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.

November’s Book Club – Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding

Published November 6, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Jonathan Cape, October 2013.

Book Corner is our monthly online book club.

How it works…

We love books and we love chatting about them even more. Every month, we pick a new book for discussion. We will post a question to kick things off and then you can talk about any of your thoughts about the book in the comments box below. The best thing about our book club is that EVERYONE CAN TAKE PART. It’s open to all. You can read the book at any point in the month or if you’ve already read it, tell us what you think.

This month, our pick is Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding.

About the book:

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice?

Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

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A Moment With…Jill Mansell

Published November 5, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

We are now on our fifth day into National Novel Writing Month. How is everyone doing?

All throughout November, to coincide with National Novel Writing Month, we will be bringing you advice on aspects of writing from a variety of authors including Ali McNamara, Jane Fallon and Nicci Gerrard.

Today, we catch up with best-selling author, Jill Mansell who is talking about planning that novel. She says:

The trouble with planning out a whole novel’s worth of plot in advance is that you are bound to get much better ideas during the course of the book that knock the initial careful plans completely off course and render them useless. Since it’s so important to have the best plot possible, I now only plan it out in the very vaguest of ways, with Post-It notes stuck to a huge length of paper.

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Events: Write By The Shore

Published October 31, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Being held at the Cockenzie House and Gardens, the Write by the Shore Festival is taking place next weekend (1st and 2nd November 2014.)

Over the two days, there will be a variety of events including sessions like, Meeting the authors, historical authors and there is also a session for Crime fiction authors.

There will also be events looking at children’s books and there is also an open mic session for local authors so plenty going on for both writer and reader alike.

Authors appearing over the weekend include Sara Sheridan, Ed James and Michael Pederson.

Tickets are £35 for the weekend, £20 for a day ticket or £10 per session.

For more information on the programme and tickets, click here.

We had a chat with Sara Sheridan, one of the authors attending Write by the Shore.

Hi Sara, thank you for joining us. How important are events like Write By The Shore? Are they both for writers and readers?

I think one of the wonderful things about the growth of book festivals all over the UK is that it lets readers meet writers and vice versa. I find that fascinating – you never can tell what the audience are going to ask, come question time… It’s also great that books are made more accessible by virtue of these kinds of festivals. I’m a big supporter.

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Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Ghost Stories

Published October 31, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

Friday 31st October 2014: Ghost Stories.

Fiction Friday is our weekly prompt. The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can. Once you’ve finished, don’t edit, just post in the comments box below.

Today’s Prompt: It’s Halloween and it’s your chance to write a ghost story. It can be set in any era and anywhere. Is there a haunted house? Do you see a ghost? It can be anything you like.

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Bella’s Scribblings: Half-Term Research

Published October 29, 2014 | By Novel Kicks

It’s nearly Halloween which not only means things get a bit creepy and there are horror movies on the telly, it also means you need to stock up your house with bucketfuls of sweets and prepare to be terrorised by small children. I quite like the change to Halloween. I was quite creeped out about it as a child so it’s nice to see my daughter getting excited about choosing a costume and putting up decorations. Someone once proposed to me on Halloween (you would have thought I would have spotted the obvious warning signs here but I didn’t).

Anyway, Halloween got me thinking about half term which is usually followed by the word ‘holiday’ and that got me thinking about needing a holiday and the mismatch of my need to the availability of cash to pay for one. (I know it’s a tenuous link but stick with it). Then I thought about all my lovely writer friends that are just popping off somewhere in the name of research!

Many a mini break is booked in the name of research. Trips to take in the details of specific locations, to experience things unique to certain places, to take in the atmosphere and ambiance of a particular place. Google maps and the rest of the wonder that is the internet can take you so far but it can’t tell you what the breeze feels like against your face as you teeter on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland or the taste of the weird and wonderful ice cream flavours as you walk along Aberdovey beach in Wales or the sound of the Titanic hitting the iceberg (OK maybe the last one you could imagine).

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