Katharine Johnson's Blog, page 18
May 1, 2018
A beach near Venice inspired Andrea Mara’s brand new psychological thriller which is published today
Venice
Today is Publication Day for One Click – a book I absolutely can’t wait to start reading! Author Andrea Mara’s here to tell us about the inspiration for the story:
[image error]
A Photo Not Taken on an Italian Beach
The woman was where she was every morning – in a low deckchair at the water’s edge, waves lapping around her feet.
My fingers itched to take a photo; I could see it on Instagram already, hashtagged #howIwishIspentmytwenties. My mind wandered ahead of my trigger finger, warning it to hold off, coming up with what-if scenarios.
What if the was on the run from the police and my photo got her arrested?
What if she was hiding from an abusive husband or a troublesome ex?
What if a stranger saw the photo, and became obsessed with her?
What if the local mafia king-pin from her tiny village saw my post and followed her here to Venice, to avenge some past act? (Okay, that one was a stretch.)
In the end, the voice of caution won out, and I didn’t take a photo of the woman that morning, or any morning during my holiday in Northern Italy. But Lauren, the character in my imagination, did take the photo, and she put it on Instagram, with no idea of the unintended consequences to follow.
In One Click, Lauren’s story starts just as mine did in real life – on Spiaggio Marina di Venezia near Venice. A beautiful, golden, perfect beach – a place I escaped to every morning of our holiday – for a run, a walk, and a stand. Actually, lots of standing, and lots of staring out to sea, breathing it in, letting the babble of accents wash over me. A lot like Lauren does in the book – though without the anonymous Tweets breaking the spell.
[image error]
Later, we took the ferry over to Venice. It was oppressively humid on those thronged, narrow streets, and we were a bit addled, looking after our three small children. My youngest, then four, decided he’d had enough, and stormed off in a crowded Venice square. I raced after him, lost sight of him and had that momentary gut-wrenching panic that every parent knows so well. I found him just seconds later – courtesy of his bright orange t-shirt but those seconds will stay with me forever. Losing him there, however briefly, stuck with me, and made it into One Click too. In an early chapter, Lauren’s child disappears on a busy Venice street – her daughter is thirteen, and unlike my small boy, she has a mobile phone, but the street setting, packed with tourists, is just as real as the beach in chapter one.
[image error]
And that beach is special to me, not just as a setting for a book. I was on that beach when I pressed ‘Send’ on an email to a publisher, wishing it across the Adriatic into an inbox that could change my life. And the wishing worked. In my memory, it’s a magical beach – a place that can create authors, inspire novels, make dreams come true. And prompt a tired mother to go for a morning run.
[image error]
When Lauren takes a photo of a stranger on a beach and shares it online,
she has no idea what will come of that single click.
Her daughters are surprised that she posted a photo without consent, but
it’s only when she starts to get anonymous messages about the woman on
the beach that she deletes the photo. It’s too little too late, and the
messages escalate, prompting Lauren to confess to the woman. The
woman has her own dark story, one that might explain the messages, but
Lauren isn’t convinced. Then her ex-husband begins to harass her, telling
her she shares too much online and brought this on herself.
She’s also dealing with other problems. A difficult client at work starts to
show up in places he shouldn’t be. Her younger daughter is behaving out
of character and Lauren can’t work out what’s wrong. And the cracks are
literally beginning to show in her old South Dublin house, mirroring the
cracks in her carefully curated life.
Meanwhile, the messages from the internet troll become more personal
and more vindictive. Her friends feel she should stand up to her stalker,
but Lauren isn’t so sure. And then she makes one small mistake that
brings everything tumbling down.
[image error] About the author
Andrea Mara is a freelance writer, author, and blogger, who lives in Dublin with her husband and three young children. She writes lifestyle features for Irish newspapers and magazines, and has won a number of awards for blogging. She attempts – often badly – to balance work, family, and writing, then lets off steam on her blog, OfficeMum.ie.
Her first book, a psychological thriller set in Dublin, called The Other Side of the Wall, and was published by Poolbeg Press in 2017 and shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien award in 2018.
Her new novel, One Click, is published by Poolbeg Press and is available in bookshops and on Amazon.
Twitter @Office_Mum
April 30, 2018
Haunted Venice – the setting for Shani Struthers’ spine-chilling tale
Venice is often described as the most romantic city on Earth – but did you know it was all the most haunted one? Shani Struthers is here to tell us what drew her to the island of Poveglia.
And there’s a chance to win a signed paperback!
[image error]
The Venetian is set between Venice, ‘the world’s most haunted city’ and Poveglia, an island in the Venetian Lagoon, widely regarded as ‘the world’s most haunted island.’ I love Italy and have visited the country many times, however, Venice only recently – in 2016, in fact. I landed on a cold, rainy November afternoon, hired a private taxi and was swiftly transported across the Lagoon into a world that blew me away!
Venice was everything I hoped it would be – moody and romantic, surreal even with canals instead of roadways and tiny alleys stuffed with grand but crumbling architecture. I knew at once it was the ideal setting for a ghost story, set not only in the city itself but on an island I’d been reading about before going, a prohibited island, Poveglia. As with Venice, here the history is dark and many-layered, home once to a sanatorium, the ruins of which remain, it was also a quarantine centre.
When plague consumed the city, those that were infected were banished to the island, never to return. Instead, the bones of so many – thousands upon thousands – lie buried in the soil beneath your feet. Set between two time zones – 2016 and 1938 – The Venetian seeks to explore this history, bringing you a ghost story of the most unsettling kind, one that has its roots in truth.
Travel Tip
I recommend visiting Venice in November, the city suits this dark, wintry month, and there’s far less tourists. Divided into six different sestieri, or districts, San Polo is my favourite, which is very atmospheric after dark as is Cannaregio (the Jewish Ghetto), which is home to some great restaurants, cafes and bars. As I mentioned above, Poveglia is prohibited, although there’s a saying: if you pay the boat man enough… However, there are other islands to visit in the Lagoon, including Isola di San Michele, the cemetery island, which provides a wonderful dose of serenity and Guidecca, but look out for the mists! We almost got stranded on Guidecca as the mists closed in and they stopped running the boats back to the mainland. Mind you, another ghost story might have taken seed, one in which I could have starred in!
[image error]
The story:
2015
Their troubled past behind them, married couple, Rob and Louise, visit Venice for the first time together, looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Not just a romantic destination, it’s also the ‘most haunted city in the world’ and soon, Louise finds herself the focus of an entity she can’t quite get to grips with – a ‘veiled lady’ who stalks her.
1938
After marrying young Venetian doctor, Enrico Sanuto, Charlotte moves from England to Venice, full of hope for the future. Home though is not in the city; it’s on Poveglia, in the Venetian lagoon, where she is set to work in an asylum, tending to those that society shuns. As the true horror of her surroundings reveals itself, hope turns to dust.
From the labyrinthine alleys of Venice to the twisting, turning corridors of Poveglia, their fates intertwine. Vengeance only waits for so long…
You can buy it here: here
GIVEAWAY
For a chance to win a signed paperback (available anywhere) just leave an answer below to the Prize Question:
Where’s the most ‘haunting’ place you’ve ever been?
Good luck!
[image error]Born and bred in Brighton, Shani Struthers is the author of ten supernatural thrillers (so far), some set in various locations in England, others in more far-flung destinations such as Venice and America. Having been brought up with an understanding of the occult and alternative views on religion, she threads this knowledge throughout her books, often drawing on real-life experiences of her own, from those she has known and well-known occult figures such as Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune. Her Psychic Surveys series, written from the viewpoint of a group of psychics who specialise in domestic spiritual clearance, has proved very popular indeed, becoming global Amazon genre bestsellers. Her new series – This Haunted World – is a set of standalone books set in and around the world’s most haunted places and again, weave fact with fiction. When she’s not writing or researching, she can be found slumped in front to the TV or on a country walk with family and friends.
The Virtual Italy Book Festival – Day 1
Venice
[image error]
Welcome to the online festival! This is going to be a week of posts about Italy and books. Please feel free to share your hints and tips on what to read, what to eat, travel stories and places to go.
[image error]
I’m really excited about the authors who’ll be coming along today to talk about Venice and their books which are set there.
Like many people I fell in love with Venice when I was a student, backpacking around Europe.
In 1996 I spent a few weeks from Feb-April in a little house behind the Fenice opera house.
To be fair it wasn’t quite as picturesque as it sounds – it was the year the opera house burned down and the canal that ran behind our house had been drained (as they are every ten years or so) for restoration.
But we’d never have been able to stay so long otherwise and if you didn’t look down the view of old windows, balconies and rooftops was amazing. And the day they refilled the canal was exciting – running round the little alleys to reach “our” bridge in time to see the water surging through!
[image error]
Each time I go back I have a different experience.
And there’s always something new to discover.
[image error]
So I don’t think I’ll ever really be able to say I know Venice.
[image error]
But then I don’t want to. I love the fact that it’s still easy to get lost.
Last time we went we visited this bookshop.
[image error]
I love the book steps
[image error]
Here are some of my favourite Venice reads.
[image error] [image error] [image error]
What’s yours?
You can join in in the comments here or in the Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/182143792432908/?ti=icl
Coming next: Shani Struthers on Haunted Venice
April 25, 2018
Road Trip Reads: Merle by Angela Wren
Continuing my series of reading books appropriate to the places I visit:
[image error]
Passing through France, I grabbed a copy of this detective story set in the French town of Merle. I’d really enjoyed Messandrierre by the same author so was looking forward to reading this one. Jacques Foret the very likeable main character in Messandrierre also stars in this story. Formerly a gendarme, he’s now a private detective and is called in by The Vaux organisation to investigate malpractice within their firm. But the case turns out to be more complex than it appears and then a young woman’s body is discovered. Who’s behind it all and why? Will Jacques find the answer before another person ends up dead?
The story starts quite gradually as we’re introduced to the firm and its problems but what I loved here was the sense of place and the growing tension between Jacques and his ex, Madeleine. The pace picks up as the mystery progresses and I found it hard to put down and was sorry when it ended. Angela Wren obviously knows France inside out and paints evocative scenes with convincing dialogue. I’ll be looking out for the next one in this series. If you love detective stories and France you’re in for a treat with Merle!
Merle is available in paperback and ebook forms and is available here
My rating 
April 22, 2018
Book review: ghost by Helen Grant
Ghost by Helen Grant @helengrantsays @lovebooksgroup @fledglingpress #blogtour #GHOST
I’m thrilled to be taking part in the Love Books Group blog tour for ghost today with a book review.
[image error]
The story: Langlands House is haunted, but not by the ghost you think.
Augusta McAndrew lives on a remote Scottish estate with her grandmother, Rose. For her own safety, she hides from outsiders, as she has done her entire life. Visitors are few and far between – everyone knows that Langlands House is haunted.
One day Rose goes out and never returns, leaving Augusta utterly alone. Then Tom McAllister arrives – good-looking and fascinating, but dangerous. What he has to tell her could tear her whole world apart.
As Tom and Augusta become ever closer, they must face the question: is love enough to overcome the ghosts of the past?
In the end, Langlands House and its inhabitants hold more secrets than they did in the beginning…
My review:
I’m a sucker for first person narrative house-of-secrets stories so this book had me at the opening pages. I love the description of the house and the intriguing Rapunzel-style situation of a girl growing up in a closed world, believing it’s wartime and she must hide for her own safety.
The story’s told in two viewpoints – Ghost’s and Tom’s as they try and solve the mystery of why Ghost was brought up by her grandmother and what happened to her parents.
I love the way this is written – it’s strong, powerful and evocative. I also liked the fact there were so few characters as this means there is time to really get under their skin and I think it’s the characterisation that kept me turning the pages late into the night.
The plot’s quite simple – I expected the story to end in one of two ways and it ended in one of these but not without some surprises.
I haven’t read any of this author’s books before but The Vanishing of Katharina Linden sounds right up my street so I’m adding that to my reading list right now!
My rating
This book’s published by Fledgling Press and is available in kindle and paperback.
[image error]
About the author
Helen Grant writes thrillers with a Gothic flavour and ghost stories. Her first novel, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and won an ALA Alex Award in the US. Her other books include the exciting Forbidden Spaces trilogy.
Helen’s latest novel Ghost (Fledgling Press 2018) is set in Perthshire, where she has lived since 2011. When she is not writing, Helen loves to research the lost country houses of Scotland and to visit the sites where possible. Her experiences of exploring these fascinating places inspired her to write Ghost.
Check out the other stops on the blog tour to find out what others are saying about this book:
[image error]
April 21, 2018
Road Trip Reads: Agatha Christie
Book review: Agatha Christie, An English Mystery by Laura Thompson, published by Headline
This year I’ve set myself a challenge to read something connected to each place I visit.
My first stop this Easter break was Belgium and as Belgium was the home of the fastidious fictional detective Hercule Poirot it seemed like a good opportunity to read this biography of his creator, Agatha Christie.
[image error]
Behind the public persona of the Queen of Cosy Crime lies a remarkable and complex woman. Journalist Laura Thompson has used unpublished letters, papers and notebooks to put together a remarkably detailed portrait of the writer.
Although I’ve read a lot of Agatha Christie’s books, I knew very little about her and was intrigued to know more. This book follows her from her childhood in Devon, through her two marriages, and her writing career including the revelatory novels she wrote as Mary Westmacott.
This book’s very readable and well researched. I felt I really got to know Agatha and I liked her a lot.
I was interested to learn about her girlish personality, her travelling, her writing, her closeness to her mother and her attachment to her childhood home. I also learned more about her eleven-day disappearance which has always intrigued me.
It’s an affectionate and touching account I found difficult to put down. The bonus is that it’s also beautifully written, evoking the sights, sounds and smells of Agatha’s surroundings and getting right inside her head to understand her decisions, behaviour and responses.
I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in the writer – or even just in English middle class life in the 20th century.
My rating:
April 8, 2018
The dreaded blurb – why is it so hard to write?
I’ve been tearing my hair out over the blurb for my next novel The Secret!
[image error]
You know – those few lines on the back of the book that explain what it’s all about?
So important.
And so hard to write!
When you’ve spent months or even years writing a novel, how do you condense it into a few lines? That actually make sense? And give an accurate idea of the story without giving too much away?
From talking to other authors I know I’m not alone in this.
For many of us it’s the hardest thing about writing a book.
After all, the blurb is a sales pitch – it can make all the difference between someone choosing your book or someone else’s.
[image error]
But I’m lucky in that I had the help of a very supportive community of writers and editors at Crooked Cat Books. I inflicted an early version of my blurb on them, knowing they’d give me honest feedback.
As you’d expect from a group of 100 authors I got some conflicting advice but the overall message was to go back to the drawing board (or at least the keyboard.)
But at least I had a clearer idea of what I was trying to achieve:
1. Start with a strong, snappy sentence that introduces the situation.
2. Create a sense of who the characters are.
3. Introduce the problem
4. Add the twist
I hope this is helpful to anyone else writing a blurb.
I must thank Joan Livingston in particular for her help. Look out for her mystery Chasing the Case which is released in May and sounds amazing.
My publisher Stephanie Patterson then gave it a final tweak.
Here’s the result – I’d love to know what you think:
Love, Lies, and Betrayal in Wartime Italy
Two girls growing up in Mussolini’s Italy share a secret that has devastating consequences. Against a backdrop of fear, poverty and confusion during the Second World War, friendship is tested, and loyalties are divided until a chance encounter changes everything.
Their lives diverge when beautiful, daring Martina marries and moves into Villa Leonida, the most prestigious house in their Tuscan mountain village, while plain, studious Irena trains to be a teacher.
But neither marriage nor life at Villa Leonida are as Martina imagined. And as other people’s lives take on a new purpose, Irena finds herself left behind.
Decades later, a tragedy at the villa coincides with the discovery of an abandoned baby, whose identity threatens to re-open old wounds among the next generation.
The ebook of The Secret is published on June 1st – you can preorder it on Amazon now on this link.
Please tell me if you do and you’ll be entered into the draw for an Italy related prize.
[image error]The paperback is available right now!
March 29, 2018
Easter bargain reads
Happy Easter weekend!
Think of us – three generations of the Johnson family + boyfriend squashed into a car for a 1000-mile drive – and the forecast is rain, rain, rain. What can go wrong?
We have no alternative but to pack light.
Which means I won’t be able to bring many books (apart from the ones I’ve hidden under the seats and in the glove compartments)
Thank goodness for ebooks!
I’m a fairly recent convert to these – I must admit I do love the feel and smell of a paperback – but there are definite advantages to ebooks:
1. The size – being able to fit a whole library in your handbag means you’ll never be bored.
2. The cost – at around £1.99 each, ebooks are much more affordable which means you can buy a coffee and a book and still have change from a fiver.
3. The extras – you can highlight and bookmark, search for a line or a word and look up words in the dictionary as you read.
4. Being so inexpensive means you can buy lots more books and trying out a new author is much less of a risk.
5. You can read at night without disturbing your partner or grappling with one of those mini reading lights.
I love reading books that have some relevance to the place I’m in so I’ve been saving up some amazing reads for the countries we pass through.
And I’ll also be snapping up a few bargains at the Crooked Cat half price sale this weekend.
The Silence and Lies, Mistakes and Misunderstandings are included in the sale and are each 99p/99c
These links will take you through to the Amazon page and the reduced price
Lies, Mistakes and Misunderstandings
But there are hundreds of other titles in crime, romance, historical and paranormal.
At 99p each you can buy five books for less than £5…
Or three books + a cup of coffee…
Or two books and a chocolate egg…
If you haven’t bought ebooks before, you don’t need a kindle to read them – just download the free kindle reading app and you can read on your phone, tablet, Mac or PC.
[image error]
March 28, 2018
Book review: Come A Little Closer by Rachel Abbott
[image error]
Come a Little Closer, Rachel Abbott
Publisher: Black Dot
Genre: psychological thriller
A group of strangers is brought together because of a bad choice they each made. Now they’re living with the consequences in a strange old house but it’s gradually apparent that things are not what they seem – and what is about the name Julia?
This is a highly original, intriguing and disturbing psychological tale that had me gripped from the start. As the reader you know more than the character so you can see how the situation is being built up from the first encounter and have an idea of the consequences which makes it fly-on-the-wall fascinating and yet there are surprises I didn’t see coming. Different threads – a young woman trying to escape her problems, a body discovered in a lonely place and a man looking for his sister – are skilfully drawn together.
I’m a huge fan of Rachel Abbott’s books so wondered how this one would match up but for me it’s her best yet. I’m always more interested in the character’s situation than the procedural side but Tom Douglas is likeable and believable and I really enjoyed his family situation in this one.
my rating
March 17, 2018
Come to the festival!
[image error]
Love reading? Love writing? Love Italy?
Then you’re invited!
The book festival takes place right here on this blog, Facebook and Twitter from 1st to 8th May
So you can take a virtual road trip around the Bel Paese
[image error]
Be transported to Venice, Verona, Tuscany, Rome, the Lakes, Liguria, Umbria, Le Marche, Amalfi, Sicily and more! And discover some fabulous reads along the way. All from the comfort of your sofa
[image error]
There are lots of amazing authors taking part
[image error]
Share your travel tips * anecdotes * book recommendations * foodie favourites * places to stay * writing retreats – and win prizes!
[image error]
More details coming soon.
But for now please note the date in your diary. Drop in any time during the first week of May to catch up on posts and be in with a chance of a prize
Look forward to seeing you!
If you’re an author with a book set in Italy and would like to take part, please get in touch
