Theresa Smith's Blog, page 141
March 13, 2018
Behind the Pen with Amy Rose Bennett
Today I welcome Amy Rose Bennett to Behind the Pen, talking about her new release, The Laird of Blackloch, along with a few of her favourites. Over to you Amy!
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What is your favourite…and why…
Character from one of your books?
I really wish I didn’t have to choose because I love all my heroes and heroines. But if I do have to pick one, I’ll elect Sarah Lambert, the heroine from my latest release, The Laird of Blackloch. Sarah, a twenty-one-year-old English heiress, is kidnapped and ransomed by the Scots Jacobite hero, Alexander MacIvor to ruin the Earl of Tay. Lord Tay, who is Alex’s nemesis, also just happens to be Sarah’s fiancé. Whilst Sarah is a kidnap victim, she certainly doesn’t sit back and accept her fate. I loved writing a female character who gives the hero, Alex, a run for his money.
Scene from one of your books?
I always enjoy writing the ‘first meet’ scene between the hero and heroine; there’s always the challenge of creating that first spark of attraction. I’m particularly fond of Alexander MacIvor and Sarah Lambert’s ‘meet-cute’ scene in The Laird of Blackloch. It takes place at a Saint Valentine’s masquerade ball in Edinburgh…
‘Looking for something?’
Sarah jumped like a startled rabbit and dropped the book at the unexpected question—spoken by a man. Her pulse skittering, she whirled around to find her mystery stalker from the ballroom standing only a few feet away.
Before she could even think or utter a word, he stepped forward and retrieved the book from the rug near her feet.
‘Ah, Clarissa,’ he said in a soft Scottish burr, offering her the leather-bound volume with a smile. ‘I’ve been told it is quite a good read if one likes weighty tomes about virtuous maidens. And then, of course, there is Pamela.’ He nodded towards the shelves behind her. ‘Although I hear it is a little more scandalous. I suppose it depends on what sort of mood you are in.’ His deep, smoky voice was just as potent as his gaze, his words heavy with secret meaning. It was as though he’d uttered a jest that she didn’t quite understand.
Sarah took the book with a shaking hand and held it against her chest. Now the man was closer, she could see his eyes were dark too—storm-cloud grey fringed with long sooty lashes that would make any woman green with envy. And he was much taller and more physically imposing than she’d previously thought. His black velvet frockcoat and brocade waistcoat were perfectly tailored to show off his muscular frame, and the snug fit of his black silk breeches did nothing to hide his long powerful thighs. Indeed, his masculine presence seemed to dominate the room. And to her great shame, despite her suspicions that this man was up to no good, she couldn’t look away. He was, in a word, mesmerising.
‘Wh-who are you? What do you want?’ she managed to stammer when she found her voice.
He shrugged and his chiselled mouth tipped into a half-smile as he leaned a wide shoulder nonchalantly against the bookcase. ‘I thought it was rather obvious, my dear Miss Lambert,’ he drawled as he slid a book from the shelf then flipped through its pages. ‘Like you, I thought I’d seek another diversion.’ He grimaced and put the book back before catching her gaze again, regarding her from beneath half-lowered lids. It was a sensual look, lazy but watchful at the same time. The look of a predator feigning disinterest, right before it pounced. ‘These affairs can be frightfully boring sometimes, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘How … how do you know my name?’ she asked, breathless with nerves. The stranger was standing much too close but she couldn’t seem to summon the urge to step away. Her cheeks felt hot and she had the awful feeling she was blushing.
The man’s mask didn’t hide the amused quirk of one slashing black brow. ‘Why, I was in the ballroom when you and your affianced were formally introduced. Lord Tay is a lucky man.’
Good. He knew who she was betrothed to. That should provide her with some measure of protection. Only a fool would cross a nobleman of Malcolm’s stature. Sarah felt some of the tension leave her body. ‘Thank you,’ she replied with an incline of her head. ‘Which reminds me, I should be getting back to my aunt.’ She picked up her discarded mask from the shelf. ‘She’s expecting me. And so is Lord Tay.’
The stranger smiled as he gave a small bow. ‘I’m sure he is, so don’t let me keep you. Good evening to you, Miss Lambert.’
‘Good evening.’ With her mask and Clarissa in hand, Sarah turned and left the library. Even though she didn’t look back, she swore she could feel the enigmatic stranger’s eyes upon her. It was only as the door shut behind her that she realised he’d never actually given her his name.
Movie of all time?
I write historical romance so of course, Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen, is an obvious choice. Aside from the wit and romance, I just love Mr. Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy. Whilst Darcy is undoubtedly arrogant, Mr. Macfadyen manages to show his vulnerable side which I find very appealing. I swoon every time I watch that movie.
Book that you always keep a copy of and recommend to others?
This is another really difficult question as I adore so many books! But if I had to choose one, it would be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë—I think that book was the catalyst for me to become an author of historical romance. I love Jane’s strength, the Byronesque Mr. Rochester and his teasing nature, the passion of their relationship, the social commentary, and the gothic elements of the story.
Fashion accessory that despite having plenty of, you still keep collecting?
Scarves! I’m addicted to them. My favourite is a classic Burberry scarf that I purchased from Harrods on my first visit to London a few years ago.
Drink that you enjoy everyday?
Coffee and probably a little too much!
Treat you indulge in?
French champagne. Veuve Clicquot is my favourite when it comes to celebrating special occasions.
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Place to be?
Aside from being at home and writing on my trusty laptop, my favorite place to be is Magnetic Island off the coast of Townsville. Out family has had many a happy holiday there.
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Person you admire?
JK Rowling and not just because she’s a brilliant author. I love how strong and intelligent she is, I admire her support of philanthropic endeavours, and I identify with many of her world views.
Season of the year?
Autumn. I love the cooler months and there’s something about the sight of autumn leaves that really appeals to me. My birthday is in autumn so maybe that has something to do with it too.
The Laird of Blackloch, Book 2 in the Highland Rogue Series by Amy Rose Bennett will be released with Harlequin’s Escape Publishing on March 12, 2018!
[image error]Revenge might be sweet, but love is far sweeter …
Following the Battle of Culloden, Alexander MacIvor returns to his ancestral home, Blackloch Castle, only to find the Earl of Tay, chief of the rival Clan Campbell, has laid waste to everything he holds dear. In the face of such devastation, Alex seems doomed to live the life of a fugitive Jacobite … until a stroke of good luck allows him to escape the Highlands and begin again.
Years later, styling himself as a wealthy Englishman, Alexander reclaims his forfeited estate, becoming the new Laird of Blackloch. But it’s not nearly enough to quench his thirst for vengeance. Hell-bent on destroying Lord Tay, he single-mindedly sets about driving his nemesis to bankruptcy. When he learns the earl intends to marry the very beautiful English heiress, Miss Sarah Lambert, thus escaping penury, he devises a devious plan: kidnap Miss Lambert and ransom her to hasten Tay’s ruin.
When Sarah Lambert learns Lord Tay is not the man she thought he was during a masquerade ball in Edinburgh, she is devastated. Reeling from her discovery, things go from bad to worse when a mysterious yet charming guest by the name of Alexander Black turns out to be a true devil in disguise. Abducted and whisked way into the wild Highlands by Black, Sarah is imprisoned in a remote, island-bound tower. Refusing to be a pawn in Black’s diabolical plan for revenge, she determines that somehow, some way, she will regain her freedom. If only she could unlock Black’s secrets …
Living in such close quarters, Alexander quickly discovers the spirited Sarah is more than a match for him, and even the best laid plans can go awry when passion flares and the spark of love threatens to revive his long-dead heart. When the shadows of the past begin to gather, will Alexander and Sarah find their way forward … or will the threatening darkness destroy them both?
Buy The Laird of Blackloch:
Amazon
iBooks
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
About Amy:
Amy Rose Bennett has always wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. An avid reader with a particular love for historical romance, it seemed only natural to write stories in her favorite genre. She has a passion for creating emotion-packed—and sometimes a little racy—stories set in the Georgian and Regency periods. Of course, her strong-willed heroines and rakish heroes always find their happily ever after.
Amy is happily married to her own Alpha male hero, has two beautiful daughters, and a rather loopy Rhodesian Ridgeback. She has been a speech pathologist for many years but is currently devoting her time to her one other true calling—writing romance.
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March 12, 2018
New Release Book Review: The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch
About the Book:
In the near future, world wars have transformed the earth into a battleground. Fleeing the unending violence and the planet’s now-radioactive surface, humans have regrouped to a mysterious platform known as CIEL, hovering over their erstwhile home. The changed world has turned evolution on its head: the surviving humans have become sexless, hairless pale-white creatures floating in isolation, inscribing stories upon their skin.
Out of the ranks of the endless wars rises Jean de Men, a charismatic and bloodthirsty cult leader who turns CIEL into a quasi-corporate police state. A group of rebels unite to dismantle his iron rule—galvanized by the heroic song of Joan, a child-warrior who possesses a mysterious force that lives within her and communes with the earth. When de Men and his armies turn Joan into a martyr, the consequences are astonishing. And no one—not the rebels, Jean de Men, or even Joan herself—can foresee the way her story and unique gift will forge the destiny of an entire world for generations.
A riveting tale of destruction and love found in direst of places—even at the extreme end of post-human experience—Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Book of Joan raises questions about what it means to be human, the fluidity of sex and gender, and the role of art as means for survival.
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My Thoughts:
Speculative fiction is not a genre that I have a firm relationship with. I find it very hit and miss, but every so often I like to challenge myself, break out of my reading norms, and there really is nothing like a spec fic novel for doing this.
The Joan of Arc aspect of The Book of Joan intrigued me, and I have to say, Lidia Yuknavitch has pulled this off incredibly well. This young eco-terrorist with supernatural powers connecting her with the earth was quite a character, no easy feat for an author to create and sustain. And it was the parts featuring Joan that I enjoyed most about this novel. They were more accessible for me in terms of imagination and they also provided a lot of clarity on the futuristic scenes. These parts about Joan were more dystopian, rather than science fiction, which would account for my inclination towards them. I don’t mind a bit of dystopian but I always struggle to wrap my head around science fiction.
It was quite a challenge to envisage Lidia’s futuristic humans in terms of physical appearance, and yet I could still see it, if that makes any sense. I’m just not too sure if I was seeing it right! Lidia is very good at creating strong visual imagery and quite complex descriptions were broken down into manageable visual chunks, which I very much appreciated, given my limited science fiction imagination. There seemed to be so much focus on genitalia and sex, too much so, and it got to the point where I was skimming these futuristic scenes because they became rather repetitive. In some ways I can see where Lidia was going with this. The concept of gender becoming fluid, thus neutralising conflict with sexual origins and creating a level playing field. And the loss of reproduction; it’s greater implications. I think. Because that’s the thing with this novel. I was never really sure if I was interpreting everything as it was intended. Maybe that’s the point too, that it’s all open to interpretation and reflection. One thing in particular I really liked was the notion of art as resistance. When stripped of everything and neutralised, I was very taken with the idea that a person would graft words and images onto their self by means of expression and resistance. A small measure of control over one’s own self taken back.
The core message of this novel is clear. The world has an expiry date. As humans, we are the major players in the setting of this date. The Book of Joan is a cautionary tale, and as is the way with most dystopian fiction, it’s a view of the present plus a few decades through a different prism. Even after destroying the earth and making it uninhabitable, humans set themselves up in space and siphon the remaining resources from earth up into CIEL via skylines. The mutated children left on earth are captured and converted into fossil fuels. Humans devolve and regress, begin eating each other and survival truly is left to only the fittest – or the richest – before eventually all emerging as blank slates, stripped of their reproductive capabilities and all of the usual physical characteristics that previously provided human differentiation. Faced with imminent extinction, a mad grab for reproduction ensues, women being experimented on, eviserated, their bodies intended purely for breeding a new race. It’s horrifying but also with shades of brilliance. The vision displayed by Lidia Yuknavitch within the Book of Joan is quite extraordinary. There are parts I fully appreciated and parts I could have done without, but overall, it’s an impressive read. Challenging, most definitely, but worth it in the end.
Thanks is extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of The Book of Joan for review.
About the Author:
[image error]Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the National Bestselling novels The Book of Joan and The Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Award’s Ken Kesey Award for Fiction as well as the Reader’s Choice Award, and the novel Dora: A Headcase, Her widely acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water was a finalist for a PEN Center USA award for creative nonfiction and winner of a PNBA Award and the Oregon Book Award Reader’s Choice. Her nonfiction book based on her TED Talk, The Misfit’s Manifesto, is forthcoming from TED Books.
She founded the workshop series Corporeal Writing in Portland Oregon, where she teaches both in person and online. She received her doctorate in Literature from the University of Oregon. She lives in Oregon with her husband Andy Mingo and their renaissance man son, Miles. She is a very good swimmer.
March 11, 2018
Book Review: The Red Door by Rosa Fedele
About the Book:
What would you do if you began to suspect one of your tenants could be the perpetrator of a vicious double murder committed over thirty years ago?
It is 1983 and the new owner of the beautiful old Sydney mansion ‘Rosalind’ begins to believe she is being watched by the mysterious resident in Number Three, a reclusive man who happens to share his name with two teenage sisters, victims of a sinister and brutal murder. Her peace of mind slowly erodes as a fascination with the unsolved crime becomes obsession – consuming her life, shaking relationships with her newfound friends and leaving a trail of devastation.
This is a spellbinding tale, as much a mystery novel with an immigrant’s tragedy woven into its centre, as a portrait of women who carry dark secrets but also persevere through the strength of friendship.
The Red Door will take hold of your imagination and never let go.
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My Thoughts:
The Red Door was an intriguing novel, a gothic mystery set in Sydney during the 1980s. I found myself gripped by this novel, utterly immersed into the world of ‘Rosalind’ and the people who lived in and around it.
There are a lot of things going on within this story and a lot of character perspectives to follow; you need to read closely and pay careful attention as the change in perspectives are not labelled and they occur frequently. There’s also a lot of ambiguity; a fair few people with secrets and unsavoury habits that are hinted at but not fully disclosed until crucial moments. Overall, this heightens the dread and suspense, and it also leads the reader on a merry dance in the wrong direction – more than once. There were a few times where I felt sure I knew where the story was headed, only to have to rug pulled out from under me. The sophistication of all of these plot lines weaving together in the end was quite remarkable and I really did enjoy seeing how it all panned out.
There’s a realistic edge to this story that cuts deep. Not everyone gets a happy ending, indeed, for many characters, there are grim tidings ahead, much like life itself. This kept the story real for me, establishing the issues Rosa tackled within the serious framework they were intended for. If I have one criticism, it’s that throughout the entire novel, I had no idea of the name of our protagonist. No one ever referred to her by name when they said hello, talked to her, or thought about her. It wasn’t until the last pages when we read a letter addressed to her that we find out her name. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but it did put up a barrier to my connection with her. I like to know who I’m championing.
One of the very best features of this novel was the original artwork set throughout at key points. Rosa paints beautifully and I loved seeing her words come to life in these original illustrations. I have included two of my favourites so you can get a sense of the style and mystery Rosa employs:
All in all, I enjoyed The Red Door very much. I must have looked quite comical reading it at times, with my shocked face at all of the twists. The resolution is fairly open ended, not enough for a sequel, but certainly enough to leave you wanting. I’m looking forward to reading more from Rosa Fedele in the future.
Thanks is extended to the author for providing me with a copy of The Red Door for review.
About the Author:
‘For me, every painting and every book is a new adventure, started with a thrill of excitement and anticipation.’
[image error]Australian author and painter Rosa Fedele, known for her portrait and figurative work, was born in Sydney and studied at the prestigious Julian Ashton Art School. A member of Portrait Artists Australia, Australia’s largest industry association for professional portraitists, and a regular contributor to Australian Fine Art and Decorative Painting magazine, her work has been exhibited in NSW Parliament House and Parliament House Canberra, as well as numerous galleries and exhibitions in Australia and worldwide.
Rosa fell avidly in love with books at a very young age. Her favourites were those by C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, and later on Raymond E. Feist, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey and Frank Herbert; in fact, anything with beautiful and spellbinding words and imagery that would allow her to escape into other worlds.
Her debut novel The Red Door is a fulfilment of her lifelong dream, to interweave a story with pictures … and draw the reader into her own bewitching, and slightly dark-edged, world.
You can found out more about Rosa Fedele at:
March 8, 2018
New Release Book Review: P is for Pearl by Eliza Henry Jones
About the Book:
Seventeen-year-old Gwendolyn P. Pearson has become very good at not thinking about the awful things that have happened to her family.
She has also become used to people talking about her dead mum. Or not talking about her and just looking at Gwen sympathetically.
And it’s easy not to think about awful things when there are wild beaches to run along, best friends Loretta and Gordon to hang out with – and a stepbrother to take revenge on.
But following a strange disturbance at the cafe where she works, Gwen is forced to confront what happened to her family all those years ago. And she slowly comes to realise that people aren’t as they first appear and that like her, everyone has a story to tell.
From the talented author of the celebrated novels In the Quiet and Ache comes a poignant and moving book that explores the stories we tell ourselves about our families, and what it means to belong.
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My Thoughts:
I was so excited about the release of P is for Pearl because it’s been less than a year since Ache came out and I am a massive fan of Eliza Henry Jones. Her novels are always what I like to term, ‘quietly beautiful’, and in the case of her latest, P is for Pearl, this novel can quite simply be summed up as: P is for Perfect. Because it is. It really is the perfect novel.
Gwen is seventeen, in Year 11 at high school, living in a small coastal town in Tasmania with her father, step-mother, step-brother and half-sister. She has a couple of really great best friends and some other adults in her life that she can count on. Yet, an unsettling incident occurs one night while she is working at her part-time job and this sends Gwen’s life into a spin. All of sudden, she is remembering her mother and her little brother, the two people who are no longer with her, and she begins to question everything about herself and her life up to this point.
Once again, Eliza brings her knowledge of grief and trauma to the table and the result is a stunning examination of the effects loss can have, in the long term, on those who are left behind. The grief is no longer fresh for Gwen, but the loss remains sharp. After the incident at the café, Gwen begins to keep a diary of her thoughts, and all of these orbit around the death of her mother and little brother as she tries to make sense out of their passing at the same time as trying desperately to remember who they were. Her own sense of self becomes flimsy and she begins to enter a period of being lost, questioning everything and not really feeling as though she’s getting any solid answers.
There’s just so much about this novel that I loved. It’s a novel that makes you really appreciate the importance of being straight with children when it comes to the ugly truth about loved ones. The impulse to protect is strong but the implications of not being transparent can be far reaching.
The characters in this novel were excellent. I loved Loretta and Gordon, two terrific best friends to Gwen and the dialogue that bantered back and forth between this little group was like gold. They cracked me up so many times. I loved Biddy, with her steady support and Evie, with her wicked little sense of humour and obvious adoration of Gwen. I loved Gwen’s Dad, who was so obviously trying to preserve the memory of Gwen’s mother for her, while still internally grieving for the loss of his precious little son. And I loved Tyrone, best of all, because he was such an amazing brother to Gwen, a deep person despite what he liked to project to others, his devotion to Gwen apparent and ever present. I really loved him a lot. He’s the sort of young man who will make someone a great husband one day.
Gwen was a terrific protagonist. She really got under my skin in the best of ways. I found myself getting so invested in her, and I wanted nothing more than to reach into the book and give her a motherly embrace. She was wise beyond her years in some ways, and still very much finding her feet in others. I enjoyed the interactions between Gwen and Ben as they stumbled along finding each other, navigating the storm of their teenage attraction and balancing it out within the space they were currently inhabiting. Gwen just needed the truth. She needed to know who her mother was before she died and she needed to know what her mother was like leading up to her death; without this knowledge, it was impossible for her to make inroads into settling her own pain. The ripple effect of being protected from the truth, not only by her father, but also by her step-mother and even her step-brother; all of them with the very best of intentions and yet, what she needed to know was all that she was being protected from. How the family came to this realisation and the outcomes was beautifully rendered.
P is for Pearl is such an authentic novel. The setting was very much a part of the interactions between the characters and for Gwen, and Tyrone, the beach in particular was a big player. It was a go to place for them, despite the biting cold, which I could feel just as much as they could. (It was raining all weekend while I curled up with this novel, so the atmosphere was well and truly set). Eliza Henry Jones is fast on her way to being a master storyteller, and I am just so excited about her talent. Her words are so clean and quiet, so contained, yet she stirs within me the deepest of emotion. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us next.
P is for Pearl was published by HarperCollins Australia on the 19th February, 2018.
About the Author:
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Eliza Henry Jones was born in Melbourne in 1990. She was a Young Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre in 2012 and was a recipient of a Varuna residential fellowship for 2015. She has qualifications in English, psychology and grief, loss and trauma counselling. She is currently completing honours in creative writing – exploring bushfire trauma – and works in community services. She lives in the Dandenong Ranges with her husband and too many animals.
March 7, 2018
A Day of Lists
It’s International Women’s Day today and to celebrate, The Stella Prize has announced its 2018 Shortlist.
The Stella Prize winner for 2018 will be announced on the evening of Thursday April 12.
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And in other prize listing news, the Australian Book Industry Awards has announced their 2018 longlist.
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It’s interesting to see Force of Nature by Jane Harper in the running for General Fiction Book of the Year. I wonder if she will follow up last year’s win with The Dry by taking the prize for the second instalment in this series. Could be a pattern of things to come! While I loved Force of Nature, it has some stiff competition in this category, most notably The Dark Lake and The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club – two favourites of mine from last year.
Other categories I’m interested in is Literary Fiction Book of the Year, with The Choke and See What I Have Done firm favourites of mine. The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, with again, See What I Have Done and The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club standing out for me. Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year, with Atlantic Black my standout choice. International Book of the Year is definitely Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine for me.
You can view the full longlist over at the ABIA website. I’ve only included the categories I’m most interested in here. Stay tuned for the shortlist which is released on Thursday April 19.
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New Release Book Review: Before I Let You Go by Kelly Rimmer
About the Book:
Your sister needs you. But her child needs you more…
A moving page-turner with a heart-pounding dilemma: Your sister or her baby. Who do you choose?
As children, Lexie and Annie were incredibly close. Bonded by the death of their beloved father, they weathered the storms of life together.
As adults, Lexie and Annie could not be more different. Lexie is a successful doctor and happily engaged. Annie is an addict – a thief, a liar and unable to remain clean.
What do you do when your sister, an addict, tells you she’s pregnant and needs your help?
BEFORE I LET YOU GO is the stunning new novel from Kelly Rimmer, internationally bestselling Australian author of THE SECRET DAUGHTER, ME WITHOUT YOU, WHEN I LOST YOU and A MOTHER’S CONFESSION.
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My Thoughts:
Before I Let You Go is a novel that has left me feeling full of so many swirling emotions. I tend not to make comparisons between authors and books, but the moral questions posed within Before I Let You Go are reminiscent of issues and situations raised within novels written by Jodi Picoult and Diane Chamberlain, two authors I admire greatly. What these authors have in common is their drive to challenge the way we see things by widening the view; when you examine a situation fully informed, your view will always differ from that formed by a narrow perspective. For some, this can be an uncomfortable process, but for me, that challenge to my moral compass via worthy debate is something I don’t usually turn away from.
Kelly Rimmer has shot right to the top of my list of most respected authors. She writes with a daring honesty, tackling issues and posing scenarios without holding back. In Before I Let You Go, we meet Annie, a homeless pregnant heroin addict, and Lexie, a respected GP engaged to a respected surgeon living in a respectable upper class neighbourhood. Two women who are as different as can be, yet who are bonded by sisterhood and a co-dependency that stretches back further than Annie’s addiction.
My mind was constantly changing throughout this novel, and my emotions followed an equally up and down path.
“I doubt Annie knows what ‘NAS’ stands for, but I know: neonatal abstinence syndrome. It’s a cruel start to life – all of the physical symptoms of opiate withdrawal, crammed and compressed into a tiny newborn’s body.
…those little babies shake and scream for hours on end, until they’d sweated through their clothing and vomited up every drop of milk in their stomachs.
…there’s nothing worse in the world than watching a brand-new baby writhe in an agony that could have been avoided.”
This passage appears very early on in the novel so the stage of what is to come is set immediately. As readers, we are pushed to have a negative reaction to Annie from the beginning, to sympathise with Lexie, to feel our heart break over what this innocent premature baby is going to endure. And I did feel that way, but this novel isn’t about liking Lexie and despising Annie. It’s about understanding that as a society, we are missing the mark when it comes to how we’re handling addiction. We are criminalising addiction and punishing addicts for a compulsion they have no control over. Anyone who thinks an addict chooses to be an addict has clearly never met one, never loved one, or never lost one. By painting Annie into the most desperate corner an addict could find themselves, Kelly Rimmer challenges us to dig deep and look further, beyond our disgust and contempt, so that we might consider, for even just a few moments, the righteousness of laws that prevent people from seeking help. Punishment, in place of rehabilitation, is the issue in question here, not whether we condone addiction or not.
What happened to Annie is tragic. I have very strong feelings about the danger of religious cults and yet, I still couldn’t bring myself to lay all of the blame for Annie’s demise at her mother’s feet. Here’s that ‘viewing the situation fully’ notion that I was talking about earlier. If you take only one thing away from this novel, let it be that no situation is ever as straightforward as it may at first seem.
I am known as a bit of a ‘reading weeper’, shedding a tear at the drop of a hat. But I am rarely so overcome by emotion that I sob, yet with Before I Let You Go, I was powerless, completely undone. Because it’s just so real and so relevant to the society we live in today.
“In the last few years I’ve heard all sorts of politicians talking about compassion for people with addiction, but you know what I’ve never heard? No one ever talks about compassion for women who are pregnant and have addictions. Maybe we’re progressing to the point that we realise that a raging addiction isn’t exactly a lifestyle choice, but we’re worlds away from applying that same logic to women who happen to be pregnant. We want our mommas to be perfect, and when they stumble and fall, we punish them instead of offer a helping hand, and then we call it deterrence.”
Before I Let You Go may be set in the US, but don’t think for a minute this minimises the relevance of the story. I’m not too sure what the law in Australia is regarding pregnant addicts, but I’m fairly certain that public attitudes are akin to those in the US. I admire Kelly for diving into the deep end with this novel and thank her for her bravery. Issues aside, the relationship between sisters that is depicted within this novel is so beautifully moving and utterly authentic. I am an older sister myself, so much of the emotional attachment between Lexie and Annie that was explored resonated with me. Before I Let You Go is a novel that is sure to stay with me, a truly brilliant story that I can’t recommend highly enough.
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Before I Let You Go for review.
About the Author:
[image error]Kelly Rimmer has sold over 600,000 digital copies of her previous four novels: ME WITHOUT YOU, THE SECRET DAUGHTER, WHEN I LOST YOU and A MOTHER’S CONFESSION. BEFORE I LET YOU GO is Kelly’s first novel with Hachette Australia and the first time she’ll be published in print in ANZ. Kelly lives in rural NSW with her husband, two children and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.
March 6, 2018
Behind the Pen with Jennifer S. Alderson
It’s with pleasure that I welcome international author Jennifer S. Alderson to Behind the Pen today to share with us a few of her favourites. Over to you Jennifer…
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What is your favourite…and why…
Character from one of your books?
Arjan van Heemsvliet, a Dutch art dealer and main character in The Lover’s Portrait, was a joy to write because he was such a gentle soul. I miss hearing his voice in my head.
Scene from one of your books?
Two standout in my mind. Describing Ian finding his hippie paradise in Down and Out in Kathmandu was so much fun to write. I used my own crazy experiences, gained while staying on one of the most perfect islands in the world – Koh Tao, Thailand – as the basis for that scene. A murder scene in Rituals of the Dead, in which one of my main characters is killed, still sends shivers up my spine when I re-read it! It took a lot of time to get right, which is why it’s become a favorite. I hope readers feel the same way, once it’s released in April.
Movie of all time?
Either At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Hopscotch. The first is an incredible filming of a great book by Peter Matthiessen about missionaries in South America. It blew me away when I saw it in the theater. I’ve seen Hopscotch so many times I can recount the dialogue! It’s a classic starring Walter Matteu as a disgruntled American spy who decides to write an exposé memoir when he’s forced into retirement.
Book that you always keep a copy of and recommend to others?
The Ghost by Robert Harris is a thriller that keeps you guessing right down to the last word. I am in awe of his writing, pacing, storyline, characters, and subject matter. It’s truly a brilliant book!
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Jennifer’s favourite reading place
Fashion accessory that despite having plenty of, you still keep collecting?
I cannot stop buying necklaces, despite having more than thirty gorgeous ones I almost always forget to actually put on in the mornings! Jewelry stores are as bad as bookstores for me; I can’t enter one without buying something.
Drink that you enjoy every day?
Coffee makes my world go round. Without it I wouldn’t be able to function.
Treat you indulge in?
Chocolate-covered cherries are my big indulgence – especially when editing!
Place to be?
On the beach. It doesn’t matter which one, as long as there is sand and surf to play in.
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Person you admire?
Intrepid explorers are my heroes. There are so many I admire. Amelia Earhart is probably my favorite because she followed her dreams, even when those around her thought she was crazy to do so. Barbara Walters was also a huge inspiration to me when I was younger, and one of the reasons why I studied journalism.
Season of the year?
Summer! Once it hits twenty-two degrees, you will find me on the beach, hiking through the dunes, or swimming in the ocean. Very little writing gets done when it’s warm. That was a problem when I lived in Darwin, Australia. It was too beautiful, warm and sunny all-year round to get much work done. I guess I should be thankful the summers here in the Netherlands are short!
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Princess Beach Thailand
About Jennifer:
Jennifer S. Alderson was born in San Francisco, raised in Seattle and currently lives in Amsterdam. Her love of travel, art and culture inspires her on-going mystery series, the Adventures of Zelda Richardson. Her background in journalism, multimedia development and art history enriches her novels.
In Down and Out in Kathmandu, Zelda gets entangled with a gang of smugglers whose Thai leader believes she’s stolen his diamonds. The Lover’s Portrait is a suspenseful “whodunit?” about Nazi-looted artwork that transports readers to wartime and present-day Amsterdam. Art, religion, and anthropology collide in Rituals of the Dead, a thrilling artifact mystery set in Papua New Guinea and the Netherlands. Learn more about Jennifer and her books on her website.
Connect with Jennifer:
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Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery
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Art, religion, and anthropology collide in Alderson’s latest art mystery thriller, Rituals of the Dead, book three of the Adventures of Zelda Richardson series.
Art history student Zelda Richardson is thrilled to be working at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam on an exhibition of bis poles from the Asmat region of Papua New Guinea – the same area where a famous American anthropologist disappeared in 1962. When his journals are found inside one of the bis poles, Zelda is tasked with finding out more about the man’s last days and his connection to these ritual objects.
Zelda is pulled into a world of shady anthropologists, headhunters, missionaries, art collectors, and smugglers – where the only certainty is that sins of the past are never fully erased.
Join Zelda as she grapples with the anthropologist’s mysterious disappearance fifty years earlier, and a present-day murderer who will do anything to prevent her from discovering the truth.
Rituals of the Dead is available as pre-order on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.
Purchase Links:
March 5, 2018
Pre-release Book Review: LADY BIRD & THE FOX by Kim Kelly
About the Book:
It’s 1868 and the gold rush sprawls across the wild west of New South Wales, bringing with it a new breed of colonial rogue – bushrangers. A world far removed from hardworking farm girl, Annie Bird, and her sleepy village on the outskirts of Sydney.
But when a cruel stroke of fortune sees Annie orphaned and outcast, she is forced to head for the goldfields in search of her grandfather, a legendary Wiradjuri tracker. Determined and dangerously naive, she sets off with only her swag – and is promptly robbed of it on the road.
Her cries for help attract another sort of rogue: Jem Fox, the waster son of a wealthy silversmith. He’s already in trouble with the law – up to his neatly trimmed eyebrows in gambling debts. And now he does something much worse. He ‘borrows’ a horse and rides after the thieves, throwing Annie over the saddle as he goes.
What follows is a breakneck gallop through the Australian bush, a tale of mistaken identity and blind bigotry, of two headstrong opposites tossed together by fate, their lives entwined by a quest to get back home – and the irresistible forces of love.
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My Thoughts:
Lady Bird & The Fox would have to be my most anticipated read for 2018. In part, this can be attributed to having been ‘in the know’ about this novel for quite some time. Fortunately for me, I was able to read it in advance of publication. The other side to my anticipation is quite straight forward: it’s a new novel by Kim Kelly and I love every single thing she writes, from novels through to blog posts and even simple social media updates. If Kim writes it, I’ll read it. My expectations were high, but there was never any doubt that they were going to be met. Lady Bird & The Fox is brilliant. Thought provoking, funny – as in, actually laugh out loud funny – historically accurate, meticulously researched, and crafted with impeccable inference. This is a novel that I will buy more than once, because there are heaps of people in my life who will either enjoy it, or benefit greatly from being exposed to its content; either way, I will get satisfaction out of gifting it far and wide.
Kim wrote a blog post on Lady Bird & The Fox in February and I encourage anyone with an interest in this novel to read it as it provides great background context to the story and history retold within its pages. It also opens with a fantastic character summary, which I’m going to include here as it pretty much says exactly what I want to say but in ‘Kim speak’, which is a whole lot more articulate than anything I would come up with.
“Annie Bird is a part Mulgoa, part English woman searching for her Wiradjuri grandfather. She’s Aboriginal in both her understanding of herself, and in the way others treat her; but she’s been robbed of the vast majority of her culture, her Aboriginal inheritances, and especially mourns the loss of her mother’s language. At the same time, she is both intellectually and conscientiously Christian.”
“Jem Fox, on the other hand, is part Polish, part French, and although educated in London, in the English public school system, with all its oppressive Christianity and class snobbery, he is inescapably culturally Jewish. As a result of these clashes and confusions, he’s rejected religion, and any convention, pretty much entirely.”
So that’s Annie and Jem in a nutshell. When they meet, attraction is imminent and sparks begin to fly left right and centre as they set out for a life changing adventure.
Kim is known for writing intelligent romantic historical fiction underpinned with political themes. In Lady Bird & The Fox, she examines racism within colonial Australia, offering an entirely unique perspective to the history we have all taken for granted. Annie has been sheltered by her father for her whole life, protected in her little corner of the universe, and while she has experienced racism to a certain degree, this is nothing to prepare her for what she meets on the road. To witness her shame through Jem’s eyes was particularly powerful, as a member of a minority group himself, his reactions of outrage reinforced exactly how outrageous it was. To be always viewed with mistrust, ostracised, ignored, stripped of basic rights; my heart was bursting with sorrow for Annie, and consequently, for all Aboriginal people who have had to endure this from the beginning of colonisation. And yet, instead of acknowledging this, our history has obliterated it from record. There’s something really awful about a stolen history that one could reflect on in depth, but for the purposes of this review, I’ll leave it here and move on. Suffice to say, Kim has done an incredibly wonderful thing here in writing Lady Bird & The Fox, giving life to an extinguished history and providing modern Australians with a text to rejoice in. Here, at last, is an author who is not afraid to rewrite history back to what it should have always been.
The heart of Lady Bird & The Fox beats with love: a search for family, a search for one’s own true identity, and the search for a free life lived well surrounded by loved ones. The path for Jem and Annie is rough from the start, but filled with adventure and mayhem. One disaster after another besieges the pair, and it’s often hilarious, how much goes wrong, especially when viewed from Jem’s sarcastic perspective. But as hilarious as the wrong stuff is, once things turn around and begin to go right, they go right in the very best of ways. There is a serendipitous feel to the way things go right for Jem and Annie in the end, as against the odds as their romance might have been, Kim shows us that sometimes everyday Angels exist, in the most unlikely of forms, and when they spread their heavenly magic, it’s with a lasting impression. Lady Bird & The Fox is told in the tradition of a great yarn, a novel you almost feel obligated to read out loud while sitting around a camp fire with a cup of Billy tea amongst a gathering of like-minded people. As usual, Kim has managed to inform as well as entertain, a unique, yet highly sought after talent. I loved Lady Bird & The Fox, and chances are, if you’ve read a Kim Kelly novel before, you’ll love it too. And if you’ve never read a Kim Kelly novel before, then this a cracking good one to start with.
Thanks is extended to Kim Kelly for providing me with a copy of Lady Bird & The Fox for review.
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Lady Bird & The Fox is available for presale now at these retailers worldwide:
iBooks
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
Released on 18th April 2018
About the Author:
[image error]Kim Kelly is the author of seven novels that explore Australian history, including the bestselling The Blue Mile, the acclaimed Wild Chicory, and UK Pigeonhole favourite, Paper Daisies.
Her stories shine a bright light on some forgotten corners of our past, leading readers with warmth, wit and lyrical charm into difficult terrain, through themes of bigotry, class conflict, disadvantage and violence in our shared history – issues that resonate today.
A widely respected book editor by trade, stories fill her every day, and it’s love that fuels her intellectual engine. In fact, she takes love so seriously she once donated a kidney to her husband to prove it, and also to save his life.
Originally from Sydney, Kim now lives on a small property near the tiny gold-rush village of Millthorpe, where the ghosts are mostly friendly and her grown sons regularly come home to graze.
March 4, 2018
Origin of the Writer: Alicia Gilmore
Origin of the Writer is a series of essays giving emerging writers the opportunity to share their writing journey so far.
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Many years ago, I rang my mother one Saturday morning and without even saying hello, launched into, ‘Say you woke up with a dead man in your bed…’ To her credit, or perhaps knowledge of my somewhat less than stellar or criminal dating history, she didn’t flinch. She may have made a comment about me finally having an interesting Friday night before helpfully providing some medical information on what I could do with my aforementioned corpse. For if you’re going to deal with the deceased, either in fiction or reality, you really should do it right.
Since childhood, when I realised that someone had created the book I held in my hand, I have wanted to write. To create. Perhaps it was reading Little Women and wanting so fiercely for Jo to succeed, to be Jo, to enter the Marsh household and write. Perhaps it was Alice in Wonderland and wanting to throw myself down that rabbit hole. Books were a perfect escape when I was indoors with yet another bout of asthma or bronchitis. They gave me the world. From those tame beginnings to discovering books could not only captivate and inspire me, but thrill me and scare me, keeping me up at night reading under the blankets with a torch. Books introduced me to, and immersed me in, new worlds.
From childhood creative writing classes to a Masters degree, it’s taken many years of experimentation, reworking and reimagining pieces of writing, and learning from others, to have my debut novel, Path to the Night Sea, published in February.
Path to the Night Sea started as a short story in a fiction class with the author, Sue Woolfe. Sue had given the class a selection of photographs and objects to spark our creativity and give us a physical stimulus to write a short fragment. I remember a small glass perfume bottle and a photograph caught my attention. The photo featured a woman in profile, seated at a piano, her hands poised to strike the keys. There was a cat sitting on top of the piano, and I wondered if these were the two most important things in her life – music and her pet. I started to write about this woman who would sit and play, not looking out of the curtained window, but kept her gaze indoors, on that cat. Her face in profile, her ‘good side’… The perfume bottle that perhaps had belonged to a woman who would never get old. A bottle that held scented memories… Ideas and elements came together and what is now a lot of Day One in the novel formed the original short story. Sue read the story, said I had written the start of a wonderful novel, and she had to know what happened to Ellie, my protagonist. I realised I wanted to know too.
The story became darker the more I delved into Ellie’s world. Seven days seemed the fitting structure for Ellie to be introduced to the reader and for her to seek her path, tying in with the religious dogma she’d heard from her Grandmother and Father. Listening to music by Nick Cave and Johnny Cash helped me establish the mood at times and gave me the impetus to embrace the flaws and the darkness. When I was writing the first drafts, I was living near the beach and the waves, particularly during storms, formed a natural soundtrack. If I peered out from my desk, I could catch glimpses of the ocean. By the time editing was underway, I had moved to a house that backed onto the bush and had inherited a cat. Listening to the raucous native birds, possums scurrying up trees and across the roof at night, dealing with the odd snake and lizards, plus watching the cat, heightened those natural elements of the story.
Early drafts saw me heading off on tangents with minor characters and subplots, but judicious readers and editing brought the focus back to Ellie and Arthur, and the confines of restricted world they inhabit.
Coalcliff on the south coast of NSW was the perfect setting for the story as I wanted an atmospheric location. Ellie is trapped physically and psychologically, and with the dramatic backdrop of the escarpment and the proximity to the ocean, I could play with the real life location to reflect the claustrophobic nature of Ellie’s life. Combined with its mining history as a part of the ‘coal coast’, using an actual small coastal town, gave me a literal grounding for the story and my characters.
I had thought of letting the novel go one morning years ago when I woke up and heard the news about Elizabeth Fritzl held captive for 24 years by her father. In my drowsy state listening to the radio, the reality of her situation came crashing in and I wanted to put my humble writings aside. What was fictional pain in the face of such devastating reality? Even last month, news emerged of the thirteen Turpin children trapped at home by their parents, the neighbours unaware. Events like these are not fiction. Path to the Night Sea is my way of using language to explore family dysfunction and abuse, small town horror, and ultimately, hope.
The book was launched on Friday 16 February at Better Read Than Dead bookstore in Newtown and to my absolute delight, it sold out! Writing, editing, finding a publisher, learning about publicity and distribution, have all been part of the journey. It has taken a decade – including having a full time day job, family commitments, and other endeavours – from the initial fragments for a short story to a finished novel. I’m working on the next, enmeshed in a new world and loving it.
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What happens while we choose not to see? When we ignore the paper on the windows, the absence of a child, the menace of a neighbour? What happens behind the locked doors, in the overgrown yard, during the passing of the years? What happens in the silence, in the seclusion, in the darkness and the night?
What happened to Ellie?
Alicia Gilmore has had stories published in Phoenix and Cellar Door, and was one of the contributing writers and lead editor of Burbangana. She was the recipient of an Allen & Unwin / Varuna Publishers Fellowship and was awarded a month long residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
March 3, 2018
Sunday Spotlight with Tracy Sorensen — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog
Chatting all things pink and grey with Tracy Sorensen, author of The Lucky Galah, over at the Australian Women Writers Challenge blog today.
Welcome to Sunday Spotlight. Our guest today is Tracy Sorensen, author of the delightfully unique novel, The Lucky Galah. 1. Is there a special galah in your life that inspired the character of Lucky? Oh yes indeed. Her name was Myrtle Skippetyhop. She came into our lives shortly after we arrived in Carnarvon in 1969.…
via Sunday Spotlight with Tracy Sorensen — Australian Women Writers Challenge Blog
