Zoe Brooks's Blog, page 13

My fox - World Animal Day Blog Hop

The first thing I do when I arrive back at my home in the Czech Republic, even before I unlock the door, is rub the muzzle of the fox door knocker. My home is an old farmhouse on a hill called Liski  Dira (Fox Hole in Czech) and the house is just like a fox with its haunches buried into the earth. As I lie in bed at night sometimes I can hear a vixen calling in the orchards above. The village dogs respond with frantic barking, but you can hear the fox laughing at them. "You have sold your freedom for a bowl of meat," she says. "I have the moon and all the dark spaces in the forest."When I first bought the house I didn't see any foxes, perhaps I was too busy restoring the house. I certainly wasn't writing, although I had bought the house as a writing retreat. One evening as a taxi brought me from the station a fox crossed the road in the headlamp beam. "Liska," said the driver with a smile. The following day I walked down from the woods with a basket of chanterelle mushrooms, called lisky (foxes) in Czech. It had started raining as I picked them and now it was sheeting down, so my head was bowed. Then I looked up and there standing in the middle of the lane a few yards away was a large fox looking straight at me. It contemplated me for a while and then trotted off across the fields. When we lived in London we were used to the brazen nature of town foxes, and  even had a family of them sharing the garden with our cat, but in the countryside foxes are shy of humans. I told my Czech friend about the meetings with the fox. "That's wonderful," she said. "Foxes are lucky in this country, just like black cats in England. No wonder the taxi driver was pleased when a fox crossed your path. They are meant to be the familiars of witches, you know."After that sighting, the fox started to appear to me all the time and as it did so I began to write again. It seemed the fox was now my familiar and a bringer of words. Then during one stay in the house I didn't see my fox at all and yet I still managed to write. My husband was visiting from the UK and as we stood in the back bedroom I commented on my fox's absence. He grinned and said "Zoe turn round and look out of the window." There, only a few feet away from us, my fox was strolling through the orchard. 


This post is part of the World Animal Day Blog Hop. Please take the time to visit the other blogs on hop.



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Toadstools - Photo Inspiration

How about these for classic fairytale toadstools? You can almost see one of the little people sitting on the top of them, can't you? Fly agaric is the correct name. It's not for eating, in fact a good rule is not to eat  red mushrooms. Fly agaric is a hallucinatory mushroom and eating it is said to give you the sensation of flying. It is a therefore part of many a shaman's toolkit.

There are tales of reindeer eating the mushroom and staggering around trying to fly. Maybe Rudolf had eaten one too many!

Friday Poem - To Elizabeth Webster

Following on from my previous post about my creative English teacher and mentor Elizabeth Webster, I thought I might share with you a poem I wrote to her when I was a teenager.

To Elizabeth Webster
"Look!" you said,and I looked.You held a dandelion clock  in your hand and you asked,"Is this what time is like?Is our lifea seed on a parachute,falling slowly to the ground?And who or what blows?
"Listen!" you said,and the air filled with dragons."Act!" you said,and I learntto throw my soulinto stone and tree."Dance!"and I was seas."Draw!"and my worlds were filled.
And I knewthat each breath that blewme seedlike upon the airwas in creation.Then upon the sixth dayyou said, "Write!"

Guest Promo - A Hero’s Quest – THE LEGEND OF ANAISE

Looks closely… are you paying attention? You usually hear these words at a magic show but, this isn’t a magic show… it’s a CONTEST!

Yes that’s right, we have a contest to see how closely you pay attention when you read The Legend of Anaise (below) from the recently released novel “She Wulf” by Sheryl Steines.


GET RAFFLECOPTER CODE HERE: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/ZTJlNzcxOTI2NzNjMjIyY2YyMmNjYTFmMWM1NGE3OjM2/

Don’t forget to take a tour around the participating blogs answer the all the questions – there are 5 questions so you will have numerous chances to participate and win! There are several prizes to be had – 1 random correct answer will win a signed copy of She Wulf; don’t worry if you don’t get it right you still have a chance to win one of several other prizes just for trying! Prizes: 1 signed copy; winner selected amongst all correct entries 3 eBooks; winners randomly selected from amongst ALL entries (correct or not) Gift Card $15; winners randomly selected from amongst ALL entries (correct or not) Annie and Cham Swag; winners randomly selected from amongst ALL entries (correct or not) **if you have trouble reading the scroll please go to http://www.sherylsteines.com/books/she-wulf/the-legend-of-anaise/ for a plain text version.

About the Author 

Sheryl Steines is equal parts driven, passionate and inspired. With a degree in English from Wright State University, Steines dedicates time everyday to her art. Her love of books and a quality story drives her to share her talent with her readers as well as make the time to talk to book clubs and students about her process. Sheryl has eclectic tastes and enjoys character driven novels. In her own writing, the Annie Loves Cham series is driven by her love of the characters and her desire to place them in totally new situations. She enjoys testing their mettle. Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise. Her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy. Sheryl can be found on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog. She also encourages her readers to email her and let her know what you think of Annie and Cham!

The Dancing Trees - Photo Inspiration

The dancing trees stand on the road to where I go mushrooming, when I'm in the Czech Republic. Going mushrooming is inspiration enough, but seeing these trees always makes me smile. At first glance you'd think it was one tree, but if you look closely at the photo you will see that there are two trunks embracing each other in an eternal waltz.

I took this photo yesterday on my way to the woods. Autumn has arrived as you can see from the photo and the trees looked wonderful. And how did I get on in my foraging? I came back with a full basket.

New regular posts

I am planning a series of regular posts on this blog. They are:

Tuesday - photo inspiration
In which I share with you photos which had inspired me or of things/places/people who have

Friday - poem a week
A poem by myself or others. I hope to start offering you a recording of the poems as well. I used to act and have the LAMDA gold medal in verse-speaking, so you should enjoy it.

Sundays - desert island books
What selection of books would you choose to take on a desert island? Find out mine.

Coming up on World Animal Day

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I will be taking part in celebrating World Animal Day on the 4th October. This blog will be part of a bloghop sponsored by by Terri Giuliano Long, author of In Leah’s Wake, and David M. Brown, author of upcoming title Man vs Cat.

In my post I will be talking about one very special animal. Will it be Lupa's wolf in Mother of Wolves or the snake from Girl in the Glass or some other animal? I'm not telling, you'll just have to wait and see. So please do make a note in your diary both to come back to this blog to find out what animal I have chosen and to visit other blogs on the bloghop.

Magic Realism Blog

I can't believe that I haven't told you about this, but it looks as though I haven't - I have another blog. It's on http://www.magic-realism.net

Just after I had published Girl in the Glass I went to an alternative literature festival in Leicester. I was still incredibly green about publishing and was unclear what sort of story I was writing. I knew it didn't fit neatly into the usual genre headings that one gets on Amazon. I had got as far as knowing that it was a) women's fiction and b) not quite fantasy. I was having a soup for lunch when I got chatting to another writer, who asked me what I wrote. I gave a short description and he repled "Oh you write magic realism."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well Terry Pratchett described it as fantasy for people whose friends went to Oxbridge."

"Oh," I said thinking that indeed many of my friends were graduates of Oxford or Cambridge.

I wrote the genre down on a piece of paper, stuffed it in to my handbag and continued eating. When I got home, I could not find the paper nor could I remember what genre he had said I wrote.

A month or so later I found a review of the book on Amazon. The reviewer Iain M. Grant said:

"Zoe Brook's novel is a true magic realist story. Its setting is a world that is not ours but is nonetheless recognisable. It is a novel in which the almost magical and vaguely supernatural are an accepted reality. Reading it, I couldn't help but be reminded favourably of other authors. The setting and Anya's sprawling and occasionally grotesque family put me in mind of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Having said that the harsh, epic landscape of the story and the fable-like quality of a narrative held shades of Paulo Coelho."
Lawks a mercy me! Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all-time favourite books. Now armed with the name of the genre I did a Google search and discovered not only that I wrote magic realism, but that I had been reading it for years and not knowing it. There still seemed to be a lot ambiguity in my mind about what constituted magic realism, but I think this was because the term gets used wrongly. I decided that I would get to know my genre better. But how would this be achieved? 
I knew that in order to do it properly I should set myself a task, one which is public and which I would feel obliged to complete. So I decided I would read one magic realist book a week for a year and that I would record my progress and what I found out about magic realism publicly on a dedicated blog. For the purposes of selecting books for the blog I chose the simplest definition I could find
 It's now a month since I started and I'm loving it. I have drawn up a to-read list, following suggestions taken mostly from Goodreads, where there are at least two Magic Realism groups and several booklists. The books are very diverse - some literary, some for the popular market - which adds to my enjoyment. The requirement that I review what I read has proved extremely useful in solidifying my thoughts on the book and the genre
So after all that work what is magic realism? I'm glad to say that the definition I chose is still remaining true: "Magical Realism is a literary genre that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction."
Please do visit the Magic Realism blog and check it out, better still join me in my challenge or at least part of it. It's on http://www.magic-realism.net (in case you missed it at the beginning of this post).

Celebrating Women - A Special Lady

Today I am taking part in a blog hop celebrating women. I have chosen to write about a very special woman in my life - a teacher who was more than a teacher.

I have been blessed with having a series of inspirational women educators in my life, but the first and probably therefore the most important was Elizabeth Webster. Without her I doubt I would be writing, without her I would not have got in to Oxford University and without her I would not have met my husband.
Elizabeth or EMW as she was better known was a little red-head with a liking for brightly coloured scarves, who commanded any room she was in. She stepped into my life when I was eight and newly arrived at my junior school. She was the creative English and music teacher and although I did not shine at music, Elizabeth recognised the writer in me. On that first lesson she asked us to write a poem. I wrote about Queen Boudica dying of poison after her defeat by the Romans. Elizabeth loved the poem. She praised and encouraged me, recognising the need to feed my love of poetry and confidence in my abilities. She was no regarder of age: she believed that children should be encouraged to read the best, so I was soon sitting cross-legged under her grand piano reading Under Milk Wood and Murder in the Cathedral. The first Shakespeare play I saw was performed by ten and eleven year olds directed by her at the end of the school year.
When ill-health forced her to retire from school, she set up an arts centre for children and I followed her. First in a church hall and then in an old bakery she continued to encourage writing, acting and the visual arts for a further twenty-five years. The Children’s Arts Centre Cheltenham became the Young Arts Centre as we turned teenagers, but the motto remained the same: "Everyone is Someone." Saturday morning was for the younger children, and Sunday afternoon for the older members to rehearse the next play we would perform. I was soon to act in Under Milk Wood as well as read it. But best of all was Tuesday evening, when the EOS group met. In a side room, seated on second-hand sofas and armchairs, we would shuffle the papers in our hands mumbling "I’ve got a poem, but it’s not very good." before reading it to the rest of the group. Encouragement followed (Everyone is Someone) and discussion. I was for some time the youngest in the group, but there was no compromise for my age. I learned to hold my own with the others on subjects such as Milton’s interpretation of the devil. Not that I had read Paradise Lost at that point, but that didn’t stop me. Every year we would give at least one public reading of our poems together with those of published poets and in so doing learned not only how to read poetry but also how to speak in public.


Encouraged by Elizabeth, I entered national poetry competitions and won. I was published by the age of thirteen. At the same age I wrote a full-length verse play, which of course was performed at the Arts Centre. I had found what I was good at. How lucky is that? And that luck had a name: Elizabeth Webster. But I was not the only one – a number of my fellow Arts Centre members have gone on to enjoy successful careers in the arts. Others found their lives enriched in different ways by the experience: principles were established for life, friendships were forged and relationships begun. What a wonderful place to meet your first boyfriend (or in my case my last as I met my husband there).
And what reward did Elizabeth receive for this work? Nothing but the reward of knowing that every child in the Arts Centre realised they were someone. It is only now with writing this post, that I realise how the central character of Girl in the Glass is a girl who, unlike me, was told she was nothing. When at last she had to retire Elizabeth started a new career: that of a novelist. She used her books to give her predominantly female readers an insight into the lives of young people. Even in that I seem to be following her.
You will find a website commemorating the Young Arts Centre here.

How To Find A Good Book – Ask A Blogger

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Over the past few weeks the press and internet have been full of stories of dodgy goings-on in the frantic world of "buy-my-book". There was the scandal of 5 star reviews being bought on Amazon and that of well-known authors setting up bogus Amazon accounts in order to give themselves glowing 5-star reviews and (worse to my mind) vicious 1-star reviews to their rivals.
Too many people have as a result thrown the baby out with the bathwater, saying that you cannot trust the free-for-all of the internet and you should stick to traditional print reviews by professional reviewers. But how many books would you discover that way? I have a women’s fiction newspaper in which I pick up the best articles and reviews from across the web and I therefore monitor the major newspaper sites. What I have found is that they all review the same books.
How is this? Is it because the publishers only promote a very limited number? Is it that the reviewers act as a cabal? Is it that newspapers only review books by "established" authors? And dare I say it – does money exchange hands, just as it does to ensure that a book ends up on major booksellers’ three for the price of two tables or even just prominently displayed on the shelves? I’ve no idea, but what is certain is that the majority of books (and I am talking about traditionally published books as well as indies) never get reviewed by these professional reviewers.
What is worse is that the newspapers tend to review only literary fiction and not genre fiction. This of course has an implication for women’s books, which can be dismissed as chick-lit, romance or just women’s fiction. No matter that romance outstrips literary fiction and all the other genres in terms of sales.
Where then can you turn for reviews you can trust? Where can an author go for reviews? The answer is I believe the burgeoning phenomenon of the book blogs. Until I published my first book only six months ago I had only been slightly aware of the wonderful, selfless world of the book blogger. The proponents of the traditional professional reviewers would pooh-pooh the amateur book bloggers (and have done so in various comments I have seen). But they are wrong to do so. Yes, many, but not all, book bloggers have no qualifications (such as English literature degrees), nor do some professional reviewers for that matter. But what book bloggers do have is a love of books. They write reviews in order to share what they have read with you. And some of them clearly do nothing else than read and review. I have a magic realism review site and I just about manage a book a week.
How do you know which book bloggers to trust? Simple – look at their reviews. Have they liked the same books as you and better still for the same reason? Do they provide you with the sort of review you need to make a decision? If the answer to these questions is yes, then start following the blog.
But how do you find the right blogs in the first place? You have a number of options:Try a search with two book titles you like and the word "blog" to find a suitable blog. Use one of the book blog directories, such as http://http://directory.kaysbookshelf.com, and http://www.bookblogs.org/blog-list. If you are interested in indie writers try http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/Or you might like to join the book blogs forum on http://bookblogs.ning.comThis post is part of the Celebrating Bloggers Blog Hop organised by Terri Guiliano Long. If you click on the image above, you will be taken to Terri's blog. There you will find lots of authors and bloggers who are taking part.