Monthly Archives: October 2015

A Ghoulish Poem by Rachael Steward

Posted on by
Reply

Halloween piccy

The scenes were set all the way down the street

With ghouls and zombies dragging their feet

Children knocking on each neighbour’s door

Not content with one sweet, they asked for one more

The sweet baked smell of fresh pumpkin pie

Make up like blood falling from their eyes

Skeletons, ghosts, a dark princess

All make for a ghoulish night of success

Night terrors, shaking, crying and screams

The ghosts follow children into their dreams

It’s all been a fantasy here in my head

There isn’t a ghost at the end of my bed

What’s that tapping at my bedroom door?

I hear footsteps on the floor

A witches cackle, she’s casting a spell

Please wake me up to end this hell

2nd halloween piccy

Pics courtesy of:

www.familyholiday.net

designbolts.com

A Ghoulish Poem by Rachael Steward

Posted on by
Reply

Halloween piccy

The scenes were set all the way down the street

With ghouls and zombies dragging their feet

Children knocking on each neighbour’s door

Not content with one sweet, they asked for one more

The sweet baked smell of fresh pumpkin pie

Make up like blood falling from their eyes

Skeletons, ghosts, a dark princess

All make for a ghoulish night of success

Night terrors, shaking, crying and screams

The ghosts follow children into their dreams

It’s all been a fantasy here in my head

There isn’t a ghost at the end of my bed

What’s that tapping at my bedroom door?

I hear footsteps on the floor

A witches cackle, she’s casting a spell

Please wake me up to end this hell

2nd halloween piccy

Pics courtesy of:

www.familyholiday.net

designbolts.com

World War Z by Max Brooks reviewed by Steve Voyce

Posted on by
Reply

Max Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft and he honed his craft working as a writer on Saturday Night Live, which is as good a place as any to start as a writer. His second book, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (to give it it’s proper title), was first published in 2006, and tells the story of a global war against zombies by using a series of oral interviews conducted by a narrator, who is part of the United Nations Postwar Commission. It is the follow-up to Brooks’ 2003 novel, The Zombie Survival Guide.

Firstly, an admission: I’m not one for fantasy novels. I drew the line after Dracula and Frankenstein, and I’m happy to say I’ve never been near Twilight. And I’m also not a big fan of disaster novels either (I’m not going to say post-apocalyptic as technically you don’t get post- an apocalypse).

I loved Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but it was so harrowing I promised myself, as the father of a young son, I’d never read it again. I’ve also never read a comic book. But I’ve fallen for the TV series, The Walking Dead, so when my wife read World War Z, she told me I might enjoy it and should give it a go.

I think in some ways we’re all drawn to the idea of a global disaster that would test us individually and as a species. There’s perhaps something messianic in us that makes us feel that we could be the chosen ones, the survivors, and these stories help us live it out. World War Z can work as a companion piece to Walking Dead, a sort of what-happened-before, if you like, but it also stands alone.

World War Z’s story of a zombie pandemic, begins with tales of “patient zero” and outbreaks of the misunderstood “African Rabies”, through to the effect the plague has on individuals, nations and the planet as a whole, told through the words of survivors, be they politicians, soldiers, astronauts, or regular people. We trace the outbreak, the denial, the cover-ups, the quarantines, the deaths, the migrations, the wars that are a by-product of the pandemic and finally the “defeat” of the zombies and the subsequent new world order that is the result of the global upheaval. Brooks has taken on a huge task and has used an interesting narrative ploy (the multiple interviewees) to tell his story. On the whole I think he is successful.

The idea of a species threatening global pandemic is nothing new, and neither are zombies. So Brooks’ approach, to focus on the tales of the survivors, is an original take. It enables him to cover a whole trope of ideas and wax lyrically on such matters as government ineptitude, corporate corruption, and human short-sightedness, while always keeping the living dead lurking in the background (and often the foreground); a lurching virus that exists to kill and can only be stopped by being, literally, lobotomized.

Brooks manages to make mass-migration to the South Pacific, an oil field beneath Windsor Castle, a war between Iran and Pakistan and the rise of a Russian Christian Empire – amongst other plot points – sound as realistic as he does the initial reactions to the plague and the way that resourceful humans finally deal with it and its repercussions. He has a good ear for dialogue and internal monologue as well as the technological, cultural, economical and political issues that the story throws up.

There has been criticism of the novel as some feel the different narrative strands (some last for many pages, others are little more than a paragraph) make it difficult to develop momentum. But I feel that they’ve missed the point, as there seems to be an unwritten agreement between author and reader that we understand what he is trying to achieve and that we need to go with him and fill in the blanks ourselves, to notice and imagine what is going on at the edges of his snippets of stories, that we can understand what has happened, or will happen, without it being spelt out to us.

I did enjoy this book, it was good entertainment and escapism, and from a creative-writing point of view it shows some good technique; as mentioned above, Brooks employs showing-not-telling to great effect, with his second-hand narration we’re never really shown directly the linear story, instead we dip in and out from various points of view, receive good and bad reports and the opinions of reliable and unreliable narrators. I liked this technique and thought that on the whole, it worked.

World War Z is not a literary masterpiece, but an interesting read that should appeal to fans of the genre and general readers alike.

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad reviewed by Steve Voyce

Posted on by
Reply

The cover of my copy of The Secret Agent shows an illustration of turn-of-the-century London at twilight in winter with lights just beginning to show on the buildings and bridges and skeletal trees black against the grey winter sky. This is a story wrapped in the cold fog of a winter’s day, with all its gloom and mystery, deep in the dark streets of late-Victorian London.

Published in 1906, but set twenty years earlier, with most of Europe in fear – real or imagined – of socialists, anarchists, Russians, Germans, Jews and countless others, we see trouble lurking around every corner and trust no one. This was a time when assassination attempts were made on the French President, and – successfully – the Russian Tsar, and bombs were exploded in capital cities, including London, and Conrad brings his own brand of journalistically observed fiction to these issues.

The Victorian London that Conrad paints so vividly feels astonishingly familiar and contemporary: A Conservative government justifying its new Aliens Bill, extremist groups placing agent provocateurs among the population and suicide bombers controlled by shady puppeteers. The Secret Agent is a brutal depiction of the absurdities and futilities of people and the deceitful institutions that some serve. It is often comic and always thought provoking.

However the true tragedy of this story lies at its core, with the domestic drama that is the family life of the protagonist, Mr Verloc, the secret agent of the title and self-proclaimed anarchist. When the façade of his marriage is torn asunder by a shockingly violent act, he and his family are altered for good, and the true nature of his “business” comes home to roost. Throughout Conrad successfully juggles the various threads of his story, managing to say as much about the human condition as he does world politics and the brainless violence of conflict.

Despite once in a while slipping into one too many Victorianisms for this reader, Conrad really gets into the heads of his subjects and manages the enviable task of creating each one equally as sad, familiar, attractive and, ultimately, human as one another, independent of which side of the blurred legal line they sit on. He ratchets up the tension when necessary and twists the story to keep the reader on the edge of his seat, cumulating in a climax I didn’t see coming. Conrad also has created a really strong female character, Winnie Verloc, a rarity for a male author of those times.

The Secret Agent is an interesting and compelling read, a real page-turner that demonstrates good characterization, plotting and old-fashioned story-telling and feels both of its time and timeless simultaneously. It is probably not Conrad’s best book, but it’s at least as good as many by his contemporaries that are regarded as classics. And beyond that, The Secret Agent blazed a trail for the copious spy, thriller and crime novels that would become ubiquitous during the following century.

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler reviewed by Steve Voyce

Posted on by
Reply

The first time I laid eyes on The Long Goodbye was twenty-odd years ago, somewhere in the north-western suburbs of London, on a warm day with a cloudy look of rain on the horizon. I broke the silver-coloured spine and gulped the book down in close to one day and it was the damnedest thing that I had read in a long time. Philip Marlowe, Chandler’s erstwhile private detective, had been my guide previously through The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely, but this story poked me in the teeth and socked me in the cranium.

There are detective novels and detective novels, if you walk through an airport bookshop its almost a joke nowadays. All of them have their points. There are the Victorian potboilers that straight-arm you with twists. The tweed-wrapped forensic puzzles that lurk in country-house corridors. There are the detective novels that emerge out of a downtown fog and leave you feeling like a hot shower. There are the ones that crack open a rib-cage, that strip out the veins, that saw off the top of a skull like a boiled egg – the kind of book that revolts and intrigues you in equal measures. There are those that chase you all over a European capital, teasing you with talk of God and mystery before racing off to pocket that huge royalty. And there’s the showpiece detective novel that outlasts us all, with its sharply drawn hero, intriguing plot and voice as clear as mountain air.

The Long Goodbye is none of these, it’s a novel packed full of charm and style and wit and pace and a sense of time and place, with a plot more direct that anything that Chandler had written for Marlowe previously. It sizzles through its tale of friendship and loyalty and honour, crackling like thunder with a passion unseen before in Chandler’s work.

Marlowe walks the mean streets and golden hills of Hollywood wrapped in the irony of both his disgust at the failings of the human race and his romantic opinion that everyone, and anyone, can be saved. He is our hero, our knight, as much a protector of those that society has discarded as a persecutor of those who twist it for their own ends. He will lose his personality in the felony cell so as not to renege on a friendship, but he wont take advantage of the disturbed wife of a man he dislikes; he’ll stand up to a multi-millionaire who could squash him like a fly before committing adultery with the millionaire’s daughter.

At the novel’s beating heart is the story of three men and three women: an (autobiographical) alcoholic writer who is supposed to understand what makes people tick, but doesn’t understand a thing about anybody; a strange, pampered, empty, war-veteran, torn between the dark and the light; and Marlowe, the unlikely and unwilling hero, a man for whom trouble is his line of work; and an heiress with five ex-husbands who all married her for much more than her money; the wife of the writer dragged down by the weight of her past; and a woman who may be the one to save Marlowe.

But ultimately this is the story of money, the kind of money that buys everything, that insulates and protects, but also the kind of money that cannot hide the futility and emptiness of life.

The Long Goodbye drinks a gimlet in an oak-paneled bar in early evening, waits alone in a darkened office for a phone call that will never come, is as out of place in a joint like this as a pearl onion in a banana split, and knows that to say goodbye is to die a little. With its turn of phrase, wit and reflection it is much more than a simple whodunit.

In all its sordid, bruised, hard-boiled, cool, beauty The Long Goodbye is the greatest of Chandler’s enviable canon, gritty with brutality and metaphor, and is in my humble opinion the best crime novel ever written, and one of the best books of the twentieth, or any, century.  They really don’t write them like this anymore.

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon reviewed by Steve Voyce

Posted on by
Reply

I didn’t like this book. Not at all and I’m hugely disappointed.

Going in, Inherent Vice felt like something that I should love – a noir detective story set at the end of the 60’s in South California. I should have lapped it up. But I didn’t. It actually made me feel tired when reading it – not a good review for a thriller.

I’ve never read any of Mr Pynchon’s books before and I doubt I’ll be reading another. I struggled to get to the end of this one. It was tough going. It should have been textbook stuff: Grizzly private eye, femme fatale, conspiracies, murder… But Pynchon’s style, tone and story-telling are so heavy handed and tricksy that one soon tires of the plot and the characters. Not even the odd amusing line or bright metaphor can pull you back. This should have been a book about light and shade, about the tough shell of life and the soft underbelly of existence. It should have revealed the 60’s era of freedom and experimentation for what it really was, but instead it’s head-scratchingly dull and confusing.

This is a novel that lumbers under the weight of it’s own concept. Setting a noir thriller in the fudgy, selfish, self-centred late days of the 60’s counter-culture is a great idea for a novel. Unfortunately this isn’t that novel. For a start, Pynchon has too many characters: a revolving door of Wodehousesian-names (Ensenada Slim, Flaco the Bad, Dr. Buddy Tubeside, Petunia Leeway, Jason Velveeta, Scott Oof ) race in and back out again, and I found myself turning back pages to double-check who-was-who. Most of them weren’t even integral to the plot so just served as extra floss on an already overcrowded stage.

This confusion was not aided by having the main character called “Doc” and an important secondary character “the Doctor”.  Surely someone at the publishers ought to have called this one out?

And a plot that attempts to juggle this amount of characters is always going to be too complicated. Complex plots can be a good thing, especially in modern thrillers, but the writer needs to reign himself in and remember that just because he knows what’s happening, it doesn’t mean that his readers will. He can have fun, but not at their expense. After about fifty or so pages, everything just merged into one muddy background.

What more, I found myself not caring about what was going to happen (or whodunit) and certainly not giving a hoot about the amount of drugs and free love on show. This appears to be Pynchon’s cornerstone of his narrative – it’s a book about the 60s after all… But it isn’t big and it isn’t clever. And it’s certainly not original.

Not one of the characters is remotely likeable, not even the protagonist. Without a detective to root for and hold the whole thing together, any mystery or thriller is doomed to fail. We need a hero to cheer for, to connect with, to want to win. In Raymond Chandler’s essay on detective fiction, he says that the best fiction detective needs to be a white knight; he can be a loner and he can be outside of society, but he must be a moral man, a man who walks the mean streets “the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.” I feel Pynchon should have been aware of and taken heed to these words.

Later this year, a movie version of this book is due for release, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. I’m not a huge fan of his work, but wait with interest to see what he does with this source material. Maybe a film adaptation is what it needs. For once I hope that the film is nothing like the book.

Inky interview with Carol Fragale Brill by Kate Foster

Posted on by
Reply

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Today, we welcome author Carol Fragale Brill to the Ink Pantry shelves.

Hi Carol, thank you so much for joining us. Please begin the interview by telling us a little bit about you and your background.

Always top of my gratitude list is my wonderful husband, Jim, our happy marriage, and living in beautiful, Victorian, Cape May, NJ.

I grew up in Philadelphia and lived there until about eighteen years ago when we achieved a lifelong dream to move “down the shore” as we say in Jersey. I started writing creatively right after becoming a “Jersey girl”. Writing has never been my “day” job. I am a “sort-of-retired”Human Resources Leader, Coach, and Educator.

Was English a subject that interested you as a child? Were books and reading a part of growing up for you? Can you recall what books you liked reading or if any made a dramatic impact on your life? 

My love affair with books started with Grimm’s Fairy tales when I was four or five. I joined my first book club when I was about ten – the Vacation Reading Club at the local library. I went faithfully every week, even though I could never convince any of my friends to join. As a teen, I cried for a week after reading A Separate Piece and To Kill a Mockingbird. And I adored a book about Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan. I think it was titled Light a Single Candle. It must be out of print, because I’ve searched for it and can’t find it.

Did you always want to write, or did you perhaps know one day you would? Can you recall when and how your interest in writing originated? Did you study creative writing or have you “learnt on the job”?

I was always drawn to books and writing. As a child and young adult, I kept a diary, had pen pals, wrote long newsy letters to friends away at college and in the service. It took until I was twenty-something to realize I wanted to write a book and another twenty-something years to join a writing group and get started. After attending many conferences and workshops, I returned to school part-time to earn my MFA in Creative Writing.

Please tell us a little about both Peace by Piece and Cape Maybe.

My first novel, Peace by Piece is about love in all its many forms – friendships, family, unshakeable first love, and the tender love between the narrator, Maggie, and a motherless little girl. I am an avid reader of women’s fiction and rarely see realistic heroines dealing with anorexia or bulimia. I felt women were ready and would relate to a character grappling with real life and an eating disorder.

Cape Maybe is set in Victorian Cape May and is shaped by feisty, adolescent Katie’s vow to be nothing like her alcoholic mother. Katie’s reckless teenage choices test the strength of family ties, friendship and first love. Ultimately about hard-earned hope, in Cape Maybe, Katie discovers what she never expected about motherhood, forgiving yourself, and creating your own second chances.

How much research and preparation went in to them before you even began writing? Can you offer any advice to those currently in the midst of researching a new novel?

You often hear writers say “Write what you know”. There are themes of addiction in both novels. Like many families, when you shake my family tree, a few alcoholics and food addicts fall out, so mostly I wrote about addictions based on experience. Both novels are are set in time periods and locations I know, so there wasn’t much research related to time or place. Before starting, I developed detailed character bibles including specifics about childhood experiences and friends, family, hobbies, desires, etc.

My early drafts of Peace by Piece included a lot of backstory – stuff I needed to know to get Maggie’s story right that ultimately didn’t belong in the novel. That meant lots of cuts and rewrites. My best advice to beginning novelists is have a trusted writing critique group and share work regularly. I have found the feedback of other writer’s invaluable to help me trim the fat and find the real story.

How long did it take to write each book? Did you have a schedule or a plan you worked to, or did you write when inspiration hit? Were there any moments during the process that you found particularly difficult?

Since writing wasn’t my “day” job, I had to fit writing time in around a very demanding fifty-plus-hour a week career. Luckily, my husband is incredibly supportive and helped me balance stuff at home. I approached writing like a part-time job and committed to writing at least four or five hours a day EVERY day off. I also got up at least an hour early most weekdays to edit and do other writing related tasks before heading out to work. It is hard to say how long it all took because I rewrote both novels numerous times. Peace by Piece was in the works, off and on, for about ten years. Cape Maybe was my creative thesis for my MFA and took five or six years while I juggled school and my career. Whew!

Please tell us how and why you chose to self-publish your books? Did you pursue the traditional route first of all, or did you always know self-publishing was the right path for you? Did you experience a similar journey to the bookshelf with each, or were they entirely different? 

When I started writing Peace by Piece, self-publishing wasn’t the kind of option it is today. My original plan was to go the traditional route. I queried many agents and twice was offered representation. For reasons that had nothing to do with me or my books, neither agent worked out. As self-publishing became more accessible, I decided to take that route. The Peace by Piece journey was definitely harder because I was a newbie with so much to learn.

How has the experience been for you so far? Did you use an editor or proof reader, or any other professional person to assist you? Can you share with us any tried and tested methods that have worked for you? And maybe some that haven’t? How has your choice of self-publishing been received? Have you found readers, writers and family and friends to be supportive?

One of my absolute tried and tested methods is to have the support of other writers who will give useful, constructive feedback. Critique is not always easy to give or receive. To become the best writer I can be, it’s priceless.

I hired a professional editor and proof-reader. I cannot tell you how much I learned about the craft of writing working with a professional editor – and that was after I had an MFA.

My husband, family, and friends have been wonderful. Readers inspire and often humble and thrill me asking for sequels.

How have you found the marketing and promotion side of being a self-published writer? Has your quest for readers and reviewers been easy? Do you have any tips for new writers considering self-publishing their novel?

Just like writing, marketing and promotion are hard work. My best advice is start before your book is published. One of the reasons I published Cape Maybe soon after Peace by Piece was to get more mileage out of my efforts by using one book to promote the other. I also took advantage of Kindle Free Days and Countdowns with Cape Maybe. It was a lot of work to notify the numerous sites that offer free-day listings. It proved worth the effort when thousands of downloads resulted in Cape Maybe ranked #1 best-seller.

Before publishing, I was told “You MUST have a blog, be on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, Pinterest…” the list goes on. At first, I tried doing it all and spread myself too thin. My advice is to pick a few sites that you enjoy and put in the time to develop a presence and relationships.

I’ve also had success with local libraries, regional bookstores, and other retail outlets. It helps that tourists are attracted to Cape Maybe because it is set in Cape May.

One of my favourite marketing and promotion activities is visiting book clubs and community group functions like annual luncheons. Readers are so insightful and ask great questions. I would love to hear from Ink Pantry readers if you have a book club or community group, and want to explore an in person or virtual visit.

Because I am also a coach and educator, I often teach writing and creativity workshops, which also helps to promote my books.

Negative reviews affect every writer at some stage of their career. How has this affected you? How did you deal with these reviews?

I learned in my years as a Human Resources leader and coach that no one likes negative feedback. I don’t love it either. When it’s constructive, I do my best to learn from it. Mostly, I try to focus on the positive reviews which far outweigh the few negative reviews. Different people have different tastes. I sometimes don’t love a book that is getting rave reviews from others. I accept the same is true about my books.

Do you write anything else: novellas, short stories, blogs, poetry?

Lately, I’m writing mostly short essays and articles. I’ve blogged for a few years, and just started a new blog Know Hope Know Growth.

My first blog was a collaborative effort with three other women writers. You can check out my posts at: http://www.4broadminds.blogspot.com/search/label/Carol

Do you have a favourite book /s or author /s? What kind of book do you like to relax with? Is there an author who has inspired you more than any others?

I have so many favourites and have been inspired by countless authors – Adrianna Trigiani, Sue Monk Kidd, Michelle Richmond, Sue Miller, Sara Gruen, Ann Packer, Lisa Genova – the list is endless.

If not a writer, what would have been your dream career? Do you have any secret talents you can share with us?

I am very lucky that after years of being a Human Resources Generalist, basically doing it all, I had the opportunity to follow my passion and move into my dream job in Coaching and Training. It is such a gift to do work you love and give back.

And finally, do you have any other works in progress or new ideas you’re working on? Are you able to tell us a little about them?

In early summer of 2014, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Eight months of treatment including surgery, chemo, and radiation followed. That experience got me revaluating how to spend my writing time, and my time in general, which is part of the reason that, for now, I’m focused on personal essays and blogs.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Carol. We at Ink Pantry wish you lots of luck with your books, and, of course, your future projects.

If you would like to learn more about Carol and follow her writing journey, here are some links that will help.

Facebook

Goodreads

Amazon

 

 

 

 

Sheer Purgatory by Robert Carter reviewed by Kev Milsom

Posted on by
Reply

 

robert carterSheer_PurgatoryLg

Excuse me,” Dan said, “but there really must be some mistake. You see, I can’t go down there; I’m an atheist.”

“Yeah?” The scrawny steward’s eyebrows lifted. “Well, I bet you feel like a right idiot now, then, don’t you?”

Most authors writing anything that focuses upon the “afterlife” – and on what happens to us after the point of physical demise – tend to pose a wide variety of “what if?” questions:

What if there is no heaven? What if there IS a heaven but they won’t let me in? What if God doesn’t really exist?

Within Robert Carter’s book, Sheer Purgatory, the two most pertinent questions are perhaps somewhat more unusual. First, “What if our safety on Earth was monitored at all times by guardian angels, who watched out for our every move and ensured that we get to live a rich and fulfilling life?” And second, “What if our guardian angel was a disastrous mix, whose abilities lay somewhere between Laurel & Hardy and Mr Bean?”

For poor Dan Trench – a man whose career is solely to clean and look after the lottery balls every week, thus earning him the unfortunate title “Keeper of the Balls” from his colleagues –  this last scenario is sadly all too true. Thus, a life, destined to last a contented eighty-three years and end with a serene passing, ends up rather messily under the wheels of a number twelve London bus aged only twenty-five – due in no small part to his guardian angel getting hopelessly lost and missing his cue to avert Dan from a nasty demise.

For the angel, named Vic, it is one mistake too many (in a very long line of mishaps) and his wings are clipped by higher authorities, probably offering many further humans the chance of long and happy lives. However, for Dan, the damage is done and his day is utterly ruined.  Not only does he not get to meet his girlfriend for dinner, but he finds himself thoroughly dead, with no chance to squeeze back into his body.

Worse still, the very, very long queue for heaven takes place not amongst Utopian clouds ascending upwards into a shining funnel of wondrous light, but rather in an underground tube station, the size of several Heathrow Airports – complete with angelic staff who seem determined to be abrasive and awkward at every turn, such as the archaic administrators at the “Commandments Verification Unit”, with a large line of Biblical questions concerning coveting neighbour’s asses and following “false gods”.

“Did you ever worship idols?”

“Definitely not,” Dan said.

“Certain about that?”

“Positive. Unless you count Led Zeppelin.”

“We don’t.”

If Dan’s day couldn’t get any worse, he is soon befriended by two fellow recent departures from Earth – Carlton: a loutish football hooligan with a slobbish disposition and an addiction for junk food, alongside Nena: a young, depressive, Goth female, whose hobbies include downing large quantities of drugs with bottles of vodka.

Welcome to Robert Carter’s tongue-in-cheek view of an afterlife “heaven” – which appears more like “hell” at times, especially for the hero of the story, Dan, for whom life after death quickly turns into one nightmare after another.

Not only is Purgatory completely unlike anything he had ever imagined, but the rumour going around is that finally the “Day of Judgement” may well be about to happen, depending precisely on when “The Boss” decides.

Not only do Dan, Carlton and Nena have to navigate their way around Purgatory and adapt to new – and often weird – surroundings, but each of them may only have a few weeks to discard a lifetime of mortal sins before the big day. Naturally, this latest gossip about Armageddon causes the entire population of Purgatory to sharpen up their game. Sins are to be shed before it’s too late. Crowds of people wander the streets of Purgatory like charity “chuggers”, looking to do good for others – even if they don’t want it. Gangs of “hoodies” sneak around housing estates, planting pretty flowers to make people smile, before running away in the shadows.

In Sheer Purgatory, the late author, who sadly passed away earlier this year, keeps the tempo at a fast pace; each page is supplied with a constant stream of jokes, puns and humorous quips.

It’s difficult at times to keep up with the stream of laughs, as poor Dan slides from one difficult scenario straight into another; whether it’s filling out endless, administrative forms just to get into Purgatory (familiar to anyone who has ever had to do battle with the Department of Employment, or any testy government official), or having to deal with the constant failings of his travelling companions and recently feather-plucked guardian angel, Vic.

Robert Carter not only maintains a brisk pace, but manages to deliver his words with a sense of depth and humanity – allowing the reader to slowly peel away layers of his characters, displaying deeper levels.

Robert also succeeds in creating a sense of wanting to read onwards – with characters who create images of mirth, alongside the gradual introduction of more sinister and shadier elements of the afterlife, and raising questions that positively beg to be answered in later chapters.

 

In memory of  Robert Carter.

Our sincere condolences to Robert’s family.

Rest in peace.

 

The Book of Guardians by Derek Neale reviewed by Tina Williams

Posted on by
Reply

 

Derek Neale Book of Guardians

Something in Philip Eyre’s life is dying. He doesn’t know what it is but he knows what to do. Toronto is beckoning – a new job and a chance to leave behind everything in Shrewsbury that torments him, including his ex-wife and two children. With the closure of just one more case of child adoption, he’ll be able to take the flight, starting a new adventure to bury the feelings of restlessness that have escalated since he turned forty. But ‘there’s no such thing as a last case’ his friend Richard insists, and it’s a sentiment that rings dramatically true when Eyre’s last case concerns the enigmatic Janet Burns.

With just the brush of her fingers across his knuckles, the fragile hold Eyre’s been keeping on life up until then is threatened. Her touch sparks the memory of some words from a poem: ‘How love burns…’, and suddenly his stability begins to falter. It should have been enough to have ticked all the appropriate boxes on the adoption forms – mother consents, father unknown – to end that part of his life. But something about Janet brings all his insecurities fluttering to the surface, and he becomes driven to track down the father of her baby daughter, Holly, even when she insists the father is arguably the greatest father of all… God.

Driven by a developing obsession with Janet and her chequered past, Eyre becomes disturbed by the gaps in his own memories of his now deceased father. His frustration with only random fragmented images and echoes of memories is further exaggerated when his mother dies, the only one capable of giving him the answers he craves. When Eyre is finally able to close the case and move to Toronto, his new career and new relationship with ‘K’ are not enough to banish the doubts and insecurities his encounter with Janet had brought to the fore. He returns home after his mother’s death amidst a flurry of questions, increasing paranoia, and a continuing preoccupation with Janet that threatens everything he thought he knew about himself, his family, and his past.

In essence this is a book about fatherhood: Eyre’s search for the ‘our father’ that will close his last case and allow him to move on; his role as father and relationship with his children which is awkward and strained at best; and his desperation to know more about what sort of man his own father was. Yet more than this, both Eyre and Burns are examples of how we precariously construct our lives and beliefs upon fractured and unreliable memories. Janet’s past is fogged by the drugs she is given to treat her mental illness, but when these drugs are reduced, recollections of her distant past return in a disturbing mix of reality tinged with the fiction her mother read to her as a child. When Eyre looks deeper within himself, the scattered images and words of his past twist, turn, and fall upon themselves until he is left with only a list of ‘probables’ and ‘possibles’ and an overwhelming urge to find the answer to an unknown question.

Neale’s first person narrator is an intelligent man; his marriage may have broken down, but he’s been a hard worker, successful at his job. And yet, as the novel progresses, the reader’s attentions are drawn away from Janet’s mental instability towards the narrator himself, and an increasing sense that none of us are immune to the fragility of our own minds.

I read this book twice. The first time was with pen and notepad and good intentions of making detailed notes, but by chapter three the notes were thinning out and by chapter four they were abandoned altogether as I got swept along by the intense and unpredictable plot. The second read was to capture the subtle layering and echoes of the novel that had subconsciously driven me to read without stopping the first time and which I feared I may not have captured fully in my initial haste. I was not disappointed; the novel lost none of its intensity on second reading, and I gained more insight into the subtle signs of Philip Eyre’s unravelling.

As Linda Anderson’s testimony on the front of the book declares, this is a story that ‘fearlessly [delves] into our secret selves’. While Eyre’s past sends him spiralling towards an uncertain future, we have little choice but to go with him. And if there is one question the reader will be left asking themselves by the end of the book, it will be – Can I trust what I have always believed to be true?

 

The Book of Guardians was published in 2012 by Salt Publishing, London. Visit www.derekneale.com to learn more about Derek and how you can purchase his book.

 

Exclusive Q&A with OU tutor Derek Neale by Tina Williams

Posted on by
Reply

 

Derek Neale OU image (2)

Bee Creative @BeeCreativePS:

Can I ask (knowing editors cuts!) was there a piece of advice in the course books you wished you had given?

In the best of possible worlds we would have separate modules for each of the genres – a short story course, a poetry course, a film writing course and so on. That is a regret of sorts, but it is the reality of OU teaching design: modules have to be big and multi-genred by necessity. And in fact that format offers some considerable strengths, it means that poetry and fiction can be taught alongside film writing and life writing. For those who don’t know, I’m talking about Creative writing  (A215 http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/modules/a215  )  and Advanced creative writing (A363 –  http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/modules/a363  ). As they stand, there are one or two things that are already in the modules that I wish were emphasised a little more – one of these being: writing arises from reading; if you read little, you might produce something of merit but it is less likely. This is a piece of advice that is especially important for new writers – so we’ve made it prominent in the new Start Writing Fiction MOOC, which many will know is based on the old A174 and has been a roaring success in its recent first run (so successful in fact that there will be a second presentation in October https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/start-writing-fiction-2 )

Reading prompts writing – and, of course, in the OU creative writing course books we give many readings, but these are often extracts, we don’t have space or time on the modules to include whole texts as readings. But student-writers gain much from going on from these extracts and looking at the rest of the novels or collections or anthologies or scripts, or more work by those particular authors. That is how reading works – following your own hunches and inclinations, meticulously and thoroughly – and that it is also how writing works.

We did have several stories that were originally set for inclusion in A215 that eventually didn’t make the final cut for various reasons. Many, if not most, students write short stories during the two modules, so it would have been good to give more examples of the form (there are already a few) – there was no room, as I recall, but handily there are plenty of short stories out there in the world, available as ‘further reading’. The recommendation to go off and do further reading – that advice could be repeated a few times in the course books.

Another piece of advice, which is part of the modules’ teaching but perhaps not prominent enough in the course books – read and review the work-in-progress of fellow writers whenever you can. This can’t be said loudly enough. This practice of close editorial scrutiny feeds back into your own writing, sometimes invisibly but invariably fruitfully. It’s a practice that is resisted by some writers but it accelerates writing development and is, I think, one of the crucial benefits to be gained from creative writing study. It’s so rare to find readers and writers with a reciprocal interest in feeding back on work – I would press on students even more than we already do the importance of making the most of it while you can.

Roger White @rogerlwhite:

What’s the situation on a possible OU MA in Creative Writing?

Some very good news on this front – as you may be aware, we have been pressing to make a Creative Writing MA at the OU for some years but have previously hit various obstacles. But we now have the go ahead and are starting the development. It will be an online-only MA to be studied over 2 years, consisting of an initial 60pt module and a subsequent 120pt module. The present plans are for it to launch in the autumn of 2016. I’m quietly optimistic we’ll meet the deadlines and launch on time, but module production can hit unforeseen problems, so it’s best to keep checking the relevant OU websites for confirmation of the start date (there won’t be any further information available yet, but early details of the MA should start to appear on the OU courses and qualifications websites at some time in 2015).

L.D.Lapinski @ldlapinski:

What do you think of the prevalence given to literary over genre-specific fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, crime, etc) at writing events?

At the bigger literary events there is an apparent predominance of so-called literary novels and novelists under discussion – but this is relative. Writers such as Ian Rankin and P.D. James, for instance, would always headline such events, and they are actually crime writers. Increasingly literary novels are influenced by – and in turn perhaps influence – genre fiction. I am thinking, for example, of Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters in relation to historical fiction here. And writers such as Iain Banks, sadly no longer with us, have traditionally played to both the literary and science fiction audiences (if you’re interested – and haven’t seen it before – here is an archive interview with him from the Cheltenham Literature Festival c.2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAwVkQ-0_u0 ). And, of course, many genres now have dedicated festivals and events of their own – such as the Harrogate crime writing festival – http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/crime/   – and at Harrogate interestingly the so-called literature festival seems to have more BBC newsreaders and general ‘celebrities who have written a book’ on the bill than literary novelists.

@Littlecantray:

What do you think are the most common mistakes Creative Writing students make?

Overwriting and not paying enough attention to structure.  Because of the pressure of deadlines many students don’t allow enough time for the final edit – time to pause and leave the work alone, then come back to it. In those final reviews and redrafts an ‘okay’ piece can become exceptional – it’s there that you can really reflect objectively on what space has been left for the reader to collaborate in the invention of the work, and it’s in those final reflections that you can better see the overall architecture of a story, script or poem, to see if the structure works. This is why stories by Hemingway and Carver are often used as exemplars in creative writing study; however much you like or dislike that style of writing, they epitomise a tight, strong structure, without excess and with impeccable editing.

@Cat_Lumb:

Do you believe Creative Writing courses can create great writers, or is writing talent innate?

One thing that creative writing courses can do is accelerate writing development – there is concrete evidence of that from all universities that teach the subject, including the OU, and it is exemplified by the quality and quantity of writers and writing outputs that have come out of creative writing courses. UEA’s famous MA in creative writing, for instance, has seen several former students win the Booker prize, the most prestigious fiction prize in the UK. This must say something.  Similarly the biggest and most longstanding and prestigious creative writing MFA programme in the US at Iowa boasts many Pulitzer prize winning authors and has an astounding number of successful writers associated with it. And to bring it back to the OU, I wonder if you heard Carys Bray, once an A174, A215 and A363 student reading from and talking about her new novel on Radio 4’s Front Row a couple of weeks ago?

Such successes depend on many factors, not just creative writing courses – but the courses do play their part, I think. Craft and technique can certainly be taught. And writers talking to each other about their work, scrutinising drafts and offering editorial comment – that all accelerates writers’ development. Besides these factors, creative writing courses potentially give student-writers the space, focus and license to call themselves writers – this is a great legitimising gift.

I don’t think any creative writing course would claim to create great writers (from scratch) but all the evidence suggests that through some or all of the above such courses allow writers’ natural talent, ability and determination to prosper and grow. And, of course, it shouldn’t be forgotten that whatever the level of success of writers’ outputs or the value of ‘greatness’ or otherwise placed on that work, such courses also endow students with impressive levels of literacy, literary awareness, writing, reading, critical discussion and editorial skills, all of which can be used in many different contexts and types of employment. The modern day writer often has to have a portfolio of occupations and creative writing courses are incredibly effective at delivering those skills.

Marie Andrews:

Do you keep a daily diary?

Yes, though it’s not a diary as such but more of a writer’s notebook. Sometimes I write in it in diary-like fashion, but often in a less ordered or regular way: ideas and observations, reflections on reading – all sorts. Sometimes these notebooks are filled fast and furiously, and sometimes less rapidly. I’m quite superstitious about them – I have to use unlined paper. I use small, A5 black hardbound sketch books. It seems to me that I am more or less sketching my perceptions of the world in them, and I do actually draw in them sometimes – and I read back over them and use them, or parts of them, again and again. There is no time limit on when something from a notebook might be used, or might occur to be relevant. As I’m writing this I’m sitting by a shelf of 50 or so of them, many with post-its sticking out in unruly fashion at odd angles – I find myself reading over them to reference my own intentions, to recall an idea, or sometimes it seems more fundamental – to remind myself that I write and have written, to re-enter those imaginative avenues. I also frequently use them for automatic writing – and when I use them in that way it can be on a daily basis, but it feels then that they are even more like dream diaries rather than conventional diaries.

@Zeborina:

Which books inspired you as a child, and why?

I recall reading Black Beauty, the Famous Five and Mary Poppins books early on, and a teacher introduced a particular collection – The Book of a Thousand Poems – which I loved revisiting (I suppose the habit of re-reading started then). It contained Hiawatha’s Childhood, a real favourite  – of course, I thought it was the whole poem, only to discover several years later that it was just a fraction of the whole. Teenage years brought Catcher in the Rye and Nineteen Eighty-Four which were real inspirations.  And in terms of writing – after the 11-plus had been taken in January and the school year seemed to have no point, our teacher divided us into groups to write collaborative novels. That was certainly an inspiration. Our table won the Mars bars, as I recall, with a tale of the South Seas, shipwrecks, mutinies, stowaways and romance – oh, and an erupting volcano.

Pippa Wilson @CrackerHackerJM:

How do you think fiction will progress in the age of digital publishing?

Interesting question – things are in a state of flux, but my guess is that the relationship between writer and her or his audience will become more diverse; there will be different ways of publishing work. This is already increasingly the case. Writers’ incomes are currently plummeting by all accounts. The old relationships between writers and agents and publishers are breaking up, or at least they’re presently in a state of flux. Potentially the situation is becoming more egalitarian, more in favour of the writer, but the writer isn’t quite benefiting yet and it is hard to tell how this will end up – it might be a case of writers having to self-publish more. Also, short fiction – and I mean really short – has taken off, with flash and micro fiction. There are more places and competitions for the short short story now. A few years ago some well-known Hemingway and Carver stories were considered to be Flash or Sudden fictions, now they appear quite long. Some might see this as the internet effect and to do with modern-day attention spans. And it might have a knock-on effect on the novel form  – or at least potentially, though you wouldn’t think so looking at Hilary Mantel. But it would be interesting to look at the statistics for lengths of novels to see if there have been more novellas. There are one or two new prizes for novellas.

Mutuo Mbiilla:

Firstly, how many short stories do you think is ideal for a book aimed at teenagers? Secondly, should a writer submit their work to more than one publisher to increase their odds of publication?

 I know little about the teenage market, sorry. The key thing is to identify a publisher, one who publishes short stories for the teenage readership; research them and find out how many stories and of what length are usually contained in each collection.  With regards sending to more than one publisher at a time: traditionally it was not good practice to send to more than one publisher at a time, but I know agents send out to multiple publishers at the same time, and I’m also aware (from experience) that publishers can sit on decisions for a considerable amount of time. You could find yourself waiting 6 months for a response from a publisher – and at that rate, if you just send to one at a time, it could take you 5 years to send to 10 publishers. Hopefully it wouldn’t take that many – but it’s more than possible. I think the climate has changed, especially with electronic submission (check the publisher), and many people do submit to more than one publisher at a time nowadays.

Magda Phili:

What do you think is the best approach for a fictional story idea based on a real person? The person I have in mind has done things which provide perfect material for my story. Should I create a new character instead with a new name and blend my own ideas with real facts, in effect concealing this person existed and inventing a new one?

There isn’t one ‘best approach’ in these circumstances. You should fictionalise if there is any issue at all with the material – if the person doesn’t want to be written about, if the content is controversial in any way. And you have to ensure that you have fully and imaginatively digested the material when you fictionalise. The less you fictionalise, the more you would have to consult with the ‘real person’ and in effect seek permission. Otherwise you could face law suits. And even if you fictionalise, there can be problems if your story reveals characters and/or events that are too near real life. See, for instance, the case of the recent French novel involving a Scarlett Johansson double – http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/04/scarlett-johansson-wins-french-defamation-case