Jennie Ensor's Blog, page 12

REVIEW: A Murder of Crows by Ian Skewis

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Today’s blog post is my review of a debut novel by Ian Skewis, another author who travelled the crowdfunding road with publisher Unbound. (At more or less the same time as me – our books were both funded  in early 2016.)

The Blurb

The most violent thunderstorm in living memory occurs above a sleepy village on the West Coast of Scotland.   A young couple take shelter in the woods, never to be seen again… DCI Jack Russell is brought in to investigate. Nearing retirement, he agrees to undertake one last case, which he believes can be solved as a matter of routine. But what Jack discovers in the forest leads him to the conclusion that he is following in the footsteps of a psychopath who is just getting started. Jack is flung headlong into a race against time to prevent the evolution of a serial killer…

My thoughts

Hobbs Brae, a fictional village (I think it must be as it didn’t come up on a Google search) in the countryside near Glasgow, is a wonderfully sinister setting for Ian Skewis’s debut novel, A Murder Of Crows (Unbound Digital, March 2017). There are brooding storms, and malevolent crows and cows. The area’s human inhabitants are faced with a suspected murderer in their midst after a young couple go missing on the night of a terrible storm, and the local police are presented with an array of suspicious characters…

A Murder Of Crows is a crime mystery which kept me guessing all the way through – layers of mystery stretching back in time are built up then pared back deliciously slowly, building suspense. Plot is not at the expense of character however (the reason I often find crime novels disappointing). Nearly all the characters are given their own viewpoints chapters, in either first or third person.

I found the writing suitably down to earth with a wonderfully eerie quality when describing landscape/nature. Flashes of humour work well to offset the dark content. There’s a grittiness in some of the police scenes which smacks of reality; the rift between Jack, a successful, about-to-retire detective and his jealous underling Colin is well written and pulled me right into the story. The dialogue is wonderfully feisty. A typical Colin thrust regarding Jack: ‘All his lordship is worried about it is the fact that I didn’t mention it in my report. Because I didn’t mention it, he thinks I’m trying to withhold something from him. Paranoid prat.’

Jack has a good many of the self-destructive traits that are apparently essential for the modern detective; he is obsessive about work, not in great shape and has a failing marriage and mental health issues. The author manages to avoid easy stereotypes however, showing us the failings of his characters – who in different ways are all struggling with health, mortality, their own weaknesses, etc – in a way that manages to be sympathetic yet admirably precise.

I particularly liked the frail yet feisty Alice, a dementia sufferer who does her best to cope with a deteriorating memory, a far from ideal carer and a big, alarmingly isolated house. Her imperfect recall is a great device. Apart from making her vulnerable and playing on our fears about her safety, it turns her into a very unreliable narrator indeed. Despite her condition, she is pretty astute:

‘It struck her that the air smelled exactly like the inside of her kettle.’

‘I don’t know why she puts up with me, Alice contemplated. The pay, I suppose.’

A motif runs through the novel of things circling/returning to a place or event, such as the storm, crows, dark shapes in the distance that form and disperse, the characters who leave and return to Hobbs Brae. And Alice’s memory keeps coming back to something involving a scarecrow…

I did have a few niggles, the main one being that the characters’ thoughts felt a bit too ‘wordy’ for my taste. Also the text contains a great deal of italics (e.g. to show characters’ thoughts, which was irritating.)

Overall though, I felt I was in capable hands and I thoroughly enjoyed A Murder Of Crows. The ending is nicely unexpected, too. The story is not entirely resolved, with some vagueness re significant past events (deliberately, possibly, given that Mr Skewis is writing another book to follow this one). I will certainly be reading book 2 to find out what happens to Jack, Alice et al.

Crows permitting, of course.

The Author

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Ian Skewis was born in Scotland and was a professional actor for many years before moving on to writing. His short story, Inkling, was published in an anthology called The Speculative Book and his debut novel, A Murder Of Crows, has been published by Unbound.

CREATING FICTION FROM REAL EVENTS at The Sheen Bookshop, 6.30pm today

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Anyone within reach of southwest London (Sheen) this evening, please join me (Jennie Ensor) and my fellow Unbound author Jessica Duchen for a discussion of writing based on real-life events. Our books both feature historical events. (Historical-ish events in the case of Blind Side, i.e. London in 2005, 7/7 and the Russia-Chechnya conflict a few years earlier.)

Jessica Duchen’s novel Ghost Variations is very much worth a read, especially by anyone interested in the 1930s period, classical music or seances/spiritualism.  It’s a fascinating story stemming from the ‘spirit messages’ believed to have come from dead composer Robert Schumann – and GV has been chosen as book of the year by Classic FM presenter John Suchet. (See a guest post and my review.)

Tickets are £2 (taken off the price of either book) including wine and can be bought through Eventbrite.

If you have any questions email sheen@hewsonbooks.co.uk or call 020 8876 1717.

Website for The Sheen Bookshop

Review: Seas Of Snow by Kerensa Jennings

Today I’m reviewing Kerensa Jennings’ debut novel, the literary psychological thriller Seas Of Snow, published by Unbound.

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Blurb

1950s England. Five-year-old Gracie Scott lives with her Mam and next door to her best friend Billy. An only child, she has never known her Da. When her Uncle Joe moves in, his physical abuse of Gracie’s mother starts almost immediately. But when his attentions wander to Gracie, an even more sinister pattern of behaviour begins.

As Gracie grows older, she finds solace and liberation in books, poetry and her enduring friendship with Billy. Together they escape into the poetic fairy-tale worlds of their imaginations.

But will fairy tales be enough to save Gracie from Uncle Joe’s psychopathic behaviour – and how far will it go?

 

My Thoughts

Seas of Snow is very dark in its subject matter and is, in parts, bleak, disturbing, chilling and horrific. However, these aspects are offset by the beauty of much of the prose, which imparts a certain magical quality, and the character of Gracie, the child at the centre of the story. The setting for the early strand of the novel is northern England in the 1950s, when people could not talk as openly about many things as they can today. The plot is cleverly constructed, switching between characters and going back and forth in time, leading to a surprise ending.

We see how Gracie and her single mother try to cope with the intrusion of the psychopathic uncle Joe into their lives. Gracie’s Ma (Joe’s sister) has the support of neighbours, yet seems to be powerless to defend herself and her child. Gracie’s playmate Billy helps her to create imaginary worlds where the princess is rescued, and good triumphs over evil. She also takes refuge in poetry, especially the words of the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Gracie is enchanting, an almost angelic child. In contrast, Uncle Joe is depicted as a callous, brutal man without a conscience, intent on finding and devouring his prey (a raven metaphor permeates Seas of Snow). His motivation and backstory is woven into the plot, and suspense builds as we learn more about the darkness at his core. Fortunately, much of the violence is left to the reader’s imagination. By the later stages of the story though, I admit that I found the unrelenting physical detail of Uncle Joe’s pathology somewhat excessive. This was one of the few negatives I had about the book. (The other, fairly minor, was the vagueness of the timeframe, which led to a haziness sometimes about what month and year it was.)

Seas of Snow is a brave, lyrical, powerful novel that mercilessly and brilliantly dissects the evil at the core of one man, and its impact on those who have the misfortune to cross his path. It is certainly not for those squeamish about violence, in particular sexualised violence. Yes, the novel makes us wonder how a person becomes ‘good’ or ‘bad’. More than that though, it asks to what extent any of us may be complicit in the terrible acts of others.

About the author

[image error]Kerensa Jennings is a storyteller, strategist, writer, producer and professor.  Her TV work took her all over the world, covering everything from geo-politics to palaeontology and her time as Programme Editor of Breakfast with Frost coincided with the life-changing events of 9/11.  The knowledge and experience she gained in psychology has only deepened her fascination with exploring the interplay between nature and nature – the question at the heart of Seas of Snow.  Kerensa lives in West London and has a lifelong passion for poetry.

Buy the book

Seas Of Snow is available in UK bookshops and from Amazon (hardback and e-book formats).

Win a Blind Side paperback

Two chances to win a copy of the paperback edition of my thriller Blind Side are coming up:

A Rafflecopter giveaway will be running on My Reading Corner from Monday 7 April for 5 days (open to UK entrants only). The winner, drawn at random from the entries received, will receive a signed copy.

Meanwhile on Goodreads, Blind Side has a giveaway running until 19 May, when the winners are picked. It is open to entrants in the UK, US and Canada; 3 copies are available. (As of today 479 people have entered.)

Good luck to anyone who enters! If you aren’t feeling lucky or can’t wait any longer to get your hands on the paperback (with its brilliant, startling cover designed by Mark Ecob) you can order it online or go to a ‘real’ shop.

Where to buy BLIND SIDE
Physical outlets

The paperback edition is available (in stock/to order) from your local bookshop (UK only), including Waterstones, Blackwell’s, Daunt Books and independent booksellers.

Online outlets

Waterstones (paperback, order online)

Amazon (paperback & e-book): Amazon.uk   Amazon.com  geni.us/bldsd

e-book only: iTunes  Unbound

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BLIND SIDE by Jennie Ensor, published by Unbound

paperback edition

Publication date: 28 February 2017

ISBN: 978-1-911586-00-5

336pp

e-book edition

Publication date: July 22 2016

ASIN: B01IX1953A

INVASION by Jennie Ensor #Brexit #flashfiction

Seeing this is the week that Britain begins its exit from Europe, I thought I’d mark the occasion with a short short story that I finished recently. Here you go:

INVASION

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The birds arrived in small groups, day after day. In poor condition, with torn wings or broken claws or beaks missing, some floating in feather-stained water. Those that could sought shelter in the uncertain homes that the island provided: chimney pots, ledges and gutters, holes in walls.

The island’s human inhabitants did what they could to make the birds leave, complaining about their unkempt appearance and the way they sang (in harsh sounding, guttural voices). ‘Singing’ wasn’t the word for the racket they made, many older people pointed out. Men began to round up foreign birds and shut them in cages, and shoot them for stews and pies, or ‘sport’. Native birds need our protection, they argued. Foreign birds do not belong here. They are vermin, endangering our island’s way of life.

Soon it was an offence to offer help of any sort to a ‘non-native’ bird. It became one’s patriotic duty to encourage them to leave, to go back from wherever they had come, even if they had been on the island so long it was unlikely that they would recognise the place they had come from. But it didn’t really matter where they went to, in many people’s minds, ‘as long as they’re not here’.

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A full-on offensive began in March of that year. Mass shootings, poisonings, habitat stripping. By late spring it seemed as if all the non-native birds had indeed left the island, along with a large number of natives. Gardens were abnormally quiet; bright plumages were absent. Until one cloudless summer morning when a dark cloud appeared offshore, low on the horizon. It grew larger and larger as it travelled inland, emitting a strange and frightening sound: a wailing, keening cry that seemed to pierce the soul. Those who heard it said it was the worst sound they’d ever heard.

Islanders were unprepared for the events of the following days. The few who survived the bird attacks left the island as soon as they could on specially chartered flights, leaving behind piles of faceless corpses. No-one ever went back.

The birds thrived, however. Robin, magpie, thrush, parakeet… They set up in abandoned homes and sang together morning and night, in a beautiful, full-throated chorus.

 

What happened at the Blind Side launch party

OK, so nothing that dramatic or exceptional happened. (Apart from my seriously red hair, that is – the hairdresser took me at my word.) To me though, it was a very special evening, and one I won’t forget.

I chatted with lots of lovely people, many of whom forked out for a paperback, then read from the book and talked a bit – which turned into a long list of thank yous for the amazingly generous support I received while crowdfunding the book. Anyone who pledged and couldn’t make it – you may well have been mentioned in my thank yous, but thank you again anyway! Thanks also to the manager of Daunt Books Hampstead for helping everything to go so swingingly and not getting cross about us leaving late. Sadly, a couple of people I’d been looking forward to seeing couldn’t make it due to illness. But lots of others did. Thanks to everyone who came and shared in my pride and excitement.

Wine and more sensible drinks were served admirably by a dapper chap and my writer friend who pitched in. I overindulged slightly in Prosecco and felt thoroughly dreadful next day.

Credit to the photographer, Claire Tucker.

[image error]Where it happened
[image error]With other Unbounders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[image error]Where’s the redhead?
[image error]The reading went well

 

[image error]No-one spilled their drinks – and splendid flowers
[image error]Practising the signature
[image error]Practising the smile
In other news

There’s been a frustrating issue with the paperback not being available on Amazon just when it was needed most, and stock not available for bookshops – but all seems to be resolved now, fingers crossed.

Here’s a list of shops where Blind Side is in stock (it can be ordered from any UK bookshop):

central London: Blackwell’s, High Holborn

north London: Camden Waterstones, Highgate Bookshop, Muswell Hill Bookshop, Daunt Books Hampstead, Primrose Hill Bookshop, The Big Green Bookshop

More shops including Waterstones branches have ordered or are due to stock shortly.

I made a sneaky visit to Muswell Hill Bookshop yesterday and was astounded to see my book on the front table next to the book I had coincidentally just been raving about on Goodreads and a guest blog post, All The Light We Cannot See:

 

Blind Side is available on Amazon in e-book or paperback format: geni.us/bldsd

Also available via iTunes and my book page on Unbound (worth seeing for the whizzbang revamped site design – and I have quite a startling new page!)

A lot happening…

A quick update.

My ‘big do’ – the launch for Blind Side paperback – is tomorrow and I haven’t yet decided what to wear, which bit to read from the book, written any bullet points or pressed anyone into taking photographs. That will all have to wait for my return from the London Book Fair, where I’ve got a one-one agent appointment (don’t yet know who it is). Also having to deal with gremlins (the paperback link on Amazon has mysteriously disappeared). But the drinks have been ordered, the invites have been sent and author hair has been coloured (red, appropriately  – a somewhat startling shade which hopefully will fade in the wash). It’s starting to get exciting!

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Those coming to the launch: A reminder it’s 16th March, 6.30 start, 8pm finish – so come on time if possible

Blind Side paperbacks arrive!!

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They’ve arrived! My author copies of Blind Side plus two boxes for selling at events.

Here are some pix that I took yesterday in my state of overwhelmed excitement. The dog was in a tizz too, barking like crazy when the doorbell went, and he spotted two large, very chewable boxes.

I celebrated with a large glass of red.

Today more celebration – my local paper is going to run (finally!) an article about the book, to be published on the paperback launch date (16th March) at Daunt Books, Hampstead in South End Road (see my previous post). I’ve agreed to write it myself – the deadline is next week.

Blind Side is now officially available from Amazon (amazon.co.uk only unfortunately – but there are ways to buy if you live overseas, will find out soon). The book will be stocked in selected London bookshops soon and is now available to order from any UK bookshop. But don’t forget if you are within reach of London on the 16th you can get a signed copy at the launch. (Invitations have been sent – plus anyone following this blog is welcome to attend.)

So, it’s all happening! I’m off now to the post office to send off some review copies…

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BLIND SIDE – coming out as a paperback!

So, what you’ve all been waiting for. My big news is…

Blind Side is coming out as a paperback!! It’ll be available at the end of February from UK bookshops and Amazon. (If your bookshop doesn’t have it in stock, please ask them to order it.) I’ve been dying to tell everyone about this for ages, was only just given the green light. It came as a very welcome surprise when I found out from my publisher at Unbound. A paperback is a tangible thing that I can carry around when walking the dog or going shopping, and whip out whenever I spot anyone who looks like a lover of dark, suspense-filled tales… (Plus a lot of my friends think that a book isn’t a proper book till you can turn down the corners, jot stuff in the margins and lodge it in your bookshelf to impress guests.)

To celebrate this stroke of good fortune, I’m having book launch next month. My blog followers are very welcome to join me.

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Time: 6.30 to 8pm

Date: Thursday 16th March

Place: Daunt Books, 51 South End Road, Hampstead NW3 2QB (https://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/hampstead).

The bookshop is around the corner from Keat’s House (worth seeing if you want to make a day of it), 5 mins walk from Hampstead or Belsize Park tube stations, and almost opposite Hampstead Heath railway station. Parking on roads nearby.

Wine, soft drinks, etc provided. Orders for exotic drinks can be placed but will not necessarily be accepted. (I’ll be heading off to the nearest pub afterwards, you can get them in there.)

I’m very grateful for Daunt Books, Hampstead for offering to host this event. The location is especially apt given that much of Blind Side is set in or close to Hampstead (it’s where Georgie and Nikolai meet up for a walk one wintry day, those who’ve read the book may remember).

That’s all for now. I hope to see some of you on the 16th. I’m looking forward to putting on my party dress and mingling with some literary types…

 

Guest post: Why you should consider joining a writing group

Here’s another of my occasional author guest posts. Today I hand over to fellow Unbound author, Shona Kinsella, whose debut novel Ashael Rising has just been published. Ms Kinsella describes her experience with the writing community Scribophile. (I joined Scribophile once, I must confess, and did nothing there whatsoever except read about the karma system and decide it wasn’t for me. But maybe it’s time to go back and have another look.) 

 

Draw up a chair and let me tell you a story. It’s the story of how I went from deciding on a whim to write a book to my debut novel being published by Unbound. It’s the story of the people who helped get me there.

Around May of 2014, I decided to try my hand at writing a book. I sat down at my computer with nothing but a vague image in my head and the name Ashael. Over the next few months I wrote about three chapters and then stalled, overwhelmed by the size of the task before me, and by the fact that I had no clear idea where I was going.

I joined the online writing group, Scribophile. At first I just lurked. It was scary to begin with. Everyone there seemed to know so much more than I did. Like what a dangling modifier is, not to mention a gerund. I read short stories and chapters by some very talented writers. I read lots of critiques written by other people and some of the techniques they talked about scared me off. So, I stopped visiting the site.

I surfed the web and read everything I could find about writing a book. If you’ve ever done that then you’ll appreciate how desperate I was. There are hundreds of sites full of advice for aspiring writers, much of it contradictory. I bought some books on grammar and punctuation only to realise that I use these tools effectively through instinct – I don’t really need to know their names. (That’s why reading a lot is so useful as a writer – you’ll pick up a lot of these things by a sort of osmosis.)

I went back to the novel and messed about with another chapter or two but I felt out-of-my-depth. Eventually I went back to Scribophile, hoping to learn something that would help me move on. Scribophile works with a system of karma points – you have to critique the work of others to earn karma points which you then spend to post your own work for critique. It makes sure that there’s always a fair exchange. The problem with this was that I felt completely unqualified to critique anyone else’s work. I was a baby writer who hadn’t even finished anything, let alone published anything! Luckily my husband pointed out that I was eminently qualified to critique as a reader.

Eventually I found my feet with critiquing and posted a few chapters of Ashael Rising. I got some really helpful feedback but I realised that it would be best if I had a group of regular readers so I joined the smaller Ubergroup (within the site).

I was welcomed into a team with four others, all writing speculative fiction. Each week, we all posted a chapter for feedback and read and critiqued each other’s work. This was what made all the difference. When I joined the team in May 2015 I had written about six chapters and tweaked and rewritten them a few times but I was struggling. So, that’s a year to write the first five or six chapters. I finished the first draft in January 2016 and it’s in large part thanks to my team.

When you’re writing a book in the hope that someday it might be published, but really what are the chances, and you’ll probably have to write several books to learn your trade and it’ll be years and years before anything will even possibly come of it… well, it’s easy to justify taking a few days/weeks/months off. But when you’re working with a team, when you have a commitment to have a chapter available for critique each week, well you write a chapter a week. Getting into that habit helped immensely.

The feedback that I received from my team helped to shape the novel as well. For example, I had to romantic interest for my main character and one of my team pointed out that it would be really unusual for a woman of her age, in her culture, not to have a mate or at least be thinking about it. He was of the opinion that I had to give Ashael a love interest or explain why she didn’t have one. That discussion set off one of the major subplots in the book and turned a minor character into a major one.

Some of the scenes in the book involve the use of magic and although I could picture in my mind what was happening, I found it difficult to describe – especially without using the same words over and over. My team were invaluable in helping me work through these scenes, highlighting where they got lost and suggesting more elegant phrasing in places.

When I completed the first draft, we discussed the book as a whole and they helped me to see that the way the story had evolved while writing meant that I needed to go back and add some chapters to the beginning, showing how the situation developed. I also had to move the ending forward – I had part of book two at the end of book one!

They also helped in a less direct way – reading their work every week made me think about mine in a different light. Each of them are talented writers and I learned a lot from them whether it was chapter construction or poetic phrasing. Each of them influenced me and made me a better writer.

In February 2016, I pitched Ashael Rising to Unbound, hoping to get some feedback on my pitch. Instead they asked for the manuscript. I panicked – I only had the first draft after all – but sent it thinking I might be lucky and get some feedback. Maybe I would be really lucky and they would ask me to revise and resubmit. Four weeks later, they offered me a publishing contract. I have no doubt that was in large part due to the influence of my writing group.

I only hope that someday my feedback will be as helpful to them.

To buy the book

Ashael Rising is available for purchase here: http://bit.ly/ashaelrising