blogs about books

Author Interview: Rachel Dove

/ Jacqueline Grima / Leave a comment

Your new romance Someone Like You has just been released by HQ Stories and has great reviews already. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Someone Like You is a book I have wanted to write for a while. In the 2020 lockdown, hearing the news about isolation and the rates of women and men living in domestic violence situations exploding, the urge to write it grew.

It got me thinking about how many Hannahs there were out there, the ones running, the ones who didn’t manage to leave. It grew from there. Once Hannah introduced herself, I thought about the hero. I didn’t want her to be ‘saved’ – she did it herself. Brody is one of my favourite characters. He pretty much told his story himself.

You also write for Mills and Boon. Can you tell us a bit about your Medical Romance?

Yes, I write for the medical line and I love it! It involves a lot of research, and everyone thinks those books are just churned out. It couldn’t be further from the truth. The medicals are ultra-modern, dreamy and perfect escapism. I just finished my 5th medical and have two more coming out from next year! The one I just finished is set in Kent and involves a rather hot obstetrician. I adore him. I fall in love with every man I write ha ha!

Tell us about your path to being published. Would you do anything differently with all the experience you have now?

I would be more patient. The publishing industry is very slow, and sometimes pitched projects are good, but not the right book at that time. Follow your gut, find your people. I am onto writing books for 2024 now, but it takes time. Be yourself on social media, cheer others on. I love the friends I have met and really enjoy their successes. Patience is something I wish I had known earlier. The panic of waiting allows the imposter syndrome in. I say, don’t let it.

Tell us about your writing routine. Is it difficult to work your writing around family commitments? What advice would you give to other writers in the same position?

Yes, extremely difficult! I have written at the side of various sports pitches, by the pool while my kids learned to swim. I write in the car waiting for school to finish. Try to write every day, I would tell other writers. It doesn’t have to be words on a page, but research is everywhere. Deadlines have suffered massively since 2020, with our routines all going out of the window. I use an app to track word counts needed to hit deadlines on time. It works, until life gets in the way! It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Carve that time out. I won’t spout ‘we all have the same hours in the day’. Frankly, that’s a crock. I homeschool, have pets, family etc. Other writers have ill health, or employment to prioritise outside of the book world. Side hustles, life. Make your writing time work for you. Be realistic. Headphones are perfect. All you need to write is a brain and somewhere to record the words. The rest is reading, practice, passion.

What are you reading at the minute?

Lots of GCSE workbooks for home learning! It’s been a while since I sat mine. Pretty sure my son thinks I used to scribe on slates!

I recently loved the Bodyguard series by Anna Brooks. Racy, but emotional and enjoyable. I read a lot, but I did have a lull during 2020. I am glad to have my mojo back.

Are there any authors who have particularly influenced your own writing?

I loved Jill Mansell in my early 20s, but too many others to name! I learn from every source; writing is everywhere. We all interpret it differently, and that fascinates me. I try to focus on keeping my own voice clear.

What can readers expect next from Rachel Dove?

Racier reads! I am still loving writing all things romance, but I also love friendships and family dynamics too. I have my first romance out in 2023 from Boldwood Books, and more in the pipeline. More medical too. My plan for the next two years is to write all the ideas I have, help my son through his GCSEs and meet more readers!

I am at a few signings already, but after recent months, getting out there, meeting people and sparking ideas is definitely on my list. I am into the 20s books wise, and to be honest, I can’t keep up with myself! I would love to set myself another challenge. I said 18 books published by the time my son was 18 was it, but I won that four years early!

Perhaps I will attempt 50 by 50, which I turn in nine years. Hopefully I can invent enough hot heroes!

To find out more about Rachel Dove’s books, including Someone Like You and her Mills and Boon Medical Romance, click here.

Book Review: Death in Heels by Kitty Murphy

/ Jacqueline Grima / Leave a comment

When I was offered the opportunity to read Kitty Murphy’s cosy mystery Death in Heels, I have to say I jumped at the chance. The novel is due to be published early in 2023 and readers are in for a treat with this fabulous ‘whodunnit’.

Death in Heels is the first in the Dublin Drag Mysteries series. Set in Ireland’s drag queen community, it follows characters Mae B, Miss Merkin, Del, Thora and their friend Fi, who are all shocked by the apparent brutal murder of one of their own. When Fi stumbles across the body of not-so-well-liked queen Eve after leaving the TRASH nightclub, she is convinced Eve’s death is no accident. Is someone threatening her drag queen friends? If so, who might be next on the hit list? Fearing for Mae B, aka her best friend Robyn, and frustrated when her suspicions are dismissed by the guards, Fi has no choice but to channel her inner ‘Hagatha Christie’ to find out who is behind the murderous plot!

Murphy’s debut creates the perfect balance between serious plotline and glamorous, sequin-filled fun. All of the characters in Death in Heels are immensely likeable and readers won’t be able to resist being drawn into the adventures, and misadventures, of Dublin’s quirky drag ‘family’. This is commercial mystery writing at its very best.

Death in Heels will be published in January 2023 by Thomas and Mercer but is available to pre-order now. Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the copy I received in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Ghost Who Bled by Gregory Norminton

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The Ghost Who Bled_FRONT COVER

Writer and Manchester Writing School Lecturer Gregory Norminton has recently released a new book, The Ghost Who Bled. The book, published by Comma Press, is a witty and often highly moving collection of meticulously detailed short stories that span nearly twenty years of Norminton’s writing career, stories that take the reader on a journey not only across continents but also through time.

What is immediately striking about Norminton’s writing is the author’s ability to adapt his voice to the collection’s settings and characters. Stories in The Ghost Who Bled span the world and its cultures, the author taking us as far afield as Malaya and Japan before bringing us nostalgically back to the green Surrey of his childhood.

In Zero + 30, we meet the American husband of a woman who survived the Pol Pot regime of Cambodia. Returning to the country with his wife, he finds out the real motive behind her decision to marry him many years ago.

In Confessions of a Tyrant’s Double, a commoner’s likeness to a much revered, and perhaps reviled, president leads him to a life that is no longer his own. A prisoner of his own appearance – ‘my good looks did not belong to me’ – his only hope in ensuring his existence is not forgotten is to note down his experiences and hope them to be a read by a suspected snooper: ‘by your aid I have proved that I existed.’

In Bottleneck, a ‘flagrantly pregnant’ musician struggles with the concept of bringing a child into an already overpopulated near-future world. Here, we clearly see the battle between capitalism and creativity – ‘Is  it common for the Small Hall to have so many empty seats?’ – beautifully shown in the fatalist but practical attitude of Clare’s scientist  husband, her tendency to find refuge in music and, ultimately, in the conception of a baby despite strict precautions.

In what is probably the strongest story in the collection, The Ghost Who Bled, a ghostly young Japanese airman reflects on his life, watching from a distance the impact of the horrific nuclear bombing of his country. Unbearably lonely, he is unwilling to leave his life behind, hiding to watch his loved ones and longing to be part of their lives again. Why, we ask ourselves, is he so reluctant to move on?

Gregory Norminton’s writing is beautifully lyrical, yet, at the same time, completely concrete. The author not only describes Cambodia, Japan, Malaya, but picks his readers up and drops them in the very countries, villages, pasts and futures in which his stories are set.

The Ghost Who Bled is available now from Comma Press. To mark the launch of the collection, Gregory Norminton will be talking about his work at a series of events, including an appearance at Waterstones on Deansgate, Manchester on Friday 19th May at 6.30pm. The event is free to attend and refreshments will be available.

This review was originally published on Humanity Hallows.

 

Book Review: My Sister and Other Liars by Ruth Dugdall

/ Jacqueline Grima / Leave a comment

my sister and other liars

Ruth Dugdall is a former probation officer turned novelist who lives in Suffolk. Her works include the Luke Bitmead Bursary and Debut Dagger Award winner The Woman Before Me, Nowhere Girl and Humber Boy B. Ruth has a BA in English from Warwick University and an MA in Social Work. My Sister and Other Liars is her sixth novel.

The book tells the story of 17-year-old Samantha Hoolihan, who, due to a severe eating disorder, is currently residing in the ‘Ana’ unit of a Suffolk hospital. The subject matter of this book immediately creates a novel that is, by no means, an easy read, Dugdall’s portrayal of the unit and its inhabitants brutally honest and often heart-breaking. The author’s obviously detailed and thorough research into the impact of anorexia is clear on every page; as the girls hide their food, idolise those patients having to be fed with a tube and even ‘water load’ before weigh-ins, the reader is very much drawn into life on the ward, feeling hopeful for the patients we think might get better and extremely sad for the ones we think might not.

Life with an eating disorder, however, is not the only focus of this psychological crime thriller as, using flashback, the author takes us back to the traumatic events in Sam’s life that led to her being hospitalised. With the help of Sam’s therapist, Clive, and a box of treasured family photographs, we learn how, eighteen months before, Sam’s sister Jena was attacked and severely injured, the incident leaving her family broken almost beyond repair. Taking it upon herself to rescue all she holds dear, Sam sets out to discover the identity of her sister’s attacker, her actions subsequently leading her into the darker side of Suffolk and towards a truth which could completely shatter her world.

My Sister and Other Liars is a challenging novel, the details of life on Ana Unit and of Jena and Sam’s often horrific experiences certainly not for someone looking for a light-hearted read. As she successfully drip feeds the plot to up the suspense, however, what Ruth Dugdall creates here is a page-turner, forcing the reader to keep going until the end so that, alongside Sam, we can get to the bottom of this mystery and found out who attacked Jena and, perhaps more crucially, why.

With a string of successful crime novels behind her, it seems that mystery and suspense is what Ruth Dugdall does best.

The Kindle version of My Sister and Other Liars is available now from Amazon and other good retailers. The paperback can be ordered ahead of its release on 1st May.