Review ~ Fall Out by Lizzy Mumfrey

I_Am Self Publishing

2017

What's it all about..

Fall Out is a novel about an archetypal commuter village, home to a colourful range of residents many of whose teenagers go to the local Academy. An ordinary day becomes extraordinary when a school trip to London coincides with a terrorist attack. The fallout affects residents in diverse ways. Who lives and who dies is just the start as irrational suspicions and prejudice lead to unreasonable blame. Friendships are fractured and buried secrets are revealed.

What did I think about it...

In light of the recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester this book was difficult to read and even more difficult to review since the subject is both subjective and prominent in our daily lives.

Putting reality on one side, this book doesn't focus on the whys and wherefores but then neither does it shy away from the repercussions of such a tragedy occurring, or of the impact that such a devastating event has on those who are inadvertently caught up in it.

This debut author writes well and offers a realistic version of how a community can either pull together or quite literally, fall apart in light of such a tragedy. I liked how the writing showed the minutiae of life, both the good and the bad of human nature, and of the unpredictability of just going about your daily business. There are an abundance of characters which takes some getting used to, some I liked more than others, but all are written with a fine eye for detail and a sense of lively dialogue.

Fall Out is a thought provoking and rather topical story which may not be to everyone's taste at the moment, however, I commend the author for tackling such a difficult and emotive subject in a very readable style.

More about the author can be found on her website by clicking here  or see what she writes on her blog by clicking here

My thanks to the author for sharing her work with me

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Close to Home...Jo Hollywood

As a book reviewer I have made contact with authors from all across the globe and feel immensely privileged to be able to share some amazing work. However, there is always something rather special when a book comes to my attention which has been written by an author in my part of the North of England. So with this in mind I have great pleasure in featuring some of those authors who are literally close to my home. Over the next few Saturdays, and hopefully beyond, I will be sharing the work of a very talented bunch of Northern authors.

Please welcome Lancashire Author

Jo Hollywood

Hi Jo, A warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo. Tell us a little about yourself and what got you started as an author?

I am a married mother of two young boys and in a former life worked as a renal nurse. Prior to starting my nursing career I had studied an English Literature and Drama (BA Hons) degree, I just love to write and read stories. When my youngest son was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 3, I found that I began to write again., I began by writing a self help book for parents, then a weekly newspaper column and occasionally blogging for the Huffington Post. However, this new found thirst for writing prompted me into wanting to write fiction, and primarily romantic fiction, something that was just for me, and so I joined Wattpad and began to write An Unextraordinary Life. My very first novel.


As a writer based in the North West, does this present any problems in terms of marketing and promoting your books and if so, how do you overcome them?

To be honest I am very new to this world and as yet have had only had to promote one book, so I have not encountered any problems other than bang an indie author. I do know though that it can be more difficult for Northern authors with a strong Northern theme in their work to get their books out there and read. Why this is so still baffles me.

If you were pitching the North West as an ideal place to live, work and write – how would you sell it and what makes it so special?

I love living in the North West. We did live in the South West for five years in beautiful Dorset, and although I loved the area and the people I did miss the North West. I grew up in the Wirral and today live in Lancashire. So how would I sell the North West as a place to live, work and write? Well, for starters the people are very friendly and outgoing. You can always have a conversation with someone in a café or while stood waiting for the bus. There is always someone to talk to, so you are never short of ideas for your characters. The area also has some stunning scenery to help the creative juices. I live just down the road from Morecambe and there is nothing quite like strolling along the prom to think through plot lines. I just love the North West, it is comforting and feels like home.

In your writing, have you been inspired by anything in particular, ie a place or a person?

Lots of people and places have inspired me with my writing. When writing the library scenes in my latest novel I pictured Lancaster Central Library in my mind, I could hear the voices all around me as well as the smell of books. In An Unextraordinary Life, the bookshop café was very much based upon a local café in town. I think that as writers we draw inspiration form every day things that happen around us, what we are comfortable with. As for people, they are usually a mixture of different people that are known to me, all rolled up into one.

How did you break into the publishing world?

Well I am still a very new author and I decided to self publish my first novel. I am however writing my second novel which I hope to find a publisher for. If not, then I will self publish again. I think the main thing is to just get your work out there and read, in whatever format you can manage.

What are the up and downs to being an author?

The ups are most definitely writing every day. I love to write and for me it is a form of therapy. I escape the every day world. I also need to read every day. Other benefits are that you get to see your words on the printed page and in digital format. Others get to read those words and can hopefully gain enjoyment from them. The downside is that it takes a lot of work and effort to produce a novel, and sometimes it can seem like an uphill battle. Negative reviews also hurt, but then not everyone will like your book. It's just the way it is.

How can readers find out more about you and your work?

Readers can read about me on my website 

They can also find An Unextraordinary Life over on Amazon

I also write book reviews over on my website

Huge thanks to Jo for taking the time to share her thoughts about the North West and for answering my questions so thoughtfully

I hope that you have enjoyed reading today's Close to Home feature.

Coming next Saturday : Deborah Swift

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Ahoy for Joy by Keith Reilly

Matador
2015

Seventeen year old Michael Colgan is on a Boy’s Brigade camping holiday to the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe when he meets Anna, a young Dutch girl. Their meeting is brief but powerful and leaves such a profound impression, that their relationship, such as it is, continues by letter when Michael returns home to Belfast and Anna returns to Pijpersbos, in the Netherlands. However, Michael returns to the Belfast of the 1970’s, when the troubles were vicious and sectarian hatred flourished in dark corners. Anna’s life in an affluent Dutch suburb is, by comparison, the light to Michael’s darkness.

After a slow beginning, the story picks up and starts to flow quite well, although there are times when the narrative meanders a little too much and would have, perhaps, benefited from a tighter edit. However, there are some nice descriptive touches which capture time and place really well. The emotional impact of the story is dramatic without being over sensational and nicely captures both the pain of lost love and the emotional pull of separation. The first part of the story is particularly well done and the troubles in Northern Ireland are written with a compassionate eye for detail by someone who clearly knows and understands this uneasy period in Irish history. I felt that Anna’s story, in part two, lacked energy but was written with thoughtful consideration and succeeds in bringing the story to a sensitive conclusion.

Ahoy for Joy is a tender and rather sad story about first love and lost love and of the memories we cherish in our hearts and which the passage of time can never dim. I enjoyed reading it.

My thanks to the author for sharing his story with me. More details can be found on the author's website.

Ahoyforjoy.com

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Review ~ The First Vet by Linda Chamberlain

Create Space
Independent Publishing Platform
2014

Taking its inspiration from the first veterinary college and its students, The First Vet opens in London in 1794, and focuses on the true story of Bracy Clark, an inspirational young vet who is passionate about his training, and more than a little concerned about the management of the college by the esteemed surgeon in charge. When Bracy sets out to confront Professor Edward Coleman about his management skills, he is unprepared for the effect that this meeting will have on his life and future happiness.

What then follows is an interesting and well-developed story which considers all the challenges of learning a new and vital skill in a time when veterinary practice, and horse husbandry in particular, was largely undervalued and viewed with more than a hint of suspicion. This is obviously a subject the author feels passionately about and therefore writes with great conviction and enthusiasm. The story flows well and there is a nice combination of the factual details which, when combined with a dash of illicit romance, adds an interesting dimension and helps to carry the story along.

Professionally produced to a high standard, with evocative cover art, the story sits very comfortably within the historical fiction genre and I have no hesitation in recommending this as an interesting and informative historical read. 

More about the author here
Twitter @lindyloocher

I reviewed this book for the Historical Novel Society Indie Reviews

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Today my guest author is ...Amanda MacLean

Amanda MacLean

Amanda ~ A huge welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thanks for chatting to us about 

The Flax Flower

Tell us more about the background to The Flax Flower.

It’s inspired by a song – a 350-year-old folk song, the Scots ballad ‘Mill of Tifty’s Annie.’ I don’t want to reveal too much, but like most traditional ballads, it’s a tragedy. The reason I got so obsessed with it, though, is that it’s based on a true story. It’s linked to Tifty in Aberdeenshire – the ruins of the mill stand there to this day – and to the grave of Agnes (Annie) Smith, the miller’s daughter, who died in 1673.

What was the most difficult aspect of writing the story? How did you overcome it?

I was tinkering with the dialogue right up to the last minute. When I started writing, although people were using the occasional Scots word, mostly they sounded like something out of Jane Austen. Of course that didn’t fit with the period or with the location. Readers shouldn’t be alarmed – it’s not written in deep Doric dialect! It was more the rhythms of speech that needed work to make them convincing. I use voice recognition instead of typing, so that helped a lot, and I read the whole thing out loud a couple of times when it was nearly finished. Both techniques are a great way to work on dialogue, because anything that doesn’t sound like a real spoken sentence will almost literally stick in your throat.

Your writing is very atmospheric – how much research did you need to do in order to bring The Flax Flower to life?

A lot! Of course I had to visit Tifty and Fyvie Castle, where it all happened, and it was worth it when one of the locals got in touch to say that she could follow every path I took in the book.

I must have read everything ever written about the song, and listened to every recorded version. On top of that, I spent months in the British Library, reading books about ballads and all kinds of historical textbooks. The difference in social status between the lovers is an important part of the equation, so I had to understand that, as well as how people lived and worked.

Annie’s lover Andrew is a trumpeter, and there were no known historical records of him other than the ballad itself. But to find out what a trumpeter actually did, I read a Ph.D. thesis: ‘The Trumpet in Scotland from 1488 to 1800’. Pretty specialist stuff, but I wouldn’t have missed it, because suddenly I spotted ‘my’ trumpeter’s name listed there on the microfilm, living in Edinburgh just as the ballad indicates.

What would you like readers to take away from The Flax Flower?

I’d love it if readers who are familiar with traditional singing were to have moments of recognition. And I’d love it even more if people who have never heard or paid attention to traditional music – and I mean the real hard-core stuff, solo unaccompanied 50 verse ballads – were to go away and listen to them and experience their power and magic.

If you could pick a musical soundtrack to accompany a film version of The Flax Flower what would you choose, and why?

The Flax Flower would make a great film. It would be important to get the soundtrack right, because songs and singing run through every aspect of the characters’ lives. That explains why Annie’s story itself becomes a ballad, which would have to feature, but without giving away the plot. I can hear it playing while the credits roll. However, while I’d like some recognisable traditional songs and tunes in there, it would be great if one of the many fabulous modern day folk composers like Karine Polwart could be commissioned to write new music too.

The Flax Flower is your first novel. Do you have plans to write any more?

Yes. I’m hopping over to the west coast of Scotland and a Gaelic song for number two. The working title is ‘Wrack’, as in seaweed, so I seem to be favouring botanical titles! It’s a version of a murder ballad that is found right across Europe, but this one has a special Gaelic twist that sends a chill right up my spine.

Lulu.com

I reviewed The Flax Flower on behalf of the Historical Novel Society and I'm pleased to say that it was chosen as the editor's choice in May.

My HNS review is here

Amanda is launching

The Flax Flower in Glasgow on Saturday 13 June 2015

She will be doing some readings and singing the ballad that started it all. And there will also be an opportunity for others to bring songs, music and poetry. More information:

  https://scottishwriters.wordpress.com/upcoming-events/ 

and the address is:

Club Room
Centre for Contemporary Arts,
350 Sauchiehall Street,
Glasgow,
G2 3JD

The Flax Flower is available as a paperback or ebook:

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

My thanks to Amanda for giving so generously of her time.

Jaffa and I wish you continued success with your writing and look forward to reading "Wrack" when it's published.

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Review ~ Sophia's Secret by Julie Ryan

A Greek Island Mystery

After an absence of over twenty years, Kat returns to Greece, with her own small daughter, ostensibly, for her mother’s funeral. Kat has painful memories of her childhood and struggles with the unsolved mystery of why she was sent, aged seven, to live with her aunt Tigi, in England. Never seeing her mother again has been painful for Kat, and the Greek island of her childhood, where she grew up, is filled with memories of a past she can barely remember. And yet , returning to the island, Kat finds that some secrets, long buried, need to be revisited, and as her grandmother starts to share her memories of the past, Kat discovers things about her family and friends that she could never have imagined.

This is a story about Greek island life and of the convoluted mysteries which can linger for generations, the repercussions of which, all too often, reverberate down through time. The story is allowed to evolve slowly and as the hidden secrets of the characters start to emerge, so the appeal of the place and its people come alive in the imagination. The clandestine feelings of long buried secrets linger throughout the novel and there are more than enough twists and turns in the plot to keep you entertained right to the end.

I think that it’s a lovely book to load onto your Kindle to pack away in your suitcase – I can almost  taste the retsina, hear the cicadas and smell the bougainvillea.. 

It's worth noting that this is the second book in the Greek Island Mysteries and whilst there is some overlap of characters from Jenna's Story, Sophia's Secret can be comfortably read as a standalone novel.

Amazon UK

Follow the author on Twitter @julieryan18

My thanks to the author for sharing her work with me. 

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