I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to be hosting this blog post. In a departure from anything I have done before I’m handing over the blog to author Jason Hewitt so that he can interview Vanessa Lafaye all about her new novel At First Light. Both Vanessa and Jason are writers for whom I have the utmost respect and I am genuinely thrilled to welcome them both to Linda’s Book Bag.

You can read my review of Jason’s Devastation Road here and my review of Vanessa’s At First Light here.

At First Light is published by Orion today, 1st June 2017, and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

At First Light

1993, Key West, Florida. When a Ku Klux Klan official is shot in broad daylight, all eyes turn to the person holding the gun: a 96-year-old Cuban woman who will say nothing except to admit her guilt.

1919. Mixed-race Alicia Cortez arrives in Key West exiled in disgrace from her family in Havana. At the same time, damaged war hero John Morales returns home on the last US troop ship from Europe. As love draws them closer in this time of racial segregation, people are watching, including Dwayne Campbell, poised on the brink of manhood and struggling to do what’s right. And then the Ku Klux Klan comes to town…

Inspired by real events, At First Light weaves together a decades-old grievance and the consequences of a promise made as the sun rose on a dark day in American history.

You can watch the trailer video for At First Light here.

Vanessa Lafaye in Conversation with Jason Hewitt

Jason Hewitt, author of The Dynamite Room and Devastation Road (both Simon & Schuster) interviews Vanessa Lafaye about her second novel, At First Light (Orion 1 June).  Set in 1919 Key West, Florida, it dramatizes the true story of a violent episode involving a mixed-race couple when the Ku Klux Klan installed themselves in the town.  Her debut novel, Summertime, was published by Orion in 2015.

Good morning, Vanessa. I’m so excited to be chatting to you about At First Light, which, as you know, I loved. I’ve got a whole heap of questions that I’m dying to ask about it. Firstly though, the main narrative is based on the real life story of Manuel Cabeza and his mixed race lover, Angela. Tell me, how did you come across their story, and how much of it did you end up using in the novel? 

Great question.  I really enjoy dramatizing real events, but they need to have several elements: drama, interesting people, and relevance to today.  It’s also important that the events have been mostly forgotten.  Such events are very, very rare, and difficult to find, because the most exciting stories have become part of our collective memory.  Sometimes I feel as much like an archaeologist or a treasure hunter as a novelist!  So when I come across an event which ticks all the boxes, I get very excited.  Still, it can’t just be a retelling, it has to have more than that.  I was actively looking for another true story to follow Summertime, ideally set in Florida’s history. I didn’t want to go forward into the 1940s or later, because there have been so many books about those decades.

This helped me narrow my search.  I came across the story of Manuel and Angela about a year before I decided to take it on.  It ostensibly had all the right elements, but I couldn’t see how to bring it to life, and make it more than just a retelling.  Then I learned that the last KKK rally in Key West took place in 1993, far more recently than I realized.  This made me wonder what Angela might do, if she were still living in the town when that rally occurred, which gave me the missing piece that allowed me to take the story forward.  At First Light follows what is known about Manuel and Angela’s story closely, in terms of their relationship, how they came to the notice of the Klan, and what happened to them as a result.  Where it differs is in their back stories, how I have imagined Manuel’s childhood, and Alicia’s Cuban background.  Almost nothing is known of the real Angela, which left me free to create her former life.  All the events surrounding the Klan’s arrival are based on research.  Even the demise of the ‘walking dairy’ came from a real event.  It’s interesting that readers sometimes find the passages based on real events more difficult to credit than those which I invent.

Ha, yes! That always makes me laugh. Quite frankly some of the small details I include in my novels I simply don’t have the imagination to make up, and yet, you are right, they’re the ones that readers question! You, of course, mention the KKK which forms an important and quite terrifying thread to the novel. Some of the characteristics of the Klan have always seemed totally ridiculous to me, playground nonsense even, and yet they were a terrifying force at the time. Why do you think they took such a hold on American society in the first half of the twentieth century?

Their mixture of buffoonery and murderous efficiency is very odd, isn’t it?  It’s quite astonishing to think that they had 850,000 members at their height, which included many law enforcement and public officials.  Their message resonated with a lot of disaffected whites, who suffered enormously during the reconstruction period after the Civil War of 1861-65.  (Interestingly, these same disaffected whites have much in common with Trump’s core support base—different geography, similar grievances.)  The Klan’s message was ‘Take America Back for the Real Americans’.  Sound familiar?  Americans have a high tolerance for buffoonery if it’s combined with policies which appear serve their interests.  The early 20^th century was a period of enormous upheaval in the US—mass migration to the cities, and WWI which gave blacks their first taste of equality.  White Americans were terrified of them returning home, and the Klan promised to act as guardians for white, Protestant America.  Of course, the public didn’t see inside the Klan organization, or witness all the ridiculous rituals and arcane lore.  They only saw pictures of bodies hanging from trees, and hundreds of white-robed men marching with burning crosses.  Stetson Kennedy, whose books I used for research, infiltrated the organization and exposed its bizarre, laughable inner workings.  The Klan, like the current President, was very sensitive to ridicule.  It started to hemorrhage support after Kennedy shared their secret password with the makers of the ‘Superman’ radio program in the 1940s, and the show mocked them mercilessly in several episodes.

The Key West portrayed in the novel was actually quite slow to welcome the Klan and was in fact more tolerable of blacks than other parts of the US. Why do you think that was? And what finally prompted the city fathers to invite the KKK to the Keys in 1921?

Yes, you’re right, Key West was very different to the rest of Florida, and the American South, in its tolerance of, well, just about everything.  Since it was first discovered by the Spanish in the 16^th century, it’s been a haven for every type of eccentric, including pirates, bootleggers, and people traffickers, with a proud tradition of ignoring official controls that don’t suit the lifestyle.  The town retained much of this tolerance as it grew, with a few exceptions, such as when the Jewish peddlers were taxed out of business. Key West calls itself The Conch Republic, as there were moves long ago to make it a sovereign territory.  Even today, the people who live there are the ones who want to get on with their lives without interference.  This mostly involves drinking and fishing, preferably at the same time.  Anything that interferes with either is quickly despatched.  The island is the end of the chain, closer to Cuba than Miami.  It’s very much the end of the line in other respects.  I don’t know what prompted the invitation to the Klan, but the organization was strong elsewhere in Florida at this time, and Key West’s tolerance would have been abhorrent to them.  The original Klan of the Keys Charter carries the signatures of the local officials who sponsored it.

Wow, that’s fascinating. I love the Key West mentality. It sounds very relaxed. And, actually, talking about dodgy dealings, in the novel John smuggles in alcohol for his bar The Last Stand. This is, of course, against the backdrop of Prohibition being introduced in 1920. I’m assuming that the Prohibition laws weren’t particularly adhered to in Key West either given the laid-back attitude of most of its inhabitants. Was this something that you were keen to include in the story as well? Also, I have no idea how Prohibition worked. Was it well policed and did it actually have much affect on life in Key West, or was it just a mild inconvenience that in reality did little to lessen consumption?

I think you would love it there.  If you ever want to visit, I’ll be happy to be your guide!  The cemetery alone is worth a trip, it’s like a city in itself, with named streets and its own guidebook to some of the more colourful residents.  Key West still has lots of bars that remind me of John’s bar, The Last Resort.  You’re correct that Prohibition did not have much impact in Key West, unlike the rest of the country.  Elsewhere, it was strictly enforced, but the authorities were so corrupt that there was a healthy black market trade.  Did you see the series, ‘Boardwalk Empire’?  That’s set during the period.  Key West got away with ignoring a lot of statutes by virtue of its remote location.  The federal authorities did try to enforce Prohibition down there. Everyone paid lip service to it, then bribed or intimidated their way around it.  Bootlegging such as I describe in the book was rampant, using any containers available.  Suitcases and, yes, coffins went empty to Havana and came back sloshing.  The smuggling tradition goes back centuries, as does the tradition of ignoring the government. Key West is a party town; it runs on alcohol and always has.

Oh, it sounds wonderful. I’m going! And consider yourself booked as my local guide! Actually, I loved all the little details you include in the novel about the more colourful characters and activities that were going on there at the time, not just the bootlegging, but the walking dairy farm and Percy the gorilla who works on the dock. Can you tell us a little bit about how you researched everyday life in Key West? I presume you know the area pretty well but did you carry out some ‘essential’ research trips there as well?

Unfortunately, I did all my research from my armchair in Marlborough.  I know the area well enough to make a research trip hard to justify.  I found all the details of daily life in the books that I’ve referenced in the Further Reading in the back of the novel.  Some of it is probably legend, of course, but that doesn’t really matter.  It’s the kind of place where so many outlandish things have happened  – like the town siding with the Union in the Civil War, when the rest of Florida was with the Confederacy—that anything seems possible.  There was a lot of wonderful material that I had to leave out for reasons of space, like the local doctor who preserved the corpse of his beloved when she died of TB and kept her in the house for years.  As a keen scuba diver, I’d love to write a novel about the sunken treasure that still lies off the coast.

Oo, yes, that sounds amazing. And there aren’t enough novels about diving in my opinion. You could clean up! Of course, you’re originally from Florida. Do you think that is what drew you to write about it in both Summertime and now At First Light? Do you think you’re writing gains something by having some distance to the location you are setting the story? And would you ever consider writing a novel set in Marlborough where you now live, or is that a little too close to home?

Well I’ve never heard anyone say that before! I think that you may be my target reader for any diving-related novels.  Ironically, I didn’t learn to dive until I had been living in the UK for a long time.  Living here opened my eyes to a lot of things, including the history of WWI.  It has been forgotten in the US. I wouldn’t have written either book if I had not left the country and come to live here.  For one thing, I had to be educated about the war, which happened through reading fiction by Sebastian Faulks, Pat Barker and others.  Second, as you say, the distance and perspective gained from living here was necessary for me to write about my home country.  I would not have had the interest in the WWI veterans, or the background to write about them.  In future books, I am planning to move around, in terms of settings and periods, which will include England at some point.  Not sure about Marlborough itself, although the research certainly would be easy!

I bet if you peeped behind a few doors in Marlborough you’d find all sorts of stories to base a novel around. These pretty little market towns are usually rife with intrigue and polite skullduggery! 

I’m sure that’s true.  The town got its charter in 1204, and Cromwell stopped here during the Civil War.  All around us in the countryside are much older monuments, long barrows and mounds and stone circles and henges of various types.  Wiltshire is more mystical than many people realise!

One of the things I particularly loved about At First Light is the characterisation. Alicia Cortez, in particular, is a fantastic creation – someone who is vibrant and rich and that readers can really root for. Have you got a favourite character in the novel and do you have any secret techniques you could share about how you get under their skin and bring them to so vividly to life?

I’m so glad that you liked Alicia.  I really enjoy writing gutsy female characters, and it gave me a reason to visit Cuba!  She’s based on a real Cuban faith healer, Maria de los Reyes Castillo Bueno, known as Reyita.  She married a white man to give her children a better future, and encouraged her children to do the same.  She practiced ‘Santeria’, the ancient religion/healing arts outlawed by the government but prevalent throughout the country, and was a very fiery person.  My favourite character is young Dwayne, and the same was true in ‘Summertime’, because it gives me the challenge of making him sympathetic although he does very bad things in both books.  That complexity really appeals to me as a writer, exploring how basically good people can lose their way, whether through their upbringing, or prejudice, or traumas they have suffered.  I don’t believe that there are many genuinely evil people in the world.  It was my first time writing a teenage male character’s POV, but it was great fun – all those hormones, all those conflicted loyalties.

Ah, yes, there’s nothing like writing about the complexity of teenage years! Did you know when you first came up with the idea for At First Light that Dwayne would be in it again? You must have enjoyed revisiting him in his youth. I never want to let my characters go when I’ve finished a novel, I always go into mourning for them, but have never found a way of resurrecting any of them. Did the way you had already portrayed Dwayne in Summertime throw up any challenges in writing this one?

No, I didn’t know that I would be revisiting Dwayne again, although I’m like you, I find it hard to let go of my characters.  I had in mind that At First Light could work partly as a prequel to Summertime, but hadn’t decided which character(s) from that book could be included.  I also needed a catalyst for the events which engulf Alicia and John, and a vulnerable, impressionable boy fit the brief.  I worked out that the timeline fit Dwayne’s life, and that he could have grown up in Key West, but I hadn’t imagined his back story in much detail, beyond that he had an abusive father.  Then I came across the story of the shoe shop delivery boy, who took his wares to all the business, including the brothels, and benefited from a glimpse or two of ‘girlishness’.  For me, that put Dwayne in the scene.  In Summertime, Dwayne’s wife gives birth to a mixed-race baby boy, who has grown into the police chief in the opening of At First Light.  This seemed like a nice way of linking the two books, and showing the roots of a very conflicted character.  I really enjoyed this ‘reverse engineering’; however, I wish I had thought of it when writing ‘Summertime’, as I could have made things easier for myself!  Luckily, Summertime was still in production when I decided to use Dwayne again, so I was able to make a few little changes right before it went to press, but I could have done some things differently if I had planned it.  In book 3, I plan to re-use another character from Summertime, but that will be the last one in the set.

Well, I don’t think you have anything to be worried about. Although, of course, you will worry, because you’re a writer and writers, in my experience, are very good at worrying about their work. It shows that we care. So, can I ask, are you working on something new now, or are you having a well-earned breather? Is it going to be that diving novel?

I agree.  And we’re such needy creatures, because we care.  The exceptions are the icons who write for themselves, or for their art.  I can’t see myself like that, can you?

Oh I’d so love to set a novel around diving!  But I’m not sure that the British reading public would really go for it.  I had no idea that you and I shared this interest, but I fear that we’re not very representative.  Maybe I’ll do it some day just for fun.  In the meantime, I’m working on dramatizing another set of historical events.  Although I’ve focused on 20^th century US history in these first two books, I’m keen to cover other places and periods.  It all depends on finding the right stories, buried in the past.

Ooo, intriguing! I can’t wait! It all seems very organised. In the novel itself you cleverly craft all the pieces of the story together so well, with nothing wasted and every action impacting another. Are you a planner or do you discover the story as you write it? And, research aside, what do you do to prepare before you start writing your first draft?

Ha! Well, I’m glad that it came across as crafted, because it was a matter of fitting lots of pieces together, whose shapes I only had moderate license to alter.  You know what that’s like, when history doesn’t provide you with the most convenient elements for your story?  I am somewhere towards the middle of the plotter-pantser spectrum.  I have a set of 4-5 milestone events in the story when I start, what Chuck Wendig calls ‘tent poles’, but very little idea of how I will join them up.  I wouldn’t be able to plan every chapter, every scene in advance, because I do discover a lot of the story as I write it, and as I get to know the characters.  They say and do things that I didn’t expect, and this can change my plan.  Sometimes beta readers will get really interested in a minor character, which can persuade me to develop them further.  So I have to stay flexible, and for me that means having a skeleton plot, which is partly dictated by the real events, which only gets fleshed out when I reach the end of the first draft.  To prepare for writing, I turn to the oracle of Google to track down the primary sources that I need, and trawl the internet for articles, interviews, and images.  Once I feel that I have a grasp of the setting/period/story/characters, I compile in a notebook all the best points from the research materials, to remind me what I want to weave into the narrative.  As I write, I tick off the items in the notebook.  The problem with At First Light was deciding what to leave out, which is probably one of the hardest jobs when you’re really passionate about your subject.  You want the reader to know EVERYTHING, and that’s not fair or feasible. Sometimes it feels like curating an exhibition, choosing which scenes will grab the reader, and how to make them work together.

I love that metaphor. It’s so true. I often think every novel should have a supplementary book of cut scenes, just as you get with films. Although I guess, there’s always a good reason why some things are not included. And, actually, thinking about it, I’m not sure that I’d want any one reading some of the dross that gets cut from my first drafts!

People love the out-takes from films, the scenes that didn’t quite work, the lines that got fluffed.  Maybe there’s place for our out-takes?  Or maybe we can find a use for them?  I always do character sketches before I start writing, first-person accounts of their lives.  One of these became the short story, Fire on the Water, which won the top prize from the Historical Novel Society.  So I never throw anything away!

(Linda – Readers can find out more about Fire on the Water here.)

We’ve mentioned your debut Summertime quite a lot, which, of course, was a big success. It was selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club and shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association’s Debut Crown award. Having had one book out already are you feeling a bit more relaxed about At First Light being published or are you more nervous now that you know what to expect? Do you think writing gets any easier?

The second novel, as you know, is vastly different from the first, especially in terms of expectations.  People are generous towards debut novelists, because we still have our training wheels on, but by the second book we should know the job.  It all adds up to a lot of anxiety, especially if the first had any success.  Although I do know the job now, that hasn’t done anything to lessen the anxiety.  With Summertime, I was just so thrilled to see it published, I had no anxiety, just happiness.  Now the stakes are higher, because this is my career.  I’m a bag of nerves filled with hyperactive butterflies right now. The writing does get easier, as your craft improves, but the rest gets harder, from what I hear.  Every book is a risk, every book means exposing yourself to criticism.  That’s the deal.

Finally, I’m always looking for a good read. What’s the best book you’ve read this year? And if we were still teenagers (but rather geeky ones) which author would you have on a poster on your bedroom wall?  

As you know, the problem with being an author is that reading becomes part of the job, and it’s difficult to switch off the editorial analysis.  So far this year, I have enjoyed The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, which has had a lot of attention, and The Hiding Places, by Katherine Webb, which has not.  I love Katherine’s writing, and her new one is based around a crime in a Wiltshire village in the late 19^th century, like a fictional version of The Suspicions of Mr Wicher, which I loved.  I also really enjoyed Essie Fox’s The Last Days of Leda Grey—so rich in atmosphere and period detail.

On my bedroom wall would be a poster of Kurt Vonnegut.  He’s my hero, in so many ways.

(Linda – My enormous thanks to both Vanessa and Jason for such a fascinating insight into the writing process and At First Light in particular.)

About Vanessa Lafaye

Vanessa Lafaye was born in Tallahassee and raised in Tampa, Florida, where there were hurricanes most years. She first came to the UK in 1987 looking for adventure, and found it. After spells of living in Paris and Oxford, she now lives in Marlborough, Wiltshire, with her husband and three furry children. Vanessa leads the local community choir, and music and writing are big parts of her life.

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter, visit her website and find her on Facebook. Vanessa’s books are available through the publisher links here.

About Jason Hewitt

Jason Hewitt was born in Oxford and lives in London. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and English and an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.

After completing his degree he spent a number of years working in a bookshop before eventually succumbing to the publishing industry and moving to London.

He is also a playwright and actor. His play, Claustrophobia, premiered at Edinburgh Fringe in August 2014 and was previewed at the St James Theatre, London.

As an actor he has performed major roles in a number of plays in London including Pericles, A Christmas Carol, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear.

You can follow Jason on Twitter, visit his website and find him on Facebook. Jason’s books are available for purchase through his publisher links here.

I am just delighted to be featuring A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney.

I have been lucky enough to read Emma Claire Sweeney’s novel Owl Song at Dawn and you can read my review here.

Having taught each of the authors mentioned in A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Woolf, and I even did my university dissertation on Bronte, I’m ashamed to say I never really considered more about them as women other than the established commentaries provided. Consequently, I’m thrilled to have a guest post from Emma and Emily today that shakes up my complacency and really makes me think.

Published today, 1st June 2017, by Aurum Press, an imprint of the Quarto Group, A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Woolf is available for purchase in e-book, audio and hardback here.

A Secret Sisterhood

A Secret Sisterhood uncovers the hidden literary friendships of the world’s most respected female authors.

Drawing on letters and diaries, some of which have never been published before, this book will reveal Jane Austen’s bond with a family servant, the amateur playwright Anne Sharp; how Charlotte Brontë was inspired by the daring feminist Mary Taylor; the transatlantic relationship between George Eliot and the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; and the underlying erotic charge that lit the friendship of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield – a pair too often dismissed as bitter foes.

In their first book together, Midorikawa and Sweeney resurrect these literary collaborations, which were sometimes illicit, scandalous and volatile; sometimes supportive, radical or inspiring; but always, until now, tantalisingly consigned to the shadows.

Sisterhood in Modern Times

A Guest Post by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney

We met sixteen years ago, right at the beginning of our writing journeys. On the long road to publication, we have helped each other with all the uphill struggles and shared in each small moment of triumph.

It struck us as strange, therefore, that we knew all about the friendships of male authors like Byron and Shelley or Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but little of the bonds that celebrated female writers from the past might have enjoyed.

Did Jane Austen forge a friendship with another female writer? Was there another woman to whom George Eliot turned to for literary support?

When we began writing A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf, we set out to answer such questions.

We discovered that Jane Austen benefitted from an unlikely friendship with a family servant, the amateur playwright Anne Sharp; Charlotte Brontë was inspired by the daring feminist Mary Taylor; George Eliot shared her experience of stratospheric literary fame with Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of internationally bestselling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; and Virginia Woolf was spurred on to produce her best work by her rivalrous friendship with fellow modernist Katherine Mansfield.

The more we researched the friendships of these great authors of the past, the more we began to wonder why these stories of female solidarity had been written out.

Perhaps a community of creative women was threatening to patriarchal norms, and this led to female writers becoming mythologised as solitary eccentrics or isolated geniuses.

The more we looked into these issues, the more we came to appreciate the importance of literary sisterhood today.

Women may have invented the novel but, in may ways, male voices still dominate our intellectual and cultural lives. The annual VIDA count demonstrates that the most prestigious literary magazines and newspaper books pages in the UK and the US include far fewer bylines and reviews of books by women than by men. The gender pay gap penalizes female writers to an even greater extent than that suffered by women in most other areas of working life. And women are far more likely to boost their earnings by winning prestigious prizes if they write books about men.

This doesn’t just affect the literary world, it impacts on us all. When women’s experiences are not valued as highly as those of men, all our lives are diminished.

Friendships between female writers and readers, we’ve come to realise, aren’t simply pleasant aspects of our lives. They can prove fundamental to making inroads into the persistent inequalities we all face.

Together with the friends we have made during the process of writing A Secret Sisterhood, we have come up with a list of strategies to help us make the most of literary sisterhood today.

Readers

• Start with our own bookshelves. Do we read at least as many books by women as men?
• Take a look at the VIDA counts and consider subscribing to those magazines whose statistics show a commitment to gender parity. We might also want to think about cancelling subscriptions to magazines whose statistics have been consistently poor in this regard, and writing to the editor to explain why we’re turning away.
• Encourage our friends to read more diversely.
• Read stories to children that explode gender stereotypes.

Writers

• Start with our own writing. Do we explode gender stereotypes in our own work?
• Champion the excellent work of overlooked female writers. We can do this through reviewing, blogging, writing endorsements, nominating for prizes, mentioning fellow authors in talks, holding firm in prize panel negotiations etc.
• Mentor emerging writers who might struggle to get their voices heard.
• Keep submitting our stereotype-exploding work to competitions and magazines.
• Edit a collection of work by writers whose voices are traditionally suppressed.
• Find a project we admire and ask those who run it what we might do to help.

Literary Industry Professionals

• Solicit work from an equal number of men and women.
• Ask our colleagues to be equally accountable.
• Keep reviewing our statistics, and asking how we might seek to improve them.
• Think hard about what we prize in writing, and whether any of this is based on prejudice.
• Is the academic at the highest level of the hierarchy necessarily the best person to write this review? Has privilege contributed to their rise up the ranks?
• Fight for information about pay to be freely available.
• Consider whether a temporary quota might help.
• Ensure that literary events showcase the talents of an equal number of men and women.
• Be brave!

About Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney

Writer friends Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney are the authors of A Secret Sisterhood: The hidden friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf. They also co-run SomethingRhymed.com, a website that celebrates female literary friendship. They have written for the likes of the Guardian, the Independent on Sunday and The Times. Emily is a winner of the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, Emma is author of the award-winning novel Owl Song at Dawn, and they both teach at New York University London.

You can follow them on Twitter via @emilymidorikawa and @emmacsweeney, and Emma has an author page on Facebook.

I’m so pleased to welcome back Diane Solomon, author of 88 Guys for Coffee, to Linda’s Book Bag today. Diane previously wrote a smashing guest post about the rewards of creativity that you can read here.

88 Guys for Coffee is published today, 1st June 2017, by Eloquent Rascals and is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here

88 Guys for Coffee

Abandoned and feeling lost, her self-worth in tatters, Laura decides to try online dating sites. What an education. And what a long, five years she has ahead.

Hilarious and heartbreaking, soul-searching and spiritual, 88 Guys for Coffee shares Laura’s roller-coaster ride of experience searching for her soul mate, for her true partner in life. No matter how crazy it gets, no matter how
disillusioned she becomes, she can’t give up. She won’t give up.

Laura learns all there is to know about online dating, but she learns the most about herself.

An Interview with Diane Solomon

Welcome back to Linda’s Book Bag, Diane. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and your latest book 88 Guys for Coffee. Without spoiling the plot, please could you tell us a bit about the book?

This book is a fictional memoir taken from my own experience with online dating. My protagonist, 45-year-old Laura, is suddenly and shockingly abandoned by her husband. With her self-worth shaken and her confidence shattered, she creeps hesitantly onto online dating sites. The next five years are a roller coaster of hilarious, bizarre, hard-to-believe coffee dates with men she meets from these sites. These stories are true, word for word, except with identities masked, of course.

She searches tenaciously for her true partner in life and as crazy as it gets, she will not give up. This, too, is true, and paid off for me. I met my wonderful husband, Mark, on Match.com.

I hope readers will love Laura, whose big heart is broken, yet she keeps laughing, running, working, and pondering the reasons why human beings do what we do. Why we make such a mess of things, sometimes. Why we hurt so much. What it all means….

As I described my funny experiences to friends, several said, “You just have to write this down for a book!” So I did.

And please could you tell me a little about yourself?

I was fortunate to enjoy a successful singing career in England, with my own BBC TV variety show and many other TV appearances over the subsequent 15 years. Then, my career was destroyed by the infamous Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which left me bed-ridden for close to eight years.  I suffered through a fog of pain and exhaustion that was just like living with the flu.

A homeopathic remedy was the cure, which launched me into a new career as homeopath and nutritionist. However, I’ve always wanted to write, as long as I can remember, and somehow knew that it would be my third career. (I think we should all have two or three careers – so much more interesting, perhaps!) Now I am retired from practicing, and fulfilling that dream.

I live in New Hampshire, with my husband Mark Carey, who is a brilliant, funny, insightful man. And I get to write with him! How great is that? We wrote a middle grade book called The Ravenstone: The Secret of Ninham Mountain, which we published in October 2016. Mark is a retired biologist, naturalist, and accomplished voice-over artist. We live on acres of woods, meadows and streams, and when not writing, we design gardens, sing, write, and watch wildlife. And play with our two English Setters!

(Readers can find out more about The Ravenstone: The Secret of Ninham Mountain here.)

Online dating is a minefield for many. Why did you choose to use it as the basis for your writing?

I took notes from the bizarre coffee dates I had over five years and realized it would make people laugh.  How I love to make people laugh! Also, I knew many women would relate; I have heard from my beta readers that they have had similar experiences.

What is your view of the online world in general then?

I have a rather mixed view of the online world.  While it has given a potential voice to everyone and has made the world a tiny place, considering the way we can now connect with souls all over the planet, it has also created a place of lies, cons, and mistrust. Look at the political situation, the doubt about the validity of our press, the very question of what is true or not. What is real. Or not. It worries me.

The online platform also seems to lower the level of discourse across the board. It allows unkindness, foul-mouthed antagonism, and lack of respect and dignity between people. Those who would never say anything nasty to another person in person feel free to drop those inhibitions online.

As for the online dating world, I think it really can work, and has been a gift to busy people who would otherwise have a hard time finding each other.

What advice would you give to those about to try online dating?

Be very patient, take your time, and lower your expectations. Most of the time, what you see is not what you get. People fudge the truth with regard to their age, weight, etc.  Of course! It is a sales medium.

And just as you would meet a stranger anywhere, be careful!  But also know that you CAN meet someone wonderful, someone perfect for you. I did! And married him.

(That’s a fabulous outcome – congratulations!)

88 Guys for Coffee marks a slight departure in your writing. Why is this?

I know! After ghost-writing and editing eight books for other people, my first book was Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a guide to the homeopathic treatment of CFS/M.E.  Non-fiction, it was well researched and referenced, yet written from the heart, since I hoped to offer to help others suffering this dreadful scourge. The next book was the wonderfully fun and magical The Ravenstone, a middle-grade mystery fantasy. What fun that was! And now a beach-read, a chick lit, a light, humor book for women. Go figure.

Agents have advised me to pick a genre and stick to it. I am contrary, I guess, since am not doing that. I write what inspires me and isn’t that what the creative path is? I had no desire to limit myself to books in the same genre or to treat writing as a business. Writing is not a business to me. It is art, creativity, entertainment, and spiritual and philosophical provocation. The joy of the creative moment to me is all-important.

(I think many authors will find that a breath of fresh air and it seems to me it’s why many are choosing to self-publish – so that they have the freedom to write what feels appropriate to them.)

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

Another advantage of the internet, the ease of researching! When Mark and I wrote The Ravenstone: The Secret of Ninham Mountain, we read all we could about the Stone Chambers of Putnam County, New York, which feature greatly in the book. We travelled there, and to American Stonehenge in New Hampshire. We read other books dealing with time travel. We studied and read up on the American Indian tribes present in pre-Columbian Hudson Valley, to be able to describe that lifestyle correctly. I love this sort of research, as I learn so much I didn’t know. For example, I learned all about Passenger Pigeons, which we featured in the book as well. Beautiful birds, hunted into extinction.

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

Easiest: researching, planning, laying it out, handling all the outline and pages, etc. Actually doing it doesn’t seem an issue for me, and I don’t struggle much with writer’s block.

Hardest: character development. I really work at this, to try to make a character feel real.

Also, I find it hard, as a writer, to believe I might be good enough. I keep wondering when someone will catch me out as a fraud! I read so many other authors’ books, am so blown away by their talent and wit, that I sometimes feel I’m a lightweight by comparison. Perhaps all artists, all writers, feel this from time to time.

(Oh I think they definitely do!)

If you could choose to be a character from 88 Guys for Coffee, who would you be and why?

Francesca. She is feisty, beautiful, warm, kind, practical, wise, all the characteristics I work hard at being or becoming. So I wrote my role model.

Finally, Diane, if you had 15 words to persuade a reader that 88 Guys for Coffee should be their next read, what would you say?

It will make you laugh, bring tears to your eyes, and make you think.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

About Diane Solomon

Diane Solomon, author, enjoyed a wonderfully diverse career path that included her own variety show on BBC TV in England. As a performing artist, she opened for both Glen Campbell and Kenny Rogers during major tours of England, Europe and Africa. Her highly successful singing career was destroyed by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the story of her recovery via a homeopathic remedy is a book in itself!

Fully recovered, she is fulfilling her lifelong dream of being a writer. She has ghostwritten and/or edited many books in the last decade.

You can find out more about Diane on Goodreads and by following her on Twitter. You can also visit her website.

I cannot thank Elain Egan at Orion Books enough for a copy of At First Light by Vanessa Lafaye in return for an honest review. Along with my review today, I’m thrilled that tomorrow I will be sharing a conversation about At First Light between Vanessa and fellow author Jason Hewitt whose book Devastation Road I reviewed here. Please come back to Linda’s Book Bag tomorrow to see what Vanessa has to say to Jason.

At First Light is published by Orion tomorrow, 1st June 2017, and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.

At First Light

1993, Key West, Florida. When a Ku Klux Klan official is shot in broad daylight, all eyes turn to the person holding the gun: a 96-year-old Cuban woman who will say nothing except to admit her guilt.

1919. Mixed-race Alicia Cortez arrives in Key West exiled in disgrace from her family in Havana. At the same time, damaged war hero John Morales returns home on the last US troop ship from Europe. As love draws them closer in this time of racial segregation, people are watching, including Dwayne Campbell, poised on the brink of manhood and struggling to do what’s right. And then the Ku Klux Klan comes to town…

Inspired by real events, At First Light weaves together a decades-old grievance and the consequences of a promise made as the sun rose on a dark day in American history.

You can watch the trailer video for At First Light here.

My Review of At First Light

When banished Alicia Cortez arrives in Key West in 1919, events will unfold to shape the next seven decades.

Oh my goodness. At First Light is EXACTLY my kind of read. Beautifully crafted with atmospheric prose that enchants and ensnares from the first word, I loved everything about Vanessa Lafaye’s story. The smattering of Spanish lends an authenticity to utterly gorgeous prose so that it is impossible not to become immersed in the action. I didn’t feel as if I were reading a book, but rather I felt as if I became part of the narrative.

Based on real events, At First Light told me more about American history and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) than I had consciously internalised before. Vanessa Lafaye has made me look at my previous visit to Key West in a whole new light. She manages to convey both the ridiculousness of the KKK and their far reaching menace with such skill. Part crime thriller, part love story, part historical novel At First Light is a fabulous weaving of fact and fiction that left me reeling. The violence and threat lurks beneath the surface so that I felt tense as I read, desperate for there to be happy ever after endings but fearing there wouldn’t be.

The plot races along. Some elements are what could almost be termed prosaic, relating to the everyday life of the characters, but this adds credibility and genuineness to the people and events so that other aspects are all the more shocking. I mustn’t spoil the plot for others, but I can’t see either how anyone could read At First Light and not be moved, horrified and enraptured.

The characterisation is outstanding. Alicia, John, Thomas and Dwayne will live long in my heart as real people I wish I had known. I wanted to apologise to them for their treatment, feeling almost partly to blame for what happens to them. At one point, so intense was my feeling along with Alicia’s that I found I was sobbing. Vanessa Lafaye has the power both to educate and to move without the reader’s permission.

Having read At First Light, there’s an ache in me that I don’t think I’ll ever quite recover from. I feel almost bereft that I have finished it. At First Light is, quite simply, a life changing, wonderful book that everyone should read.

About Vanessa Lafaye

Vanessa Lafaye was born in Tallahassee and raised in Tampa, Florida, where there were hurricanes most years. She first came to the UK in 1987 looking for adventure, and found it. After spells of living in Paris and Oxford, she now lives in Marlborough, Wiltshire, with her husband and three furry children. Vanessa leads the local community choir, and music and writing are big parts of her life.

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter, visit her website and find her on Facebook. Vanessa’s books are available through the publisher links here.

My grateful thanks to the author Bryony Supper for a copy of The Inventing Tubes in return for an honest review.

The Inventing Tubes, published by Matador on 7th November 2016, is the first in a series of pasta character based stories for children aged 4-7 and is available for purchase in paperback here.

The Pasta Kidz and Petz Adventures Books

‘The Pasta Kidz™ and Petz Adventures’ are humorous, zany, magical and chaotic stories that bring together the pasta-themed Kidz – including Sarah Spaghetti, Rikki Ravioli, Camilla Cannelloni and their creative Petz – Mumbo the Macaroni Dog, Spud the Spaghetti Horse and Val the Vermicelli Snake together in unusual circumstances, engaging with strange magical objects that have a life of their own. The songs, music and humour, told in specially invented pasta language, will engage 4-to-7 year olds in a fantasy world of friendship.

The plots and messages reinforce how the Kidz are unique, with different personalities and their own needs. Each tale shows how they help each other, usually with their own individual Petz, and throughout the series we see how their personalities and friendships develop especially when encountering new characters, like the evil and huge Pasta Beasties!

The Inventing Tubes

In The Inventing Tubes, the first Pasta Kidz™ adventure in a series of up to forty books, Sarah and Marc Macaroni try their hand at inventing fun objects – and get a very grumpy PastaBall to play football with. But Sarah proves that the sport is not just for boys and she tries her hand at inventing her own ball! Every highly-branded Pasta Kidz™ and Petz story, illustrated in beautiful, full-colour detail, contains a moral message and will both inform and entertain young readers.

My Review of The Inventing Tubes

When you’re inventing something, be sure to follow all the instructions properly.

I’m going to begin this review by getting a negative out of the way first. Regular readers of Linda’s Book Bag will know I have a bee in my bonnet about literacy and I didn’t like the way Kidz and Petz were spelt, even though I appreciate they represent a type of brand in the story. I always want to model correct spellings for children.

That aside, I thought The Inventing Tubes was a story that would grasp the imagination of children and that they would thoroughly enjoy. There’s lots of rhyme and rhythm for children to explore and develop their vocabulary and I liked the glossary of terms in the Pasta Vocabulary at the end of the book as it would encourage children to play with language and experiment with sound and meaning. The alliterative names of the children add a further linguistic dimension and I liked the fact that there is some diversity of ethnicity too.

The colourful, bright illustrations add a vibrancy to the story and the illustrator Julian Bray is to be commended for them. The use of pasta in the character images is inspired and so clever. I can see this prompting pasta art and collage in the home too so that The Inventing Tubes would be a catalyst for further learning and play opportunites.

There are several morals to explore in this story. There’s friendship and sport although the feminist in me would have liked Sarah Spaghetti to have led the way in the inventing rather than Marc Macaroni!

The book ends on a cliffhanger that some children might find difficult to deal with, but it certainly helps them understand delayed gratification as well as being a great marketing tool as they’ll definitely want to know what happens next.

Vibrant, entertaining and fun, The Inventing Tubes is the first in a promising new series.

About Bryony Supper

Bryony Supper trained as a professional actress at the Drama Studio, Ealing. From there she went into Repertoire, always playing comedy roles and has a wide range of experience from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to being a regular on ITV’s Gimmee Five with Ant and Dec.

You can follow Bryony Supper and the Pasta Kidz on Twitter and find them on Facebook.

I’m thrilled to welcome Sacha Black, author of 13 Steps to Evil: How To Craft Superbad Villains to Linda’s Book Bag today. Sacha was one of the first people I followed on social media when I began blogging and is the driving force behind the Annual Bloggers Bash awards. I’m sure Sacha won’t mind me hijacking her post to hint that votes for the Best Book Review Blog can be made here!

As Sacha’s book 13 Steps to Evil: How To Craft Superbad Villains is published today, 30th May 2017, I asked her to choose three villains she feels are the best she’s encountered for her guest post.

13 Steps to Evil: How To Craft Superbad Villains is available for purchase through the links here.

13 Steps to Evil: How To Craft Superbad Villains

Your hero is not the most important character in your book. Your villain is.

Are you fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains? Frustrated with creating clichés? And failing to get your reader to root for your villain?

In 13 Steps to Evil, you’ll discover:

+ How to develop a villain’s mindset
+ A step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
+ Why getting to the core of a villain’s personality is essential to make them credible
+ What pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs

Finally, there is a comprehensive writing guide to help you create superbad villains. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge.

These lessons will help you master and control your villainous minions, navigate and gain the perfect balance of good and evil, as well as strengthening your villain to give your story the tension and punch it needs.

If you like dark humour, learning through examples and want to create the best villains you can, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting superbad villains. Read 13 Steps to Evil today and start creating kick-ass villains.

Villains!

A Guest Post by Sacha Black

Asking me who the best villains are after having researched them for six months is just mean! But I’ll do my best to answer the question anyway. :p

(I’m sure you will!)

I’ve chosen an unusual mix of bad guys because I think we can learn just as much from lesser known villains as we can from the super famous ones.

Deadpool – Marvel Comics

This might be cheating a little because technically Deadpool is an anti-hero, not a villain, but I’m counting him because he’s outrageous and I think comic book heroes and villains can often provide awesome inspiration and lessons as well as literature can.

Who is Deadpool?

Deadpool is a normal healthy man until he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He abandons his fiancé and goes to have an experimental treatment that manipulates his DNA. He gets super regenerative powers – i.e. he can’t die. But during the process, his skin is completely mangled.

What can we learn from Deadpool?

Reading about heroes can get boring – they are all the same, damsel-carrying, world-saving hunks of muscle. As writers, we need to consider what our readers want and sometimes implanting a standard villain won’t do the trick. That’s why anti-heroes are so much fun. They’re the best of both worlds and Deadpool is a really great example of one.

Why does Deadpool work?

Deadpool has an acerbic wit, his attitude stinks, and his actions are even worse. But his morals are in the right place. Everything he does is to save his fiancé. You’d think his actions might put people off him as a protagonist. But it works because he is a reflection of humanity. Superheroes (the damsel carrying ones) are a Utopian ideal, they don’t exist, and that’s why they get boring – because we can’t relate to their perfection. Whereas, Deadpool, with his shoot first- ask later ethos is a much closer reflection of how we might act if someone we loved was in danger.

The anti-hero and Deadpool, in particular, is a real, relatable, flawed character. He makes bad decisions, and that makes him ‘human’ which is why he works so well.

The Evil Queen – Once Upon A Time (TV series based on fairy tales)

*spoiler alert* If you haven’t watched Once Upon A Time the TV series, and want to then skip over this section.

Who is The Evil Queen?

The Evil Queen (from the Snow White fairy tale) has been re-written in so many incarnations I couldn’t possibly name them all. But one of the best current versions is from the TV series Once Upon A Time. The series is based in Storybrook, a fictional town in America that’s closed off by magic. Storybrook is inhabited by every fairy tale character imaginable. The Evil Queen trapped them there in Storybrook as revenge for something Snow White did to her in the fairy tale realm.

What can we learn from The Evil Queen?

Unlike most villains, The Evil Queen has a really neat character arc. At the start of the series, she is the main villain, enacting revenge on Snow for what she did. But as the series progresses she changes. Her old emotional wounds that made her a villain are healed, and unlike most villains, she changes and becomes a hero. Without being too much of a villain nerd, I think this is awesome. It’s rare to see a twist like this, and it makes the show unique and really engaging for me as a viewer. That’s something we need to learn from as writers.

 Why does The Evil Queen work?

The reason she works as a character is that although she changes fundamentally, the screenwriters make her suffer for it. It’s hard to change as a person; we know that ourselves. They’ve kept the story grounded in reality, and made it hard for The Evil Queen to maintain her hero status. She has to fight daily inner demons to stay good and make good choices because her natural instinct is to do bad things. This makes her such a gritty character I LOVE IT.

Hannibal Lecter – Silence Of The Lambs by Thomas Harris (Book series and Film)

Who is Hannibal Lecter?

Hannibal Lecter is a character based on the books by Thomas Harris. He is arguably one of the best villains of all time. Interestingly, despite being a villain, he is also the protagonist of stories. Hannibal is a cannibal and a serial killer.

What can we learn from Hannibal Lecter?

The reason I chose Hannibal is that he is what I would call a typical villain. When you think of a bad guy, usually you’ll think of a psychopathic murderer. That’s exactly what Hannibal is, and it makes him a classic villain. Does bad stuff because he wants to, and doesn’t always have a justification for doing it; he’s psychotic.

But his depiction, his consistency in his behaviour throughout the stories is what makes him so good. There is no character arc for him; there is only the constant cannibalising murder and the knowledge that no matter what hero comes along and tries to change him she never will. And that is a little terrifying.

Why does Hannibal Lecter work?

But that’s why Hannibal works, and that’s the lesson we should learn.  Just as The Evil Queen did grow and develop and that change is what made her work, Hannibal does not, and that’s what makes him work.

Throughout the story, although in Silence of the Lambs he helps Clarice with her investigation (a good action), he does not change. His values and principles remain the same right to the end. For me, the icing on my Hannibal cake is that he knows what he is doing is completely wrong, and yet, he takes pleasure in doing it anyway and even more terrifying is his articulation of what he does is absolutely crystal clear. What’s scarier than having someone tell you exactly how they intend to carve you up and knowing nothing you do can change their mind? Genius characterisation.

(Thanks Sacha – and I think I’m probably traumatised now!)

About Sacha Black

Sacha Black has five obsessions; words, expensive shoes, conspiracy theories, self-improvement, and breaking the rules. She also has the mind of a perpetual sixteen-year-old, only with slightly less drama and slightly more bills.

Sacha writes books about people with magical powers and other books about the art of writing. She lives in Hertfordshire, England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son.

When she’s not writing, she can be found laughing inappropriately loud, blogging, sniffing musty old books, fangirling film and TV soundtracks, or thinking up new ways to break the rules.

You can follow Sacha on Twitter.

You can also find her on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram and visit her fiction website here and her non-fiction website here.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

Having been a police lay visitor in the past, I’m interested in what happens when detainees become prisoners and so it gives me great pleasure to welcome, Jon Herbert Scott, author of Trouble on the Wing, to Linda’s Book Bag today.  Jon has worked in just that environment and explains how he has drawn on his experiences to create a work of fiction.

Trouble on the Wing is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here, but readers might like to know it will be a free Kindle download on Wednesday 31st May.

Trouble on the Wing

When a new arrival at HMP Hatcham beats up B Wing’s top dog and soon has all the other prisoners running scared, Security governor Tony McKenzie is immediately curious. Who the hell is this guy? And could he have something to do with the prison’s sky-high drug rate which is wreaking havoc around the establishment and causing so much self-harm and violence?

As McKenzie investigates, the beleaguered governor discovers the story behind Djemil HA2684 is more serious, more terrifying than he ever imagined. But there is no turning back. The only question now is, can he avoid getting sucked into the story himself? Or has his job as Hatcham’s Head of Security just become a battle for survival – one which threatens the stability of the entire world?

Authenticity

A Guest Post by Jon Herbert Scott

For a fast-moving prison thriller that involves international espionage, the secret services and cutting-edge drones, it probably sounds a bit far-fetched to say I wanted Trouble on the Wing to be grounded in reality. And yet that was my aim when I set out to write it. I wanted to portray prison life as it really is – in particular in relation to prison staff who, so often in prison dramas, seem to be reduced to cartoon-like parodies: vindictive bull-necked thugs.

I was also conscious that authenticity was the one thing I could offer the reader. I used to work as a prison governor and began as a prison officer on the landings in HMP Pentonville. So while Trouble on the Wing is set in a fictional London establishment, the descriptions of everyday prison life – from the all-too-prevalent themes of self-harm, violence and drug smuggling to the humour and incessant banter between staff and prisoners – I tried to describe all of these jigsaw parts of everyday just as I’d experienced them. Humour, in fact, is a big feature of prison life – a counterweight to the desperation and misery, perhaps – and in some bizarre way the dark twisted cynicism helps ease staff and prisoners through each and every day together. A kind of oxygen, if you will.

I also tried to show the prison service’s obsession with performance targets, the frequent cigarette breaks by prison governors in the Reception yard, and, not least, the sniping, the oneupmanship that so often dominates staff meetings. Keeping to the show-don’t-tell maxim, I’ve not commented in any way – just shown how it is. Shown how extraordinary the mundane can be.

If weaving descriptions of managerialism into a thriller sounds risky, I think I’d agree with you. The danger is it blunts the action, makes it all a bit boring. But get the balance right and I think it can enhance the story – can lend that veneer of authenticity that will win readers’ trust and hopefully make them feel like they, too, are slaving away as Head of Security and feeling the heat as they desperately try to work out how the hell all the drugs are pouring into the prison. That way, readers will empathise with some of my nicer characters (in this case Governor Tony McKenzie) and will root for him to succeed. Well, that was my plan.

It sounds straightforward, writing a novel based on my own experiences, and in some ways it was. Most of the characters are based (fairly loosely …) on people I worked with, while most of the action is based on events I experienced or, at least, heard about. Translating these memories onto the computer screen was the easy bit – a process not harmed by the fact that I used to work as a feature writer for magazines. But that only got me so far. Because to write this book I also had to learn how to tell a story, had to learn how to interweave plot lines, develop characters and get the reader to like them. Or hate them. All of that was new for me – and remarkably time-consuming.

In fact tot up all the hours I spent writing Trouble on the Wing (or should I say rewriting …), and the whole exercise could seem like an indulgent folly. And yet I loved every minute of it. I’ve also loved some of the feedback I’ve got so far – the way former prison colleagues say they recognise the environment they continue to work in, the way readers talk about the characters I invented as if they really exist. I love all that. And yes, writing Trouble on the Wing took a long time. It took fundamental plot changes, it took character culls, it took rewrites. But compared to working in a busy London prison, with a chronic lack of resources, a demoralised staff group and frustrated prisoners – compared to that, it was an absolute breeze.

About Jon Herbert Scott

Jon Herbert Scott spent a decade working as a journalist before getting a job as a prison governor. He subsequently worked in five different prisons, three of them in London. Today Jon is back working as a writer. Trouble on the Wing is his first novel.

You can follow Jon on Twitter. If you would like to sample Trouble on the Wing, you’ll find more on Jon’s website for the book here.

Last year I interviewed author Martin Spice all about his family book Lynx:Back to the Wild, which you can read here. By way of a thank you, Martin was kind enough to send me a copy of another of his books Spade, Seed & Supper. I’ve explained why it’s taken me so long to review some of the books I have been sent here, but finally I got round to reading Spade, Seed & Supper and it was so worth the wait.

Spade, Seed & Supper is available for purchase in e-book here.

Spade, Seed & Supper

“And it so happened that just up the road, in the very centre of the beautiful Cotswold village of Amberley, were the sweetest, loveliest, flattest, best tended allotments in the entire universe. Or so it seemed to us.”

The demand for allotments is at an all time high and the grow-your-own vegetable movement is in full swing. Spade, Seed & Supper offers a tongue-in-cheek insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of tending your own patch. Including some delicious, well-tried recipes for the produce that the birds and slugs don’t get, this honest, down to earth and amusing account of allotment life reveals the reality behind the glossy pictures of the ‘how to’ books and settles once and for all the issue of whether growing your own actually saves you any money. Mel Narongchai’s beautiful and witty illustrations complement the text perfectly.

My Review of Spade, Seed & Supper

With house prices high, an allotment is a good alternative to moving!

Let me say at the outset that if you’re looking for a text book about crop rotation, pest control and seasonal planting, then Spade, Seed & Supper is not for you. If like me, however, you’re familiar with the trials of having an allotment and you want a book written by someone who knows exactly what that entails then Spade, Seed & Supper is perfection.

The conversational tone is delightful. Martin Spice writes with such wit and warmth I was completely charmed by his style. I can’t remember another gardening book that has made me laugh until I cried, because so much was so familiar. We have an allotment because we couldn’t afford to move to a bigger house and garden. We too have seen flimsy materials blown away like Martin’s cold frame (except ours was a complete greenhouse). We use a mattock in the way Martin wields a pick axe. We have a Paul on our site (though he’s called Sam) and I recognised the sense of community Martin describes just as much as the potato blight he encounters. It was the rhetorical questions peppered in the chapters that gave the text vivacity and humour for me.

As well as the charming prose, there are lovely, humorous illustrations from Mel Narongchai that further bring the writing to life. Also included are some simple and realistic recipes. Indeed, I’ve used Martin’s leek and potato soup recipe already so I know they work. I really appreciated the smattering of quotations throughout the text too. There are apposite comments from T.S. Eliot through Muddy Waters to Voltaire.

Yes, there are helpful tips along the way for growing on an allotment, but Spade, Seed & Supper is only partly a book about allotmenteering. Mostly it’s about people and their small successes and failures. I loved it and if you’re an allotmenteer I dare say you will too.

About Martin Spice

Martin Spice is a journalist, author and reviewer whose work has appeared in the Times Educational Supplement, The Weekly Telegraph, The South China Morning Post, The Star (Malaysia), Marie Claire and numerous other publications.

You can follow Martin on Twitter and visit his website.

I’m fascinated by historical fiction and often wonder just how I might fare in other times to the age I was born in. It turns out I’m not alone and Michael Wills, author of the Children of the Chieftain Series of books for young readers, has been pondering exactly the same thing. He tells us his views today in a super guest blog.

Michael’s latest book in the Children of the Chieftain Series, Bounty, was published by Silverwood on 8th February 2017 and is available for purchase here.

Children of the Chieftain: Bounty

The young crew of the Viking ship ‘Eagle’ set out on a new journey when they are given the task of delivering a message in the land of the Rus. But fate has a surprise in store for them when they are ordered to travel on the Viking trading route south to Constantinople, a route fraught with danger. They must face warring tribesmen, deadly rapids and a host of other dangers before they reach their destination. There the adventure continues when they find themselves in the service of the emperor of the Greeks.

The Days of Wooden Ships and Iron Men?

A Guest Post by Michael Wills

As an historical novelist, I often find myself wondering whether the physical feats of my protagonists are actually realistic. Publishers of books like mine are very fond of putting a picture of a burly, handsome man on the cover of their books. He is usually half dressed so that the full extent of his musculature may be seen. But were people like that in days gone by? Well, probably some were, but I am certain that most had just an average physique.

This begs the question, how was it then that men could perform the extraordinary feats of strength and physical endurance which litter history? Consider these three examples.

In 1031, Prince Jaroslav in Novgorod, (Russia), commanded his Viking mercenaries to attack his Polish enemy. This army travelled 150 miles by boat and then marched 420 miles, carrying their equipment, over rough terrain before meeting and defeating the Polish army.

In 1066, there was an invasion of Britain, before the famous Norman conquest. In September, a Norwegian Viking army of 16,000 men invaded the north of England and took York. King Harold of England responded by force marching his army from London to a village called Stamford, near York, a distance of 220 miles, in six days. Although outnumbered, his army defeated the Norwegians.

In April 1789, in the South pacific, there was a mutiny on a Royal Navy ship called the Bounty. The commander, Captain Bligh, was set adrift in a 23-foot-long open boat together with 18 men who had stayed loyal to him. They had just 28 gallons of water, 32 pounds of pork and 150 pounds of hard biscuit. For six weeks, with no chart to help him, Bligh navigated the small craft a distance of 3,600 miles. His men endured storms, dangerous reefs, hunger and thirst before they reached the safety of Timor. Only one man died, he was killed by the inhabitants of one of the islands where Bligh sought provisions. Recently, there was a re-enactment of this voyage, though this time the navigator had a chart. Even though the modern crew reached their destination, (after being re-supplied with water), two of the crew had to be taken off by a rescue boat. One had become mentally unstable and the other suffered a severe cut which became infected.

Were men tougher and more resilient in times gone by? Even though their diet, clothes and equipment were far inferior to those of today. British and American Army regulations require that men and women on strenuous duties should be provided with between 4000 and 5000 calories a day. The Viking mercenaries, the Anglo-Saxon army and Bligh’s sailors would have had nothing like that and yet they performed acts of great physical prowess.

So, the conclusion I draw from the examples I have given and hundreds of other historical events is that the truth is often much stranger than fiction and that there was indeed a time of wooden ships and iron men. Of course, there are incredible examples of physical endurance in our day and age too, but I venture to suggest that most of us would be unable to emulate the feats of our forefathers. Thus, using history as a guide, I generally feel comfortable that I am not asking too much of the characters in my books.

About Michael Wills

Michael E Wills was born on the Isle of Wight, UK, and educated at the Priory Boys School and Carisbrooke Grammar. He trained as a teacher at St Peter’s College, Saltley, Birmingham, before working at a secondary school in Kent for two years. After re-training to become a teacher of English as a Foreign Language he worked in Sweden for thirteen years. During this period he wrote several English language teaching books. His teaching career has included time working in rural Sweden, which first sparked his now enduring interest in Scandinavian history and culture – an interest that, after many years of research, both academic and in the field, led him to write Finn’s Fate and the sequel, Three Kings – One Throne.

Continuing in a Viking theme, in June 2015 Michael published Children of the Chieftain: Betrayed, the first of a quartet of Viking adventure stories for young readers. The book was described by the Historical Novel Society as ‘an absolutely excellent novel which I could not put down’ and long-listed for the Historical Novel Society 2016 Indie Prize. The second book in the quartet, Children of the Chieftain: Banished, was published in December 2015.

Today, Michael works part-time as Ombudsman for English UK, the national association of English language providers. Though a lot of his spare time is spent with grandchildren, he also has a wide range of interests including researching for future books, writing, playing the guitar, carpentry and electronics. He spends at least two months a year sailing his boat, which is currently in Scandinavia.

You can follow Michael on Twitter, visit his website and find him on Facebook.

It gives me very great pleasure to welcome Lainy Malkani, author of Sugar, Sugar to Linda’s Book Bag today. Lainy has delved into the past and created a collection of short stories that reflect Indian voices. She has kindly agreed to tell us a bit about that process today in a fascinating guest post.

Sugar Sugar was published by Hope Road on 25th May 2017 and is available for purchase here.

Sugar Sugar

Sugar, Sugar is a contemporary collection of short stories which reveals a rich and culturally diverse history behind India’s migrant workers and one of the most abundant and controversial commodities in the world.

Inspired by historical documents between 1838 and 1917, and the living memories of the descendents of indentured workers, Sugar, Sugar, spans five continents, travelling through time uncovering inspiring tales of courage and resilience.

With sugar at its heart, this collection unveils lives rarely exposed in modern British literature and adds a new dimension to the history of sugar, post emancipation, whilst sharing a previously untold strand in the story of the making of contemporary Britain.

Making the Voices Heard

A Guest Post by Lainy Malkani

Recording Sugar, Saris and Green Bananas for BBC Radio 4 was quite an experience. I came across a network of people from my community that I had heard about but never met. I visited the Caribbean Hindu Cultural Society, where a group of elderly Indo-Caribbean people regularly met in Forest Hill, South London. They shared their stories of growing up in Guyana or British Guiana as it was known before independence. British Guiana was an unusual colony in the Caribbean. Located on the mainland of South America it was and still is the only English speaking country on the continent. It is where, sometime between 1838 and 1917, the ancestors of these elders along with those of my own family arrived from Calcutta and Madras, with contracts to work for five years on the sugar plantations . The aim was to fill the labour shortage brought about when emancipated African slaves left their hard labour in the sugar cane fields. At the end of their indentured contracts the Indians were told that they could return home. Some did go back to India but many others were enticed once again to remain and work for a further five years. It was cheaper to re-engage the workers that were already on the sugar estates than ship new workers to the colony.

Fast-forward a hundred years or so and people in the Caribbean are on the move again, this time to Britain to fill the shortage of labour in the NHS and on the transport systems in cities around the UK. Many Indo-Caribbean people mainly from Trinidad and Guyana arrived in the UK in the 1950’s and 1960’s and when they did the story of their ancestors almost disappears. They soon became categorised as ‘British Asians’, despite never having lived in India at all.

When I made Sugar, Saris and Green Bananas, I wanted to bring out this unique history into the open and give an opportunity for other Indo-Caribbean people to share their own stories and at the same time reveal a part of British history that was relatively unknown. However, once the programmes were aired, I was surprised to discover that they resonated with communities around the world.

That is when I decided to write Sugar, Sugar as a collection of short stories that stretched across five continents and to include stories from South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji and Trinidad where Indian communities shared this history. I decided to write a book because I felt that it would be a permanent addition to the narrative of Indian indentured migration.

Sugar, Sugar is inspired by historical archive and the memories of the descendent of indentured workers who shared their stories with me. It is a work of fiction because I found that there was a lack of first-hand accounts written by indentured Indians themselves.  Most of the historical archive I discovered at the British Library was written by plantation owners, managers, a ship’s surgeon or the Protector of Immigrants. In my view, they revealed only one side of this story; the story of those who had an interest in preserving this system.  I wanted to write from the Indian point of view.

Sugar, Sugar raises themes around identity and loss, preservation and friendship and is a mix of contemporary and historical stories. More than that, however I think Sugar, Sugar plays its part in telling a largely untold story of a fascinating period of British, Indian and Caribbean history.

About Lainy Malkani

Lainy Malkani is a London born writer, broadcast journalist and presenter with Indo-Caribbean roots. In 2013 she set up the Social History Hub to bring the stories of ‘unsung heroes’ in society to life. Her critically acclaimed two-part radio documentary for BBC Radio 4, Sugar, Saris and Green Bananas, inspired her to create this collection of short stories. She has written for the British Library, the Commonwealth and the BBC. She is married with two children and lives in North West London. Her cross-cultural roots; from Britain, India and Guyana, in the Caribbean, has been a great source of her work, both as a writer and journalist.

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