books

Some of my Favourite Authors – Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel’s novels explore connections and human nature.

List of Publications

Last Night in Montreal, 2009

The Singers Gun, 2010

The Lola Quartet, 2012

Station Eleven, 2014

The Glass Hotel, 2020

Sea of Tranquility, 2022

Introduction

I discovered Emily St. John Mandel in 2020 during Covid when I read her breakthrough novel, Station Eleven, and completely and utterly fell in love with it. By the time I read Sea of Tranquility and The Glass Hotel (in the ‘wrong’ order, I later realised), I was also completely and utterly in love with Ms Mandel and her writing.

The Author

Ms Mandel is a Canadian who now lives in New York. She was born in 1979. She lived with her family in a remote part of Canada, where she was homeschooled. During her home-schooling period, she got into the habit of writing in a journal every day, which may have signalled been the start of her writing career. However, at 18 she went on to study dance in Toronto and did not publish her first novel until she was 30.

The Books.

Ms Mandel has written six novels which, for me, fall into two distinct groupings. The first three are described as crime fiction, which, after romance, is my least favourite genre. As a result, I haven’t read these but probably should! Maybe as a result of writing this chapter and feeling like a fraud for saying I’m a fan and only having read 50% of her work, I now will!

I have, of course, read her latter three novels, Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility. All of which are compelling and beautiful and are up there among the best books I have ever read. It’s hard to assign them a genre and while they might sit in the dystopian science fiction category, that surely does them a disservice as they are so much more than that. They are fundamentally about people and their nuances and relationships, liberally doused with elements of mystery, time travel, science fiction and dystopia.

One thing that is important to note is that while these three books are all standalone novels, they are also connected to each other through characters, time, place, events, and material objects. It is clear that Ms Mandel is interested in the idea of alternative realities and in many ways, this is reflected in her novels, which, it could be argued, are all alterative versions of each other. You can read them in order or however you fancy without reducing your enjoyment or encountering spoilers. I will review them in the order that I read them.

Station Eleven.

God, I love this book. A thoughtful, gently nostalgic, beautifully written, before and after, journey through a post-pandemic apocalyptic world. The main character is child when a lethal flu virus destroys 99.9% of the world’s population. The story jumps back and forth between the past, when the virus first hit, and the future, where she is a young woman making her was as part of a travelling theatre company, in a world that is forever changed.

The book has been nominated for and won several awards and was adapted into a TV series but for me, as is so often the case, lacked the depth and elegance of the book.

The plot is meticulous and intricate and unfolds slowly, bit by bit, as the jigsaw pieces fall into place, and we learn how all the characters are connected and everything satisfyingly and elegantly comes together. All the characters are vivid on the page and the book is deeply empathic towards them, even the bad guys who are, like all the characters, victims of their own tragedy, trauma and circumstance.

The book and the author hold a refreshingly positive view of human nature. The general feel of Station Eleven is one of peace and hope and not the violent and frightening post-apocalyptical worlds that we are so used to seeing in this genre. Although there had been violence and horror in the early days after the pandemic, this is rare in the new world, where most people are kind, loving, supportive and cooperative.

The author’s crystal clear and unpretentious writing style makes for an enjoyable and easy read which is, at the same time, beautifully and evocatively descriptive. The story contains a bit of something for everyone – action, romance, drama and science fiction – and as such, has a wide appeal and will likely be enjoyed by people who might at first think it is not for them. Please read it. You will not be disappointed. In fact, I can guarantee that you will be compelled to read her other books in quick succession.

Sea of Tranquility

I bought this as soon as it was released in 2022. After enjoying Station Eleven so much, I hoped that it would be as good. It exceeded my expectations. Another incredible book. Satisfying and delighting in every possible way. I devoured it in two days while on holiday in Devon and one morning, desperate to finish the last few pages, kept my friends waiting on our way out to the beach and found myself lovingly stroking the cover long after I had finished reading.

A beautifully written tale of time travel, mind-boggling meta-physics, wonderful characters, elegant connections and coincidences, love, kindness and humanity that spans a period of 500 years, Sea of Tranquillity takes us to the moon and back (literally). Sea of Tranquility was one of Barak Obama’s best books of 2022.

Ms Mandel is a rare thing. A truly gifted writer. Her plots are clever. Her writing is pure. Her settings and characters sing on the page and yet she is skilfully economical with her words and descriptions. I felt every emotion her characters experienced. I worried for them. I exalted with them. I smiled. I laughed out loud. I cried a little. I had some enormous “Ah!” moments as connections and plot twists gradually revealed themselves.

There were some themes that echoed those of Station Eleven, namely pandemics and people connected by past encounters and relationships, and material objects. Like Station Eleven, these connections gradually reveal themselves in heart-warmingly startling ways. I love the way how Ms Mandel crafts subject matter that is technically pure sci-fi into something totally “ungeeky” and utterly believable and every-day. She makes living in a dome on the moon and flying about in supersonic hovercraft and airships seem entirely natural and normal.

A character in the book, a writer called Olive Llewellyn, receives some feedback from a reader to the effect that her own book was a confusing collection of narrative strands that never came together. This is not true of Emily St. John Mandel. What begins as an apparently disparate collection of narrative strands, flow comfortably through the book and weave naturally together at the end of the story. There is no confusion. There are no unanswered questions. Just glorious resolution and clarity.

Maybe that’s not entirely true? There is one enormous question that runs under the surface of the book and lingers on at the end, not for the characters who know the answer, but for the reader themselves. But I’ll leave you to discover and ponder that one for yourself.

The Glass Hotel

Needless to say as soon as I finished Sea of Tranquility and realised that Ms Mandel was in definitely not a ‘one-hit-wonder’ with Station Eleven I bought and started reading The Glass Hotel. Another wonderful book, it tells the tale of a woman who disappears from the deck of a container ship, the collapse of a Ponzi scheme, and how both events impact on all the peoples they touch and beyond. The Glass Hotel was listed as one of Barak Obama’s favourite books of 2020 (it’s fair to say that he is a fan of Ms Mandel) and a TV adaptation is currently in development. Much of this book and the ‘Glass Hotel’ itself are set on a remote part of Vancouver Island. The vivid descriptions of the wild and natural location resonated with me for a long time. I can still see it in my mind’s eye. I don’t know if it is based on a real place or not, but it made me long to go there, even if only in my dreams.

Although I have said that it doesn’t really matter what order you read the books in, I found myself wishing I had read this before I read The Sea of Tranquility because of all the connections between the two books. Connections are a recurring theme in all of Ms. Mandel’s books. Connections between people, objects, events and experiences. Connections that are known and unknown. Connections that are revealed and some that remain concealed. Connections that cross decades, generations, and continents. Connections within and between books, characters and their stories. All these connections are skilfully woven together in a way that is both natural and startling at the same time. The Glass Hotel is sad and subtly beautiful. It left me feeling completely satisfied with a soft, contented smile on my face.

Summary

There are many reasons why I love Emily St. John’s work. To list a few of the main ones; it is the imaginative and intricate plots, the complex and fascinating characters, the way she makes sci-fi feel so normal, the beautiful simplicity of the writing, the atmospheric settings, the compelling storytelling, the mysteries, the surprises, the connections. As a writer, I’d love to know and understand how she does it. Is it a gift? An effortless process that comes naturally to her? I doubt it. More likely the result of a lot of hard work and painstaking planning and editing. However, she does it, her books are all wonderful reads and ones that I would through recommend. As for me, I’m off to read The Singers Gun.

Reflections on My NYC Midnight 2024 100 Word Challenge Experience

Writing competition ended; focusing on finishing my novel now.

Oh well, my run of success in the 2024 100 Word Challenge has ended. I didn’t win any prizes. Nevertheless, I am proud of how far I got in this one. I didn’t love my last submission so it’s not a huge surprise or disappointment.

For completeness I’ll share it with you here. As ever, it’s been a fun competition and next week the 250 Word Challenge begins. But, I’m thinking I should really spend less time on competitions like this and focus on finishing my current novel. I’m so close to finishing the end of the first draft. Yet, I seem to manage to fill my time doing anything else but this!

I’m now in three different writing groups. Each one generates at least one piece of homework each month. It seems to eat up my time. Last month, I tried to ‘kill several birds with one stone’. I wrote one long piece that fitted the criteria for all three assignments. I put in a lot of time and effort and I’m pleased with the outcome. I’ll post it next week after the final meeting this week.

Maybe I’m just making excuses? I seem to always manage to find other things to do when I should be finishing my book. Grrrr! So annoying! Reading, writing assignments, doing book reviews, writing blog posts, reading other people’s manuscripts (!), cleaning, shopping, cooking, watching rubbish on the TV, staring into space … and on and on and on. I must do better!

Anyway, enough self-flagellation for now. Here is Journey to Love. 100 words on Falling in Love including the word enough.

A Journey to Love

You started as a thought seed that took root in my mind.

Should we? Could we?

Weeping each month when the bleeding came.

But you sprung and clung to life.

A dot of humanity wreaking hormonal havoc.

Growing and swelling into a hot and heavy burden.

The hard work began, only when you were ready.

A long and slow journey to a final rage of pain and trauma.

You burst into the world in a slippery rush.

Velvety skin. Dark eyes blinking. The scent of stardust. Tiny fingers curled around mine.

All is forgotten, forgiven. You are love. You are enough.

Fireman Tom

The writer won the 2024 Non-Fiction Competition with a heartfelt piece about storytelling, highlighting its profound impact on human behavior.

I know I only posted yesterday, but last night I found out that I had won the Solihull Writers Workshop 2024 Non-Fiction Competition. It’s a rare occasion that I win anything and like all writers, I’m going to enjoy the hell and blow my own trumpet till my puff runs out and before the next onslaught of failure and rejection.

The brief was to write up to 1000 words on ‘why we tell stories’. I chose to use the piece to write a little memoir to my Dad who died last year…….

Fireman Tom (Why we tell stories.)

My father was a firefighter. A strong, kind, and handsome hero to us, his three little doting daughters, as well as to countless other souls he came into contact with in the course of his work. Every night, before we went to sleep, he would switch off the big light, sit on the edge of the bed and tell us a story. The hero of these stories was an imaginary figure called Fireman Tom. Every night we were enthralled by Tom’s latest exciting adventure. It was one of my favourite parts of the day. We would listen intently, silent and wide eyed as Fireman Tom rescued cats from tall trees and dogs from fast-flowing rivers, removed saucepans from small heads and freed skinny limbs from park railings, and regularly carried small children, just like us, to safety from fire and flood.

The parallels between my dad and Fireman Tom were not lost on me, and when he slowly told the story of the day in his low bed-time voice, it was him I saw in my mind’s eye. The way he looked when he got home in the evening, took off his uniform and tie and loosened his collar. His cobalt blue eyes. His thick dark Brylcreemed quiff. The hair on his strong tanned forearms, dark against the crisp white of his rolled-up shirt sleeves. His familiar scent of tobacco and Old Spice. Fireman Tom was my dad, and my dad was Fireman Tom.

Fireman Tom’s stories were always relatable and relevant to us. They were carefully suited to our ages and experiences. When we were very young, they were mostly about dogs and cats and playground mishaps. As we got older, so did the victims, and the accidents that befell them, portents about what might happen if we didn’t take care crossing the road, climbed or crawled into dangerous places, or played with matches. When Dad took a job as the Chief Fire Officer in a small town in Southern Rhodesia and we emigrated to Africa, Fireman Tom was rescuing small African boys from deep wells and saving families from raging bush fires.

But, like all things, we grew up and grew out of bedtime stories. More and more often our parents were in bed before us, especially at weekends. Now our bedtimes stories were reading teen magazines in bed, late-night horror movies or chatting on the phone for hours to our girlfriends. Fireman Tom and his adventures seemed childish and irrelevant and far behind us. But were they…?

Humans have told stories since the beginning of time. Indeed, Will Storr in The Science of Storytelling[1] states that storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. He says that the stories we hear can shape who we are. That they can drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mould our beliefs. So, what exactly is it about stories and storytellers that can influence us in such a way?

Over the past couple of decades there has been a glut of research into why humans tell stories to each other and how these stories affect us and alter our thoughts and behaviours. Jeremy Adam Smith, in an online article for Greater Good Magazine in 2016[2], says that “Stories are told in the body.” Essentially, the research tells us that we feel stories – that a good story, well-told, can make the listener (or the reader) feel that they are inside the story. That they are living the experience with the character in the story, triggering a real physical and emotional reaction and several neurochemical reactions in their brains and bodies. If we feel stressed or excited by the situation in the story, this can trigger the fight or flight mechanism and the release of adrenaline in our bodies. If we are emotionally invested in, and empathise with, the character, this can cause the release of oxytocin, the so-called “caring” hormone that is present in nursing mothers.

Because we feel these things more when we experience them in the context of a story than we would if we were just presented with the facts, the memories of them stay with us and change our thoughts and behaviours. If my dad had just told us that many children are killed or injured crossing the road every day, and many more are killed or injured in house fires, I wonder if I would be holding my granddaughter’s hand quite as tightly when we cross the road together, or be warning her quite as seriously about the dangers of playing with or near an open flame. I wonder if I would be telling her quite as vehemently not to get too close to the riverbank. I wonder if I would always be seeking out the fire exits on a trip to the cinema or a concert. I wonder if I would hold the same high levels of trust and respect for members of the emergency services.

But of course, storytelling is about much more than influencing other’s thoughts and behaviours in a significant and lasting way. It is also about amusement and entertainment, establishing connections, forming and strengthening relationships and human bonds. Those moments spent with my father before we went to sleep each night were among the most precious of my life. Warm and cosy. Calm and loving. All his attention focused on us and ours on him. Yes, we were learning valuable life lessons through Fireman Tom’s adventures, but we were also learning about our father. About what he did at work all day. About who he was and what was important to him. About how much he loved and cared for us and how he would always keep us safe.

My strong, loving father finally succumbed to dementia last year with his three daughters at his bedside.

I wonder what Fireman Tom is doing now.

[1] Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling, Harry N. Abrams, 2020

[2] Jeremy Adam Smith, The Science of the Story, Greater Good Magazine, 2016

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Book Review – 101 Horror Books to Read Before You Are Murdered by Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror)

This book features a curated collection of underrated horror books, categorized by type, with additional author recommendations.

Oh my! I am sooo happy to have stumbled across this book. Its contents have created a mouthwatering new TBR list that will potentially keep me going for years (OK, maybe a year or several months)!

The book is a lovingly curated collection of the best underrated horror books to have been written in the last few decades. The book itself is a thing of beauty in the way it is laid out and illustrated. Written by Sadie Hartmann (aka Mother Horror on social media), of Night Worms Publishing and Dark Heart, it categorises and sub-categorises the books by horror type and provides publication details, a synopsis, and some notes on themes, tone and style. There are Author Spotlights in each section which lists their own books and some of their personal reading recommendations.

I’ve only read a handful of the 101 titles listed between its covers and have been wanting to read several more, but largely these are all books that I have not read. To unashamedly steal the Goodreads categories:

Currently Reading: Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Read: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Silence by Tim Lebbon and The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson,

Want to read: The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read, Bird Box by Josh Malerman, Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica and I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid.

That leaves 93 new books for me to add to my list and start getting my teeth into.

But the featured Author Spotlights list their own books and their personal horror recommendations, adding even more to the list as these are not counted in the 101 main titles.

Of them, I have read (and loved) all of Paul Tremblay’s novels; A Head Full of Ghosts, The Pallbearers Club, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song. I haven’t read any of his recommendations, but The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson has long been a Want to Read. Another featured author, Christopher Buehlman (who I have not read), also includes this in his recommendations. I’m going to have to prioritise this one.

I’ve read several of Stephen Graham Jones books, The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw and Don’t Fear the Ripper and one of his recommendations, It by Stephen King.

Josh Malerman is someone I definitely need to get into. Bird Box is already on my list and I have already read and loved two of his recommendations, The Exorcist by Willima Peter Blatty and Perfume by Patrick Suskind

I loved The Hunger by Alma Katsu and The Only Good Indians is one of her recommendations.

Tananarive Due, is an author I have never read but I have read two of her recommendations, Beloved by Toni Morrison and again, The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.

Similarly, I have not read Ania Ahlborn but have read all three of her recommendations, Misery by Stephen king, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin and Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Finally, I have never read any V Castro, Adam Nevill or Grady Hendrix or any of their recommendations with the exception of Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

All in all, the Author Spotlights add another 81 books to the list!

Oh, how I love a list. It feeds the OCD part of me (that you might have observed within my ramblings above) in a disturbingly satisfying way. But I also love a reason to push me out of my reading comfort zone and explore new authors and genres. Horror per se is not a new genre for me, but some types of horror are. The books I have read mostly fall into Hartmann’s Human Monsters and Natural Order categories, and there are some categories that I haven’t even dipped my toe into such as Paranormal and Supernatural. So many books to read. So little time! I’d better get started!

But, before I go, a parting word on Short Story Collections. There is whole section of the book devoted to these. In fact, Hartmann states that she believes short fiction is one of the best formats for horror. I’m ashamed to say then that I tend to shy away from these as I prefer to get my teeth stuck into a full-length novel. For me, the longer the better! But maybe I’ll give some of these a go. After I’ve read the 174 new books on my TBR list that is ……….

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Some of My Favourite Authors- Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay is a versatile and award-winning horror writer with a diverse range of works, including novels and short story collections. His books, such as “Survivor Song,” “A Head Full of Ghosts,” and “The Cabin at the End of the World,” skillfully blend horror, atmosphere, and originality, making them relatable and deeply disturbing. Tremblay’s captivating storytelling ensures a desire for more.

List of Publications

Horror Movie, June 2024

The Beast You Are, Short Story Collection, 2023

The Pallbearers Club, 2022

The Little Sleep, (Mark Genevich 1) 2021

Survivor Song, 2020

Growing Things, Short Story Collection, 2019

The Cabin at the End of the World, 2018

Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, 2017

A Head Full of Ghosts, 2015

Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly, 2014

Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye, 2012

No Sleep Till Wonderland, (Mark Genevich 2) 2021

Introduction

I first discovered Paul Tremblay in 2022, when I was searching for ‘good’ ZA or apocalyptic stories (which, it has to be said, can be hard to find) and Survivor Song popped up. It sat on my TBR pile for six months before I got around to reading it. When I eventually did, it rocked me to my core. Since then, Mr Tremblay has become one of my favourite horror writers.

The Author

Tremblay is a 52-year-old American who worked as a maths teacher before becoming a published author. He got off to a faltering start (if the reviews are anything to go by) aged 39 with his first novel, a crime story, No Sleep Till Wonderland, followed by a dystopian satire, Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye. A collaboration with Stephen Graham Jones (another favourite of mine), produced Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly, a young adult sci-fi adventure published under the penname P.T. Jones. I haven’t read any of these. I’m not a crime fan and the other two sound a bit weird!

Things really seem to have got going for him with the publication of A Head Full of Ghosts in 2015 which won the Bram Stoker award that year. In 2017, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock won the British Fantasy Award for best horror novel. The Cabin at the End of the World won the 2019 Bram Stoker award and the Locus Award for best horror novel, as well as being adapted into a M. Night Shyamalan film called Knock at the Cabin. His other two novels, Survivor Song and The Pallbearers Club have also been received with high critical acclaim.

He has also revitalised his Mark Genevich crime series with The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, published a couple of short story collections, Growing Things and The Beast You Are, and featured in various other anthologies. 2024 will see the publication of his latest novel, Horror Story. I can’t wait.

The Books.

So far, I have only read his horror novels and I didn’t read them in chronological order. As I said, I started with Survivor Song in 2022 and loved it. I quickly went on to consume A Head Full of Ghosts, followed by The Cabin at the End of the World, that same year. I didn’t get around to Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and The Pallbearers Club until 2023.

I loved them all, but my favourite is still Survivor Song closely followed by Disappearance at Devil’s Rock which really freaked me out! I have reviewed them in the order that I read them.

Survivor Song.

Survivor Song follows two women over a period of just a few hours during an outbreak of a lethal, rapidly spreading rabies-type virus. Natalie, who is eight months pregnant, has been bitten and Ramola, her best friend who is a doctor, is trying to save the lives of Natalie and her unborn child. Survivor Song is not a ZA novel but, in many ways, it feels and reads as one. Although it was written pre-Covid, it echoes our own recent experiences of PPE shortages, overwhelmed healthcare services and unprotected workers.

It is not deep or pretentious, just a damned good story.

The book is a high-speed roller coaster of trials and disasters in the context of a shockingly violent societal breakdown. The pace is frantic. The race to save Natalie and her baby never slows or stops. An almost unbearable level of fear, tension and desperation is present throughout, but the book is really about pain and loss and the love and loyalty we see in the friendship between the two women. I adored Ramola for her unfailing loyalty to her friend that pushed her past terrible limits she could never have imagined.

But in the middle of all the horror there are also lashings of comedy. I laughed out loud at Natalie’s scathing sarcasm and dark humour in spite of the terrifying situation she found herself in. I loved the ‘Bill and Ted’ duo they met on their journey with their creatively quirky hydrophobia test. It was only later that I discovered the two boys were actually Josh and Luis from Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

For me, one of the most memorable parts of the book was when the style and structure of the writing ‘broke with convention’ in a way that created a vivid picture of the extreme shock, fear and confusion the character was experiencing. The contents of these pages stayed with me for a long time, and I have even contemplated stealing the technique in my own writing. You’ll know exactly what I’m referring to if you have read the book or if, after reading this, you go on to do so.

I loved this book and would definitely recommend it if you are into dystopian survival horror – and even if you’re not! Like all Tremblay’s books though, be warned, it is not for the faint-hearted!

A Head Full of Ghosts

A Head Full of Ghosts tells the story of a family going through a period of financial and emotional stress. In the middle of it all the teenage daughter, Marjorie, has what seems at first to be a mental health breakdown, but which they come to believe is in fact a demonic possession. Their situation is picked up by the media and becomes the subject of a reality TV show. The story is told fifteen years later through the perspective of Merry, the younger sister.

I read this after reading, and absolutely loving Survivor Song. A Head Full of Ghosts was different, and it didn’t blow me away like Survivor Song did, but I still really enjoyed it. With elements reminiscent of The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project, Feed by Mira Grant, and many more books and movies it was a brilliant nod to all of these but still retained its own originality and identity. It has an undercurrent that touches on some serious issues such as sexism, patriarchy, religious mania and media exploitation.

It is beautifully written. Atmospheric. Descriptive. Creepy. Sad. Disturbing. And, at times, darkly funny. Mr Tremblay keeps us guessing throughout the course of the narrative and beyond.

The Cabin at the End of The World.

The Cabin at the End of the World is a violent home invasion story with supernatural apocalyptic overtones. It is possibly my least favourite of Tremblay’s books. I still really enjoyed it though and have recently watched the movie version by M. Night Shyamalan, Knock at the Cabin, which was largely true to the book and just as frightening.

Andrew and Eric, a same sex couple are on holiday with their eight-year-old adopted daughter, Wen, in a remote cabin in the woods. They are visited by a truly creepy foursome who try to force them to make an unimaginable decision that, they claim, will prevent the end of the world.

The book is dark and creepy and, at the start at least, a fast paced and easy read. As with Mr Tremblay’s other books, there are moments of extreme tension, horror and shock. However, while it started well and contained some intriguing ideas and plot threads, for me, this one just didn’t come together in a satisfying way. In fact, towards the end, it felt as if it fizzled out in terms of the plot. A strange story that left me with so many unanswered questions I was left baffled and dissatisfied. (The movie provides a slightly more satisfactory conclusion).

Disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

After the relative disappointment (I stress the word relative) of The Cabin at the End of the World, it took me a year to get around to my next foray into the work of Mr Tremblay. But this time I was not disappointed. Not in the slightest. Disappearance at Devil’s Rock absolutely blew me away!

It’s a long time since a book has made my skin crawl and my eyes well with tears of terror, but this one did just that. I consumed it in two spine-tingling nocturnal sessions. It totally creeped me out, especially as I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading it in the middle of the night when the house was dark and everyone else was asleep. I found myself peering over my Kindle into the darkness looking for unnatural or unfamiliar shadows and edging closer and closer to the comforting warmth of my husband’s sleeping form beside me.

Tommy, a thirteen-year-old boy, disappears in mysterious circumstances that become increasingly disturbing as the story progresses and his mother discovers more and more about her son and the events leading up to his disappearance. The book hints at a number of possible explanations ranging from a tragic accident or suicide to the possible involvement of evil monsters and demons, or other sinister and paranormal forces.

For me, the power of the book lies in the economic subtlety of the writing, the wonderfully authentic characterisation, the widely varying and different perspectives, the mix of vehicles the author uses to provide us with insight and information, the disquieting visual images, the slow and terrifying reveal, the shocking climax, and the ambiguity that haunts the reader long after the book is finished.

The Pallbearers Club

And so, after the sheer delight of Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, I moved quickly on to the last of Tremblay’s horror novels available at the time, The Pallbearers Club.

The Pallbearers Club is established by Art Barbara (not his real name) to qualify as a hobby that he can add to his CV for college applications. Mercy soon joins the club, and this marks the start of a long relationship between the rather ‘unattractive’ Art and the cool and mysterious Mercy. As the book progresses the relationship develops from a seemingly innocuous friendship into something weird and scary and ultimately supernatural and dangerous.

The book takes the form of a memoir written by Art that has been found and subsequently edited and commented on by Mercy, who deems it a novel because in her view it is more fiction than fact. The format of the book was slightly problematic for me, as it took me a long time to work out what was going on. Once I did, I settled into it but never fully liked or engaged with either Art or Mercy.

The book was clever but maybe, for me at least, just a bit too clever for its own good. Its cleverness became a slight irritation and at times a distraction from the plot. As a result, I never really felt as scared, shocked or disturbed as I did when I read Survivor Song and Disappearance at Devils Rock. I have to be honest that this was a teeny weeny disappointment.

The story was a good one though and even prompted me to purchase and read the non-fiction book that Tremblay acknowledges as his inspiration, Food for the Dead: On the trail of New England’s Vampires by Michael E. Bell.

Summary

The reasons why Paul Tremblay has become one of my favourite authors are all about the quality of his writing and the way it makes me feel. Horror is a peculiar genre that does throw up some truly awful books that get by on gore and bloodlust and ridiculously violent, fantastical and far-fetched plots. Tremblay’s books, on the other hand, skillfully take the ordinary to another, much darker place, and this is what makes them relatable, disturbing and often terrifying. He is a versatile writer. All his books are refreshingly different. Different ideas. Different stories. Different themes. Different characters. I will never grow tired of his storytelling. After each book I read, I am always left wanting more.

Postscript – Horror Movie

As a greedy consumer of Mr Tremblay’s work, I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into this one. I was not disappointed. Spectacularly creepy and deeply disturbing. Like his other books the book is unique and unusual and the terror subtle but insidious.

Again, like most of his books, it was written in an unusual form which, at first, was slightly distracting but in the end truly enhanced the reading experience.

The story jumps back and forth between various time periods and centres around a cult horror movie that was filmed in the past (but never released) by some amateur filmmakers and is about to be remade. The central character ‘The Thin Kid’ was in the original version of the film and is involved in the remake.

It’s hard to unravel exactly what it is about this book that ‘messes with your head’ in such an unsettling way. A big part is the blurring of past and present, fact and fiction and fantasy and reality. For example, in the original film all the characters appear to be based on younger versions of the film makers real selves. Another is the drip-feed of titbits of information that gradually reveal what happened to afford the movie its notoriety and help to create to the slow build-up of dread as we move towards the horrifying climax.

I can’t, and actually don’t even want to try, to say more about what makes this such a brilliant book. If you want a reading experience that makes your skin prickle with anxiety, your skin prickle with fear, your jaw drop with shock and thoughts and images that bubble inside your head for weeks after you’ve finished, just read it!

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Book Review – Disappearance at Devil’s Rock: A Novel by Paul Tremblay

Brilliantly Creepy

It’s a long time since a book has made my skin crawl and my eyes well with tears of terror, but this one did just that. It totally creeped me out, especially as I couldn’t put it down and ended up reading it in the middle of the night when the house was dark and everyone else was asleep. I found myself peering over my kindle into the darkness looking for unnatural or unfamiliar shadows and edging closer and closer to the comforting warmth of my husband’s sleeping form beside me.

A brilliant read! I read it in two spine-tingling late-night sessions. I couldn’t recommend it more – unless of course you are of a nervous disposition!

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October 2023 and The City Series by Sarah Lyons Fleming

It’s been a strange year and a bit of a “write-off” (pardon the pun) writing wise – blogs, books or anything else for that matter.

My Dad finally passed away in August. In many ways a relief for the whole family but also sad to witness the end of a long and rich life. He was 95 when he passed away peacefully with his family by his bedside.

I’ve also been recovering from my shoulder replacement in May and in September we went on a long driving holiday thorough France, Italy and Belgium. We have the scattering of the ashes and memorial for my Dad still to come in November and we are trying to support my Mum as best as we can albeit from a distance and involving fairly frequent trips up north. Then, before we know it Christmas will be upon us!

As a result of all of that, my head has not been in a great place for writing and I’ve done almost no marketing at all. I had hoped to finish Amenti Rising this year but its looking like this will now become my main writing goal for 2024!

But, I honestly feel as though I have turned a metaphorical corner since we got back from holiday and am ready to get going again. I’ve still been reading of course, and have recently finished The City Series by Sarah Lyons Fleming among other things. You can read my review below.

Book Review – The City Series by Sarah Lyons Fleming.

I read The City series after I had read The End of The World Series and the first 2 books in The Cascadia series. So, I suppose you could say that I’m officially a fan of Ms Lyons Fleming. Here, I’ve reviewed Mordacious, Peripeteia and Instauration as a series as it is essentially one long continuation of the same story and a parallel story to The End of the World Series.

The series tell the story from the perspective of Sylvie, a complicated young woman from a difficult background and Eric, the brother of Cassie from The End of the World series. Rather than escaping Brooklyn and New York like Cassie and her friends did, Sylvie remains trapped there and is living in Cassie’s old apartment. Eric, on the other hand, battles his way in to Brooklyn looking for Cassie and this is how the two main characters meet. The rest is history, as they say.

What I like about the books:

I love the ‘epic-ness’ of the story. These are very long books. Ms Lyons Fleming gives us almost 2000 pages of survival horror romance in this series.

I love the connections between the different books and series and the characters and places within them.

I love the use of real locations and how they are transformed in the apocalypse. I even found myself checking them out and tracking journeys on Google Maps.

The characters are what really drives my continued engagement with these books. They are authentic, imperfect and very, very likeable. It’s impossible not to care about what happens to them.

I like the way that the books provide a stream of useful knowledge and information about how to survive in an apocalypse, how to make masonry heaters, where to find water in a city, how to make a solar oven and so on. Very useful both for my own survival when the apocalypse comes and for fact checking my own writing on the subject.

I really like the fact that these books do not focus solely on violence and horror. Of course, this is there. It has to be, by the very nature of the theme. But it is not the main focus, and this is refreshing within the genre.

On top of all the above, the books are well-written and easy to read.

There is not much I don’t like about these books. They are engaging, simple stories that are well told.

If I had single teeny, tiny criticism it might be that sometimes I got a bit bored with some of the mundane conversations and seemingly pointless to the plot, everyday activities, and interactions. However, I suspect that is more about me and my impatience to find out what happens next than a serious criticism of the books. These sections are actually what make the readers care so much about the characters and their fates.

I’m looking forward to reading World Without, the third book in The Cascadia Series.

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Viruses and Volcanoes

A Covid Diary

During what I like to refer to as, The Time of Covid, I used this blog to journal my experiences during lockdown and beyond / kept a journal of my experiences during lockdown and beyond. At the start of the pandemic, my husband had just been diagnosed with a serious lung condition which placed him in the “very vulnerable” or “shielded” category and we made the decision to self-isolate a week before the official lockdown began. We expected to have to do this for 12 weeks and then return to our normal lives when it was all over. Little did we know what the coming year would bring.

Viruses and Volcanoes tells the story of my life in The Time of Covid as a wife, mother, grandmother and daughter from the first days of the lockdown in the UK and later, after we relocated to Barbados, on the other side of the Atlantic. It takes the reader through the shock and strangeness of the early days of the pandemic, the emotional roller coaster of the prolonged lockdown and the gradual adaptation to the new normal.

Viruses and Volcanoes is a personal, unedited and unapologetic narrative of the lives of a middle-aged couple during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was written in real time and is an honest and truthful account of our day-to-day lives between March 2020 and July 2021. As such, it captures the mundane and incredibly monotonous details of the lockdown life that we all experienced at the time.

My aim was not to entertain, explain or examine but simply to record my thoughts, feelings and experiences for posterity, during what was, at the start at least, a truly bizarre and frightening time. I wanted to capture how it felt when the world changed forever overnight before we all became accustomed to it, and it ultimately became our new normal.

I’ll apologise now for the fact that at times I was angry, frustrated, critical and judgmental, but this was my reality at the time. The journal also covers some of the facts and figures about the disease, the government’s attempts to deal with it and the ever-changing beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of our society as a whole.

Viruses and Volcanoes is available in eBook and paperback on Amazon for £9.99 and on multiple digital platforms as an eBook for £2.99.

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Going Wide

The trials of publishing on multiple platforms.

Background

A few years ago, the idea of writing a book, let alone publishing one, was a distant, lifelong dream that verged on fantasy.

And yet, over the past few years I have made that dream come true by publishing, not just one full-length fictional book, but two, as well as co-authoring a biography.

It has been a steep learning curve and, as a complete non-technical novice when it comes to the mechanics of self-publishing, a frustrating one at times.

I started out by self-publishing on Amazon with the help of Michael Andrews from JAMS and I will be forever grateful to him for his generosity and patient support with this. However, over time I have gradually built up the knowledge and skills to enable me to do this by myself and weaned myself off my reliance on him. I pretty much managed to publish Trident Edge all by myself with just a little bit of handholding from him.

This year I decided to publish my books on some other platforms in addition to Amazon. This decision was prompted by the idea that I’d like to try and get a Book Bub deal one day. In reading around how to achieve this, it soon became clear that most books that are successful in being offered one of their, potentially lucrative, deals have to be available on a wide range of international platforms and have some evidence of sales success and positive reviews on these.

So, it was immediately clear that I was going to have to publish my books on some of these other platforms and I started preparing to go about this. After all, I had mastered the art of publishing on Amazon so how hard could it be … ?

Of course, as is to be expected for a mature, IT idiot like me, it has been a bit of a nightmare and after setting out to do this in the summer of 2022, I have only just completed the process. For those of you who are as baffled and bewildered by the challenges of tasks like this as me, I thought I’d share my journey in case it helps. For those of you that find the whole thing as ‘easy as pie’ … don’t bother reading any further.

Leaving Amazon KDP Select

The first thing I learned was that I was going to have to withdraw from KDP Select, as being enrolled in this programme means that your books are exclusive to Amazon. I was a little concerned about this as the majority of my sales at the time were coming from Kindle Unlimited and books are only available on this if the author has signed up for KDP Select. Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead with my decision. Both of my books were at different stages of the 90-day period so the first thing I had to do was wait for them to expire. Trident Edge was almost at the end of the time period but Wait for Me didn’t come off until October 1^st.

Purchasing ISBN’s

The next thing I did was purchased some ISBN’s. When I published on Amazon I used their free ISBN’s but these cannot be used for books published on other platforms. Other platforms also offer free ISBN’s but the idea of having lots of different ISBN’s for different books on different platforms didn’t sit well with me so I decided to purchase my own.

For the UK, the recommended source is the Neilson ISBN Store. A single ISBN will cost £91 but you can buy 10 for £169 so it was a bit of a no-brainer to buy 10. A big expense but they never expire and given that I plan to publish more books in the future they will all be used.

Which Platforms?

The next step was to select where to publish and whether to use a third party like Smashwords or Draft2Digital. I decided I only wanted to be on four platforms other than Amazon. Remember my main objective was to be eligible for a Book Bub Deal. I went for Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google and Apple. I decided not to go with Draft2Digital or Smashwords as they appeared to be geared largely towards eBooks and I didn’t want to limit myself in this way.

Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble was a complete disaster! I still don’t really understand why. I had set up an author account while I was waiting to come off KDP Select but when I tried to log-in it wouldn’t let me. I contacted them and they told me my account had been cancelled but they couldn’t tell me why. I was advised to create a new account with a different email address. Not ideal but I went ahead. All seemed to be working until I got to the part where I had to enter my tax details and it blocked me because my tax details were already assigned to another account. I had numerous exchanges with B&N Customer Service who were extremely unhelpful. I chatted about it to other writers on social media. I spent hours of my life that I will never get back trying to work around the problem but eventually I gave up and moved on to Kobo.

Kobo

Kobo was the most straightforward to use of all the platforms. I did have a few issues with the creation and formatting of the EPUB files including downloading and using a programme called Calibre which didn’t work and seems to have messed up my computer in ways that I have still not managed to fix. Nothing serious – just annoying little things like opening my book files in the Calibre programme every time I wanted to work with them and now my computer doesn’t default to Word so I have to select it when looking at any of my text files! Grrr! However, when I did some further reading about how to prepare a Word document for Kobo to convert to an EPUB file and followed all the steps listed, everything worked fine, and my books went live quickly. Even still, more hours of my life flashed by in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Google

I also succeeded fairly easily on Google Play after a bit more fiddling around with formatting again. Generally though, the changes I made for Kobo seemed to make the process easier for Google. However, I think it was on this platform that I had some issues with the cover of Wait for Me (it might have been Draft2Digital but the issue and solution is still the same). Essentially, they rejected the cover because it was in CMYK colour mode rather than RBG. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, what it meant, and how I could fix it! I then spent more countless hours of my, now much shorter life trying to sort this one out. I eventually found a free programme that would do the conversion but was dismayed to find that they offered 8 different RGB options. I had to go through a laborious trial and error process saving the file using each option in turn, uploading it and waiting to see if it was accepted or not. Yet more hours of my life consumed before I got the right one and the books were accepted.

Apple

Apple was a bit of a nightmare too, due in part to the fact that I work on a PC and not a Mac. Creating an account and setting it all up was a distinctly unintuitive process that had me tearing my hair out at times. I did manage to wade my way through this process though and finally uploaded and submitted my books. This time they kept being rejected due to some issues with the content. Apple sent me long comments explaining what was wrong, but it was written in such inaccessible IT nerd language that I couldn’t understand it. I spent a LOT of time farting around with Apple and getting absolutely nowhere. By now, I was truly losing the will and wondering why I ever started the whole thing in the first place! Eventually, I decided that I might have to admit defeat and work with one of their recommended partners and this was what led me full circle to Draft2Digital.

Draft2Digital

Wow! I cannot stress enough how easy this platform was to use. I uploaded my books in no time at all. As well as Apple, I decided to try for Barnes and Noble with them too and it all worked like a dream. They even explained what the issue was with Apple. Because my files contained some links to some of my other publications on Amazon, Apple (as their main competitor) had set up a firewall to reject any books with links to Amazon in them. Fair enough. I removed all these links from the files and the situation was instantly resolved.

Conclusions

The big conclusion here is that if you are not super-confident with technology like me, don’t bother trying all the individual platforms. The process will steal years from your life and drive you mad at the same time. I would recommend going straight down the Draft2Digital route every time. I wish I had, and will for my next book!

P.S. D2D also provide Universal Links so that readers can purchase your books from the platform of their choice.

For more information about Draft2Digital, have a look at this Reedsy blog post about it https://blog.reedsy.com/draft2digital-reviews/

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Book Review – Intensity by Dean Koontz

Intense!

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that I felt merited a full review on my blog, despite the fact that I’ve read a lot since my last blog reviews of The Living Dead by George A Romero and Daniel Krauss and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel.

It’s a fairly long list:

Coldbrook and The Silence by Tim Lebbon

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

All 3 of the Lockey vs the Apocalypse series by Carl Meadows

I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman

The Stopping Place by Helen Slavin

Apocalypse by Hayeley Anderton

While I really enjoyed some of them, notably the Lockey vs the Apocalypse series and The Silence, I just didn’t feel moved to write a long review on any. Of course, I always pop a little review on Amazon, Goodreads and Book Bub for everything I read. As an author I’d feel guilty if I didn’t. But to merit a longer review on my blog a book has to resonate with me in a way that will leave me thinking about it for a long time after I have finished, for one reason or another.

I didn’t think I was going to feel like writing one on Intensity by Dean Koontz either. I wasn’t blown away by it at the start, but by the time I finished I was buzzing!

It’s an unusual book in many ways. It seems a bit naff to describe it as intense, given that that is the title, but that’s the best way to describe it. It is a very intense experience that leaves you exhausted and breathless.

The story follows two main characters over a 48-hour period in a way that is so detailed that it is almost played out “live”. We live through every single second of Chyna’s ordeal at the hands of the evil Vess, apart from a scant few blessed hours when she is either asleep or unconscious.

At first, I found the book irritating. Overly descriptive with long flashbacks and digressions into Chyna’s traumatic childhood memories, and long and detailed accounts of both characters inner thoughts. Some of Chyna’s actions in the face of extreme danger seemed unbelievable and, at times, downright stupid.

However, I soon reached the conclusion that Mr Koontz was playing with the concept of ‘intensity’. The detailed descriptions and digressions contributed to the intensity of the reading experience. Just as Vess craves an intensity of sensation and experience, this is what we are served by Mr Koontz. The book progresses incredibly slowly, creating such an atmosphere of heightened tension and anxiety that at times it was almost unbearable. I didn’t think it was going to work for me but in the end it did – by the bucketload.

Shocking, graphic, violent, terrifying, and agonisingly tense.

Well worth a read but give it time and play along!

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