Writing Room: Seeing Is Not Always Believing
Tuesday 20th September 2016.
Today’s prompt: Seeing is not always believing.
Senses are obviously very important. Visual is what we most rely on.
For today’s exercise, describe a place of importance but only use smell, hearing, touch or taste.
Anything but visual descriptions.
by 
Blog Tour: The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan – Review
To everyone who knows her now, Zoe Maisey – child genius, musical sensation – is perfect. Yet several years ago Zoe caused the death of three teenagers. She served her time, and now she’s free.
Her story begins with her giving the performance of her life.
By midnight, her mother is dead.
The Perfect Girl is an intricate exploration into the mind of a teenager burdened by brilliance, and a past that she cannot leave behind.
Zoé and her mother Maria moved from Devon to Bristol to start a new life following a big tragedy. Maria is now married to Chris and along with his son, Lucas, Zoé and Maria seem to be getting their lives back on track. Tessa, Maria’s sister is also living near by.
Zoé finds that she isn’t going to really find protection from her old life when it very much catches up with her. When more tragedy strikes the family, Zoé is worried she is going to become suspect number one but is she really to blame?
I loved Burnt Paper Sky so I have been waiting patiently and excitedly for Gilly’s new novel, The Perfect Girl which is due its paperback release on Thursday (22nd September.)
The Perfect Girl has a great build up of suspense across the novel. It is set in a very short but very tense space of time. The lives of the characters are complicated and fascinating.
by My Writing Ramblings: Taking Myself Seriously?
It is amazing how quickly a week can go and how little you can actually achieve. It has been seven of those days that seems to have merged into one. Where the day job (or in my case this week has been my first lot of night shifts for months) has taken priority.
I have been trying to sneak bits and pieces in here and there. I’m still making my way through Emma. I am a little behind. I am not too worried about that. Reading Austen was never about how quickly I could get through them. If you’re reading along with me, how are you getting on?
I have been writing about two hundred words of a short story this week to make sure I at least write something. My planning has got to a stage where I need to sit down and map out plot so it is not something I have been able to do this week as I don’t want to rush it. I have done that before and it has not got me far. I am so tired from my shifts though that once I do get home, I just want to sleep. Surprisingly, I am not actually getting too worked up about it. I am still working my way through the plot in my head. That counts…right?
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Woods For The Trees
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing 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: Woods for the trees.
What does the picture inspire?
If you need further inspiration, how about this… There are two characters – one male and one female and they are just about to enter the woods. It is up to you whether this man and woman get on and why they are going into the woods. It is also up to you what happens once they go into the woods.
by Gill Paul Chats About The Launch Party For Her New Novel, The Secret Wife
The Secret Wife is the latest novel by Gill Paul and it was released by Avon on 25th August 2016.
A Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries . . .
Love. Guilt. Heartbreak.
1914
Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance – and their lives – in danger . . .
2016
Kitty Fisher escapes to her great-grandfather’s remote cabin in America, after a devastating revelation makes her flee London. There, on the shores of Lake Akanabee, she discovers the spectacular jewelled pendant that will lead her to a long-buried family secret . . .
Haunting, moving and beautifully written, The Secret Wife effortlessly crosses centuries, as past merges with present in an unforgettable story of love, loss and resilience.
Gill Paul has joined me today to chat about the launch event for her new novel (which sounds amazing and I am looking forward to reading it.)
Hi Gill. Congratulations on the release of The Secret Wife. What was the launch party like?
I organise parties like military campaigns with master lists covered in arrows and squiggles only I can decipher. There were lots of elements to this one, which I’d been planning since June, when the Open Russia Club kindly said I could hold The Secret Wife launch there. Among things to arrange were:
• Lots of booze, including vodka I’d brought back specially from St Petersburg.
• Several different types of canapés: caviar on blinis, smoked fish on rye, chopped egg, cream cheese and beetroot, and two trays of gluten-free ones.
• Cupcakes (made by my powerhouse friend Karen, CEO of Orenda Books).
• A large screen showing home movie footage of the Romanovs with a Tchaikovsky sound track.
• Four boards with postcards of Fabergé eggs pasted on them.
• A table for the lovely Waterstones bookseller Maria to heap up the books.
• Postcards of Tatiana and Dmitri for guests to take as bookmarks.
Like most military campaigns in history, this did not go entirely to plan. It turned out there was no way to fix the Fabergé boards to the walls so we propped them on the floor and no one could see them once the crowds arrived. The television screen was too low down so not everyone could get close enough to watch the incredibly moving pictures of the Romanov girls prancing around in their white dresses and Alexei playing at being a soldier. The music my friend Lee had spent so long mixing couldn’t be heard over the chatter in the room. And worst of all, I forgot to bring my makeup bag to the club with me!!
Several guests arrived early, including Linda Hill – which was great because these early birds were the only people I got to have a proper conversation with all evening. Suddenly, at 6.30, a crowd arrived en masse, the room filled up, and all I could do was wave, air kiss and smile. My editors Eloise and Phoebe acted as bar staff, and were so good at it there’s definitely another career waiting for them should the publishing thing not work out. I seemed to spend the rest of the evening signing books, trying desperately not to spell anyone’s name wrong.
by Book Club
