scarlet Wench: Book 3 (Lake District) – Shortlisted, Best Mystery, Chanticleer Book Media

Developing Nora Tierney

A Guest Post by Marni Graff

I’m a voracious reader, and once I find a writer whose work I’ve enjoyed, I’ll read his other books. I try to read those books in the order their written to see the development of his or her continuing characters.

When I decided to write mysteries, I knew a series would allow me to stretch and grow my characters in the same way I’ve enjoyed the growth and development of those readers whose books I reach for again and again.

I developed the character of Nora Tierney, an American writer living in the UK, and made her reasonably young to allow for years of growth as I decided on what I call her “bible” the history of her life that may or may not make it to the page. This background helps me know Nora better, so I have a feeling for how she would react in certain situations. I do these for all the main characters in each book, especially the returning characters in a series. The two most important things I have to decide for any character are: what they want the most, and what they fear the most.

As a writer, Nora loves research of any kind and is an information gatherer. I also gave her an insatiable curiosity, which leads to her snooping, and a strong sense of fairness and justice, both of which contribute to her tendency to become involved in murder investigations. Nora has been known to lie at the drop of a hat if it will further her gathering of what she considers important or necessary information. She sees these fabrications as harmless. The detectives she runs across don’t necessarily agree.

Despite different themes for each novel, where the mystery is solved and resolution achieved, the underlying theme of all the books is how the choices we make affect our lives. Nora’s background had to have some kind of kink in it that has ramifications for her now that follows that theme, and Nora still suffers guilt from her father’s death in a sailing accident. A teenager at the time, she’d turned down his offer for an evening sail in favour of a date, a reasonable thing for anyone of that age, until a squall capsized his boat. She carries the unreasonable idea that if she’d gone with him, he would have survived. This also has an impact on her relationships with men. She’s often confused about her feelings for the men she cares about and has difficulty becoming too attached.

Then I threw in a real kicker in the first book, The Blue Virgin: her backstory had her unhappily engaged to a workaholic scientist. Nora was on the verge of calling it off when he was killed in a plane accident. Fast forward to the current action weeks later, and she finds out she’s pregnant and has to decide whether to keep the baby as a single parent. This is in the midst of trying to prove her best friend, artist Val Rogan, is innocent of a murder charge in the death of Val’s partner, Bryn Wallace. The book is set in Oxford, where Nora is packing up to move to Cumbria. But first, she is determined to clear Val.

Saddling Nora with a child to raise alone gave her many challenges and responsibilities that thwart her natural desires. During the second book, The Green Remains, Nora is living in the Lake District at Ramsey Lodge, home of her children’s books illustrator, and is heavily pregnant. I had to keep in mind Nora’s physical condition and how that would impact and interfere with her ability to snoop actively when she stumbles across a body at the edge of Lake Windermere. She couldn’t rush around Bowness sleuthing due to not being able to see her feet at this point!

In book three, The Scarlet Wench, Nora’s son is six months old when a theatre troup arrives to stage Noel Coward’s farce, Blithe Spirit, at Ramsey Lodge. She’s also developing a relationship with Oxford detective DI Declan Barnes, whom she met in book one. This overarching storyline is one I devised for Nora at the outset. Now when a series of accidents and pranks lead to murder right on the premises, Nora’s son must be protected and cared for as she helps Declan unmask the killer amongst them.

There will be more challenges for Nora down the road. I’ve already planted seeds in these first three books that will grow into plot lines in the planned six books, at a minimym. The next book is The Golden Hour, and Nora has decided to return to Oxford, but the majority of the action takes place in Bath, where she’s staying with friends for a week. She’s there for a reading and signing of her books at a real Bath bookstore that has given me permission to use their setting, Mr. B’s Reading Emporium.

Unfortunately, there will be more deaths and this time the threat becomes very real for Nora and her son. I just can’t seem to keep that gal out of trouble!

———

About Marni Graff

Marni Graff is the author of the award-winning Nora Tierney English Mysteries, and the new series, The Trudy Genova Manhattan Mysteries, which recently debuted with Death Unscripted. The Managing Editor of Bridle Path Press, Marni Graff also writes a crime review blog at www.auntiemwrites.com and is a member of Sisters in Crime.

You can follow Marni on Twitter and you’ll also find her on Facebook.

 

 

I am indebted to Sam Eades for a review copy of The Life and Death of Sophie Stark in return for an honest review. The Life and Death of Sophie Stark was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of Orion books. It is available for purchase in e-book, hardback and paperback from Amazon UK, Amazon US.

Sophie Stark makes films, but she makes them at enormous personal and emotional cost to all involved, including herself.

I’m really struggling to formulate a review of this incredible book as I’m not sure what I’ve just read. I’m feeling quite unsettled and disturbed!

Elements of The Life and Death of Sophie Stark are psychological, sexual, familial, so that there is layer upon layer of depth and frequent obfuscation from Sophie, despite her blunt approach, leaving me reeling. Anna North’s skill is such that I felt tense the whole time I was reading.

Told from the first person perspective of those who encounter and love Sophie, we never really know who Sophie is or what she really thinks and feels. It is as if the reader is viewing Sophie through a prism of others’ perspectives in the same way Sophie views life through her camera lens; one step removed from reality.

Even though I couldn’t decide if Sophie was a needy, lost soul or a manipulative, emotional bankrupt at times, she held me in as much thrall as she did Allison, Robbie et al. There is a rawness of emotion to her and a self-destructive desperation that somehow touches the soul. We all construct our own identities to some extent and have our own stories to tell so that, even when I wanted to hate Sophie, it was more because Anna North is holding a mirror up for readers to view ourselves than because Sophie is a morally corrupt individual.

Each time a different character told their Sophie story I felt I understood her less. I found this level of plotting skilful and compelling and I loved the cohesion of the reviews by Ben Martin so that it seemed fitting to have his final essay included. In a way, The Life and Death of Sophie Stark reminded me of Frankenstein with its layers of meaning and narrative and its monstrous yet pathetic (in the truest sense of the word) central character.

I ended the read with a profound sense of sadness and, simultaneously, a sense of relief that Sophie Stark hadn’t been in my life.

I think The Life and Death of Sophie Stark is a book that will divide opinion, but what it will do, is force readers to have that opinion. As for me – I thought it was amazing.

———

You can find out more about Anna North on her web site, her Sophie Stark web site, by following her on Twitter and finding her on Facebook