A Long Way from Verona is a coming of age story about Jessica Vye, told in her own quirky voice, a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl who dreams of being a writer. If this novel had been published in the last twenty years, you’d find it classed as YA. But the subtlety of the title might be lost on many young readers, referring as it does to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In one humorous scene, it is the end of term and Jessica and three friends decide to celebrate by treating themselves to a ‘shilling tea’ at a tea shop. A somewhat theatrical old woman at a nearby table exclaims with delight when she sees the girls, calling them little Juliets.

It’s a short novel, but there’s such a lot packed into it. Through Jessica’s eyes, we have a snapshot of wartime Britain, the class system, and what it takes to stick to your principals – Jessica’s curate father does this in spades. Jessica struggles to please her teachers or be taken seriously and is often in trouble for just being Jessica. Continue reading “Thursday’s Old Favourite: A Long Way from Verona by Jane Gardam” →

 

A S Byatt is a seriously good, and by that I also mean literary, writer. But of all her books, none has quite caught my imagination as this one.

I first read Possession on a road-trip around New Zealand’s gob-smackingly lovely South Island and found it hard to tear myself away from the book. The two experiences are happily entwined in my mind, making it one of my best holidays ever. Ignoring the scenery, Possession has such a lot going for it:

• hidden letters revealing a secret love affair between two Victorian poets;
• two academics discovering a connection from across the Atlantic over said poets;
• a narrative that see-saws between past and present as events from the past are slowly revealed and which keeps you reading;
• characters you really connect with;
• superb writing;
• a story of such emotional pull you can read this book again and again.

I guess it might be time to reread this one.

Happiness for Humans is a debut novel by P Z Reizin and a brilliant pick-me-up read. It is modern, witty, quirky and romantic by turn and wonderfully original. The plot follows two main characters, Jen and Tom who are both rebuilding their lives after failed relationships and in Tom’s case he is also missing his son who has gone to university.

Into this quite normal scenario is the meddling of two computer generated AI (Aiden and Aisling) who try to get them together, while darker undercurrents force them apart again. It’s a bit like the fairy element in A Midsummer Night’s Dream only for the modern age. There’s also a nod to Woody Allen and a hint of Douglas Adams, so it wasn’t surprising I was chuckling my way through the book.

There are plenty of surprises, some mad-cap action sequences and loads of odd-ball minor characters that keep the plot humming along. And Reizin does a great job of making the AI characters, who narrate chunks of the story, well-rounded and believable, in the way that human characters would be. This is a lovely novel you won’t want to miss.

2018 is turning into a dream year for readers like me. I am so excited about seeing the return to the bookshops of quite a few of my favourite authors – particularly those who only turn a book out once every five or more years. Here’s a list of the books that have me rubbing my hands with glee.

Circe by Madeline Miller

I have this already on my bedside table, and am glad to say it is mine, all mine, and not a library book! Miller’s Orange Prize winning novel, Song of Achilles, was so powerful it had me in tears, the characters and storyline haunting me for weeks afterwards. Sticking to the classical era, which is her speciality, the new book is about the daughter of Helios, the Greek god of the sun. Circe is a nymph with magical powers but Miller gives her the psyche of a woman and all the problems of finding a place in the world. But this is Greek mythology, so anything can happen, and I expect to be sitting up at night over this one. Continue reading “2018 in Fiction – Top Authors Return” →

The word cosy always makes me think of teapots, so I was surprised to discover a few years ago that it is also a sub-genre of crime fiction – the kind of mystery novels I quite like. The big awards given to the best in the genre are called the Agathas, in deference to the author who inspired them – that massive best-seller and all-time favourite, Agatha Christie. Continue reading “Cosy Mysteries – Invitation to a Murder” →

I’m a fairly recent convert to Scrivener. But one thing I really like about this software is that I can give a project a completion date, set a rough word count for the work as a whole and then check in to see how I’m doing day by day. It’s a great way to keep on track and creates a competitive, ‘beat the clock’ impulse which really boosts creativity.

So here’s what you do:

Once you’ve begun your project, set up the document how you like it – if it’s a novel, you may have put in some notes about scenes, characters and background. Once you’ve done all that and got started with the writing, go to the top menu across the screen and choose Show Project Targets, then choose Options. Here you can type in a deadline for completing the work and a projected word count – approximate, of course. The rest is maths – the software calculates how many words you should be writing each day to reach your target.

Once you have completed your writing for the day, have a look at your project targets. Did you write the required number of words? Maybe you wrote a few hundred more. You will be pleased to see that your target word requirement per day is now smaller. Yay! This can be a big incentive to whipping through that first draft.

Happy writing!