Theresa Smith's Blog, page 122

Behind the Pen with Julian Leatherdale

I am thrilled to welcome Julian Leatherdale, author of The Opal Dragonfly and Palace of Tears, as my guest for Behind the Pen today.

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What inspired your most recent novel?

A few things came together as inspiration for The Opal Dragonfly. Thinking about an ‘unlucky’ family heirloom as a possible centerpiece for a story, my research turned up a superstition popular in the early 19thC about opals as cursed. I then dreamed up the image of an opal dragonfly brooch which my main character Isobel inherits from her mother.

I was also inspired by the story of Elizabeth Bay House, ‘the finest house in the colony’ in 1830s Sydney. It was one of several grand villas built on Woolloomooloo Hill (today’s Darlinghurst, Kings Cross, Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay) as part of Governor Darling’s vision of an exclusive enclave for the colonial elite and, in his own words, ‘an example and chastisement to the debased populace of Sydney Town’. Governor Darling’s Colonial Secretary, Alexander Macleay, was granted 54-acres and bankrupted himself building Elizabeth Bay House and its harbourside estate. What an irresistible story of hubris and folly and what an amazing building!

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One of the main characters in my novel, Sir Angus Macleod, is inspired by the brilliant but hot-tempered explorer and Surveyor-General, Sir Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell’s most notorious claim to fame was fighting Sydney’s last pistol duel in 1851 at age 60. This scene, told from the point of view of a daughter convinced her father will be killed, became the starting point for my story.

How much research do you do? How do you balance the demands of getting the facts right and telling a good story?

For both Palace of Tears (A&U, 2015) and The Opal Dragonfly (A&U, 2018), I did about 12 months’ background research before I started writing and then more detailed research as I wrote. Readers have remarked how ‘well-researched’ both books are: I even had a family historian recently contact me to double check her own facts against my portrayal of her ancestor. I reassured her that her research was spot on and as a novelist I had taken liberties!

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For me, story comes first, historical facts a close second. Being truthful to ‘the spirit of the times’ (ideas, attitudes and beliefs) is more critical than getting every little detail right. But I do like my story-telling to be vivid and immersive, to feel ‘real’ so I use whatever historical texture helps me with that. Even so, I try not to let anxiety about accuracy paralyse my writing fluency.

How much planning do you do? Do you plan/plot the entire story from beginning to end, or let it evolve naturally as the writing progresses?

I let the story evolve naturally with the writing although I set out with a few potential milestone scenes in mind to guide me including a possible ending. Though it can be nerve-wracking, I want to be free to be surprised by what I discover on the way. The central romance of The Opal Dragonfly was not in my mind when I began writing the novel and, to my delight, has proved one of the most appealing aspects of the novel to readers. As I embark on writing my third novel, The City of Shadows (working title), a crime thriller set in 1930s Kings Cross to be published by A&U in 2020, the intricacies of the plot are demanding that I plan this story in more detail in advance. Even so, I am trying to leave room for the unexpected in my first draft – which means I will be adding more books to my research pile!

In terms of characters, are they already a firm picture in your mind before you start writing or do they develop a personality of their own as the story progresses?

I recently taught a class about creating character and it made me reflect on my own approach. With main characters I start out with a sense of their world-view usually framed in terms of what is at stake for them and how they are going to handle the central dilemma of their life. I like my characters to be morally complex which means I have to let them make choices that I personally may not always agree with.

As a result, my characters do surprise me when it comes to story-telling. I never expected Adelina, the snobbish, sickly wife of hotelier Adam Fox in Palace of Tears to become such a sympathetic person. I was also forced by the logistics of the story to write from the point of view of Adam Fox himself and find empathy with how this arrogant, high-handed man viewed the world. In The Opal Dragonfly, my protagonist Isobel Macleod is no saint. She may be courageous and loyal but she also makes poor judgements and is deceived and deceitful. These qualities emerged in the writing and in response to the storyline.

What other genre would you like to try your hand at writing and why?

Well, to be honest, I still have an ambition to write for children and young adults with several novels and short stories in the bottom drawer. Why? Because I love the fact that this offers the scope for a writer to let their imagination ‘off the leash’ as well as indulge in silliness and humour in a way that is much rarer in adult fiction. I seem to be drifting into crime as well; my next adult historical fiction novel will have a crime element. I do love a well-executed plot twist or two as long as they can be justified by the story.

I am thrilled that in May this year Sophie Masson, publishing director of Christmas Press and Eagle Books, offered me a contract for my children’s adventure fantasy novel The Phantasmic Detective Agency to be published in March 2020. Set in 1911 London and Paris, the book features a Sherlock Holmes style detective who solves crimes involving supernatural and mythical creatures with the help of his niece and nephew. Rescued from my bottom drawer, this casebook manages to combine historical fiction, crime and spy thriller all rolled into one!

What book is currently on your bedside table?

I am taking a break from research for book number three and am thoroughly enjoying Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth. Set in 1972 England it is the story of an MI5 agent who falls in love with a writer she is secretly funding as part of the ‘soft’ Cold War. It is clever, witty, political (but not partisan), well-paced, intriguing and so pleasurable to read. I am a big McEwan fan!

How far has your writing career evolved from when you first began to write to what it is today? Is this in line with your initial expectations?

Well, I never thought I would write historical fiction and certainly not Australian historical fiction. And yet my writing career started with my first job in publishing on an Australian military history series. At the same time, I was writing (and performing) cabaret for fringe festivals in Sydney and Adelaide and co-wrote a two-act children’s musical workshopped at Griffin Theatre. I went on to collaborate with Melbourne-based musician Danny Katz (now best known for Modern Guru in the Good Weekend) on two original musical theatre works.

In the mid-1990s I researched and co-wrote two history documentaries for the ABC and Film Australia. For some years I also worked with animators in Australia and the UK on scripts for kids’ TV animation series. I also wrote three kids’ novels.

It was only in 2015 I found my calling as an historical fiction writer. Funnily enough I have started writing for theatre again in 2017 and will have my first kids’ book published in 2020. I always imagined I would end up writing across different forms and genres so – despite all the twists and turns – I have ended up doing most of what I hoped for.

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Mark Tedeschi, AM, QC, launched The Opal Dragonfly: “It is the best written book I have read in at least a decade. It deserves to be a bestseller and Julian deserves to become one of Australia’s best-known and most successful authors.”

What attributes do you think you need to remain sane as a writer? Are there any particular things you routinely do for yourself to maintain your own headspace?

This begs the question that I have remained ‘sane’ as a writer! Attributes? Thick-skinned while remaining sensitive, self-confident while remaining humble, ambitious while remaining realistic (whatever that means!?) – just to name a few.

How to maintain my headspace? I am fortunate that my wife Claire Corbett is also a novelist (When We Have Wings, A&U, 2011 and Watch Over Me, A&U, 2017). We regularly talk about the challenges of writing and the ups and downs of the profession and the industry. We both teach writing and are always discovering and discussing new aspects of the craft. We also both read widely and discuss what we read – this is so important to keep one’s perspective on writing fresh. We are also each other’s first readers and trust each other’s judgement – but only when we have a very good draft ready!

For myself, I try to do a walk every day – even if only around my neighbourhood – to give me some meditation time about the day’s writing. Like most writers, I find other artforms nourish the spirit and stimulate the mind: music, theatre, film, dance and visual arts. I particularly love paintings and music as a way of resetting my headspace.

What is your favourite childhood book? Did reading as a child have any bearing on your decision to become a writer?

They would no doubt read as shamelessly imperialist now, but I loved Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books when I was a kid and was sick with excitement when my parents took me to see the 1967 musical film. Many other magical books would come along later but this was one of the first to win me over completely. The conceit of an eccentric but highly principled adult who preferred animals as companions and could speak to them appealed to my sense of a just world and made anything seem possible. In the character of Doctor Dolittle the sensible grown-up world and the world of childish imagination truly intersected. There was a two-headed beast called a Pushme-Pullyu, I mean how clever and wonderful is that?

Reading as a child had everything to do with my decision to become a writer – or at least hope to become a writer. I began writing poems and short stories as young as nine, attempted to write a Dickens pastiche at twelve and had a poem read on the ABC radio in high school. I have never stopped writing since. And for much of that time one of my goals remained to write as enchantingly as my childhood heroes wrote for me!

What crime would you like to get away with and how would you go about it?

Kidnap members of the global 1% who own half the world’s wealth to send them all a message that they cannot destroy the planet with impunity. How? Not telling. They would be stripped of all their ID and contacts, given new faces and fingerprints and released to wander helpless in the poorest, most polluted places on earth. Or put on trial for their crimes against humanity.

THE OPAL DRAGONFLY

“Miss Isobel Clara Macleod, youngest of the seven children of Major Sir Angus Hutton Macleod, Surveyor-General of the colony of New South Wales, had the singular misfortune to know that at seven o’clock that morning her father was going to die.”

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September, 1851. Sydney, city of secrets and gossip. Seventeen-year-old Isobel is determined to save her father from death and disgrace because she loves him. But when she dares to trespass in a forbidden male world, she will be plunged into social disgrace. A wave of ill fortune threatens to swallow up the her family and their stately home, Rosemount Hall, ‘the finest house in the colony’ on the foreshores of Sydney Harbour.

Is Isobel to blame for her family’s fate or does the cause lie further in the past? When Isobel was four, Major Macleod returned from an expedition with two ‘souvenirs’: an Aboriginal girl who became her friend and two opals fashioned into a dragonfly brooch for her mother.

When Isobel inherits this ‘unlucky’ heirloom, she wonders if the terrible dreams it summons are a curse or a gift. Now Isobel’s hopes for her future depend on a charming bohemian who encourages her hidden passion to become an artist. Will she now be permanently exiled from her family home? Or will she be transformed into a new self, like a magnificent dragonfly emerging into the sunlight?

Inspired by Elizabeth Bay House and the other grand villas of Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Hill The Opal Dragonfly tells the bittersweet story of an ambitious family’s fall from grace and a brave young woman’s struggle to find her true self.

The book is available from most bookstores including:

Book Depository

Booktopia

Angus & Robertson

Dymocks

Mighty Ape

QBD

Abbey’s

Readings

The book is also available as an audiobook (Bolinda):

Audible

Google Play

Sanity

Behind the Pen with S.C. Karakaltsas

Welcome to Behind the Pen. Today my guest is S.C. Karakaltsas, here to share some insight into her writing process along with the details of her forthcoming novel, A Perfect Stone. Over to you Sylvia!

When did you start writing and what was the catalyst?

[image error]I spent many years in the corporate world before I accidentally discovered writing in 2014. I say it was an accident because I’d never set out with an intention to write. It hadn’t been a childhood dream or a lifelong goal. After my father passed away, I found a bunch of letters he’d written as a young man to my grandmother when he went to work on a phosphate island in the middle of the Pacific in 1948.

I began typing the letters to preserve them for the family. But as I typed, a story began to unfold as he mentioned snippets about labour unrest, racism and Colonial control. When he wrote a line to say how upset he was about a double murder of two Australians on the island, I just knew that I wanted to know more. Then I found another letter in amongst my father’s stuff from one of the Australians who had been murdered and it was like a hand reaching out to me from the grave. And so after a number of months of research, I wrote and published my historical fiction novel inspired by the events on the island called Climbing the Coconut Tree in 2016. I knew then, that I had found a passion for writing.

 

How many novels have you written and published?

[image error]After I wrote and published Climbing the Coconut Tree, I turned my hand to writing short stories and poetry and was pleasantly surprised when one of my stories was short listed with the Lane Cove Literary Awards in 2016. Moving away from historical fiction, I published Out of Nowhere: a collection of short stories in 2017 which is a collation of stories of contemporary life.

A Perfect Stone will be released on October 10, 2018 which is my second historical novel, set in present day as well as coincidentally 1948 – somehow I can’t seem to get out of that year.

 

How long on average does it take you to write a novel?

That’s a really good question. Looking back on what I’ve written so far since 2014 it seems as if three works in four years is less than eighteen months for each but every book has taken at least two years of painstaking writing. It’s not so much the first draft that is slow, it’s the constant rework and rewriting which takes all the time. I also belong to a Writers Group and have workshopped all of my books with a group of about ten writers who don’t hesitate to give me great feedback.

 

What inspired your most recent novel?

I heard a story that 38000 Macedonian and Greek children from the age of 2 to 14 were forcibly evacuated from Northern Greece in 1948 during the Greek Civil War. Most walked barefoot through the mountains into communist countries – many dying, sick with disease and hungry. I also have a personal connection as my extended family were deeply affected by the Greek Civil War.

The story resonated with me and when I began my research, found heart wrenching stories of survival and loss. The plight of child refugees is a problem today as it was then and this disturbs me a lot.

 

What did you do when you finished this novel?

When I finished A Perfect Stone, I do confess to shedding a tear. Not from relief, but from the emotion of the story. I hope I’ve been able to convey that emotion to readers and that they are moved by it as I am from telling it.

 

How much research do you do? How do you balance the demands of getting the facts right and telling a good story?  

[image error]For A Perfect Stone, I interviewed members of my extended family and also found stories from survivors in Canada as well as Australia. There’s not a wealth of information but I managed to find books and articles about child refugees from Greece as well as documentaries. A Perfect Stone is a fictional story which has political and ethnic controversy which for some, may be confronting, particularly those in Greece. For Climbing the Coconut Tree, I had my father’s letters of course but there was scant information so I used Trove, tracked down the police investigation, used the Court documents as well as interviewed people who had lived there in the past.

 

How much planning do you do? Do you plan/plot the entire story from beginning to end, or let it evolve naturally as the writing progresses? In terms of characters, are they already a firm picture in your mind before you start writing or do they develop a personality of their own as the story progresses?

I’m actually a pantser and my novels evolve over a period of time. With A Perfect Stone, the original starting point is very different from the final product. I had more characters and tossed a few chapters away as the story presented itself to me. The main character, Jim Philips is amalgam of older men I know and some of his character is drawn from my own father so I had a fairly firm idea of what he was like.

 

Where do you normally write? Is it in the same place every day or are you an all over the place writer?

I have a very comfortable study at home, with a large desk where I can spread out research papers and generally make as much mess as I like. I’ve written on trains and cafés and have written with writer friends. But I find that my study is the perfect spot for contemplation with little distraction except for the cup of tea my husband likes to make for me.

 

What book is currently on your bedside table?

I love to read and have been an avid reader since childhood. I’ve also been a member of a fabulous book group for almost twenty years. I’m inspired by so many authors particularly Australian authors who I think are the best in the world. Perhaps, I’m just a little bit biased. I like to give a bit back so now blog my reviews on my website. I’m reading The Bridge by Enzo Gandolfino at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. Set in Melbourne too, what else could you hope for?

 

Are you more of a print, e-book, or audio book fan?

An interesting question. I like eBook for travel and versatility but tend to gravitate toward print books as I like the look and the feel of paper. I’ve not tried audio but I sense that I’d get too easily distracted but I’m not averse to giving it a go.

A Perfect Stone

[image error]How do you find a place to belong when there’s nowhere else to go?

Living alone, eighty-year-old Jim Philips potters in his garden feeding his magpies. He doesn’t think much of his nosy neighbours or telemarketers. All he wants to do is live in peace.

Cleaning out a box belonging to his late wife, he finds something which triggers the memories of a childhood he’s hidden, not just from his overprotective middle-aged daughter, Helen, but from himself.  When Jim has a stroke and begins speaking another language, Helen is shocked to find out her father is not who she thinks he is.

Jim’s suppressed memories surface in the most unimaginable way when he finally confronts what happened when, as a ten-year-old, he was forced at gunpoint to leave his family and trek barefoot through the mountains to escape the Greek Civil War in 1948.

A Perfect Stone is a sweeping tale of survival, loss and love.

A Perfect Stone will be available 10 October 2018

Visit Author Website

New Release Book Review: The Thief of Light by Bernard Schaffer

The Thief of Light…
About the Book:

‘It was one thing to fantasize about evil, to reach into the darkness and play with it a little . . .’

Rookie cop Carrie Santero has always been fascinated by serial killers. As a teenager, she wrote a letter to Charles Manson in prison – and received a chilling reply. Then she came face to face with a child murderer in her small Pennsylvania town. Now, she finally has her chance to make a difference. To hunt down a psychopath who embodies the very nature of evil itself…

‘… But it was something different when it knew your name.’

The perpetrator draws inspiration from the most twisted minds in modern crime. Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. The Green River Killer. Soon Carrie and her boss, Chief Bill Waylon, realise they’re dealing with an unpredictable ‘omnikiller’ who cannot be profiled. Their only hope is to enlist the help of Jacob Rein, a brilliant but tarnished former detective who has plumbed the darkest recesses of the soul. And whose insights on evil could lead Carrie to the point of no return…

My Thoughts:

Police procedural crime thrillers are my favourite within the crime genre, their gritty authenticity elevating them far above the growing body of domestic noir thrillers that are saturating the market at present. The Thief of Light is top shelf crime fiction, a sophisticated combination of police procedural with psychological thriller. The author, Bernard Schaffer, is a police detective himself, and this shows in the realistic edge that permeates the entire narrative. Some things you just can’t replicate with research.

‘See, to get a confession sometimes means putting the well-being of the victims over your own mental health. Jacob used to always say that it felt like he was unlocking areas of his mind that weren’t meant to be unlocked. Going places that you never come all the way back from. A kind of darkness, was how he put it.’

Rookie cop and budding detective Carrie Santero, along with Chief Bill Waylon and his former partner, disgraced former detective Jacob Rein, are the main characters within this novel. I liked how Bernard spent time developing each of them, humanising them and exploring their inner motivations. It wasn’t all about the crime and solving it in this novel. Carrie is on the way into her career, Bill is on the way out, and Jacob gave it up; but for this case, hunting down an ‘omnikiller’, they are all on the same page. And this killer is frightening, diabolical and unstoppable. He is obscene in his violence and there is nothing he won’t match from his list of historical serial killers he is intent on copying.

‘For years, profilers have had a theory about a different type of offender. A chameleon, with no form. No pattern. No one’s ever been able to confirm their existence, because how could you? You’d have such a wide mix of victims from such a large area, all taken or murdered in such various methods, that it would never track. As far as anyone can prove, it’s just a theory.’

At times brutal, this novel digs deep into the personal sacrifices those in law enforcement make each time they do their job. The things they see, the people they interview, the cases they never solve, the people that remain missing, the ones they do find, alive or dead; the sheer trauma of living with the knowledge of how debased humans can become. It’s not light reading, but it’s good reading. Bernard writes beautifully, at times with a poetic flow that is rare in crime fiction. And he has a cracking sense of humour which served to punctuate the more heavy moments, balancing the narrative with the finesse of a seasoned writer.

‘Rein looked down at Carrie. She’d found him in the wasteland. He’d been wandering the barren desert of his own life for years until she’d convinced Bill Waylon to come for him. In return, he’d escorted her to the brink of the void, watching as she accepted it and let it crawl within her. Soon, it would begin to dissolve her own light.’

I am so pleased that The Thief of Light is the beginning of a new crime series because I enjoyed the dynamics between these three so much. I feel like there are big things on the horizon for Carrie’s career and Jacob is just too much of an incredible detective to simply fade away once more. I loved how Jacob couldn’t help but mentor Carrie from the outset. And that ending! Not quite a cliff-hanger but it certainly left me with a craving for more.

Behind the Pen with Stuart Coupe

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Welcome once again to Behind the Pen. Today my guest is Stuart Coupe, author of the newly released book, Roadies.

What made you decide to write a book about roadies? Is this a project you’ve been nurturing for some time?

I first heard about the Australian Road Crew Association (ARCA) two years ago as I was finishing my book on Michael Gudinski. It was explained to me that there was a reason beyond roadies reconnecting and that was that it was an attempt to curb the extremely alarming suicide rate and other mental heath issues amongst Australian road crew. That led me to what to find out more about these people and their lifestyles. Two years later here I am.

Out of all of the stories you must have heard while writing this book, do you have an overall favourite roadie story that tops the lot?

Probably Kerry Cunningham’s hysterical yarn about how he and another roadie used to ‘steal’ Bon Scott’s motorbike in the early days of AC/DC as they realised quickly that Bon, booze and bikes were a bad combination. All they did was hide it behind some PA gear in a garage for a few weeks whilst he went on tour. On the fifth time this happened Bon said “you’re not going to believe it but the bike’s been stolen again – but I’m not worried because you guys know everyone and I’m sure you’ll get it back again for me.” He had no idea they were the ones pinching it.

Anything truly outrageous that didn’t make it into the book?

Not so much outrageous but a few names were changed to protect the guilty. And there are a couple of stories that I was asked not to put in the book – great, great stories but when I asked why the roadies said “we trust you and you now know these things – but it’s important that there are some stories that only roadies know.” So I felt honoured to be let into these yarns – and of course respected the request from the roadies.

How did you go about compiling the stories and piecing it all together? Was it a case of talking with roadies you already know and going from there or did you have to do a shout for more stories?

I didn’t know many roadies so I reached out to some of the road crew legends and some industry figures known to be pro road crew. I let them guide me and in the end I interviewed about 50 out of a possible couple of thousand. Once I had the trust and stamp of being OK from the older legends everyone else was prepared to talk with me – and candidly as they would amongst themselves.

To me, being a roadie seems like a lot of hard work, despite the perks of hanging out with musicians. Did there seem to be a common theme at all in the reasons why a person becomes a roadie?

They are unique individuals who are almost drawn to this world. It’s a bit like a contemporary version of running away to join the circus. They don’t fit into a 9 – 5 world. They’re lateral thinking problem solvers who need to be highly skilled, incredibly adaptive, able to work under extreme pressure – and not all that fond of or requiring sleep!

I can’t help but wonder, are roadies truly appreciated by the artists they are supporting? Is there a standard lifespan to the job in terms of how long a roadie tends to travel around before moving on and out of being a roadie?

Some bands and artists treat their crews extremely well – others not so well. There are Australian crew who started as teenagers who are still working at 70 years of age. And at a very high level. For most I think 10 – 20 years is tops. Physically the body can’t take it, many want to finally settle down, and the work wears them down. But there are a lot of lifers in the road crew world.

If you could be a roadie for one show, for any artist of your choosing, who would you pick?

That’s a hard and good question – lazy me would pick someone who has little equipment and a very basic set up! Fan me would pick Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – or Elvis Presley if I could go back in time.

What was the highlight for you with writing this book?

There were many – meeting Tana Douglas, the world’s first female roadie who mixed sound for AC/DC when she was 16/17 was one. Hanging out and becoming friends with the godfather of Australian roadies, Howard Freeman, was another. And ultimately the highlight is seeing the impact that this book is already having on these massively underappreciated people has made all the work totally worthwhile.

Roadies

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This is your backstage pass to the hidden side of the music industry – the tantrums, the fights, the tensions, the indulgence, the sex, the alcohol, the drugs. The roadies see it all, and now they are sharing their secrets.

Roadies are the unsung heroes of the Australian music industry. They unload the PAs and equipment, they set it all up, they make sure everything is running smoothly before, during and after the gigs. Then they pack everything up in the middle of the night, put it in the back of the truck and hit the road to another town – to do it all over again.

They know everything about the pre- and post-show excesses. They bear witness to overdoses, the groupies, the obsessive fans. They are part of – and often organise – all the craziness that goes on behind the scenes of the concerts and pub gigs you go to. From The Rolling Stones to AC/DC, Bob Marley to Courtney Love, Sherbet to The Ted Mulry Gang, INXS to Blondie – the roadies have seen it all. And now they’re stepping onto the stage and talking.

The Roadies’ Creed: If it’s wet, drink it. If it’s dry, smoke it. If it moves, **** it. If it doesn’t move, throw it in the back of the truck.

Roadies – the Secret History of Australian Rock’n’Roll, by Stuart Coupe, published by Hachette Australia. Out now. RRP $32.99

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Stuart Coupe is an author, music commentator, independent artist publicist and radio broadcaster who has been involved with music all his life. Amongst the books he has written, edited or collaborated on are The New Music (1980), The New Rock ‘n’ Roll (1983), The Promoters (2003), Gudinski (2015) and Tex (2017).

My Reading Life: Spring Reading Challenge Wrap Up

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Well I’ve reached the end of my two week Spring break reading challenge. Did I stick to the rules?

I watched no TV. Tick on that one!

In terms of only reading review books, out of the ten books I read, one was not a review book. What?!!! I know, but I have a good excuse. It was for bookclub, and I’d left it until the last minute. Theoretically, it was a ‘set’ book, in that I was reading it to review with my bookclub, so let’s just leave that as a grey area. The other part of this was my aim to read some of the review books that have been sent to me directly from authors. I failed on this one, miserably. Not one of the ten books was one of these. I really think I need an extra week of holidays!

All in all, this was a nice little challenge to set, and the avoidance of tv really did make a dent in my review pile. Plus, I don’t feel like I wasted the holidays.

Tomorrow I go back to work and juggling a million things at once…nine weeks until the holidays. You bet I’m counting!

Bingo! The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

It’s bingo Saturday once again – that rolled around fast! The square I’ve filled for this entry is:

A book with a mystery

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Mystery threads itself right the way through this novel so it seemed like the obvious choice for this bingo square. While I read some crime fiction on occasion, mystery has never factored hugely in my reading life. It usually comes to me by way of another genre, as is the case here, via historical fiction.

The Clockmaker’s Daughter is at a whole new level of storytelling, even for Kate. It is a magnificent novel. There are so many words I could use, but then I would just be drivelling, and no one wants that. Kate’s normal mode of storytelling is to use a dual timeline, one voice set in the past, another in the more modern day. With The Clockmaker’s Daughter, she has surpassed this style of dual timeline in favour of using multiple voices, spread over multiple eras; a collection of stories within a story, with a four hundred year old house and a mystery as the connecting web between each person. It’s ambitious, epic in scope, and one of the best novels I have ever read.

Read my full review here

This year I’m playing book bingo with Mrs B’s Book Reviews. On the first and third Saturday of each month, we’ll post our latest entry. We’re not telling each other in advance what we’re currently reading or what square we’ll be filling next; any coincidences are exactly that – and just add to the fun!

Follow our card below if you’d like to join in, and please let us know if you do so we can check out what you’re reading.

Now I’m off to check out what square Mrs B has marked off for this round. See you over there!

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Book Review: The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly

The Year that Changed Everything…
About the Book:

Three women, three birthdays, one year that will change everything…

Ginger isn’t spending her thirtieth the way she would have planned. Tonight might be the first night of the rest of her life – or a total disaster.

Sam is finally pregnant after years of trying. When her waters break on the morning of her fortieth birthday, she panics: forget labour, how is she going to be a mother?

Callie is celebrating her fiftieth at a big party in her Dublin home. Then a knock at the door mid-party changes everything.

My Thoughts:

It’s been a very long time between Cathy Kelly’s for me and I have no explanation for this. I loved her novels and read them voraciously in my late twenties and early thirties. Not sure why I stopped, but when my bookclub suggested her latest, The Year that Changed Everything, here at last was a reason for me to get back in touch with the words of Cathy Kelly. And it was a warm and wonderful return.

The Year that Changed Everything follows three women who share the same birthday and are aged 10 years apart, Callie 50, Sam 40, and Ginger 30. These women don’t know each other for the majority of the novel, but their lives intersect towards the end in a fateful moment that bonds them. Each of the women’s lives change on their milestone birthday and the ripple effect of this sets their year in motion, with each of them forging a new path and learning so much about themselves along the way.

The Year that Changed Everything has all of Cathy’s trademark warmth and humour, along with all of the feels that come with the big moments. This is life-lit, the new catchy term for what used to be dubbed women’s fiction, at its best. With three distinct voices to carry you through the novel, you’ll find this one to be a comfortable and entertaining read, testimony as to why Cathy Kelly is still one our favourite storytellers.

New Release Book Review: The Children’s House by Alice Nelson

The Children’s House…
About the Book:

A love song to the idea of families in all their mysteries and complexities, their different configurations and the hope that creates them.

Marina and her husband, Jacob, were each born on a kibbutz in Israel. They meet years later at a university in California, when Jacob is a successful psychiatrist with a young son, Ben, from a disastrous marriage. The family moves to a brownstone in Harlem, formerly a convent inhabited by elderly nuns.

Outside the house one day Marina encounters Constance, a young refugee from Rwanda, and her toddler, Gabriel. Unmoored and devastated, Constance and Gabriel quickly come to depend on Marina; and her bond with the little boy intensifies. The pure, blinding love that it is possible to feel for children not our own is the thread that weaves through The Children’s House.

When Marina learns some disturbing news about her long-disappeared mother, Gizela, she leaves New York in search of the loose ends of her life. As Christmas nears, her tight-knit, loving family, along with Constance and Gabriel, join Marina in her mother’s former home, with a startling consequence, an act that will transform all of their lives forever.

Alice Nelson skilfully weaves together these shared stories about the terrible things humans are capable of into a beautifully told, hope-filled novel exploring the profound consolations that we can find in each other.

My Thoughts:

The Children’s House is a stunning novel, deeply moving and exquisitely written. Character driven, it is highly accessible literary fiction, a study in displacement and the lasting effects of severe trauma. The title of the novel refers to the place in an Israeli kibbutz where children live, so called, the Children’s House. Newborns are delivered there, from the time their mothers are released from hospital after giving birth, expected to live there with only one hour per day set aside for visiting with their parents. Siblings, if they are of the opposite sex, are separated. The idea is that the children belong to the nation, not their parents, and they can only grow into strong Jewish people for Israel if they are raised communally in the Children’s House. Marina, the main character in this novel, was born in a kibbutz, and along with her brother, spent her formative years in the Children’s House. The effects on her inform much of this novel, but it is the dysfunctional relationship she and her brother had with their mother after leaving the kibbutz that truly sets the stage.

‘It was not the way of the kibbutz. It was done for the sake of the children and the country. They were Sabras and they needed to be strong. None of this clinginess and fear. Even as a child, it had sounded like propaganda to Marina. A rehearsed socialist narrative. It was hard for her to imagine such a pragmatic coldness. But everyone on the kibbutz had come out of Europe. They had all been wrenched from the known world, where mothers tended their children and ordinary intimacies were possible. Perhaps their ability to love their children in the old ways had been scoured out of them, along with everything else.’

Gizela, Marina’s mother, had a devastating effect on her children. She was entirely disengaged, not just with them, but with life itself. She walked out of their life when Marina was seventeen, the day that Dov, Marina’s brother, committed suicide. This was no coincidence. The author skilfully explores the impact of the Holocaust on Gizela, specifically her displacement from Prague, a place wiped from existence and refashioned by the Soviets after the war. This was compounded by her exile from the kibbutz when her husband was killed, effectively displacing her once again. To me, Gizela was a husk of a person, moving through life like a shadow. The inter-generational effect of this was profound.

‘Dov believed it was the Children’s House which had made it impossible for Gizela to love them. That if she had cared for her own babies, had held them and fed them and rocked them to sleep, she would have loved them. Proximity, Dov believed, would have made things different…

…Marina thought of Constance. As far as she knew, Gabriel had been with her from the very beginning. She knew the sound of his cries, the weight of him against her back, the smell of his skin. And this had made no difference.’

Everything we learn about Marina, her mother, and her brother, is through reflection. Despite having her life in order, the dysfunction has had a lasting effect on Marina and weighs heavily. Much of it is triggered when she meets Constance, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. She and her toddler son, Gabriel, are refugees. Marina meets them by accident, but becomes a part of their life with intent. There are strong parallels drawn between Constance and Gisela, as well as between Marina and Gabriel. Constance is an apathetic mother, disengaged with her son, and with everything around her. Just as Gizela moved through life as a shadow, so too does Constance. Marina is overcome with an urge to help Constance, but the more involved she becomes, the less it is about Constance and the more it is about Gabriel. In short, she falls in love with him; with his need for love. She recognises herself in him, sees herself as his saviour. With a now grown step-son, but no children of her own, Gabriel fills a void she is still young enough to feel.

‘She had heard Jacob speak once about the kind of foraging practised by orphans, or by the children of neglectful or abusive parents. Not for food or shelter, but for affection. For some scrap of sustaining emotion, some recognition. Small kindnesses they could make use of to right themselves in the world. She had done it herself, she realised.’

I loved Marina, I really did. She had such a terribly tragic time of it, and yet she set out with intent and made something worthwhile of her life, married a wonderful man, became a terrific step-mother. Successful in her career as an academic, despite doubting her skill as a teacher, she had my full admiration. I could completely understand the pull she felt when it came to Gabriel. The urge to protect, to nurture, to raise up and provide every opportunity for success. The urge to save a child as you had not been saved yourself. Marina was surrounded by her husband’s family, a collection of truly beautiful people. Her mother-in-law Rose was the polar opposite of Gizela. She and her husband had also lived on a kibbutz, but upon the birth of her child, Jacob (Marina’s husband), she fled, unable to contemplate handing her child over to the Children’s House. Rose was so giving, her heart so big and welcoming, as was Leah, her daughter. It was just so lovely to experience a character whose in-laws were wonderful, as opposed to irritating and overbearing, a common depiction.

Displacement is a key theme in this novel, not just for Gizela and Constance, but also for the order of nuns who sold the brownstone to Jacob and Marina. I loved how their experiences were woven into the story, but I’m not going to give anything away about that. Best you discover their reasons for being in the story for yourself. What struck my heart with this novel is how extreme trauma can break people, shatter them beyond repair. Some things can never be recovered. So it was for Constance, who loved her son, but had no ability to feel it, to act upon it. And so it was for Gizela too. It’s desperately sad, the things humans do to each other, how far-reaching trauma is, rippling down the generations, fracturing relationships beyond repair.

The Children’s House is beautifully written, with exquisite depth of feeling, vividly wrought. I loved this novel so much, became so invested in Marina’s life. I felt her tragedy and triumph keenly, I could relate to her on so many levels. This novel is not to be overlooked. Savour it, linger over the prose, immerse yourself in Marina’s life.

‘Impossible to fathom any of it. The distant sound of voices in the courtyard, the faraway hum of traffic, the catch and drip of the rain against the glass, the cooling cup of tea in front of her: the whole episode seemed suspended, out of time. She didn’t know how long she sat at her desk after she read the letter, her hands clasped around the mug on her desk to keep them from shaking, the tight twist of fear in her stomach. She laid her head down on the desk and closed her eyes.’

New Release Book Review: A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

A Spark of Light…
About the Book:

When Vonita opened the doors of the Center that morning, she had no idea that it would be for the last time.

Wren has missed school to come to the Center, the sole surviving women’s reproductive health clinic in the state, chaperoned by her aunt, Bex. Olive told Peg she was just coming for a check-up. Janine is undercover, a pro-life protester disguised as a patient. Joy needs to terminate her pregnancy. Louie is there to perform a service for these women, not in spite of his faith, but because of it.

When a desperate and distraught gunman bursts into the Center, opening fire and taking everyone hostage, Hugh McElroy is the police negotiator called to the scene. He has no idea that his fifteen-year-old daughter is inside.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Jodi Picoult – one of the most fearless writers of our time – tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation … and, hopefully, understanding.

My Thoughts:

Jodi Picoult returns with her trademark ferocity, this time tackling the issue of reproductive rights in her latest novel, A Spark of Light. She is of course a writer who has never shied away from the big issues, and while it’s very clear from her author note which side of the fence Jodi sits on with regards to this issue, I do think she does an excellent job of presenting a holistic view through her narrative. This novel has more been written with the intent to inform rather than persuade. I actually read the author note before I began the novel (quirk alert – I always do this) and I recommend all readers do the same. It offers perspective and context on what is undoubtedly a sensitive topic.

‘There is a moment when you realise that no matter how well you plan, how carefully you organise, you are at the mercy of chaos. It’s way time slows the moment before the drunk driver crosses the median line and ploughs into your vehicle. It’s the seconds that tick by between when the doctor invites you to take a seat, and when she gives you bad news. It’s the stutter of your pulse when you see another man’s car in the driveway of your house in the middle of the day. Hugh looked down at the home screen of his phone and felt the electric shiver of intuition: he knew. He just knew.’

Jodi writes as wonderfully as always in this novel, striking at the heart of each character and drawing them out in pieces for us. We are privy to the thoughts of all the major players from the gunman through to the hostage negotiator, with all of the hostages in between. I struggled with this novel though, in a way I never have with any of Jodi Picoult’s other titles. The problem for me was in the narrative structure. The story is told backwards, in one hour blocks, from 5pm back through to 8am, with the epilogue springing us forward in time to the end of the stand off at 6pm. It didn’t work for me. At about the halfway mark, I began to feel pulled out of the story when each new hour started. I understand why this structure was used, giving us the opportunity to get to know each of the character’s stories, the reasons why each of them was in that place at that time, but I do feel the story building and narrative flow was sacrificed for this technique of character development. I almost wish that I had read the novel backwards once I realised this was the structure, as I would then have been reading the story in a chronological fashion. Maybe one day I’ll do this and then decide which way worked better for me.

A Spark of Light should come with a sensitivity warning. While it’s a no-brainer that a novel about abortion is going to raise flags and press buttons for some readers, it was the graphic description of an abortion on a fifteen week foetus that I could have done without. I’m not that feint hearted, but once you’ve read something that is described as meticulously as this, it’s impossible to un-see it after. I don’t think I really needed to know the ins and outs quite the way I do now in order to have gotten the overall message of the novel.

A Spark of Light addresses a serious issue in a serious manner. It’s heavy reading, but all of Jodi Picoult’s novels usually are. Fans will read this novel simply because it’s Jodi and we’ve been waiting two years for it. I’ll still read her next one, regardless of my feelings about this one, simply because it’s Jodi and I’ll likely be waiting two years for it. There was a lot of stuff going on in this novel that made me angry, not at Jodi, but at society, the fanatics and the law makers. This is what Jodi does best, gets you thinking, gets you disassembling and reassessing. It’s why I love her novels, no matter what the issue at hand. Despite the structure, despite the content in places, this is a fine novel, thought provoking and multi-focused in its purpose. It is above all, a novel intent on inspiring conversation and instilling understanding.

New Release Book Review: The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke

The Boneless Mercies…
About the Book:

They called us the Mercies, or sometimes the Boneless Mercies. They said we were shadows, ghosts, and if you touched our skin we dissolved into smoke …

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are Boneless Mercies – death-traders, hired to kill quickly, quietly and mercifully. It is a job for women, and women only. Men will not do this sad, dark work.

Frey has no family, no home, no fortune, and yet her blood sings a song of glory. So when she hears of a monster slaughtering men, women, and children in a northern jarldom, she decides this is the Mercies’ one chance to change their fate.

But glory comes at a price …

An epic YA fantasy set in a breathtaking new world, this is perfect for fans of V.E.Schwab, Leigh Bardugo, Laini Taylor and Melinda Salisbury.

My Thoughts:

‘Whatever I did next, the Mercies had my back. To the end. Loyalty like this was a rare thing, beautiful and pure.’

It’s been a long time between YA fantasy treks for me but what a fabulous novel to return to this genre with. The Boneless Mercies reads like a quest, full of danger and adventure, as four young women set themselves on a new path to determine their fate. This is a novel that celebrates female empowerment with a high value placed on friendship and loyalty. To me, the fantasy world was Viking inspired yet entirely unique, the story punctuated with wonderfully original mythic legends that wove neatly into the narrative. The Boneless Mercies is a clever novel, refreshingly unconcerned with romance and teenage angst. These young women are warriors, loyal to each other, with a strong belief in the afterlife and the legends of their world. They lift each other up and work together and they don’t defer to men, nor do they rely on them. Celebrating the strength of female friendships and highlighting the importance of female independence, The Boneless Mercies ticks all the right boxes for me. Highly recommended.

‘Belonging. This Great Hall, for all its grand tree and soaring ceiling and intricately carved pillars…It was a home. A community. The burden of being lone Mercies, of being wanderers and outsiders…I hadn’t realised the toll it had taken, until now. We’d been greeted as warriors here, in the truest sense. Roth’s household had put its fear and sadness on hold for the night and stripped its cellars bare to welcome us with food and song in the way of the sagas. Despite the lean year, despite the sorrow. A bold, glorious welcome…Before we fought the beast and died like all the others. It was the least they could do. It was everything.’