Novelicious - The Female Fiction and Chick Lit Blog

Review - Tom-All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd

Reviewed by Amanda Keats

Policeman turned Private Detective, Charles Maddox has been hired to find a man - just to find him and pass on his whereabouts to his new employer. But his new employer - lawyer Edward Tulkinghorn - underestimates just how enquisitive Maddox really is. As he begins to delve deeper in his search for the truth, Maddox will put his life more at risk with every new piece of information he finds.

 

Author Lynn Shepherd's first book took a Jane Austen classic and twisted it with an Agatha Christie style murder mystery. This time, she has delved even deeper into the seedy underworld of Dickensian London - a world full of dirt and grime, poverty, prostitutes as young as twelve, violent murders and misunderstood mental illnesses.

 

For fans of the lighter work of Charles Dickens, be warned that this is no A Christmas Carol. Inspired by Bleak House, Tom-All-Alone's is not for the faint-hearted. The book opens in a foggy graveyard with the discovery of an unofficial grave full of babies and later contains some detailed accounts of mutilations and nasty murders. Behind all this violence though is a fascinating central character in Charles Maddox. Charles is a stubborn man and his determination as the story develops is both enfuriating and endearing. His relationship with his great-uncle Maddox - who is going senile in his old age - adds a certain depth to his character as he has idolized Maddox his entire life and struggles as the mind of his idol quickly deteriorates. Though there are brief moments of lucidity where the two great minds can discuss their findings, the moments where Maddox reverts back to his senility are heart-breaking.

 

Review - The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR        

It’s 1665 and Susannah Leyton quietly works behind the scenes in her father’s apothecary shop in Fleet Street. She would love to be a recognized apothecary like her father, but the idea of a woman doing something so outrageous makes this dream an impossibility. Susannah likes nothing better than trying out new concoctions from the vast array of ingredients her father stores in his shop. Her mother died tragically years before giving birth to Susannah’s brother and since witnessing that horror, she’s always insisted that she doesn’t wish to marry, but is happy spending the rest of her life working with her father.

One day, Dr William Ambrose, a serious, unsmiling man, comes into the shop and asks to speak to her father. Susannah explains that he’s out and when Dr Ambrose tells her he urgently requires a potion for one of his patients, she offers to make it. He is not impressed with the notion and Susannah can’t help feeling insulted by his abrupt reaction. 

 Susannah’s orderly life is changes beyond recognition when her father falls in love with a young widow and marries her. Abigail and Susannah soon fall out when Abigail starts ordering Susannah around and expecting her to look after her three young stepsiblings. The two women become increasingly antagonistic towards each other, upsetting Susannah’s father, who, much to her distress, takes the side of his spoilt, lazy, bride.

My Writing Room - Daphne Kalotay

This week, Daphne Kalotay (who we also interviewed this week) tells us about her writing room in Boston.

My Writing Room by Daphne Kalotay

I’m very fortunate in that I rent a lovely apartment with its own study off of the main room.  This study has nice big built-in bookshelves, which I think make any room look immediately better!  But best of all is the sunlight; the room faces southeast, making it nice and bright in the morning, which is when I like to write.  And natural light always gives me energy, especially in the winter (which can be long here in Boston.)

I like to be able to spread out, so when I first moved in and started looking for a desk, none seemed large enough.  I ended up buying this dining room table at Crate and Barrel, and put it together myself; only if you look underneath will you see that not all the screws are in correctly….  The chair came from the furniture company where my sister works; it supposedly has some irregularity that made it unsellable, but I’ve found it comfortable.  I also like that it’s red, because I learned somewhere that red is an energizing color.  The rug I chose for the floor is red, too; a friend brought it back for me from Morocco.

 I know that some writers don’t like distractions and wouldn’t want their work area to be facing a somewhat busy street, but I’m the opposite.  Since writing is such a solitary activity, I like (crave, actually) the company of the world outside—the sound of passing cars, of people chatting, of dogs barking and birds chirping.  So a key element of why my writing room works well for me is that I can look right out the window and see life going on all around me—people walking past, the mailman making his rounds, a neighbor out jogging.

One block away is a playground, and when I have the windows open there’s a constant din of children’s voices (lots of joyful screaming), which I find lively and vitalizing.

 It’s now been nearly ten years that I’ve been writing at this desk; it has faded quite a bit from all the sunlight.  Sometimes I put out some inspiring little thing to keep me going—a photograph, or a quote I like.  Right now I have a little picture of a bird I clipped from a magazine, just because I love birds and thought it was cute.  I also have a postcard of a picture by Rodin, because it figures in the new piece I’m writing.

 Visit Daphne's Website

Join Daphne on Facebook

 

Top 5 Writing Tips from Lesley Pearse

1.  Don't be slovenly, make out you are going to the office so dress and put make-up on. It puts you in right mind set. 

2.  Read as much as you write. Both fiction and non-fiction for research

3.  To set you off with a new book try writing the blurb for the back of it. I find a few exciting lines bring focus to what the book is about.

4.  Don't show your work to anyone but agent or editor. Anyone else will tell you it’s great, even if its dire. It’s your baby, nurture it yourself.

5.  If you are bored with what you are writing, so will the reader be. Move onto a more exciting part, you can always go back and fill in another day with better ideas.  

The Promise by Lesley Pearse is out now

Read our review of The Promise

The Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author: Novel News - Millie and the American Wedding by Anna Bell

Millie's about to reject the invitation to an American wedding from a long lost college friend Kristen when she accidentally agrees to be bridesmaid at it. Which doesn't seem too bad, what with the wedding being in New York and coming complete with bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner and all those American traditions seen in the movies. But then you add to the equation that she's slept with the groom, and her ex boyfriend Rob (the only love of her life to date) is going to be the best man at the wedding. And not only is he best man, but he's already married, and she's going to the wedding single.

And if that wasn’t enough for Millie there’s also the maid of honour from hell, Collette, bridesmaid dresses that don’t fit, maxi dress malfunctions and secrets from her college life that she wanted to leave firmly behind in the past and on US soil.

As Kristen gets ready for the best day of her life, Millie gears up for the worst week of hers.

So there you are, writer’s Tuesday readers. There is the synopsis of my e-book and you can buy it now on Amazon! I still can’t quite believe it, I keep bringing up the link to the site to see the lovely cover that Novelicious’s own editor Kirsty designed. I can’t quite believe that that is my book. It’s dead funny to see my author page on Amazon and to think I’m an indie author. Although to be honest, I’m still desperate to be a published author too, so I’m not going to give up trying.

Now this last week before publication has been far from calm. I started waking up in a cold sweat last week, panicking that I’d ruin a career in writing before I’d even started. Thinking that people would give me no star or one star ratings that would ruin my writing reputation and then no agent would touch me with a barge pole.  By the time it got to Friday I felt that I had gone completely mad. I mean, here I was on the verge of publishing an ebook and no one had read it but me. Yes people had listened to it, but no other human eye had read it. Yes, I know, you’re thinking I’m crazy. So I sent it off to my step dad, who proofread (and nudged me in the right direction) on a lot of my university essays. So I was preparing myself to get brutal feedback. I sent him instructions to read the first three chapters as a test sample. And then the email came back I’d misspelled the word ‘stared’ I kept putting ‘starred’. ‘That was it,’  I said down the phone. ‘That’s it,’ he replied. He also told me that far from chick lit being his cup of tea he was sucked into the story, but he stopped reading in chapter 3 as instructed in case he got embarrassed if it got ‘smutty’. And from then on I’ve been serenely calm and just so excited about the launch.

I want to say a huge thanks to all the lovely comments I’ve had on Novelicious and twitter encouraging me with the ebook – and if you read it DO let me know what you think!

Novelicious Chats to... Daphne Kalotay

 

Daphne Kalotay is the author of Russian Winter.

1.  Can you tell us a little about your average writing day?

 I don’t really have an average writing day, because I don’t keep to a strict schedule, though in general I get up each morning and write for the next few hours.  How much time I spend writing depends on where I am in a project.  If I’m in the very early stage, trying to produce new material, the longest I can work is 4 hours; after that, my brain just switches off, I’m so tired.  But if I already have material to work with and am revising or editing, I can work for longer stretches of time.

 

2.  When you are writing, do you use any celebrities or people you know as inspiration?

 For characters, or just to keep me going?  In terms of feeling inspired, just knowing that someone like Steven King, who is incredibly successful in terms of book sales, gets up every day and sits for long hours in his chair, working very hard, is a great reminder that writing never gets easier, no matter how many bestsellers you’ve had, or if you’re writing thrillers or sci-fi or so-called “literary fiction.”  You still have to do the work.

 

3.  What is your favourite Women’s Fiction book of all time and why?

 If you mean a work by a woman writer, one of my very favourite novels is The Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather.  It’s about a small-town girl who has musical talent and eventually becomes an opera singer.  It’s truly wonderful, and very moving.

 

4.  What is your writing process? Do you plan first or dive in? How many drafts do you do?

 Though I sometimes have a very general, vague overall idea of what I’ll be writing about, I never have a clear plot, so I basically just dive in and hope for the best.  As for how many drafts I do: too many to count.  I mean that literally; if I tried to keep count, the number would be so enormous, not only would I lose count, but I’d become overwhelmed and then demoralized, I imagine, by how long the process takes.

 

Wallpapering with Book Pages

 

I saw this book papered ceiling on Apartment Therapy and didn't quite know how to feel. While I absolutely love the way it looks, I do feel a bit squeamish at the thought of ripping up all those books.

I'm not generally one of those people who like to protect their books so much that they look like they've never been opened (I happily dog ear the pages, scribble notes in the margins, read in the bath), but totally ripping them up? Not so sure.

What do you think? Do you think it looks pretty? Would you ever rip up a book?

The Bookish Roundup: Week 4 2012

Each week we scour the internets for the most interesting or helpful book and writing related stories of the week. Then every Friday we put them into an nice list for you.

That's it, really.

This Week...

Andrew Miller wins Costa Book of the Year

 

City of Fallen Angels is named as the most quoted book of 2011

 

Shiloh Walker confirms that each time a bad review is written, a pink fluffy unicorn dies

 

Flavorwire shows us the best literary themed graffiti ever

 

Jenny Colgan writes a Doctor Who book

Writer's Digest gives us 4 tips for creating believable villains

Piatkus announces their new digital romance list, Entice

 

Do let us know on our facebook or twitter of any interesting book news you think we should share in next week's bookish roundup!

Bookish Etsy Pick - Book Owl Handbag

WANT.

This handmade Book Owl handbag is by Dunny Galleger on Etsy and costs £49.08. Isn't it cute?