Ellie Marney's Blog, page 8

#LoveOZYAbookclub February 2022 author interview: ALICIA JASINSKA (The Midnight Girls)

Hi and welcome to our Author Interview with Alicia Jasinska author of this month’s title The Midnight Girls.

The Midnight Girls is set in an interesting world, where did you draw your inspiration from?

The story takes place in a magical fantasy version of 18th century Poland – specifically during the reign of Poland’s last king just before the whole country was erased from the map of Europe for over a century. The setting is not meant to be 100% historically accurate, but I had a lot of fun including hinted references to the famous people, events, and places I drew inspiration from.

(Alicia Jasinska)

The three main girls are quite different characters, are they based on anyone real or fiction?

I don’t think I could ever write a character based on a real person – too many people I know read my books haha.

The main trio in The Midnight Girls are based on characters that appear in Slavic folklore and fairy tales about Baba Yaga aka Eastern Europe’s famous witch who lives in the hut with the chicken legs. In the folk stories the witch has three servants: Morning, Day, and Night. We’re not told who they are or how they came to serve Baba Yaga. They’re really just meant to represent her power over time. But I thought it would be fun to imagine a backstory for these characters and that’s kind of how the main trio came to life.

Your book would make an awesome Netflix series, do you have a dream cast for the main players?

I don’t actually! I can’t think of any actors who match up with the image I have of the characters in my head. I’d be so, so curious to see who would be cast if a series was ever made!

Writing in a time of covid- has your writing life changed these days? Can you tell us a bit about it?

I feel like everything’s just really effected my motivation and ability to focus. I had to come up with a whole bunch of strategies in order to meet my deadlines for The Midnight Girls. I did a lot of writing sprints just to force myself to get the words down, and I started writing by hand to give my eyes a break from staring at a screen 24/7. Now that I don’t have a strict deadline, I’m trying to take things a bit easier and rediscover my motivation and love of writing. 

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time when you aren’t writing?

My hobby when I’m not writing is training aerials! I mostly do aerial hoop and dance trapeze and sometimes hammock. It’s a super fun hobby and a great way to stay fit! 

Thank you so much Alicia for answering all our questions and for taking part in our book of the month!

Look out for our discussion post on The Midnight Girls on the #LoveOzYAbookclub Facebook Page in the coming days, and to find out about our March book of the Month

Emm xx

#LoveOzYAbookclub February 2022 title announcement – THE MIDNIGHT GIRLS

Happy 2022 everyone, and welcome to a new year of #LoveOzYAbookclub! We hope everyone has had a great festive season and in the Southern Hemisphere a nice Summer Break. For our Northern friends we hope Winter isn’t being too harsh and giving you lots of reading time!

For February, we are super excited to announce the #LoveOzYAbookclub book will be THE MIDNIGHT GIRLS by Alicia Jasinska.

It’s Karnawał season in the snow-cloaked Kingdom of Lechija, and from now until midnight when the church bells ring an end to Devil’s Tuesday time will be marked with wintry balls and glittery disguises, cavalcades of nightly torch-lit “kuligi” sleigh-parties.

Unbeknownst to the oblivious merrymakers, two monsters join the fun, descending upon the royal city of Warszów in the guise of two innocent girls. Newfound friends and polar opposites, Zosia and Marynka seem destined to have a friendship that’s stronger even than magic. But that’s put to the test when they realize they both have their sights set on Lechija’s pure-hearted prince. A pure heart contains immeasurable power and Marynka plans to bring the prince’s back to her grandmother in order to prove herself. While Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for her own.

When neither will sacrifice their ambitions for the other, the festivities spiral into a wild contest with both girls vying to keep the hapless prince out of the other’s wicked grasp. But this isn’t some remote forest village, where a hint of stray magic might go unnoticed, Warszów is the icy capital of a kingdom that enjoys watching monsters burn, and if Zosia and Marynka’s innocent disguises continue to slip, their escalating rivalry might cost them not just the love they might have for each other, but both their lives

Alicia Jasinska is a fantasy writer hailing from Sydney, Australia. A library technician by day, she spends her nights writing and hanging upside down from the trapeze and aerial hoop. She is the author of The Dark Tide (a previous #LoveOzYAbookclub book) and The Midnight Girls.

You can order your copy of THE MIDNIGHT GIRLS from Boomerang Books and use the code ‘loveoz’ to receive free shipping, or you can find the ebook here. I hope you enjoy this read for February and I look forward to discussing it with you all in the FB group later in the month.

Emm xx

#LoveOzYAbookclub December 2021 author interview – Tobias Madden (Anything But Fine)

Welcome, friends, to another edition of Five Messy Questions with #LoveOzYAbookclub

Before we kick off our brand new 2022, I thought it might be nice to finish with a Q&A from Tobias Madden, the author of our final book for 2021, Anything But Fine.

* What other media inspired you during the writing of this book? Songs, TV, movies, other books…it’s all grist for the mill!

Being an ex-music theatre performer, I listen almost exclusively to musical soundtracks. While I was editing the first draft of Anything But Fine, I had Hadestown (a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth) playing on repeat. The story of Hadestown has literally nothing to do with the content of Anything But Fine but, for some reason, it really helped me get into the Luca’s headspace. It also sparked the creation of one of my favourite scenes in the book, which didn’t exist in the original draft. It’s a huge spoiler, so I won’t say which scene it is, but when you’ve finished reading the book, picture me dancing around my living room in the dark to the song ‘Epic Three’, and see if you can figure out which chapter it is …

* There’s writing and there’s editing – which do you prefer and why?

I much prefer editing, in all its forms! The writing part itself is fun, but I find it a little draining, whereas editing feels invigorating. I edit my writing a lot as I go, even in a first draft. I love shaping the raw, usually clumsy words into something special, something that ‘breathes’ off the page. I also adore the copyediting process. It’s almost like a little game between writer and editor—tweak this line, recast this word, cut 50 instances of ‘kind of’ and ‘actually’—and it’s so much fun.

* What TV show/movie is getting you through right now and why?

The answer to this question is always Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve stuck with the show for 18 seasons (so far), and I’d have to say I’m one of its all-time biggest fans. Whether I’m watching new episodes or re-watching the entire series from episode one through to the end (which I’ve probably done four or five times now), Grey’s never fails to comfort and inspire me. Plus, you really can’t beat a good ugly-cry to clear your head during the writing process, and Grey’s is guaranteed to get me balling my eyes out in every episode!

* Your book has a title, and it’s an awesome title. But what might it have been called, if it wasn’t called what it is now?

Anything But Fine was originally called How to be Luca Mason, until I remembered there was a very famous book in the US called How to be Remy Cameron by the incredible Julian Winters. After that little discovery, I had to go back to the drawing board, as I had no back-up titles. I sent my incredible agent a very long list of potential titles—all of which were apparently terrible—and then she came back to me with Anything But Fine, which I instantly loved.

* What are the key themes (or maybe just the key feels!) that you hope readers take away from your book?

I hope teenagers (and adults) come away from the book knowing that no one needs to have their life ‘together’. We don’t always need to know where we’re going or what our next step should be. Life is messy and complicated, and our journeys are never straightforward. But that’s the fun of it!

Thanks Tobias!

xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub – December 2021 title announcement: ANYTHING BUT FINE (Tobias Madden)

We did it! We reached the end of the year!! (cue hysterical cackling)

This year has been SUCH a slog, and I know you’re all glad to see the end – even if your Year of Lockdown wasn’t totally awful, it’s still just really tiring. Even normal end-of-year stuff is tiring. I hear you hard on that. So for this year’s finale book, I’ve chosen something that feels like a big hug – ANYTHING BUT FINE by Tobias Madden.

Here’s the blurb:

Luca is ready to audition for the Australian Ballet School. All it takes to crush his dreams is one missed step . . . and a broken foot.

Jordan is the gorgeous rowing star and school captain of Luca’s new school. Everyone says he’s straight – but Luca’s not so sure . . .

As their unlikely bond grows stronger, Luca starts to wonder: who is he without ballet? And is he setting himself up for another heartbreak?

You can grab a copy (on sale right now!) of ANYTHING BUT FINE by clicking on this link to Boomerang Books, and use the code ‘loveoz’ to get free shipping. You can also find the ebook version right here.

ANYTHING BUT FINE is our last book for the year, which means it will carry us through December and January, all the way to February 2022 – when we will yawn and rub our eyes and wake from our lazy-hazy summer holiday slumber to announce our first book for the New Year. You can check in at #LoveOzYAbookclub on the FB page to find book recs and say hi, but there won’t be any more official activities until Feb 2022 – so take your time with this book and enjoy life!

I hope your holidays are happy, and your New Year is kind. Stay well, look after yourselves, and much love from Emmaly and me to you and yours during this season of renewal and recharge.

All the very best, and see you in 2022

xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub November 2021 title announcement – PLAYING BEATIE BOW

This month we have decided to do a #LoveOzYA classic and read PLAYING BEATIE BOW by Ruth Park. Many of you may have already read this a long time ago, I studied this in year 7 back in 1988! But some of you may not have read this yet, so now is your chance.

A thrilling adventure story for children and young adults by Ruth Park, Playing Beatie Bow follows Abigail as she is swept back to the Sydney of a hundred years ago by a scary game.

A thrilling adventure story for children and young adults by Park Ruth, Playing Beatie Bow follows Abigail as she suddenly finds herself in the Sydney of a hundred years ago as the result of a scary game.

Born in New Zealand, Ruth Park came to Australia in 1942 to continue her career as a journalist. She married the writer D’Arcy Niland and travelled with him through the north-west of New South Wales before settling in Sydney where she became a full-time writer.

She wrote over fifty books, and her many awards include the prestigious Miles Franklin Award for Swords and Crowns and Rings; the Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (USA) for Playing Beatie Bow and The Age Book of the Year Award for A Fence Around the Cuckoo.

She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1987 and in 1994 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New South Wales. Ruth Park passed away in December 2010.

You can order your copy of PLAYING BEATIE BOW from Boomerang Books and use the code ‘loveoz’ to receive free shipping. I hope you enjoy this classic read for November and I look forward to discussing it with you all later in the month.

Emm xx

#LoveOzYAbookclub October 2021 title announcement: DARK RISE

Hello and happy spooky season! While the northern hemisphere is getting ready to cuddle up for Autumn, we’re enjoying the advance of Spring down here in Australia. And this month’s read is the knockout new YA fantasy novel DARK RISE by the incredible CS Pacat.

Here’s the blurb:

The ancient world of magic is no more. Its heroes are dead, its halls are ruins, and its great battles between Light and Dark are forgotten. Only the Stewards remember, and they keep their centuries-long vigil, sworn to protect humanity if the Dark King ever returns.

Sixteen-year-old dock boy Will is on the run, pursued by the men who killed his mother. When an old servant tells him of his destiny to fight beside the Stewards, Will is ushered into a world of magic, where he must train to play a vital role in the oncoming battle against the Dark.

As London is threatened by the Dark King’s return, the reborn heroes and villains of a long-forgotten war begin to draw battle lines. But as the young descendants of Light and Dark step into their destined roles, old allegiances, old enmities and old flames are awakened. Will must stand with the last heroes of the Light to prevent the fate that destroyed their world from returning to destroy his own. 

I hope you enjoy reading DARK RISE – I’ve been hanging out for this one!

You can find a copy of our October title at Boomerang Books, and get free shipping by using the ‘loveoz’ code at checkout (and it’s on sale at 20% off!). Alternatively, you can find the digital version of the book here.

Happy October and enjoy the read!

xxEllie

#LoveOzYAbookclub September 2021 author interview: LYNDALL CLIPSTONE (Lakesedge)

Hi, and welcome to our Author Interview with Lyndall Clipstone, author of this month’s title Lakesedge.

Lakesedge is set at a very interesting house and lake, what gave you the inspiration to set it there?

I always loved the house from The Secret Garden with one hundred locked up rooms, and I love the gothic trope of architecture that feels sentient, or like a character. I’m also very afraid of deep water, so a haunted lake was an easy thing to make creepy for me as a writer!

Writing in a time of covid – has your writing life changed these days? Can you tell us a bit about it?

I have been lucky in South Australia that life hasn’t been too badly disrupted – I do most of my writing at home, when my children are at school, and I’m very grateful that we haven’t had any extended lockdowns. One nice benefit has been the rise of virtual events – it’s been lovely to still attend things even when it isn’t safe to do so in person. 

Lakesedge has a very interesting style, did any music TV or movies help inspire writing this book?

My three main inspirations are The Secret Garden, the film Labyrinth, and the album Lungs by Florence + the Machine. The premise for Lakesedge was “what if The Secret Garden was a gothic romance?” and it was originally pitched as Wintersong meets Crimson Peak.

Lakesedge is a great title, was it always the original title? What were some others it might have been called?

The very original title was called The Fever. Then it became At the Lake’s Edge but when we went on submission, my literary agent suggested we shorten it and so we chose Lakesedge. I really love the one-word title as it feels very fitting with the gothic literature theme!

What is a curious or unusual thing about you that most people don’t know?

I drew the illustrations for the title page and the chapter headers in Lakesedge.

Thank you so much Lyndall for answering all our questions and for taking part in our book of the month!

Look out for our discussion post on Lakesedge on the #LoveOzYAbookclub Facebook Page in the coming days, and to find out about our October book of the month.

Emm xx

#LoveOzYAbookclub September 2021 title announcement – LAKESEDGE

Hello everyone! It’s now September and Spring here in Australia and what a crazy year we are having. I hope that a new book suggestion will help everyone. We are so happy to have LAKESEDGE by Lyndall Clipstone as our September book for #LoveOzYAbookclub.

There are monsters in the world.

When Violeta Graceling arrives at haunted Lakesedge estate, she expects to find a monster. She knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.

There are monsters in the woods.

As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn…

There’s a monster in the shadows, and now it knows my name.

Now, to save Rowan—and herself—Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under

Lyndall Clipstone writes about monsters and the girls who like to kiss them. A former youth librarian who grew up running wild in the Barossa Ranges of South Australia, she currently lives in Adelaide, where she tends her own indoor secret garden. She has a Bachelors in Creative Writing and a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Management.

LAKESEDGE is Lyndall Clipstone’s debut novel. The sequel FORESTFALL will be out in 2022

You can order your copy of LAKESEDGE from Boomerang Books and use the code ‘loveoz’ to receive free shipping. I hope you enjoy this gothic fantasy read for September and I look forward to discussing it with you all later in the month.

Emm xx

PS: Find out more about Lyndall and LAKESEDGE in this series of interviews with #LoveOzYA!

#LoveOzYAbookclub – August 2021 author Interview: DANIELLE BINKS (The Monster of Her Age)

Danielle Binks isnot only a delightful person, she’s also a literary agent and a talented writer– which is a pretty stunning combination. She was kind enough to answer somequestions for bookclub about the creation of this month’s LoveOzYA title, THEMONSTER OF HER AGE, her love for pop-culture icon Drew Barrymore [author note:I knew it! This is was the thing I wondered when reading this book!], and thehard times she went through during the writing.

Read on!

* Tell us a bit about the backstory for your book, andhow the idea came to you

TheMonster of Her Agewas cooked up in a very strange pop-culturecauldron “what if?”

It was a little bit my love for Drew Barrymore (a renownedchild-actor), a deep-down admiration for horror movies, Hollywood as theepicentre to kick-off the #MeToo movement, the rolodex brain I have for Internet Movie Database (IMDb)behind-the-scenes movie trivia … all culminating in me attending ‘Books atMIFF’ at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2017 and in my role asliterary agent and pitching my author’s books for potential adaptation; findingmyself sitting opposite a movie producer who’d worked on a horror film starringa child actor and me having the impulse to ask them if they’d be willing to seeif the actor’s parents were willing to be interviewed by me for this idea Ihad. They were. And in developing a line of questioning I pretty much came upwith my story, which is;

In a neo-Gothic mansion in a city at the end of the world, Ellie finds there’s room enough for art, family, forgiveness and love.

Ellie Marsden was born into the legendary Lovinger acting dynasty. Granddaughter of the infamous Lottie Lovinger, as a child Ellie shared the silver screen with Lottie in her one-and-only role playing the child monster in a cult horror movie. The experience left Ellie deeply traumatised and estranged from people she loved.

Now seventeen, Ellie has returned home to Hobart for the first time in years. Lottie is dying and Ellie wants to make peace with her before it’s too late.

When a chance encounter with a young film buff leads her to a feminist horror film collective, Ellie meets Riya, a girl who she might be able to show her real self to, and at last comes to understand her family’s legacy.

A story of love, loss, family and film – a stirring, insightful novel about letting go of anger and learning to forgive without forgetting. And about embracing the things that scare us, in order to be braver.

* What was one of your favourite things about writingthis book?

I got to write a fictional Australian film history –imagining that we had a Golden Age of cinema here in Australia, starting in the1920’s and building alongside America. And then I got to create and insert afictional family of Tasmanian thespians into that fictional film history. Itwas totally reading Taylor Jenkins’s Reid’s The Seven Husbands of EvelynHugo and watching Apple-TV series For All Mankind that gave me theidea (and courage!) to even attempt to pull on a few threads of history andreknit them as needs be.

So I thoroughly enjoyed that; I loved that I got to insertthis family into the world’s first feature film (which really was Australian – TheStory of the Kelly Gang 1906 film by the Tait Brothers, first screened inMelbourne’s Athenaeum Hall!) I got to pretend that a Lovinger descendent playedthe titular role of Ned Kelly. I partly chose to set my book in Hobart becauseof the Errol Flynn connection there – that being his hometown and where hesupposedly learnt the sea-side swashbuckling that would serve him well inHollywood, but I’m not a huge Errol fan myself so I made up a long-standingfeud between Mr Flynn and a Lovinger descendent who beat him out for a role playingLancelot in a King Arthur retelling.

The Lovinger’s were greatly inspired by my love for thelikes of Drew Barrymore, Carrie Fisher, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sofia Coppola –these women from filmic dynasties – and I totally loved creating one of my own,with a mind to putting Australia centre-stage.

* Please share something about your personal connectionto the story you chose to tell in your book…

I got to write a romance! The romance I wanted to read as ateenager, and one that even feels hard-won as an adult. There are parts ofmyself that I’ve kept locked down for my own very personal reasons – someinternalised, many most definitely attached to fear – but writing the story ofa young woman coming to grips with all sides of herself, and learning to do thethings that scare her in order to be braver … yeah, I had to get brave in thewriting of this one too. And maybe the likes of BeckyAlbertalli put this more eloquently; but writing the romance between myprotagonist Ellie and a young woman called Riya who (literally!) comes boundinginto her life saved me a little bit. I wrote this book during one lockdown andedited it during another, in that time my grandmother passed away and my uncledied, I channelled a lot of the grief and trauma I was experiencing into thisbook … but I needed Ellie and Riya in there too, I needed to pour my heart outfor them in order to heal and reveal parts of myself.

It was good for me, and I hope it’s a balm for readers outthere – the ones who need to see themselves on the page, and maybe haven’tbefore. I see you. I wrote this for you. And me.  

* What other media inspired you during the writing ofthis book? Songs, TV, movies, other books…it’s all grist for the mill!

HORROR MOVIES! Horror movies play a big part in this book –given that Ellie’s grandmother, the infamous actress Lottie Lovinger, got herbig-break playing ‘The Final Girl’ in a gory horror film … and then Ellie andLottie appeared together in an indie horror movie in which Ellie played thechild monster, and didn’t have a great time on-set or dealing with the infamythat film bought her.

I chose the horror-genre to spin Ellie and Lottie’sexperiences around, because my little movie-trivia brain knew that horror-filmsare an important category for female actors; it’s the one area of film wherewomen even have more speaking-roles and speaking-time than men! (no, seriously;the Geena DavisInstitute did a study into this!) and I know many female actors have had aheck of a time on horror film-sets (from Shelley Duvall’s traumatic experienceson the set of The Shining to Linda Blair’s back-breaking work on TheExorcist; and I actually use a quote from Linda at the beginning of mybook; “The Exorcist has been a very interesting cross to bear.”)

I love horror movies, and I watch them *constantly*. So Iwas quite happy to convince myself that watching them was also ‘research’ forthe purposes of this book. As to that, here’s a quick list of some faves;

The Exorcist (duh)It FollowsGet OutGinger SnapsJennifer’s BodyThe Devil’s BackboneDr. Jekyll and Sister HydeThe OrphanageThe LureTigers Are Not AfraidThe DescentThe BabadookHereditary Dark Water (2002 version)Child’s Play Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1935.

And if you’re looking for horror television shows right now,I really loved;

The Haunting of Hill HouseBlack Mirror Black Summer Sweet Home

* Why write for teenagers?

Partly because I still so acutely remember being a teenager,and I’m still needing to look back at that time to understand how I got towhere I am … the further away you get, the more you have these Sliding Doorsrealisations of how everything could have gone differently if not for theflap of a butterfly’s wing (or maybe I’m thinking this now as someone who justgot through playing around with a fictional history, and just *slightly*rearranging events to suit a new timeline? I’ve got multiverse on the brain!)

And yes, I am fascinated by the breakaway moment that happens in young-adulthood. I am a huge John Steinbeck fan, and one passage from his novel East of Eden that stuck with me as a teenager – I think I carry the imprint of that into my work now, and always will:

When a child first catches adults out — when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not always have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just — his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child’s world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.

“It is an aching kind of growing.” That’s my work, in anutshell. My first book The Year the Maps Changed was about a youngperson realising that their own government, and ‘leaders’ around the world canfail regular people, and to counter-act that you’ve got to help who you canwhen you can. The Monster of Her Age is Ellie realising that her familyfailed her as a young person; and that anger, grief and love can co-exist – andin fact, they have to in order for her to save herself.

“It is an aching kind of growing.”

Danielle, thank you so much for joining in with us thismonth on #LoveOzYAbookclub! It has been so lovely reading your responses <3

To everyone reading along, I hope you’re enjoying the book! Stay tuned for our discussion thread for THE MONSTER OF HER AGE on our FB page, and have a fantastic week.

xxEllie

LoveOzYAbookclub August 2021 title announcement: THE MONSTER OF HER AGE (Danielle Binks)

Welcome back! Apologies for last month’s hiccups – my websiteis under renovation, and it was a thing – but now we’re back in action!

This month’s read is by author/agent Danielle Binks – her debut YA book, THE MONSTER OF HER AGE. But Danielle no newbie: she is also the author of a middle grade novel, The Year The Maps Changed, and is a contributing editor of Begin, End Begin, A #LoveOzYA Anthology. Here’s the blurb for MONSTER:

How do you ruin someone’s childhood? You let them make-believe that they are a monster. But sooner or later, the mask must come off…

Ellie Marsden was born into the legendary Lovinger acting dynasty. Granddaughter of the infamous Lottie Lovinger, as a child Ellie shared the silver screen with Lottie in her one-and-only role playing the child monster in a cult horror movie. The experience left Ellie deeply traumatised and estranged from people she loved.

Now seventeen, Ellie has returned home to Hobart for the first time in years. Lottie is dying and Ellie wants to make peace with her before it’s too late. But forgiveness feels like playing make-believe, and memories are like ghosts.

When a chance encounter with a young film buff leads her to a feminist horror film collective, Ellie meets Riya, a girl who she might be able to show her real self to, and at last come to understand her family’s legacy – and her own part in it.

A story of love, loss, family and film – a stirring, insightful novel about letting go of anger and learning to forgive without forgetting. And about embracing the things that scare us, in order to be braver. 

I hope you enjoy reading this one! You can buy a physical copy of the book at Boomerang Books and use the ‘loveoz’ code to get free shipping, or you can find the ebook version here.

Thanks so much for sticking with us during the last lean month, and we hope the books on our list are bringing you some joy in these crazy lockdown times! You know you’re always welcome to join in at our FB page, and add to the reading fun. Until next time, stay well, wear a mask, get vaccinated, and happy reading

xxEllie