Alison Ripley Cubitt's Blog, page 7

So What if it’s a Three Star Review?

Readers’ Favourite is a US site. I can tell that the reviewer has read the story thoroughly. And I’ll fully admit that Fractured is short – (it is a short story after all…). In short, we’re grateful that the reviewer took the time to review….

Reviewed By Heather Osborne for Readers’ Favorite

I chose your prequel short story “Fractured” to review on behalf of Readers’ Favorite. Let me start by saying that I understand this is meant to set up your novel “Revolution Earth” and I have taken that into consideration while writing this review. Upon beginning my read, I found myself confused when it came to some of the terminology. I would have liked to see you define terms that may not be familiar to every reader, such as “fracking.” I had to go to my dictionary to figure out what the term meant. I also felt thrown into a story that I knew very little about. I could not relate to either Jonie or Cara because I did not know enough about them in regards to what role they might play in the subsequent novel.

I believe that in a prequel, you should set the stage for the novel. I did not feel that this short story made me want to find out more or read the novel. As a reader, I felt a bit dissatisfied with the story. What I would have liked was more description, a better understanding of Jonie and Cara’s relationship, and what Tariq’s involvement was in the fracking industry as a simple courier company owner. Overall, I think the story needs a bit of work before it can be adequately called a prequel. I hope you will take my criticisms constructively and perhaps look at making some changes so the story is more palatable to the reader.

Awarded Three stars

We are all Completely Beside Ourselves

This book, so movingly written, challenges our notion of what it means to be human. Karen Joy Fowler is a keen observer of the nuances and details of human behaviour that brings characters to life, that makes this book very difficult to put down. And once it’s over, it feels like a wrench to have to let it go. And if a book can do that, then that is a remarkable achievement. Her research, particularly on the sociology of the family is meticulous, but her touch is so light that you hardly notice that it’s there.

A lesser writer might have been tempted to go overboard with the weighty subject matter, but Karen Joy Fowler is at times achingly witty, which adds the much-needed contrast to the tone. Here she is, describing the grandparents:

‘Grandma Donna was a great reader of historical biographies and had a particular soft spot for the Tudors, where marital discord was an extreme sport.’

I can’t wait to read another book by this author.

Writers talk about their work – Brenda Cheers

Alison Ripley Cubitt:

Here is the fabulous Brenda Cheers – a writer I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know through Goodreads. Brenda has a demanding day job yet still manages to write two books a year.

That takes some doing. After reading Brenda’s post it makes me realise that no matter how many ideas a writer may have you don’t get anywhere unless you have those all-important personal qualities of drive, energy and enthusiasm to get the work done. Brenda, you are an inspiration!

Originally posted on The Opposite of Inertia:

I was invited to join this blog tour by the lovely Alison Ripley Cubitt (Lambert Nagle). We met on the Goodreads website.

Alison is an author, screenwriter and novelist who co-writes thrillers as Lambert Nagle. She has worked in television and film production for the BBC and Walt Disney, but her passion has always been for writing. She loves to explore the countryside on a horse, a bicycle or on foot.
https://alisonripleycubitt.wordpress.com
lambertnagle.com
https://www.facebook.com/AlisonRipleyCubittBooks

Now, about me.

What am I working on?

I have two works in progress. I completed the first draft of a new novel (which explores the friendship between two women) five weeks ago and am ‘resting’ it before starting the second draft.
Right now I’m drafting the third in the “Strange Worlds” series. “In Strange Worlds” was originally meant to be a stand-alone work, but my fans insisted on a sequel which became “In a Time Where They…

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Writers Talk About their Work

Thanks so much to author J.C Wing for inviting me on this tour….I met J.C. through Goodreads. She has two fabulous books you really must read – The Color of Thunder and Alabama Skye.

What am I working on?

I’m at the editing stage of writing a memoir – Castles in the Air: A Family Memoir of Love and Loss follows the life of my mother, Molly Ripley. From Molly’s childhood in colonial Hong Kong and Malaya; wartime adventures as rookie office girl in the far east outpost of Bletchley Park then as a young nurse in a London teaching hospital. It is the story of her life as seen through my eyes as I follow the ups and downs of her life.

In 1990 on a plane from Singapore to London Molly wrote: Met interesting Australian lady – SAYS I SHOULD WRITE MY BOOK.

Twenty years after my mother’s death I finally found the courage to piece together her story from the stash of diaries, letters and photographs I inherited.

It’s a story about secrets, tangled romance, the relationship between mothers and daughters and a portrait of a woman’s life, hopes and dreams.

Why do I write what I write what I do?

I’m drawn to recurring themes. I write about adversity and loss of innocence and I like exploring relationships between mothers and daughters

The first thriller, Revolution Earth was about a loss of innocence and betrayal. It’s that moment when Cara, the main character realises that the cause she thought she was fighting for turned out to be something completely different.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I like writing genre mash-ups. And I like using screenwriting techniques in writing fiction. As my background is in film and TV I’ve structured the memoir the same way I would structure a screen story or a novel. I think in images and sounds first before I think about the words on the page. In writing the thriller fiction one major difference compared with others in the genre is that I work with a co-writer. And many readers have commented that they can’t tell that it’s the work of two people.

How does my writing process work?

The only way I can get a screenplay or a book written is to be immersed in the project. If I’m not giving it 100%, I can’t focus and I’m too easily distracted. It’s akin to a ‘runner’s high’ where you zone out everything else. And if I have to simplify my life to make this happen, I will. Luckily I have a husband who likes to cook! Writer friends understand what it takes to write a book and how hermit-like you have to become in order to get it done. When I’m writing I can’t even read books in the same genre, as I worry that they’ll influence me.

To conclude this post I’d like to tell you about the two other authors who have kindly agreed to participate who will continue the blog chain:

Brenda Cheers is a novelist living in Brisbane, Australia. Her passion is writing suspense thrillers, which are page-turners from the start.

She has published five novels, two of which belong to the highly-acclaimed “Strange Worlds” series.

http://bmcheers.wordpress.com

Renita Bryant is a native of Fort Valley, Georgia. Since obtaining her BS & MBA, she has worked for some of the world’s largest companies on many of the most recognizable household brands. Although she finds the work rewarding, her passion for writing compelled her to complete and publish her first novella, Yesterday Mourning, in May 2013.

http://renitabryant.com

Blurb Now Has Design & Distribution Sewn Up

The design of my forthcoming book,Castles in the Air: A Family Memoir of Love and Loss is going to be as important as the content as I plan to illustrate it with photographs, drawings and other ephemera. I have for a while now been mulling over which print-on-demand (POD) distribution service to use – Ingram Spark or Blurb. I’ve always loved the look of Blurb books as Blurb was originally created with photographers in mind. And I have to say that I am very impressed with the professional look of a Blurb book. Their website looks great too and is easily navigable. Ingram Spark’s looks boring and corporate in comparison.

Of all the costs involved in indie publishing the one area where I resent paying for services is formatting. But up until now I have had to hand over the task as I’m not proficient with Adobe InDesign. InDesign worked beautifully with Create Space and Kindle but was spat out by Kobo, iBooks and all the other digital ebook distribution platforms I’m meant to be selling on but am not. I’m one of those people who as soon as there’s a technical hitch likes to throw everything into the Too Hard Basket. Blurb for the time being is offering a free ISBN if you use their new design tool Blurb BookWright or their Adobe InDesign creation tools. So now Blurb not only has a solution for formatting but has the additional carrot of a free ISBN as well as distribution through Ingram. Global distribution is a key factor in choosing a self-publishing service as it is the only way your books will have any chance at all to sell to bookshops and libraries.

So it looks like Blurb has won me over. Have you used Blurb recently or are you thinking of using it for your next book? If so I’d love to hear about your experience.

http://www.blurb.co.uk/about-blurb

The Case Against Author Solutions, Part 1: The Numbers

Lambert Nagle:

Brilliant investigation into Author Solutions and all the companies it uses to prey on emerging writers.

Originally posted on David Gaughran:

The more you study an operation like Author Solutions, the more it resembles a two-bit internet scam, except on a colossal scale.

Internet scammers work on percentages. They know that only a tiny fraction of people will get hoodwinked so they flood the world’s inboxes with spammy junk.

While reputable self-publishing services can rely on author referrals and word-of-mouth, Author Solutions is forced to take a different approach. According to figures released by Author Solutions itself when it was looking for a buyer in 2012, it spent a whopping $11.9m on customer acquisition in 2011 alone.

This money is spent on:

Paying bloggers, websites, and companies a “bounty” based on how many writers they can deliver to Author Solutions.
Buying a huge presence at writers’ events such as the Toronto Word on the Street Festival the Miami Book Fair International, and the LA Times Festival of…

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Is Kindle Countdown the new Free? Keeping books visible in 2014

Is Kindle Countdown the new Free? Keeping books visible in 2014.

I am linking  to this excellent post by M. Louisa Locke as it neatly addresses that dilemma that indie authors have – to be visible on as many sales channels as possible – or to go exclusive with KDP Select and thus take advantage of Kindle Countdown.

What do you think?

 

From a Distance by Raffaella Barker

My hardback review copy of Raffaella Barker’s latest novel From a Distance (released May 2014) came courtesy of a Goodreads giveaway. And what a beautifully packaged book it is too. David Mann’s jacket designs are gorgeous and this one is no exception.

From a Distance has two parallel stories. The first starts in 1946 when returning soldier Michael gets off his ship in Southampton and instead of turning right to go home to Norfolk, where his parents and unexciting girlfriend Janey are waiting, decides he can’t face life with them yet and turns left to Cornwall.

The contemporary story is told from two different points of view – the first is Luisa’s and the second is Kit’s. A mother of three, Luisa is consumed by her busy domestic life at Green Farm House. She worries about her eldest daughter who has flown the nest on a gap year. A gap year? On a teacher’s salary when a three year degree now costs £27,000?

Luisa is half Italian and descended from a family whose business was ice-cream. Since her eldest left home she’s been busy working on a food start-up, resurrecting the family ice-cream business. And it is the foodie descriptions of making ice-cream which I enjoyed the most about this book, and where I felt that the writer really lets rip describing these pleasures. Food, it seems, is Luisa’s substitute for a satisfying love life.

Her teacher husband, Tom seems distant and busy with work. His pet name for Luisa is Tod and he pats her on the shoulder and says stuff like, ‘good effort, Tod,’ No wonder she’s interested when Kit from Cornwall walks into her life.

Kit runs a successful textile business and has been so busy with work that he’s had no time for love since his wife died. His mother left him a lighthouse in Norfolk, tenanted and taken care of by a lawyer. He’s been too busy (and presumably wealthy enough) until now to bother to even go look at his new holiday home. Lucky old Kit.

This book is beautifully written with lovely descriptions and details yet is let down by characters who don’t seem to have any flaws and there are occasional weaknesses in some of the dialogue too. The pace of the two stories is too slow and I skipped some of the more introspective parts of the historical story in the first half. It was either that, or give up and it isn’t until the last third that there is any real momentum to the story.

When Luisa and Kit meet at the lighthouse the meeting seems forced. Luisa catches Kit talking to the trespassing sheep and for some strange reason, ‘he decided to call them all Virginia.’ And then he starts to talk to one and introduces himself with a ‘do you like it here, Virginia?’ Most women would have beaten a hasty retreat by now, but Luisa isn’t so easily put off. There is a lot of banter in this scene with dialogue that is both clumsy and awkward. There are only so many gags you can make about trespassing sheep and there is little here that drives the story or reveals character, which I found irritating.

There are a number of references to Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Kit’s mother had an inscribed copy, the inscription which reads: ‘I still dream of you.’ Kit has never read the book ‘and probably wouldn’t do now, he’d never been keen on those novels about nothing much.’ And of course there’s the lighthouse on the book cover, with its potent sexual imagery. And for some odd reason Luisa too has a sudden thought about Virginia Woolf when trying to balance a toy lighthouse on one of her showstopper desserts at Kit’s housewarming.

While I bought into Luisa’s life I found it harder to be convinced by some of Michael’s introspection in the post-war story. Some of his concerns seem to be rather too 21st century for a returning soldier. Michael’s love interest in Cornwall is fabric designer Felicity. Michael frets that he doesn’t belong in that world of the artists’ community but the trouble is I am none the wiser what that world was from this novel. Michael is happy with his life with Felicity and when his son is born his life should be complete. Yet it is at this point he decides it’s now time to go back to his old life in Norfolk, a motivation, which I don’t really comprehend. So he abandons his son, which his girlfriend accepts without so much as a murmur, yet alone a demand for financial support and Michael returns to Janey and has two children with her. Janey too is the forgiving sort and lets Michael off the hook by telling him he doesn’t need to tell her what he’s been up to in Cornwall.

In the contemporary story, Luisa and Kit continue to flirt by text message as Luisa by now has the hots for her new neighbour and him with her. Luisa frocks up in her most revealing dress and they dance together at Kit’s housewarming party while Tom, Luisa’s husband barely notices.

But the big reveal of the story means it’s impossible for these two to be together, which is a big let down. This is, after all, Middle England. Luisa has to put her sexuality away and button up her cardigan and go back to making different flavours of ice-cream. Yet it was Luisa herself who tells us, ‘today, Luisa found she was suffused with a gnawing regret for the things she had never done. She hadn’t ridden a motorbike, she hadn’t lived in another country, and she hadn’t kissed the wrong man.’ You just wish she had.

 

A Great New Readers Site – www.ebooksoda.com

My book is being featured on Saturday March 22nd 2014 at eBookSoda, a new readers’ site where they’ll send you ebook recommendations tailored to your taste. www.ebooksoda.com.

Beside the Seaside – Review of Dear Mr Bigelow

A provincial British seaside town in 1952. No, not the Brighton of Graham Greene, but Bournemouth. Doesn’t sound promising, does it?  Yet Frances Woodsford’s Dear Mr Bigelow, a collection of her letters about her life reminds us how much the world has changed since then yet so much remains the same.

On a trip up to London, she describes the ten days of ‘long drawn out agony’ of public mourning for the death of King George.  A family numb with grief on public display, where in this case the Queen Mother appearing lonely and lost, reminded me of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. 

This is but one sombre note amongst a set of mostly resolutely cheerful and delightful letters describing her life. Her purpose in writing to pen friend Paul Bigelow, (who she always addressed as ‘Mr Bigelow’ as they had never met) was to brighten up the lonely elderly man’s life. His daughter Rosalind had been very kind to Frances after the Second World War, sending her food and clothes parcels from America as it was not until 1954, fourteen years after the end of the war that rationing finally ceased in Britain. Wine, chocolate and biscuits were treats, brought out on very special occasions, not everyday indulgences as they are now.

The author comes across as immensely likeable, who hardly ever moaned or thought of herself – so refreshing compared with modern life. And Frances had every reason to moan – but she never gives in to self-pity. After her wealthy father’s death, his business collapsed leaving the family with nothing. Frances, a bright student had to abandon her education and leave school to put food on the table. She took a job far below her capabilities – as a secretary working in the Public Baths Department of the local town council. 

Frances, her mother and brother lived in a rented flat, but despite having to count every penny, Frances filled her life with cultural riches, making the most of every precious moment of free time. She is engaged, interested, and oh so alive. Whether Frances is describing adventurous outings, the fickle British weather, or her trips to the theatre, her enthusiasm is infectious. 

When she lets down her guard and reveals the real Frances is where Dear Mr Bigelow is at its most engaging.  Frances confesses how much she has come to enjoy writing what she refers to her as her ‘Saturday Specials.’  She has a wicked sense of humour and describes the best and the worst of the people in her life, so much so that they become characters in the book.

The reason that I didn’t give this a five star rating is that the structure of the book doesn’t allow for a proper conclusion, but this is an editing problem, rather than a fault of the writing.  When Paul Bigelow dies we never get to find out what impact that had on the author’s life when she no longer had those Saturday Specials to write, nor do we find out what happened to the other ‘characters’ in the book.  It wouldn’t have needed much, just an endnote to tie up a few of those loose ends. But this isn’t Hollywood, and real life doesn’t always tie up so neatly, does it?