Novel Kicks

About Novel Kicks/Laura... Novel Kicks was founded in 2009 and is run by Laura who is currently living in Hampshire, and lives with husband, Chris and her cat, Buddy. She would love to be a writer. She’s trying to write the novel she thinks so much about. She’s loved reading and writing since ‘Creative Writing’ classes in primary school. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything she can get her hands on, she loves reading, dancing like a loon, and watching Project Runway and Ugly Betty (her two TV guilty pleasures.) She also has an obsession with chocolate and Jammie Dodgers.

Book News: Katie Fforde

Published November 19, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

I always look forward to anything by Katie Fforde and I can’t wait for her new release coming in February 2015.

Being released by Century on 12th February, it’s called A Vintage Wedding and I am totally in love with this cover. If you want to have a sneak peek of her new book, Katie is releasing a collection of Christmas short stories and there will be a preview of A Vintage Wedding inside. A Christmas Feast is being released by Arrow in paperback and electronically and is available to buy from 4th December 2014. Both books are available for pre-order from Amazon.

A little about A Vintage Wedding:

Beth, Rachel and Lindy are looking for new beginnings.

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A Moment With…Cathy Kelly

Published November 17, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Earlier, we heard from author, Deborah Lawrenson about how she deals with the mid-book slump and now we catch up with Cathy Kelly to see how she deals with that dreaded mid-book stall…

I keep writing and tell myself I am an idiot about a hundred times. It’s such a dreadful thing to go through and I go through many of them with each book, and I force myself to stay at the computer, when really, a good walk helps. What I’ve written still looks dreadful when I come back but I am somehow calmed!

Cathy Kelly is the best-selling author of The Honey Queen, Just Between Us and The House on Willow Street. Her latest novel, It Started With Paris was released by Orion in October 2014. Read our interview with her by clicking here.

Mick’s Musings: Time Flies?

Published November 17, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Time flies…

But does it? Well, yes it does, but whether that means it crawls or streaks along is open to debate. I promised the good lady who lets me post on her Blog much more regular updates when I sent in my last entry and – goes down on bended knee – I haven’t lived up to that promise. I am very, very sorry Laura and hope that you’ll forgive me. I do have a good excuse, or at least, not a made up one, that I’ll let you judge me on.

Ever since I received my report back from the RNA New Writer’s Scheme, I’d been trying to get together my Query letter to submit to various Agents and Publishers and was just getting nowhere. I’ve spoken to a lot of people and done a lot of online research on this art and can very much agree that compared to writing the book, this is a much harder task. There are books out there that give you tips on how to write these things, but for me, the hardest part was undoubtedly convincing myself that the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th (probably more) draft of the thing was as good as it was going to get and I should get it out there.

For even getting that far, I can only give my thanks to my fellow RNA members, both published and, like myself, hopeful. You know who you are, but they include Laura and Bella from Novel Kicks, Bernadette for giving me the ass-kicking I really needed and too many others to list here.

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Events: Chawton House Library’s Georgian Christmas

Published November 17, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Find out how the people of Jane Austen’s time celebrated Christmas at Chawton House Library this December.

Explore the ‘great house,’ she loved as well as seeing it fully dressed for Christmas.

This event is happening on 13th December 2014 at Chawton House Library near Alton in Hampshire.

It’s an open house between 10am and 3pm. As well as cooking up gourmet christmas treats from the Knight family cookbook, there will also be talks from the food historian, Dr Anne Gray (who featured on the Great British Bake Off,) who will be giving talks on the traditional Georgian christmas dinner – ‘Plumb, Porridge and Pickle for Brawn.’

Tickets are £8 for adults and £4 for children (under fives go free.) Continue reading →

A Moment With…Deborah Lawrenson

Published November 17, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Monday has rolled around once again and we are now over halfway through November and National Novel Writing Month. Most of the people taking part will be over 25,000 words into their NaNoWriMo novel (or not even close if you are having a writing month like mine.) At this stage, it’s very easy to fall into the mid-book slump. Later on today, we will be hearing from Cathy Kelly with her advice on how to conquer the mid-book slump but first, we hear from the author of The Sea Garden, Deborah Lawrenson. She gives us her advice on what she does to get through it.

The mid-book slump is a genuine threat. For me, it’s the moment when the thought strikes that what I’ve written so far might all be a load of rubbish, an implausible story and so tangled that any readers will rip it to shreds. How do I get over it?

I just walk away from it for a few days. I don’t stop working, though. I keep a notebook for each book, beginning with ideas, details of characters, reminders to myself, and whole passages of writing I’ve played around with. This is the time to re-read the notebook, and keep it close to jot down my thoughts.

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