Could you read this book?

It's not as easy as it seems. The book will only open if you approach it with a neutral face. It won't open if you're looking sceptical - or even if you're excited! That's me done for then.

I'm not entirely sure that I can see a use for it except as an idea for a science fiction story. Now that would be something I'd really like to read!

You can't say that!

I've joined a book club. It's only small at the moment: three or four of us meeting in a pub. It's local though and it's nice to meet other people to talk about books.

This month we read How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran and it was a challenging read. Not that the book is hard or literary, or even very long. The trouble is, it's all about sex and as I read I kept thinking "We can't talk about this at book club!"

If you go to amazon, you can read the beginning for free. It starts like this:

I am lying in bed next to my brother Lupin.
He is six years old. He is asleep.
I am fourteen. I am not asleep. I am masturbating.

The whole time I was reading I kept thinking, "how can we talk about this?" And yet it was actually quite easy in the end.

I started by saying how I'd felt about reading it and we all had a good laugh. And then we talked about how honest Caitlin is in her depiction of what it's like to be a young girl, and how refreshing to read about a young girl who is so keen on sex, and about how she invents and reinvents herself, and what we liked and what we didn't. 

It brought back lots of memories of my own childhood as I found myself looking for similarities and differences. One thing it brought home to me is that I wouldn't want to write a book like that. Not because of what other people might think but because I don't want to look back on my growing years with that crystal clarity and tell it as it really was, even if I was the only person in the world to ever read it.

Sunstruck

Polenth has published a book that I really enjoyed. It's a paranormal story, a cop buddy story, and a mystery story all rolled into one but somehow she's made it more than any of those. She's taken the legend of Bigfoot (which I would never have guessed could be interesting) and created a culture for them that that I found intriguing and convincing. It read to me like good science fiction where we see ourselves through the eyes (and in this case nose) of an alien, although in this case it's a terrestrial alien.

I liked the really quirky characters a lot and I enjoyed the exchanges between Ari (the Bigfoot) and her OCD human partner Ben. There is a plot but for me this was the least important aspect of the book. I just thoroughly enjoyed stepping into Ari and Ben's world and I can't wait for the next book to come out so I can join them there again. I think you might like it too.

Books For Boys And Girls

People pressurising bookshops to stop labelling books as "for girls" or "for boys" just don't understand: gendered children's books are easier to sell than non-gendered ones.

So that's all right then.

Teaser

You might remember some very good advice Simon Kewin gave a while back about writing. Well, today he's revealing the cover for his fantasy novel Hedge Witch which will be published later this year.

Simon has published a lot of excellent short, flash, and twitter fiction and had a novel Engn published by December House. Hedge Witch was accepted by a traditional publisher who was then so dilatory in getting the book out there that Simon has taken it back into his own hands.

Fifteen year-old Cait Weerd has no idea she's being sought by the undain: sorcerous creatures that feed off the spirit of the living. She doesn't know they need her blood to survive. She doesn't even know she's a witch, descended from a long line of witches. Cait Weerd doesn't know a lot, really, but all that's about to change.

At Manchester Central Library she's caught up in sudden violence. In the chaos she's given an old book that's been hidden there. Given it and told to run. Hide the book or destroy it. The book contains all the secrets of the undains' existence. They and their human servants want to find it as much as they want to find her.

Cait learns the fates of two worlds are at stake. Just what she needs. Along with definitely-not-a-boyfriend Danny, she has to decide what the hell to do. Run, fight or hope it all goes away.

It's only then she learns who she really is, along with the terrible truth of what the undain have been doing in our world all this time...

It sounds like something I really want to read. I can't wait for it to come out. Here are the links for finding out more:

Facebook | Goodreads | Blog

Everybody Naked?

As a follow-up to my recent post Let's All Get Naked!, it seems that French booksellers decided to do just that to protest against the attempted censorship of the children's book Tous A Poil.

Good for them!

Let's all get naked!

Actually, let's not all get naked here in England while the cold winds blow and the flood waters rise. In France, though, in summer on the beach it sounds like a fun idea.

A charming French book for children called Tous à Poil, which translates as "Everyone (gets) Naked", is causing rather a stir  because it shows people doing just that. Its drawings of naked bodies aren't like the photos you see everywhere that are so heavily airbrushed and photoshopped that everyone looks like a Barbie doll. Instead they show children a more realistic picture of what people look like under their clothes and that sounds like a good idea to me. 

Interestingly, since politicians have denounced it on French tv, sales have rocketed. Nice work, French MPs!

Would I take it in to work? (At an after-school club for primary age children.) Probably not. I'd be too worried about the reaction from teachers and parents, which is a shame. Would I read it to my grandchildren (if I had any)? Almost certainly yes. What about you?

Reading With A Vengeance

I found an interesting blog that comments on books chapter by chapter and the posts on Fifty Shades of Grey are keeping me amused.

Ana tells us for the third time this chapter that Grey is, in fact, still sleeping. Riveting. I kind of wish I could join him, because at least then we’d both be unconscious.

I did try reading Fifty Shades but to me it reads like really bad fan-fiction. Strange that.

Don't give up the day job?

From Bo's Cafe Life

I've just been reading You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing and it made me think about what it's like to be a professional writer.

Scalzi has an interesting history. He's known since he was around fourteen that he wanted to write for a living because it was easy for him compared to say, maths. He's making a good living at writing but not mainly based on writing novels (or not at the time he wrote You're Not Fooling...) He's written a lot of non-fiction including articles for various publications and he's willing to take on most commissions if they pay well enough.

It clarified for me why I don't want to be a professional writer. If you're a writer you have to write whether you want to or not. Now I've done my fair share of writing for a job and quite enjoyed it. I had five years in the Civil Service mostly drafting documents, and I had regular reports to write in my last job for The Place2Be. That was fine but it's not what comes easiest to me. If I had to choose a job based on making a living at things that I'd want to do anyway, I'd choose to work with children.

And I do! (And what's even better is that we'll soon be getting a cook at our after-school club so I won't have to do the one bit of the job that I don't really care for.)

You know you're doing a job you like when you don't keep having to remind yourself "Well, at least I'm getting paid for this."

According to Scalzi, most fiction writers earn their living at something else. For him it's non-fiction writing; for me it's working with children. I'm not ready to give up my day job and I'm not sure I ever will be. What about you?

Ice Diaries

Ice Diaries came out this week. It's the latest book by Lexi Revellian and I loved it. She just goes on getting better which I wouldn't have thought was possible.

Tori is stranded in an England covered up to 20m deep in snow; can she find her way south to warmer climes?

There's a great cast of characters and I was so drawn into the story that I was surprised to look up from the book and see autumn leaves instead of snow! I recommend it.

If you pop over to Lexi's website you can read the beginning of the book for free as a taster. I admit I didn't bother; after Lexi's previous books I went straight to amazon as soon as I saw it was out.

Only two problems:

1. I nearly put the book aside in the middle when it became too tense.

2. I should have been writing my Nanonovel instead of reading a whole book in two days.

Meh. It was worth it!

Space opera and Georgette Heyer

How can it have taken me so long to find the Vorkosigan saga?

This science fiction series was started in the 80s. Mind you, I was a bit busy in the 80s what with having babies and all.  I still find it hard to realise that it's been available all these years and I've only just discovered it!

For those of you who haven't discovered it yet: Lois McMaster Bujold has written a series that is pure space opera in the early books, with a Georgette Heyer type romance later in the series, and some murder mysteries. All set in the future.

I love her world; I love her main character; and in the last few months I've read nine or ten of the books. I can't get enough. This is addiction at its worst but at least it's non-fattening.

A discovery

I met Sarah Wynde in the comment trail over on Lexi Revellian's blog. She was explaining her views on fan fiction and sounded like someone I'd like to know, so I visited her blog. And found her self-published novels. And discovered that they are delightful.

A Gift of Ghosts is a paranormal love story written in a fresh, lively style. It's an easy read and light-hearted despite a plot that touches on drug overdose and suicide. I felt amused and entertained the whole way through. The plot builds to a crescendo and although the ending wasn't a surprise it was entirely satisfying.

I liked the gradual uncovering of the rules for the paranormal in this universe and the way that they seem to have an inner consistency, even if we don't know everything yet. The main character's struggles to make sense of her experiences of the paranormal within her scientific worldview were fun too.

There are three novels in the series. I'm about to start reading number two!

Full disclosure: I didn't pay for books one or two. I intend to buy book three!

Adding sex appeal

Given that sex in novels is currently selling so well (and if you haven't heard of  Fifty Shades of Grey  where have you been?) maybe we should all be adding sex scenes into our stories. That's assuming you write stories. It's hard to add sex to crochet although it has been done (NSFW); if your hobby is photography then the answer is obvious; if it's astronomy or quantum physics then I have no advice for you here.

It might be hard to find an angle that hasn't been tried yet. Indie Reader has an amusing (and NSFW) article on current erotic bestsellers, many of which apparently started life as Indie books.

So sex is clearly the way to go if you want to make money from writing. My problem? I just can't do it. I was going to write a spoof of Fifty Shades but when it came to it, I was cringing and laughing too much to get words on the page.

What about you?

B is for Bomb

In India some children are learning the alphabet from a book in which "B is for Bomb" according to an article in the Guardian.

So could we be looking at: A is for Anthrax, B is for Bomb, C is for Carjacking, D is for Doom... No. It'll never catch on. They don't all make for good pictures.

I think I prefer B is for Butterfly. What do you think?

What a waste of money!

Every state school in England is to receive a new copy of the King James Bible from the government – with a brief foreword by Michael Gove, the education secretary, to mark the 400th anniversary of its translation.

from The Guardian.

Why not a complete works of Shakespeare instead? Not that that would be any more accessible to the 4 - 11 year olds in our primary schools, so I hope they're not included in the Biblefest.

How many words do you need?

One recent Booker prizewinner's book is only 160 pages long. That's around 40,000 words.

So, a Nanonovel is more than enough at 50,0000 words.

Of course, it does help if they're good words, arranged in a spiffing order. But let's not sweat the small stuff while we're doing Nano or we'll never get there.

Oh, and the book in question is being nominated for the Costa Book Awards. Does the Guardian get an award for the most unreadable headline ever?

The soup conundrum

According to a study in Germany there's no real difference between reading a paper book and reading an ebook. But there is, I tell you, there is! If you're trying to eat lunch while reading a paperback you have to hold the printed book open with one hand but if you're reading on a screen, you don't. So for eating with a knife and fork, reading online wins. For sandwiches, a paperback is good. But for reading while eating soup...

Which do you prefer? Print or screen?

All Hallows Read

Neil Gaiman has proposed a new tradition: give a scary book to someone at Halloween.

I like the idea of giving books, although I'm not really into being scared. I've avoided "It" and "Silence of the Lambs" and "The Amytiville Horror". I prefer my fiction light and even fluffy. But there are a few scary books I'd be willing to give.

The Graveyard Book by Neil himself starts rather scarily: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." It's a great book and not too scary for adults seeing that it's aimed at children. Suited me fine!

Various other websites have suggested books but no one has mentioned Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. I found that book haunting; a magic pencil brings to life whatever is drawn with it. The drawings only come to life in dreams but there's a growing and sustained air of menace. Once again, it's written for children so it's about what I can handle as far as horror goes!

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen got a mention. I enjoyed the beginning of the book when it looks like it's going to be a Gothic horror tale, although I found it disappointing when it morphed into a standard romance tale.

Dracula by Bram Stoker is another classic. I don't think the later parts of the book stand up as well as the beginning, but I recommend it if only to see where the vampire genre started.

And finally, I'd recommend Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen if you like your horror funny. If you liked Sean of the Dead, this is the one for you. I found it too gory for my taste but I still enjoyed it.

So, what are your recommendations for scary books for this Halloween?

Books for under a quid

I've got two more books I want to recommend by Lexi Revellian. Torbrek and the Dragon Variation and Trav Zander are available for the Kindle at only 99p each, or 99 cents if you're in the US which is even more of a bargain!

As I've come to expect with Lexi, they're very easy reading and draw you in with a gentle humour. I cared a lot about her characters and loved the villains especially in the first book. The feel of the stories is generally upbeat and there's a fair bit of romance. There's also a kick-ass female lead in the first book although we see less of her in the sequel.

I ended up taking my phone to bed so I could carry on reading them and I was disappointed to reach the end.

One tiny caveat, the scenes aren't always marked off with white space, which can be disconcerting. It was a minor flaw in two otherwise wonderful books.

If you like your fiction to take you into another world I can't recommend these highly enough.

Fiction reading makes you more sociable

Reading fiction increases your social and empathy skills according to an article in the Yorkshire Post.

I can't find any mention of a control group, or of a before and after test, or anything that would establish cause and effect. But hey! Why waste a good headline just because there are no facts to substantiate it! And don't we all want to believe that having our nose in a book is actually good for us? (Well, I know I do!)