Ali Bacon's Blog, page 17

The Night Rainbow and the madness of publishers

One day soon I’ll review Claire King’s Night Rainbow which was every bit as good as I expected.Setduringa long hot summer in France, it would make a perfect summer read. Well itwould be great at any time, but since I enjoyed most of it out in the garden,it felt just rightfor the momentand I thought it would make an ideal birthday present for my Big Sis (Francophile and reader extraordinaire) so off I went to order a copy. But what’s this – the paperback isn’t out until August?!?

Silly old me....

Harmattan, a study of life in Niger

When I was sent a review copy of this book I immediately saw that it was beautifully written. I guessed that the subject matter would be bleak, but despite the brutality of the heroine’s life in Niger, her story as told by Northern Irish writer Gavin Weston is lively, engaging and pleasure to read

At the start of the novel the heroine Haoua is only ten.Life in her village is eked out from the land and made only a little less harsh by the presence of aid workers who provide a basic medical serv...

Research – not always what you expect.

It hasn’t really been a week for getting much writing done as most of it was spentin the wonderful city of Edinburgh where I combined a day of intensive research with another couple of days of equally intensive sight-seeing. So what if those pesky pandas were taken off show? Everything elsecame up trumps including, remarkably the weather.

Of course the one day I had to spend in the National Library of Scotland (lunch-break spent with last week’s blog guest Jane - her book is out now, don’t ya...

Jane Riddell and Water’s Edge

When author and editor Jane Riddell approached me about a year ago with an invitation to appear on her Papillon blog I was delighted to accept and also fascinated to learn that her recently finished novel was called Water’s Edge, which for quite some time was the name of my own book until it became A Kettle of Fish. Here was a book I really wanted to read!

Since then Jane’s novel has been accepted by Thornberry and will be published later this week. I’ve also had the pleasure of a sneak previe...

Tripfiction – does what is says on the tin

Some books are imbued with the atmosphere and character of a place. The first that springs to my mind is Graham Swift’s Waterland, a story that somehow couldn’t be told in a different location, and more recently for me Jane Rusbridge’sThe Devil’s Music was very much characterised by its seaside scenes(but not just any sea-side …)

And then the converse applies – places become defined by the books that are set there, and so we set off to visit Du Maurier’s Cornwall or Morse’s (oops, that’s Colin...

Hyperlinks can be annoying

This is a quote from Mark Bacon (no relation)’s blog which on the face of it sounds like heresy. I mean, what is t’internet all about if not the absolute delight of hopping straight to a reference and reading it on the spot?

Compare and contrast the days when we followed a footnote which led to a bibliography which might then necessitate hunting in library catalogues and journal holdings lists to dig up an article which might take ages to arrive and when it did probably wasn’t half as importan...

Dancing for Uncle Joe

I was sent a copy of Daphne Kalotay’s Russian Winter some time ago and for some reason it languished on my shelf, not rejected but simply neglected, until a passing friend happened to mention she was stuck for something to read. Try this, I said, and tell me if it’s any good. Within a few days she said how much she was enjoying it andat our monthlyreading group she was so clearly taken with it, I made a plea for ‘no spoilers’ and started reading it straight away. I have to say this really is...

Northern Lights, Polar Nights

Soon it will be April when fellow Thornberrian Simon Hacker and I are joining forces for a World Book Night event, and so I thought it was about time I read Polar Nights, his comedy thriller set in the far North of Scotland which came out last month. From the outset it was clear that Simon’s prose was going to pack a punch (well he’s a journalist, so is thata pen name or a case of nominative determinism? – I must remember to ask!) And the action was soon under way with a wonderfully salty-dog...

Design Matters

Today I’m over at Nik Perring’s blog talking about designing a paperback – inside and out. It’s a fairly brief overview of the whole processbut it looks as if the image of my title page, which is referred to, has either got lost or just not workedon theblog, so here’s what it looks like.

I wished afterwards I had also incorporated the fish into chapter headings, so that’s something I might think about for a future edition.

For those who would like to know more about how the designing process w...

IMEX – inspiration without perspiration

Just a quick note to tell any Bristol/Bath/SouthGlos readers about my next appearance in the real live world, this time in Filton Community Centre on March 7th. The IMEX (Inspiration Motivation Echange) evening is to celebrate International Women’s Day and promises wine cheese and pampering as well as a number of people coming along to tell their stories – as in life stories that is.I’m part of the ‘Open Mic’ session which starts at 7pm and am likely to be on around 8.

Some of you will know th...