Isobel Blackthorn's Blog, page 31

The Cabin Sessions coming soon

#TheCabinSessions

Dark fiction for people who want their characters twisted. Set in an open mic on the night of a blood moon…

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: dark fiction, Fear Front Publishing, horror, The Cabin Sessions

Picking up the breadcrumbs

Can’t believe a whole year has gone by… #TheDragoTree

Isobel Blackthorn

Yesterday we took a tour of the island’s north, where the malpais (bad land) fans to the coast, the legacy of eruptions of a chain of volcanos about 5,000 years ago, two of which form the view from our farmhouse, to the west and the north. It is the route Ann took in the first chapter of The Drago Tree, only in reverse.

We set off, heading north to Ye, passing through a narrow valley between La Corona, the largest volcano in the chain, and the rounded peaks of the massif. The road is narrow and edged with low dry stone walls. Beyond, the fields of black were alive with euphorbias, the lichens on the rocks bright splodges of white, yellow and orange. Wild grasses and flowers everywhere, the result of recent rain. Usually, there is little green save what the farmers plant and tend.

Ye is the same as…

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Isobel Blackthorn speaking at Belgrave library – feat. Savannah Rose

What does an audience expect an author talk event will be like? Will there be a powerpoint presentation? A slide show of images of old drafts, with bits of text crossed out and heaps of writing in the margins? Will the author explain her writing process and provide insights into her creative journey?

I’ve never created a power point presentation in my life! And we can forget the slide show of drafts. I do have a writing process and I’ll definitely be talking about that, but what I most want to share are my sources of inspiration.

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I am profoundly inspired by setting. For me, writing a novel is like moving house and relocating somewhere else. I have to enjoy the new space I’m inhabiting. I really have to want to be there.  My most recent novels were inspired by the time I spent living in the Dandenong Ranges and the Yarra Valley east of Melbourne.

Music also inspires me. Both novels have strong musical themes. So I’m delighted that musical duo Savannah Rose have offered to come along and play a few songs. Especially because duo member Suzanne Diprose played a major role in the creation of both stories!

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I’m very pleased to have been invited back by Belgrave library. I’ve decided to make it a special occasion and have a one-off book sale to celebrate. Come along if you’re in the area, and grab a bargain!

Thursday 9th March @ 6pm

entry is free.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: A Perfect Square, Author talk, Belgrave library, Dandenong Ranges, Savannah Rose, The Cabin Sessions, The Dandenongs, Yarra Valley

The Cabin Sessions in Fear Front’s Spring line up!

When Fear Front offered to publish my first horror novel, The Cabin Sessions, a few days ago, something in my personal universe shifted, as though a cog turned and I was moving forward again. Fear Front are an America-based dedicated horror imprint publishing top notch literary horror. Their offer was a rock solid stamp of endorsement, telling me that I had, in fact, pulled off a work in a very special genre.

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All the genres in fiction have their rules. Bend them as you wish but break them at your peril. Every author knows it’s hard to attract a publisher if your work is not an easy fit or straddles two genres, not quite ticking the boxes of either one. I knew this when I started writing The Cabin Sessions so I read up on the ‘rules’ of horror and fixed them in my mind. Plenty of dread. Lots of mini-horror moments along the way…

But what is horror? There are so many kinds and I had to choose my specialism. I was never going down the path of gore and neither was I drawn to the supernatural. Alien predators or military horror were not for me either. I was drawn to psychological horror and to the horror of perversion, and I ran with both concepts as I plotted a story.

Whatever I had in mind was soon distorted by an apparently minor character that I inserted to give a bit of backstory to one of the protagonists. Straight away she took over the narrative and my imagination along with it, and The Cabin Sessions is what it is because of her.

The Cabin Sessions will be released this spring (that’s autumn in the southern hemisphere). Meanwhile, I’m feeling so inspired I’m now at work on my second horror novel.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Fear Front Publishing, horror, The Cabin Sessions

The Drago Tree for a travelling book junkie

The world of book blogging is an amazing place sometimes. You just never know what might be happening in that vast tribe of dedicated book lovers, who give hours of every day to supporting authors and readers alike. Where would we be if we had to rely exclusively on print media and high end literary reviews? Only the select few works, those tipped for prizes maybe, would get attention.

So it was amazing to receive a message on Facebook this morning from a dedicated book blogging soul, informing me that my novel, The Drago Tree, appears in a list of works set in the Canary Islands.

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“Sometimes, even the fictional works which loosely base a storyline on a location can inspire wanderlust in a person far more than any editorial piece could.  Perhaps it is the in-depth descriptions that entice people to book a flight – I know for a fact, that I have been known to book a trip off the back of a book I have read. ” – http://www.travellingbookjunkie.com/14-fictional-works-canary-islands/

Thank you so much for thinking of my book!!!

You can buy a copy of The Drago Tree on Amazon

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Canary Islands, Lanzarote, Odyssey Books, The Drago Tree, Travel fiction

A Perfect Square reviewed by Kate Braithwaite

I am delighted to share this warm, 5 star review of my novel, A Perfect Square, from Kate Braithwaite, author of Charlatan.

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“A Perfect Square is a clever, thoughtful literary novel which also manages to have a cracking plot and complex characters.

This is a book that grew and grew on me. I’ll admit to a false start the first time I picked it up. I felt there was a lot of moving around in the characters’ heads to the recent past, the far past and then back to the present. But when I sat down with a proper amount of time to dig into the story it was an absolute pleasure. Blackthorn has a great plot and lots of writing talent. Her descriptions are wonderful – both of people and places – and there was lots of fabulous language to enjoy. I loved the two parallel mother/daughter stories and was impressed by the way they intersected. It was also great to read so much about the creative process and to consider the challenges of creativity and motherhood.

I will certainly look to read Blackthorn’s other work. A Perfect Square is a clever, thoughtful literary novel which still manages to have a cracking plot and complex characters. It should appeal to lovers of psychological thrillers too – think artistic Gone Girl.” – – quoted from Goodreads

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: A Perfect Square, Book review, Charlatan, Dandenong Ranges, Exeter, Kate Braithwaite, literary fiction, strong female characters

A Spanish edition of The Drago Tree is on its way!

I’m thrilled to announce I’ve just signed the contract for a Spanish edition of The Drago Tree, to be released in 2017!

¡Estoy entusiasmada de anunciar que he firmado el contrato por una edición española de la novela, El Árbol Drago!

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It’s an auspicious moment. I wrote the story with Pedro Almodovar’s movies running through my mind. I also had the rich history of Lanzarote and its incredible landscapes ever present inside me. I wanted to gift something to the island that had given something to me, a sense of place like no other I have experienced. The volcanos, the lava, the cuboid buildings, the sapphire ocean, the astonishing views, Lanzarote is an island to be treasured.

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I’m not the only one to think so. Sections of the local government have pitted themselves against their Spanish counterparts on environmental issues, not least the drilling for oil off the island’s pristine coast. A David and Goliath battle, but when it came to drilling rights, the local authorities won, thanks to the efforts of activists and tourists alike, and the Spanish government backed down.

Seeing my words in another language brings a thrill of excitement. Now at last The Drago Tree will be available to a whole cohort of Spanish readers. I so hope they like it!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Canary Islands, El Árbol Drago, Lanzarote, literary fiction, The Drago Tree

The Drago Tree by Isobel Blackthorn: review

How ever did I manage to miss this lovely review! Thank you Mark

Lovesick re-released!

My memoir, Lovesick, came out in 2011 to popular acclaim. I decided to re-release the book and give it a new lease of life after a friend and high school teacher told me he thought it should be much more widely read.

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A wild adventure through Thatcher’s Britain, set against a backdrop of the British Indie Music Scene. Naïve, defiant and incisively witty, Isobel Blackthorn fashions her own path through the counter-culture, poverty and politics of the eighties. By turn absurdly funny, sexually charged and heartrendingly sad, Lovesick is an unforgettable, tragi-comic tale of a young woman’s search for her identity.

Pretty girl, nice smile is all Isobel can say about herself. That, and she’s working class. What matters to her is she’s different. After devouring Camus’ The Outsider she realises for reasons strange to her, she is strange to the world. And she’s searching for love. It’s a disastrous mix. Her unquenchable need for romance leads her to Lanzarote, Canary Islands, were she takes unconventionality to extremes. She’d determined to be truly herself, face her fears and go with the flow. But her obsession with the charismatic Miguel, her thirst for danger and an acquired taste for cocaine launch her into the island’s criminal underworld.

“Seen through the eyes of a woman of heart and mind, this is a story that takes the reader on a tempestuous journey through the music and politics, the frenzies and phobias of Thatcher’s England in the 1980s. The passions of the era are enacted in Isobel Blackthorn’s headlong pursuit of love and sexual fulfilment, leading her eventually to the fabled beauty of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, a type of anti-England. The hedonism Isobel ‘adopts’ on Lanzarote as a corrective to the bleak outcomes of her political commitment and her quest for love take in, unavailingly, free-wheeling experiments with a smorgasbord of drugs. What shines through in these pages is Isobel Blackthorn’s determination, despite setbacks and episodes of despair, to engage with life truthfully. ” Robert Hillman, The Honey Thief

Here’s a trailer created by the late songsmith and troubadour Alex Legg (1952-2014)

Available in e-book format from Amazon  and Smashwords

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: 1980s Britain, British indie scene, Canary Islands, CND, Cruisewatch, Greenham Common, Lanzarote, Lovesick, memoir, second-wave feminism, sex and drugs and rock and roll, Thatchers Britain

Nadaness In Motion reviews The Drago Tree

I opened my eyes on 2017 to find a warm and thoughtful review of The Drago Tree in my inbox. It put the broadest smile on my face.

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“The Drago Tree is a beautiful example of travel literature, as Blackthorn gives the reader exquisite detail about the setting and the country.

The Drago Tree is full of stunning imagery, quotes, lines and setting. The pace is very slow; however, the book is an experience in of itself…The narrative is simply brilliant.”

Wow! A big thank you to Nada for taking the trouble of reviewing my book. Read the whole review here

Happy 2017!!!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Book review, Canary Islands, Lanzarote, literary fiction, The Drago Tree, Travel fiction