I’ve had some time recently to have a browse (yes, always lethal!) and with my thoughts on school summer holidays …

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 661 KB
Print Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Harper (4 July 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B00AXPJO86

Tess Brookes has always been a Girl with a Plan. But when the Plan goes belly up, she’s forced to reconsider.

After accidently answering her flatmate Vanessa’s phone, she decides that since being Tess isn’t going so well, she might try being Vanessa. With nothing left to lose, she accepts Vanessa’s photography assignment to Hawaii – she used to be an amateur snapper, how hard can it be? Right?

But Tess is soon in big trouble. And the gorgeous journalist on the shoot with her, who is making it very clear he’d like to get into her pants, is an egotistical monster. Far from home and in someone else’s shoes, Tess must decide whether to fight on through, or ‘fess up and run…

Format: Kindle Edition
Print Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Orion (4 July 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B00B8TBVC8

The Orient Express. Luxury. Mystery. Romance. 

For one group of passengers settling in to their seats and taking their first sips of champagne, the journey from London to Venice is more than the trip of a lifetime.

A mysterious errand; a promise made to a dying friend; an unexpected proposal; a secret reaching back a lifetime…As the train sweeps on, revelations, confessions and assignations unfold against the most romantic and infamous setting in the world.

Format: Kindle Edition
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (18 July 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B00AHEKG5I

Ellen Trawton is running away from it all – quite literally. She is due to get married to a man she doesn’t love, her job is dragging her down and her interfering mother is getting on her nerves. So she escapes to the one place she know her mother won’t follow her – to her aunt’s house in rural Ireland. Once there, she uncovers a dark family secret – and a future she never knew she might have.

Meanwhile, Caitlin Macausland is mourning the future she can never have. She died tragically in what the village thinks is suspicious circumstances, and now she is stuck in a limbo, unable to move on.

And between the two of them is an old lighthouse – the scene of so much tragedy. Can each woman find the peace she so desperately longs for? And can they find the way to live again?

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 553 KB
Print Length: 434 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1846059240
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital (18 July 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B00CPR6IC0

Meet the Bird Family

All four children have an idyllic childhood: a picture-book cottage in a country village, a warm, cosy kitchen filled with love and laughter, sun-drenched afternoons in a rambling garden.

But one Easter weekend a tragedy strikes the Bird family that is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear them apart.

The years pass and the children become adults and begin to develop their own quite separate lives. Soon it’s almost as though they’ve never been a family at all.

Almost. But not quite.

Because something has happened that will call them home, back to the house they grew up in – and to what really happened that Easter weekend all those years ago.

Format: Kindle Edition
Print Length: 496 pages
Publisher: Penguin (1 Aug 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B00CBO0BGG

When Ella married the handsome, celebrated artist Sebastian Montclair at just nineteen she was madly in love. Now, those blissful years of marriage have turned into the very definition of an unconventional set-up. Separated in every way but distance, Sebastian resides in an outhouse across the lawn from Ella’s ramshackle farmhouse.

With an ex-husband living under her nose and a home crowded by hostile teenaged children, gender-confused chickens – not to mention her hyper critical mother whose own marriage slips spectacularly off the rails -Ella finds comfort in the company of the very charming gardener, Ludo.

Then out of the blue Sebastian decides to move on, catching Ella horribly unawares. How much longer can she hide from what really destroyed her marriage . . . and the secret she continues to keep?

Format: Kindle Edition
Print Length: 480 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (1 Aug 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language: English
ASIN: B0098MKX8U

Best friends May, Lara and Clare are desperate for a holiday. They have been dreaming of a little cottage in the middle of nowhere, long walks in the country and just a bit of time away from it all. But when they arrive in Ren Dullem, a small Yorkshire seaside town, it seems it is not the place they thought it was…

May can’t wait to get away from men after being cruelly deceived. Then in Dullem she falls hook line and sinker at first glance for one of the inhabitants – but he’s already taken…

Lara is living with James and his awful step-children who taunt her with tales of his younger, prettier ex whom they adored – the woman who Lara walks in to find James in bed with despite all his protestations that he wouldn’t touch her again with a barge pole. Reeling from the hurt, she needs the sea air of Dullem to heal her. What she doesn’t need is to be constantly in battle with the owner of the holiday cottage – a man who is every bit as bitter and resentful and untrusting of the other sex as she is.

Clare’s kind, steady boyfriend Lud wants her to go and live abroad with him for two years, but she’s just been offered the promotion of a lifetime. It gives her the excuse she needs to end the relationship and find some single excitement which happens to turn up in the form of a very bad boy who is everything Lud isn’t – impulsive, wild and dangerous.

Will this holiday be the break they all need? Or will the odd little town with all its secrets bring them all to breaking point…?

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Choc Lit (7 Aug 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1781890048
ISBN-13: 978-1781890042

The past is never over … 
Jack Stewart thought he’d put the past behind him. On the surface, he has everything – success, money, a big house and he is never short of an attractive woman by his side, but a tragic road accident shatters his world.

Raised as an Irish Traveller, Luke Kiernan hasn’t had it easy, and when he wakes in a Dublin hospital to find the man he’s hated since childhood at his bedside, he’s hungry for revenge.

Two very different worlds collide, bringing new dangers, exposing past deceits, and unearthing dark family secrets buried long ago. But from tragedy springs the promise of a fresh start with two women who are intent on helping Jack and Luke mend their lives.

Can new love heal old wounds, or are some scars there for good?

Of course there are many more books out this summer.

What has caught your eye?  Please share in the comments

I was scanning the whole school calendar a while ago, making sure appointments didn’t clash for what was happening in my schedule and the school’s events.  Imagine my excitement when I saw Jeremy Strong!  What did I do?  Yes, you’re absolutely right.  I made sure my calendar was clear for Thursday 6th June from 10am for an hour

The excitement was building to a crescendo the day before (and not only for the children).

On the morning, I casually wended my way along the corridor a little bit before the event was due to start in the hall and saw the member of staff who was responsible for coordinating the visit.  She told me that Jeremy Strong was in the Exec Head’s office with his publicist.  What did I do?  Yes, you’re absolutely right.  I introduced myself!  although I never once said my name … ‘Hi, I’m a book blogger’ were the first words out of my mouth, despite being in my professional clothes with my ID badge on!  I was more than a little star struck, as you can see from my cheesy grin in this photograph.

Once the children were all settled, Jeremy began his talk.  He shared a piece of his writing from when he was 6/7 which had been inspired from Jason and the Argonauts.  He asked the children what could they see?  making sure they realised that he had missed full stops, capital letters and had spelling mistakes (and how awful his handwriting looked).

He shared anecdotes and asked the children questions that caused much laughter (as much from staff as from the children).

All the way through he was inspiring and motivating the children, for example by asking questions such as ‘who writes at home?’ and then responding that they were all authors.  He had us all chuckling with questions like ‘where do you write at home?’ and a response ‘on the sofa’ caused much laughter as Jeremy role-played a scene of being caught writing ON the sofa.

Jeremy read an extract from his new book, My Brother’s Famous Bottom Gets Crowned (book number 99!)

The children were from Years 3 and 4 and the talk and interaction lasted an hour … we all know the length of concentration children of these ages can maintain.  They didn’t start to get restless until the last 10 minutes.  I think that shows just how entranced and captivated the children were.  It’s simple to work out why,  Jeremy is a master storyteller.

I left while the children were eagerly waiting to buy their books and for them to be signed.

Later, as I passed children in the corridor, they were all coming out hugging their books to their chests and BEAMING.

In staff briefing the next day, the impact the event had on the children was evident from class teacher’s comments.

Oh, and in the words of one member of staff. Jeremy Strong is a LEGEND.

Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Puffin (6 Jun 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0141344229
ISBN-13: 978-0141344225

Nicholas’s neighbours are in a royal frenzy! They’re celebrating the Queen’s coronation (whatever that means) and everyone’s gone BONKERS! Dad’s dressing up as a banana and why has Cheese got a crown on his bottom? It’s going to be the biggest street party they’ve ever had, until a letter from the Prince and Princess announcing the arrival of THEIR very own twins adds an extra-special surprise!

* Jeremy Strong is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog, My Brother’s Famous Bottom, Cartoon Kid and Krazy Kow Saves the World, Well Almost!

* The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog was the winner of the Red House Children’s Book Award, and Jeremy was a World Book Day author.

* Perfect for reluctant readers, and fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, The Brilliant Wolrd of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon and Andy Stanton’s Mr Gum books.

* Cover illustrations by Nick Sharratt.

Jeremy Strong once worked in a bakery, putting the jam into three thousand doughnuts every night. Now he puts the jam in stories instead, which he finds much more exciting. At the age of three, he fell out of a first-floor bedroom window and landed on his head. His mother says that this damaged him for the rest of his life and refuses to take any responsibility. He loves writing stories because he says it is ‘the only time you alone have complete control and can make anything happen’. His ambition is to make you laugh (or at least snuffle). Jeremy Strong lives near Bath with his wife, Gillie, four cats and a flying cow. Join Jeremy Strong’s Krazy Klub at http://www.jeremystrong.co.uk

Explains everything …

Ben Hatch was born in London and grew up here, in Manchester and Buckinghamshire, where he lived in a Windmill that meant he was called Windy Miller at school for years, though he’s not been scarred by this experience at all. He now lives in Brighton with his tiny wife Dinah, and two children, in a normal house. He likes cheese and is balding although he disguises this fact by spiking his hair to a great height to distract people he wishes to impress.

His latest book is called Road to Rouen: A 10,000 Mile Journey in a cheese-filled Passat. Before this he wrote Are We Nearly There Yet? 8,000 Miles Round Britain in Vauxhall Astra, that was a Radio 2 Book of the Year, became a Number One bestseller and is currently being made into a movie by Island Pictures.

He is the tallest Hatch who ever lived (5ft 9) and is son of Sir David Hatch, the famous radio performer and producer whose shadow Ben doesn’t at all feel under. He also maintains that he knows the cure for the common cold (tweet him at @BenHatch to find this out) and that one of his relatives was John Couch-Adams who discovered the planet Neptune. Apparently his aunty told him.

Many years ago his first comic novel, The Lawnmower Celebrity, based loosely on his time as a chicken sandwich station monitor at Darlington McDonalds, was named one of the Radio 4′s eight books of the year in 2000. The International Gooseberry about a hapless backpacker with a huge ungovernable toenail was published in 2001 and described as “hysterical and surprisingly sad” by the Daily Express. Ben Hatch was on the long-list of Granta’s 2003 list of the most promising 20 young authors in the UK, but missed out on final inclusion possibly because of the toenail stuff. In association with his wife Dinah, he has also written three guidebooks for Frommer’s. Frommer’s: Scotland With Your Family, Frommer’s: England With Your family, and Frommer’s: Britain For Free. The guidebooks are a mixture of helpful and humorous tips on holidaying with children, reviews of attractions, and incendiary arguments with his wife about among other things: what is the best type of owl?

You can visit Ben Hatch at his Facebook Author Page (although his page is a bit rubbish).

You can tweet with him @BenHatch

Hi Ben,

Please summarise your latest book in 20 words or less.

The book is about a real life 10,000 family road trip round France in a stinking VW Passat that involves aliens, crazed donkeys and British spies.

What was the idea/inspiration for your novel?

We’d just lost our life savings of £25,000 to a dodgy builder and I needed to make some money so I decided it would be a good idea to write a guidebook about France. The only trouble was I had no idea how big France was, I didn’t speak any French  and along the way the kids would refuse to eat any beans that weren’t orange, the bread (“It’s too sharp”) and my wife and I would fall out so badly I’d end up taking off alone to Spain, where I almost got myself murdered by a man claiming to be a soup baron.

What inspired you to write?

The inspiration to write came from discovering when I was around 13 a suitcase of comedy sketches on thin blue tissue paper my dad had written in his 20s for the Cambridge Footlights. Before then I saw my dad as a fairly boring BBC manager who wore a suit and liked to watch Juliet Bravo in quite smelly slippers. It was a shock to realise he had clearly once been young too and like me. I remember there was one sketch about a sheep dog partial to a nice bit of mint sauce. It made me laugh out loud. I started to write my own sketches after this that my dad would mark in the margin (“Move that line there” … “It’s boom boom joke. Not boom joke boom” …. “My son. don’t forget it’s light and shade.”) After that all I ever wanted to do was make my dad laugh by getting the booms in the right place.

Do you have a most creative time of day?

I don’t know about creative but in terms of being productive the best time of day for me is round about now. I’m typing this at 6am. It’s before the kids wake up, before my phone starts bleeping with messages and before anyone thinks of sending an email. It’s just me and the very loud hum of my computer (I probably ought to do something about) and the odd slug still making it’s way back outside through the small gap under the back door.

Do you have a favourite book? Why?  What is it about that book?

My favourite book is Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. It’s the first book I read that I truly connected with. Before that I only read thrillers by people like Alistair MacLean that to be honest bore very little relevance to my life in Buckinghamshire collecting car brochures and eating mainly Findus type meals connected with fish and batter. Catcher in the Rye is about a few days in the life of a disaffected 16—year-old from New York and it grabbed me by the throat. I had no idea it was a classic work of literature. I found it by chance in my dad’s book shelf. For years I thought I’d discovered it. I’ve read it about 10 times. For a long time I would use it as a way of deciding whether I would get on with people: had they read it? What did they think of it. In fact whenever I see a copy in shops or people’s houses it comforts me and I always flick through a few pages and read bits. It’s like meeting an old and trusted friend.

What are you reading now? Opinion?

I’m reading The Humans by Matt Haig. I’m enjoying it a lot. I love books that carry a  strong voice and Matt’s books always seem to manage this difficult trick.

Being a writer can be lonely.  Do you have a support network?

My main support network is my wife and kids, who come bowling into my study at 3.45pm every weekday full of stories about what happened when so and so was sick on the floor of the computer suite etc. And, of course, twitter. It can be very distracting, but equally it’s great to know there are friends out there to chat to just a few clicks away

What has been the best part of your writing journey so far?

I think the most enjoyable moment was hearing an agent wanted to take me on. I was travelling round the world in 1998. My mum had died the previous year, which had knocked me sideways. It had also inspired me to jack in my job reporting at the Leicester Mercury newspaper. I wanted to do something that would have made my mum proud of me so I decided I’d write a novel. Basically I blew up my life almost over night. I quit my job, broke up with my girlfriend – or rather she broke up with me – and I moved to London. I slept on friend’s floors and went to local cafes and wrote my book. I sent it off to literary agents the day before I left the country to go backpacking, using up the last of the money my mum had left me on a round the world ticket. I didn’t want to be around for the rejection letters. I’d been gone 6 months and was just preparing to beg for my old job back when the very last agent I’d sent the book to contacted me. I was sitting in an internet café in Thailand with my girlfriend (now my wife). It had a mud floor. The email was from an agent at Curtis Brown. I remember pushing back my wheeled chair and rolling several feet across the ground. He liked the book and wanted to sign me up. That night we got very drunk in a bar in Bangkok.

What has been the worst part of your writing journey so far?

Probably when my third novel was rejected. I’d bought this house we couldn’t afford and we had to rent it out and move to a flat above a pickling factory in Brighton to make ends meet. My wife Dinah was pregnant at the time with our first child. I did the flat up basically with no tools apart from maybe a butter knife and after my daughter Phoebe was born, Dinah went back to work and I became a stay-at-home dad for what turned out to be a few years. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done but also the most rewarding. This third novel had taken a long time to write because of all this. Then when I finally sent it into my publisher (my daughter was now in school, my son in nursery) it had been so long they forgot they were my publisher. Nobody knew who I was. It felt like the water had closed over my had and I had to start all over again.

Thank you for sharing with us Ben.  It really has been a pleasure hosting you today.

Ben Hatch is on the road again. Commissioned to write a guidebook about France (despite not speaking any French) he sets off with visions of relaxing chateaux and refined dining. Ten thousand miles later his family’s been attacked by a donkey, had a run-in with a death-cult and, after a near drowning and a calamitous wedding experience involving a British spy, his own marriage is in jeopardy. A combination of obsessions about mosquitoes, French gravel and vegetable theme parks mean it’s a bumpy ride as Ben takes a stand against tyrannical French pool attendants, finds himself running with the bulls in Pamplona and almost starring in a snuff movie after a near fatal decision to climb into a millionaire’s Chevrolet Blazer.

Funny and poignant, Road to Rouen asks important questions about life, marriage and whether it’s ever acceptable to tape baguette to your children’s legs to smuggle lunch into Disneyland Paris.

|  Amazon Kindle   |  Amazon Paperback  |  Amazon US   |

|    |

I have great pleasure in welcoming Jack Croxall to Jera’s Jamboree.

Photo courtesy of author

Born in High Wycombe, Jack Croxall now lives in rural Nottinghamshire with his chocolate Labrador, Archie. He has a degree in Environmental Science from the University of Nottingham and currently toils away as a science writer in between working on his books. He tweets via @JackCroxall and blogs at http://www.jackcroxall.co.uk

Jack is sharing with us:

Why I decided to self-publish my debut novel

When I was writing my first novel, I didn’t really have much any knowledge of the publishing industry or of how it worked. What little insight I eventually acquired was almost entirely through sporadic use of good old Google when I should really have been doing other things.

Originally, I suppose I thought that, once my book was finished, I would just send it off to a small-time publisher, wait a few days, finalise a deal and eventually sort out lunch with JK a little further down the line. How wrong I was! Finding agents/publishers, writing query letters for them, writing out synopsis, waiting for replies; all of this takes a huge amount of time and I found it to be pretty mind-numbing process.

After a fair old wait, I did receive interest from a number of places I’d contacted but the next stage of the traditional publishing slog (sending off your entire manuscript and waiting for a response) apparently took even longer! Eventually, I was getting pretty fed up with waiting, and then someone told me about Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform.

For those of you who might not have come across it, KDP is an online service that allows authors to make their work available via the Kindle Store for any device capable of reading ebooks (tablets, PCs, iphones etc). Releasing a novel through KDP allows an author control of price, the book’s marketing and, crucially, means that the author alone retains full rights to the work. Ownership of rights is important because, if an ebook performs well and develops a large following, it can lead to the attention of a mainstream publisher and possibly a full deal without the need for writing hundreds of query letters – hooray!

Sadly, though, I think it’s fair to say that a good proportion of self-published novels aren’t very successful so, with interest from more traditional avenues, it might seem slightly odd that I opted to release Tethers in this way, even when you consider my utter lack of patience. However, interest was no guarantee of anything else and, rather than spending hours writing further submissions, I personally felt it would be more productive to invest my time in promoting the book to potential readers and writing more blogs/articles to get my voice out there.

So far, I have been so very lucky with the success of the book’s promotion; I have had coverage on BBC radio, been featured in local newspapers, magazines, numerous amazing blogs and have even been reviewed by the massive and most excellent website, MuggleNet. On top of that I have made an abundance of wonderful friends and found so many new and great books to read and to share.

I suppose the point of this article is to say that, if you work hard, self-publishing can bring you a measure of success and, perhaps more importantly, to add to that, I regret nothing!

Thank you for being a guest today Jack and sharing part of your publishing journey.  

Wishing you success with The Tethers Trilogy … sounds amazing.

A YA Victorian fantasy, Jack Croxall’s debut novel, Tethers follows Karl Scheffer and Esther Emerson as they become embroiled in a treacherous conspiracy. The book is available through Amazon and you can find out more by visiting: www.jackcroxall.co.uk or the book’s GoodReads page.

In the wake of a cold Victorian winter, two teenagers discover an anonymous journal filled with strange passages and bizarre scribblings.

The journal soon draws them into a covert and sinister conspiracy, a conspiracy centred around an otherworldly artefact with the power to change everything …

Karl and Esther have spent almost every day of their thirteen years in the quiet market town of Shraye. Stifled by their rural surroundings and frustrated by their unfulfilled ambitions, they find the allure of the journal’s mysterious pages impossible to ignore. The book seems to be beckoning them away from Shraye, away from their homes and towards the coast where an unsolved disappearance has set in motion a dark chain of events.

The voyage the teenagers soon find themselves undertaking is one of desperate importance and true peril; it will change the way they see the world, and each other, forever.

Set in Victorian Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, Tethers is the first instalment of The Tethers Trilogy.

Praise for Tethers

Reminiscent of the exploration stories of Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome, the kids find themselves on a metaphorical rollercoaster cart racing down the tracks. And the brakes are off. Sword fights, pistols, unfortunate deaths and curious objects, the plot thickens with every twist and turn. Suddenly Blyton meets H.G. Wells, and a brilliantly paced steampunk tale of machinery and science-based magic unfolds. (MuggleNet)

Somewhere between Pullman’s Sally Lockhart mysteries and Moonfleet sits Tethers, a rip-roaring debut novel. Sharply written with well observed characters that you can root for, Tethers has you turning pages faster that Ronald MacDonald can throw out burgers. (Sharon Sant – author of the Sky Song trilogy)

Hardcover:

Publisher: Bantam Press (5 July 2012)

ISBN-10: 0593070216

ISBN-13: 978-0593070215

Before Ellen, things were easier and less complicated. They were either good or bad, right or wrong, black or white and I understood the difference. Since Ellen, everything has been coloured in shades of grey.

From the author of THE SECRETS BETWEEN US, part of the 2012 Richard and Judy Summer Reads, comes this dark, thrilling novel that is perfect for your book group.

It’s set twenty years ago against a backdrop of dreamy Cornish summers, a place where childhood friendship becomes young love, where love becomes obsession, and where obsession ultimately ends in betrayal and a tragic death.

This magical novel traces a web of memories back through the years from the present day, ultimately showing that no matter how much you might try to forget the past, the past never forgets you…

Amazon Hardback  |  Amazon Kindle  |  Amazon Paperback (pre-order 1 Aug 2013) 

 

I read The Secrets Between Us as part of the Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge in August 2011 (you can read my review here,  please excuse the formatting, it was imported from Blogger and I’m unable to change it!)  It was a keeper for me so I couldn’t wait to get reading In Her Shadow!

We begin dramatically with Hannah seeing her old friend and nemesis, Ellen, in the Brunel Memorial Museum in Bristol where she works.  This was a very atmospheric scene which hooked me in straight away!

From the time that Hannah and Jago (the boy next door) first meet Mrs Withiel at Thornfield House and the subsequent meeting after her death of granddaughter Ellen Brecht, we’re taking on a suspenseful and tension filled journey.  Interspersed with chapters in the present time, a picture builds slowly of what has led Hannah to a psychotic episode and beyond … to her fragile emotional and mental state of today.  These alternate timelines hook you in and keep you turning those pages – you just have to find out what drama is unfolding in the past that has had such a detrimental effect on Hannah today!

In the present time, we don’t just experience Han’s fragility.  Boss John is a character that is her constant and solid support.  Married and with children, he has his own problems that Han thinks he’s not facing.  Their business trip to a conference in Berlin is a key (but not in the way you might think).

The childhood and teen years spent in Trethene draw you in.  It’s such a perfect setting for the secrets and betrayals to come to life.

Although this is quite a dark journey (domestic violence, manipulation and obsession) there are innocent moments and the ending is just perfect.  I had no idea that this was coming!

Once again Douglas has given us a journey that is full of suspense, tension and intrigue.  Loved her writing style and the characters and their lives became very real to me.  As I read that last sentence I was sobbing.  I didn’t want it to end!

Buy it but be loathe to share your copy … it’s a keeper!

I was fortunate to receive a hardback copy from the author and a paperback copy from the publishers (in exchange for an honest review).

Find out more about Louise and her writing on her website.   Louise tweets @LouiseDouglas3.

My guest today on STATIONERY LOVE is Carol Wright.

WELCOME!

As a child my parents would take my brother and me out for days and we would get a pen/pencil/eraser and little notebook whenever we visited a castle, stately home or zoo.

I still do this with my own children.  Gift shops at attractions tend to be quite expensive so this is my way of letting the children take home something to remind them of their day out without breaking the bank.

At school I loved my Bic 4 colour pens.  Pencil cases were there to relieve the boredom in certain lessons. Rubbers, pencil cases and folders would be doodled until unrecognisable.  Boys names, little cartoon dogs, caterpillars etc. This was the extent of my rebelliousness in school.  :)

I prefer to write in pencil.  This comes from my school days as a left-hander that could not get on with fountain pens.  When I was at school we were using cartridge fountain pens but these were still the enemy as far as a left hander was concerned.  I gave up on fountain pens as soon as I possibly could.

I tend to borrow stationary from my daughter these days. Her bedroom is a haven for stationery and craft supplies.

These funky A4 folders were from the supermarket. Stationery doesn’t have to be expensive. I use these for filing paid bills etc.

I have a lovely Filofax that fits into my handbag that my daughter gave me for my birthday last year. Last year it was my wedding planner, too.

My daughter currently works part-time in an Independent Stationers and this is where she found my Filofax.

I could not be without my diary.  I tend to have a mid year planner as it fits in with the children’s school year. The lilac mid year in the photo is my book blog diary. It is stuffed with cards and leaflets I picked up at the Festival of Romance last year.

The notebook to the right with lilac pattern is my Romantic Fiction notebook that I keep all my notes in for my role as Reviews Editor for Romantic Fiction On-line.

Thank you for sharing with us today Carol.  Memories of doodling … sigh! How fortunate your daughter is working at a stationers  

I must admit to an obsession with diaries … I have one for book blogging, one for the tours and a personal one – as well as my two online calendars as well. I’m still a paper girl at heart.

Has any blog readers made the transition to online diaries completely?  Or are you like Carol and I with our paper diaries still in ascendancy?

About Carol 

Carol aka a DizzyC has been blook blogging and reviewing for over 2 years at DizzyC’s Little Book Blog.

She is voluntary Reviews Editor for Romantic Fiction On-line and an Associate Reader for Love a Happy Ending.

Carol can be found at:

http://dizzycslittlebookblog.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/DizzyCs-Little-Book-Blog/209614725766997

https://twitter.com/DizzyCLBB

Paperback:

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (11 April 2013)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0857205560

ISBN-13: 978-0857205568

There are six months left of Emma Reiss’s twenties…and she has some unfinished business. Emma and her friends are about to turn thirty, and for Emma it’s a defining moment. Defined, that is, by her having achieved none of the things she’d imagined she would. Her career is all wrong, her love life is a desert and that penthouse apartment she pictured herself in simply never materialised. Moreover, she’s never jumped out of a plane, hasn’t met the man she’s going to marry, has never slept under the stars, or snogged anyone famous – just some of the aspirations on a list she and her friends compiled fifteen years ago. As an endless round of birthday parties sees Emma hurtle towards her own thirtieth, she sets about addressing these issues. But, as she discovers with hilarious consequences, some of them are trickier to tick off than she’d thought…

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Having read (and loved) All The Single Ladies in February 2012 (you can read my review here), I was a little bit nervous when The Wish List was next on my tbr pile.

I have to be honest from the very beginning and share that it totally lived up to my expectations! Right from the prologue I was hooked and, apart from having to work, this wasn’t ever out of my hands for long.  This is going to be one of those reviews that is really difficult to write because you just can’t capture in its entirety how the story made you feel.

Narrated in the first person, Emma is such a strong lead that you really do get caught up in the countdown to her 30^th birthday.

In the prologue we get to know the kind of person Emma is.  The result of this scene leads to some hilarious scenes a little further into the story.

It’s during the spa weekend with best friends Cally and Asha that we find out about ex-boyfriend Rob.  We get to meet her sister Marianne and there’s intrigue surrounding why she’s now in a different relationship and given up her high maintenance modelling life in London and moved to Edinburgh.  The list is discussed and we find out what actions are on there.

Emma’s job as a programmer with Little Blue Bus Productions and her boss Perry adds a lot of humour and tension to the story!

Rob is such the perfect guy he doesn’t really have any substance!  Matt is the hot hunk with a difficult emotional life.

With Emma in pursuit of completing the actions on the list, her complicated love life and work life; Cally and the mystery of her son’s paternity (and her lack of interest in the opposite sex); Asha in her difficult situation; her dad on dates from the dating agency – all leading us to some hilarious and heart-warming situations.  Add in the loss Emma feels from the death of her mother when she was 6 and we have a story that is full of laughter and hilarity, and of course the opposite emotions of despair and tears.

The scene that prompted the most laughter for me has to be the morning after the aborted overnight camping (although there are of course others that aren’t far behind).  The scene that broke my heart is the gift that Emma’s dad gave her on her birthday.

The evening of Emma’s birthday party is just perfect.  Having been through trauma during the day, it was just perfect in so many ways.

The epilogue ended the story with a flourish

You can read an extract of The Wish List on Books and the City.

Buy it but be loathe to share your copy … it’s a keeper!

I would like to thank the publishers, Simon & Schuster for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

You can find out more about Jane Costello by visiting her website, stay up-to-date on her author Facebook page, or stay in touch through Twitter @JaneCostello.

Format:

File Size: 158 KB

Print Length: 68 pages

Publisher: Endeavour Press Ltd.  1 edition (17 Aug 2012)

Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.

Language: English

ASIN: B0098WAFHY

Downthorpe Hall. A posh boarding school in the Home Counties. Will Hughes has been installed as the new headmaster – fresh from working in an inner-city Comprehensive.

Will knows there will be challenges ahead. Difficult parents, rebellious teenagers, and jealous teachers who will fight his attempts to reform the school.

What he didn’t expect was a battle for his heart.

But when he meets the fiercely ambitious deputy head Grace Foley, and the brilliantly smart science teacher Henry Mead, Will realises that the ties at Downthorpe are not just the kind you wear around your neck.

What follows is a tangle of competing ambitions and desires that will leave Will bemused – and may force him to choose between the job he has always wanted and the woman of his dreams.

‘School Ties’ is a sparkling romantic comedy that takes the reader inside the cloistered, elite world of a top public school. It introduces a brilliant cast of characters that will entrance and entertain the reader.

It is perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Jane Green and Jilly Cooper.

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School Ties begins with Will Hughes, new Acting Head of Downthorpe, marking bottom set Hamlet papers.  We’re introduced to Deputy Grace and science teacher Henry.

We have intrigue why Will left teaching and worked in advertising before being appointed at Downthorpe;  gossip from a chance sighting that was interpreted incorrectly which causes conflict and an accident that brings two members of staff closer together with a sprinkling of romance.

The observations of staff and students is very accurate!  Even though we’re at a private school, anyone will be able to identify with the relationships and the conflict.

I enjoyed this novella which sets the scene for a series.  Lessons in Love (March 2013) which follows on, sees new teacher Alice Jackson getting to grips with the staffroom politics, students and a new love.

Buy it and spread the word

I would like to thank the publishers for providing a word doc in exchange for an honest review.

You can stay up-to-date with the Emma Lee-Potter via her website,  including social media links.

What three things would I take with me if I was marooned on a desert Island?

Who are my four dinner invite guests?

Find out and more on Jo Lambert’s

Tea and Talk at Sally Lunn’s.

Filed under: Author Interview Tagged: Author, book review, interview, Jo Lambert, tea and talk at Sally Lunn's ]]> http://jerasjamboree.com/2013/06/08/jeras-jamboree-find-me-on-tea-and-talk-at-sally-lunns-with-jolambertwriter/feed/ 8 shazjera tea and talk http://jerasjamboree.com/2013/06/07/jeras-jamboree-author-interview-and-giveaway-with-heather-buchine/ http://jerasjamboree.com/2013/06/07/jeras-jamboree-author-interview-and-giveaway-with-heather-buchine/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2013 07:00:37 +0000 shazjera http://jerasjamboree.com/?p=4814 Continue reading →]]> Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Heather Buchine to Jera’s Jamboree:

By no surprise my favorite hobbies are reading and writing. But beyond escaping into the written fantasy world, I love experiencing new things. Surfing, motorcycle riding, snow blading, glass blowing, parasailing, SUP boarding are just a few that I have checked off my bucket list, but there is still so much more to explore. Right now, being a mom is my biggest adventure and the best by far!!  In the quiet calm hours of the night though, I can usually be found typing away creating a world of romance where drama still exists but love (hopefully!!) always prevails.

Hi Heather,

What inspired you to write?

I absolutely LOVE to read! Sometimes I’ll read a book a few times in a row just to relive the experience of it.  Well, one day I came up with a story in my mind that I had to see on paper.  I wanted to read it. And that is what inspired me to start writing!

Do you have a most creative time of the day?

Honestly, not really. I usually always have a notebook nearby so that I can scribble things down as they come to me.  I could be in the shower, in the car, running through the checkout line, or making dinner and something may hit me.

Do you have a favorite place you go for inspiration or a favorite activity?

My favorite activity for finding inspiration is listening to music while being in the great outdoors. I love to camp, hike, kayak, etc… and find inspiration in all of it.

Are you a panster or a plotter?

I really consider myself a mix between a panster and a plotter. The first part of my process is visualizing the characters and the main scenes of the book.  My mind starts playing them out like a movie, and so I write it down exactly how I see it.  Then, I go back and fill in the story around those scenes until I have a book that I would like to jump into.  Although I outline my book ahead of time, things always change along the way as I get to know my characters better.

If your book is part of a series, what is in the future?

Yes, it is! At least two of the other characters from “Inspire” are getting their own books, and after that, we shall see. I also have a couple other projects that are in the works

Which authors have influenced your writing?

I would have to say that S. C. Stephens, Abbi Glines, and E.L James have had the most influence on my writing.  I love that these authors have taken chances, and that they truly bring their characters to life.

What are you reading now? Opinion?

Right now, I am reading Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire.  I’m only two pages in, so the verdict is still out

Who is your target audience? Have you written for other genres or plan to in the future?

My target audience is anyone 18+ who loves a good romance novel!  So far, I have only written New Adult/Contemporary Romance because I’m a sucker for love. But maybe I will venture into Paranormal Romance down the road.  I’ll have to see where the road takes me

What tips do you have for other aspiring authors?

My first tip would be to write what you love! Second, edit, edit and edit some more. And third, if you’re a self-published author, let someone else do your formatting for you.  (Your time saved is so worth the money!)

With that, I would just like to say ‘Thank You!’ to all of my readers. You guys Rock!!!

Thank you for sharing with us today Heather.

Connect with Heather:

18-year old Paige Rice, an exquisite beauty from East Hampton, NY, has just celebrated her high school graduation and is expecting to spend her summer living it up with all her socialite friends. But her parents have a different idea – she is being hauled away-literally- to the mountains of Vermont for the entire summer- in an RV!

***Intended for mature audiences due to language and sexual content***

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