G.R. Mannering's Blog, page 5
July 23, 2015
Review: ‘The Wanderers’ by Kate Ormand
So way back when on this blog, I mentioned how excited I was for Kate Ormand’s send novel, The Wanderers and well, I finished it yesterday and I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest! Such an amazing, awesome YA novel! First of all, let me tell you a little about the story…
Flo lives an eccentric life—she travels with a popular circus in which the main acts star orphaned children with secret shapeshifting abilities. Once Flo turns sixteen, she must perform, but she’s not ready. While practicing jumping a flaming hurdle in a clearing beside the circus, she spots a dark figure in the trees and fears he saw her shift. The news sends the circus into panic.
In Flo’s world, shifters are unknown to humans with the exception of a secret organization—the EOS, referred to as “hunters.” Hunters capture and kill. Shifters have heard stories of their kin taken to labs for testing—a place they will never leave—while hunters deem the others useless, a danger to society, and eliminate them. To avoid discovery, shifters travel in packs, constantly moving, and keep themselves hidden. Up until now, the circus was the perfect disguise.
When the elders notice four specific hunters have been attending the show each night, the tension in the camp rises. Believing she brought the attention to the group, Flo feels the dread and anxiety the most, causing her to make a mistake during her performance—a mistake that triggers a violent attack from the hunters.
Flo manages to flee the torched circus grounds with Jett, a bear shifter who loves her, the annoying elephant triplets, and a bratty tiger named Pru. Together they begin a new journey, alone in a world they don’t understand. They unravel secrets and lies that surround the circus and their lives and discover an unthinkable betrayal by the people they trusted the most.
This was such a fantastic, gripping read. With an evocative, majestical circus background and a feisty main female character, this book enchanted me completely. Flo was strong and sassy, yet sweet and kind too, and her friend/love-interest, Jett was irresistibly lovable and dreamy. The ‘magical abilities’ of these characters were powerfully handled by Ormand and the pacing was perfect. This book made me smile, clutch it anxiously and melt with the ‘feels’. I would highly recommend this YA fantasy novel and I hope there will be a sequel!
I will have a video review, sharing more of my thoughts and feelings, up shortly.
June 24, 2015
Interview With Ella Griffin
Every flower tells a story . . .
From the window of her shop, Blossom & Grow,
Lara watches those who’ve bought her flowers head
off to face all manner of life-changing occasions.
Bridal posies, anniversary bouquets, surprise deliveries
from secret admirers, new-baby bunches – Lara arranges
them all. And then there are the sadder occasions – the
memorial wreaths, the ‘I’m sorry’ flowers.
No stranger to heartbreak herself, Lara knows that
flowers can say more than words ever can. Beneath the
twinkly fairylights, surrounded by buckets filled with
cooling water and heaving with flowers, customers spill
their secrets, the things they want to say, the things
they wished they’d said. Lara can always find a way
to bring their message to life.
I’m almost at the end of Ella Griffin’s gorgeous new book, The Flower Arrangement. This is such a sweet, fun, beautiful book and I’m loving every second of it! I had the opportunity to ask Ella a few questions online…
R: Hello, Ella! It is a pleasure to virtually meet you. I’m very excited to read your new novel,The Flower Arrangement, and I am honoured to be part of your promotional tour. How is it all going in the run-up to P day?
It’s been such an exciting few weeks. I’m over half way through my Blog Tour (Yay!) and I’ve been getting some gorgeous reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. The first ones always mean so much!
I’m launching the book in Dublin, tonight, so it’s manic here today. I am busy painting my nails, emailing journalists and collecting handmade biscuits with sugared rose petals! But I had a wonderful relaxing celebratory lunch with my editor yesterday, so I am ready for all the action!
R: The Flower Arrangement is your third novel and we often hear writers talking about how difficult it is to write a second book, but what was it like planning and writing a third?
I definitely had ‘difficult second album’ issues with book 2, though my amazing editor Kate Mills pulled me through and I was very happy with the book in the end. Planning book three was a joy and writing it was wonderful. I got to open a flower shop in my imagination and work there for over a year. I can’t think of anything nicer!
R: How important is the Irish setting to your novels?
So far, it’s been really important. I was born and raised here and it has a really special place in my heart. I loved bringing it to life in The Flower Arrangement, finding places to tuck away scraps of my past. I’ve climbed the granite steps to the maternity hospital that Lara dreads visiting. Fallen in love in the snug of The Palace Bar like Mia. Skidded on the bridge in Portobello where Phil almost loses his life. I’ve set Lara’s flower shop on my favourite stretch of Camden Street, a jumble of hat shops and tarot card readers, jewelers and pubs and street stalls. There’s even a funeral parlour!
R: What does a typical ‘writing day’ look like to you?
There is no typical day but my favourite kinds of days are the ones where I get up early, walk the dog and get to my desk by 9. If I do that I can sometimes get 500 words written by lunchtime. When I do that, I almost always have a productive afternoon as well. I think it’s a self-esteem thing!
R: Any great books that you could recommend to us?
This year, I loved reading ‘Us’ by David Nicholls and ‘Capital’ by John Lanchester, ‘The Woman Who Stole My LIfe’ by Marian Keyes and ‘It Started With Paris’ by Cathy Kelly and I’m about to begin a wonderful book called “The Dress’ by my friend Kate Kerrigan.
R: Have you got anything exciting ‘in the works’ that we might hear about in the future?
I’m full of ideas for book four but I’m superstitious so I won’t say anything yet! I would love to write a Christmas novella as a follow up to The Flower Arrangement. So watch this space!
R: Does your furry friend help or hinder your writing? I have two furry friends and sometimes they can’t handle not having my complete attention 24/7!
Today is a manic day but I’ve already managed to have a paddle on Blackrock Beach with my lovely deerhound, Haggis. I’d taken him to the vet earlier so we both needed cheering up! He’s a very laid back hound, he lies outside my office for most of the day sighing and snoring in the sunshine. But every now and then he’ll come in for a cuddle and a pat!
R: The Flower Arrangement is set in a gorgeous floristry shop – what is your favourite flower? And did you have to research floristry before writing the book?
I had to do a lot of research but I loved every minute of it. I got to talk to florists and hear all their happiest and saddest stories. And I got to work behind the counter in one of my favourite flower shops!
My favourite flower is jasmine. The white star-shaped flowers are small but their scent is incredibly powerful. I met my husband on a Greek Island. We were strangers on a writing course together and he showed up at my door with a bowl of water filled with jasmine. It only takes one tiny flower to change a whole life.
R: Where did the idea for writing The Flower Arrangement come from?
A florist never really knows what her next job will be. It could be a wedding or a declaration of love, a joyful new arrival or a tragic funeral. I soon realised that every single bouquet tells a story. I wanted to write all those stories and to weave them through the life of a florist who is as lovely as her flowers.
R: And, the most important question of all, what’s your favourite cake?
I’m not a chocolate fan but I love any of those Moroccan cakes featuring rose water and with almond meal instead of flour. Edible rose petals on top are a bonus!
R: Thank you so much for answering my questions, Ella!
It’s been such a pleasure, Rose! Thank you so much for inviting me!!!
June 20, 2015
Interview with Louisa Treger
The first biographical novel about Dorothy Richardson, peer of Virginia Woolf, lover of H.G. Wells, and central figure in the emergence of modernist fiction
Dorothy exists just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist’s surgery and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer who is hovering on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells, or Bertie as he is known to friends.
Bertie appears unremarkable at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signalling approval. He tells her he and Jane have an agreement which allows them the freedom to take lovers, although Dorothy is not convinced her friend is happy with this arrangement.
Not wanting to betray Jane, yet unable to draw back, Dorothy free-falls into an affair with Bertie. Then a new boarder arrives at the house—striking unconventional Veronica Leslie-Jones, determined to live life on her own terms—and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Bertie. Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of the militant suffragette movement, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
I finished this book recently and adored it! The characters were so wonderfully evoked and I felt that I learnt a lot about the period from the plot line. To find out how this novel came about, I chatted to the author.
R: Hi Louisa, I love The Lodger! How long have you been writing and when did you start?
L: Thank you, I am happy you like my book! I have been writing for as long as I can remember. As a child, I scribbled my thoughts in a diary and was always trying to write short stories and plays. But it wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that I started writing in a serious, disciplined way.
R: What compelled you to write The Lodger?
L: I discovered Dorothy Richardson, the writer whose life my book is based on, by accident. I was researching Virginia Woolf in the University of London Library and I found a review by Virginia of one of Dorothy’s novels. In it, Virginia credited her with creating “a sentence which we might call the psychological sentence of the feminine gender.” I thought this was pretty amazing and wanted to find out more. I became captivated by Dorothy’s novels and her life: she was deeply unconventional in both. She couldn’t settle down and conform to any of the roles available to the women of her day, but smashed just about every boundary and taboo going – social, sexual and literary. The more I learnt about her, the more strongly I felt that her story should be unearthed and retold.
R: How long did it take you to write? Did you face any problems/set backs?
L: The Lodger took four years to research and write. I had problems with the plot and structure of the first draft, and it ended up undergoing major revisions. In the original version, I started in the same place: with Dorothy meeting HG Wells and falling in love with him. However, the earlier draft had a longer time span; it covered her marriage to a consumptive artist called Alan Odle as well. A secondary narrative, set in the present, was interwoven with Dorothy’s story: a PhD student who bore more than a passing resemblance to me was researching Dorothy Richardson and discovered a letter which altered the course of literary history! The trouble was that once Dorothy got married, her life settled into a routine, and it’s much more challenging to write about an established couple than about the dramatic period of her affair with HG Wells! In the end, my agent said: “This is the most interesting part of the novel; I think you should make it the whole novel,” and I did.
R: What does a typical writing day look like to you?
L: Most days, I drive my daughters to school. When I get home, I make a large, strong coffee and this act marks the transition from being a Mum to being a writer. I sit down at my computer and immerse myself in my fictional world until my children get home.
R: Are you working on anything new at the moment?
L: My second novel is well under way. It’s about a girl who was part of the Kindertransport – the rescue mission that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children from Nazi occupied Europe to safety in England. They left their families to go to the care of strangers, in a foreign country whose language they only had the barest grasp of. They didn’t know what would happen to them, or if they would see their parents again. The novel describes how the girl and her descendants adjust to English life.
R: Any good books that you can recommend to us?
L: I am reading A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale at the moment. Can’t put it down!
R: And the most important question of all, what’s your favorite cake?
L: I have a serious addiction to chocolate cake!
R: Thank you so much for speaking with me, Louisa. It was a pleasure to virtually meet you!
L: Thank you very much for having me! I really enjoyed chatting to you!
The Lodger on Amazon
The Lodger on goodreads
June 14, 2015
June 5, 2015
May 28, 2015
May 8, 2015
Feathers Finished
And just like that, I finished Feathers. It was all very strange – one day I was furiously writing and clocking up thousands of words, and then the next day it was over. Well, over for now. My wonderful editor at Sky Pony will have many comments for me, I’m sure, but shush. We won’t talk about that yet.
Anyway, the point is, I finished it! Feathers is now a fully-formed story! Yes, it might get chopped around a little and yes, we might have to change that ending because it (might have) seemed a little abrupt, but the bulk of it is still finished and this makes me very pleased. Feathers is the hardest book I have written so far, you see, and there were points in the middle of it where the end seemed utterly impossible. I mean, I knew I was never going to give up, but there was a lot of brow-beating and a few sleepless nights. I got there in the end, though, and all the hard work was worth it. Phew.
The problem was, I totally underestimated The Curse Of The Second Book, which is actually a real thing, (hence the capitals). Whenever anybody hesitantly mentioned it before I started Feathers, I would sort of wave my hand vaguely and say something along the lines of, “Pfft! Don’t you just get on with it?!”
Oh, naive me.
I seemed to be under the impression that those who complained that the second book was difficult to write, obviously weren’t trying hard enough. I’m a tough worker, I thought, I’ll get there, no problem. Hmm. I was wrong. The Curse Of The Second Book isn’t about not trying hard enough – it’s about pressure. Suddenly there’s a readership who are waiting for the next instalment. Suddenly there are plot twists that need to unfold and match the rest of the series. Suddenly there’s all these rules and guidelines that you need to follow because – and this is the best bit – you made them up for yourself in the first book!
Now I understand why everyone else was complaining – a little too late, probably, but perhaps just in time for book three! Over on Author Allsorts, Bryony Pearce talks about her experience of writing The Second Book and I would highly recommend it if you’d like like to read more about this interesting, writerly conundrum. As for me, I am off to celebrate and sleep. More soon!
Writing Q and A
A viewer called, Jess, emailed me asking a few questions about my writing and the writing process in general and I responded in a video. If you have any further questions that you would like me to answer in Part 2 then please leave them in a comment on the video’s youtube page or tweet me/email me/leave a comment here – whatever is easiest!
Enchanted Forest by Johanna Bamford
I had the opportunity to review Johanna Basford’s adult colouring book, Enchanted Forest, which is sweeping the book world by storm! Since it’s a bit of a unique book, I decided to do something a little different in the review, I hope you like it!
