Category Archives: Culture

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: TANIA CROSSE ON AN AWARD WINNING SAGA

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Susanna invites Tania Crosse to talk about winning the first ever Saga of the Year award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association as it celebrates its Diamond Anniversary

I was utterly thrilled when I learnt at Christmas that The Street of Broken Dreams had been shortlisted for the new saga category in the RNA’s major annual awards. With the other contenders, Lesley Eames, Jean Fullerton, Rosie Goodwin and Kate Thompson being such wonderful writers, I went to the ceremony in London with no expectations, just looking forward to a glittering evening out. So when my name was read out as the winner, I was totally overwhelmed. I managed to gabble a few incoherent words up on the podium, but I must confess, it was all a bit of a blur at the time.

It really is fantastic that this new saga award has come into existence. It remains an enormously popular genre, and the quality of so many of the brilliant sagas available, covering a huge range of different topics, deserves such recognition. I feel honoured that as the first ever recipient of this award, I can represent saga lovers everywhere.

Tania (left) with agent Broo Doherty

So what is considered ‘saga’? That is a good question, so here is my interpretation. Whatever length of time the story spans, the entire action must take place at least fifty years in the past. Secondly, the actual romance is not necessarily the main focus of the book. Characters must fight their way through extreme adversity, often – though by no means always – generated by the historical circumstances of the period, with the romance intertwined within it. Sagas are normally gritty, hard-hitting stories illustrating strong themes.

Like all sagas, The Street of Broken Dreams is a tale of spirit, warmth, courage and heart, and has been described as ‘searing emotional drama’ and as being ‘beautifully compelling and poignant’. It’s 1945 and WW2 is drawing to a close. But the consequences of war can be far reaching. Can dancer Cissie ever recover from the brutal night back in 1944 that destroyed her life? Will it take the love of a good man or the guilt and self-sacrifice of a stranger from across the sea to bring her peace? Does Mildred really know the man to whom she so hastily became engaged before he went off to war? Will she able to face the tearing conflict of loyalty on his return?  Can golden-hearted Eva, matriarch of the street and linchpin of the story, help them unite against the future?

I actually lived in Banbury Street, the street of the title, as a small girl, so writing the book brought back many childhood memories. Cissie’s story was inspired by an ‘encounter’ my mother experienced during the blackout, though fortunately it had a different outcome and my mother was unharmed. During the war, my father served in submarines in the Far East, which gave me the idea for Mildred’s story. Dance has been a lifetime passion of mine, and my ballet mistress with whom I kept in contact all her life, told me about her experiences as a dancer in wartime repertory, and this became the Romaine Theatre Company in the book.

So I think you can appreciate that this award means so much to me, not just in itself, but because so much of myself was poured into the book. As my fourteenth published novel, it feels like a lifetime achievement and I thank from the bottom of my heart the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the readers and judges who put me on the podium.

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club By Josie Lloyd

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The Cancer Ladies running club, Josie Lloyd, cancer, running,

I was tremendously excited about reviewing this book because it is written by Josie Lloyd. I have read a number of books from Josie and I love them all and – although we have never met- I love her. After feeling sad that she has had such a tough time I dived into the book.

The first thing I saw when I opened my advanced copy were some reviews and I loved the one from Joanne Rose, divisional marketing directing: ‘This isn’t a (whisper it) “cancer book”. This is a book for book lovers, everywhere.’ Oh how right she was indeed. The book is uplifting, happy, sad and raw. The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club lets us know that even when bad things happen and times are tough, we can rebuild ourselves and triumph over adversity.

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club is a great book to read right now. Yes, it has its sadness, but now more than ever we need to know that beauty can come from sadness, and that we will win in the end.

Sometimes we need our friends to help us find our feet…

When Keira first receives her breast cancer diagnosis, she never expects to end up joining a running group with three women she’s only just met. Totally blind-sided, all she can think about is how she doesn’t want to tell her family or step back from work. Nor does she want to be part of a group of fellow cancer patients. Cancer is not her club.

And yet it’s running – hot, sweaty, lycra-clad running in the company of brilliant, funny women all going through treatment – that unexpectedly gives Keira the hope she so urgently needs.

For Keira will not be defined by the C-word. And now, with the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club cheering her on, she is going to reclaim everything: her family, her identity, her life.

One step at a time.

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club is available here.

 

Her Husband’s Mistake By Sheila O’Flanagan

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Her Husband's Mistake, Sheila O'FlanaganThere are few things more satisfying to me than reading a book with a layered, well-written female character. Of course, Sheila O’Flanagan is known for writing amazing characters but the pay off remains. Her Husband’s Mistake takes a tale as old as time- a cheating husband- and writes about it in a way that is both satisfying and complex.

Her Husband’s Mistake has more pages than the average book I read and I found myself able to really dive into the story. Women tend to give more of themselves to others and end up in the role of the carer. I found this book picks up on so much about being a woman, how hard it is and how you can lose your identity. It takes strength to find it again. I recommend this brilliant book to anyone who loves to read books about people finding their feet and flourishing.

Dave’s made a BIG mistake. What’s Roxy going to do about it? The riveting new novel from No. 1 bestselling author Sheila O’Flanagan. Perfect for readers of Marian Keyes and Catherine Alliott.

Roxy’s marriage has always been rock solid.

After twenty years, and with two carefree kids, she and Dave are still the perfect couple.

Until the day she comes home unexpectedly, and finds Dave in bed with their attractive, single neighbour.

Suddenly Roxy isn’t sure about anything – her past, the business she’s taken over from her dad, or what her family’s future might be. She’s spent so long caring about everyone else that she’s forgotten what she actually wants. But something has changed. And Roxy has a decision to make.

Whether it’s with Dave, or without him, it’s time for Roxy to start living for herself…

Her Husband’s Mistake is available here.

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: ANDREA MICHAEL ON WRITING FRIENDSHIP IN FICTION

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At Sister Scribes we often talk about how important friendship is within the writing community. Andrea Michael is one of those friends, we have shared publishers and parties, we share an agent and a similar sense of humour. I adored her latest book, a novel about the love involved in friendship, it made a change to reading about romantic love and was insightful and honest. With it out in paperback this month, I’m buying myself a forever copy. I’m so happy to host her on Frost, talking about writing friendship in fiction. Kitty x

When I wrote romantic comedies, it was easy to see the importance of a best friend. You needed someone to talk some sense into your main character, encourage risk, push them towards their destiny. They needed to be a support system, offering an opportunity to rant and rave and cry. That’s what best friends are for.

Without friends, it’s hard to convince your reader to trust your character. Why don’t they have people in their life? Why don’t we get to see more of who they are? Are they a real person? Are they loveable?

But most of the time this best friend never gets to have their own adventure, they always exist in relation to the main character. They are the equal opposite, the voice of reason or rebellion, depending on what the main character needs. They didn’t exist on their own.

And that was where the idea for The Book of Us came from. We so often focus on the romantic relationships that change our lives, but what about the important friends who have made us who we are?

Loll and Cass are two friends who fell out years ago. They became intensely close at university, Loll’s anxiety and shyness made smoother by Cass’ outgoing and wild nature. They evened each other out, knew each other’s traumas, weaknesses and dreams. And they planned to spend their life having adventures together.

But things change and sometimes when you make a close friend at that age, you want to know who you could be without them. Either you’re in the shadow or you’re always the leader, and either can be exhausting. Sometimes you just need a chance to grow apart before you come back to see if you still fit.

Writing friendship could be boring – after all the moments that make our friendships are often gradual, quiet and uneventful. We rarely have a manic pixie dream friend plonk herself in our laps and declare herself our best friend.

But much like with a love story, it’s about how it unfolds, how it falls apart, and why it comes back together. Nostalgia only really works when we bring in all the things our readers relate to – a seemingly carefree younger life. Staying out late, getting in trouble, thinking things were complicated when now you realise they were just so simple.

It’s the complexities and problems that I find the most interesting – the secrets and sore points and things unsaid. And the natural rhythms and waves that can come back into play a decade later. A true friendship, even one that ends (through big fireworks or a slow trudge) has an impact on who we are today. And that’s where the magic is, for your audience and your reader.

We just have to hope readers find friendships as complicated and precious as romances, just as they are in real life. Because sometimes your soul mate is your best mate.

 

Andrea Michael writes books to explore complicated relationships. Having trained in using writing for therapy, she really believes in the magic of stories to change your life. Failing that, sparkling wine and obnoxious sing-a-longs also do the trick.

Follow her on Twitter: @almichael_

 

Share Your Uplifting Stories With Frost Magazine

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Frost fiction, short stories, poems, non fiction, fiction.
We are living through difficult times. The news is full of heartbreak and we are all struggling in our own way. Frost Magazine are all about being positive and sharing community spirit. We want to publish any uplifting stories that you have, whether they are fact or fiction. They can be poems, short stories or real-life pieces. We want to spread joy and happiness.

Send stories and poems from children or adults to frostmagazine@gmail.com. Maximum word count for short stories is 1750 words, 40 lines for poems and 1750 for general non-fiction.

Stay safe and lots of love.

 

SISTER SCRIBES’ READING ROUND UP: MAY

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Kitty

The Book of Us – Andrea Michael

Oh my goodness, this book. This book won my heart over, filled it with joy and then smashed it into itty-bitty pieces. A story of friendship, loyalty and love, it explores many issues, particularly how perception and truth can be very different things as well as how some bonds are so strong they can never be broken.

I found it to be written with an emotional insight, depth and honesty that lifted it apart. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Beautiful.

Cass

A Borrowed Past – Juliette Lawson

What would you do if you discovered your whole life was built on a lie? This is the question a teenage William Harper has to face up to on more than one occasion in this excellent, page-turning story.

William dreams of being an artist, something his strict father is strongly against, but when a shocking family secret is uncovered, William takes his chance, running away from home to start a new life… but even as the years pass, and he grows from boy to man, further challenging truths emerge, showing the past is never far behind him.

I do love to pick up a book, not really knowing what to expect beyond what the blurb has told me, and my enjoyment of this story was definitely enhanced by the settings (as much a heart and soul of the story as the characters) in the northeast of England.

Having lived near York for seven years, it was a delight to tread the well-known streets with William, and the settings of Seaton Carew and Scarborough were also fascinating backdrops to this historical saga.

The writing was beautifully evocative of the era and the story skilfully documented, painting the page with words much as William longed to spill the images in his mind onto paper with a brush.

Ms Lawson writes captivating descriptions, strong narrative and relatable and believable dialogue between her well-drawn characters. She has a wonderful ability to draw the reader inside the pages of the book, to feel as though they are living the moments alongside William, and I cannot wait to read more in the Seaton Carew saga series.

A Borrowed Past is a compelling, wholly enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

Jane

Her Mother’s Secret – Jan Baynham

This impressive debut transported me to Greece. The ability to weave a setting from words without the descriptions overtaking the story is a real skill and this book shines because of it.

The characters are fascinating too. For me, the 1969 ones in particular, when Elin spends her father’s legacy to attend an art school on a Greek island. Each person is carefully drawn and none of them are wasted in what they bring to the plot. I was pulled into Elin’s story, the friendships she forms, the enemies she inadvertently makes and the love she finds; the shocking reason it doesn’t all end as she would have wished.

For a dual timeline (Elin in 1969 and her daughter Alexandra in 1991) the structure is unusual in that after a few opening chapters straight after Elin’s death the book tells first her story and then Alexandra’s. But I can see it needed to be that way for the story to unfold in the correct manner. And it was refreshing not to be hopping about in time too.

I would thoroughly recommend Her Mother’s Secret. It was published by Ruby Fiction last month as an ebook across all major formats.

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: LINDA HUBER ON FAMILY SECRETS

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I’m delighted to welcome the lovely Linda Huber, a prolific author and fellow Swiss resident, to Frost Magazine today, where she’s talking about how family secrets inspired her writing.

It’s always fascinating, talking to older family members and hearing their stories of days gone by. I remember my grandmother talking about her life growing up in Edinburgh with her parents and brothers. The family were keen photographers so we have a wealth of photos ranging from Granny as a toddler in 1890-something, all the way up to her last years, when she lived in Glasgow with her younger brother.

What she never mentioned was either of the wars she lived through, apart from the odd comment about food rationing. Another taboo was the death of my grandfather when my mother was just fourteen. He died in an industrial accident on the railway, where he worked, so Granny was given compensation – a return train ticket to London. It was her first and only trip outside Scotland. How I wish I’d been old enough to know I should be questioning her greedily, saving up her answers for my own children. I was still a teenager when she died, and there was too much Mum didn’t know either.

That’s how it is with family secrets, I think – usually, they’re not so much grisly skeletons in the closet as things that are just too hard to speak about. Or maybe, details are simply forgotten over time, not mentioned because nobody thinks to. When I was researching my family tree, I came across a distant little cousin who’d drowned in a Glasgow swimming pool in the 1940s, aged eleven. I’d never heard of her, and my mother could only just remember hearing her talked of. It was a tragedy lost over generations, though I’m sure little Agnes’s close family still remember.

Other secrets are grisly and terrible. A few years ago, I read a news story where someone had kept something truly awful from his nearest and dearest for over twenty years. I won’t say more because they are real people, but this man’s wife and children had no idea that the person they were living with was capable of what he had done. That started me thinking… and the end result is my ninth psychological suspense novel, The Runaway.

Cass (left) and Linda (right)

In the book, Nicola, Ed and Kelly Seaton relocate from London to lovely Cornwall. It should be a fresh start for them all – teenager Kelly had got in with a bad crowd, Ed had lost his job and Nicola was struggling to keep the family on an even keel. So they moved into Ed’s old family home by the sea. Nicola was determined to make a success of the new life, but little did she suspect what had happened in the house when Ed was growing up. He’d kept his secret well…

This is the third book I’ve set in Cornwall; I’m making no secret of the fact that I love the place! The Seaton family’s new home is near St Ives, which has fabulous beaches and a beautiful old town. It’s years now since I’ve been there, but one day I’ll go back. And meanwhile, I can write about it.

 

Linda Huber grew up in Glasgow but went to work in Switzerland for a year aged twenty-two, and has lived there ever since. Her day jobs have included working as a physiotherapist in hospitals and schools for handicapped children, and teaching English in a medieval castle.

Her writing career began in the nineties, when she had over fifty short stories published in women’s magazines before turning to longer fiction. The Runaway is her ninth psychological suspense novel.

Find out more about Linda at www.lindahuber.net or follow her on Twitter @LindaHuber19

Just My Luck by Adele Parks | Book Review

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Just My Luck, Adele Parks, extract , review

I have loved Adele Parks’ books for years now. Which is handy, as she writes one a year and has done for the past twenty years. Impressive.
Just My luck is another triumph. It has a great premise which is beautifully executed. We have all dreamt of winning the lottery. This book explores what happens when people become rich beyond their wildest dreams. It may be a novel, but it is a cautionary tale that money does not buy happiness. I loved the characters, even the ones I was loving to hate. The twists at the end are hugely satisfying. I find Adele Parks is an expert at picking up on the beautiful details of life, as she is at finding the complexities of the human character. Just My luck is the perfect escapist novel that will leave you hooked until the very last page.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of – a lottery win so big, it changes everything.

For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner.

But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.

Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth £18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.

Sunday Times Number One bestseller Adele Parks returns with a riveting look at the dark side of wealth in this gripping take on friendship, money and betrayal, and good luck gone bad…

Just My Luck is available here.