Novel Kicks Writing Room: Everything Has Changed
Thursday 28th April 2016: Everything has changed.
Today’s prompt has your character lose themselves.
They get up, they get washed and dressed, grab their things and walk out the door.
When they get outside, their car isn’t there. After they call the police, they walk to work.
They walk in the reception area and apologise for being late and yet, no one knows who they are. Carry on the story….
by 
My Favourites: My Latest Stationery Haul
Stationery, stationery, stationery. Beautiful stationery. I’ve gone a little mad over the last few weeks. I am all about finding things that are going to make my life a little easier or just buying stationery because it is so pretty. I have to make sure I use them though. My pile of new notebooks gets bigger by the week and yet I can’t stop buying stuff.
Uni-ball ‘Air’ Pen.
My first favourite stationery item that I’ve got is this pen from Uni-ball. It’s the Air pen and it writes like a fountain pen. I was in the supermarket and was just, cough, browsing the stationary section when i can across these pens.
I do love writing with fountain pens. I always have done ever since I was a kid. This was why these pens caught my eye.
I really like these pens. They are not as fine as my fountain pen (I think it would be impossible for a rollerball to be) but it is the next best thing if you want something to have handy to write notes with but don’t want to bother with a proper fountain pen.
This brings me onto the Blue Sky Day Designer.
My pen is resting on the Day Designer from Blue Sky. I am a big hoarder of diaries. I find it hard to find one that fits the exact thing I am looking for in a diary. I like to keep up with everything that is going on (and I need a lot of help in that department as I will think I will remember what I am doing and then I will forget something,) but I also like enough notes pages for ideas and lists.
I saw this diary pop up in a YouTube video and managed to get one via Ebay.
What I love about this diary is that there a section for appointments but there is also a section for to do’s (heaven.) There are also plenty of blank pages for notes at the back as well as a monthly glance page which is handy for blogging.
Where this was brought from America it does have the American holidays instead of the British ones but that is not a big deal. There is also not a lot of space where the weekends are listed but it’s my ongoing battle with diaries and working weekends.
The blue is beautiful. It is also small enough to fit in my bag. Overall it’s all I need in a diary.
by Blog Tour: Somewhere Inside of Happy by Anna McPartlin
I am very pleased to welcoming Anna McPartlin to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her new novel, Somewhere Inside of Happy which was released by Black Swan on 7th April 2016.
‘And just like that my boy was gone.’ Maisie Bean is a fighter. A survivor. Seventeen years ago, she went on a first date that went so badly it was enough to put the girl off chips. The marriage that followed was hell but it gave her two children: funny, caring Jeremy and bullish but brilliant Valerie. Just as it seems everything might finally start going right, sixteen-year-old Jeremy goes missing. The police descend and a media storm swirls, over five days of searching that hurtle towards an inevitable, terrible conclusion. Maisie is facing another fight, and this time it’s the fight of her life. But she’s a survivor. Whatever the odds, she’ll never give in.
Thanks to Anna and Black Swan, I have an extract to share with you today. Enjoy.
Prologue
Introducing Maisie Bean Brennan
The room was silent, but for the sound of shuffling, an unidentifiable clicking and Maisie’s own heartbeat. Shuffle, click, boom, shuffle, click, boom. Calm down, ya silly old cow. It’ll be OK. She could feel her husband’s hands on her shoulders. He was standing right behind her, at the side of the stage, and she could hear him talking in her head. It’s all good, lady, you’re doing fine. Forget the sweats. Just smile. She watched her daughter Valerie limp in and lean against her stepfather, then pull off her shoe and shake out a piece of gravel. Her face and head were on fire: her latest hot flush had drenched her scalp, frizzing her lovely blow-dry at the roots. She tried to smile but her lips stuck to her upper teeth. Oh, brilliant. Now I’ll look mental. The distinguished, learned man introducing her to the stage had been talking for several minutes; clearly he liked the sound of his own voice. It was a nice voice, to be fair, posh and plummy, and he was so softly spoken it had a lulling effect as you listened.
by My Favourite Books: Sweet Valley High
I have many books that I loved growing up. The Mallory Towers series for example was the first series I remember reading. My sister used to sit and read it with me. However, nothing has stuck with me quite as much as The Sweet Valley High series.
Originally created by Francine Pascal, this series made up the majority of my reading for a long time.
I discovered one of these books in the library at school. I think it was the one called Too Good To Be True. I can’t remember how old I was but from that moment I was hooked.
There was nothing I liked better than to come home from school and disappear into the world of Sweet Valley for a while.
Jessica and Elizabeth were like the cool friends I didn’t have (I was quite shy at school and definitely not a cool kid although everyone seemed a lot cooler than me. The perils of senior school.)
There was something just so exciting about these stories that I couldn’t get enough of them. I devoured as many as I could find from the school or local library.
You can imagine my excitement when I also discovered the TV series. Looking at that now, it was all so poorly acted but I still couldn’t resist watching it. If you know of it, is the theme tune stuck in your head yet?
by Book Review: In The Light of What We See by Sarah Painter
Brighton, 1938: Grace Kemp is pushed away by the family she has shamed. Rejected and afraid, she begins a new life as a nurse. But danger stalks the hospital too, and she’ll need to be on her guard to avoid falling into familiar traps. And then there are the things she sees…Strange portents that have a way of becoming real.
Eighty years later, Mina Morgan is brought to the same hospital after a near-fatal car crash. She is in terrible pain but recalls nothing. She’s not even sure whom to trust. Mina too sees things that others cannot, but now, in hospital, her visions are clearer than ever…
Two women, separated by decades, are drawn together by a shared space and a common need to salvage their lives.
I came across this book after listening to Sarah Painter’s podcast called Worried Writer. This podcast is brilliant if you are a writer and I have been hooked since the first podcast I listened to. This is the first book I have read of Sarah Painter’s and after having finished this one I will definitely be getting hold of her backlog to add to my ever growing TBR (To Be Read) pile.
I have one word to sum this book up: amazing. You could tell that everything about this book was well thought out and I loved every bit of it.
by Book Club
