Need Some Uplit? Books To Bring Joy

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I think it is fair to say we could all do with some cheering up at the moment. So here are some books to bring some joy. THE PATH TO THE SEA by Liz Fenwick (5th March) – A beautifully evocative tale of the secrets held by the Cornish coast for three sisters, full of mystery and feel-good romance, by ‘Queen of the contemporary Cornish novel’ Liz Fenwick.

FAMILY FOR BEGINNERS by Sarah Morgan (2nd April)- A compelling, escapist family drama about Flora and her attempt at fitting in with Jack’s family whilst living in the shadow of his perfect immortalised wife, from international bestseller and Sunday Times bestselling author, Sarah Morgan.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW by Sophia Money-Coutts (16th April) – the saucy laugh-out-loud poolside read by mistress of the romp-com Sophia Money-Coutts, about swiping right, weeing on a stick, and dating the aristocracy, not necessarily in that order.

WE JUST CLICKED by Anna Bell (16th April in eBook and Audio) – A fabulously funny, feel-good novel that will make you laugh until you cry, for anyone who’s ever presented a perfectly-filtered life online to hide the unglamorous reality, perfect for fans of Sophia Kinsella and Laura Jane Williams.

THE SUMMER VILLA by Melissa Hill (14th May) – An enthralling feel-good romance set in a rambling stone villa on the Amalfi Coast – a story of friendships rekindled and of secrets buried in the past re-surfacing under the Italian sun, by international best-selling author Melissa Hill.

THE EXTRAORDINARY HOPE OF DAWN BRIGHTSIDE by Jessica Ryn (28th May) – Based on debut novelist Jessica Ryn’s experience as a homelessness resettlement worker, The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside is a quirky, hopeful commercial piece of fiction with book club appeal, focusing on Dawn Elisabeth Brightside and her fight for saving St Jude’s Hostel for the Homeless, her own personal light in the darkness.

SISTER SCRIBES: KITTY WILSON ON HOW ROMANCE IS HOPE

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Back in November I wrote a post here about Why I Love Romance as a genre. I explained that I had inadvertently written an essay on this subject and that first post covered how I believe romance is universal and utterly relatable, especially romantic comedy, my own specific sub-genre.

Today I wanted to return to that theme and talk about romance novels giving us hope in an often bleak and daunting world. I truly believe this – that romance novels help us have hope in life, the absolute certainty of a happy ending is sometimes exactly what you need to escape real life, whether it be dreadful news or just the day to day monotony.

Whilst trawling the internet a while ago I came across a tweet from a writer, Angela James, asking people to share their romance positive moments. The response was overwhelming, hope was right up at the top of that list and I have picked a couple as illustrations as they say it so much better than I could.

‘I found Romance after my brother commited suicide. It was a very dark and hopeless time, but Romance taught me that hope can rise again even after the darkest of moments and love, in all its forms, can be found if you just open yourself up to it.’

‘I began reading romance novels after my first miscarriage. I believe they re-wired my brain and helped me remember what optimism felt like.’

‘I started reading romance novels while was undergoing cancer treatment. I needed positive, escapist stories that promised a HEA.’

Now I’m not saying that romance is a cure-all, of course it isn’t. But romance novels are often easy and quick to read thus providing escape for an hour or two. They can’t rid you of the burdens that life brings, but being lost in the pages of a novel can give you a brief pause from them. I fell in love with romance when I became poorly at the age of thirteen. My friends were ringing me and asking if I was dying (I wasn’t but they were a dramatic bunch) and all I knew was that my body wasn’t behaving as it should. If I hadn’t had romance novels to read, to lose myself in, I think I would have struggled to cope.

We all know that life is not a romance but these books do give us the thrill of living vicariously, of confronting challenges and winning, of reading about someone’s longing turning into reality. To be fair, that’s true of reading in general but with romance you get the added ahhh factor, the satisfaction of a romance played out, of willing the hero and heroine on without any of the risk or leaving the comfort of your own home. I can be sunbathing on a tropical island or dancing the cha-cha whilst in reality I’m wrapped in a blanket and drinking a cup of tea, ignoring the stuff that I don’t want to have to deal with at that minute.

Happy-Ever-Afters are a reminder that not everything in life is bleak, that there’s the possibility of dreams coming true, that life contains so much positivity. Building a future with someone you love – the pinnacle of Romance – is forward-facing, optimistic, both the essence of hope and an act of hope. Romance Novels are the reassuring and toasty comfort blanket of the fiction world and I love them.

Edit – I wrote this well before Covid-19 was dominating the globe and considered pulling it, but I stand by the fact that in an ever-turbulent world the predictability of a happy-ever-after is reassuring so I’m off to hibernate with my kindle. Keep safe everyone,

Much love, Kitty x

 

 

 

The prized girl By Amy K Green – Reviewed by Natalie Jayne Peeke

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Before

Jenny Kennedy- beautiful, brilliant but troubled- is the pageant queen of New England. From ages Five -Thirteen, she won more prizes than any of her competitors, inspiring admiration and envy in equal measure. Jenny has more than a few secrets of her own, but what thirteen-year-old girl doesn’t?

 

After

But now Jenny is dead, in a murder that has rocked a perfect town and a perfect family. Virginia Kennedy, whose relationship with her half-sister was far from close, finds herself thrust into Jenny’s spotlight as she becomes a suspect in the brutal killing.

 

In a small town where death is public property, it’s up to Virginia to uncover the truth behind her sister’s murder, and she soon realises that maybe Jenny’s life wasn’t so perfect after all…….

 

Within the first few chapters I was hooked, Green’s writing style is brilliant, it’s very easy to read as each chapter varies from Jenny to Virginia changing from Virginia’s life after her sisters brutal murder to Jenny’s life and what resulted in her untimely death.

The more I read the more secrets of the “picture perfect family” were unearthed. Green does a fine job in portraying realistic characters, in real life everyone has their own flaws or internal battles and this is also true for the characters from Linda’s(Jenny’s mother) mental state to Calvin’s(the father) deep dark secret that he has kept for 30 years .

I would recommend for fans of ‘Have you seen her’ by Lisa Hall and those who enjoy a good old Who done it.

Paperback £7.99

eBook & Audio available

 

Things I am Doing During The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic

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coronavirus, COVID-19, staying sane, healthy, self isolation, social distancing, 2020 has brought the super scary coronavirus, official name COVID-19, to our lives. We live in uncertain times and I think we are all feeling anxious. Social distancing is essential at the moment but has an impact on our mental health. Ditto for self isolation. Well, as I saw on Facebook, our grandparents were asked to go to war. All we have to do it read and watch Netflix.

I have young children so hunkering down and binging on Netflix is sadly not an option for me. But I am doing the following things for myself.

Learning a language everyday. I do Duolingo which is amazing and free as well as Babble.

Reading. I am lucky to get sent a lot of books. I even got sent one from one of my favourite authors, Adele Parks, today. I read when my children let me or when they have gone to bed.

Staying active. We are lucky to have a garden but there is also a lot of stairs in our house. Cleaning and tidying are good but it is important to do actual exercise. The NHS recommends 150 minutes a week.

Keeping in touch with my friends and family via WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and FaceTime. I am lucky as a self-employed freelancer that I am used to not having a lot of people around me. I do miss it though!

Switching off. Sometimes I just put my phone away and turn the TV off. The constantly rising numbers and scare stories can be too much.

Eating as healthily as possible. Food is medicine. There are few greater truths in life.

I also watch TV or try to watch a film. It is good to keep my mind of things.

After my surgery last year and then getting a life-threatening illness (pneumonia and pleurisy. In both lungs because I like to go all out, clearly) I appreciate the small things in life. Sometimes I am in the garden or even just having a shower and I realise how much of a miracle life is. There is beauty everywhere.

For my children.

I am making sure I take them out into the garden. We play football usually but my daughter also loves bubbles. I read them a lot of books and they do a lot of writing too. I am trying to work on their development as much as possible with various toys and games. I have two under four so they are still at a crucial stage in their development.

My daughter is too young to know what is happening and my son is not worried. I am thankful for this. I shower them with kisses and cuddles every day.

Has your holiday been cancelled?

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If your plans for a holiday have fallen foul of the recent travel warnings or flight disruptions, it is a perfect opportunity to put into action all those projects you have been putting off.

You could write a book, compose a song or learn something new. So don’t despair there are plenty of enjoyable ways to occupy yourself without interacting with strangers or flying off to a different country.

Stay at home and learn

If you have always had a burning ambition to learn a different language, play the guitar, or write a book, now is your chance. With a broadband connection or a CD player, you can do all of these and more.

There is a multitude of online resources to help you fill your time in isolation, and some of them are free. With music available for lead, bass or even Ukulele, you can emulate Peggy Lee Radiohead or Oasis. All you need is patience and some equipment.

If you want to learn a language in preparation for when life returns to normal, then the world is your oyster, and it won’t cost a penny. From beginner, intermediate or conversational level, you can learn a little or a lot depending on your mood. It might not make you proficient, but it will give you an excellent start.

Duolingo is a free resource which is easy to use and good fun. OpenCulture can help you learn the most popular languages French, Spanish, Italian, and the harder ones like Mandarin and Russian. Even obscure ones like Icelandic and Gaelic.

SISTER SCRIBES: KIRSTEN HESKETH ON DEVELOPING AN UNHEALTHY AMAZON OBSESSION

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I’m way behind the rest of the Sister Scribes in this publishing lark and my debut novel has just gone up for pre-order. Another Us isn’t being published until May 14th – indeed, it hasn’t even got a cover yet – and yet there it is, sitting pretty on Amazon with one of those big smiley faces where the cover illustration should be.

No one told me it was up there.

In fact, I would have been blissfully ignorant of all this, had a lovely lady in America not tweeted me to let me know she had just pre-ordered my book and how much she was looking forward to reading it.

Well, if she could only know what that has set in motion!

All I can say if that it was a good thing that my publishers didn’t let me know as soon as Another Us went up on Amazon because that would have meant I started the obsessive, frenzied, ridiculous checking of sales rankings even earlier. Does anyone else do this? Several times a day? First thing in the morning? Last thing at night? Or am I am just really, really weird?

But there is so much to check and it is all so really, really exciting (and nerve-wracking and depressing and thrilling depending on what I find.)

  • There’s the overall sales ranking itself – and a helpful little graph of how it changes over time. (My graph resembles a yo-yo on speed and probably correlates neatly with my blood pressure and heart rate.)
  • Then there are the sub-categories. Someone has put my book into the parenting and family humour, parenting and family relationship categories, which I would say is fairly spot on. For one heady moment, presumably when all my friends and family were busy pre-ordering Another Us, my book made it into top ten of a couple of these categories and my squeals of excitement could be heard from here to Timbuktu to be followed by groans of despair when it subsequently went into freefall.
  • As if the above wasn’t enough, within each category there is a ‘hot new release’ section. Doesn’t that sound brilliant – ‘hot new release’?  Another Us – currently the only one without a cover and looking a bit sorry for itself – has featured in the top ten there too and sent me skipping round the kitchen – which meant that when it invariably plummeted, I was handily placed to scoff a couple of soothing Curly Wurlies.
  • And don’t get me started on Amazon USA! That, of course, has all the same categories, which merely serves to double the joy – or pain (delete as appropriate).. Another Us in the ‘motherhood’ category over there as well, and I did have a little chuckle when I discovered it was a ‘hot new release’ – right next to ‘How to have a mindful epidural’! Fun, fun, fun …

Hubbie fails to share my enthusiasm about all this. When I told him I thought I was close to cracking Amazon’s algorithm, I swear I heard him mutter ‘obsessed’ and ‘addicted’ into his pinot noir. In fact, there may well have been ‘words’ after that and I might have told him I that I didn’t want to hear anything about his Fitbit and his 10k personal best ever again!

Marital harmony has since been restored and, my obsession with Amazon has subsequently waned. But heaven help us all when the book is launched!

 

Kirsten Hesketh’s debut novel. Another Us, will be published by Canelo on May 14th and is now available for pre-order.

 

Michael Rowan doesn’t know whether to laugh or shudder at the world premiere of Bin Juice at the VAULT Festival

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The Vaults, Leake Street, London, SE1 7NN. Tuesday 10th – Sunday 15th March 2020

Madison Clare

Photo credit Lidia Crisfulli

Written by Cat Kolubayev and directed by Anastasia Bruce-Jones this is a fast paced, all female dark comedy, a story of loyalty, revenge and secrecy.

Francine and Marla are on the hunt for a new hazardous waste removal apprentice.

Having just escaped a life of misfortune, Belinda walks in, ready for her interview.

The position isn’t quite what it seems and the advert may have missed a few pertinent details. Showing the nasty side of an already filthy job, someone is about to find themselves in a very sticky situation.

Adeline Waby

Photo Credit: Lidia Crisfulli

A new job at a hazardous waste removal company means Belinda’s going to have

to get her hands a little dirty.

Bin Juice romps about with mess and grime and dirt and selfishness, crime and mobs and savagery.

Helena Antoniou

Photo credit Lidia Crisfulli

Expertly mixing the comedic with the macabre, the three women keep up the pace, but a special mention to Madison Clare, who plays Marla demonstrating innate comedic timing.

The forensic interview technique of Adeline Waby’s Francine, would have most human resources departments heading for the exit, whilst Helena Antoniou’s Belinda/ Barney, proves she can more than hold her own both within the play and on the stage.  

 

Running Time 1 hour

Box Office -Tickets are available priced £10.50 from https://vaultfestival.com/

or 0208 050 9241.

Age Guidance 12+

Twitter@BinJuicePlay#BinJuicePlay #TheSWRC@VAULTFestival

 

 

Michael Rowan gets a taste for recycling at Montezuma’s WASTE NOT, WANT NOT RECYCLABLE SHOP, open between 10am and 6pm on 13th and 14th March at 67 Neal Street in Covent Garden, London

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Visitors eat imitation food packaging waste, made from chocolate, at Montezuma’s ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ recyclable chocolate shop, in Covent Garden, London. The pop-up shop lets customers swap old food packaging for chocolate and treats, to celebrate Montezuma’s switch to 100% sustainable packaging across its whole range.     Photo credit: Matt Crossick

You don’t have to be a genius to realise that landfill and carbon footprints are contributing to environmental harm and global warming. However, you probably do need to be a genius to get everyone to think about day to day packaging.

Those clever people at Montezuma’s take their chocolate seriously and their environmental impact just as seriously, which is good news for us all.

Montezuma’s wants people to re-think their daily habits by saying no to waste and yes to chocolate and it’s doing so in the most appetising manner.

Montezuma’s is inviting people to experience the sweet side of eco living, with its ‘WASTE NOT, WANT NOT RECYCLABLE SHOP’ in Covent Garden. To celebrate the launch of the brand’s new sustainable packaging, the award-winning British chocolate company is opening a pop-up shop, where you can swap your unwanted packaging for tailor-made treats, designed to imitate some of the biggest waste culprits in the UK food industry – think grab-and-go salad bowls, sandwich wrappers and those iconic black sushi trays.

Montezuma Chocolate managing director Bruce Alexander at Montezuma’s ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ recyclable chocolate shop, in Covent Garden, London.Photo credit: Matt Crossick

 

The beautiful, bespoke treats may look like trash, but they are actually formed from Montezuma’s classic white chocolate, filled with its indulgent truffle centre, and hand painted for a realistic finish! All chocolate lovers need to do to get their hands on these decadent chocolates, is simply hand over their used food containers – proving that recycling has more than just the one benefit.

Sitting in the window of the store is a fully edible 3D artwork, made to replicate a bin overflowing with non-recyclable rubbish. The piece will highlight the unrecycled waste that ends up on landfill each year. The indulgent installation will be lit up 24 hours a day, to inspire passers-by to make more sustainable choices when it comes to food.

Photo credit: Matt Crossick

The venture comes in the wake of Montezuma’s newly designed packaging, 100% of the Montezuma’s newly designed packaging is either recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable – a first for a British chocolate company. As well as using recyclable inks, adhesives, stickers and tapes, the company’s best-selling chocolate bars will now be delivered in 100% paper and card cartons, eliminating the non-recyclable metallised wrappers. Look carefully at all the art work as each tells a different story, but you will need to look closely.

Montezuma’s WASTE NOT, WANT NOT RECYCLABLE SHOP is open between 10am and 6pm on 13th and 14th March at 67 Neal Street in Covent Garden, London but don’t worry if you can’t get there because their repackaged fabulously tasty bars can be found in Sainsburys and Waitrose amongst other retailers.