📖 Blog Tour ~ New Beginnings at Roseford Hall by Fay Keenan

Boldwood
10 March 2022

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and to Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation to the blog tour

Life in London has lost its sparkle for Stella Simpson.

So when she gets the opportunity to escape to the country for a year, it seems too good a chance to miss. In the beautiful Somerset countryside, the majestic Roseford Hall has been painstakingly restored and is now ready for its grand opening. And as the writer in residence, Stella gets to see it all – from the rowdy resident peacocks, the hidden secrets of the Hall, to befriending the Lord of the Manor himself.

At the other end of Roseford, single father, Chris Charlton is facing his own refurbishment woes. Rocked by a tragedy two years previously, his plans for crumbling Victorian wreck Halstead House are as stuck as he is.

As Roseford Hall prepares to welcome a new era, and Halsted House’s future is under threat, Chris and Stella find themselves drawn to one another. Can they finally leave their pasts behind, and will Chris and Stella be able to embrace their new beginnings together – or apart…

📖 My Review ...

Although anxious about leaving London, journalist, Stella Simspon is excited to take up an appointment as writer in residence at the newly renovated Roseford Hall. Meanwhile her new landlord, Chris Charlton is facing a few difficulties of his own as he seeks to bring Halstead House, his crumbling Victorian residence, into some semblance of order. Initially, Stella and Chris don’t see the best in each other but as the story progresses we start to see their relationship evolve.

The author has a lovely way of making the characters so believable that they seem like people you could easily meet and enjoy spending time with. The story flows beautifully, with a lovely light touch and a fine eye for bringing both place, and people, to life. I was just as comfortable spending time at Roseford Hall, as I was in the gatehouse where Stella lives, or alongside Chris as he struggles with the size of the renovation project at Halstead House. I found this to be a really lovely story as not only do we see Stella increase in confidence but we also get to spend time in the beautiful Somerset countryside. I especially enjoyed reading of the beautiful Roseford Hall and the way in which Stella, in her role as writer in residence, brings the ambiance of the house alive.

Over the past couple of days, reading New Beginnings at Roseford Hall has been the ideal place to escape to when the world has seemed a very grey place.

📖 Best read with...a gulp, or two, or champagne..

About the Author

Fay Keenan is the author of the bestselling Little Somerby series of novels. She has led writing workshops with Bristol University and has been a visiting speaker in schools. She is a full-time teacher and lives in Somerset.

Twitter @faykeenan #NewBeginningsatRosefordHall

@BoldwoodBooks #BoldwoodBloggers #Bookandtonic

BookBub

Website

🍴Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo ~ N A Rossi

On this quiet Sunday morning why don't you put the kettle on, make your favourite breakfast and settle down for Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo

I'm delighted to welcome Nicola Rossi  to Sunday Brunch

Welcome to Jaffreadstoo, Nicola. What favourite food are you bringing to Sunday brunch?

It has to be Eggs Benedict. They are my absolute favourite brunch food. In normal circumstances they wouldn’t travel too well, but in a fictional world anything is possible.

Would you like a pot of English breakfast tea, a strong Americano, or a glass of Bucks Fizz?

A pot of tea would be perfect, thank you, with extra hot water to top it up.

Where shall we eat brunch – around the kitchen table, in the formal dining room, or outside on the patio?

The kitchen table. It’s the heart of the home.

Shall we have music playing in the background, and if so do you have a favourite piece of music?

Perhaps we could put on the playlist from one of my Rockstar Ending novels? They are all on Spotify. David Bowie’s ‘Golden Years’ is the closing track to Rockaway, the most recent book, but there’s something for everyone. Probably best to skip Slayer ‘Angel of Death’, though. It would not be appropriate for a relaxed brunch.

Which of your literary heroes (dead or alive) are joining us for Sunday Brunch today?

I’d like to invite Mary Shelley, William Gibson, Margaret Atwood, George Orwell and Emily St John Mandel. Could we also sneak in David Bowie?

Which favourite book will you bring to Sunday Brunch?

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It would give us much to talk about. She pulls off the incredible feat of making you feel sorry for a murderous monster, while deftly weaving in timeless themes around technology, humanity, self-determination and the responsibility of the creator. It’s the ultimate tale of unintended consequences.

When you are writing do you still find time to read for pleasure? And is there a book you would like to read but haven’t had time for …yet!

I always have a book on the go, although I don’t always get through them very quickly. At the moment I’m reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’. The ideas around gender in the book are interesting, but it’s far less emotionally engaging than the Earthsea novels which I recently re-read, and enjoyed as much as when I was a teenager.

Gateway
2017

A three volume set of Alan Moore’s Jerusalem has been lurking on my bookshelf for a while. I’m gearing up for it. The print is tiny and I’ve heard it’s a challenging read. On the more accessible front, I picked up George Orwell’s Animal Farm second hand last weekend – the only one of his books I haven’t got round to yet.

Where do you find the inspiration for your novels?

My ideas come from observing real life situations and thinking ‘what if…?’ I’ve worked for large global companies, have raised a family, carried out postgraduate research on big tech, and have a good memory for people’s stories. It all plays in.

Have you a favourite place to settle down to write and do you find it easier to write in winter or summer?

I like to write in my kitchen. It’s light and I can do a bit of cooking if I need a break. When the weather is sweltering, I don’t find it easy to concentrate and would rather be doing something else.

When writing to a deadline are you easily distracted and if so how do you bring back focus on your writing?

Once I decide to do something, I am laser focused. I don’t think I have ever missed a deadline. Social media is a formidable distraction, so you need to be disciplined about how much time you spend on there. I tend to write in bursts and give myself a weekly word count target to keep me motivated. It’s also important to take lots of breaks. Some of my best ideas surface when I am at the gym or walking round the park.

Give us four essential items that a writer needs?

1. Computer with back-up capability. Don’t get caught out!

2. Thesaurus. No, it’s not cheating.

3. A strong support network of friends, family, editors and writers. Other authors have been overwhelmingly generous to me with both practical advice and emotional support.

4. A comfortable workstation at the right height to guard against the health problems that can result from bad posture.

What can you tell us about your latest novel or your current work in progress?

My latest novel, Rockaway, which was published on 8 January 2022, is the third book in my dystopian Rockstar Ending series.

Resista Press
January 2022

Freedom fighter Lexi is traumatized by the horrors she has experienced at the hands of the sinister Corporation. Yet she remains hell-bent on halting the Endings, an insidious, AI-powered killing spree aimed at the over-70s.

With troubled youth and people with disabilities next in line for extinction, Lexi and her activist friends turn up the heat. But the powerful have too much to lose. When the resistance unleashes daring new tactics to derail the genocide, they find themselves in greater danger than they ever thought possible.

The chillingly plausible Rockstar Ending series is steeped in the social and political dilemmas that dominate the 2020s. The novels blend glimmers of dark humor with acutely observed cultural references and include a playlist of the songs that run through the story.

If you enjoy dystopian fiction such as Black Mirror, The Handmaid’s Tale, or Nineteen Eighty-Four the Rockstar Ending series is for you.

Nicola where can we follow you on social media?

Twitter @NicolaRossi

Facebook 

 Instagram

Website 

More about Nicola

N. A. (Nicola) Rossi has lived in London most of her life, moving there from the seaside town of Southport in the early ‘80s. After university she flirted briefly with journalism, and then began a 30-year career in communications management, eventually running international teams for big technology companies.

In 2017 she was awarded an MA in Digital Media from Goldsmiths University. That was when the trouble began. She started to write about surveillance, data ownership, consent and the potential for people to be manipulated without their knowledge.

Her debut novel, Rockstar Ending, started life as a short story, ‘One Last Gift’, which won a dystopian fiction award from the Orwell Society. The judges described it as ‘highly original, macabre and very funny’. It was published in the Journal of Orwell Studies.

Nicola has now published another two full length books in the Rockstar Ending series, Rock On and Rockaway, in addition to the prequel novella, For Those About to Rock.

In September 2021 Free@Last TV announced that they had acquired the rights to the Rockstar Ending books for a repeatable TV series which is now in development.

Nicola is a regular blogger on technology, society and the arts. She has lectured in universities on leadership, PR, ethics and corporate social responsibility and consults on communications management. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4 Today, BBC local radio, and written for a wide range of media outlets including The Independent, Time Out, Louder Than War and Influence.

She lives in south east London with her husband and two adult children.

Nicola thank you for sharing your Sunday Brunch with Jaffareadstoo

Follow us on Twitter @jaffareadstoo #SundayBrunchwithjaffareadstoo

Gold Box Deal ~ Georgette Heyer

Step into the Regency World of Georgette Heyer

Today on a special Gold Box Deal ~  Nine Kindle titles are just 99p each

Check out the trailer

Click on the link to Amazon UK

Some of my first Regency Romances were the wonderful novels of Georgette Heyer which are still as fresh as the day they were written. Think Bridgerton ...without the steam !

About the Author

Georgette Heyer was a prolific historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth.

In 1925 she married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. Rougier later became a barrister and he often provided basic plot outlines for her thrillers. Beginning in 1932, Heyer released one romance novel and one thriller each year.

Heyer was an intensely private person who remained a best selling author all her life without the aid of publicity. She made no appearances, never gave an interview and only answered fan letters herself if they made an interesting historical point. She wrote one novel using the pseudonym Stella Martin.

Her Georgian and Regencies romances were inspired by Jane Austen. While some critics thought her novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset.

Heyer remains a popular and much-loved author, known for essentially establishing the historical romance genre and its sub-genre Regency romance.

Twitter @PenguinUKBooks #GeorgetteHeyer

#RegencyRomance

 

📖 Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Forgotten Sister by Judy Summers

On Hist Fic Saturday

Let's go back to ....Victorian  Liverpool

Welbeck Publishing Group
31 March 2022

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

To save her family, she had to leave them behind. 

Liverpool, 1848, Meg Shaw is the middle child of eight siblings, not quite old enough to bring in a wage to help her struggling family, but not young enough to be a babe to be cared for. When the family realise they can’t feed all the children, Meg makes a choice. She volunteers to go to the workhouse for one season, and she’ll take her little sister Rosie with her. But the moment they enter the workhouse, Meg and Rosie are separated. 

Abandoned and alone, Meg is determined to make it through, and soon finds herself surrounded by a new family of vulnerable girls in need of protection and love. Meg does all she can for her new sisters, but when a season passes and no one comes for her or Rosie, can she find a way to keep them all safe? Historian Judy Summers explores an area of history in which women have been routinely disregarded, offering a voice to the 19th Century working-class female. 

Through The Forgotten Sister, Summers depicts a thriving, multi-cultural city in Liverpool as well as portraying the reality of possibilities that working-class women had in order to improve their lives. The Forgotten Sister is a heart-breaking and heart-warming story which offers an insight into an aspect of female British history that has for so long been overlooked.

📖 My Review ...

The story gets off to a sad start for this Liverpool family who are struggling to survive on the pitiful wages which the two eldest children manage to hide away from their no'er do well father. John Shaw seems intent on drinking himself to oblivion rather than feed his family, so with no other choice, Meg and her younger sister, Rosie, are sent to the workhouse where they experience deprivation of a different kind.

Meg Shaw is a feisty heroine who does everything she can to protect her younger sister but the work house is a place where neither hope nor charity flourishes. When Meg and Rosie are separated, it makes Meg even more determined to do what she can to help those unfortunates who aren't able to look out for themselves. Opportunities to better yourself in working class Liverpool are scarce but with grit and determination Meg is given the chance to turn her life around, and it is this fight for survival which gives the book its heart and soul.

Bringing Victorian Liverpool to life, with all of its working class poverty and hardship, is what this author has done so well. The story has an authenticity which evokes a bygone era when the chasm between the rich and poor, the good and the bad, stretched ever wider, and survival really did mean keeping your wits about you at all times. 

The Forgotten Sister gets this new historical series off to a fine start and I am sure we will get to know more about the resilience of the Shaw family as the series progresses.

Best Read with...a slice of cold meat pie 

About the Author

Judy Summers is an avid reader, historian and mother of three. Her forebears - some of whom probably entered England via Liverpool in the Victorian era - were miners, labourers and domestic servants. She finds these lives far more interesting than those of the upper classes. Judy was inspired to write The Forgotten Sister when she came across a copy of Rudolph Ackermann’s Panoramic View of Liverpool from 1847 and wondered, who were the everyday people living amongst these landmarks?

Twitter @JudySummersAuth #TheForgottenSister

@welbeckpublishing

📖 Book Review ~ The Best Things by Mel Giedroyc

Headline
17 February 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

It's the story of a family who lose everything, only to find themselves, and each other, along the way.

Sally and Frank Parker have it all.

Then one day, because of Frank, they don't.

As the bailiffs move in and the money runs out, Sally realises that she and her children don't have a clue about how to survive.

Or do they?

The Parkers are about to discover that the best things in life aren't things at all..

📖 My Review ..

Frank and Sally Parker have a lifestyle which is the envy of their friends. The Parker family really do seem to have it all and yet they barely communicate with other as so wrapped up in themselves they go blindly through life expecting much and giving nothing back in return. Frank's seemingly successful hedge fund business is what supports this charmed life but when it all comes crashing down around them, the Parkers begin to realise that perhaps what they had before really wasn't important and what matters more is the way they interact with each other.

The story is smart and funny and moves along with gusto and I could very much hear Mel Giedroyc's distinctive voice in my head as the story progressed. I found her writing style clever and appealing and her description of Sally's life at the start of the story had me laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all. However, there is also a poignancy to the story which comes through loud and clear as the family come to turns with living their life in very different circumstances.

The news is so dire at the moment that any chance of a bit of escapism is very welcome and that's what The Best Things gave me, the chance to sit and just be entertained by a story which is as funny and witty as the author is herself.

📖 Best read with ...a Mojito cocktail, heavy on the rum..

About the Author

Mel Giedroyc has been entertaining the nation of over thirty years. A comedian, write, actor and presenter, Mel is best known for her work with Sue Perkins in the double act Mel and Sue. Mel has written two non-fiction books and has appeared many times on television.  She lives in London with her husband and two daughters, The Best Things is her debut novel.

Twitter @headlinepg #TheBestThings #MelGiedroyc

📖 THE ROSEMARY GOODACRE MEMORIAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION

 

THE ROSEMARY GOODACRE

MEMORIAL SHORT STORY COMPETITION

To commemorate the life of saga author Rosemary Goodacre her friends are organising a short story competition with all profits going to her favourite charity Spadework.

JUDGE: Vivien Brown

About the competition:

1500 words maximum

Theme: Friendship

Each entry costs £7.50

Prizes:

1st £150.00

2nd £100.00

3rd £50.00

Entries open 1st November 2021

Entries close midnight 31st March 2022

Please see guidelines below

About our friend Rosemary:

On October 15th, 2020, we should have been celebrating the launch of our friend, Rosemary Goodacre’s trio of paperback books, The Derwent Chronicles (Hera Books). Sadly, we were mourning her sudden death only five days earlier. Rosemary had been poorly but was home from hospital, albeit tired, and was working on her upcoming blog tour interviews, a consummate professional to the end.

Rosemary was a talented short story writer seeing her work published numerous times in magazines, an accomplished writer of poetry and being placed (and winning) writing competitions; she was already doing well in her writing career before turning her hand to novels.

Serving her apprenticeship in the Romantic Novelist Association’s New Writers’ Scheme she graduated to full membership and was part of the wonderful Joan Hessayon award event in the summer of 2020. Rosemary was also a loyal member of The Write Place honing her craft and making many friends along the way.

Our last memories are of us singing our hearts out in the kitchen at the 2019 RNA conference after the gala dinner. Whoever it was who’d decided we should sing every show tune known to man, I thank you, as it is a memory we recall with fondness.

Rosemary’s quiet knowledge of history was second to none, her travel stories a delight to hear. We could lose her whilst out walking during writing retreats when she stopped to look at something and ‘Where’s Rosemary?’ were familiar words. She could be relied upon to bring quiche, and a lethal looking knife, to our one-day writing retreats along with a long list of questions for the ten-minute one2one sessions. A wonderful author of WW1 novels, Rosemary will live on in her books, but there was so much more to come, losing her at a time when her writing was doing so well is heart breaking.

There is a Rosemary shaped hole in our lives that can never be filled. Rest in peace, dear friend.

OUR MAIN JUDGE: VIVIEN BROWN

Vivien gave up her job in finance when she gave birth to IVF twins and started writing instead, winning the annual Mail on Sunday ‘Best Opening to a Novel’ competition in 1993 and reaching the shortlist again three years later. She has since sold 150 short stories to UK women’s magazines and written more than 250 articles for childcare magazines, based on her subsequent highly rewarding career introducing the magic of books to the under-fives and their families through the Sure Start and Bookstart programmes.

She became a creative writing tutor in the evenings and contributed a regular column to Writers’ Forum magazine that followed the ups and downs of her writing life. She has also had a book about ‘cracking’ cryptic crosswords published, and several humorous children’s poems included in school anthologies.

Now established as a successful novelist, Vivien has had six women’s contemporary novels published, all with domestic drama and family relationship themes. Vivien is a fellow of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists where she oversees competitions and social media, and a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. In 2020, she judged the Nottingham Writers’ Club ‘Home’ short story competition and was one of three judges for the Time and Tide ‘Brilliant Women’ Writing Competition for high school students. Away from writing, Vivien is a doting grandmother, watches and occasionally takes part in TV quiz shows, is an avid reader and reviewer of women’s fiction, and enjoys the challenge of both solving and compiling cryptic crosswords.

THE CHARITY:

Spadework is a charity, based near West Malling in Kent, which supports its beneficiaries to be more independent, less isolated and to live happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.

Through the many on – site activities, we help our Trainees (adults with learning and other disabilities) to be more independent and prepared for life outside their family and Spadework. By feeling the value of doing a good job, being part of something bigger than themselves and playing an active part in the community our Trainees have an increased sense of self-worth, belonging and purpose.

We also have a Farm Shop and Garden Centre that are open to the public. 7 days a week. All the profits go to support the charity.

You can find out more about Spadework at https://spadework.org.uk or by following us on Facebook.

ENTRY DETAILS:

Send your email entry to FORGCOMP@GMAIL.COM with two attachments:

First attachment:

Your story

Maximum 1500 words

Time New Roman size 12 font

One side of page only

Double line spaced and numbered

ONLY ADD TITLE OF THE STORY TO THIS DOCUMENT

No headers or footers

Please keep your story to the theme of friendship

Second attachment:

The front sheet to the story containing:

The entrant’s name and contact details

Title of story and wordcount

*Ensure the name used is the same as entered on the bank payment.

Your email entry will be acknowledged

An email acknowledgement will be sent.

Send payment to our competition account c/o:

Elaine Everest

Account number: 08389897

Sort code: 60-83-71

In the reference line please add your name so we can cross reference entries.

RESULTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT THE BEGINNING OF JUNE 2022

*The organisers reserve the right to refuse entries that do not meet the rules of this competition or are deemed inappropriate.

The long list of entries will be drawn up by ‘The friends of Rosemary Goodacre’ consisting of Elaine Everest, Catherine Burrows, Natalie Kleinman, Francesca Capaldi, Elaine Roberts, Ann West.

Twitter : @RobertsElaine11 @FCapaldiBurgess @ElaineEverest @NatKleinman @catburrows @Westann6789

GOOD LUCK!

📖 Blog Tour ~ A Mother's War by Mollie Walton

 

Welbeck
3 March 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

North Yorkshire, September 1939. 

Rosina Cavert-Lazenby has summoned her five daughters back to Raven Hall, the crumbling ancestral home of the Lazenby family, of which Rosina is the sole living member. As war with Germany is declared Rosina's eldest daughter, Grace, informs her mother that she will be joining the home-front effort as a wireless-telegraphist based at a Y-station in Scarborough. Soon she is carrying out highly valuable transcription work. When the RAF come to stay at Raven Hall, Rosina finds herself intrigued by their charismatic, albeit young, officer. But is there time for love with the war looming? With so much on the line, Rosina and Grace must learn how to push themselves and have the courage to lead those around them into the unknown.

📖 My review...

Widow, Rosina Calvert-Lazenby has lived at Raven Hall for all of her life. It is where she has raised her five, feisty daughters to be independent and likeable young woman. However, in 1939, with the country of the cusp of war things are about to change for all those who call Raven Hall home.

Rosina faces  a very different sort of life, no longer lady of the manor with enough staff to run the estate she must now make do with her cook/ housekeeper and an elderly gardener so it is imperative that Rosina gets down to the essentials of keeping the estate functioning in a country badly affected by war.

Grace is the eldest of the Lazenby Lasses and is recently down from Oxford having achieved her degree but the need to do something to help the war effort encourages Grace to enrol in the WRNS where she becomes involved as  wireless-telegraphist based at a Y-station in Scarborough.

Moving effortlessly the wonderfully detailed chapters reveal the stories of both Rosina and Grace. We get to know both women really well, and with care and a fine eye for detail the strained atmosphere of living in England during wartime comes alive. Both women have their share of difficulties but each are resilient and so intimately brought to life that I felt as if I had come to know both of them as friends rather than simply characters in a book.

There is something quite special about this first book, for a start there is a fluidity to the story which had me turning the pages, with real involvement, both in the way the story was unfolding and in the realistic way each of the characters come so beautifully to life. I especially liked the detail of the work Grace was doing, the attention to detail is done so well that it never becomes too technical as it reveals the special challenges of this clandestine operation. 

And then there's Harry...but I'll let you discover him for yourself 😊

A Mother's War is a perfect introduction to this wartime saga, beautifully written, with a real sense of history. I can think of no finer endorsement than to say I was really sorry when the book ended as I wanted to stay immersed in Rosina's and Grace's life. I am now eager to read more and hope that we won't be waiting too long before the next installment of this wartime saga is ready to be revealed. 

📖 Best read with...Proper Jam sandwiches and a slug of good whisky..

About the Author

Mollie Walton is the pen-name for the historical novelist Rebecca Mascull. She has always been fascinated by history and worked in education, has a Masters in Writing and lives by the sea in the East of England. The inspiration for the Raven Hall trilogy came when she visited the stunning Raven Hall Hotel with her daughter and fell in love with the cliff-top view. Under Mollie Walton, Rebecca is also the author of the historical fiction trilogy, the Ironbridge Saga. 

Twitter @rebeccamascull #AMothersWarBook

Facebook

Website 

@welbeckpublish