Catherine Bennetto Shares Her Favourite Alternative Romantic Novels
How Not To Fall In Love Actually is the brilliant debut novel from Catherine Bennetto.
Emma has a job in television which is distinctly less glamorous and exciting than it sounds. She’s managed to claw her way up the ranks from Tea-Maker and Rubbish-Collector to 2nd Assistant Director (heavy on the ‘assistant’. Even heavier on the ‘2nd’).
So when she finds she’s accidentally very pregnant and at the same time accidentally very sacked (well, less accidentally: she did tell her boss to stick his job up his bum), she knows things are going to have to change.
Luckily she’s also accidentally the heir to a lovely cottage in Wimbledon, with a crazy Doberman-owning octogenarian as a neighbour and a rather sexy guy as an accidental tenant. But this baby is coming whether she likes it or not, and she needs to become the sort of person who can look after herself let alone another human being – and quickly.
Catherine shares with us today her top ten alternative romantic novels. Over to you Catherine…
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
I’ve not seen the movie but you’d have to be living under a rock in Snezhnegorsk (Russia) to not know Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger played the main characters. And regardless of sexual orientation you’d be a fool, A FOOL I SAY, to turn either one of them down. Sadly, the written characters are much less lust worthily depicted…. But it’s a fabulous story with unique characters and a satisfyingly heart-wrenching conclusion.
Michael Joseph, 2012
ME BEFORE YOU
This book was so fascinating I read it in one day. A romance develops between two unlikely characters: Louisa; who is relatively normal, and Will, completely paralyzed, wholly dependant and with a very genuine, and not unwarranted, death wish. And oh how I wanted it to work out in the end! Couldn’t he just miraculously recover? But I’d have liked the story less and would have called it unrealistic and twee. So die he must, be sad she was, and cry I did.
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY
Instead of the typical mid 20’s heroine working in advertising and wearing amazing shoes, meet Bridget; thirty-something with an average woman’s body and an average woman’s job, bumbling around London in big pants trying to hook up with the bad guy while accidentally falling in love with the geek guy. It was a refreshing change to the romantic comedy trope and I (along with scores of others) adored ridiculous, kind, forever-willing-to-dust-off-and-try-again Bridget.
by 
My Writing Ramblings: Do You Have To Be A Reader To Be A Writer?
Hello everyone. We’re over hump day and speeding toward the weekend. Yay!
I come to you today through a cloud of copious amounts of tea, coke zero and probably some of the worst night’s sleep I’ve had. Well, technically day’s sleep as I’ve been on night shifts for the last few nights.
Finding a positive in my sleepy, clumsy state, there is something I like about being awake at a stupid time of the morning (I will always prefer to be sleeping at night but when I can’t, I try to find good.) I like the stillness of the night time. The lack of busy. I find it incredibly calming.
When I don’t sleep, I read. I have been thinking a lot recently about the act of reading and why I like it. I do love the escape. I adore having access to the lives of the characters who inhabit the worlds I read about. I like discovering new book series and authors. There is not a lot that can beat that feeling I have when I discover an author and realise that there is already a vast catalogue for me to pick my next book from (which is pretty much what happened when I discovered Lisa Jewell for example.)
As I have been trying to write my own book, I have been wondering how much being a big reader helps with my writing.
by Blog Tour: Author of The Watcher Chats About His Book Journey
A huge big welcome to Ross and the blog tour for his new book, The Watcher.
She’s watching you, but who’s watching her?
Lily Gullick lives with her husband Aiden in a new-build flat opposite an estate which has been marked for demolition. A keen birdwatcher, she can’t help spying on her neighbours.
Until one day Lily sees something suspicious through her binoculars and soon her elderly neighbour Jean is found dead. Lily, intrigued by the social divide in her local area as it becomes increasingly gentrified, knows that she has to act. But her interference is not going unnoticed, and as she starts to get close to the truth, her own life comes under threat.
But can Lily really trust everything she sees?
Chris has reviewed the book below but first, Ross chats to me about his book journey. Hello Ross. Can you tell me about your writing journey for The Watcher…
As I was struggling to open the door to my building with my key fob, while carrying a box of American proofs and a new coffee machine, a woman I’d never seen before held open the door just as I managed to catch the machine on its descent, the books taking the full journey to the ground and collapsing onto the carpet.
‘That’s a lot of books,’ she said.
‘Well,’ I said, tentatively, as it felt like I was on the precipice of a real world humble-brag, ‘it’s my first novel actually, so, pretty excited.’
‘What’s it about?’ She said.
Which drained my vibe and immediately posed me a problem, as the real answer, ‘spying on your neighbours as if they were birds’, might come across just a little, I don’t know, creepy.
‘It’s a psychological thriller.’ I said instead.
The idea for The Watcher had come to me as I took a look around this new build neighbourhood some eighteen months earlier, even before the estate agent showed us up to the flat. Stories of murder often take place in quaint villages or in grand old surroundings, I thought that maybe the unsettling ends of fiction could stand being regenerated too. Crime can tend to focus on so-called high or low life, worlds luxurious or gritty, I wanted to focus on the middle.
This neighbourhood was more comfortable, gleaming, somehow ambient, than any place I’d lived, but that didn’t mean it had any less capacity to disturb. So I decided to figure out what I thought about gentrification, this divided country and a few other things by telling myself a story.
I worked on the first 20,000 words heavily, both because I love beginnings and as I was aware that this is where readers are making all sorts of subtle decisions about the story. But it all came very quickly really, the other three quarters particularly so, in an at times sleepless rush, as I carried out the novel’s evil plan.
After encouragement and full manuscript requests, I decided it couldn’t be too awful and sent it to the one agent I wanted above all. She came back to me having read it in one breathless burst and said she wanted the book. Juliet Mushens, even more brilliant in person, was a perfect fit for the book.
Around three weeks later the book sold first in Germany, a surreal moment, then other territories in the coming days, followed by offers from the UK. Everyone I met during this process was passionate about books and gave me a mind-blowing introduction to the industry.
None more so than the whole team at Harlequin, soon to morph into HQ Stories, who got every aspect of the novel from the very start, even down to a shockingly perfect cover design that was waiting for me on a giant screen when we met.
They have managed to communicate the essence of the book in ways I couldn’t, which reminds me that I started this piece trying not to humble-brag, and that the book has just gone into the top 20 fiction hardbacks in its first week on sale. This, humbly, is not a brag belonging to me, but to many whose hard work has made this story I told myself be all it could possibly be.
HQ, December 2016
Our verdict on The Watcher:
The author paints a very vivid picture in your mind of the main character Lily. She lives in a new-build apartment in London on a development site where they are tearing down the old buildings to create the new.
As an avid birdwatcher Lily sees everything that is going on through her binoculars and soon enough she finds that she is watching more than just the birds and, unlike with birds, some of them are watching back. After the discovery of a body in one of the soon to be demolished blocks, she starts to try and piece together what happened from her observations.
I don’t want to say much more otherwise I might start to give things away. The book is written as a journal from the point of view of Lily. At first I struggled with the book as it is written in very short sentences, sometimes just a few words long, and I find this style of writing tiring to read.
However, within a few pages I realised that this style of writing was used intentionally as it gives a whole new dimension to Lily; it helped to build the structure of her mind in my head. I could start to see her more clearly, perceiving her movements like her words; short, sharp, fast and occasionally beautifully flowing – putting me in mind of birds first on the ground then on the wing.
It is clear that there is some trauma in her past, as the journal is written to someone whom she does not currently wish to speak and there are hints of rift and pain. The basic story is quite simple, but the true magic lies in the incredible execution.
All the information and the clues are there, but I didn’t see the truth until it punched me in the heart. I would recommend this book quite whole-heartedly. It drew me in and once I hit about half way I couldn’t have put it down if the house was on fire.
(Review by Chris Parish.)
About Ross:
Ross Armstrong is a British stage and screen actor who has performed in the West End of London, on Broadway and in theatres throughout the UK. His TV appearances include Foyle’s War, Jonathan Creek, and most recently, Ripper Street.
After gaining a BA in English Literature and Theatre at Warwick University, Ross went to RADA and whilst there he won the RADA Poetry Writing Award.
Ross is on Twitter. Follow the link to go and say hello: https://twitter.com/rarmstrongbooks
by Courses and Competitions: Mslexia Short Fiction Competition 2017
Back for its ninth year, the Mslexia short fiction competition is now open for 2017.
The competition is open to women of any nationality and from any country.
All genres are welcome.
The entries should be between 300 and 3,000 words (excluding the title.)
The first prize is £2,000. There are also two optional extras of a writing retreat at Gladstone Library and a day with an editor from Virago Press for the person who wins. Three other finalists will receive £100. All four entries will be published in the June edition of Mslexia.
The judge this year is Deborah Levy.
The closing date is 20th March 2017. The entry fee per story is £10 and they ask that you include a cover sheet with your entry.
For more information on this competition and also the new flash fiction competition, click on this link: https://mslexia.co.uk
by A Moment With Talli Roland: My Writing Process
Starting a new novel is always so exciting. Everything feels shiny and fresh, and you just know it will be the best book you’ve ever written.
I love that moment, before the inevitable self-doubt sets in. I don’t have any particular rituals when I sit down to write a new book, but I always sketch out the obstacles my characters will face and how I want them to change and grow by the end of the book.
I also think about their backgrounds and their internal conflicts, either as a result of their history or character traits. I often don’t have a picture of my protagonist in my mind, but I do need to ‘know’ them: their fears, their likes and dislikes, and what they want out of life.
I’ve tried both exhaustive planning and ‘pantsing’, and I usually fall somewhere in the middle.
by Book Club
