One of the wonderful aspects of being a blogger is being in at the start of a whole new reading adventure. Author Mark Zaslove has a brand new series starting and he’s here on Linda’s Book Bag to stay in and tell me more today.

Staying in with Mark Zaslove

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

Thanks, Linda – I’m a stayer-inner at heart so I appreciate the invite.The outside world is overrated.

(Ha! You might be right there!)

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’m sharing my thriller/suspense/humorous novel Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent which was published on June 12 (just a few days after my birthday), because it’s fast, fun, and was a hoot to write.

(Oo. Belated Happy Birthday to you and Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent.)

What can we expect from an evening in with Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent?

Hmm, you can expect the unexpected, for example, when our IRS agent hero Mark Douglas needs to ask for help from a Texas cattle billionaire with a very cowish lifestyle.  Here’s Mark’s description of the billionaire’s unusual mode of transportation:

Take it from me, ’cause I’ve seen it all in my capacity as IRS over-the-shoulder-peek-a-boo auditor extraordinaire: luxury was a sliding scale thing. To some, three hot meals of Mickey D’s quarter pounders with Supersize fries and a ceiling with upstairs neighbors thumping around on at 2:00 a.m. was the Ritz. To others, anything short of a gold-plated Rolls with a custom license plate that read, “SWNKY,” simply “will not do, dear.” Then there was Jim Walker’s private jet. Jesus in a leopard-skin pillbox hat.

First, it was painted, shined and waxed Black Angus black. We were talking stealth black, the black between stars black, the total absence of color black. Lettered—in black—on the side of the plane was the corporate name: Tiny Beef Enterprises. Only readable when the light hit it just right. And it had horns. Big ol’ horns on either side of the cockpit. Ostensibly radar bubbles, but they sure looked like cow horns to me. Don’t know how the FAA let him do that, but I guessed money not only talked, it mooed.

Or Mark’s running commentary on a rather dimwitted money launderer who was definitely not the brains of the family:

It was Desmond Gloucester’s wedding anniversary. His tenth wedding anniversary. The “tin” anniversary. Tin? Who thought of that one? One of the original Puritans over on the Mayflower? And why did it not surprise me that his wife divorced him immediately afterward? “You giveth me tin? Thy stuff’s on the frontal lawn; I’m callingeth a solicitor.” Did we even use tin for anything anymore? Not like we had tin cans, or tin pans, or Tin Men. But I was rambling. Modern gift selection recommended for your tenth: diamond jewelry! Since when did an Oprah-raised, Redbook-in-the-supermarket-checkout-line- reading, I-want-a-separate-bank-account wife married more than three minutes want anything less than diamond jewelry? Ten years? She was ready to get a hunk of allotroped carbon that gave her carpel tunnel of the wrist just holding it up. Ten years? It better be set in platinum as well, or “sweetie” wasn’t doin’ any salami hiding until he manned up. “No rock, no rock ’n’ roll.”

So, expect the weird and wonderful.

(I think you may well have proved your point Mark!)

What else have you brought along and why? 

I brought some pics to share of the “yang” to my writing “yin.” I work ALL THE TIME doing scripts for Hollywood (and Tollywood, not mention many parts of Europe and China).  TV, movies, video games, and I like it, but to get my head right sometimes I need some solitude and heading out to the mountains to do astrophotography lets me go off-the-grid/no bars on the phone and just sit under the stars and take pretty pictures of the universe.

(That sounds the perfect way to relax.)

So, here’s my astro-imaging rig at a trailhead parking lot where I set up (note the Kindle):

(That makes my camera looks every so slightly inadequate Mark…)

And here are some images I took over the last few years.

This is M31 the Great Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral galaxy that lies about 2.5 million light-years from me and maybe a few feet closer to you.

(Wow – what an image!)

Then there’s NGC 7000 the North American Nebula (don’t it look North Americany?), which is a big ol’ cloud of interstellar gas glowing away all hydrogen. A bunch of dust between it and us is absorbing some of the light, which gives it the distinctive shape. This baby lies within our own galaxy.

(I can see how doing this makes you switch off from the day job Mark. Just the images are giving me perspective about my place in the world.)

And this is one of the very first images I took when I got back into astrophotography (did it as a kid): Barnard 33 the Horsehead Nebula (the little horsey thingie) and NGC 2024 the Flame Nebula (the bigger flameythingie). More gas and stars and nebulosity.

So, this is what I do to clear my head between furious bouts of writing: go out to the mountains and hang under the Milky Way with no disturbances (except the occasional woodland creature trying to mooch booze off me) and snap digital pics of the heavens. Exciting, huh?

It certainly is. I’ve loved seeing these photographs. Thank you so much for bringing them along and for staying in with me to chat all about Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent. I’ve really enjoyed our evening.

Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent

Death and Taxes follows Mark Douglas, an ex-Marine turned IRS agent, who, along with auditing the weird and the profane, also spearheads weekend raids with his locked-and-loaded gang of government-sanctioned revenuers, merrily gathering back taxes in the form of cash, money order, or more often than not, the debtor’s most prized possessions.

Things turn ugly when Mark’s much-loved boss and dear friend Lila is tortured and killed over what she finds in a routine set of 1040 forms.

Enlisting his IRS pals – Harry Salt, a 30-year vet with a quantum physical ability to drink more than humanly possible; Wooly Bob, who’s egg-bald on top with shaved eyebrows to match; Miguel, an inexperienced newbie with a company-issued bullhorn and a penchant for getting kicked in the jumblies – Mark hunts down the eunuch hit man Juju Klondike and the deadly Mongolian mob that hired him as only an angry IRS agent can. There will be no refunds for any of them when April 15th comes around. There will only be Death and Taxes.

Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent is available for purchase through these links.

About Mark Zaslove

Mark Zaslove, author of Death and Taxes: Tales of a Badass IRS Agent, is a writer/director/producer of both live-action and animated movies and television. He creates content for all major studios, including Disney, Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. A two-time Emmy Award winner for writing/producing, and a recipient of the Humanities Prize (for writing about uplifting human values in television and movies), he also writes short fiction and has served as a senior editor on various magazines. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, he lives with his teenage son in Los Angeles.

You can find out more by visiting Mark’s website, following him on Twitter @mark_zaslove or finding him on Facebook.

Earlier this year I had the privilege of staying in with lovely Mary Smith to discuss her book No More Mulberries in a post you can read here. I have also been lucky enough to read and review (here) Mary’s short story collection Donkey Boy.

I have so enjoyed Mary’s writing and she is such a wonderful supporter of Linda’s Book Bag, that when I heard she had a new book out with photographer Keith Kirk, Secret Dumfries, I just had to invite her back to the blog. Today Mary has kindly written a guest post all about writing what you know and even better, it’s Mary’s birthday today so happy birthday Mary!

Secret Dumfries is available to buy on Amazon or directly from the publisher, Amberley Publishing.

Secret Dumfries

Dumfries, in south-west Scotland, has a long history, much of it well recorded. However, as with most places there are more than a few secrets hidden away.

First referred to as the Queen of the South by local poet David Dunbar in 1857, the name stuck and was later adopted by the local football team. Not many know that this makes it the only football team in the world mentioned in the Bible.

Darker aspects of the town’s history include the burning of nine witches on the Whitesands in 1659 and the last public hanging of a woman in Scotland, Mary Timney, was held in Dumfries in 1862. There are tales of plague victims being exiled to Scabbit Isle, of murderers and grave robbers.

Not all its secrets are so dark: there’s Patrick Miller and his introduction of turnips courtesy of King Gustav III of Sweden, and the exiled Norwegian Army making its home in Dumfries during the Second World War. And what is the significance of the finials depicting telescopes and anchors on the railings along the Whitesands?

Local author Mary Smith and photographer Keith Kirk take the reader on a fascinating journey through the town’s past, unearthing tales of intrigue and grisly goings-on as they provide a glimpse into some of the lesser-known aspects of the town’s history.

Write What You Know

A Guest Post by Mary Smith

All writers are familiar with the ‘write what you know’ adage.  It doesn’t mean you have to have been confronted in real life by an axe-wielding murderer to know how such a situation would feel. We’ve all experienced fear (whether it was being bullied at school or being driven round corkscrew bends up a mountain by a heroin addicted driver) and a writer’s imagination can take that emotion, gear it up a few notches and slip it into the axe-wielding murderer scene.

Non-fiction writers are also expected to write what they know. Amberley Publishing contracted me to write Secret Dumfries in collaboration with photographer Keith Kirk because of my knowledge of local history. I’ve already worked on two titles for them – Dumfries Through Time and Castle Douglas Through Time.  

Dumfries is the main town in Dumfries and Galloway in south west Scotland, where I live. It’s a town I know fairly well, though I would never dream of claiming to know all about it. However, as a journalist the ‘write what you know’ adage has an addendum – ‘if you don’t know jolly well go and find out.’ In the newsroom jolly might not have been the word used.

I was excited to have the opportunity to use more of the local knowledge I’d gained while researching the previous books but best of all was the chance to discover the less well known stories about the town. I loved learning about some of the people of Dumfries, many of whom really deserve to be better remembered.

One of my favourites is Blin Tam the bell-ringer. Thomas Wilson was born in 1760 and lost his sight after contracting smallpox when still a small child yet, by the time he was twelve years old he had taken on the role of bell-ringer at the Midsteeple. He kept the job for sixty-three years, supplementing his income by becoming a skilled wood turner, making kitchen utensils for the town’s housewives. He cut his own peats, grew his own vegetables and cooked for himself. Strangers meeting him often never realised he was blind. It is said he rang the bell over 100,000 times and only once, in all those years, was known to make a mistake.

It was thanks to self-taught astronomer Robert Louis Waland, who made the 61-inch reflecting telescope used in mapping the moon for the Apollo programme that Neil Armstrong knew where he was when he landed on the moon. Another favourite Doonhamer (the name given to those born and brought up in Dumfries) is Miss Jessie McKie the first and only woman to be granted the freedom of the burgh. She did a huge amount for the town: gave land on which the library is built, money to widen the bridge into town, built a public laundry and bath house, provided a granite horse trough, which reads, ‘A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.’ She was also for a time proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Scotland’s oldest working theatre.

Silver burgess casket presented to Miss Jessie McKie

A chapter of the book is called Remember to look up! to encourage people to raise their eyes from their mobile phones to look up at the remarkable carvings on the old sandstone buildings, or to see the very rare fire mark, which indicated the building was insured against fire. Keith, who usually photographs wildlife, used his long lenses to show the fine details not usually noticed.

My favourite and perhaps the quirkiest story is about the rhinoceros, which presides over a busy road on the outskirts of the town. I’d always known it was there – you can’t miss it – but not the story behind it. Schoolchildren had been asked for ideas to brighten up the area and decided a rhinoceros should be put on top of the bus shelter. An artist was commissioned and it became a well-known landmark until the bus shelter was removed when the road was widened. Unfortunately, the new bus shelter had a curved roof and the rhino couldn’t be placed on top. Unhappy Doonhamers made their views known. The matter was resolved by building a pretend bus shelter with a flat roof and the rhino – which had miraculously had a baby while in storage – was brought back.

Aware that many residents of Dumfries are very knowledgeable about the town’s history was a bit daunting. They’d be quick to let me know if I’d got things wrong but what has been really satisfying is the number of people who’ve said, “Well, I never knew that before.”

Thanks so much for this fascinating post Mary. You’ve made me want to visit Dumfries, and perhaps more importantly, made me want to discover more about my own area by looking up more frequently!

About Mary Smith

Mary Smith has always loved writing. As a child she wrote stories in homemade books made from wallpaper trimmings – but she never thought people could grow up and become real writers. She spent a year working in a bank, which she hated – all numbers, very few words – ten years with Oxfam in the UK, followed by ten years working in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She wanted others to share her amazing, life-changing experiences so she wrote about them – fiction, non-fiction, poetry and journalism. And she discovered the little girl who wrote stories had become a real writer after all.

Drunk Chickens and Burnt Macaroni: Real Stories of Afghan Women is an account of her time in Afghanistan and her debut novel No More Mulberries is also set in Afghanistan.

You can find out more about Mary and her writing on her website, on Facebook and by following her on Twitter @marysmithwriter.

My enormous thanks to Jenny Platt at Penguin for inviting me to be part of the launch celebrations for No Further Questions by Gillian McAllistair and for sending me a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

No Further Questions was published in by Penguin in e-book on 2nd July and is available for purchase through the links here.

No Further Questions

The police say she’s guilty.
She insists she’s innocent.

She’s your sister.
You loved her.
You trusted her.
But they say she killed your child.

Who do you believe?

Original, devilishly clever and impossible to forget, this is a thriller with a difference. You won’t be able to tear yourself away from the trial that will determine both sisters’ fates.

My Review of No Further Questions

With her sister Becky on trial for killing Martha’s daughter Layla, Martha doesn’t know what to believe.

Oh my goodness. What a thrilling read. I was captivated from the very first word and put my life on hold because I could not tear myself away from No Further Questions. It is an absolute corker of a book. I read it over a weekend and found myself awake in the night between the two days trying to decide what had happened to Layla and how I felt about the evidence presented. Gillian McAllister is such a clever, and indeed, devious writer because she makes the reader almost become Martha in the court room, contemplating the witness statements and the evidence base. I felt tense the whole time I was reading and I’m sure I suspected every character of having caused Layla’s death at some point.

Gillian McAllister is also incredibly skilful in making the reader realise they could easily find themselves in a similar situation and in making them question who really is to blame in such circumstances so that not only is No Further Questions a fantastic and exhilarating read, it is also a morally challenging one that makes the reader think and assess their own approaches in life. Had I been one of Becky’s neighbours would I have behaved as they did, or differently? I honestly don’t know and am left feeling quite disturbed as a result. No Further Questions is not a book I’ll forget in a hurry!

The plot and structure are just perfect. As Becky’s trial forms the backbone of the story, we get the details through a range of narrators including Martha so that it isn’t clear who is reliable. This adds to the tension and atmosphere in a manner that I found so effective. I want to say all kinds of other things about the plot but I can’t for fear of ruining this magnificent story for other readers. Let me just say it is fabulous as is the overall quality of the writing.

I thought No Further Questions was utterly brilliant and I simply cannot recommend it highly enough.

About Gillian McAllister

Gillian McAllister has been writing for as long as she can remember. She graduated with an English degree and lives in Birmingham, where she now works as a lawyer. Her debut novel Everything But The Truth was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller. You can find out more about Gillian on her website and by following her on Twitter @GillianMAuthor.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

I’m such a wildlife fan as regular Linda’s Book Bag readers know. This year so far I have been to Uganda to trek to see chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild and to India to look (successfully) for tigers. Later in the year I’m off to Indonesia in the hope of seeing Komodo dragons. Consequently, when Roger Thompson got in touch with me I had to invite him onto the blog to spend an evening in.

Staying in with Roger Thompson.

Welcome to a fellow wildlife enthusiast Roger. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me.

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?

I’ve brought along my latest book, No Word for Wilderness: Italy’s Grizzlies and the Race to Save the Rarest Bears on Earth, which details the plight of the rarest bears on earth. They happen to live only 50 miles from Rome, and they are, to everyone’s surprise, virtually completely vegetarian. I’ve brought it along because these bears need our help. There are only 50 of these special bears left.

(My goodness. I didn’t even know they existed. You must tell me more.)

What can we expect from an evening in with No Word for Wilderness?

The book is a fast-paced adventure through Italy, where you meet scientists advocating for the bears, park directors who survive mafia assassination attempts, and local Italians whose livelihoods are linked to the survival of the bears. There is also a remarkable story of one bear that travels to Germany and, in 2006, disrupts the World Cup, the greatest sporting event in the world—this year’s World Cup already almost over.

(Sounds exciting.)

What else have you brought along and why?

I’ve brought along two things. One is an enamel pin given to me by the director of Abruzzo National Park, home of Italy’s rare bears. I had interviewed him a couple of times for the book, and he was a gracious host. The other is a little statue that captures the spirit of these bears. My hope is that the book helps us all rethink our relationship to wild animals of all sorts, but especially bears, which are too often seen as simply dangerous. We need to make room in our imagination for visions of grizzlies that are different than what we already have.

(Those must be very special possessions, Roger)

I feel so ashamed I had no concept of these bears and their plight and am delighted to have been here to tell me more about them and your book No Word for Wilderness Roger. Thank you so much for staying in with me.

No Word for Wilderness

Fifty miles outside of Rome live the rarest grizzlies on earth.

In Italian, there is no word for wilderness. Yet in the mountains of Italy, brown bears not only exist, they are fighting to survive amid encroaching development, local and international politics, and the mafia. This meticulously researched and eye-opening book tells the incredible stories of two special populations of bears in Italy–one the last vestige of a former time that persists against all odds, the other a great experiment in rewilding that, if successful, promises to change how we see not only Italy but all of Europe.

The Abruzzo bears of central Italy have survived amid one of the oldest civilizations on earth–but now, with numbers estimated at as low as fifty individuals, they face a critical future as multiple forces, from farmers to the mob, collide within their territory. The Slovenian bears of northern Italy, brought to the Alps at the turn of the century, have sparked controversy among local and international interests alike. The stories of these bears take readers on a spectacular journey across Italy, where we come face-to-face not only with these fascinating species but with embattled park directors, heroic environmentalists, innovative scientists, and a public that is coming to terms with the importance of Italy’s rich natural history.

Award-winning author Roger Thompson has traveled throughout Italy documenting the history and current crises of these bears, and the result is an engaging and in-depth examination that resonates across all endangered species and offers invaluable insights into the ever-evolving relationships between human and non-human animals in a rapidly changing world.

Published by Ashland Creek Press, No Word for Wilderness is available for purchase here.

About Roger Thompson

Roger Thompson is Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University. His first book, Beyond Duty, a co-written best selling Iraq War memoir, went through 5 printings in its first 5 months of publication and was shortlisted for an Oprah show. It was covered by the New York Times, the Dallas Morning News, NPR, and other major media outlets. Thompson lives in New York.

You can find out more on Facebook.

Sometimes when I invite an author to stay in with me on Linda’s Book Bag I wonder if I’m doing the right thing because they make me feel so inadequate. My guest today Leigh Fossan is one such author. Not only does she write but she’s a terrific painter too.

Staying in with Leigh Fossan

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

Thank you Linda!

Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it? 

I have brought my newly released debut novel, Painting Blue Water. This is my first novel, and I’m so proud of the finished product. It is a beautiful story about love and art, and I just can’t wait to share it with readers!

(If the cover is anything to go by Leigh, it really is a beautiful story!)

What can we expect from an evening in with  Painting Blue Water?

An evening in with Painting Blue Water will bring you tears and laughter. You will dive right into the romantic comedy, and you will feel like you are friends with Katherine Ross and the other colorful characters. It is a great “escape” read. One reader says: “Hypnotizing and addicting, I read cover to cover. Katherine is so relatable and you find you are rooting for her along the way…..one of the few books I will read more than once!”

(What a lovely thing to say about Painting Blue Water. You must be so pleased with those responses.)

What else have you brought along and why?

I brought an original painting of mine titled ‘Blanket’. When I am not writing, I am a professional artist, and I sell my paintings all over the world. This original oil painting depicts a scene very similar to one Katherine might decide to paint while she is in Bluewater Lake – the fictional town in which the story is set. There is something magical about standing by a quiet lake on a foggy morning…

This is such a beautiful image Leigh. I love the atmosphere and colours. What a talented person you are. It has been so lovely to stay in with you and find out more about Painting Blue Water. Thanks for being here and good luck with both your writing and your painting.

Painting Blue Water

Katherine Ross, a struggling artist-turned-successful-businesswoman, has a life many would envy. At only thirty-one years old, Katherine runs one of the top luxury real-estate firms in Manhattan, and she lives in a fabulous loft with her dreamy husband. That is, of course, until her marriage comes to a screeching halt, forcing Katherine to face the truths she’s been burying deep within her heart. She hasn’t been happy for a long time. And her life, while glamorous, is not the life she ever wanted.

Fighting through the fog of her confusion and pain, Katherine makes the daring, or possibly insane, choice to start over somewhere new. She leaves her business, her friends, and the city behind, while she ventures alone to the mountains in hopes of rediscovering her artistic roots in a place surrounded by beauty, peace, and quiet.

In the quaint town of Bluewater Lake, Katherine finds just what she is looking for—abundant natural beauty, almost too much quiet, and a collection of colorful locals. As she adapts to the slow pace of small town life, Katherine befriends the remarkable inn proprietor, Mr. Trust, and his granddaughter Ginger, a former starlet and scandal-ridden Manhattan socialite. Katherine even begins to build an exciting, albeit rocky, relationship with the ruggedly handsome, yet mysterious and standoffish, Will. And with time, Katherine discovers her passion for painting once again.

But life in Bluewater isn’t as simple as it may seem, and when her art career suddenly begins to take off in this unlikely setting, Katherine finds herself torn between two worlds. Does she pursue her lifelong dream and become the world-famous artist she always wanted to be? Or does she open her heart to the possibility of new dreams and a life she never imagined?

Painting Blue Water is available for purchase here.

About Leigh Fossan

Painting Blue Water is the debut novel for Leigh Fossan. A creative soul at heart, Leigh grew up with a paintbrush in her hand, and went on to study the arts in Florence, Italy. While abroad, Leigh was one of the few recipients of the Coluccio Salutati Award for Creative Writing.

Today, Leigh is a professional artist and her paintings are collected around the world. She lives in Colorado with her artist husband, and their young daughter, who wants to be a scientist.

You can find out more on Leigh’s art on this website, and her writing here, on Facebook and by following her on Instagram and Twitter @LeighFossan.

I have had The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola in my TBR for two years and every time I intended to read it something prevented me so when The Story Keeper arrived unexpectedly thanks to Jenni Leech at Headline I was determined to read it as soon as I could. I’m delighted to share my review of The Story Keeper today.

The Story Keeper will be published by Tinder Press, part of the Headline Publishing Group, on 26th July 2018 and is available for pre-order here.

The Story Keeper

Audrey Hart is on the Isle of Skye to collect the folk and fairy tales of the people and communities around her. It is 1857 and the Highland Clearances have left devastation and poverty, and a community riven by fear. The crofters are suspicious and hostile to a stranger, claiming they no longer know their fireside stories.

Then Audrey discovers the body of a young girl washed up on the beach and the crofters reveal that it is only a matter of weeks since another girl disappeared. They believe the girls are the victims of the restless dead: spirits who take the form of birds.

Initially, Audrey is sure the girls are being abducted, but as events accumulate she begins to wonder if something else is at work. Something which may be linked to the death of her own mother, many years before.

My Review of The Story Collector

Needing to escape London, Audrey takes a position assisting a collector of local tales on the Isle of Skye.

What a fabulous book! The Story Keeper has absolutely everything to make it such a wonderful read. Firstly, Anna Mazzola writes with such skill that the language, style and descriptions are perfect for the era in which the book is set whilst still being totally fresh and accessible to the modern reader. There’s high quality research that underpins the story making it so convincing without ever detracting from the narrative. I really felt I understood what life was like on Skye in the mid 1800s. I loved the manner in which gender and social politics are an integral part of the story, but presented in such a way as to be velvet smooth within the writing. For me The Story Keeper ranks with the quality and traditions of Mary Shelley and George Eliot in presenting superstition, fable, women, history and social etiquette and mores with remarkable incision and effectiveness in a tapestry of intrigue and mystery.

The plot is intoxicating because Anna Mazzola blurs the lines between superstition and reality so effectively that the reader is unsure what to believe. Everything is both possible and plausible making for a thrilling read. Her descriptions sent a shiver down my spine and the underlying menace, as I never knew who could be trusted and what might happen next, gave me genuine heart-thumping moments. The Story Keeper is a wonderful amalgamation of superstition, violence and deception with crime and social history perfectly balanced.

I loved everything about The Story Keeper. I thought the characters were intense, believable and so convincing. I thought the story line was astonishingly good and brilliantly resolved. I found the weaving of truth and fiction skilled and dynamic so that I enjoyed reading every word.

In my opinion, The Story Keeper is a book of exceptional quality and is not to be missed.

About Anna Mazzola

Anna Mazzola is a writer who, due to some fault of her parents, is drawn to peculiar and dark historical subjects. Her novels have been described as literary crime fiction or historical crime. Anna’s influences include Sarah Waters, Daphne Du Maurier, Shirley Jackson and Margaret Atwood.

Her debut novel, The Unseeing, is based on the life of a real woman called Sarah Gale who was convicted of aiding a murder in London in 1837. Her second novel, The Story Keeper, follows a folklorist’s assistant as she searches out dark fairytales and stolen girls on the Isle of Skye in 1857.

She studied English at Pembroke College, Oxford, before becoming a human rights and criminal justice solicitor. She now tries to combine law with writing and child wrangling, to varying degrees of success.

You can follow Anna on Twitter @Anna_Mazz and visit her website for more information. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

A little while ago I was delighted to read and review The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr by Frances Maynard in a post you will find here. When the book was first released I was lucky enough to host an extract that you can read here too.

Today, 12th July 2018, The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr is released in paperback and I am thrilled that Frances is staying in with me to tell me more about it.

Staying in with Frances Maynard

I’m just thrilled to welcome you to Linda’s Book Bag, Frances. Thank you for agreeing to stay in with me. 

Looking forwards to it, Linda!  Thanks for inviting me.

Tell me (as if I didn’t know) which of your books have you brought along to share?

I’ve brought along my first novel, The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr.  I’ve chosen it because it’s an uplifting and thought-provoking read – ideal for the summer.

(I quite agree! Linda’s Book Bag readers can read the opening to The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr here.)

What can we expect from an evening in with The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr?

From an evening in with the book we can expect a tender, funny story about a young woman conquering boundaries and stereotypes to come into her own.  Readers have kindly said: ‘I adored every moment I spent with Elvira.  Still think about her today.  Some books just stay with you.  This is one of those.’ And: ‘I would recommend this book to anybody and everybody.  It is heart-warming, informative and wonderful.’

(And they are absolutely right Frances. My own review is here.)

What else have you brought along this evening and why?

I’ve got a large tea-pot with me and a tin of Fox’s Favourites biscuits.  My central character, Elvira, is an expert on biscuits and their packaging: ‘I liked trying out different brands and varieties and comparing them.  It added another dimension to my life’.

(You needn’t have worried about bringing a teapot. There’s always tea on the go in this house. I think the biscuits are a good idea though…)

I’d also like to introduce two very special guests to you, Linda: David Attenborough (Elvira is a big fan and repeats the words from his animal documentaries in moments of stress), and Delia Smith, whose fail-safe recipes, and liking for cardigans, Elvira finds comforting.  In fact Delia is wearing a cardigan this evening.

(Oh my goodness  – what wonderful guests. David Attenborough is one of my favourite people on the planet. My husband even bought me a trilobite fossil because David Attenborough collects them. Hang on a minute and I’ll fetch it …)

I’ve also brought along something that inspired the story: a netsuke (a small, Japanese toggle, often carved in the shape of an animal).

Elvira discovers that the netsukes brought back from Japan by her father actually came from a museum gift-shop, and it is unravelling this mystery that leads to her having to reconsider everything she had taken for granted, and to finding a new path for herself.

Thanks so much for staying in with me, bringing all those biscuits and such wonderful guests Frances. I’ve so enjoyed hearing more about Elvira because I loved meeting her and her seven imperfect rules when I read the book!

Thanks Linda.  Now we’ve sampled every biscuit in that tin I think it’s time for me to go home!

(Or I could put the kettle on again…)

The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr

Funny, heart-warming and ultimately triumphant, The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr is the perfect story for anyone who doesn’t quite fit in – and for everyone who chooses not to.

Elvira Carr is twenty-seven and neuro-atypical. Her father – who she suspects was in the secret service – has passed away and, after several Unfortunate Incidents growing up, she now spends most of her time at home with her overbearing mother. But when her mother has a stroke and is taken into care, Elvira is suddenly forced to look after herself or risk ending up in Sheltered Accommodation. Armed with her Seven Rules, which she puts together after online research, Elvira hopes to learn how to navigate a world that’s full of people she doesn’t understand. Not even the Seven Rules can help her, however, when she discovers that everything she thought she knew about her father was a lie, and is faced with solving a mystery she didn’t even know existed . . .

Published by Pan Macmillan, The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

About Frances Maynard

Frances teaches English part-time to adults with learning difficulties, including Asperger’s. She is married with one grown-up daughter and lives in Dorset.

You can follow Frances on Twitter @perkinsfran1 and visit her website.

I’m delighted to count lovely Anne Coates as a personal friend and it always amazes me that someone so bright and bubbly writes such incredible crime fiction.

Anne’s third book in the Hannah Weybridge Series, Songs of Innocence (available here) was published earlier this summer and to celebrate that Anne is kindly offering a wonderful audio version of her first two books in the series: Dancers in the Wind and Death’s Silent Judgement to a lucky UK winner. You can enter the giveaway at the bottom of this blog post.

Anne stayed in with me to tell me all about book two Death’s Silent Judgement in a post you can read here. Anne has been on Linda’s Book Bag telling us (here) about writing a sequel and again explaining the influence of reading on writing in a fantastic post you can read here.

Anne’s latest book is Songs of Innocence and it is available for purchase here.

Songs of Innocence

A woman’s body is found in a lake. Is it a sad case of suicide or something more sinister? Hannah Weybridge, still reeling from her friend’s horrific murder and the attempts on her own life, doesn’t want to get involved, but reluctantly agrees to look into the matter for the family.

The past however still stalks her steps, and a hidden danger accompanies her every move. The third in the bestselling Hannah Weybridge thriller series, Songs of Innocence provides Hannah with her toughest and deadliest assignment yet…

Here’s a little bit about each of the books Anne is kindly offering to a lucky winner:

Dancers In the Wind

SHE IS HUNTING FOR THE TRUTH, BUT WHO IS HUNTING HER?

Freelance journalist and single mother Hannah Weybridge is commissioned by a national newspaper to write an investigative article on the notorious red light district in Kings Cross. There she meets prostitute Princess, and police inspector in the vice squad, Tom Jordan.

When Princess later arrives on her doorstep beaten up so badly she is barely recognisable, Hannah has to make some tough decisions and is drawn ever deeper into the world of deceit and violence. Three sex workers are murdered, their deaths covered up in a media blackout, and Hannah herself is under threat. As she comes to realise that the taste for vice reaches into the higher echelons of the great and the good, Hannah realises she must do everything in her power to expose the truth …. and stay alive.

You can listen to a sample here.

Death’s Silent Judgement

Death’s Silent Judgement is the thrilling sequel to Dancers in the Wind, and continues the gripping series starring London-based investigative journalist Hannah Weybridge.

Following the deadly events of Dancers in the Wind, freelance journalist and single mother Hannah Weybridge is thrown into the heart of a horrific murder investigation when a friend, Liz Rayman, is found with her throat slashed at her dental practice.

With few clues to the apparently motiveless crime Hannah throws herself into discovering the reason for her friend’s brutal murder, and is determined to unmask the killer. But before long Hannah’s investigations place her in mortal danger, her hunt for the truth placing her in the path of a remorseless killer…

You can listen to a sample here.

About Anne Coates

Anne Coates is a freelance editor and author. While editing and abridging other peoples’ novels and non-fiction, she has contributed short stories to magazines like Bella and Candis and wrote two novels that never saw publication. One afternoon she re-read the second one, saw its potential and rewrote it, restructuring the narrative and adding and subtracting scenes. This work became Dancers in the Wind to be published by Urbane Publications on 13 October, 2016.

Some of her short stories appear in two collections: A Tale of Two Sistersand Cheque-Mate and Other Tales of the Unexpected both published as e-books by Endeavour Press. Anne has also written seven non-fiction books ranging from a history of Women in Sport (Wayland) to Applying to University (Need To Know) and Living With Teenagers (Endeavour Press).

Anne lives in London with three cats who are all rather disdainful of her writing as they have yet to appear in her fiction although a dog has!

You can follow Anne on Twitter @Anne_Coates1 and visit her website. You’ll also find Anne on Facebook.

UK Giveaway

Audio Books of Dancers in the Wind and Death’s Silent Judgement

For your chance to win an audio book of BOTH Dancers in the Wind and Death’s Silent Judgement click here.

Anne will provide the Audible codes and instructions for the winner. I am not responsible for the delivery of the codes!

UK ONLY and the giveaway ends at midnight on Sunday 15th July.

Sometimes a book is offered to me for review and I am devastated I can’t fit it in to my reading schedule. When I saw Iris Yang’s book I just had to invite her on to Linda’s book Bag to tell me all about it.

Staying in with Iris Yang

Thank you so much for staying in with me Iris and welcome to Linda’s Book Bag. Tell me, which of your books have you brought along to share this evening and why have you chosen it?  

I’ve brought along Wings of a Flying Tiger, my first full-length novel just published by Open Books. It is a heroic tale in which ordinary Chinese risked their lives to rescue and safeguard a downed American pilot in WWII in China.

I’m proud to share it because not only it is important, but also I learned along the way that I could do the “impossible” and dreams do come true when one works hard enough.

(Oh. Interesting thought. Tell me more.)

You see, I was born and raised in China. Although I’ve always loved reading and writing, creative writing was a dangerous career in China. As famous writers and translators, my grandmother and her aunt were wrongfully accused as counter-revolutionary Rightists. I had to choose a safer path—studying science. At age 23, with poor English, little knowledge of the country, and 500 borrowed dollars, I came to the US as a graduate student. Later, I received a Ph.D. in molecular biology and published a number of scientific papers. Yet the passion for creative writing never died, and I worked slowly, but steadily toward the goal.

(Wow. That’s quite a story. You must be so proud of your achievements Iris. China is a country I have yet to visit and I think Wings of a Flying Tiger would be perfect for me as I love books that can transport me to another time and place.)

What can we expect from an evening in with Wings of a Flying Tiger?

Most people in the US are familiar with what happened in WWII in Europe, but not many know what happened in China. Japanese troops were brutal beyond words. For instance, during Nanking Massacre, they killed 300,000 Chinese civilians and surrendered soldiers in six weeks.  For months the streets of Nanking were heaped with corpses and reeked with the stench of rotting human flesh. It was horrible. And my story starts here.

(Crikey. That’s quite a starting point!)

In 1941, under President Roosevelt’s executive order, the American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) was formed, and it aided the Chinese against Japanese forces. The AVG pilots’ brave exploits led the way to victories in China, in the Pacific Theater, and ultimate triumph of the Allied Forces in WWII.

I’m a big fan of the Flying Tigers. What is a better way to say thank-you than writing a book about them? Although the story of the Flying Tigers has been a fascinating topic for over seventy years, most of the books were nonfiction written from the perspective of the pilots. Wings of a Flying Tiger is a rescue story from the points of view of both the airman and the Chinese who saved him.

This book is a work of fiction. But to me, a Chinese-American, it is also personal. As a Chinese, I’m thankful for the Flying Tigers’ bravery and sacrifice; without their help, the course of the Chinese history might have been changed, my family might not have survived, and I might not have existed. As a U.S. citizen, I’m honored to write a book about the American heroes. It’s a privilege. A duty.

(I think Wings of a Flying Tiger sounds fabulous Iris. I think I’m going to have to find space for it after all!)

What else have you brought along and why? 

I’ve brought along a photo of the Flying Tigers’ airplane. The “shark” teeth painted on the noses of the aircraft were there for a psychological reason. An island nation, Japan was believed to be afraid of shark attacks. The Chinese people who saw the planes were not familiar with sharks, but they knew how strong and powerful a tiger could be. So they called the courageous American pilots Fei Hu—a tiger with wings—the Flying Tigers.

It has been a real privilege to stay in with you and find out more about Wings of a Flying Tiger. Thanks so much for being here Iris. I wish you every, well deserved, success.

Wings of a Flying Tiger

World War Two. Japanese occupied China. One cousin’s courage, another’s determination to help a wounded American pilot.

In the summer of 1942, Danny Hardy bails out of his fighter plane into a remote region of western China. With multiple injuries, malaria, and Japanese troops searching for him, the American pilot’s odds of survival are slim.

Jasmine Bai, an art student who has been saved by Americans during the notorious Nanking Massacre, seems an unlikely heroine to rescue the wounded Flying Tiger. Daisy Bai, Jasmine’s younger cousin, also falls in love with the courageous American.

With the help of Daisy’s brother, an entire village opens its arms to heal a Flying Tiger with injured wings, but as a result of their charity the serenity of their community is forever shattered.

Love, sacrifice, kindness, and bravery all play a part in this heroic tale that takes place during one of the darkest hours of Chinese history.

Published by Open Books Wings of a Flying Tiger is available for purchase here. and on your local Amazon.

About Iris Yang

Iris Yang (Qing Yang) was born and raised in China. She has loved reading and writing since she was a child, but in China creative writing was a dangerous career. As famous writers and translators, her grandmother and her aunt were wrongfully accused as counter-revolutionary Rightists, so Iris had to choose a safer path—studying science.

After graduating from Wuhan University and passing a series of exams, she was accepted by the prestigious CUSBEA (China-United States Biochemistry Examination and Application program). At age 23, with poor English, little knowledge of the country, and 500 borrowed dollars, she came to the United States as a graduate student at the University of Rochester.

Later, she received a Ph.D. in molecular biology, trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and worked at the University of North Carolina. Although she has published a number of scientific papers, she has a passion for creative writing, and her short stories have won contests and have been published in anthologies. Currently, Iris is working on a story based on her grandmother, who was the first Chinese woman to receive a master’s degree in Edinburgh in the UK. Iris now lives between Sedona, Arizona and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Besides writing, she loves hiking, dancing, photography, and travel.

You can follow Iris on Twitter: @IrisYang86351.

My enormous thanks to LoveReading and Avon Books for allowing me to read The Forgotten Guide to Happiness by Sophie Jenkins in return for an honest review. I have been turning down books as I have so many on my TBR but I’d heard such good things about The Forgotten Guide to Happiness that I couldn’t resist and I’m so pleased to have my review today.

The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is published by Harper Collins imprint Avon and is available for purchase here.

The Forgotten Guide To Happiness

Sometimes, happiness can be found where you least expect it…

Twenty-eight-year-old Lana Green has never been good at making friends. She’s perfectly happy to be left alone with her books. Or at least, that’s what she tells herself.

Nancy Ellis Hall was once a celebrated writer. Now eighty, she lives alone in her North London house, and thinks she’s doing just fine. But dementia is loosening Nancy’s grip on the world.

When Lana and Nancy become unconventional house mates, their lives will change in ways they never expected. But can an unusual friendship rescue two women who don’t realise they need to be saved?

My Review of The Forgotten Guide to Happiness

When you’re trying to write a love story, maybe the best way is to live it!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Forgotten Guide to Happiness.

I loved the plot and although it’s relatively simple it is so satisfying to read because not only does it have a lovely romantic heart, the conceit of writing as a catalyst for the book is perfectly handled, so that it is actually a very useful book for aspiring writers as well as a warm, compassionate and engaging story.

Lana is a hugely appealing protagonist. She is flawed, insecure and totally human. Once or twice I found myself telling her ‘No! Don’t DO that’ because I cared about what happened to her. Her search for a sequel to her novel Love Crazy, her self blindness at times and her very human need for love all make her feel like a real person.

However, it is Nancy who steals the book for me. Sophie Jenkins has shown so realistically and sensitively that those suffering dementia are still people and Nancy embodies true identity through her confusion, her larger than life personality and her love of colour. Her speech adds such humour in the story so that whilst I felt sorry that she was suffering the disease, I felt uplifted and positive too. What is so cleverly done is the message that Nancy can remember what really is important in life whereas those not suffering her dementia don’t always have the same skill of recollection.

I also loved the themes present that lift The Forgotten Guide to Happiness above being simply a very entertaining read. The way society behaves towards and treats the vulnerable, the way love and identity are universal concerns, and the fact that truth is sometimes staring us in the face when we don’t want to recognise it, all shine through Sophie Jenkins’ smashing writing.

The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is such a lovely book. It has unexpected depth as well as a lightness of touch so that it’s a perfectly balanced and wonderful read. I loved it.

About Sophie Jenkins

Sophie Jenkins is a serial joiner of writing groups and workshops and a prolific short story writer. To encourage her creativity she regularly enters half-marathons and trains by running from her home in North London to breakfast in the centre of town with a notepad.

The character of Nancy in The Forgotten Guide to Happiness is based on her experiences with her own mother, who was diagnosed with dementia fifteen years ago.

You an follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiejenkinsuk.