August 1st. Literary Event in Cheltenham

Literary Event in Cheltenham on August 1st.

One of the great things about successful writers is their kindness and generosity to those of us who are still making our way.
In the years since Jane and I have been running The Place to Write, there have been many times when we wanted to approach a writer to tutor our retreats but hesitated.
Doubts assailed us.
They won't have time.
They won't want to be bothered.
And each and every time our lovely, best selling and famous authors proved us wrong.

So it was with our Literary Event.

It started with a conversation at our writing retreat in Port Isaac Cornwall this March, with one of the nicest and most helpful writers we have met; Chris Manby.
She suggested we organise an event when novice writers can meet up with 3 best selling authors. A place where they can chat about books, their path to success and pick up advice in informal and lovely surroundings.
And so Jane and I have organised an event at the Well Walk Tea Rooms in Cheltenham. A place so quaint and pretty it should be in pictures. And indeed it is.
The owner supplies film set dressing to the movie industry and amongst others has provided his expertise in Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey.
Add to that delicious food...

 and an unbelievably pretty interior...

We decided to do this event in support of Cancer Research UK and there will be a donation for every ticket sold. This is a small and intimate event and only a few places remain available.

Thank you in advance to Chris Manby, Lucy Dillon, and Fiona Walker who will be there on August 1st. We are so looking forward to it! If you are interested get in touch now.


www.theplacetowrite.co.uk

In a Dark Dark Wood.

In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (@RuthWareWriter).

In a dark, dark wood there was a dark, dark house;

And in the dark, dark house there was a dark, dark room;

And in the dark, dark room there was a dark, dark cupboard;

And in the dark, dark cupboard there was ... a skeleton.

I was sent this great book by Alison Hennessey (@crime_queen) of Harville Secker and many thanks for that!

It has a disturbing and horribly believable plot.
Out of the blue Leonora (also known as Lee or Nora) receives an email, an invitation to a hen weekend, organised by Flo.

Nora has not seen her one time best friend for ten years and now Clare is getting married. Should Nora go? Should she just ignore the invitation?
(Hit the delete button! Hit the delete button!)

The hen weekend is to be held in a house in the middle of a forest in Northumberland (Flo's aunt's holiday home) with a collection of other friends. The house is ultra modern and my basic nightmare; huge expanses of uncurtained windows overlooking trees and of course an awful lot of darkness outside.

The moment by moment crawl through the hen weekend is interspersed with a parallel story. Nora is in hospital. Something terrible has happened. But what? Someone has died. There has been a car crash and an awful lot of blood. Nora struggles to remember. Old secrets are ready to be told.

No spoilers here at all but this book kept me gripped from start to finish. It superseded any other activity, and even saw me out of bed on Sunday morning at 05.30 because I needed to know what happened!

The publishing world has seen toxic marriages, unreliable narrators and this is the start of the latest trend of toxic friendships. Never surely was there a more toxic friendship than one portrayed here?

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes women's psychological fiction, tightly paced plotting and a clever and thrilling read.
The only other tiny comment I would make is I think this book deserves a different, punchier cover. While I liked it at first sight, having read the book, it deserves something better.

Thank you for the opportunity of reading this and I look forward to Ruth Ware's next book.

Cornwall Writing Retreat

We like to find outstanding locations for our retreats. How about this one?

This is glorious Port Isaac on the North coast of Cornwall.

We called this retreat Write by the Sea and we were. Our house overlooked the sea, perched on a cliff top with uninterrupted views of the Atlantic. If that's not inspirational I don't know what is.

We held the retreat March 23rd to 27th and were joined by best selling author Chris Manby.

She had work of her own to do. This didn't stop her from holding two great workshops.  Chris Manby

Plotters Plotting

Firstly Plotting. Chris has a method of plotting that was new to all of us. Some of us were new to plotting at all!  Thanks to Chris I got a whole new book, apparently our of nowhere! Here we are hard at work.

The house as you can see, 

was light, bright and comfortable. Readers of this blog will know we like to keep our guests well fed.

Well it was nearly Easter!

A Cornish cream tea.

The second workshop was on writers block. Something that we have all claimed to suffer from at one time or another? Or did we really want to do the ironing?

Jane and Meg beat writers block with apple crumble.

Chris and Kirsten plot.

We were hoping to see Poldark galloping across the cliffs. In fact some of us thought about him quite a lot.

Chris,Meg,Vicky,Moira,Jane,Catherine and Kirsten.

We had such a lovely week together. New enthusiasm for our writing, new ideas to work on, new friends to cherish.

Thanks everyone for making it such a success, especial thanks to Chris, you were a star.

www.theplacetowrite.co.uk

If You Go Away - Adele Parks

Shortly after I was sent this book  (thank you Georgina Moore Communications Director at Headline Books) I tweeted how much I was enjoying it. Someone tweeted back and asked me what it was about. I replied ;

Love, WW1, duty, sacrifice, despair, hope. It's a wonderful book.

Well this morning I finished reading it and I can say that If You Go Away is all of these things but so much more.

It starts with the girlish delight of Vivian who has recently come out into society and is expecting a proposal of marriage from handsome, rich Nathaniel. Things don't go to plan. Vivian gambles and loses. Her rigid mother Mrs Foster knows without careful handling of the situation Vivian will be ruined and their family dragged down with her. Vivian is shunted into marriage on the day war is declared, with Aubrey, a dull, predictable man she hardly knows and certainly doesn't love.

         "If she follows her heart she will be disgraced, ostracised. 
                 If she follows convention she will be bored isolated."

The parallel story is about Howard Henderson, a playwright in London who is enjoying some success. As the threat of war approaches, he realises he can never kill or fight a faceless enemy. He will not volunteer. He is determined not be swept along on the tide of hysteria that is growing in England. He travels with a journalist friend to France and sees first hand the brutality and hell of life in the trenches. Back home Howard is labelled a coward, a conscientious objector

                  "If he goes, he will become a killer or be killed. 
                      If he stays he will be imprisoned, perhaps shot."


Vivian spends the war in the country where she and Howard meet.
Their attraction for each other deepens into passion and love.The story sweeps the reader along from the glamour of London society to the battlefields of Belgium. The frivolity of parties and balls where the only consideration is the colour of a new dress to the  censored carnage and waste that is every war. 

Through it all, a remarkable and enduring love story. Heart breaking letters that are never received. The pressures of family, duty and patriotism mingled with fear and unbreakable courage

How can there possibly be a happy ending for Vivian and Howard?

                                                                ************

I've been a fan of Adele Parks for years. She's a great writer and also a brilliant and inspirational speaker. I saw her in Cheltenham and also at the Festival Of Writing in York in 2013. If you ever get a chance to see her in action, don't hesitate just go. She's friendly, approachable and generous with her time and advice.

I love her books. I was thrilled to be sent this one. I loved her foray into historical fiction with Spare Brides and enjoyed seeing a character from that book (Ava) reappearing in If You Go Away. (I can't help thinking Ava and Beatrice deserves books of their own.)

So, did I enjoy this book? Yes, you know I did.

Would I recommend it? Like a shot. Without hesitation.

Thanks to Adele Parks and Georgina Moore.

Review ; The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett

I was sent this beautiful (I mean look at it, that cover is gorgeous) book to review,  by Rebecca Gray, Senior Publicity Manager for Orion books.

Now I'm going to blog about it. Where to start?

Well, firstly this is a wonderful, exceptional book by Laura Barnett. I loved it. It is her first novel and she deserves a medal. I expect she will get several.

It is a love story told three ways. Now as I writer I've tried to write a story two ways and believe me it's not easy. To write a story from three different perspectives is the literary equivalent of running a marathon, fixing your make up and tossing a pancake all at the same time.

There are many 'time slip' stories out there and I've enjoyed a lot of them. The Kate Mosse books are among my favourites. The Versions of Us brilliantly explores the moments when we make a decision, choose a path in life, and therefore other ways are closed forever. The 1998 film Sliding Doors examined this idea with great skill. This book is way beyond that in terms of complication and it pulls no punches.

What if a different choice had been made?
How would our lives have turned out?
What would we have achieved?
Who else would have been affected by our new course?
Ultimately, did we make the right choice?
And what is the 'right' choice?

The story of Eva and Jim spans several decades from 1958 when they meet in Cambridge and fall in love. Life does not work out as the reader assumes. Other people enter the story and influence their lives. In the three versions, there is love, disappointment, joy, betrayal and loyalty interwoven with human weakness and also strength.

The book follows Eva and Jim's three different lives, the connection between them interwoven with considerable skill. During the writing process Laura Barnett must have had a wall papered with post it notes!

I read a lot and a good book involves me in the character so that I care about them. Many times, I have abandoned a book because I didn't care, the main character deserved a slap for being so stupid or their story was too predictable.

Laura Barnett has created convincing and likeable people in this novel and a strong story. I really wanted Eva and Jim to be happy, to find each other, to live out the best life path they could.

I am also guilty of speed reading. I couldn't do this with The Versions of Us, I had to read it properly in order to understand the subtlety in the plot. The 'voice' in this book is super.

I recommend this book without reservation. When you see it, (it will be published on 4th June) buy it!
It's been a pleasure to read it.

Location Location Location. Part 1.

We all know that marvellous moment when the house is quiet, everyone is busy or out and it's just you and your Work in Progress. (I was going to say you and your WIP, but that sounded a bit dodgy and these days you can't be too careful) 
We know that doesn't happen very often as there are nearly always some sort of domestic/work related/personal issues tugging at your sleeve, like insistent toddlers looking for biscuits.

The Myth

The Reality

What writers crave is peace, quiet and the knowledge that you now have time to get on with it! And that's what we want too. It's difficult to get immersed in your clever but complicated time-slip romance/historical masterpiece/cosy crime caper if you know dinner needs cooking or someone needs a lift somewhere. And we wanted to find a location for our retreats with that little bit extra.
So this is where we held our October retreat last year.






800 year old Llanthony Secunda Manor. A renovated monastery near Caldicot castle in Gloucestershire.




Yes it was lovely, atmospheric and steeped in history. We had a marvellous time. And not a ghostly monk in sight anywhere.

Workshops with Debi Alper

We had fun too. What a great group!

www.theplacetowrite.co.uk

Cake and Cookies and other delights.

What else do our Merry Band of Writers want we wondered?


When potential buyers step into a house, the scent of newly baking bread, fresh ground coffee or a new batch of cookies should greet them I'm told. Not all at once obviously. You don't want to knock them out before they get inside...


So we like to greet out newly arrived writers with something similar. They seem to like it too.

So this is very popular

And so is this.

It is a real treat for our fellow writers not to have to worry about shopping, meal planning, clearing up, washing up or (very importantly) dealing with other people's meal requirements. These always seem to come just as a tricky scene is beginning to fall into place, don't they? (Mum Mum, I'm starving...)

By the way, we ask before hand for food allergies, dislikes and things to avoid and we listen. Home made soups, pies, tangines, salads, curries and all the accompaniments are among the things we have produced.

And then there is coffee. As many of us know.....

I think a lot of us can relate to this.

Coffee (and lots of it) seems to feature highly on the list of what people want. We certainly do. This also applies to tea and herbal teas. You tell us what you want through the day and we will brew it! We also like to put out Fresh fruit, water and juice so people can help themselves.


Desserts.


I don't know about you, but I seldom bother making these on a daily basis. But on a writing retreat, well that's different.

And so did this.
Home made Choc Pot with strawberries and cream.

Panacotta with fresh raspberries and home made Sloe gin.
This went down very well




Ok, So we've dealt with food.
Next will be Location Location Location


www.theplacetowrite.co.uk