Jennie Ensor's Blog, page 15

Review: The Art of Letting Go by Chloe Banks

This contemporary fiction novel published by Thistle Publishing in 2014 manages to pack many things in. Off the top of my head: trust, faith, creativity, mental illness, friendship, love, ambition, success, shame, regret, the constraints imposed by money and its lack…

It contains first-person narratives from Ben, Rosemary, Cheryl and Jenny, and letters between Rosemary and her sister.

Middleaged artist Ben is a stranger in a small seaside town. He’s obviously hiding something. Fairly soon, two women Cheryl and Jenny have fallen under his spell, the first manipulative and dangerous, the second naïve and vulnerable, which provides suspense as we wonder what might happen to them all.

Rosemary is not infatuated with Ben but she too is drawn to something in him and his slowly progressing painting of God sensing some common ground, perhaps. She’s a 70ish retired and physicist who has not yet totally escaped an unhappy marriage, and has things in her past that she is afraid of bringing into the open.

I enjoyed many things about the book – the interaction of the characters, the intrigue that grows between them and within the gossipy community, the sense of place and atmosphere, and the mystery of who Ben really is and what he wants from this town. I loved the idea of Ben trying to paint God with the stubborn rectangle of white at its centre. Rosemary’s crochety complexity as a character and her backstory is conveyed gradually in a way that entices the reader to learn more. Jenny’s arc is well handled and leads to an unexpected place.

The ending didn’t entirely work for me due to aspects relating to changes in Rosemary, which felt a little abrupt. However, overall I would definitely recommend the book. Four stars on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1579427021).

Not yet finished after all

Book Launch / Pre-launch Event

This is planned to be a celebratory book reading. It may also be the ‘launch’ of Ghosts of Chechnya if the book is actually ready for publication by then (the date is a bit elastic and may not happen till later in June or early July – if so and I have any energy left I may organise something else for then too).

Location: Crouch End, north London (N8) – the café-bar at the top of the Crouch End Picturehouse . This is a lovely new venue in Crouch End, bright and airy with good vibes and a pleasant outlook. Interesting sounding hot and cold snacks available.

Date: Evening of 16th June 2016, 7pm for 7.30pm

More information to follow. The event is part of the Crouch End Festival http://www.crouchendfestival.org.

Another Rewrite

After much agonising, mental exertion, domestic unrest, sleep loss and the occasional sprinkling of inspiration, I’ve managed to practically rewrite my novel. This was as a result of the comprehensive structural edit report received from Rachel Rayner. Her many insights and suggestions have been invaluable – once again I have had to bite the bullet and accept that no, Ghosts of Chechnya is Not Yet Finished after all. I’ve rejigged the plot, cut stuff, added stuff…  In part this is to make my book fit more closely the domestic noir psychological thriller genre conventions, while not detracting from the romance/love story.

The most challenging aspect of the edit has probably been to find a way to balance the ‘page-turning’ with the ‘relationship-building’ elements. I’ve added another voice to  help to do this – hopefully Rachel will agree (she will report back on the revised version).

The next most difficult aspect was replotting – effectively bringing the ‘terrorism strand’ of the plot forward and beefing it up somewhat. My constraint was that certain news reports and incidents referred to are not fictional (7/7 and events in Russia and Chechnya that year). I didn’t want to alter dates just to fit events better into the story.

Then there was changing all the past tense to present tense, all the way through… The less said about this, the better. Why is the English language so mortifyingly irregular? Though  a lot of the task was repetitive, frustratingly it proved difficult to automate using Word’s search and replace tool (and too risky – after a few mistakes I decided to keep on using the good old manual method).

Anyway, finally a few days ago I was more or less happy with the end result and sent it off. Will let you know how the next phase goes, hopefully.

If anyone has any tips on the editing process, they will be gratefully received.

Ghosts of Chechnya to be published this summer

Not long to go now… My debut novel (I like the sound of that, forgive me) is set to be published by Unbound this summer! (cue drum roll, clashing of cymbals and general hullabaloo, however that’s spelled) They are aiming for June but have warned me about possible delays. I will have a firm date closer to the time.

I’ve been assigned an editor who has been going through my manuscript, focussing on the big picture, broader structural issues and so forth. She has worked with some top authors and publishers – I’m hoping some magic dust will rub off onto my book. Of course, I delivered the MS in a state of near perfection[image error] but almost certainly someone else will have another view about plot, characters, sentence structure and wotnot. The novel has had loads of reader input and critiques, some fairly rigorous, but this will be the first professional assessment.

Moving swiftly on, before I can start to worry… This part of the process is due to take roughly a month, to be followed by the closer inspection phase of copyediting and proofreading. Along the way, a designer will get to work on the cover.

So, it’s all happening! It does feel a little surreal sometimes to have a publisher for my novel, after all this time doggedly writing away and wondering if I ever would. (It’s nearly fifteen years since I began – novels, intermittent poetry and lately flash fiction.)

I have a brief interlude now before I will have to revisit my MS – will be trying to relax and not get too obsessed with doing whatever may or may not help my book’s fortunes, planning ahead and worrying about miscellaneous stuff. This is easier said than done, as there really is a hell of a lot I don’t know about re book publishing and promotion, and jolly well ought to be finding out. But one step at a time.

Now, as this post has been somewhat word-heavy so far, here’s some stills from videos taken in Glasgow of the book reading I did with fellow Unbound author Ian Skewis and actor Gavin Mitchell (taking the part of Nikolai). Credit to Runilla Chilton, our impromptu cameraman – or is that cameraperson?

I’ve been toiling away learning how to edit videos, given that by the time the book comes out I will have to deliver a video of the novel’s settings to supporters on Unbound who pledged for this reward – unless they all want a personal guided tour, that is. My first editing attempts ended with me spitting in frustration, yelling and thumping the desk. (Perhaps I should stick to writing.) Things went better with Movie Maker installed, which though basic is fairly intuitive. Can anyone recommend some simple video editing software, by the way?

Due to the limitations of WordPress – no videos permitted unless you pay through the nose, grrrr – I can’t put the videos up here. If anyone wants to check out the wonderfully dramatic performance of When Georgie met Nikolai parts 1 & 2, please hop over to my project page on Unbound: https://unbound.co.uk/books/ghosts-of-chechnya

Back again soon, off now to try out i-movie and practice shooting with the i-phone.

Amazing things do happen once in a while

My Unbound project page has a bright orange disk with 101% on top and “This book is fully funded” beneath it. And my latest progress report says:

Amount to raise: (cue habitual stab of anxiety)

0 (swiftly turning to relief bordering on euphoria)

No, I haven’t won Lotto, been rescued from a stormy sea, discovered a galleon of gold ingots or finished an Iron Man event. But I feel as if I have – all four at once.

My novel is funded, after three long months of pledge gathering – which means Ghosts of Chechnya is going to be published by Unbound. This is relief indeed. I haven’t got to get x more pledges! I can spend my days cleaning the sofa or washing the dog or cooking a curry to end all curries… I can have a guilt-free nap and wake up with a smile. I can watch hours of TV serials, write a long meandering poem or start reading War and Peace.

But before I scamper away into the Land of Post-100%, I must say a big thank you to everyone who has supported me and my book by making a contribution – large or small, single or repeated. It’s hard to believe how generous so many people have been. At the risk of sounding like one of those Unbound promo messages, you made it happen!

A special big BIG ULTRA HUGE thank you to the anonymous donors who contributed towards my book recently. It has made all the difference to get such wonderfully generous support. I literally couldn’t believe my eyes on Thursday when I saw my % funded shoot up to 95% or so in one fell swoop while headed to Glasgow for an Unbound book event. Thank goodness I was in the passenger seat, not driving! May the universe smile on you, and return your kindness.

The final thank you is to the people who have been there for me – and put up with me – during the past weeks of crowdfunding. Sorry I’ve been irritable, obsessive, unavailable, etc.

That’ll do, or I’ll have to go and find a clean hanky.

 

The e-book will be out within a few months once it’s been properly edited, a cover designed and all those other things a book needs. The timing of this is not down to me so I can’t say for certain how long it will all take but I will keep everyone informed.

Once published, the e-book will be emailed to the Supporters of Ghosts of Chechnya on unbound.co.uk and will go on sale to everyone else (don’t yet know at what price) via all the usual e-book retailers (Amazon, Kobo, etc). Also I should add that up until some cut-off point as yet unknown by me, people can still pledge to get their names in the book and whatever rewards are still available (see my Unbound page for details).

Off now for a long bath and an evening in front of the TV, before the next set of tasks beckons…

On hearing my book is 100% funded

 

11 days to go!!&&$$$£!!!!

It’s make or break time for my Unbound book. As of today (Friday 12th)  Ghosts of Chechnya is 49% funded. I have raised around £1900 – and must raise the same amount again in order to reach 100%.

I have until 22nd February to get there, or a significant part of the way at least – if not the pages of my half-materialised book will be scattered unceremoniously/consigned to the deepest vaults at the Unbound offices, labelled ‘Nearly made it’.

Rather than give up on this daunting challenge (tempting though it has been on many occasions) I am going to give it my very best shot. I am going to take the bull by the horns and f***ing kick ass!

A good deal of the past month has been spent in a frantic surge of activity to organise an Unbound author event at a Highgate pub. The readings with my fellow funding authors went well – Ian Skewis (A Murder of Crows), Martine McDonagh (Things We Can’t Undo) and Phyllis Richardson (House of Fiction) with the suavely unflappable Bill Colegrave as MC for the night (his enticing travel anthology, Scraps of Wool, has recently embarked on the process of publication). Despite technical hiccups, the event generated extra pledges for most of us and generated a surge of support for my book.

A big big thank you to my latest supporters:

A special thanks to Liz Tucker, Mark Christian, Kate Murdoch and Nicole Gotch, who have all recently dug into their pockets twice by topping up their pledges or pledging again.

My book has got nearly 100 supporters so far, which is pretty good going, and I will be pulling out all the stops to get the rest of the funds I need. I’ve been working all hours to get support from local businesses, well known actors, Russia-related groups, enquiring about items in newsletters and local papers, etc etc. (Why are there only 24 hours in a day?)

Yesterday I added a new £250 level reward ‘Lunch with author’, which should help me to get to my target a bit quicker. Unbound didn’t add my suggested phrase ‘within 100 miles of London’, so I may be off to John o’ Groats, the US, Singapore or even Australia in the near future[image error] This could be the excuse I need to catch up with some far-flung friends.

I’d better sign off now and get on with my letter to Mr Pryce… An important point to note: all pledges are returned should the book not get to its target, which I very much hope won’t have to happen. I’m going to go all out to get to 100% by the 22nd. If I’m nearly there by then I may get a bit longer to finish the job, we will have to wait and see.

One last thing – I’ll be talking about and reading from Ghosts of Chechnya in Glasgow on Sunday 21st February at a special event organised by fellow Unbound author Ian Skewis. He’ll be reading from his crime thriller A Murder of Crows. Guest speaker is Gavin Mitchell from TV’s Still Game, who will also read from our books… I must try to tone down my English accent and remember the intricacies of Mr C’s Scottish heritage (coincidentally, one of his parents lived in Hillhead). If anyone can make it over there, we’d love to see you.

Author event in Glasgow:

1.30-2.30pm, Sunday 21st February

Hillhead Library, 348 Byres Road, Glasgow G12 8AP. Free tea and coffee

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/480393185502636