Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
Today’s exercise is a fun and interesting one (I hope).
I love the choose your own adventure stories. Do you fancy creating your own? Well, here is your chance.
Pick one of the following fairytales –
Little Red Riding Hood
Hansel and Gretel
Three Little Pigs
Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Once you’ve decided, take some time to think about the narrative – what happens throughout the story?
Write it out chronologically. Now, think about what could happen if you had other options in the story. For example, what if Little Red Riding Hood reached her Grandmother’s house and the Grandmother is the villain? However, due to a previous choice to help the wolf, he then comes to the rescue.
This is how you could begin –
Little Red Riding Hood begins the walk to her Grandmother’s house. She reaches a crossroads:
by 
Book Review: Murder at the Wedding by Anita Davison
It’s a pleasure to be welcoming Anita Davison back to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for Murder at the Wedding.
Hannah Merrill is about to marry the love of her life…
The couple are determined their low-key celebration will go without a hitch, but there can’t be an ‘I do’ while the vicar is missing. And when he’s found dead – a victim of a poisoning – in the crypt behind the church, Hannah knows only she and Aunt Violet can find out who did it.
Hannah’s beloved thinks she shouldn’t interfere. But if he fails to remember that an independent woman in 1916 doesn’t do what she’s told to by a man, the dead vicar may be the least of his worries…
Then the vicar’s own fiancé appears on the scene, even though nobody knew he was engaged. And suddenly it becomes clear someone has a secret, one shocking enough to kill for.
Will the intrepid pair of amateur sleuths catch the murderer before they kill again? Or will it be til death parts them all?
*****
Hannah Merrill is about to marry Darius Clifford. The wedding day begins brightly. Proceedings soon take a turn when the body of Reverend Julian Aldrich is found. Can Hannah and her Aunt Violet get to the bottom of this mystery?
Having read previous novels in this series, I was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour for the latest in the Miss Merrill & Aunt Violet mystery series. I do like myself a cosy crime series and this one didn’t disappoint.
I am going to try and review without giving too much away.
by Novel Kicks Fiction Friday: Traitor or Faithful?
It’s Friday which means it’s time to start writing some fiction.
Fiction Friday is our weekly writing flash fiction prompt.
The aim is to write for a minimum of five minutes and then keep going for as long as you can.
Don’t edit, just write. Once you’re done, you’re welcome to share in the comments but there’s no obligation.
Today’s prompt: Traitor and Faithful.
As Celebrity Traitors has been popular over the last few weeks, I thought it would be fun to put our own spin on it.
Place all of your characters from your current WIP into a castle and place them in a gameshow style situation. Who would be faithful and who not so much?
If you’d prefer to pick a set of characters from another piece of fiction, that’s fine too.
by Novel Kicks Writing Room: Picturesque Prompt
Welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
Today, I wanted to focus on some free writing. Using the photo below, create a story.
What does the picture immediately conjure up? Is your protagonist in a boat and this is their view? Are they in a cave hidden along the coast? Why are they there? Who are they with? The sky is the limit with this prompt.
If you want to, you could always spend a few minutes writing down everything the picture sparks and then start your story from your notes.
Have fun.
by Book Extract: Fatal Equation by Gethyn Jones
I’m excited to be welcoming Gethyn Jones to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his book, Fatal Equation.
Aged just 16, Ali Kurmi was exiled to Portsmouth by his despicable, sweaty, arrogant, bully-of-a-rich businessman father, to protect the family name. Now in his thirties, Ali’s forced to work as an unofficial bailiff for his father’s property company. The only things keeping him going are his songwriting and DJing.
Laura O’Brien, a former journalist from Dublin is a looker and defies her 52 years – made even more remarkable by her tragic back story. Fate strikes again as her renowned husband of just four years, racehorse breeder Frank O’Brien, collapses and dies of a brain aneurysm. It leaves her broken-hearted, but very rich. Determined to avoid returning to the bottle, and egged on by her sponsor, the enigmatic Alice Kingston, Laura leaves Tipperary to start afresh in Hampshire.
This is the story of Ali and Laura – how they got together – and how they navigate their way through a seemingly endless number of cruel and unlikely twists and turns – that threaten their relationship – and their lives.
Gethyn has shared an extract with us today. We hope you enjoy it.
*****beginning of extract*****
Blurb: Laura O’Brien, a wealthy widow in her fifties, didn’t expect to fall in love again – especially not with a 35-year-old British-Indian songwriter. But when she meets Ali Kurmi, a corporate DJ with his own deeply troubled past, everything changes.
Together, they start to build a life filled with creativity, passion, and purpose. Yet danger still lurks in the shadows – Stephanie, Laura’s scheming stepdaughter, wants blood. Fuelled by greed and resentment, she’s plotting something deadly … and failure isn’t an option.
Set between rural Hampshire and Tipperary, Fatal Equation is an emotional rollercoaster of love, ecstasy, frustration, obsession, and revenge.
… a book that blends the warmth of a feel-good romance with the chilling edge of a thriller …
*****
Announcing to your partner that you’ve become a father with one of your ‘exes’ is never going to be an easy conversation. Ali has been very open with Laura about his previous love life – which inclded a long time with Becky Davies. It was a mutually satisfactory ‘friends with benefits arrangement’. When Ali met Laura, his relationship with Becky ended abruptly – until yesterday when his pal Club Manager Dom contrived to get them to meet up again. It was then that an extremely dishevelled-looking Becky dropped the bombshell.
Ali leans in close to the bathroom mirror, pulls both eyelids down and grunts. He turns his head to the right and then the left. He’s never gone for the George Michael look – the five o’clock shadow. Too much work to keep tidy; so, clean-shaven it’s always been.
He’s had a restless night, hardly surprising under the circumstances. To wake up one day and discover that you’re the father of a three-week-old child that you knew nothing about, is understandably mind-blowing.
He shaves, brushes his teeth, smiles to check them and walks back into the bedroom.
‘How are you my gorgeous daddy-o?’ says Laura teasingly, from somewhere under a pillow.
‘I’m fine. Are you still OK with all this?’
by Book Club
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