The author in my spotlight is ...Karen Maitland

It is with great pleasure that I welcome

Karen Maitland

Author

 of 

Headline Review
14th August 2014

Karen ~ A warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for taking the time to chat about your latest book.

The Vanishing Witch.

What inspired you to write The Vanishing Witch and how many rough drafts did it take before you were happy with the story?

There were three elements that came together to inspire the novel. The first was years ago I came across the records of a wealthy medieval woman accused of murdering four husbands by witchcraft. She never came to trial, and I always wondered was she wicked, or entirely innocent and falsely accused?

The second element was watching the news reports of the London riots of 2011 which shared many elements of the Peasants Revolt of 1381, when thousands of ordinary people started looting, killing and burning buildings in towns all over the country. People claimed the London riots of 2011 were fuelled by use of social media, but there were no mobiles or even telephones in 1380’s, yet word somehow spread nearly as fast.

The third element came from going on ghost walks in Lincoln. Lincoln is a city of ghosts, almost as if a parallel world has burrowed in and hidden among the living. But what do the ghosts think about the living?

I redrafted The Vanishing Witch more than any other novel, probably about 20 times in total, because as the novel evolved the character I thought was going to be the at the heart of the story convinced me that they weren't, and it was another character’s story. So only about a quarter of the original novel remains in the published version. I have a very patient editor!

Your writing is very atmospheric – how do you ‘set the scene’ in your novels and how much research did you do in order to bring The Vanishing Witch  to life?

I was able to walk the streets of Lincoln in the daylight and after dark which still contains many medieval buildings and imagine where my characters walked and tried to picture what they would have seen using old maps and records. Back in 1381, the Brayford harbour, though inland, would been filled with sounds of men shouting, sawing and hammering as boats were repaired and paggers unloaded fish, wine and spices from the boats and loaded great bales of wool and cloth. 

The Prologue of the novel takes place in the sinister marshes that bordered the river, shrouded in mist. These marshes have long been drained, but I spent time writing in a cottage on the marshes in Norfolk, so I could describe the eerie sounds of the marsh at night and how dense fog distorts voices.

I think it is important to actually visit the places where the novels are set. When you’re there you notice smells or sounds you’d never get from seeing it on google-earth, but also you can act out what your characters are doing there. Could they hear the river from that point? Where would they have hidden on that staircase? The Greestone Stairs is said to be the most haunted street in England and coming down that lane at night in the steady light of modern street-lamps can be unnerving, but if you stop and try to imagine what it would be like coming down those uneven steps by the light of flickering torch-flames with a murderer behind you …

In your research for The Vanishing Witch did you discover anything which surprised you?

I was amazed that the rioters were able seize and slaughter such important people like the Archbishop of Canterbury so easily and to break in places that you imagine should have been well-defended like the Tower of London, the Savoy Palace owned by John of Gaunt and the great prisons of London. Obviously the guards had fled or were helping the rebels, but it was fascinating how quickly such fortified strongholds could fall. Also the sheer bravado of King Richard who aged only 14 years was able to convince an angry mob of thousands of adult rebels to follow him into a trap and the sheer scale and horror of the bloody and brutal revenge the boy-king ordered afterwards. Today, we call 14 year olds ‘children’.

Another aspect of the research I found fascinating was the witchcraft. There is an assumption that the Church always condemned divination, and summoning of spirits and demons, but I was interested to discover how many clergy wrote instruction manuals on how to summon spirits and demons or on varies forms of divination and regularly practised these on behalf the Church. Equally how often laity or so-called ‘witches’ when they were casting evil spells would either use things stolen from the church such as holy water or would invoke the names of saints and the Holy Trinity in the spell, using the very things you would have expected to counter the evil they were planning.

Your book covers are very distinctive - do you work in collaboration with the cover designer, and if so how much input do you have in choosing the final design?

I love the book covers, but I can’t take any credit for them. I don’t have any input, which is just as well, as I don’t have any artist talent at all.  The editor and artist collaborate over the covers, so they are always a surprise to me. I was delighted when one reader pointed out that the runes on the tongue of the wolf on the cover of Company of Liars spells out the name of murderer.

I am also in awe of how much thought goes into the cover detail when the publishing team ask for a subtle change in the shade of one of the colours or the lettering made bigger or smaller by a tiny fraction. I can never spot the difference until I put the two covers side by side and then realise it makes all the difference in the world. But you do have to have real design talent to spot what adjustments to make, which I could never do.

When do you find the time to write, and do you have a favourite place to do your writing?

My first novel was written in the evenings and weekends around a full-time job, but now I write full time. Deadlines mean I try to start at 9am and finish at 6pm with half an hour for lunch. That time is solid writing. In the evenings I research those questions that have cropped up while I’ve been writing, because I can’t break off in the middle of a scene to research them, it destroys the atmosphere. So in the evenings I look up things like – Was it the fashionable in that year for a man to wear a belt round the hips or round his waist? If you poisoned someone with dwale (deadly nightshade) how long before they start to feel the effects.  Weekends often involve a trip to a museum to look at medieval objects or to a location or a building of the type in which I plan to set a scene.

I have converted a small derelict workshop in the tiny garden to write in, which means I can go away from the house even if it’s only a few yards. I sit facing a blank white wall, so that I can almost project the scene I’m watching in my head onto the wall. My writing hole has all kinds of replica medieval things in it which I can handle as I write, no phone so I can’t be interrupted,  and if I want an internet connection I have to sit with the door wide open even in mid-winter, but at least that stops me being tempted to look at dancing ferrets on you-tube.

And finally for fun –

If you had your own time travel machine, at which event in history would you like to be a fly on the wall, and why?

There are lots of mysteries I’d love to go back and solve -- Who was Jack the Ripper? Were the princes in the tower really murdered? Did any of the Tsars children survive the slaughter in Russia? But I’m not sure I would like to have been a fly on their corpses to find out.

So I’d really like to go back to see if King Arthur ever really existed at all and if he did, was Merlin a kindly, elderly wizard or a foul, smelly old witchdoctor who wandered around half-naked, slicing open the bellies of living slaves to read the oracles in their intestines.

Karen - Thanks so much for giving so generously of your time and for the fascinating insight 
into the background to The Vanishing Witch.

 Jaffa and I have loved hosting this interview and wish you continuing success with your writing.

***

Find more about Karen on her website

           

The Vanishing Witch is published 14th August and is available from all good book retailers.

Karen is offering one lucky UK winner the chance to own a copy of 

The Vanishing Witch in this fabulous giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*~Good Luck~*

Review ~ Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Michael Joseph
Penguin UK
July 2014

Jane and her small son, Ziggy move to a beach resort in one of the Australian suburbs. It’s one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone else and for a time Jane struggles to fit in, until she is taken under the capable wing of Madeline, who introduces her to the other mothers with children at the Pirriwee Kindergarten. However, in this upper middle class utopia, emotions run high, petty jealousies are rife and the ubiquitous competition between these upper middle class mothers is so fierce it’s frightening to behold.

Although the story starts off slowly, don’t be fooled into thinking nothing much is happening, because the tension gradually starts to build as tantalising glimpses of what is to come start to be revealed. The book’s central theme of motherhood, friendship and some of the more disturbing aspects of family life is expertly controlled by an author at the top end of her game. There is no doubt that Liane Moriarty is a master at the minutiae of daily life, she creates a world that is utterly recognisable, and adds in problems and scenarios which could all too easily take place in your own community. I love how she develops her characters, so that they become entirely believable, and before too long you start to miss them when you have to put the story down, and believe me, it becomes really difficult to put this one down.

This is now the third book by this talented author that I have been lucky enough to read and review and in my opinion Liane Moriarty's storytelling just gets better and better. To give any more clues about what takes place would be a complete disservice, both to the author and to the story, so on that note, I’ll just end with the immortal words...read it for yourself.

My thanks to Real Readers and Penguin UK for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

***

About the Author

*~*~*

Review ~ The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh

Tinder Press

2014

Jenn and Greg’s holiday idyll in Villa Ana on the island of Mallorca has been both a refuge and a retreat from the cares of the world but anticipating the arrival of her fifteen year old step daughter and her new boyfriend, Jenn is unusually apprehensive and fears, somewhat prophetically , that the status quo is about to be spoiled. When Emma and Nathan arrive in Mallorca, Jenn is immediately aware of Nathan’s overt sexuality and as an unspoken challenge is issued, Jenn finds herself caught in a maelstrom of illicit desire and unbridled lust.

The book draws you into a ménage seething with undercurrents of emotion. Greg, a frustrated writer and university lecturer, seems to be struggling with some inner turmoil, whist Emma newly precocious and in thrall to the older Nathan, flits between little girl vulnerability and sex siren. Caught in the middle and by far the most interesting of the foursome, is the burgeoning sexual attraction between pretty boy, Nathan, and world weary Jenn.

For me, the best writing of the book came in the descriptions of the island, the cloud shrouded mountains, the shimmering warmth of sun and sea, all etched against the languorous heat of uncontrolled sexual attraction. Jenn, the quintessential unstable narrator, is caught between her duties as a responsible adult and yet, seething with unexpressed desires, she flits uncomfortably between her role as mother and femme fatale.

Overall I was really disappointed with this one, I expected more and I’m not sure that I found the book terribly realistic, for me, there was something quite distasteful about the speed of Nathan and Jenn’s attraction, so much so, I found Jenn’s fall from grace implausible. And that’s not because I find the idea of an older woman/ teenager relationship abhorrent, but  because neither Jenn or Nathan were likeable enough for me to invest any emotion in their characters.

I read the book quickly, not because it was unputdownable, but more because I wanted to reach the book’s conclusion, to see if any of the characters would become more congenial, and I’m afraid by the end I was appalled by their selfishness, and didn’t really care what happened to any of them.

I appreciate that can't always like the same books, so it would be really interesting to see what you thought of this one.

About the Author

*~*~*

The author in my spotlight is ...Giselle Green

I have great pleasure in welcoming 

Giselle Green 

Born in Chiswick, Giselle Green was brought up in Gibraltar where she has extensive family. She returned to the UK to study Biology at King's College London, followed by an MSc in Information Science at the City University. She is also a qualified Astrologer, with a particular interest in medieval astrology.

Her debut novel Pandora's Box won the Romantic Novelists' Association New Writer's Award in 2008. Her third novel, A Sister's Gift achieved best-selling number one slot on Amazon kindle in 2012.

Giselle lives in Kent with her husband and their six sons

***

Giselle  ~ welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for sharing your thoughts about your latest book

Finding You.

May 2014

What can you tell us about Finding You that won’t give too much away? 

  

The story deals with the aftermath of a child abduction. A young couple are overjoyed to have their toddler back and they are desperate for everything to return to normal. They soon discover that finding him is only the beginning, however. The year without him has taken its toll on their relationship and their son is a very changed boy from the one they lost. As the remedial steps each of them take only seem to make matters worse, the idea for an unthinkable solution begins to grow in the mother’s mind...

At the start of Little Miracles, did you always intend there to be a sequel?

I didn’t. I never thought I’d be revisiting the characters in this book. It was the sheer number of requests to know ‘what happened next’ that made me think again. Reading the book again six years after I wrote it, I was excited to find lots of potential there for a sequel. Later, as I began to develop the new story, I came across numerous references and scenes that bizarrely almost felt as if I’d placed them there with the sequel in mind. I hadn’t, but I’m sure it must feel to some readers as if I had!

Did you feel under pressure to make the sequel even better than the first book?

I didn’t feel under any pressure, as such. I always hope to make my latest book that little bit better than the last one, so in that sense no different to any other novel. However, feedback so far indicates that readers have really appreciated the fact that I’ve given this story a definitive ending. From the point of view of reader satisfaction, it is better. To reiterate the Orson Welles quote I’ve used elsewhere: ‘If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.’

In your research for both books did you discover anything which surprised you?

When researching for the first book, I was surprised to learn just how many children do go missing very single year. In the Missing Children Europe 2012 report, you can read that: ‘According to recent estimates, a child is reported missing in the EU every two minutes.’ It’s a huge problem. We only get to hear about the high-profile cases, which gives us the impression it’s a rare and unusual thing. It isn’t.

When I came to write the second story though, it touched on topics I already knew quite a bit about, so no real surprises for me, there.

What do you enjoy most about writing stories and do you write for yourself, or other people?

I love it when a story starts to come together, the point where you feel you’re rolling the ball downhill instead of uphill – when you’re running after it, in fact! I love it when I can’t wait to get to my writing and everything else in life feels like it’s getting in the way. The question about who you write for is a good one. When you start off writing it tends to be just for you, you don’t really know who your audience are, or what expectations they have. The more books you write and the more feedback you receive, from editors, beta readers and general readers, the better sense you get of what people want to walk away feeling. Then, writing a novel becomes something you do both for yourself and others. You have to take your readership into account without compromising the integrity of what you yourself hope to achieve.

What scares you about writing?

Thinking about writing highly emotional scenes can be scary – you’ve got to throw all censorship out of the window and just be real. Sometimes that means tolerating not being able to plot the story too much. The truth is that having too much content (ie: knowing in advance what’s going to ‘happen’) can sometimes put your characters in strait-jackets and take them away from their most natural responses to the action. I’ve learned that my most avid readers don’t care so much about ‘what happens’ as they do about the character’s responses to ‘what happens’. And I’ve come to accept that I as the author don’t always know how those characters will respond until they show me. Going with the flow takes courage.

Can you tell us what you are writing next ?

I never like to talk too much about a project while I’m still undertaking it. But I can confirm I’m about a fifth of the way through my next novel already. This one is taking me in a new direction again because the characters are so different from other people I’ve written about before. I also wanted to try for a slightly lighter touch this time. It tackles serious issues, yes, but in a somewhat lighter way. I’m really enjoying writing it.

Giselle ~ Thank you. It's been a real pleasure to host this interview and to learn more about the writing process.

Jaffa and I wish you continuing success with your writing.

      


***Finding You is currently an Amazon promotion at just 99p for the kindle copy***
(until the end of August )
*~*~*


My review of Finding You

Some years ago I read and enjoyed this author’s book, Little Miracles, which focused on the story of a missing child and of the overwhelming trauma of what happened to the child’s family in the wake of this devastating loss. In Finding You, the author revisits the parents a year later, when Julia and Charlie are reunited with their son, Haydn. But far from finding the reunion joyous both parents struggle with not just to their reaction to be part of a family again, but also with the  gut wrenching heartbreak of having a beloved child , who is yours and seemingly, by reason of circumstance, not yours. No one can fully understand what happened to Haydn during his abduction and both Julia and Charlie are left with feelings of utter isolation, which is not helped by other forces playing their part.

I think the author excels in developing the characters to such an extent that they become real in your mind, and their problems become genuine and believable. I can’t say that I always liked either Julia or Charlie but they’re interesting people and with sensitive handing this epic family tragedy, which threatens both their marriage and peace of mind, becomes quite compelling reading. Undeniably, there are many issues explored in Finding You, all of which tug away at the heartstrings, but with the author’s sensitive handling, the issues never become mawkishly sentimental or too implausible to be realistic.

I think to do justice to Finding You, one really should read Little Miracles first, as some of the more subtle nuances of the story would be almost impossible to pick up, and that would be to do both stories a complete disservice, as they should be read in sequence.

I enjoyed both stories and would recommend them as an interesting look at the multi-layered dynamics of family life.

*~*~*

Sunday War Poet...

Edward Thomas 

1878 -1917

For These

An acre of land between the shore and the hills,

Upon a ledge that shows my kingdoms three,

The lovely visible earth and sky and sea

Where what the curlew needs not, the farmer tills:

A house that shall love me as I love it,

Well-hedged, and honoured by a few ash trees

That linnets, greenfinches, and goldfinches

Shall often visit and make love in and flit:

A garden I need never go beyond,

Broken but neat, whose sunflowers every one

Are fit to be the sign of the Rising Sun:

A spring, a brook's bend, or at least a pond:

For these I ask not, but, neither too late

Nor yet too early, for what men call content,

And also that something may be sent

To be contented with, I ask of Fate.

***

Phillip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh poet. Although few of his poems deal directly with war, he is considered to be a war poet.
He enlisted in the army in 1915, and was killed in action during the Battle of Arras in 1917, soon after he arrived in France.


*~*~*

Review and Giveaway ~ Succession by Livi Michael

Penguin 

June 2014

The countrywide division during the War of the Roses has been well documented and yet there is such endless fascination between these two warring factions that every book written seems to take the reader on an entirely different journey. In Succession, the author has used considerable research to add new weight to the old argument and uses this book to focus; not just on the two women caught up in conflict, namely Margaret of Anjou and Margaret Beaufort, but also focuses on witness accounts from the chroniclers of the time, whose charming unreliability adds an interesting dimension to the narrative.

I found the writing style to be quite unique; the short and snappy chapters feel remarkably intimate, which adds a refreshing authenticity to those characters who seem to come alive in quite a distinctive way. In the past, I haven’t felt much of a rapport with either Margaret of Anjou or Margaret Beaufort, as history paints a Machiavellian picture of both of them, and yet in Succession, the author succeeds in giving both women a poignant vulnerability, which has, perhaps, in the wider picture of the War of the Roses, all too often been overlooked.

Everything is recounted with skill and precision, the writing is confident and beautifully researched and whilst there are ultimately no great surprises in this powerful game of thrones, it is refreshing to have a slightly different approach to history. The ending of the book lends itself nicely to a promised sequel and I am sure that those who have been as impressed as I was with this opening gambit will go on to read part two whenever it’s published , hopefully sometime soon.

My thanks to Catherine Ryan Howard at Penguin Ireland for my copy of this book to review. 

About the author

I have a copy of Succession to give away
(UK only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Author in my spotlight is ....Paula Daly

I am delighted to welcome

Paula Daly

Author of

Keep Your Friends Close

Bantam Press
March 2014

Paula ~ welcome to Jaffareadstoo and thank you for finding the time to chat about your book

Keep Your Friends Close

What can you tell us about Keep Your Friends Close that will pique the reader’s interest?

The novel is about a woman whose best friend steals her life, and it has a great villain – equal parts sexy and nasty.

Where did you get the first flash of inspiration for the story?

I was having dinner with a friend who had been unlucky in love, and she was complaining of the fact that she found it hard to meet someone. Without really thinking, I replied, “You don’t have any problem meeting someone; it’s snaring them that’s your trouble.”

Then I started to think about all the ruthless, driven women I've known, and the lengths that they would go to snare a man. 

And then I thought - what if such a woman set her sights on my husband. And I was powerless to stop her?

Do you outline the plot first, or do you let the story go wherever it takes you?

I spend a few months day dreaming about the plot and characters, doing any research I think will be relevant, and then I do a short outline. Nothing major, two or three sides of A4 – basically a scene list. Of course this will change a little as I go along but I tend to know most of it before I start. Then I can have fun with the characters, with their dialogue, and try to come up with interesting locations, rather than worrying about where the novel is heading and if it makes sense.

Do you ever base your characters on people you know?

Never. I work out my characters beforehand so that they fulfil a role in the novel. That way I can keep the cast small and hopefully memorable. I do give them lines of dialogue I hear when I’m out and about, and sometimes a world view of people I have known, but a single character is never based on one person.

What do you think makes a good fictional villain?

A thriller is only as strong as its villain. I spend a lot of time figuring out my baddie’s  motivation, as there’s nothing more deflating than a villain without a real reason for doing the things they do. Once you know what’s driving a person, and the lengths they’ll go to get what they want, then I think you’ve got a convincing villain. I want you to be almost championing them in some scenes, as I think it makes for a better story.

If Keep Your Friends Close was optioned for a TV drama, who would you choose to play Natty, Sean and Eve ?

It’s tricky to come up with the whole cast but I do think Emily Blunt or Rosamunde Pike could play Eve particularly well.

Can you tell us what you are writing next?

The next book has the same premise as the film Indecent Proposal but has been reimagined as a thriller. It will be out in May 2015 and is more of a standalone this time, though DC Joanne Aspinall does have a small role.

Paula ~ thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on Keep Your Friends Close. It's been a real pleasure to host this interview. 

***

And for two lucky winners

Paula is very kindly offering the chance to read one of her books in this fabulous UK only  giveaway.

There's one copy of Just What kind of Mother Are You?

or

one copy of Keep Your Friends Close

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Use the comment box below to tell me which book you would like to win 

 if you don't tell me you won't win it.!!

**Good Luck**