A Moment With: Laura Elliot
Vintage: New Ed Edition, July 1996
The Enduring Memory of a Handmaid’s Tale
I like books that scare me. The ones that keep my heart racing and my finger compulsively turning the pages – or, in in this era of Kindle, twitching on the next-page command. Such books usually conjure up a grim, dystopian world and leave me wondering if they could actually materialise as science advances and technology reaches further and further into our personal lives.
It must be twenty years since I read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood yet I can still bring the details of that story vividly to mind. Briefly, it’s about a totalitarian society that reforms after a nuclear explosion lays most of the United States to waste. The land is contaminated and many of the women who survived the catastrophe have become infertile. In this new, male dominated society these women are sent to clear up the nuclear waste and suffer obvious consequences as a result. The only ones to avoid this fate are the wives of the men in power –these men are known as The Commanders –and the ‘handmaids,’ young women like Offred, the narrator, who have remained fertile and are capable of producing children to populate this new world order.
The self-imposed belief in The Republic of Gilead is that only women are infertile, men remain fertile. This, of course, is untrue so many of these handmaids are unable to conceive and live in dread of being sent to the contaminated wastelands. Their babies, if they do conceive, will belong to The Commanders and their wives.
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Cover Reveal: The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die by Marnie Riches
We are very excited to be part of the cover reveal for The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die which is the new novel from author, Marnie Riches.
Ta-dah, here it is. It’s due to be published by HarperCollins on 2nd April 2015.
About the book:
HE’S WATCHING HER. SHE DOESN’T KNOW IT…YET
When a bomb explodes at the University of Amsterdam, aspiring criminologist Georgina McKenzie is asked by the police to help flush out the killer. But the bomb is part of a much bigger, more sinister plot that will have the entire city quaking in fear.
And the killer has a very special part for George to play…
A thrilling race against time with a heroine you’ll be rooting for, this book will keep you up all night! Continue reading
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Back in Time
Friday 13th March 2015: Back in Time.
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:
You are accidentally transported back to the year of your birth. How you are dressed and how you look makes you stand out. Write about your arrival. What happens? How do people react? Then someone finds your smart phone and it’s new, magical technology that no one has seen before. What happens then?
by Author Interview: J. Paul Henderson
Hello Paul. Thank you so much for joining us. Can you tell us about Last Bus to Coffeeville and what inspired it?
Last Bus to Coffeeville is the story of five people whose lives, in one way or another, have jumped the tracks. The central story though, and the one that explains the bus journey to Coffeeville, is the fulfilment of a promise made by one friend to another almost fifty years previously, that if she inherits the Alzheimer’s that runs in her family, then he will bring her life to a dignified and timely ending.
My mother suffered from subtle stroke dementia for the last ten years of her life, and the idea for the key story came from watching her disappear and another person take her place. The experience made me wonder if someone in a similar situation, who knew the fate that awaited them, would make plans to bypass such misery.
Where would be the one place you would go if you could and why? (Present or a place in history.)
I’d like to be transported to the 1950s and spend my teenage years growing up in small town Middle America. The times were simpler then, the technology reduced, and I’d have been able to drive a large car with ridiculous tail fins. I also think I’d have enjoyed going to High School. This is an idyll, of course. If my colour changed during the transportation process I might well regret this decision. Growing up in 50s America wasn’t a barrel of laughs if you were black.
How much planning do you do before beginning a book? What has to be in place?
If I’m honest, not very much. I’ll have a vague notion about the story, know how it starts and how it ends, but no clear idea how the two dots join. For me, this makes the writing process more interesting – and also surprising.
by Blog Tour: The Wronged by Kimberley Chambers
We are excited to be welcoming Kimberley Chambers today and kicking off her video blog tour for her new novel, The Wronged which is due to be released by Harper Collins on 12th March 2015.
Kimberley was previously a disc jockey, a street trader and a mini cab driver before writing her first novel, Billie Jo. She is now a full-time writer and she lives in Romford. Her latest novel is the third in the Butlers series (the first two being The Trap and Payback.
About The Wronged:
When the going gets tough, the Butlers get even… ‘Murdered in 1980 she was, bless her. Now I’ll tell you the story of everything that’s happened since…’ No parent should ever have to bury their child, but God knows the Butlers have buried more than their fair share. Now, Vinny and Michael are planning the downfall of all who’ve wronged them. The Butlers don’t forgive or forget, and they take their secrets to the grave. As yet more tragic events rip the family apart, loyalties are on a knife-edge. Times are changing in the East End, and the brothers who have always stuck together are at each other’s throats. As the old saying goes – you keep your friends close, and your enemies closer…But you keep your family right where you can see them.
We chat to Kimberley about her new book, her advice for new writers and her favourite place to write.
WIN A SIGNED COPY OF THE WRONGED. THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
by Book Club
