Stephanie Butland
Hello everyone, and happy autumn!
The new-look blog is still in development (as is the house move) but I wanted to pop in today and tell you about a fantastic new book, Thrive: The Bah! Guide to Wellness After Cancer
This is Stephanie Butland’s second book about her dance with cancer and follows on from the excellent How I said Bah! to Cancer, which was published last year.
Hi everyone. Having recently got married (in Canada, see picture) and having just accepted an offer for our house, I need to take a break from blogging for the summer to reorganise life in the real world.
When I return, in September, the blog will have a new look and a new name! In the meantime, have a wonderful, if slightly soggy, July and August. x
Forgive me for being away for so long but I’m just back from a three week wedding / honeymoon trip to beautiful Canada!
On my return I was very pleased to receive my copy of debut novel The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick, as I follow Liz on Twitter and my appetite has long been whetted by her posts about the book. Suffice to say I was not disappointed…
Part romance, part love letter to Cornwall, the novel includes a delicious touch of the Gothic as it tells the story of young widow Maddie, her troubled step-daughter Hannah and an old Cornish House that threatens to pull them even further apart as it slowly reveals its secrets.
Liz’s love of mystical Cornwall shines through from the beginning and she gives the reader a magnificent sense of place – with twisted trees, sparkling sea views and a house that literally cries out for attention. The characters are complex and nuanced and the reader is quickly pulled into their lives, vacillating between sympathy and exasperation in a way that had me totally hooked.
I willingly surrendered a couple of days to this story and it is a worthy addition to a great canon of Cornish story-telling that includes many of my favourite writers, with Daphne Du Maurier and Mary Stewart springing readily to mind. I can’t wait to see what Liz writes next!
Find yourself a window-seat (preferably one with a sea view), clear your diary and prepare to be transported. A highly recommended read.
Today I’m taking part in the My Most Beautiful Thing Blogsplash to celebrate beautiful things – inspired by Fiona Robyn’s new novel, The Most Beautiful Thing. Bloggers from all over the world are taking part and writing or posting pictures of their most beautiful things today. Find out more here and see everyone else’s blog posts here.
Today I am delighted to introduce a new short story collection from two wonderfully talented (and somewhat quirky) writers – Nik Perring and Caroline Smailes. Having read both of their work in the past, I can tell you that this is a very exciting collaboration!
Ahem, I appear to have won my first prize for writing since leaving school last century!
My entry into Rachael Harrie’s second platform-building campaign challenge was judged eighth out of an amazing 110 entries and I won an e-book from the lovely Jessica Therrien and an invaluable critique from Louise Wise of Wise Words.
As you can imagine, I am hugely excited to have had my work placed in this contest and I am very grateful to Rachael and her panel of judges, as well as to the generous people who donated a prize.
There is something really encouraging about having other writers see promise in what you produce and that’s why (appropriate and professional) networking can be so rewarding for those of us just starting out.
I will leave you, for today,with a great big SQUEEE!
A short while ago the lovely people at www.craftmerrily.co.uk sent me a couple of Fimo polymer clay jewellery kits to play with.
If you were watching BBC Breakfast last month then you might have caught a glimpse of a rather wonderful author, sporting a pair of ridiculously beautiful shoes, talking about an exciting new experiment in publishing.
That author was the very lovely and hugely talented Caroline Smailes, and the ebook in question – 99 Reasons Why – launched at the beginning of this week.
What makes this book so exciting is that the reader chooses the ending! Available for Kindle, iPad or iPhone, 99 Reasons Why is the story of Kate who lives a truly ‘wonky’ life, spying on a nursery and flashing at strangers. Readers can choose from one of nine endings (by answering questions or by spinning the wheel on their iPad / iPhone) and each one reveals a little more of the story.
An additional ending will be handwritten by Caroline and auctioned for charity and I have one further ending to share with you, right here, right now!
Buy your copy of this intiguing new book for Kindle or for iPad and then read on for the tenth ending.
It’s time to tackle the second campaign challenge set by the delightful Rachael Harrie, and it’s a good one!
I will be writing three pieces, based on the series of prompts on Rachael’s blog. Each piece is linked by one overarching theme.
The first challenge from the spring platform-building campaign has arrived!
Campaigners have been asked to write a short story of 200 words, beginning with “Shadows crept across the wall” and ending with “everything faded”. We should also include the word “orange”.
Here’s my entry.
