Liz Fenwick's Blog, page 12

Discussing Dyslexia on Dubai Eye

I am dyslexic and a mother of a dyslexic child. This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. On the 13th of February 2013 I was on Dubai Eye's Education Matters with Sarah Cocker discussing dyslexia with Dr Rudolf Stockling.




listen to ‘Education Matters 6, 13.02.2013’ on Audioboo


listen to ‘Education Matters 7, 13.02.2013’ on Audioboo


listen to ‘Education Matters 8, 13.02.2013’ on Audioboo



Sorry for the silence here on the blog. I promise to be better now that A Cornish Affair is finished....well almost!

Christmas Books

As you would expect in our house books play a large roll...especially at Christmas.



Santa added the new edition of the Hobbit to DS1's and DS2's stocking because it was so beautiful...







There were also book on words and extraordinary facts but what was interesting was which books under the tree were the big hits...



I gave DS2 Fifty Sheds of Grey...yes, I know it appears a strange choice but he had been sending me links to spoof of 50 Shades and well.... He kept us entertain all Christmas day quoting from it!







I gave DD Kitchenella by Rose Prince...DD sat flipping through it and  said 'I can this tell this a book I will keep and use forever!' (the blurb says ...The Secrets of Women: Heroic, Simple, Nurturing Cookery - For Everyone.'





And DD and I must have been thinking alike because she gave me Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries II. On her weekend exeats it was the program we would cuddle on the sofa and watch...









Finally DH was given Gavin Esler's Lesson's From the Top and he had his nose firmly planted in it while on our skiing holiday.






Were you given any books this Christmas? Any favourites yet?

The Hobbit, Writing and Christmas....

Yesterday I went to see Peter Jackson's The Hobbit and, well, fell in love...with Thorin. If one man could make Tolkien's dwarves sexy it would be Richard Armitage....But aside from that I loved being back in that world.







I first read The Hobbit when I was thirteen. My English teacher Miss Walsh recommended it to me...I loved it. I loved the runes and the magic. I loved the elves. I introduced my children much sooner to it...and the boys are totally absorbed into the world but for different reasons, but that is part of the magic. The Hobbit and The Lord of Rings...offer so many thing for so many people....



To link this all together, I have begun writing again - a long story story or maybe a novella, A Cornish Carol. It's an idea that has been whizzing around in my head for a while. I took pen, yes pen, to paper and began this week and I now know that my hero looks just like Richard Armitage not as Thorin though. I will have to do a tremendous amount of research....I may be gone a while...



Christmas is almost upon us and I am woefully unprepared this year, but I am confident that it will all happen. I long to arrive in Cornwall and begin the process of making it happen but not yet...London still holds me while I tie up lose ends here...



Are you ready for Christmas?

A Cover For A CORNISH AFFAIR

I was going to post about my signing at Waterstones Truro and the Cornish Compendium (a mini du Maurier Festival) with Veronica Henry and the Dubai 7s but I was on on Amazon and saw this!!!!









Running out on your wedding day never goes down well. When the pressure of her forthcoming marriage becomes too much, Jude bolts from the church, leaving a good man at the altar, her mother in a fury, and the guests with enough gossip to last a year.



Guilty and ashamed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a crumbling cliff-top mansion in Cornwall, where she takes a job cataloguing the Trevillion family's extensive library. The house is a welcome escape for Jude, full of history and secrets, but when its new owner arrives, it's clear that Pengarrock is not beloved by everyone.



As Jude falls under the spell of the house, she learns of a family riddle stemming from a terrible tragedy centuries before, hinting at a lost treasure. And when Pengarrock is put up for sale, it seems that time is running out for the house and for Jude.




The book is out in May 2013...and it would be great if you could like it on Amazon here.

The RNA Winter Party, The Dutch Edition of The Cornish House and A Catch Up

My shoes!

Well, it has been a crazy time...from the Festival of Romance ( I blogged about it here), DS2's 18th birthday, and finishing my edits on A Cornish Affair (YAY!).



Today I am sitting in PJs wondering if I really have to venture forth from the flat or can I just be lazy all day...



Aside from what's been mentioned above, I was on Sue Moorcroft's blog yesterday sharing a romantic dream of mine here to celebrate the release of her latest book Dream A Little Dream...there's a free copy of the The Cornish House on offer for the most romantic story...



The fabulous Tracey Edges reviewed The Cornish House on her Saturday morning Radio programme Edges Review. You can listen to the programme here and the review of The Cornish House comes about a half hour from the end of the programme...



I will be signing copies of The Cornish House in Truro at Waterstones on Saturday 24th of November from 11...please come by and say hello...







I'll also be in Fowey at the Mini Du Maurier Festival called the  Cornish Compendium with the wonderful Veronica Henry talking about Inspirational Cornwall (and there's a cream tea!) on Thursday the 29th at 4PM The Old Quay House Hotel. Please come if you are around. Tickets can be purchased here.



Sterren boven Cornwall (stars over Cornwall), the Dutch edition of the Cornish House is out now...so exciting





Yesterday I sent off the edited version of A Cornish Affair to my agent and my editor...nail biting time but also relief...now a few days to catch up with life and begin writing the next book! I'll be entering NaNoWri a bit late!!!!

Sharjah International Book Fair...a panel 'A Sense of Self in Writing'

HH Dr. Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi opens the book Fair

I'm just back from Sharjah International Book Fair. As happened last year, I am in awe of the scope of this event. Yes, it's about selling books - selling them in many ways...to publishers, to stores, to other countries and to ordinary people but it's so much more. I love the way they bring the book world alive with events for everyone but especially for kids...



Children enjoying the book fair





A cookery demonstration



I was lucky enough to be an invited author this year. I was both apprehensive and excited about being on a panel to discuss 'A Sense of Self in Writing'...what a fantastic topic but what were they looking for??? Having lived in Dubai in total for about ten years I have learned that what I may understand by something may very well not be what others do. This makes life interesting and makes a panel interesting too. It is also the scary part....





Liz Fenwick, Tahmima Anam, Marwa Al Agroubi (hidden) Said Kafrawi, Inaam Kachachi

So on this panel discussion was joined Inaam Kachachi, an Iraqi writer who lives in Paris. Her novel The American Granddaughter was shortlisted for for the IPAF in 2009. The was the esteemed Egyptian short story writer Said Kafrawi and Tahmima Anam from Bangladesh , who lives in London. Her first novel A Golden Age was shortlisted for both the Guardian and Costa First Books awards.





The chair of the panel was Marwa Al Agroubi and I wondered how she was going to lead four very diverse writers through the discussion but she did....



Here are a few of the notes I made...



Said and I agreed on all stories have been told but it what you the writer bring to them that makes the unique.

He also said that writing is about expressing passion of the old truths and dreams

Think of transforming real life into art and making more interesting



Tahmima spoke of

as a writer we get to live many lives through our characters

no characters is limited by her experience yet all have a part of her in them

be a chameleon



The question that kept coming back to was why as writers were we afraid to show ourselves in the writing...



I argued that we weren't...our choice of themes showed clearly what we were thinking, feeling and who we are. And like Tahmima each character had some part of me in them.



I spoke about the need to have characters who did things that went against our own beliefs...as that adds extra conflict to the story and we must be true to story. We read fiction to learn about others and about ourselves and that is true for the writer too....in writing the stories...



I'm afraid I was so busy trying to listen to the translations to note down more of what was said....



However I did when asked speak of the assumption of some readers ... readers never expect a crime writer to have committed a murder, but some readers assume that a writer of women's fiction will have done almost anything in the book that they have written.... especially if it deals with sex.



It's clearly not safe to let me out at night to talk about writing. However the room came alive after that comment and the chair quizzed me on this topic several times!

The Cornish House is Shortlisted for Best Romantic Read at the Festival of Romance

The Cornish House

I am thrilled that The Cornish House has been shortlisted as Best Romantic Read at this year Festival of Romance in Bedford. Here's the shortlist here.



If you are in the area there are some tickets left for the events. I'll be at the Coffee and Cake event on Saturday morning and at the free Romance fair in the Howard Room at the Corn Exchange in the afternoon...do come and say hello.



The lovely Catherine McNamara interviews me over at THE VIEW FROM HERE about  The Mind Matters of a Debut Novelist here.

Business Breakfast on Dubai Eye with Brandy Scott...talking about the business of being a writer

Yesterday morning I was on Dubai Eye's Business Breakfast with the wonderful Brandy Scott. She even made me sound coherent! I was talking about the business of being a writer today. If your curious about my take on it you can listen below - if the link works...


listen to ‘Liz Fenwick’ on Audioboo



And if you're in Dubai or Sharjah next week...I'll be at the Sharjah International Book Fair (on panel on Thursday the 8th at 19:00...) and at WH Smith in Dubai Mall from 18:00 signing books and chatting...

NaNoWriMo and Edits

I'll be very quiet here for a bit as I'm working on editing A Cornish Affair...the good news my editor loved it- the bad news/good news it needs work, which I knew....



I have blogged at The Heroine Addicts about NaNo...here. Are you doing NaNo this year...I hope to if I can finish my edits!

First Person or Third Person Point of View - Which Provides A More Emotional Read

Having submitted dreaded book two, A Cornish Affair, I’m filled with
worry. Not because I don’t like the story, I do. But worry because it is a very
different story. A Cornish Affair is
an adventure/romantic suspense type story and therefore very different from The Cornish House. This I am told by
some is not a bad thing….I’m not so sure.




It has had me wondering about something
though…the story is not as ‘emotional’. And I’m wondering if this is because it
is written in first person. Now bear with me because this seems counter
intuitive. I've always thought if a book was in first person I would ‘feel’ more - after all we are in one character’s head. We feel their emotions.




But strangely I am beginning to thing it
does the opposite…I recently finished The
Girl I Left Behind by JoJo Moyes and I loved it. The book had me from page
one…I was gripped by the story, which as it opens is told in first person and
is set in 1916 occupied France. The second half of the book in set in ‘modern’
time and is told in third person. Now here’s the interesting bit…although
gripped by the story in the first half I wasn’t as emotionally connected as I
was in the second…and I don’t think this was because of the time difference. The
actual facts of the story in set 1916 were on the face much more tear
provoking…




This set me wondering…did this happen with
all first person stories I had read and did it apply to the one I’d just
written. This week I also read the wonderful debut of Liz Harris, The Road Back…told in third person. I
was moved to tears at points.




So I’m wondering if first person in a way
sets up a strange distance. It’s like the wall the character puts up to protect
themselves applies to the reader and isn’t there in third person. Or maybe it’s
just me.




What do you think? It’s not that I haven’t
loved stories told in first person, I have but thinking of them I haven’t been
quite as emotionally caught up. (Note: I'm reading When God Was A Rabbit at the moment and loving it...pages effortlessly turning but I'm not getting the emotional kick i should be considering some of the stuff I'm reading) What is your favourite first person story and
did it leave you weeping or dry-eyed?